ABSTRACT
The lands beyond the settlements of 1775 were destined to be peopled, in the main, by native Americans who were inured to the hard conditions of frontier life. The attractions of new settlements, the price of land, legal titles, surveys, terms of sale, and forms of tenure were absorbing subjects in an age when the fever of speculation rarely abated. The people assumed the sovereign authority of eminent domain—the right to repossess privately owned lands when they were needed for public uses. The form of land tenure in force in all purchase to other lordly domains was a survival of feudalism. Each of the magnates possessed the right to exact yearly quitrents, or money payments, from settlers who bought or otherwise acquired land. The Revolution established the principle that the supreme authority over the land was vested in the people of the states.
