A legal tender in payment for government land.
1681–1794. Mr. Albert Matthews of Boston furnishes examples: Notes and Queries, 10 S. xii. 415–6. And I am indebted to him for 1755, 1759, 1774, 1779.
1755. A few Days after I had obeyed his Ldp’s Instructions by issuing a Commission to Mr. Calvert & Doctor Steuart as Joint Judges of the Land Office, they both came and presented me the inclosed Acct. of the Annual Income of Fees to the Land Office.—Gov. Sharpe of Maryland, April 19: ‘Correspondence,’ i. 193.
1759. Mr. Peters … acquainted the Governor and Council that there were very few loose papers in the land Office serviceable to any Man’s titles.—‘Penna. Colonial Records,’ viii. 337: May 28.
1774. Letters from London, by way of South Carolina, mention that the land offices in North-America will be opened again.—Mass. Gazette, March 7.
1774. The Land Office is not yet open for taking up Vacant Lands in the Lower Counties.—‘Penna. Colonial Records,’ x. 208: Sept. 15.
1775. On what terms lands are to be had now since the shutting up the land-office is yet impossible to tell.—B. Romans, ‘Florida,’ p. 194.
1779. A letter from the President of Congress was read, enclosing a resolve against opening Land Offices.—‘Penna. Colonial Records,’ xii. 160: Nov. 5.
1779. An Act for establishing a Land office, and ascertaining the terms and manner of granting waste and unappropriated lands.—‘Virginia Statutes,’ May.
1789. May 28. Mr. Scott moved that the House now resolve itself into a committee of the whole, to take into consideration the subject of the Land Office.… Mr. Boudinot moved that the words “Land Office” be struck out.—Gazette of the U.S., N.Y., May 30.
1790. It seems requisite that a general land-office should be established at the seat of government.—Alex. Hamilton, ‘Works,’ vii. 48. (N.E.D.)
1812. In the early part of 1812 a land-office was here located [on the Wabash].—E. Flagg, ‘The Far West,’ i. 38 (N.Y., 1838).
1841. In 1820, we made a state bank; and to make its issues the more acceptable as a circulating medium, a resolution was offered, requesting the Secretary of the Treasury to make it land office money. Col. Menard (originally a French Canadian) had been very much opposed to the creation of this bank without a specie capital. [So he] said in his broken English, “Gentlemen, as it is your wish, and it is my duty, I will put the question; but I bet any man fifty dollars he no made land office money.—Mr. Young of Illinois, U.S. Senate, Feb. 1: Cong. Globe, p. 103, App.
