While the area of the United States is 3,603,884 square miles, the public domain which has been acquired by cession, purchase, or conquest, to be disposed of by the Government as it desires, has amounted to 2,708,388 square miles, or about two-thirds of the total area of the country.

The absolute title to this land, as before stated, became vested in the United States Government.  The disposal of these lands has always been under the sole power and control of Congress.

This land was all thinly populated by Indian tribes, who merely hunted over it, leaving unimproved its natural fertility and vast mineral resources.  These tribes, being actual occupants, were recognized to have a sort of half interest in the land.  This half ownership was always first extinguished by the United States by purchase for small sums, or by the granting of certain privileges, etc., before it was opened up for settlement and occupation by the white man.  Land is still held, to a considerable extent, in this way by the Indians.  This right of the Indians can be extinguished only by the United States, as they are not allowed to sell or treat at all with individuals or States or foreign nations.

Until 1812 the affairs of the public domain were managed by the Secretary of the Treasury.  In that year the office of Commissioner of the General Land Office was created, which remained a bureau under the Treasury Department until 1846.  On the creation of the Interior Department in that year, Indian affairs were transferred to it, and have remained under the same management until the present time.  This bureau has complete charge of all matters relating to the management and disposal of the public lands, subject to the direction of Congress.

Almost every conceivable method of disposing of this land has been followed.  The Government has, however, never assumed the position of landlord and rented the land, except in one case of some mineral land, and this experiment resulted disastrously.  Before the land could be disposed of, it was necessary that it should be surveyed by the Government.  To do this there was adopted as early as 1776, the so-called rectangular system, which, with slight changes, has been continued until the present time.  By this system there are first surveyed a base and a meridian line, crossing each other at right angles, running north and south and east and west.  From these fixed lines the land is surveyed and marked off into rectangles of six miles square, each thus containing thirty-six square miles.  This is called a township.  This is again divided up into sections of one square mile each or 640 acres, and this again into quarter sections of 160 acres each.  In some cases these are still further subdivided.

The regulation and disposition of the public lands has been one of the chief duties imposed upon Congress.

The chief methods by which the public lands have been disposed of are as follows: