He advocated the creation of a rectangular or rectilinear system of land survey. Jefferson’s proposal was much more orderly. Early land ownership maps appeared to be jigsaw puzzles.
Another nagging feature of the old system was that frugal purchasers would buy only the best pieces of land by carving out irregular plots that avoided undesirable wasteland. Many landowners in the original states had become embroiled in ownership disputes because their property lines were defined in terms of rocks, streams and trees - any of which could disappear or be moved. In the following year, he directed his attention to designing a system for surveying the lands that might avoid the pitfalls of earlier methods of determining boundaries. Jefferson had earlier offered a systematic means to prepare new areas for statehood in his Ordinance of 1784. A growing population in the original states, now largely free from British interference, was beginning to push into these areas. Thomas Jefferson was acutely aware of the great potential benefits offered by lands in the West.
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