Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1885 — THE PUBLIC ANDS. [ARTICLE]

THE PUBLIC ANDS.

The Maxwell Grant. To the Editor of* the Indianapoli s News: General Sparks, Commissioner of the Land Office, has got things into a terrible mix, qpy the people who have business in that office.— Letters are pouring in h re to citizens and attorneys complaining of the glut in he business of the General Land Office, and the impossibility of get ing cases thro’ it, and cursing the Commissioner. Although General Sparks’ will claim that he found the office in bad shape and has brought about great reforms, the fact stands out that it was never in such a condition as at present It is almost impossible to procure patents to the public lands, and communications of all kinds going before the Commissioner are delayed or left unanswered altogether.—[Washington City special to Indianapolis Journal, October 29,1886. In the now famous speech of Vice President Hendricks, at the Parnell meeting at Masonic Hall, that gentleman said that the trouble in Ireland was mainly about land, and that when there was trouble in a c untry about land there was exceeding great trouble. We are having trouble in this country now about land. There is going to be more of it. The trouble has been heretofore that the Government, through its Land Office, has been giving away land without stint to land thieves, who have been abusing the generous offer Ration makes to actual settlers. NoW it seems that the thieves are meeting with obstacles in Commissioner Sparks’s Bureau, aM they have been telling their grievances to somebody who telegraphs it from Washington. A little less haste in issuing patents for government lands is what is very much needed now. Too much haste in dispatch of business in the land department has already caused great injustice. Take the case of the Maxwell grant in New Mexico. Somebody was probably entitled to a patent for 100,000 acres. By the aid of bogus surveys and perjured testimo-

ny they have swelled the claim to about 2,000,000 acres. The settlers who saw that the Anaconda grant was about to swallow up their homes, begged the Commissioner of the Land Office to delay issuing the patent until they could be heard. But, no; Mr. Elkins, who was looking after the interests of tha anaconda, said the reptile was hungry and could not wait; so the patent was issued for the 2, 000,000 acres. After begging for several years, the settlers persuaded the Government to bring a suit to get back the land obtained by fraud, and the case is now “in chancery,” and the Lord knows when it will get out. Some Dutch capitalists bought the snake after it had swallowed the land, and they now claim that they bought it on the faith of the Government patent, and are i nocent purchasers,without notice of the fraud which Mr. Elkins, as attorney, persuaded the Commissipner of the Laud Office to consummate. W e beg Commissioner Sparks'o make haste slowly. Men who are getting land as a gift from the Government can afford to wait until the proper officers have examined their cases. The mere fact that somebody was in a sweat, at Mr Elkins was, to get a patent issued should excite suspicion. A bona fide settler, who has a claim under the homestead law, is presumably on his land or improving it, and is not trying to self it. A man who has a bogus claim, based on fraud and perjury, is in haste for his patent, very naturally, for he wishes to sell his stolen goods as soon as possible. No doubt there are many honest claims delayed, but it is mainly because rascally claims have thrown so much business upon the Land Office.— Honest pension claimants are delayed for the same reason. Again, I ask honest people to be patient with Commissioner Sparks, who is trying to save the public domain for a tual settlers.

In my letter last Monday I said I would in a future communication detail some of the methods by whicn r ch corporations and individuals steal the public domain.— In Colorado, New Mexico and California there are large tracts of lands claimed under grants from Mexico, which grants the United States agreed, at the close of the war with Mexico, to respect and confirm so far as they were valid. Twenty years ago our Government decided that no private land grunt made by the Mexican Government after the year 1828 was good for more than eleven leagues( ab jut fifty thousand acres), and that one person could only have one claim allowed. In 1854 Congress passed a law which declares that until a claim is finally disoosed of the lands covered by the claim can not be surveyed and thrown open in public entry. In 1870 Gervasio Nolan, or his heirs, had two claims pending before Congress, which were known by their numbers as claims 39 and 48. No. 48 was for lands in Colorado, near Pueblo; the other, No. 39, was for lands in New Mexico. In 1870 Congress enacted a law confirming claim No. 48 on this condition: “Provided, however, That when said lan is are so conjoined, surveyed and patented, they shall be held and taken to be in full satisfaction of all further claims or demands against the United States.” —[U. 8. Statutes, 16 vol., p. 646. Now, what has happened? Some land pirates say they have purchased the other claim (No. 39) which was wiped out by the law abov* quoted. They claim something near a-half million acres, have put a wire fence around it, and hire men to keep out settlers. They are not clamoring for a patent— They know they have no valid claim to a foot of the land. Here is a case for some haste in the dispatch of business on the "art of the Land Office. The rascals who have fenced this public land sWd be indicted for a nuisaaee, and then pitched node and crop tlear off the premises. ■ W. P.lFishback. November 2 1885*

. “What is the worst thing about riches?” asked the Sunday-school superintendent. And the new boy said: “Not having any.”—fFree Press. * ‘