Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1885 — THE BOOMERS. [ARTICLE]

THE BOOMERS.

The Oklahoma Settlers Hold a Convention and Adopt Resolutions. (Topeka (Kan.)tftipatch.l A State convention of Oklahoma boo men has been in session here, with about forty delegates present. Resolutions were adopt - ed to the effect that the use of the United States army to expel the settlers from theii homes in Oklahoma, who had settled on lands subject to homestead under the laws of Congress, has but one parallel in history, to wit: Interference with State legislation of Kansas by United States troops in 1856, in the old border ruffian days. They denounce as an outrage the use of United Sates troops to deprive the people of their homes and property with-> out any warrant of law. and that there is no excuse for the recent exercise of arbitrary power in the Oklahoma country, and denounce the invasion of any territory by an armed force unde? anjjpretense as among the greatest of crimes. They announce that they arc opposed to interfering with the rights of Indians to their lands existing under the laws and treaties of the United States, and will not defend men in the violation of their rights, and demand also that the protection of the Government should be extended to all settlers alike on the Government lands; that it is not a crime to settle upon Government land, but a right given to every American citizen bylaw; that the Indian title to the Oklohoma lands has been extinguished, and under the laws of the United States statutes the lands are subject to settlement, pre-emption, and homestead. The stand faken by Capt. Couch and his followers was commended. The action of the President of the United States in ordering Col. Hatch to shoot down “men, women, and children, whose only crime was a desire to occupy Government lands, ” was characterized as an outrage that would disgrace the worst monarchies of the old world. It also resolved that the boomers have a right to settle upon the lands, and that they will exercise that right. The resolutions are finished by declaring that “the ' dispatches 'sent by the Associated Press agent at Caldwell relating to the status dr settlement of the Oklahoma lands, and charging that there are now cattlemen holding large herds of stock inclosed by fence on said lands, are willfully false, and calculated to mislead the public.”