92 LAND AND LABOR. 



complete. No doubt it may be taken as a fair sam- 

 ple of not a few other swindles equally atrocious. 



A BIG FRAUD. THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

 BACKBONE LAND GRANT. 



A SCHEME TO STEAL 1,500,000 ACRES OF PUBLIC LAND. 



HIGHLY IMPORTANT FACTS FOR CONGRESS AND FOR PRESIDENT 

 ARTHUR. 



" One million four hundred and ninety-two thousand acres 

 of good land, worth every cent of $3,000,000 in good money, are 

 about to be signed away to men who have no more right to the 

 property than has Doin Pedro II, of Alcantara, Emperor of Bra- 

 zil, says a Washington special to the New York Sun. The land 

 belongs to the public domain. It forms a territory more than 

 twice as large as the State of Rhode Island. Matters are in 

 train to take this territory from the people of the United States, 

 its rightful owners, and to hand it over to a few individuals 

 who have grown both rich and audacious by similar operations. 

 Nothing is needed now but the signature of the Secretary of the 

 Interior to a subordinate's report and the President's formal 

 approval. The job has traveled in darkness to its final stage. 

 It is high time to turn on the daylight. 



"Just before the Forty-First Congress adjourned it passed 

 the Texas Pacific bill, a huge subsidy measure which had been 

 pushed through by one of the boldest and most unscrupulous 

 combinations ever effected in the lobby. This Act, carrying a 

 grant of nearly 15,000,000 acres of public lands, was approved 

 by General Grant March 3, 1871, one day before the Forty-First 

 Congress ceased to exist. Its twenty-second section made a 

 grant of twenty sections of land per mile in aid of the construc- 

 tion of the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Vicksburg Railroad, 

 on condition that the whole road should be completed within 

 five years. This road, familiarly known as the Backbone Road, 

 was chartered by the State of Louisiana. It was to run from 

 New Orleans to Baton Rouge, on the east bank of the Missis- 

 sippi; then across the river and by way of Alexandria to 



