CONGRESS. (OCCUPANCY OF PUBLIC LANDS CHINESE INDEMNITY FUND.) 



241 



bound to provide for its execution as for the 

 execution of the laws of its own enacting. The 

 omission to do so would be a casus belli, and 

 subject us to national dishonor and disgrace. 



" It is a solecism to say that a treaty is un- 

 constitutional when the constitutional power 

 to make it is without any limit, and it vests en- 

 tirely in the exercise of the discretion of the 

 President and the Senate." 



The discussion of the subject, though full of 

 interest, was pushed no farther. 



I nl.iwful Occupancy of Publie Lands. Feb. 9, 

 1885, in the Senate, Mr. Van Wyck, of Ne- 

 braska, reported from the Committee on Public 

 Lands, with amendments, the House bill for 

 the prevention of unlawful occupancy of pub- 

 lic lands, known as the fencing bill. The fol- 

 lowing is the measure as reported : 



SECTION 1. That all inclosures of any public lands 

 in any State or Territory of the United States here- 

 tofore or to be hereafter made, erected, or constructed, 

 by any person, party, association, or corporation, to 

 any ot which land included within the inclosure the 

 person, party, association, or corporation making or 

 controlling the inclosure had no claim or color of title 

 made or acquired in good faith, or an asserted right 

 thereto by or under claim made in good faith at the 

 proper land-office, under the general laws of the 

 United States at the time any such inclosure was or 

 shall be made, are hereby declared to be unlawful, 

 and the maintenance, erection, construction, or con- 

 trol of any such inclosure is hereby forbidden and 

 prohibited : and the assertion of a right to the exclu- 

 sive use and occupancy of any part of the public lands 

 of the United States in any State or any or the Terri- 

 tories of the United States, without claim, color of 

 title, or asserted right as above specified as to in- 

 closure, is likewise declared unlawful, and hereby 

 prohibited. 



SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of the district at- 

 torney of the United States for the proper district^ on 

 affidavit filed with him by any citizen of the United 

 States that section 1 of this act is being violated, 

 showing a description of the land inclosed with 

 reasonable certainty, not necessarily by metes and 

 bounds nor by governmental subdivisions of sur- 

 veyed lands, but only so that the inclosure may be 

 identified, and the persons guilty of the violation, as 

 nearly as may be, and by description if the name can 

 notion reasonable inquiry be ascertained, to institute 

 a civil suit in the proper United States District or 

 Circuit Court, in the name of the United States and 

 against the parties named or described who shall be 

 in charge ot or controlling the inclosure complained 

 of as defendants ; and jurisdiction is also hereby con- 

 ferred on any Unitad States District or Circuit Court 

 having jurisdiction over the locality where the land 

 inclosed, or any part thereof, shall be situated, to hear 

 and determine proceedings in equity, by writ of in- 

 junction, to restrain violations, of the provisions of 

 this act ; and it shall be sufficient to give the court 

 jurisdiction if service of original process be had in 

 any civil proceeding on any agent or employe having 

 charge or control of the inclosure; and any suit 

 brought under the provisions of this section shall 

 have precedence for hearing and trial over other cases 

 on the civil docket of the court, and shall be tried and 

 determined at the earliest practicable day. In any 

 case, if the inclosure shall oe found to be unlawful, 

 the court shall make the proper order, judgment, or 

 decree for the destruction of the inclosure in a sum- 

 mary way, unless the inclosure shall be removed by 

 the defendant within five days after the order of the 

 court. 



SEC. 3. That no person, by force, threats, intimida- 

 tion, or by any fencing or inclosing, or any other un- 

 VOL. xxv. 16 A 



lawful means, shall prevent or obstruct or shall com- 

 bine and confederate with others to prevent or obstruct 

 any person from peaceably entering upon or establish- 

 ing a settlement or residence on any tract of public 

 land subject to settlement or entry under the public- 

 land laws of the United States, or shall prevent or 

 obstruct free passage or transit over or through the 

 public lands : Provided, This section shall not apply 

 to persons who have gone upon, improved, or occu- 

 pied said lands under the land laws of the United 

 fetates, claiming title thereto in good faith. 



SEC. 4. That any person violating any of the provis- 

 ions hereof, whether as owner, part owner, or agent, 

 or who shall aid, abet, counsel, advise, or assist in 

 any violation hereof, shall be deemed guilty of a mis- 

 demeanor, and fined in a sum not exceeding $1,000, 

 and be imprisoned not exceeding one year for each 

 oifense. 



SEC. 5. That the President is hereby authorized to 

 take such measures as shall be necessary to remove 

 and destroy any unlawful inclosure of any of said 

 lands, and to employ civil or military force, as may 

 be necessary for that purpose. 



In a report accompanying the bill, the com- 

 mittee said : 



The necessity of additional legislation to protect 

 the public domain because of illegal fencing is be- 

 coming every day more apparent. Without the least 

 authority, and in open andf bold defiance of the rights 

 of the Government, large, and oftentimes foreign, 

 corporations deliberately inclose by fences areas of 

 hundreds of thousands of acres, closing the avenues 

 of travel and preventing the occupancy by those seek- 

 ing homes. _ While those fencing allege the lands 

 within such inclosures are open to settlement, yet no 

 humble settler, with scarcely the means for the neces- 

 saries of life, would presume, to enter any such in- 

 closure to seek a home. The Government has suffi- 

 cient authority to drive those seeking homes from the 

 Indian Territory, and to burn the ranches of those 

 invading the Yellowstone Park, while those appro- 

 priating vast areas are hoping the only remedy to be 

 used against them will be the law's delay in the 

 courts. Therefore your committee have added a new 

 section to the Army bill, authorizing the President of 

 the United States to summarily remove all obstruc- 

 tions, and, if necessary, to use the military power of 

 the United States. 



Feb. 10, section 1 was amended by inserting 

 after the words " good faith " the words " with 

 a view to entry thereof"; section 2 was 

 amended by inserting after the word "court" 

 the words " or Territorial District Court" ; the 

 proviso of section 3 was amended by striking 

 out the words "apply to" and 'inserting the 

 words " be held to affect the right or title of." 

 The bill then passed the Senate. In the 

 House, Feb. 12, the Senate amendments were 

 concurred in; and Feb. 25 the bill was ap- 

 proved by the President. 



Chinese Indemnity Fnnd. In the House, Jan. 

 14, 1885, Mr. Wait, of Connecticut, reported 

 from the Committee on Foreign Affairs a bill 

 for the return of what is known as the Chi- 

 nese indemnity fund, which was passed as 

 follows : 



Be it enacted, etc., That the President be and he is 

 hereby authorized and directed to cause the residue 

 of the indemnity received from China, which is now 

 in the custody of the Secretary of State, and is known 

 and designated in the accounts and reports of the De- 



?artment of State as the Chinese indemnity fund, to 

 e converted into coin, and the sum of $533,4<K).90 be 

 returned to the Chinese Government, and the balance 



