244 



CONGRESS. (FOEFEITED LAND-GBANTS.) 



one, in the direction of giving them some. We 

 are sending their claims to the Court of Claims, 

 that they may there be judicially examined and 

 judicially stated. And when they come out in 

 legal shape I hope, and I hope that the House 

 wishes, that the moral claim which they will 

 have to payment may be promptly recognized. 

 There are but two substantial objections. They 

 tell us the claims are stale and assigned. Mr. 

 Speaker, will there ever be a private claim 

 against this Government which will not be so 

 delayed as to be stale ? Will there ever be a 

 number of citizens, owning claims, who will 

 not in this delay be forced by their necessities 

 to sell their rights ? But delay, when the Gov- 

 ernment only is at fault, and assignment, are no 

 bars to legal claimants. And these claims 

 have the rights of law, not the charities of 

 equity. 



"I trust, Mr. Speaker, this bill, the first step 

 toward paying these old debts, may pass. It 

 must if there is much chance that these claims 

 of the eighteenth century shall be paid in the 

 nineteenth, and not have to wait for the twen- 

 tieth." 



The bill was approved by the President, Jan- 

 uary 20. 



Forfeited Land - Grants. In the House a bill 

 was introduced, declaring forfeited to the 

 United States all lands granted by act of Con- 

 gress to aid in the construction of any railroad 

 which have not been earned by the grantees, 

 and providing for the adjudication of contro- 

 versies thereto ; but the bill was allowed to lie 

 on the table. A bill to declare forfeited the 

 unearned lands granted to the Atlantic and Pa- 

 cific Railroad Company to aid in the construc- 

 tion of a railroad and telegraph line from the 

 States of Missouri and Arkansas to the Pacific 

 coast, and to restore the same to settlement and 

 for other purposes, failed through the refusal of 

 the House to concur in amendments with which 

 the Senate passed the original measure. The 

 bill "to declare forfeited certain lands granted 

 to aid in the construction of a railroad in Ore- 

 gon, and to enforce the same by judicial pro- 

 ceedings," which was passed by the House at 

 the previous session of Congress, was amended 

 by the adoption of a substitute in the Senate, 

 and passed that body January 6, 1885. The 

 House finally concurred in the Senate amend- 

 ments, and the bill was approved by the Presi- 

 dent February 2. It is as follows : 



.Be it enacted, etc. , That so much of the lands granted 

 by an act of Congress entitled " An act granting land 

 to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph 

 line from Portland to Astoria and McMinnville, in the 

 State of Oregon," approved May 4, 1870, as are adja- 

 cent to and conterminous with the uncompleted por- 

 tions of said road, and not embraced within the limits 

 of said grant for the completed portions of said road, 

 be and the same are hereby declared to be forfeited 

 to the United States and restored to the public domain, 

 and made subject to disposal under the general land 

 laws of the United States. 



SECTION 2. That all persons who at the date of the 

 passage of this act are actual settlers in good faith on 

 any of the lands hereby forfeited, and who are other- 



wise qualified, on making due claim to such lands 

 under the homestead, pre-emption, or other laws, 

 within six months after the same shall have been de- 

 clared forfeited, shall be entitled to a preference right 

 to enter the same in accordance with the provisions of 

 this act and of the homestead, pre-emption, or other 

 laws, as the case may be, and shall be regarded as 

 having legally settled upon and occupied said lands 

 under said pre-emption, homestead, or other Jaws, as 

 the case may be, from the date of such actual settle- 

 ment or occupation ; and in case any such settler may 

 not be entitled to thus enter or acquire such land under 

 existing laws, he shall be permitted, within one year 

 after the passage of this act, to purchase not to exceed 

 one hundred and sixty acres of the same, at the price 

 of $1.25 per acre ; and the Secretary of the Interior is 

 hereby authorized and directed to make such rules 

 and regulations as will secure to said actual settlers 

 the benefit of these rights: Provided. That the price 

 of the even-numbered sections within the limits of 

 said grant and adjacent to and conterminous with the 

 uncompleted portions of said road, and not embraced 

 within the limits of said grant for the completed por- 

 tions of said, road, is hereoy reduced to $1.25 per acre. 

 SEC. 8. That the act of March 3, 1875, entitled " An 

 act for the relief of settlers within railroad limits," is 

 hereby repealed. 



Mr. Dolph, of Oregon, made the following 

 explanation of the measure: "By the act of 

 May 4, 1870, there was granted to said com- 

 pany, the Oregon Central Railroad Company 

 of Portland, each alternate section of the pub- 

 lic land not mineral, except coal and iron, des- 

 ignated by odd sections, to the amount of ten 

 sections per mile upon each side nearest to the 

 road except such as had been previously re- 

 served or otherwise disposed of or held under 

 yalid homestead and pre-emption rights; and 

 also the right to take materials from the public 

 land for the construction of the road and the 

 usual grant of land for depot and station pur- 

 poses. 



u The Oregon Central Railroad Company of 

 Portland had prior to the date of that grant 

 projected a line of railroad from Portland west- 

 ward to Forest Grove, thence along the west 

 side of the Willamette valley by McMinnville 

 and other west-side towns to the southern 

 boundary of the State of Oregon, and had 

 commenced the construction of that line. It 

 had been engaged in a long contest with the 

 Oregon Central Railroad Company of Salem 

 for the lands granted by the act of Congress of 

 July 25, 1866, granting lands to such company 

 as should be designated by the State of Oregon 

 to aid in the construction of a railroad and tel- 

 egraph line from Portland, in Oregon, southerly 

 through the Willamette valley to a suitable 

 point of junction with the line of the Central 

 Pacific Railroad Company in California, and, 

 having been unsuccessful in that contest, had 

 come to Congress for aid in the construction of 

 its road. 



" The late Hon. Joseph S. Smith, of Oregon, 

 then in Congress, introduced a bill to grant 

 lands to the company to aid in the construction 

 of its road as then projected, but before the bill 

 was passed it was amended so as to limit the 

 grant of land upon the projected line of the 

 company's road to McMinnville, a point about 



