248 



CONGRESS. (DES MOINES RIVEB LANDS.) 



Call, Camden, Cockrell, Coke, Eustis, George, Gib- 

 son, Gorman, Gray, Harris, Jackson, Jones of Arkan- 

 sas, Kenna, Macey, Morgan, Payne, Pugh, Ransom, 

 Voorhees, Walthull, Wilson of Maryland 26. 



ABSENT Bowen, Colquitt, Dolph, Fair, Hampton, 

 Ingalls Jones of Florida, Jones of Nevada, Mc- 

 Plferson, Mitchell of Pennsylvania, Palmer, Pike, 

 Kiddleberger, Saulsbury, Sewell, Vance, Vest 17. 



The vote on the second resolution was the 

 same, except that Mr. Morgan was among the 

 absent. The vote on the third resolution was 

 30 yeas to 29 nays. The vote on the fourth 

 resolution was 56 yeas to 1 nay, Mr. Morgan 

 voting in the negative. That gentleman offered 

 the following resolution : 



Resolved, That nothing in these resolutions con- 

 tained is to be construed as declaring that the conduct 

 of the Attorney-General renders him liable to im- 

 peachment, and the Senate disclaims the right or pow- 

 er to punish him by imprisonment or otherwise than 

 by impeachment for the offense charged against him 

 in the second resolution, which the Senate has just 

 adopted. 



It was laid on the table by a vote of 33 yeas 

 to 26 nays. 



The main point in the debate, though issue 

 was joined on a technical question as to the res- 

 olution of the Senate and the Executive, was 

 whether removal from office under the policy 

 proclaimed by the new Administration involved 

 an imputation on the official removed ; and the 

 purpose of the Republican Senators was to com- 

 pel an acknowledgment that officials were re- 

 moved merely on political grounds. In the 

 course of the session the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury made an arrangement by which, in the 

 case of collectors of internal revenue, it was 

 conceded that where charges were not pre- 

 ferred removal was not in anj way a reflection 

 upon the official removed. 



Des Moines River Lands. The hill to quiet the 

 title of settlers on the Des Moines river lands 

 in Iowa, which had been before every Con- 

 gress since the Forty-third, had been favorably 

 reported many times, had passed the House of 

 Representatives twice, and the Senate once, 

 again passed the Senate, Feb. 11, 1886, without 

 a division, and Feb. 24, passed the House in the 

 same way. The measure was as follows : 



Whereas, It is alleged that all the lands along the 

 Des Moines river above the mouth of the Eaccoon 

 Fork, in the State of Iowa, referred to in the joint 

 resolution of March 2, 1861 (12 Statutes, page 25i), as 

 certified to said State improperly by the Department 

 of the Interior as under the grant of August 8, 1 846, 

 and which were treated in the Harvey settlement of 

 May 20, 1866. as having been sold or otherwise dis- 

 posed of by the United States, as mentioned or pro- 

 vided in the act of July 12, 1862 (12 Statutes, page 543), 

 to extend the grant of 1846, and for which lands the 

 State, in the Harvey settlement, received and accepted 

 by the Department of the Interior after Secretary 

 Browning's decision of May 9, 1868, and that by such 

 settlement Iowa, m accepting the indemnity lands as 

 referred to, is estopned from all claim to the lands in 

 place that were improperly certified as river-land or 

 under the act of 1846 . and 



Whereas tnere are many settler? who, believing that 

 ohe said lands were public lands, entered upon the 

 same in good faith, and with the consent of the De- 

 oartment of the Interior, as pre-emptions and home- 



steads, and since so doing, and after receiving patents, 

 have been held by the courts as trespassers, or that 

 the lands were reserved from settlement : Therefore, 



Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives of the United States of America in Congress as- 

 sembled, That all the lands improperly certified to 

 Iowa by the Department of the Interior under the act 

 of August 8, 1846, as referred to in the joint resolu- 

 tion of March 2, 1861. for which indemnity lands were 

 selected and received by the State of Iowa, as provided 

 iu the act of 1862, are, and are hereby declared to be, 

 public lands of the United States : Provided, That the 

 title of all bona-fide settlers under color of title from 

 the State of Iowa and its grantees, or the United 

 States and its grantees, which do not come in conflict 

 with pre-emption or homestead claimants, are hereby 

 ratified and confirmed, and made valid: Provided 

 further, That the claims of all persons who, with in- 

 tent, in good faith, to obtain title thereto under the 

 pre-emption or homestead laws of the United States, 

 entered or remained upon any tract of said land prior 

 to January, 1880, not exceeding one hundred and 

 sixty acres, are hereby confirmed and made valid in 

 them, their heirs, or their proper assigns, and upon 

 due proof thereof, and payment of the usual price or 

 fees, where the same has not been paid, shall be car- 

 ried to patent : Provided further, That the titles of all 

 bona-fide claimants, under color of title from the State 

 of Iowa and its grantees, or the United States and its 

 grantees, which dp not come in conflict with persons 

 who, with intent, in good faith, to obtain title thereto, 

 under the pre-emption or homestead laws of the United 

 States, settled upon the said lands prior to January, 

 1880, are confirmed and made valid. 



SEC. 2. That it is hereby made the duty of the At- 

 torney-General, within ninety days after the passage 

 of this act, to institute, or cause to be instituted, such 

 suit or suits, either in law or equity, or both, as 

 may be necessary and proper to assert and protect 

 the title of the United States to said lands and remove 

 all clouds from its title thereto ; and until such suits 

 shall be determined, and Congress shall so provide, 

 no part of said lands shall be open for settlement or 

 sale except as hereinbefore provided. And in any 

 suits so instituted , any person or persons in possession 

 of or claiming title to any tract or tracts of land under 

 the United States involved in such suits may, at his 

 or their expense, unite with the United States iu the 

 prosecution of such suits. 



March 11, 1886, the President sent in the 

 following veto message : 

 To the Senate of the United States : 



I return herewith, without approval, and with a 

 statement of my objections thereto, Senate bill No. 

 150, entitled " An act to quiet title of settlers on the 

 Des Moines river lands in the State of Iowa, and for 

 other purposes." 



This proposed legislation grows out of a grant ot 

 land made to the Territory of Iowa in the year 1846 to 

 aid in the improvement of the navigation of the Des 

 Moines river. 



The language of this grant was such that it gave 

 rise to conflicting decisions on the part of the Gov- 

 ernment departments as to its extent, and it was not 

 until 1860 that this question was authoritatively and 

 finally settled by the Supreme Court of the United 

 States. Its decision diminished the extent of the 

 grant to a quantity much less than had been insisted 

 on by certain interested parties, and rendered invalid 

 the titles of parties who held, under the Territory or 

 State of Iowa, lands beyond the limit of the grant 

 fixed by the decision of the court. 



For the purpose of validating such titles and to set- 

 tle all disputes so far as the General Government was 

 concerned, the Congress, in the year 1861, by a joint 

 resolution, transferred to the State of Iowa all the title 

 then retained by the United States to the lands within 

 the larger limits which had been claimed and then 

 held by bona-Jide purchasers from the State ; and in 



