250 



CONGRESS. (DES MOINES RIVER LANDS.) 



animation of it has led him to thiuk that for 

 grave reasons, very tersely and yet very com- 

 prehensively stated in this message of the Presi- 

 dent, this disturbance of the courts and of the 

 law and reconsideration by the United States 

 of legislation which has been determinative of 

 this point should not be allowed." 



In the course of an argument for the bill, Mr. 

 Wilson, of Iowa, said : 



"This disputation concerning these lands has 

 clouded the title for a quarter of a century of all 

 the lands embraced within the alleged grant, 

 lying in one of the most beautiful sections of 

 Iowa. Men who have gone upon those lands 

 as settlers in the early days when that region 

 was the advanced frontier post of civilization, 

 having clustering around the lands upon which 

 they settled and the homes which they there 

 created all of those tender sentiments that tie 

 men to home, were not willing, even if it re- 

 quired personal sacrifice, to have those ties all 

 sundered and go out in the world again in 

 search of other homes. So they said to this com- 

 pany, some of them, ' In order to have peace 

 we will buy in your title such as you have.' 

 So contracts were made with many of them by 

 this company through an agent it had out in the 

 State of Iowa. Rather than resist, rather than 

 be troubled, in order to have some ascertainment 

 of their cases, they entered into the contracts 

 and agreed to pay, and many of them did pay, 

 the contract price to the agent of this company. 

 The agent was unfaithful. He did not account 

 to his principals for the money thus received, 

 and they repudiated his authority to receive the 

 money, asserted that the contract was yet sub- 

 sisting, sued upon the contract, and in some 

 cases ousted these people from their homes. 



" This company come here to plead not only 

 law but equity. Will it come here with the 

 clean hands that must go in where equity ob- 

 tains? It is not found in the record of that 

 company in the State of Iowa, neither in the 

 greed which it has manifested concerning the re- 

 turn for the comparatively small outlay that it 

 made in connection with that improvement, nor 

 in the manner with which it has treated with 

 the people settled upon those lands. I have 

 here, but I shall not take the time to read them, 

 letters from many of these men, men who have 

 been there, as I have said, more than a quarter 

 of a century, who have looked forward to the 

 time when their titles should come to them 

 from the Government, and their homes would 

 be assured to them. While they have waited 

 they have gone on as industrious pioneers are 

 wont to do, reclaiming the wilds and making 

 them habitations for progress and civilization. 

 They have waited. Some of them have con- 

 ference yet with this company. Others now 

 occupying the lands, but as they say, tenants 

 by sufferance, have had hard lines dealt out to 

 them by this innocent company. 



"I have one case here* where a settler en- 

 tered upon an eighty- acre tract of land as a pre- 

 emptor. In the course of time he purchased 



from this company eighty acres more. He gave 

 them his contract secured upon the one hun- 

 dred and sixty acres, and what was the result ? 

 The company sued him for the balance. It 

 was but a small amount comparatively, only 

 $500, but he had consumed what little savings 

 he had in buying in the eighty acres of land 

 and in making the balance. Judgment was 

 rendered; execution was issued. The first 

 eighty acres were sold. The tract did not 

 bring enough to pay the judgment. The sec- 

 ond eighty acres were sold, and the home of 

 the man was gone, both that part of the land 

 upon which he entered as a pre-emptor and 

 that which he bought from the company. Has 

 this company been harshly dealt with? It 

 would have been at least humane for it to have 

 allowed this poor man to retain one of the 

 eighty-acre tracts, inasmuch as this preposter- 

 ous claim was the occasion of the small sum 

 realized for the sale of that land. And why ? 

 Because a disturbed title is not a marketable 

 article at fair value and because of this dis- 

 turbed title claimed by this company the man's 

 possessions went from him, and to-day he is 

 homeless and his family with him. 



*' I might go on with scores of cases like this, 

 but I will not consume the time of the Senate. 

 I insist that the United States shall, by the en- 

 actment of this bill, notwithstanding the Presi- 

 dent's objection thereto, make at least an hon- 

 est endeavor to protect the men it invited upon 

 these lands twenty-five years ago. I insist not 

 only for them that this remedy shall be ac- 

 corded, but for all, the company itself as well 

 as its grantees. Therefore it is provided in the 

 bill that in all cases where there are not con- 

 flicting claims the title shall be confirmed in the 

 holders, whether they be the Des Moines Navi- 

 gation Company, its grantees, or others, the 

 purpose of the bill and the remedy it provides 

 being to settle now within the reasonable time 

 which may be necessary to devote to the pro- 

 posed remedy the titles to the lands in that 

 great section of Iowa which have been dis- 

 turbed so long. This, as I said in the last Con- 

 gress when discussing the question, resolves it- 

 self on that account into a public question, for 

 the disturbance of title is a serious injury to 

 public interests and affairs." 



June 29 the Senate passed the bill over the 

 veto by the following vote : 



YEAS Allison, Beck, Berry, Blackburn, Blair, Call, 

 Cameron, Chace, Cockrell, Coke, Conger, Dawes, 

 EustLs, George, Hale, Harrison, Hoar, Ingalls, Jones 

 of Arkansas, McMillan, Mahone, Manderson, Maxey, 

 Mitchell of Oregon, Palmer, Plumb, Riddlcbcrger, 

 Sawyer, Sewell, Sherman, Spooner, Teller, Walthall, 

 Wilson of Iowa 34. 



NAYS Brown, Butler, Colquitt, Edmunds, Evarts, 

 Gray, Hampton, Hawlev, McPherson, Miller, Platt, 

 Ransom, Vance, Vest, Whitthorne 15. 



ABSENT Aldrich, Bowen, Camden, Cullom, Dolph, 

 Faii-j Frye, Gibson, Gorman, Harris, Hearst, Jones of 

 Florida, Jones of Nevada, Kenna, Logan, Mitchell of 

 Pennsylvania, Morgan, Morrill, Payne, Pike, Pugh, 

 Sabin, Saulsbury, Stanford, Van Wyck, Voorhees, 

 Wilson of Maryland 27. 



