Washington telegraph., 1853-06-08
From the Gazette & Democrat
The Rail Road RescrvatiOn.

;ter of the Land office, at this place. received,
s.on, Washington, an order to reserve from sale
~ aniry. until the 9th of October next certain
M Miands Wing along the supposed lines OF the con-
#.amnIated Rail Roads in this State.
This ORDER we learn, is regarded by Gov. Con-
Nv with peculiar pride and pleasure, and will
1oabtess from the signs given out in certain
utarters, be made the occasion, through his offc-
II organ in its next issue, of high exultation and
,.ain M boasting 1t will, doubtless, be heralded in
nrnt as it has already been proclaimed In the bar
IONS and on the street corners, that it sustains
tbe views of the Governor heretofore put FORTH as
the date and operation of the States title to the
ionds granted for Rail Roads; and as achieve
r,pnt all the Gorernor's, worthy of wise admin.
y stration of the State government.
Entertaining opinions OF this whole affair wide
" different from those of the Governor and his
organ. ask the attention OF sensible men to the
allowing considerations, which will exhibit this
i difference between us and the Governor in what.
we think. is its true light; and, in this light. let
.he people of the State Judge between us: as to
whether the Governor has been sustained in his
views of the law, whether this order from the
General Land office (which he claims as the result
of his exertions) will operate well or i'll for the
i State: and then let them decide who is right and
who is wrong-first as to the iam and Ext as to
the best policy for Arkansas.
i First. The Governor assumed, in his letter of
Feb 9th, to the Commissioner of the General
land office which we published two weeks ago,
and his organ endorsed his assumption, that the
file to all the granted land vested IN the State at
tbe date OF the Act (Feb. 8, 1881 and that he
claimed every tract named in the grant, which
might have been sold since that date
In our paper of the goth of last month two
weeks ago) we undertook to show, and think we
did show, to the satisfaction of every lawyer and
every man Of common sense, that the terms and
intention of the law warranted no such claim but,
on the contrary, that such claim, as set up by
the Governor and endorsed by his organ, was un-
sound untenable ridiculous, absurd, We need
not repeat here, the arguments we then used. for
they will be present to the minds OF all who read
them Neither the Governor, nor his organ. has
rentured directly indirectly, to controver those
arguments, otherwise than by repeating. with
consistent ignorance, and dogged obstinacy the
same dogmatic absurdity, as any parrot might be
expected to do.
But what says the General Land Office, to which
the Governor seems to look as to the source of all
knowledge and all authority on these subjects,
and from which he boasts of having obtained this
order to reserve the lands from sae2 What says
the General Land office, to this claim of the Go
vernon to all these lands from the 3rd Feb. 1853?
We answer that this very order itself procured.
as the Governor claims, by himself and over
which he is cacklins like d Shanghai pulet over
her first egg, reects has Interpretation OF the law
That this is SO, results necessary and avoid
able inference is admitted in the very act IF max
inc the order, and cannot be denied by any one
who holds that such an order was proper or ne
cessary For if. as the Governor claimed the
title to these lands vested in the State, by the
terms of the act of Congress, and at its date, the
reservation was already and at once made by the
act ITSELF and needed no order fiom the General
Land office or any other quarter to give it validi-
~ nd aft In the then. pfa
for this order, in his admission of its propriety
or necessity, the Governor stultifes himself and
abandonS his own much vaunted claim. And by
issuing the order, at ALL the General Land office,
we repeat rejects the Governors luminous inter-
probation of the law, and repudiates the claim he
sets up upon that interpretation.
But, not only is this position of the Governor
thus abandoned by himself (unconsciouslu. it
seems,l and repsedated by the General Land Office
but, by the date and terms of the order, ITSELF a
similar, and perhaps direct and emphatic re-
rudiatoa Of the Governors claim, is put upon re-
cord. This is seen, in the date when the order
was to take effect and in the limit of the reserva-
ton. The order was to take effect from the 9th
of May, lexcept in the Helena land district where
it was from the 18th of May) and to extend to the
9Th of October next.
Now if as the Gov. claims, the title TO these
lands vested in the State, from the 3rd Feb. from
which time the u. S. could not sell them how
Gould the General Land office change the date of
that title, and postpone it until the 9th and 18th
Mays And if the title thus, as the Gov claims
vests at all in the State by the terms of the act of
Congress, how could the General Land office limit
the duration of that title to the 9th of Oct or to
any other day!
IF the Governor claim be good one. that the
title to the lands vests III the State by the terms
of the act and at its date then no order from the
General Land Office, from any other quarter,
short of Congress; could postpone for q day. or an
hour, the time at which that title begun nor could
the State, except. by her own legislative act be
divested OF er title to an acre of that land which
the U. S. may have sold since the 3rd February
So again, if, as the Gov. claims the title to this
land vests in the State, by the terms of the act
then it remains in the State, by the sane terms
for at least ten years from the date OF the act dur
ing which. time is allowed to complete the road;
and no order from the Gereral Land Office or from
any other quarter can shorten the duration of that
title to the 9th of October-a span os fire mouths
even for one day or hour within the term of ten
years.
SO much for the position in which the Cover
nor by undertaking to expound the law, has
placed himself las every man undertaking to deal
with matters which he is incapable of under
standing, is apt to do) "a position which we, at
1Tsti thought ridiculous and absurd. but in which
re mas contrlved to make himself actually con-
humlliating to all who have respect for our State.
or pride In her character, is tae selfcomplacencv
--even the air of swelling exultation-with which
the Gov. is exhibiting and pluu1ing himself upon
thls mighty achievement of writing himself
Gown an''-ignora,nus in the law. He might
have spared himself the trouble, and saved our
State the sorry spectacle, for there were enough
who knew it without blazonng it to all the world.
Secondly. We ask our readers to consider what
has been, and what is likely to be, the effect upon
the real interests of State of the policy pur-
sued by Gov. Conway. resulting from the views
he has put forth, on this subject
Resting, as it seems, upon claim. which he
deducted from false and foolish Interpretation of
the act of Congress- he failed and refused to con-
TTene the Legislature at the earliest practicable
day, whereby the largest quantity of land might
have been secured to the State His claim was
that the whole of the land granted became, by
ehe terms of the act, the property of the State,
rom its d3tp-the Ord Eah