The weekly Placer herald., 1854-07-08

twenty Thousand dollars, which was in
serted in the general appropriation act of
August, 81, 1852, with the express under
standing that when the regular SURVEYS of
the agricultural lands and private land
claims should reach the mineral region,
such connections should be made with
that region as would show its exact local
ity, and enable the government officers to
avoid it in subdividing the public lands,
and thus secure the miners from any in
reference or intrusion. Experience sat
isfied the that the safest and very best
course to pursue was to leave the mines
entirely at the disposal of the energetic
and Industrious miners, whose usages and
conventional regulations were quite suffi-
clent to secure them in their several rights
From that time until this hour the pur-
pose was never entertained by me for a
moment of seeking legislation in regard
to the disposal of these lands. On the
contrary, in order to place the point be
yond controversy, thought it right and
proper in the law of Congress, approved
81 March, 1853, for the general extension
of the land system over California, to
make express provision in the 9th section
Of the act GU. S. Statutes at large 1853,
page 246,) to declare that in the sale of
the public lands and even in the granting
of pre-emptions, there should be certain
exceptions, and those exceptions are spe
cially enumerated, as fDllows:-Schoo
sections-lands specially appropriated by
that act or reserved; "and excepting also
the lands claimed under any foreign grant
or title, and the mineral lands"
! You will then see that in the fundamen
tai law establishing the general land sys-
tenn in California, there is permanent
nterdct of the sale or disposal Of the
mineral lands, and no subsequent law,
general in terms, either to sell, or allOt
alternate sections for railway or other
grants for any purpose, can reach them.
They are Withdrawn and reserved by OPP
GRAFTON Of law from the general system
and in no way can be disposed Of unless
Congress shall pass law describing them
as IA class, and expressly prescribing the
mode of disposing Of them. This prin'
cipe is invariably recognized and of eve
: ry day application in land questions. You
will find it laid down in the most author
tative terms in the decisions of the Su-
pr,me Court of the United States If it
were not so and this doctrine established
beyond question, there is not single re-
servation in the United States for a fOrti-
fcation, arsenal, lighthouse, depot, or
even for the Capitol, public buildings and
grounds at Washington that would escape
from being claimed by individuals under
the general Legislation of Congress for the
disposal of the public domain. The Su-
preme Court, ~as | have remarked, has
placed this beyond controversy. In the
case Of Wilcox VS. jackson, 18th Peters,
page SIS, that tribunal in treating of lands
that had been reserved or excluded from
sal declared as follows:
"But we go further, and say that when
ever tract Of land shall have once been
legally appropriated to any purpose, from
that moment the land thus appropriated
becomes severed from the mass of public
lands, and that no subsequent law, or pro-
cIamation, or sale, would be construed to
embrace it, or operate; although no reser-
vation were made of it.'
As late as the 2Sth Of February last,
(see Congressional Globe of March lst,
lS54,) stated in the Senate that "the
mineral region is well defined; and there
is no act Of Congress and am not in fa-
vor Of passing an act Of Congress, appro-
propriatng any portion Of the mineral
lands. All our legislation has been care
fully guarded in this respect; and the
Surveyor General has received express
instructions to make no surveys Of the
mineral region" 1t is thus shown that
my views before the extension of the
land system to California and up to this
hour, have been positive and unqualified
in this respect. Those views have been
fully met and carried out by the organic
laws of the land system in our State-and
in virtue Of that law the mineral region is
not only withdrawn from sale or location,
but in virtue Of it, and of the principle
settled in the Supreme Court of the U.
States, that region is placed upon the
firmest and highest grounds of exclusion,
beyond the reach Of general legislation,
and remains in the peaceable possession
of the miners so justly entitled to it.
You draw my attention also to the fact
that attempts are made to show that the
proposed alternate section grant for rail
roads will he to the prejudice of actual set
tiers There is not the least truth in such
an allegation 1t is strange that any man
should hazard false assertion of this
kind with the facts and the law staring
him in the face, and when these must lead
to his exposure Through the exertions
Of our delegation, the -emption sys-
tenn for the first time in the legislation of
Congress, was extended to ussurveyed as
well as surveyed lands in our State. Up
on uninterdicted public lands, Pre-emp-