The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1854-08-12
THE MINI ES0T Ia n
WEDNESDAY MORNING, AUGUST ., 1854
The Land Ques,ion-who Is Right:

mOhkNAN0, AO0C0A ACcH
The Land Question-who Is Right:
Those who have paid, ANY attention at all to
the agitation" through the public prints of
the questions growing out of the withdrawal
of certain lands from sale, will bear witness
that the Minnesotian has. from the outset,
contended that the course adopted by the COM
missioner Of the General Land office was the
only one to protect the "bona flde" settler in
bis legal rights, and at the same time shut out
the chances Of greedy spectators, who were
seeking to get hold of all the valuable lands
along the line of road, and thus not only de-
feat the objects of the grant itself for railroad
purposes, but also prevent the country from
being settled for years to come. The; ill.ad-
vised attack upon the course of the Commits
sioner by a Representative from one of the land
ed States, has developed the full policy Of the
General Land Office in the premises at an ear
lier date than we had anticipated. We were
aware that such must be the course adopted,
but it was not expected the Commissioner
would SO soon be called out SO fully upon this
1
Is; and oil questions in dispute between our
opponents of the st. Paul press and ourselves
are now effsctually decided In ouri favor
There can be nothing more to argue about
We stand before the public fully indicated by
the facts; and all the charges we have made
concerning the attempts of other editors to
deceive bona fde settlers by spreading false
Information among them, are proved up to the
very letter by the reply Of Commissioner Will
son to Mr.. Eastman.
We hope the bona ffde settlers will paw par
ticular attention to the declaration of the Com
missioner of the General Land Office which we
now quote:
"paid pre-empfiOn claims are excepted
from its operation, 1.-THE withdrawal operation1
and hence the bona iide settler, and the men of
limited means who desire to purchase land for
detudI seiffen'enf and cultivation, can enter by
pre-emptlon NOW AS WELL. AS FORMERLY and,
hereafter, TILL TIE ROUTE OF TIE ROAD IS FIXED.
and the grant attaches under the law, ANY OF
THE LANDS embraced in such withdrawal which
may not be reserved for public uscs.'
Certainly nothing can be more explicit than
this. The English language cannot state de-
cision in terms more plain. Every man inter-
ested must be able to comprehend its meaning
without the aid of lawyer. And We leave it
to the good sense of those most Interested
the "bona fide settlers'-to decide as to who
are the sufferers by this withdrawal, they or the
speculatorss
The settler being thus secured in his rights
what are the consequences of the withdrawal?
lie has the use of his money until such time as
he chooses to prove up his presumption and ap-
ply for his patent. He can wait until he sells
MS crop this year, or perhaps his next years
crop, resting meantime in as much security as
though he had his patent in his pocket. .Nat
an acre OF the lands can pass into TIE hands of
those 'cho do not cultirate then, and make the
proper pre-emption improvements. Who now
dare deny-unless he be some fool, worthy only
OF contempt and ridicule-that, taking the adj
vantages of the railroad and the witbboldino of
the lands from the grasp of the Spectator into
consideration, Minnesota will not eventually
reap millions of benefit from this very with
drawal policy, which was SO hastily and so I'M
wisely condemned! Men with their hundreds
OF thousands of dollars were on their way here
TO attend the land sales, and some have arrived.
IL they now wish to speculate" they must buy
OF our citizens, and leave their gold in the
hands OF our people instead of dcpositing it in
the Golfers of the Government to be carried off
to the vaults of the Sub-Treasurers ofSt Louis
and New York.
VIII our editorial neighbors come down. like
honest men, from their false position, or will
they still persist in withholding material facts
from the people, and continue to misreprcsent
and mystify? We shall see.