Spirit of the times. [volume] (Ironton, Ohio) 1853-1858, 1855-10-16
Correspondence OF the y. Tribune.
Great Land Frauds in Missouri.
COLLISION BETWEEN PRESIDENT
DICDCE ANN COW pRICE
PIERCE AND GOV. PRI

On the 2Sth Of September, 1850, the Con.
gress ofthe United States approved an Act en-
titled, An A ct 10 enable the Stale of Arkansas
and other States TO reclaim the swamp lands
within their limits. The State of Missouri,
by an act of her Legislature on the Sd OF
March, 1881, gave to the counties respectively
all the lands lying within their limits 10 which
the State had acquired title by virtue Of the
Act of 1850. The County Courts of each
county throughout the State appointed agents
to select the lands under the Act Of September
2S, 1850, and as consideration for their ser.
vices contracted to give each agent twelve and
half cents per acre for all the lands they
might select-thus making it 10 the interest Of
the agent to take all the lands he could find
within his county, under the act aforesaid.
In accordance with this arrangement, the
agents for the State Of Missouri selected the
enormous amount of 463, 1863 Oh acres. ;See
Report of Surveyor. General for Illinois and
NJ issouri to Commissioner Of the General Land
Office, Oct. 81, l8oi.) In the Palmyra land
district alone there has been more than one
hundred and fifty thousand acres taken under
the act Of 1850, not more than one lOrtieth
part of which is swamp land within the mean.
ing OF the Act of $780,, Thus q fraud Of q
tremendous magnitude has been perpetrated
upon the Government, which in its liberal pol.
icy and generosity, had donated all the swamp
lands into the States in which said description
of lands might lie. The Act, which was Just
and equitable in its character, has been pros.
tituted by the agents appointed 10 carry it out,
So great was the fraud in some of the coun.
ties, and it swells or diminishes in all, in pro.
portion to the possession or destitutiOn of con-
science on the agent employed, that the citi.
zenS Of this land district. several hundred in
number, have made affidavits setting forth the
fact that the lands specified by them, and
which were taken under the Act of 1850, are
and always were high and dry, and fit for cul
tivation at all seasons Of the year, without ar
tiicial drainage or embankment. These aft
davits were filed with the Commissioner of the
General Land Office Department. and many Of
the cases are undergoing the process of a legal
investigation.
The Department at Washington has been
fully apprised of the frantl committed upon
the Government since the Spring of l853-frOm
the contest gotten up by the Hannibal and St.
Joseph Railroad Company, individuals, and
the report of the Surveyor of Lands for the
State Of Illinois and Missouri. The Depart.
ment were so well satisfied of the extent and
magnitude of the fraud that the issuing of pa.
tents to the Stale OF Missouri for the lands Sc
'lecled under the Act of 1850 had been suspen.
ded as to all the lands. The constituted au.
thorities Of the State were equally in posses
sion of tie fact that a fraud had been perpe.
trated npon the Government in the selection of
lands contemplated by the Act Of 1850. And
so uneasy and solicitOus were they upoM the
subject, they exhausted oil their powers of
sophistry and cunning by correspondence TO
induce the DEPARTMENT to issue the patents 10
these lands. But all their unworthy efforts
proved unavaiing.
/ Finally the plan was conceived of sending
Governor Price in person to Washington to
have personal interview with the President,
and induce him, II possible, to direct the De.
partment to issue patents to the State for the
lands claimed under the Act Of so. Gov.
Price visited the President, and after negoti.
at ion of several weeks, Notwithstanding the
information under the nose Of the President,
succeeded in getting him to order the Land
Office, Department to commence issLing the
patents 10 these lands which had been selec.
led fraudulently. And we are boldly told by
Gov. Price on his return to Missouri, tn at ex.
ira clerks were to be called into requisition to
expedite this villainous thing. "Mrabile die
tut" President Pierce Of the United States,
sworn to protect and advance the interest ol
the Government, has entered into base coali
ton with Gov. Price Of Missouri. and BY his
action sanctions an Infamous fraud upon the
Government, knowingly. Let it be proclaim.
ed from Dan to Beersheba, that President
Pierce is s.particsps eriminis" in swindling the
General Government to aid one or two States
of the Union. Mr.. Pierce would have vetoed
bill granting the public domain to the States
of this Union for school purposes, because oi
conscientious seruplss about its consttutionalily
Yet he aids Missouri in stealing too hundred
thousand acrss Of land under the octcf 1850.
But again, to develop more fully the magni.
tude Of this enormous fraud, 1t is important that
| we notice the decision Of the Commissioner 0
the General Land Y Ofice Just prior to this coali.
ton between Pierce and Price. 1t will be re-
membered that many individuals had made ap
1 plication 10 enter the lands selected under the
Act Of 1850, and approved by the Secretary o.
| the Interior asswainp lands. That the Com
missioner in writing to the agents Of these par.
ties on the 18th Of May, 1855, said 10 them
1.-THE party fling evidence as requissd by thi,
Office and contesting the States claiM, will |
successful therein be permitted % enter thu
land" The contestants under Ibis view o
the subject went on and expended large sum
Of money in having the lands surveyed prepar
atory to an Investigation Of the matter. 0nl,
{ four cases had been adjudicated BY the Reeis
ter and Receiver Of the local Land Office 70
the Palmyra Land District-all II Of which ver,