New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-11-13
GREAT LAND FRAUDS IN MISSOURI
GOVERNOR PRICE AND PRESIDENT
PIERCE.
,a.n,. ~ The n. 7. Tribune

to "s'u amounted to carry out the act oil
by the seen" 10 the State of Arkansas aud
congress oO" II IN, swamp and overfowed land
olnei So .,ai, l,mi,, / alleged that the fraud
pDs .ne.ted BY the /. al d-ofllce department at
nou D.,- Cit sna rou1n have been stectually
A,posed and prevented but i9f 'ne oNi''cu' lA"'
,0sddlne Of Governor Price o. M'ssouri ana Tue
ChiefMseistrste of the nation; ard the decision Of
the commissioner of the General land office made
,,-;o, IN the agreement entered Into between tue
Governor and the officials at Washington In "nicn
the latter sought TO close up an inve 'uga'ion in'o
the character Of lands selected unde.' tne act vi
1850 by patentiDg them to the State ~'ua' "o'
Pricelept himself willing instrument to ait I'D 'no
ipiouitous scheme Of defrauding the general 0o',
eminent with full knowledge Of all the facts @nu
that the President had become party TO the IL
famous sansac ion upon the representations made
and inducements held out by Governor Price and
that too in the face Of ample evidence before the
Land. Office department tina, fraud had been COM
utted by the State in selecting lands under the
act of 1850 800
Th. WASHINGTON Union Of the 18th ult, the organ
of the Administration, contains long editorial
evidently cut and dried by the high official func-
tODaries at Washington, in answer to the charges
preferred. L lDtfDO 10 duhl)Le tuls PuoliO uo
tense of the constituted authorities at Washing
ton, but before doing So let me give the evidence
in my possession ut the tine made the charge OF
cOllusiOn between Brice and the President
About the LIST of July, 1855, there were tried be
fore the register and receiver four swampland
cases. calling in question the stcdmpy character OF
fifteen hundred acres Of lard selected by the state
under the set Of 1850 DuclDg the progress OF
the trials the attorney for the State, or the county
az Monroe Ginning under the State, SAID that
" Governor Price had been solicited by the county
of Monroe and other cOuates throughout the
State, to visit the President for the purpose of
eating him to stop an investigation into the
character of the lands selected under the act OF
1880" Governor Price old subsequently Writ
Washington, avOwedly for the object OF obtaining
patents for the State of Missouri to the land 30
iected as swamp and overlooked. The Governor on
his return home stated in St.LOus--it The 81 Louis
Int,hpenceT and Missouri RtpuJtiCaR are TO be be-
leyed-tbat all the lands selected under the act OF
1850 would be pateI ted Immediately, except some
few tracts that the local land offices had permitted
individuals TO enter, and that President Pierce
would call into reputation extra clerks In order
to expedite the issuing OF patents And the
editor of The Inteligencer adds Governor Price
returns victorious from Washington, as he did
"from the plains of Mexico; the extra clerks,
however, will not be of the same political stripe
with the governors" thereby ntmatlng that
Governor Price was a Know Nothing
After waiting ten days expecting the gov
ernors organ at Jefferson City to contra
dict these reports, and seeing no denial, the
conclusion was very naturally arrived at that
Governor Price had either come back to
Missouri with a falsehoOd in his mouth, or that
President Pierce had become direct party to the
fraud. The eyes of the people of the State had
been turned to the object of the Governors mis-
sion to Washington, and it was known that the
Land department had been impOrtuned by CORE
for asr In igsup
for the swamp lands caiued under the act OF 1880
From these facts aud circumstances IL was be-
ieved that the President had been gnty ct al OIL
cial improperly But a high official at Washing
ton writes us by authority" IN the 18th ultmo,
that the President is guiltless of any wrong in
"tbe premises" and The Washington Union stOutly
denies the charges preferred. If toe President is
innocent the censure must fall upon Governor
Price He is the witness who has done injustice
to the President, and Whenever am convinced by
evidence that he has testified falsely shall cheer.
fully exOnerste the Chief Magistrate from all
wrong in the premises But am not to be intml-
dated by the Boosting of The Washington Union and
the birelipgs that thrOng around the President or
Governor Price 10 sweIve from the obligation We
have assumed. Hence, it becomes necessary that
we descend more particularly into the mlnutle
connected with the transaction under c0nsldera-
ton, and propose to submit the evidence upon
which nv charges we're based, that Just public
may decide whether the organ of the President has
been guilty of falsehood, or whether l am the
offending party.
The Union says:
without caring to INQUIRE whether the letter be
genuine or not have applied at the proper Gepsrt-
melt and obtained the information necessary TO stamp
the accusations as utterly false and slanderous.'
Now, what information does The Union give
its readers TO stamp our accusations as false aud
slanderOus1 1t quotes the instructions OF the
commissioner of the General land tn ,e TO the sur
veyor generals of the different States-instructlons
Issued prior to the selection of lands under the act
of lS5O-the correctness Of which have never been
called in question. They we're Issued before the
perpet atiOn of the fraud complained OF, and throw
no more light upon the subject than would chap
ter from the book of Genesis.
Again The Union says the State OF Missouri Sc
lected under these instructions 3249Io acres, and
adds:
Thee lands having bean approved since the early
part of April 1854 ard question hGrfRg been TaSd
Telatire 10 their SscdmPy chdrdc'e q hds been TectRy
decided 10 patent the 70 the Stste, and the Tea-
for this cOurse are obvious.
This sentence involves the main question raised in
my former letter, and take issue with The Union.
That may be folly understood whether there is any
truth in the allegation that there was no question
raised as to The Srsmpy character Of these lands,
since their approval by the secretary Of the Int
" rior, let me give the history OF their approval
How were the lands in Monroe county aud other
counties in Northeast Missouri approved The
agent for Monroe county selected thirty one
thousand acres where there are not three hunhred
acres of swamp land, and then repaired 10 WASH
ingtOn City. Through the instrumentality o.
member of Congress, and the late commissioner OF
the General land Office his selection oil aha, under
the act of 1850 was submitted to the secretaryto the
Inta,ior and snorove1 in forty. eight hours after