The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1855-01-06
Correspondence Of the Minnesotian.
The Clown Site'' Question.
SHAKoPEE, Dec. 3oth, 1854.

SHAKoPEE, Dec. 30th, 1854.
EDrroRs MINNEsoTIAN II learn from your
paper that the land officers at Hudson, Wiscon-
sin, have decided in the matter of contest in
volving Superior city, that persons selecting
a town site on land not surveyed, acquire no
right thereby, and that their improvements
and their homes may be taken from them by
pre-emptors af CT the survey! Is such the law
of the General Land Office? That it is not the
law of the land. feel bold to say. FIT ,cere,
Red Wing, Shakopee. LIE Sueur Traverse des
Sioux, st. Peter, Mankato, Eureka and all the
other towns in this Territory in the late Indian
country are at the mercy of a few spectators,
who may follow the surveyors around when the
lands embracing these towns are surveyed, with
a sufficient number of Indians to pre-pmpt ev-
cry town west of the Mississippi, in Minnesota
towns, having improvements worth hundreds
of thousands of dollars made by persons who
have peOpled that portion of Minnesota west
to the right of Indians to prc-emptl allude
to it merely because the pre-emptors of Supe-
rior city are Indians-0he child ofan Indian
squaw and white man is, by law, an Indian,
and not citizcn.) maintain that persons
lawfully entitled to the benefit of the pre-empt-
ion law, cannot pre-empt these towns-and
that town sites may be selected efore the lands
are surveyed. And 10 demonstrated this it
is sufficient to refer to the law, and the we'll
settled construction oft. But first, must no.
tlce letter in your paper of the 9th inst,
signed Rice, HOllinshead & Becker, to the Com
missioner of the General Land Office. This
letter takes ground which, if sustained, wrests
some halfdozen thriving towns from their &C.
cupants. who have spent years of toll and all
their fortune in improving them. And what is
the ground upon which this mighty wrong is
justified? 1t is law of 1907, against trespas-
sers upon the public lands Ia law that has no
more reference to the occupation of land for
any purpose, than the presumption law has to
the Indian tribes or the poor "voyageur."-
This law is, in substance. that persons trespas-
not, shall forfeit their works. That is all there
is Of it. 1t aims at those who attempt to use
the public lands without paying for them, not
at those who wish to improve and pay for the
land as soon as it can be bOught-to specula-
tors, and not to improvers Of the public do
main.
Another law is referred to and grossly mis-.
construed by the letter. of Messrs. Rice, Hollins
head & Beckcr-the law of 1874. The letter
quotes these words" That when any portion
of the Surveyed public lands has been, or shall
be, settled upon and occupied as town site,
and therefore not subject to entry under the
existing pre- cmption laws, it shall be lawful, "
&c. Now, the learned gentlemen whose names
appear 10 that letter never could, with snceri-
ty. have so misconstrued the passage quoted.
were subject to entry under the existing pre-
emption laws and the passage has exactly the
same meaning as if it read thus" That when
any portion of the public lands, suLjectto entry
has been or shall be settled upon,' &c. The
word suryeyed is used as descriptive of land
subject to entry-that is, land that would be
subject to entry but for the town site-and the
purpose of the act is to declare that although
not subject to entry under the laws then exist
ing, it shall in future be subject to entry as a
town site. 1t was not necessary to speak ofany
but surveyed land-unsurveyed land cannot be
purchased either as town site or otherwise
hence the law declared how town sites might be
purchased, after the land they were upon was
surveyed. How supremely absurd it would
have been to have said that when ann portion
of the public lands shall be selected as town
site, and therefore not subject to entry, &c. /!
From such a law it would have appeared that
all public lands, not selected as town sites, were
subject to entry. ....-..
The selection of town sites On all public
lands, surveyed or unsurveyed, has always
been allowed by the Government In circu-
lar from the General Land Office of July 3d.
1888, the right to make such selections is ex-
pressly recognized. The Commissioner, de-
scribing lands not subject to presumption, sets
down: Glands, surveyed or other,cise, which
have been actually selected as sites for cities or
towns" &c.
But to return to the decision at Hudson. I
understand the township lines were run,-if So,
the land was surveyed so far as to authorize the
occupation of it. The settler has right to
follow the surveyor. This has been the custom
on the frontier, and the Government has sane
toned it.
Very respectfully your obi. servt.,
SCOTT.