The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-12-01

without alluding once more to the deplo-
rable confusion and uncertainty of Land
Titles which has been and still is the mas
ter scourge Of this State. The vicious
Spanish Mexican system of granting land
by the mere will of soue provincial gov
ernor or municipal chief, without limita-
tion as to area or precise delineation OF
boundaries, here develops and ~ atures it,
most pernicious fruit Your title may be
ever so good, and yet your farm be taken
from under you by a new survey, proving
that said title does not cover your tract.
or covers it but partially. Hence many
refuse or neglect to improve the lands
they occupy, lest some title adverse to
theirs be established, and they legally
outsted or compelled to pay hea'ily for
their own Improvements. And, in addi
ton to the genuine Spanish or Mexica D
grants. which the Government and Courts
must confirm and uphold, there are ficti
tlous and fraudulent grants-some ofthem
only rrumped up to be bought off. and Of
ten operating to create anarchy and pro-
tract litigation between settlers and the
the real owners Then there are doubt
less squatters who refuse to recognize and
respect valid titles, and waste 10 futile lit
igstlon the money that might make the
lands they occupy indisputably their own
| blame no party exclusively, while en-
treat the State and Federal Gorern ne pts
and Courts to do their utmost to settle
to their lands in this State beyond con-
trosersy at the earliest possible day
Were the titles to lands 10 California to-
day as clear as in Ohio or Iowa, nothing
could cheek the impetus with which Cal
ifornia would bound forward in a career
of unparalleled thrift and growth 1t
were far better for the State and her
People that those titles were wrongly
settled than that they should remain as
now. met to- day an intelligent farmer
who has had three different farms in this
State, aDd has lost them successfully by
adjudicatioDs adverse to bis title. Iwould
earnestly implore grantees and squatters
to avoid litigation wherever that is posi-
BILE, and arrest it as soon as possible,
eschewing appeals save in hagrant ca
scs, and meeting each other halfway
in settlement as often as may be. The
present cost of litigation, enormous as it
is, is among the lesser evil conseque noes
of this general anarchy as to land titles.
Should these ever be settled, it will
probably be found advisable to legislate
for the speedy breaking up and distribu-
tion of the great e-tates now held under
good titles by few Individuals. There
will never be good Conmon Schools on
or about these great domains, which will
mainly be inhabited By needy and thrift
less tenants or dependents OF the landlords
An annual tax of few cents per acre.
the proceeds to be devoted to the erection
Of school houses and the opening of roads
through these princely estates, would go
far to effect the desired end. But, wheth-
er by this or some other means, the ben,
efceDt end of making the cultirators of
the soil their own landlords must some
how be attained-the sooner the better,
SO that it be done justly and legally. In
the course Of several hundred miles trav-
el through the best settled portions of this
State, | remember having seen but two
school houses outside of the cities and
villages, while the churches are still more
uniformly ly restricted to the csnters Of pop
ulation. Whenever the land-titles shall
have been settled aud the aratle lands
have become legally and fairly the prop
erty Of their cultiVators, all this will be
speedily and happily changed.
| believe, too, that the time is at band
when some modification of the present
Mining Laws will be demanded and con-
ceded. Hitherto, the operators with pick
and pan have been Ill asters of the State,
and have ruled it, like other aristocracies,
with sharp eye to their own supposed
interests. To dig up mans fenced gar
den. or dig down his house, in quest of
gold, is the legal right of auy miner who
docs not even pretend to have any rights
IN the premises but such as the presumed
existence Of gold thereon gives him. OF
course, the aw ccntemplates payment for
damages sustained; but suppose the dig
ger is pecuniary irresponsible. and digs
down your house without finding any more
gold than he spends in the quest, what
are you to do about it! Such laws,
trust, cannot stand. am sure they
should not. But | must break off for to-
night.
HORACE GREELEY.
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