The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-12-07
h};EsEDGIENT OF TIE
REPORT GF THE SECRETARY OF INTERTOR.

=, 1,
SO acres have been sold for cash. yielding 81 OI
4l 9 04O acres have been absorbed by the location
bounty land warrants 03 % app owed to States
under the swamp grants and 2,6G5G23 under the
! railroad grants The number OF military bounty land
warrants outstanding on the 30h of September last was
46S and they will require 1965S0 acres the public
| domain to satisfy them.
In former reports have expressed my decided approval
oil our existing public land system and my objections
any radical change in it, Forty years ago. minimum
price of the public lands fixed 81 25 per acre and
at this rate the principal the lands in thirteen
large and popuious States the eastern slope of the con
tinent have been settled purchased and mproyed and
two states on the Pacific coast have into i'm
portance and are rapidly advancing power without
any complaint from their citizens as to the price at which
public lands sold The system is rerfec
the price is moderate and the settler secured in his i'm
provements. This being DONE the lands not taken hy
preempors are offered ut public sale, the unsold lands
become subject to private entry and the settler on such
tracts Is allowed twelve months within which to make
proof and payment for the quarter section upon which
has fixed his home
When lands have been subject private entry for more
than ten years the price actual settlers and cutvators
reduced from time to time, until after the expiration
oil thrty years 1t is only twelve and half per
acre. The donation Improperly termed homestead
Pocybascd upon the allacy that residence on tract
OF iahd Tor certain number OF shall instead of
fixed price, he made the consideration which shall enttIe
the settler to the land he selects and occupies been
tired and as stated in annual reports 1858 and
1859, has everywhere failed and met with public con.
demnaon 1t was annoying the settler productive of
controversies and injurious to the communities in which
the donations were made.
During the past year. in every of the proclamation
lands urgent requests been made as hereto fore
posponemen of the sales thus ordered These
could not be without interruntng The
NOUS operation of the laws constituting our land system
which requires public lands to be brought into mark
from time time proportion as surveyd lands
posed Of and other lands surveyed As there has not
any considerable competition cash demand for new
lands during the past year the settlers on the lands
brought into market who unable from particular
misfortunes to make payment before the day of sale
have generally been able file decaratory statements
after the day of SALE and thus avail themselves of the
Twelve months credit secured by law to preempors
lands subject to private entry 1t believed therefore,
that settlers have suffered serious hardships
The income from the public lands during four years
past has not been so great expected The
cal revuson of 1887 followed was by short crops in
most OF the new States and territories checked cmgra
ton, and also the inclination of capitalists to make mr.
her investments. But this is the sole cause of The
reduction in this revenue The manner of dsnosing ~
the public lands has been made topic of political discns
Soni and, whilst some emigrant families have made
settlements and delayed giving the proper notira or
making any payments in the expectation Of donation
other persons who contemplating emigration have
deferred their removal from their old homes and the pur
chase of lands for settlement awaiting definite egs
atton the subject Should the discussion of aera
tons in our land system cease it is believed that the
revenue derived from sales would speedily rise to
reasonable annual average, especially if the quantity
INDICATED land outstanding should continue to
diminish from year to year. as for three years past
by an act OF Congress- approved Aug S, 1916, grant
OF lands was made to the State of Iowa for the
ment of the navigation of the Des Moines river from its
mouth to the Raccoon Fork. This grant, for than
two years regarded all hands as confined to the
line of the Improvement and limited the lands along
the river and below the RaCcoon Fork this view
the matter has been maintained by the department the
Interior and by the General Land Office The quantity
land thus admitted to be within the grant found to
De 9Z acres and was long since listed and approved
to the State.
Secretary Stuart however, caused some Of the lands
along the river and above the RaccoOn Fork to be listed
and certified part of the grant and list was also an
proved by Secretary McCIeand before his attention was
called to the questions of law involved in claim which
had been presented behalf State in 1919 that
the grant extended to the head the Des ones
river.
The right of the State under the grant of the sth Of
August 1916 to any lands lying above the Raccoon Fork
was directly involved in which was determined by
the Supreme Court of the United States the December
term, A. D. 1859, and that tribunal therein decided
that the grant did not embrace any such lands and that
the lists and certificates which had issued from this de-
partment conveyed title the State The quantity of
land embraced in the lists of this kind is 271 572 acres
and, with the exception of sixty or seventy thou
sand acres the tracts have been claimed by the
State Of Iowa. for the railroad companies under the
act OF Congress approved May Is, 1856 parts of the
grants thereby made, to aid in the certain
railroads.
Having recommended to the Committee of Public Lands
of the Senate in June last REIMBURSEMENT to the State
of all title remaining in the United States to the 27 72
acres of land enormously listed and certified under the
Des MONIES grant, nave directed suspension of immc
diae action under the railroad grants so far as the two
conflicting claims interfere. The lands along the upper
portions of The Des Moines river in any Of
the certified lists, which have been SURVEYED for four
five and six years but withheld from market on account
of the claim ofthe State have recently been proclaimed
and offered at public sale
The progress of the public SURVEYS in the Territory Of
Washington has been interrupted account of the ex
of certain land claims under the treaty of no
10, 1916, with Great Britain. On the expiration of the
charter of the Iudsons Bay Company in 1859 the pos
sesSory right of that company under the third article
the treaty, terminated. Instructions accordingly
issued to the Surveyor General, in September 1859 to
extend the lines of the public surveys the lands
which had been occupied by its agents and employees
and contracts have since been made subdiyidnr in
the usual manner, considerable portion Of those lands
Io1 900 acIes and another at GoWiiI cotann %
5000 acreshavc been claimed under the fourth article
Of the same treaty for the Puges Sound Agricultural
company IL stipulated IN that article that the farms
lands and other property of every description belonging
to the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company the north
side OF the Columbia river shall be confirmed to the said
company. In however, the situation of those firms
and lands should be considered by the United States to
be of public and political Importance, and the United
States government should signify desire obtain pos
session of the whole thereof the property
required snail be transferred to the said government
proper valuation to be agreed upon between the parties
1t clearly the duty of this government confirm to
the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company all such
farms and "lands' belonged said company at the
date of the The treaty. however created no
it simply provided the confirmation of title either
inchoate or perfect previously existing Title land
under the British government only be derived from
the Crown either directly or indirectly But this depart
ment is not advised that said company have claim
have any grant from the Crown of Great Britain. The
treaty only to them the lands' and FARMS
belonging to- them and, if reject the literal obv
interpretation, and construe the words "bsIonqig
to- as equivalent to occupied by'' the company still
we find nothing in the words of the treaty which will
warrant the claim OF an extensive district, when il is
well known that at the date OF the treaty only few en-
poyees of this company had houses sheepolds and cat
tie with Improvements scattered over
a wide and underlined range of country.
Such construction of the treaty is totally nadmiss
BILE and inconsistent with the land policy of the United
States and Great Britain. Whilst it is manifest from all
the evidence collected that part this belonged
to- the Puget's Sound Agricultural COMPANY vet some
scattered portions of it might descriptions of
farms and lands occupied by it, which, spirit of
fairness and liberaty might be determined bv survev
confirmed and patented On the other hand the claim
which has been presented and which regard as merely
speculative, delays the public surveys retards settle
ments and prevents the Improvement of the country.
Indeed, the Surveyor General reports that almost all
the old of the Puget's Sound Agrcutura Com
pany have long since become American citizens and are
now claiming FARMS under former donation and pres
ent preemption laws within the region that has been
claimed on the Nisqually river.
1t is due to the people of Washington Territory that
some decisive action should be taken. advised
that any portion of the tracts claimed of any public
political Importance to the United States and recon-
mend that the Surveyor General of Washington Terrific
ry under the supervision of this department. be author
lied by special enactment to decide upon the validity
the claims of the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company
and if they entitled to confirmation determine the
location and boundaries of the farms" and ands that
belonged to the company which shoud be required with
in given PERIOD to present its claims for final action
INDIAN AFFAIRS.
Detailed information regard to the operations Of the
Indian Office during the past year and the present
dition of the various tri hes of Indians within our limits
will be found in the report Of the Commissioner which
with the accompanying documents is herewith sub
mitted.
reviewing the results of the policy pursued bv tbe
government of the United States toward the Indian tribes
within their limits, it should be borne in mind that
while the same general relation exists between the United
States and all the tribes that relation has been modified
in respect to many of them by treaty tpuaons and acts
of Congress- and these notifications vary each
and often in essential PARTICULARS the subject becomes
complicated and the difficulty of subectng the Indians
to uniform policy greatly increased With the wild
tribes in the heart of the continent Arizona and in
California constituting possibly the majority we have
no treaties whatever.
Peace has also prevailed among the treaty Indians
with one conspicuous exception. refer the Kioways
whose increasing turbulence would to render mill
tary operations advisable. The said of the
Yanctonnais and Cut Head bands of the Sioux
of those Indians to whom reservations are secured by
treaty. it is to be observed that those who hold their
lands in common, and those who hold in severay but
whose reservations scattered about among the white
settlements have made and making little no
in number, and result from foruitous circumstances Ex
perience has satisfied that two conditions are nds
pensabe to the success of any policy looking beyond the
mere immediate and temporary relief of the Indians.
1t is designed to effect radical change in habits
and modes of life, and establish for them permanent
civilization the ideas of separate rather private prop
erty and isolation must form the basis alike of our d
plomacy and our legislation
Annuites should be paid, not in money but in goods
provisions agricultural implements and seeds and au
thory should be given to the agents discriminate in
their distribution between the Industrious the idle
the orderly and the hfess These ideas form the basis
of all the Indian treaties which have been negotiated d
ring your administration, and will suggest that they
should be established by law the fixed policy Of the
government.
The colonization system, which tried in California
direction Congress and from which
at one time hoped for the most favorable results has
proved an entire failure. 1t is expensive and radically
defective To promise for it any success, one two
notifications must be introduced Either the
or agent must nave right OF property in the products
the reservation, and be allowed to retain for private
use ald benefit the surplus which may remain after feed
ing and clothing the Indians, each Indian must work
Tor himself and gather for himself, and the idle and
the thress must be made to feel the effects their
ness and unhftness aud to realize practically the diff
ference between him who sows and reaps and him who
does not.
,I,s.,