Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-06-19


surveyed and claimed by corporate com
panies, favored by special legislation OF
Congress, and with boundaries fixed even
in advance of the public surveys-a de-
parture from the salutary provision re-
Quring settler upon unsuryeyed lallds TO
limit the boundaries of his claims
to the lines of the public survey.
After they shall have been established
he receives a title only to le-
gal subdivision, including his residence aud
improvements. The survey OF the com
pany may not accord with that which will
hereafter be made by the Government,
while the patent issued will be descriptive
of, and confer a title to the tract as sur
Veyed by the company. i am aware OF no
precedent for granting such exclusive rights
to manufacturing company for nominal
consideration. Congress made concessions
to railway companies OF alternate sections
within given limits of the lines OF their
roads. This policy originated in the belief
that the facilities afforded by reaching the
parts of the country remote from the great
centers of population would expedite the
settlement and sale of the public domain.
These incidental advantages were secured
without securing loss to the Government
by reason of the enhanced value of the
reserved sections, which are held at the
double minimum. Mining and manuiact-
uring companies, however, have always
been distinguished from public improve
ment corporations. The former are in law
and IN tact, only private associations
for trade and business, on in
dividual account, and for personal
benefit. Admitting the proposition that
railroad grants can stand on sound princi-
ples it is plain that such cannot be the case
with concessions to companies like that
contemplated by this measure. In view OF
the strong temptation to monopolize the
public lands, with the perniciOus results, it
would seem at least of doubtful eXpedieD-
cy to lift corporations above all competi-
ton with actual settlers, hy authorizing
them to become purchasers of public lands
in the Territories for any purpose, and par
ticularly when clothed with the special
benefits of this bill. For myself, am con-
vinced that the privileges on ordinary pre-
emptions ought not to be extended to in
cOrpOrated companies.
A third objection may be mentioned, as
1t exempilies the spirit in which special
privileges are sought by incorporated com
panies. Land subject to Indian occupancy
has always been scrupuously guarded by
law from pre-emption settlement until the
Indian title shall be extinguished. In the
fourth section of this act, however, lands
held by Indian title are excepted from pro-
hibitiOn against the patent u be issued i'll
the New York and Montana Iron Mining
and Manufacturing Company.
The bill provides that the patent ''shall
convey no title to any mineral lands except
iron and coal, or to any lands held by right
of possession, or by any other title, except
Indian title, valid at the time of the sclec-
tion OF the said lands" 1t will be seen that by
the first section, lands in Indian Reserya-
tiOns" are excluded from individual pre-
emptiOn right; but, by the fourth section,
the patent may cover any Indian title eX-
cepta a reservatiOn-sO that no matter what
may be the nature of the Indian title, un-
less it be 4 reservation, it is unprotected
from the privilege conceded by this bill.
Without further pressing the subject,
return the bill to the Senate without my
signature, and with the following as prOmi
nent objections to its becoming a law:
1st. That it gives to the New York and
Montana Iron Mining and Manufacturing
Company pre-emptiOn privileges to iron
and coal lands on large scale, and at the
ordinary mmimum-a privilege denied to
ordinary pre-emptOrs.
1t bestows upon the Company large tracts
of coal lands at one-siXteenth of the mini
mum price required from pre-emptors. 1t
also relieves the Company from restrictions
imposed upon ordinary pre-emptOrs, in re-
spect to timber-lands; allows double the
time for payment granted to pre-emptors
on offered lands, and these privileges are
for purposes not heretofore authorized by
the pre-emption laws, but tor trale and
manufacturing.
81. Presumption rights on such scale to
private corporations, are unequal and hos
tile to the policy and principles which
sanction pre-empton laws.
possession of land, use it, and acquire a
patent thereto before the Indian title is eX-
tinguished, and thus violates the good faith
of the Government toward the Aboriginal
| tribes. ..
[Signedl ANDREW JOHNSON.
WASHINGTON, D. c., June IL, 1866.