Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1865-1872, 1868-07-10
GIVING AWAY HALF A STATE.


We printed In the Congressional pro-
ceedings Mr.. Julian's speech, exposing
one Of the most prodigious attempts at
fraud ever made.
The following from The st. Louis Demo.
crat gives a more particular account OF
this matter:
eve receive many communications
protesting very earnestly against the
treaty 50, called, recently effected with
the 0ssge Indians. The settlers OF
Southern Kansas are very strongly OPP
posed to II; the people Of other parts Of
the State, IL seems, begin TO realize that IL
was an enormous swindle. There is no
use in wasting words about. such per-
formance--it il . swindle, no more and
no less One correspondent fears that
Senator Henderson will support the treaty
In the Senate. While censuring that
Senator for his course on impeachment,
we have repeatedly given credit to him
for his valuable services in connection
with Indian affairs, and cannot believe
that he will give any countenance TO a
treaty which is at once an infamous out
rage upon the Indians and great wrong
to the people OF Kansas.
"The practical working Of these great
land grants or sales does not seem TO be
fully understood in Congress. Enormous
grants Of land are voted in aid Of some
railroad or to provide for agricultural
colleges, or tracts equally extensive and
valuable ale sold to some enterprising
company, and members 90 to dinner, no
doubt, with an idea that they have done q
very sensible thing. The speculator or
the railroad company, sometimes, assists
the Congressman to feel that he has de.
served we'll Of his country. sometimes by
q big dinner, sometimes little political
influence at critical moment, and some.
times by more substsnti aid. But the
great majority of members, no doubt,
really imagine that these grants or sales
of land are great public blessings, which
harm nobody, aud materially forward i'm.
portant enterprises. Sometimes they ore
Of needed service 20 railroad companies;
more frequently they serve to enrich the
railroad operators without at oil Fastening
the construction Of the road; sometimes
they are simply big gifts to private parties,
for no consideration o. public advantage
whatever; mere swindles aud thefts from
the public on an enormous scale. But
whether beneficial or not, they are always
in one sense curse TO the country. They
put great tracts OF land into the hands OF
spectators. TO be held, shut out from set
Element, and controlled by a grasping
monopoly. Let any man 20 into certain
counties in this slate aud see how the bee,
aud richest land is oil monopolized and
kept from settlement; how immigration,
flowing eagerly in that direction, looks in
vain for suitable locations at reasonable
rates, aud then rolls on TO more distant
regions; how whole counties are thus
stunted and strangled, prevented from
making improvements or establishing
schools, and retarded in every element Of
prosperity; how the state Itself is thus dc
layed in growth, retarded in development
of resources and deprived Of thrifty and
in iustrious population, which would gladly
settle ifit were not for these land grants
Precisely the same consequences may be
seen in Kansas and in ever other State
where the mistaken liberality Of Congress
to private interests or TO corporations has
locked much Of the land in enormous
grants. Nothing is more surely injurious
to State, and scarcely anything more
surely retards its healthy growth than the
establishment Of large land monopoiies
within its borders To members Of Con
gress. no doubt, ii seems very desirable
thing to help the building Of a new rail
road, particularly il the railroad men are
agreeable or useful or liberal persons. Blu
in very many cases the State and the PEG
pie could far better afford to build the
road themselves than te see vast tracts Of
land locked up from settlement.
$50 much for land grants in general
But the particular grant In question hal
odious features peculiar to itself. We
call it grant, and il is nothing else
The price paid is cheat; the manner o
getting rid Of the Indian title is o cheat
the exclusive sale to one company out oil
several that would gladly have competed
for the purchase is a cheat; the transfer
itself, covering so vast tract Of valuable
land, in pretended aid Of one railroad which
does not touch any part Of it, is "a cheat.
II is, in fact, grant OF land TO certain
private individuals for their own uses Ii
they never build a railroad at all, tn,
United States aud the people Of Kansas
have no redress. If they refuse to paJ
the sum promised to the Indians, or L
protect the interests Of settlers, there Is u,
effectual redress. 1.-THE road proposed Il
worth anything, ii can be or will be bull
without any such grant to aid il, and i
Congress intends 10 enrich its manager
it might at least enrich them without de
frauding Kansas or swindling the indians
Eight millions seven hundred thousand
acres of land, some Of it as rich as any in
Kansas, to one set Of mcn-for what?
at is grant Of land which Caugress
has no right to give away, because it be.
longs Of right TO somebody else. The
treaty with the Indians is not worth a
moments consideration. The man who
would extort such treaty ought to be
punished fer it; the Senate, If it ratifes
such treaty, will deserve the severest
censure for it. We have heard before Of
the manner in which these treaties are
obtained, Kansas. settlers, entering upon
the tract which the government had
solemnly pledged itself to reserve to the
Osages, took forcible and unlawful
possession of a strip of this very same
land, and then, TO sustain them in their
claims, treaty was got out of the Indians