The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-08-28
MR.. CLARKE AND THE INDIAN TREA.
TY QUESTION.

Ills IldlH cHance LOT feIufn 10 congress,
is his opposition TO the Usage Treaty.
Our own opinion of that swindle in its
original shape is well known-and we
should be glad to accord some credit to
Mr.. Clarke for his effective opposition
to. its ratification. But Mr.. Clarke's
claim to superior virtue is so loudly
made, as to provoke an examination of
the record of his Congressional career
to see if it be justified.
Mr.. Clarke's opposition to the Usage
Treaty has three principal grounds, ac-
cording to his own statement of them,
substantially as follows:
1st- That it creates a monopoly in the
Railroad Company to large body of
land.
I'd. That it does not provide for the
sale of the lands treated for to actual
settlers. at n reasonable price.
Sd. That it is unjust to the Indians.
The two first objections are valid as
against the original treaty, at least. The
third is not, but is not worth consider
ing in this connection.
hC tChdOlC III ldFOT OF the
Treaty are two:
lst. 1t secures the removal of the In
dams from Kansas and
I'd. 1t secures the building of the
LeavenwOrth, Lawrence 81 Galveston
Railroad.
During Mr.. Clarke's two terms in
Congress treaties have been made and
ratified with different Indian tribes for
their lands in Kansas, as follows: The
Sac & Foxes, Delawares, Kickapoos,
Cherokees, Pottawattomies, besides
some minor tribes. Let us examine the
provisions of these treaties in their or
der. LIST. The Sac & Fox lands were
treated for-except the diminished Re-
serve-and sold ''for the benefit of the
Indians" by means of refined swindle
known as "sealed bids" whereby no ac-
tual settler got an acre, but mammoth
spectators like Perry Fuller, McManus,
Stevens & Co., obtained three hundred
thousand acres of the finest land in Kan
sas at from fifty cents to one dollar per
acre, the effect of which is plainly visi-
BILE in Usage, Lyon and Franklin coun-
ties, in the miles square of unoccupied
land held by these spectators. Not an
acre was reserved for Railroad purpos-
es, even, and so our Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fee road, and the Ottawa &c
Emporia road, if built at all, must be
by the people themselves.
I'd. The last Delaware treaty gave &c.
900 acres of the finest land in Leaven-
worth county to the Missouri River
Railroad Company at a mere nominal
sum, and not an acre to actual settlers
or to schools, and by the terms of tn c
treaty the lands are not yet eDen subject
to TAXATION!
3D.. The KickapoO treaty gave to The
Atchison Cor Central) Branch of the Un.
ion Pacific Road-already endowed with
$4,000 Government Bonds per mile, anC
large amount of other lands, the whole
Kickapoo Reserve, of over 300 900 acres
and not an acre to settlers or schools
and not to be taxed for SIC gears, thu
not only retarding their settlement, bu
preventing them from being a source o
revenue to the State. The poor settle
Railroad company pays not a dollar OIL
over a millions worth of fine land.
18th. The Cherokee treaty provided 70
the sale of all that magnificent tract o
land known as the Cherokee Neutra
Lands in Southeastern Kansas-abou
100000 acres in body, and it was SOLE
under tina. treaty to Mr.. JOY, Railroad
President, for one dollar per acre, AM
not an acre reserved for schools, AM
none TO settlers except the very small
number who had settled thereon prio
TO the making of the treaty. There ar
probably twenty thousand people nov
living on these lands, of whom not owe
one-tenth have any guarantee for eithe
land or improvements, but are at tn
mercy of Mr.. JOY. This treaty had no
even the merit of securing the remova
of Indians from the State, as the Cher
okees had never occupied it.
9Th. The Pottawattomie treaty was rat
flied in the last days of the last session
of Congress, and while the Usage treat
was pending. 1t provides for the sal
of the entire Pottawattomie Reserve
thirty miles square-to the Atchisor
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company
for one dollar per acre, without an acr
being reserved for settlers or schools
These treaties have all been rattle,
during Mr.. Clarke's Congressional ca
reer. Did any one ever hear a note Q
opposition to single one of them, fror
his lips? Not only did he not oppoS
them but he favored them. AT the yer
time when the Usage Treaty so excite
his ire, the Pottawatomie treaty, NOR
obnoxious to the charge of monopol
and disregard of the rights of settler,
was receiving his support. In fact thi
is his chief claim to the suffrages of TIC
peka Republicans! So of the Cherokee
treaty. And we have the interestin
spectacle of Fort Scott, Topeka an
Atchison supporting Mr.. Clarke 6ecaus
he has fdrOred land noROpOlies in tn
interest Of their pet local schemes, IA,
Laurence, Leacenrorth CITY and othe
localities supporting him because Of OF
position to land monopoly designed [
benefit their reSpectice localities!
Here are radical Inconsistencies til:
cannot be explained away. They reve;
q duplicity and charlatanism while
should not pass current as true coin i
Kansas. Which monopoly would be r,
buked by Mr.. Clarke's denomination