Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-02-27

against the Interior Department, and they
were paid by the government. Various
instances of this sort of pecdlation are
cited, which show that he always had an
eye of fleeing the government and put
ting the proceeds in his own pocket.
And now a Washington correspon-
dent of the New York Sun opens up
a mine of fraud in which Harlan
is implicated, which should command the
attention of the people. This CORE
spondent shows that Secretary Harlan sold
to swindling company, of which some
of his Iowa friends were the managers,
800, 900 acres of valuable land in Kansas
for one dollar per acre, knowing at the
time the true character of the company.
These lands belonged to the Cherokee In
dams, who were willing to sell at that price
for the cash; but Harlan, in spite of the
written protest of the attorneys of the
Cherokees, Messrs. Thomas Ewing, Jr.,
and John w. Wright. sold the whole
tract to the Iowa company for $25, 0OO
cash and the balance on a credit of ten
years. This sale was made by Harlan on
the very last day of his services as Secre-
tary of the Interior, and here, we aretold,
is the way it was done:
''The Cherokees sent q delegation to
Washington carly in 1866. A small clique
ofrebel Cherokees, just out of the Southern
army, appeared also. Harlan and Cooley,
his Commissioner of Indian Affairs, tried
to get the loyal Cherokee to sell their land
on time, instead of for cash. This prop
osition was refused. They then made a
treaty with the rebel Indians present for
the sale of the whole tract for $500, 600,
and sent the treaty to President johnson
for transmission to the Senate. But the
President, then more loyal than his Secre-
tary, refused to send it up, and so it fell.
Finally, Harlan drew clause for the sale
of the lands ''for cash." as the Indians
would not agree to time sale, and the
words "for cash, were inserted, as their
| attorney, Col. VIM. a. Philips, declares,
over his signature, for the express purpose
of preventing a sale on time. But in spite
of this, when the treaty was ratified, Har-
Ian sold the whole tract to the Emigrant
Company at 81 per acre, requiring only
$25, 900 cash, and the balance In ten
years.
The party exposing this little affair
tells US further, that as to the real value
of the lands, when once people began to
find out that they were in the market, the
records show that on the 18th of January,
1867, the Teto and Neosho Railroad bid
800, 900 more than the treaty called for.
On the 18th of February following it in
creased its offer to 81, 600, 0OO-$5O, 900
down, and the balance in annual pay
ments of S5O,OOO March /, 1867, Gen.
Fremont, as President of the Atlantic and
Pacific ROilrOad, entered into contract
to pay 81, 900, coo for the lands-Sl50,-
600 cash, 100000 in two years,
and $1,000 annually thereafter till
paid, with interest at 6 per cent. This
contract was sent to the Senate in the
form of treaty, but rejected April II,
1867, by the persons interested
in the road of which Mr.. Ker-
sey Coates is President. Col. Phil
lips, the attorney for the nation, and
one of the commissioners to appraise the
lands, says that the appraisement averaged
about S1.5O per acre. And after the sale,
Mr.. Sidney Clarke presented a table of
values, founded upon surveys and other
reliable data, from which he estimated the
value of the land, counting its great wealth
of coal, at S16,OOO,OOO 1t is shown that
at the very time Secretary Harlan sold the
lands TO the american Company" of
Iowa, there were documents in his Office
showing that this company was not only
a swindling concern, but that it had been
engaged for three years in defrauding the
people of his own State by buying the
claims of counties to their swamp
lands, and then, by false affi-
davits, proving up thousands of
acres of the best land in the counties
as swamp. In twenty-seven counties
these frauds amounted to about 800, 600.
OF these facts Secretary Harlan was
aware, 'for," says the Suns correspond
cnt, "a few weeks before Harlan made
the sale the Republican Legislature of his
own State 0owa) had made full invest
cation and a strong report against the
company, and further instructed the
Attorney General of the State to proceed
against the company for fraud, and
ordered the government to send copy of
the whole proceedings to Harlan. The
matter was common talk around the De
partment for some weeks before the
Cherokee lands were sold to these same
parties"
This is only one chapter. Scores like
it have been exposed heretofore. Others
viii leak out as time wears on. 1t shows
how Radical members of the cabinet,
United States Senators and Congressman
suddenly become rich. Yet not a step
has been taken by the Senate to vindi-
cate its character by the expulsion of this
greatest among living swindlers. While
the House of Representatives is making a
great fuss over the little criminals who
have been peddling cadetships, and one
of them has actually been forced to re-
sign his seat, Harlan walks the Senate
chamber the peer of the most honest,
high-minded member of that body, the
Toasted and toasted pet of the ultra RadI-
Gals of the Forney school. Would the
United States Senate in the days of Clay,
and Webster, and Calhoun have tolerated
such degradation for one hourl We
have, under Radical rule, drifted very far
from the landmarks and the sturdy integ- |
rity of the fathers of the republic.