New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-25
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
Effect of the Political Situation on Le9is.
lnti0n-RaiirOnd Outrages Upon the
Settlers-The President Places Them
Under Military Surveillnnce-The P0.
litical Aspect at Washington.
Especial Correspondence Of the Republican,
WASHINGTON, February H. 1872.
RAILROAD OUrRAGEs.
Legislation is slow here, and measures
that have anything like a bearing on the
approaching contest tor the Presidency, OF
| can be used as weapons by the opposition
Democratic or Republican, are dealt with
| cautiously. Those introduced by friends OF
the administration are allowed to sleep il
they are remotely liable to injure the Grant
cause, while such as have been carried SO
far as to meet with opposition, are dropped
like hot Goals. Especial care is exercised
with respect to the disposition of the public
lands, and the settlement of differences be-
tween the Western railroad companies and
the settlers. Enough has been done al
reay by the Interior Department to ALLEVIATE
thousands of voters from the Republican
party in the States west of the Mississippi
for these honest settlers are not the men to
abandon true principles because Of oppres-
sion by a member of their own party in
power. SO when the railroad land iobbers,
who at the outset were made rich by the
liberal grants Of Congress, and who have
ever since been stealing the homes of poor
people, come here for the purpose of obtain
ing additional legislation in their favor,
they find the wheels locked. They come to
procure the passage of laws to sanction
their unlawful acts, to confirm unlawful de
cisons of the Interior Department in their
interest, and to give their additional subsi-
dies of lands or bonds. Hardly one Of these
companies could be named to whom the
original grant of land by Congress was not
equal to double the value required to con-
struct and equip their road. Many of them
had bonds besides. Yet, they clamor for
more subsidy, the while Obtaining by theft
what they have little hope of gaining hon
estly. Fearing that the settlers who failed
to obtain redress of their grievances, upon
application to the government, would rise
in arms to resist the encroachments upon
their rights, and avenge the Outrages al
ready committed, these companies in
voked the aid of the military power
of the government. 1t is a black mark
1S al, ,s.,<r
furnished for this purpose. In Kansas, for
more than two years past, soldiers to the
number of 300 have been quartered in the
Cherokee neutral lands, under the command
of Brigadier General Hazen. Why was
there need for theml There had never
been any attempt or threat ON the part of
the settlers to resist process of court. Not
one OF the numerous emissaries of the rail
road company who swarmed the country
had been struck by a settler. The answer
of repeated and grievous wrongs perpe-
trated by them upon the settlers and fore
saw the approach of a serious reckoning.
The friends of President Grant will hardly
think it creditabe TO him that he allowed
himself through the influence of James
+. Joy, Of the Missouri River, Fort
Scott and Gulf railroad to become the
oppressor of these people. Transporta-
ton and quarters were furnished to
the troops by Joy free of cost to the
assumed to give passes to the settlers to
travel about the country, implying that
they had no right to be at large without his
consent-the exercise of an authority with
which even the President is not invested by
the constitution. When their special dele
gate in Washington, having in his hand a
petition signed by 100 ex-soleier settlers,
asking that the troops be removed, pre-
sented himself at the White House. Presi-
dent Grant refused to hear him. Was the
President stupid enough to think that he
could afford to turn his back upon such an
application, and to disregard the wrongs of
the people, when he himself was party to
those wrongs, and chiefly responsible,
Does he think that his military record has
rendered him forever immaculate, and that
nothing he may do will blemish his political
reputation and make him, in the eyes of
the people, unworthy of the highest office
in their gifts We fear that he is the spoiled
child Of the war, and that his willfulness
will be his ruin.
In April last Secretary Delano rendered
decision in which he held that odd num-
bered sections of land, or portions of them,
within the limits of railroad grants covered,
at the time the line of the road is located,
by homestead or pre-emption claims, revert
or belong to the government on being sub
abandoned by the settlers: that
this was the direct result of the language
in the granting acts-these grants
giving to the railroad company the odd
numbered sections not sold, reserved, or
appropriated, and to which home
stead or pre-emptiOn claims may not have
at the time the line of the road is
definitely fixed, and that such tracts are re-
served from the grant, Congress having re-
tanned them fol the benefit of the settlers,
with the view Of issuing patents to such as
should comply with the law. This decision
was reversal of the previous practice of
n r