Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-05-15


| and Texas, and the Atlantic and Pacific rail
| roads They never condescend to deu.-
| onstrate how the appointment of a governor,
| the organization Uf United States courts, and
| the election of a delegate to congress will IN
vest the railroads with twenty three million
acres of land. Neither are they disposed to
offer any reason to show, that if the lands
are all surveyed and divided IN severalty per
capita; and every member of the tribes Is IN
vested with an absolute fee simple title, to
his or her proportion, the railroads will
| thereupon be entitled to twenty-three million
acres, or any other amount of land. With
out rhyme or reason they assert what any one
of common sense, who gives the subject any
thought knows to be untrue. The two rail-
roads referred to were chartered In July,
1866. The Atlantic and Pacific has buit
thirty-three miles into the Indian Territory.
By the terms of the charter the company was
required to build fifty miles year after the
expiration of two years from the date of the
charter that is to say, after July, 1868, they
were required to build at least fifty miles ev-
cry year, and complete the entire line to the
Pacific ocean by July, 1873, about five months
from this date. If this company should build
not less than fifty miles every year, and finish
the entire line to the Pacific ocean by July,
1873, it was to have twenty alternate sections
on each side of the road, pr0vided, that the
Indian title should be extinguished by the
voluntary consent of the Indians. Before an
acre of land could be confirmed TO this rail-
road, several conditions had to be complied
with. If it were possible for the road to be
completed to the Pacific ocean by July next;
and the United States government should
extinguish the Indian title, the Allan
tic and Pacific road could not get one acre of
land without the voluntary cession' of the
Indians IF it could be shown that the At
lantic and Pacific railroad has the faintest
shadow of vested right in any lands in the
Indian Territory, it could only apply to the
thirty-three miles which have already been
constructed; this would amount to four hun
dred and twenty-five Thousand and four hum
bred acres. The Missouri, Kansas and
Texas railroad has succeeded to all the fran
| chises aud rights, present and prospective, of
the southern branch of the Union Pacific
railroad; the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
railroad company has built their road from
the Kansas to the Texas line, through the
Indian Territory, distance of two hundred
and forty-three miles; the company is
authorized to construct branch to Fort
Smith, a distance of less than ninety miles.
The act of congress of July 26, 1866, gives
conditional grant to this road of not exceed
ing ten sections on The line of the road.
Now, supposing (for the sake of showing the
Munchausen tendencies of these delegates
and their attorneys), that the branch to Fort
Smith is already constructed, and the rail-
road is entitled to the ten sections on the
main line and branch, how many acres would
that amount to? Let us see. The nam line
is two hundred and forty-three miles in
length, and the branch to Fort Smith ninety
miles in length. This would amount to ten
sections of land for three hundred and thirty
miles of road, or two million one hundred and
thirty thousand and two hundred acres;
which, added to the four hundred and
twenty-five thousand four hundred acres,
which the Atlantic and Pacific could
by the remotest possibility claim,
would make t'oO million fire hundred
and ffty-three thousand and sic hundred
acres. This is only twenty million acres less
than these delegates, their attorneys and
faithful disinterested(? p newspapers make it;
but what's that to them? 'Twenty-three
| million of acres is to be taken from the poor
Indians and given to soulless corporations,
| whenever a civil government IS establishedr
This Is the favorite war-cry of these dele
gates. A Sunday paper a few days ago de-
clared that such was the object, and such
would be the inevitable effect if Franklins
bill should become law; and yet, figure
never so closely, they are more than twenty
million of acres outside of the truth; this is
just about as near the truth, however, as they
get in their consideration of other branches
of this subject. But neither the Atlantic and
Pacific nor Missouri, Kansas and Texas is en-
| titled, or ever aoiU be entitled, to an acre of
even this mythical two million and half of
acres, unless the Indians voluntarily consent
to confirm the grant. In the case of the At
lantic and Pacific road the cession of the In
dams to the lands embraced in their grant
must be voluntary. sAs far as | am con-
cerned, this cession shall never be made, this
delegation dare not make it, if they had the
power and inclination to do SO; and he might
we'll be branded as a traitor to the in
terests of his people who would give
the slightest encouragement to such
eession; The ninth section of the act of
July 26, 1866, comforting the so-called
conditional grants to the Missouri, Kansas
and Texas railroad contains this proviso:
'Pr0Uided, that said lands become part of
the public lands of the United States Now
| admit that congress might declare the lands
in the Indian Territory, public lands and
thereupon the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
might with some propriety claim a confrma-
ton of their grant to two million acres of
land; but if this bill should become law it
would be impossible, for it divides the land
in severalty, giving each man, woman and
child their proportion by titles in fee-slmple.
| In this way the lands could never become
| public lands, and consequently the railroad
| never could be possessed of them. But it is
| said these railroad companies have mort
gagged their conditional grants of land; that
| they have issued bonds upon them, and there
| fore the bondholders have acquired a vested
| right. This argument is too silly to require
more than a moments notice. If | should
| mortgage yOu, farm and raise five hundred
| dollars upon it, would that given me or the
payee OF my mortgaged notes any vested
| right in your farm? When you answer that
| conundrum in the affirmative, we will enter
| into the discussion of this branch of the SUBJ
| ject In earnest. This bill provides for the di-
vision of the lands in severalty among all the
Indians; 1t is the most important feature of
| the bill. No Indian of common sense, who is
a friend of his people, will oppose this wise
and just proposition
| The question of the land-steal thus disposed
| of, and the property division carried into eff
feet, so as to hold the Indians in possession for
term of years, or during several, say three
| generations, there can be no reasonable OBJ
| jections to the Oklahoma bill. AS Boudinot
| says, it would give the Indians each prince
| ly estate, and lift them out of their present
| abject poverty, the direct result of the exist
| ing system, laws and treaties. "Do you sup
pose," says Colonel Boudinot, answering
newspaper attack, "that if the poor full
blood Indian, with his half-starVed family,
could once understand that he and his family
would be the absolute owners of one thou
sand acres of land, worth ten thousand dol
| lars, and should receive a per capita payment
of fifty dollars year, and be entitled to one
| thousand dollars IN gold as his distributive
share of the national fund, that he would
want to kill the man who would point the
| way for such results, or denounce him as
traitor to the interests of his people?" The
| last report of the commissioner of Indian
affairs 1877) shows that the five civilized
tribes own land as follows:
| Acres.
Cherokee Nation Observation-Disclosures. sob 1857
Chickasaw Nation. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 1850, OBS
ChOctaw Nation. Observation-Disclosures 1858 900
Creek Nation. ....................-... 3,215,495
Seminole Nation. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 100000
If this bill should become law, the mem
bers of these tribes, every man, woman and
child, would have by fee-simple absolute
| title, whlchsnelther congress nor railroads
could take away, the following amount of
| land:
Every member Of the Cherokee Nation. $50 acres
Every member of the ChickaSaw Nation. $50 acres
Every member of the Choctaw Nation IL 75 acres
Every member of the Creek Nation $50 acres
Every member of the Seminole Nation. -. 80 acres
The bill should be so amended as to give
| each Seminole Indian at least one hundred
and sixty acres. Four is a small average of
| families. On this basis
Each Cherokee family would have. I2O acres
Each Chickasaw family would have. 1920 acres
| Each Choctaw family would have 1900 acres
| Each Creek family would have