The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1879-01-31
sEx1ron GnOvEn AND uus AcCrsERs.

patch which was made up in the Orego-
nian office in Portland and sent over
the land in regard to the investigating
committees report, Senator Grover, on
the 9th inst, made the following per-
sonal explanation on the floor of the
Senate:
1t is duty which owe to this hon.
orable body, as we'll as to myself, to
meet these charges as specifically as
they are made, and viii proceed to do
it seriatim.
THE TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND EIGHT
HUNDRED AID sEvENTY-FIvE DOL
LARS.
This sum was paid out by order Of
the board Of school land commissioners
Of which, as governor, | was President,
covering period of nearly seven years,
as expenses in segregating the public
lands innuring to the State under vari-
Gus acts Of Congress, but chiefly on ac-
count of surveying and locating the
swamp lands in lS72-72-T3. The
swamp land grant of 1860 had been left
dead letter for ten years, and the
grant was being absorbed and lost.
Many of the swamps had been mean
dsred and thrown out of the public sur
veys Of the United States, so that they
could not be recognized in the general
land Office and segregated to the State.
Not an acre of the university lands nor
Of the indemnity common school lands,
granted in lieu Of the sixteenth and
thirty-sixth sections occupied BY
ssttlers before survey, lad boen list
ed to the State, though these grants
were twenty years cid. The agricultu-
raj osllSgs and salt springs grants had
been lest BY neglect.
Specific authority Of statute enacted
in 1870 required the beard to appoint
agents in the Geld, whose duty it should
bo to employ surveyors and assistants
who ahoald actually survey and locate
the swamp lands and connect them
with the surveys Of the United
States, so as to be segregated to the
State under tho grant. This act pro
vidsd fer the sale Of these lands at 81
per acre, subject to reclamation by the
purchaser, who shOuld on becoming
claimant pay 90 per cent. of the Pur-
chase money 10 the board This 90 per
cent. was intended as fund out OF
which to defray the expenses Of segre-
CATION. The rates of pay to agents and
surveyors were fixed by the act. The
board performed its duty. Tho agents
appointed to execute this work, were,
and are prominent citizens, and rcsPon-
sible both morally and pecuniarily.
Their receipts, aAd vouchers, specifically
accounting for all the msney paid them
with the maps and detailed reports Of
their work are on file in the public pa
peIs of the State. No member of the
board was interested to tho amount Of
one cent in these payments nor in
tho land surveyed, either directly or in
directly. Many of these surveys have
been proven In the United States sur
veyer generals Office and adopted by
the United States as part Of the public
surveys and thousands of acres of the
swamp lands have been segregated 70
State by means Of this work. And it
has net cost the State treasury enc dol
lar. You ask, where is the wrOngi L
answer, there is no wrong.
The law was specific and absolute in
requiring the work to be done, and it
provided the 40 per cent. fund to sna-
BE the work to proceed without taxing
the people. There never was any ether
prsvnisn made ts carry the act ints ef-
feet. The beard rslod that tho act car
risd its own appropriation, and must be
szeeutSd in q special manner. And
frsm the fund provided they paid the
agents, surveyors, chaiameA, axmen and
assistants. The State has received the
fall benefit Of this work, and it laid the
foundation of securing the entire swamp
lHAd grant, which will probably reach
a million Of acres. The Legislatures Of
1871 and 1874, the former . RePubli-
can and the latter an Independent 70.
fern body, 10 whom these accounts and
surveys were reported, appointed sPo-
cial committees to examine the same,
and they were passed without reduc-
tien. Bat this committee, appointed
BY Legislature to whom these ac-
counts had never been reported, and to
when under the law they mover could
Be reported, proceeded to ro-examine
accounts six or seven years old, which.
had already been examined aud passed
by former Legislatures, and declare the
whole sum Of these payments "unac
counted for" and for the sole reason, al
learn by late letter, that this amount
was specially named in the general ap
! preparation bills; as though servic'
could not be specifically authorized ant
paid out of the subject matter of th'
service without the interposition of thu
. treasury.
II It is done every day, both in Statt
and National Governments. The 1uib
bic Of law here raised is matter of tn,
sheerest technicality. But will ado
here, as significant facts, that there wa
no lawyer on the committee, that thi
question was not discussed at the tim
: of their appointment, nor was it raisec
by any member of any former Legisla
ture which had the special duty to re
ceive and pass upon these accounts
This sum was honestly expended for tn
highest benefit of the State, and hor
estly and fully accounted for.
THE THIRTY.sEvEN THOUSAND rHRE
HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-Two Doll
LARS.
This sum is stated to be "illegal fec
paid for conveying eonvicts and insan
persons to places Of confinement. IT, Th
!, only knowledge which / have of thi
] subject has been gained from a newsps
ner recentIv received from Oregon. Th