The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-02-13
GIGANTIC LITIGATION.
a Mighty Law Suit. A Portion Of
Giles County Soil Claimed Under
Ancient Cession.
Abstruse and Ruinous Law and Facts.

A bill is being drawn by eminent
lawyers and Will shortly be filed in
the u. S Court setting up a claim
to a portion OF Giles county in the
interest of the descendants OF Don
Hugo Daghmeediotte, a Spaniard
who had espoused the tenets of the
Huguenots in France aud accompa
MED the band of oppressed oppos
ers OF monarchy and tue estat lished
church in their Punishment to the
coast OF South Carolina about the
year 1880. The interesting ques
tions OF law to be raised wall form
a unique page in the unbroken mo-
notony of humdrum decisions thai
make up our Tennessee Reports
while the iacts upon which the
claim is founded threaten not only
To GUST US OF right to possess and
peacefully enjoy the soil in ques-
tlon, but make up a link in the
chain of history that has hitherto
been unaccounted for and brings
right before US results that would
form a fitting sequel to the fabied
unearthIng of the mighty buried cit
les of Mexico. The claim of Mrs.
Gaines to New Orleans, and OF Don
Joseph Veliaire to $4,000 acres
of Missouri Lands. and OF the claim
ants to Chicago, St. Louis, and even
| New York are all founded on spec
ial government grants or treaties
and have. been so numerous that the
public is acquainted and surfeited
with the facts and law of each case
But this case goes 10 what might b,
termed the great first cause.-the
| cession to the aborigines by the
| Creator Himself. The statutes of
jeOfails. entails, estates tail, etc,
apply here neither 10y wholesale or
retail, but the cause will he tried
under the grand principles of right
enuuciated IN the unimpeachabie
statues of La lian Tales. and tn
great moral principles Of right
maintained and elaborated IN l
Guild, p. ct seq to tfnis-title, "Old
Times III Tennessee" Don Hugo,
upon his arrival in South Carolina,
Immediately set out across the
mountains. Whether his object
was to spread his religion among
the Indians, wash his feet In the
Mississippi, or to lay the very claim
that threatens now to engulf US is
not revealed. He may have started
simply in obedience to the advice of
some sage Horace Greeley of early
days, to plant a fortune and build
up with the country, but he was
certainly not imbued with any pro-
phetic Urescience, for he would have
seen that just two weeks before his
decendents filed their bill the credi-
tors of the great State of Tennessee
had filed their bills to enforce col
lection of money had and received
to the benefit of said g. S. OF T.,
and he would have known that as
the world advanced in enlighten
ment and civilization an Indian
Policy would be substituted for
Just laws, and the mere pretense of
a white man would surrogate him
TO the rights which the Creator vest
ed in the red man. The Don in
course of time struck into what is
now the Duck River Valley and was
on frieudliest terms with the In
dians. He gained in their conf
dence by his pious behavior and
distributing tracts which they
seemed to read with great zest),
and soon had himself appointed
Chaplain to the Chief Yum Yum
and Grand Master of the Lodge
The Don was up to the latest ago
nies of latter-day stuff and likewise
ropes, also having a superior incli-
nation to take care OF No. l., aud
alter stealing the affections of the
entire harem, he appropriated ali
the wampum handy and wrapped
the Chiefs china-ware up in coon
skin, mounted his finest horse and
made tracks for civilization and
more tracts. Pursuit was made
with the usual result.
The pious thief was brought back |
and new-made grave was dug
just where our courthouse now
stands and with most solemn cere-
emonies and incantations the In
dians in bowling conclave ceded
and decided the grave, with all its
appointments, emoluments, belong
lngs and hel editaments forever to
the Don, and he was laid there in |
solemn pomp. Now, his descend
ents, who reside on Raccoon creek,
claim three feet by six right under
our court house. with privilege of
range a mile every way, based upon
this indisputable cession by the
then owners. The defense will con
tend that this right was simply an
Inchoate title tc the hole in the |
ground, rendered absolute wheel |
he was reduced TO its posses
ion, but relinquished with occu
pancy under the late homestead |
acts; that the property in the hole
was an incorporeal essence, void |
for uncertainty, and covered by the
lien set up in digging the cellar
over it; that the general holding of
holes is wholly unwhOlesome ana to
hold a hole for whole generations is
both unholy and a wholesale viola
tion Of the Rule in Shelly's Case
Citing the U. S. Indian Policy, a to
lizard, where it is held that 1t is
righteous to steal from the Indians;
Gov. Marks Message, where it is
that Tennessee bonds
held by Indians should be repudia-
ted; Milton Paradise Lost for def
inition of chaos, emptiness, moth
ingness. as hole ground. The opin-
ion OF the court is already foreshad-
owed and it will be held that a hole,
although not perlshable with the
use (but sometimes made larger),
yet 1t is by its nature movable,
blown about by every vino. of doc
trine, 81 to speak, and the plant
ifs must fix and identify it; that the
essential, unsubstantial, chaotic.nUn
comatible elements that constituted
the particular hole claimed may, as
far as the court knows, be part of
the far reaching void that holds the
moon in its dead embrace, and if so,
plaintiffs must drive their stakes up
there; that if they had any proper
ty in the dirt it is gone since il
I Il