Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-11-06
MILITARY LAMENTATIONS.

The power % set aside large portions of the public domain into what areealled military reservations, Is one which is liable to gross abuse, and We are satis- fled that it is often abused. Nothing but homestead or an actual purchase can secure rights which the military au- thorities in locating reservation are bound to respect. IT a citizen has pre- empted piece of ground or located a valuable mining claim, he can be dis possessed of it without redress. Military reservations for posts with only few soldiers are made to cover thousands of
 ot acres. We have had examples of this
 in the military reservations of this Ter
 rito-y. lhey are all unnecessarily
 large, and in the ease of the Camp
 Lowell reservation tine attempt was
 made to disp0ssess Fuller of his ranch.
 A case of this kind has been decided
 against some poor miners ID Montana.
 The facts of the case are given by the
 telegraph as follows:
 In April last an order was issued by
 President Garfield setting apart from the public lands a military reservation al Fort Maginnls, Montana Territory. Certain miners alleging that mineral was discovered and camp established by them on the land included Tn the reser- vation several months previous tO the | location of the post by the military au-
 tborities, appealed to the Secretary of | the Interior for information whether | tbev could hold the mines and surface ground connected herewith, though l thev be on the reservation, and whether
 mineral land could be located and pat
 ented on the military reservation after l the establishment of the reservation.
 The Attorney-General was requested | for an opinion on the following ques- | tiOns: First, whether or not mineral | lands. reserved from sale under Section | 2.3lS of the Revised Statutes of the Uni | ted States, can be reserved Tor military | purposes by order of the President. Sec | ond. where mineral lands are included within the limits of military Ieserva- l tion. are such lands open to exploration and purchase under Section 2,3l9, Re
 vised Statutes? Third, where lnchoate | title to mineral lands has been acquired, ! and such lands subsequently, have been l incIuded within the military reservation, can the title to said military lands be
 perfected by private owners:
 Attorney-General hlacNeagh, III his
 opinion, says: From an early period Tn | the history of the Government, 1t has been
 the practice of the President to order, ! from time to time, as the exigencies of | the public service required, parcels of l land belonging ia the United States to | be reserved from sale and set apart for public use. The authority of the PresI- | dent ID this respect Is recognized m nu- | merous acts of Congress, and the power | is broad enough to include mineral lands | belonging to the public domain, at least | while they remain unfractured by prl-
 yate right acquired under the laws relat- ipr thereto. This necessarily involves a negative answer to tine second question, | since after public lands have once been | lawfully reserved to the President Tor l pubic uses they become severed from l the public domain, and are therefore not l subject to occupation and purchase un- ] der the general law. In answer to the | third question he says: Congress has ! recognized the pOssessory rights of these | miners as observed among themselves by rules that have become laws Tn mining districts. I am of opinion, in conclusion,
 that their claim within the limits Of the
 reservation was without authority of law, and 1t could not legal! invest them
 with such right, or with any further
 right to scqrIs title to he land.
 The declsion ID the above case may be
 good law, but ii poor justice to the hardy
 pioneers who gre thus robbed of their
 discoveries by the establishment of an
 unnecessary military reservation. This
 matter of military reservations should
 be looked into by Congress.