Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-09-29
OKLAHOMA
Will in Course OF Time Become q Stale
or the American UniOn-David l..
Payne, the
Father of the Movement TO Create II;
VIII Succeed-Constant Dropping
Wears Away a Stone.

Fort sSMITH, September e. Wheelcr's
Independent announces the arrival here OF
Mr.. David L Payne last Wednesday even
| ing, in charge of q squad of United States
soldiers who arrested the party and brought
them TO Fort Smith By order Of the Secretary
Of War Thev were released by the mill
tsry the next day and served with writ to
appear at the November term of this court
and answer 10 an alleged charge of violating
the intercourse law by intrudirg on the In
I;an countrv II aa4-aa 'L4 fi4o O-:4i
States authorities at Washington are stub
bornly determined to maintain the false
position they hare placed themselves in by
srresting Payne in the first instance, eighteen
months since, and expect the courts 10 enforce
laws and mandates that are, by their own
acts, q nullity..
Payne was mulcted last yesr because he
was Can intruder in the Indian country"
This vague term "1ndian country" which
cuts such a figure in the Payne case, GER
tainly cannot apply 10 the strip OF land
eighty miles wide, which :. was lawfully
granted to the Atlantic and Pacific railroad.
All the odd numbered sections on this tract
we're granted to this company. The Court
alec clsimed, as q point in the case, that
these public lands had not been offered for
sale or settlement by the government in the
usual proclamation.
Congress, in 1878, passed an act "that
wherever there shall be land grant 10 any
railroad company, the presumption and
homestead laws of the United States shall
apply 10 all even-numbered sections within
the limits of that grant" This act of itself
precluded the necessity of any such proc
lamation, nor has any been made. This
prociamating procedure is about SIS anti
quated as the old intercourse law, and was
never invoked against pioneer squatters in
the West, except in this case. The free
homestead act virtually abolished it.
Free settlers have gone westward until
they are found in the mountains OF Colorado
and New Mexico. Empire was what our
government wanted, and the pioneers gave
it to her. They wrestled with the Bedoins
OF the plans and paid for the "eminent do
main" with their blood.
In retaining the great wilderness TO
civilization our pioneers have done what
the government never could have done with
soldiers. The government followed the
pioneers. She laid out the great American
desert into STATES; che restricted the limit
less area eff the Indians and placed them on
reservations with ample lands for range
or culture, and the pioneers maintained
her authority in her new possessions
Now she makes war on pioneers in
Oklahoma on lands granted for their
free use by her own acts, under the
false pretense that they are in the
Indian country-on reservation paid for
with public money and kept for the benefit
of another privileged class-that is, other
Indians or Indian negroes. This is at va
rance with the spirit of our constitution,
which guarantees equal rights to all, includ-
ing white men. The government could with
he same propriety have m ade these millions
of acres grand preserve for the Chinese or
Kanakas
In closing we will add a few words in re-
gard to the old "intercourse law" About |
forty years since the whole country from the |
Missouri line to the Pacific ocean was in the
possession of wild, rowing tribes of Ishmael- |
ties, with few semi-civilizsd tribes on the |
eastern border, among whom white refugees |
from justice and restless outlaws mixed |
freely. They were troublesome guests 10 the |
enacted in the then Indian country; |
but this law was never used 10 eject |
peaceable or moral whites, whom The |
Indians always welcomed and were |
glad to retain in the country. This was the |
object of the law as applied to the Indian |
country at the time. The deputy marshals |
now bring out these outlaws for punishment |
Dr. trial, but we never hear of any of them |
being fined for returning to the Indian coun-
Try. Is this obsolete intercourse law now
only for use in the case of peace |
able pioneers who are not on Indian soil7 |
Are there any other peaceable iniruders in |
he Indian country?