The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-01-24

- ~ 81 IA
.e..,f nliI5 q # .l,S:
' 49, .s ~. e q. 49, rs. g. 9
'the elnls 10 81 a - i've 1lls Il kers Il,
:. .ss re I. ~ - Y: d !, S.
nIIios n d1IIals. b lise q Ten miIl.61S, 1kIc
~ hdlIils = 20 ye.n eaighs hese l,een e<Eise4
ffom lkEm Thus thinking, We have condemned
he irnnecgion as we did s6me1hinR very Ike
& when attempted b. De radicals; aud - We
beIIeVe most e tie papelz nov lpI6.ssnel5 hud
Ing Il w6uld Do we're & The work of the radicaiA
So We hare neRer blamed the purchaser Cor
making:a good bargain for himself"
Here h Florida Is well a. elsewhere 4 appean
to make good deal Of liiereoce whether
thing Is done by political fFien.is or opponents.
We recollect that the first administrative under
the new Constitution sid million and one
hundred Thousand acres % \ New York Com
pany Tor ten cents acre upon condition thai
Q settler should be put upon each half section
and agencies opened for the sale Of the lands In
all the foreign ports where we had commercial
relations and in eli The principal ciiies sf the
North and West. We recOlleci. too, how this
was denounced by the same press which now
approves of the four million SALE as q fraud
upon the State, and aflcr the company had paid
Tor 100 900 acres and spent $4,000 In advertising,
surveying, establishing agencies and bringing ID
Settlers certain interested parties upon false allie
CATIONS of fraud and collision, procured the an
nuliing OF the contract, without refunding the
payment, and this first immigration agency for
Florida lost some $1,000 without redress.
Yes, il does make q difference whose OK Is
gored and whose bull does the goring. But
there are citizens who will Judge of an act upon
its merits. We believe that the quicker the
public domain is added to the taxable resources
of the State, by sale and occupation, whether
occupied by radicals" or conservatives,
BOurbOns or Progressive Democrats, the better
for the State even If not dollar is realized for
the transfer of title.
Our esteemed cotemporary's recollec-
ton is partial. The transaction it calls
to mind was very properly condemned at
the time, not only by an intelligent pub
lie opinion, but by the United States
Court which treated it, as it did others
entered into by the then Trustees, as a
fraud upon the creditors of the Fund.
The substance of the agreement to sell a
million one hundred thousand acres will
be found set forth at length in the appen-
dix to Assembly journal, 1872, pages -s5,
81. There was nothing in the contract
requiring the purchasers to take more
than 100000 acres, under penalty of be-
ing required to pay schedule prices for
such as were decided to them, as was the
case in the Disston sale. The conditions
as to introducing settlers were trans
parent swindle which the spectators who
bought the land knew how to avoid or
comply with as suited their interest, and
as to which some rich developments were
afterwards made. But the pretended sale
was illegal on its face, since it gave to the
purchasers the right to take Internal I'm
provement lands at ten cents an acre,
when the Board were prohibited by law
from selling any Of the lands of this char
acter at less than dollar and quarter
an acre. Had the courts not interferred
and nipped the fraud in the bud, and had
the sharpers taken the whole eleven hun
bred thousand acres by the payment OF
$4,000, they would have possessed all
the best lands in the State, the creditors
of the Fund receiving nothing to speak of.
At the very time this so-called sale was
made there was ascertained to be due to
Vose about 100000 and he was but one
creditor. There is no comparison between
this transaction and the sale to Disston.
The latter is bona tide sale to pay the
debts of the Fund, which it will do and
leave millions of acres for public works
besides. The selections are confined to
swamp and overlooked lands, leaving a
valuable body of other lands internal
Improvement untouched, the proceeds of
which may be made available in remov-
ing burdens which have grown out of the
very railroad system the Disston sale will
inevitably secure the completion of
The Radicals, in all their years of
grinding and corrupt rule in Florida,
never made sale of lands with the pri-
mary view of releasing the lands by pay
ing the obligations resting upon them,
and it was this fact that caused the inter
ference of the courts and the arrest of
portion of the first Board of Trustees
for contempt. BY various contracts and
agreements they disposed of about all
the lands. deciding to Gleason some one
and half millions of acres at one swoop
for mythical canal, on the strength of
which action of the Board this adventurer
bled foreigners out of large sum of
money, and selling to Littlefeld all the
remaining lands for mere trife, on the
condition that he was to pay the debts of
the Fund and complete the j. p. q ii.
Road TO Pensacola l Had these two ex-
trsordinary transactions been permitted
to stand there would not have been an
acre of land left to aid in developing
South Floridal Our esteemed cotempo-
rary will thus see the reason why trans.
actions like these were denounced by
the same press which now approves of
the four million SALE" They were tainted
with fraud all through and were so held
by the courts; while on the other hand,
:" the four million eale y has no element of
fraud in it and was good thing in itself,
since the lands as q body were sold for
all they are worth, in our Judgment,
and their proceeds will wipe out all obi