Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-05-04
NITED STATES OF AMERICA,

phan Prospect publishes the follow
ing:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,1
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI,
To the County Court of Ripley County, Mo-:
You will please take notice that the United
States of America claim that certain of the
entries of the public lands of the United
States made i'm the Jackson; (now Ironton,)
Missouri, Land District, under the provisions
of act of Congress, approved August 4th,
1854, entitled, "An Act to Graduate and Re-
duce the Price of Public Lands to Actual
Settlers and Cultivators," for which patents
were subsequently issued, were fraudulently
and evasively made, and that proceedings are
about to be instituted in the courts of the
United States for the Eastern District of
Missouri, to vacate said entries and annul
said patents.
You are notified further, that the United
States will resist and contest by legal pro-
ceedings, any sale or attempted sale, under
the delinquent tax laws of the State of Mis-
souri,, of lands entered under said act of
Congress, upon the ground that said entries
were fraudulently and eyasively made, and
that the patents therefor were issued with
out authority of law.
By direction of the Attorney General of
the United States.
WIN. II. BLISS,
attorney of the United States for the Eastern
District Of Missouri.
ST. LOUIS, March 2oth, 1882.
We beg to say at the outset, that if
the Government has been defrauded
M of Of in 70
Of the proper officers proceeding at
once to recover it on or under any
principles of law or equity. Morrow
er, we are heartily in favor of the pros
ecution and punishment of every person
who may have participated in it. But
instead of proceeding to do this in a
business way, Mr.. Bliss goes about
trying to interfere with honest~men's
business; attempting to obstruct the
laws of the State and prevent their en-
forcement.
Every one who has a modicum of
common sense knows that not one acre
in every hundred thousand of the
graduated lands entered at Jackson
the patents to which have long since
been issued by the Government at
Washington-can now be recovered;
for it has long since gone into the
hands of honest and innocent holders;
vet, in the face of this-in the face of
the fact that Congress itself in 1873
passed an act confirming these gradual
ed entries, Mr.. Bliss undertakes, by a
notification-not by any legal proceed
ings-to nullify the revenue laws of
our State-to repeal them, so to speak
and tell the officers of the State Gov
eminent they shall not enforce the law.
The lands lie there. They have been
patented by the United States for
twenty-five years. The taxes remain
unpaid from one to five years last past.
The laws of the State of Missouri make
them taxable, and the laws make it
the duty of the officers to proceed
against these lands and sell them to
collect the revenue to support both the
State and county governments, to build
roads, and support schools; but Bliss
tells the officers to obey his mandate,
and not the laws of the State!
fMr. Bliss wishes to test his SINGER
fly, let him commence his suits in the
courts and test the questions in a
proper way. We warn him now not
to interfere with the enforcement of
the State laws.
We suggest that the Grand Jury of
Ripley county look into this matter,
and see how far Mr.. Bliss has obstruct-
ed, or attempted TO obstruct, our State |
revenue laws, or the officers in the |
discharge of their legal duties, and to
take such actien as may be proper.
In the mean time, We call the atten- |
ton of Governor Crittenden to the
action of Mr.. Bliss in attempting to
stop the collection of the revenue.
These interior counties, when all the
taxes are collected, have barely enough
revenue to pay their current expenses
Of local government; and if Mr.. Bliss is
to be permitted to interpose his dictuns,
and stop the collection of taxes on large
bodies of land, the county governments
may as we'll dissolve Mt once. But We
think they xiII not exactly do that.