Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1885-03-17
SENATE.

"1sEIssTos. March .6.-The back
ooee land grant resolution vas laid
o-toFs tie senate. Eastsce made q
speech npon II he said that 4 great
IoeR lad been done the people Of
LOUISIANA and be wished 10 enter his
AOsest axsInst its consunDsriou. The
Ute TO ths lands vas illegal AAd frsa6u-
set, ana SAs set up TO dsfrand tie set
tiers OF their rights. This verv titIs IA
been de110noed BY the Neg Orleans
Pacific Company in documeuts vhich
nAo oeee presented IN Congress and the
lntsrisr Department As utterly bassless
aud Illegal Everybody psrfectly agreed
that the back bone somuany vas a
nuisance and q Disgrace; thai il never
iiveo for any corporate purpose What
ever, but vas the mere skeleton Of q
cerelleIt association vet in 1851, by one
OF the most extraordinary proceedings
on record. this dsfunot COMPANY made
an assignment TO the New Orleans Pa
cane company, and II was upon such a
title that the latter based its claims.
HE transfer vas radically vicious gnd
absolutely void. Tne confederation for
u was the enormous sum Of one dollar.
One third of the stockholders deuounc-
ed the set before the Interior Depart |
me1t as shame and a fraud. He was |
glad to know that the Secretary Of the |
interior was going 70 investigate this |
matter and he hoped that in future
there would be an administration which |
would be II the interest of the people,
and would protect them from the rapsc- /
iiy OF the rich railroad corporations.
Teller defended bis coarse and said
thai not point bad been made by the
senator from Louisiana Eustis) which
bad not been passed apon by the Attor
ney General and by the Judiciary Com
mittee Of the House. II had been the
unbroksn rule of the Department. for
sixteen years to issue these patents
whenever parties had complied With
the conditions without reference to
time, and that had ben in nine cases
out OF ten without any inquiry what
ever When be vas Secretary of the
Interior be had issued papers in the
same identical way, which was nov
called Ia Question, and that too, with
out having taken into consideration the
opinions OF thu Committee of Congress,
or the opinion OF the HOus., when by
majority OF ~ it had declared that the
grant should not be void. the new
Is to commence to undo
1t should be done in accordance with
the forms of Law and in a manner CON
porting with the dignity of a great ad
presiding over the inter
ests of 100000 people.
Ven Wyck, referring 90 felier's speech
Of last week, said: The Senator from
Colorado regretted that every person
Who has spoken ON this subject was not
q iAwyer-meaninR probably q lawyer
OF railroad procliyities, so there might
be full record OF such lawyers a.
during the most OF the last sixteen
years have bcen at the head of tue De
partments of Justice and of the Int
rloE, making presidents which the sI-
boalted be I'd followed. IL
vas usual for cor 'nratiOn ait BTp W 10
stigmatize the settler as an interl0p 2
and Spectator. The ex Secretarg, he ,
said, bad listened 30 long to that dialect
In the Department that il was natural
that he should repeat il in his speech,
and snesrlng at such men, 10 almost
the language of Tweed, be had asked,
:" bat are you going to do about il 2"
Van WICK asked why the late Secretary
Of the Interior was in such haste to issue
these patentsf Why was not the aues-
ton left to the elaboration Of his sue
cessor, who could determine what por-
ton did not properly belong to the
roadI Even on the admissions of the
late Administration, the Department
had given the land to the Backbone
Company as il the entire line lad been
after the assignment in
1881. The late Secretary of the Interior
in the exuberance of his sympathy for
Gould and Huntington, urged or con-
seuted 10 free gift of land FIR l60
miles of graded road. Faithful public
1t required no corporation I
lawyer, nor any other lawyer, to under
stand this performance. There was an ,
other remarkable feature in this trans
action. The ex-Secretary. from ma "
years of practice as an attorney for the
Union Pacific Railway, and a long tx-
perience in the Department. knew that
the railroads, to escape State and local
tax stioH, declined to take patents ex-
cept as they marketed their lands. Did
not this action suggest q strong sus-
plcion that the motive must be fear of
the next Congress; that the incoming
Administration might net be complete.
ly subject TO the railroad corporations
contract.
Adjourned.