The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-04-15
FORFEITED TEXAS AND PACIFIC
RAILWAY GRANTS,

The Sentinel has received the following
information from the General Land Office:
You are advised that the lands granted to the
Texas and Pacific Railway Company, which wee
domain by the act OF Congress, approved February
.. 1855. are the sections and parts OF sections
each side of the line of general route of said com
pany's road through the Southern part oil the
Territories OF New Mexico and Arizona and
couisids The limits OF the grant for the Branch
Line OF the Southern Pacific RsilrOadl in southern
said lands are now subject 70 entry under the
presumption, homestead ana other general laws
relating 70 unofered lands at the local United
States Land Offices OF Las Cruces, New Mexico
Territory Tucson and Prescott, Arizona Territory,
and Los Angeles, Caliiornis, and are rated as
presumption and homestead laws, except in cases
where settlement was prior to the date OF receipt
for the benefit OF the railroad grant.
The above described lands embrace some
of the most fertile and most desirable of
the public domain, and upon much Of which
the Texas and Pacific Railway Company had
placed a high price. Actual settlers who
propose.t taking up Government lands in the
Southwest, will do well 10 turn their steps
in the direction of these forfeited strips,
which are thrown open to the public for
presumption or homestead claims after hay
ing been practically reserved for many years
past, during which time most of the remain
ing desirable lands in the vicinity of thess
have been taken up.
What contrast to this seton of Secretary
Lamar is that of his predecessor, Senator
Teller. The former, with the interest and
welfare Of the people at heart, compels
powerful railroad company to disgorge big
slice of the public domain, which it had not
earned and was trying to absorb without
complying with the terms Of the grant.
ExSecretsry Teller while in Office was, on
the other hand, the friend and champion of
railroad corr orstions and land grsbbers, and
kept an extra force of clerks busy, nights
and Sundays included, making out patents for
zoe, 600 acres of publiclands in Louisiana, con-
veying them to railroad company which had
not even pretended to carry out the provis.
ions OF the stipulations-hsd not built the
road, nor does it expect to. A more infam-
GUS steal was never perpetrated than this act
Of Senator Teller when that champion Of
monopolies was Secretary of the Interior.
Nor did his iniAmy stop here. He is found
guilty OF having taken from Indian tribes
their reservations, directly in violation OF
the titles given them in treaties, which our
Government is bound to respect, as deter
mined By recent Supreme Court decisions in
the premises.
Had the Government remained in the
hands OF a Republican administration al
other four years there would have been little
left of the public domain at the end of that
time-it would have gone almost bodily into
the capscicus NAV Of q powerful railroad
corporations, through such outrageous land
grab processes as that adopted by Senator
Teller and his ilk, and as characterized the
several Republican administrations for the
past twenty vears