Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-06-13
WASHINGTON, June Is,

WASHINGTON, June Is.
Commissioner Sparks of the land Office,
this afternoon submitted to Secretary Lamar
report on the famous Maxwell land grant in
New Mexico, for which nearly 1900, 600
acres of public land grant were claimed and
patented in 1879. The official proceedings
leading up to the patent are recited in detail
by the commissioner, who then says in brief:
Pending these decisions. large number of
letters, complaints, petitions, protests and
charges, were transmitted to this Office and
the department from citizens in New Mexico,
alleging fraud in the location and boundaries
of this claim, its extension far beyond any
original claim or possession by the pstentees,
invasion of settlement and mining rights, and
Of the rights of native inhabitants and Indian
occupants Nothing more than q mere formal
notice OF these various complaints and alle-
cations appear TO have been taken or done
by this office. No Investigation was had,
but the claim for this enormous region of
country appears to have been carried through
by official readiness without regard to the
interests of the government or the rights Of
the citizens of the Territory, in actual occu-
pancy of the land. Evidences of fraud were
manifest in the bold fact of the presentation
of the claim for nearly 1900, 900 acres, based
on grant of less than 1000, 600 acres" In
conclusion, Commissioner Sparks recon-
mends that suitable action be taken looking
to Il vigorous prosecution of the suit now
pending in the district court of Colorado, and
that a new suit be commenced in New Mex
leo. where the greater portion of the lands
lie, to set aside the claims already issued
under this grant.
With the approval of the President, and
after consultation with the cabinet, the post
master general has decided not to advertise
for bids to enter into contracts for the trans
portation of foreign mails upon the mileage
basis under permissive, authority conferred
by the act of Congress, March 8, 1885. The
subject has been under consideration by the
cabinet some time, and the conclusion above
noted was reached after the presentation by
the postmaster general of an exhaustive argu-
ment covering the whole matter of foreign
mail transportation. 1t has been decided
that it would be better to remit the subject to
Congress for more explicit legislation than
to attempt to distribute large sum of money
not in fact required for use, which was appro-
priated merely because the act of Congress
gives license.
Senator Logan was given a serenade by the
colored people of the District, under the
auspices of the Emancipation Association.
About 1000 persons were present, and a
speech was made byl Gen. Logan, in which
he eulogiZed the colored race and said he
would advocate their rights.
The State department was notified today of
the release of Chas. Van Bookseller, a citizen
of the United States and ex-consul of Hayti.
in New York, from the San Damingo prison
in which he has been confined for about lS
months for debt, in defiance of the interna-
tional treaty obligations
The secretary of the treasury has informed
Ramsay, guardian of the poor at Pittsburg,
who sent and assisted an emigrant family
from Pittsburg to Washington for the pur-
pose, as he said, of testing the efficiency of
the pauper immigrant act, that that depart
ment does not consider the sending of pau
per family from one city to be burden on
another city the proper way of testing the
law in question. He ls also informed that
the health authorities at Boston, at which
port the assisted immigrants in question are
said to have landed, have been called on for
report of the facts in the case.
The President TODAY appointed Samuel L.
Graham to be United States Marshal of the
Western District of Virginia.
The comptroller of the currency today ex-
tended corporate existence to the Strafford
1905.
Today in the criminal court Daniel Carri-
gan, ex chief of the bureau of medicine and
surgery of the navy department., who plead
guilty on four indictments of forty for pre-
senting false vouches on the bureau of med
icine and surgery, was sentenced to six years
in the Albany penitentiary.
Miss Cleveland has received from her pub
fishers in New York the announcement that
the first edition of her book. now in press.
has proved insufficient to meet the advance
orders for trade and the second edition has
been ordered.