The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-17
THE BACKBONE LAND GRANT.
Mr.. Teller Defends Himself Against the AS
Saults of Messrs. EustiS and VanWyck.

MI. Itlicf UeIenuS himself Against the AS
saults Of Messrs. Eustis and VanWyck.
WASHINGTON, March 16.-Mr. Blair offered a
resolution authorizing continuance of the nves-
tigation Of the differences between capital and
labor. He said the investigation was practically
concluded, and an extension was desired for the
purpose of making report.
Under objection of Mr. Cockrel consideration
was postponed until tomorrow
Mr. Van.Wyck's Backbone" resolution was
laid before the Senate, when Mr.. Eustis made a
speech upon it. He said great wrong had been
done the people of Louisiana and he wished to
enter his protest against the consummation.
The title to lands was illegal and fraudulent, and
set up to defraud the settlers of their rights
This very title had been denounced by the New
Orleans q Pacific company, in documents which
had been presented In Congress and in the In
terror Department, utterly baseless and illegal
Everybody. was perfectly agreed that the
backbone" company was nuisance
and disgrace; it never lived for
any corporate purpose whatever, but
Yet, in 1881, by one of the most extraordinary
proceedings record, this defunct company
made an assignment to the New Orleans & Pa
clfc Company, and it was upon such title that
radically vicious and absolutely void The con,
sheraton for it was the enormous sum of ST.
One third of the stockholders had denounced the
act before the Interior Department as a shame
and fraud He was glad to know that the
Secretary Of the Interior was going to investi-
gate this matter, and he hoped in future there
would be an administration which would be in
the interest of the people, and which would pro-
tect them from the rapacity of rich railroad cor
porations
Mr. Teller defended his course, and said not a
point had been made by the Senator from Louis
lana Mr.. Eustis) which had not been passed
upon by the Attorney general and by the jul.
dietary committee of the House. 1t has beer,
the unbroken rule of the department for sixteen
years to issue these patents whenever the parties
had complied with the conditions subsequent,
without reference to time, and that had been
done in nine cases out of ten without any in
quiry whatever. When he was Secretary of the
Interior he had issued papers in the same identi-
cal manner, which was now called in question
and that, too, without having taken into consid-
Grafton the opinions of the committee of Con-
gross or the opinion of the House, wherein, by a
majority of forty-tw it had declared this grant
should not be void. If the administration is to
commence to undo what the late administration
had done, it should be done in accordance with
the forms of law, and in manner COMFORTING
with the dignity of a great administration pre-
siding the interests of fifty millions of peo-
pie. Could it be done by resolution of the
Senate or by speech addressed to the public9
No: it should be done by it's courts
Mr. Van Wyck, referring to Mr. Teller's speech
last week, said: 'The senator from Colorado re-
GREETED that every person who has spoken on
this subject was not lawyer, meaning probably
a lawyer of railroad proclivites, so there might
be full record of such lawyers as, during the
most of the last sixteen years, have been heads
of the Departments of Justice and of the Inter
ior, making precedents which the ex Secretary
boosted he had followed. 1t was useless for
corporation attorneys to stigmatize a settler as
an interoper and speculator. The ex-Secre-
tary had listened so long to this dialect in the
department., that it was natural he should re-
peat it in speech; and sneering at such men, al
most in the language of Tweed, he asked what
are you going to do about itl' Referring to
Oklahoma, Mr.. Van Wyck said federal bayonets
were pointed against the breasts of hardy
pioneers who were impatient to enter the Indian
Territory but there were no bayonets
to drive out the cattle syndicates already in Ok
lahoma, or to destroy the fences illegally in
closing millions of acres of the public domain.
Coming to the subject of the present discussion,
Mr.. Van Wyck asked why the late Secretary of
the Interior was in such hot haste to issue these
patentsl Why was not the question left to the
dellberatlon OF his successor, who could have de-
termined what portion did not properly belong
to the roads Even on the admissions of the last
administration, the department had given land
to the Backbone" company as if the entire line
had been constructed after the assignment in
1881. The late Secretary of the Interior, in the
exuberance or his sympathy for Gould and Hunt
ington. urged or consented to free gift Of land
for 160 miles of graded road. Ii he
had been faithful public servant
it would have required no corporation
lawyer nor any other lawyer to understand this
performance. There was another remarkable
feature in this transaction. The ex-Secretary,
from many years of practice as attorney for the
Union Pacific Railroad. Company, and long ex-
perience in the department, knew that the rail
roads, to escape State and local taxation, de-
clined to take patents except as they marketed
their lands. Did not this action suggest a
strong suspicion that the motive must be fear of
the next Congress, or that the incoming admin
istration might not be completely subject to
railroad corporation controll
Mr.. Teller denied that any utterance of his
justified the statement that he regarded settlers
as inter.opers. Gould and Huntington were
great bugbears, but If they had made anything
wrongfully out of the public by consolidation,
whose duty was it to interferel The dereliction
lay at the honorable senator's own door The
senator had been member of the committee on
public lands for four years, and had never raised
his hand to remedy the wrongs of which he COM
planned until the Texas Pacific bill came over
from the House No thanks to him.
Mr.. VanWyck defended himself against the
charge of inaction. When the Texas Pacific bill
was reported, he had secured place for it
among the special orders, and twice the Senate
had buried it in the body of the calendar
After an executive session, the Senate adj
journed.