Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-10-05
DON'T GRAB THAT RESERVATION /,
Because Grover BelieyHs the Government and
Private Citizens Will Get Swindled.


Private Citizens Will Get Swindled.
To the house of presentdtives:
L return without approval house bill.
entitled, "An act to provide for the dis
posal of the Fort Wallace military reser-
vation.''
This bill provides that portion of this
reservation, WHICH is situated in too state
of Kansas, shall be set apart for town site
purposes, and may be entered by the cor
porate authorities of the adjoining city
of Wallace.
Tks second section of the bill permits
the Union Pacific railroad company to
purchase within limited time certain
part of the military reservation, which is
thirty dollars per acre.
/ ara Uniformed that This privilege
might, by reason of a faulty description
of the landa, enable the railroad com,
pany to purchase at the price named
property in which private parties have
interests acquired under our laws.
1t is evident that the desert ption of the
land which the railroad company ia al
lowed the option of purchasing should be
exact and certain for the interest Of all
concerned,
Section four Of the bill grants Ger
tain portion Of the military authcrities
as a cemetery to the city of Wallace for
cemetery purposes,
There should, in my opinion, be pro-
vision that no bodies heretofore inferred
in thie ground should be disturbed, and
that when the same is no longer used as q
cemetery it should revert to the govern
m-nt. GROVER CLEVELAND.
Executive Mansion, September "a, 1883.
To the house of representatives:
l am unable to give my assent to a
joint house resolution numbered four
teen, and entitled Joint resolution to
authorize the secretary Of the interior to
certify lands TO the state of Kansas for
the benefit of agriculture end the me
chanio arts" aud I therefore return the
same with statement of my objections
thereto.
By an act of congress passed July End,
1862, certain public lands were granted to
such of the several states as should pro-
vide colleges for the benefit of agricul
ture and the mechanic arts.
Under tie terms of this act the state of
Kansas was entitled to ninety Thousand
acres of land, subject, however, to the
provisions of said statute, which declared
that when lands which had been raised to
double the minimum price, in conse-
Gpencs Of railroad grants, should lie Sc
iected by state, such lands should be
com pUted at the maximum price and the
number Of acres proportionately dimin-
ished.
Of the lands selected by the state of
Kansas, and which heve been certified,
seven thousand six hundred and eighty
two acres and ninety-tgo hundreths of an
acre were within certain limits Of q rail-
road grant, and had therefore been raised
to the double minimum in price, so that
the number of acres mentioned and thus
situated really stood for double that
number of acres in filing the grant to
which the state of Kansas vas entitled.
Il is now claimed that after the selec-
tion of thsse lands the route of said rail
road was abandoned and another ona
selected, and that in consequence thereof
such lands included within its frat loca-
tion were reduced to the minimum price
and restored to public market at that
rate. It IS supposed upon these allega-
tions that justice and equity require that
an additional grant should now be made
to the state of Kansas from the public
lands equal to the number OF acres
selected within the limits of the first rail
road location.
But an examination disclosed that the
Joint resolution is predicated upon an en-
tire misunderstanding of the facts.
The lands heretofore mentioned as
amounting to more thar seven thousand
acres, selected By the state of Kansas,
szd charged at double that amount be-
cause their price had been raised to the
double minimum in consequence of their
being within railroad location have all
except three hundred and twenty scres
reueined either in the new or Old rail-
road location Cp to the present time, and
if now vacant would be held by the gov
eminent at the double minimum prics.
II seems clear TO me that the state of
Kansas has been granted ell the public
land 70 which it can lay any legal or
equitable claim under the law of 1862.
GRovER CLEvRLASD.
Executive Mansion, Sept. "a, 1888.