Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1888-10-20
How State Lands Have Been
Squandered.

responsibility OF our State Officials,
in Office at the time, for the com
mission of these frauds.
During the process of paienting
these swamp Lands the applica-
tions Of purchasers had to be acted
On by the Swamp Land Commits
sioner, the Auditor, the Treasurer,
the Secretary Of State, ane the Gov
ernor, therefore they all knew, Of
ficially, that these lands were being
rapidly taken up; but did they know
that it was being done in plain yio-
lation Of law?
The investigations of the Com
mittee referred to in my FIRST article,
and its report to the Legislature,
leave, no doubt on this point. This
report can be found in the House
Journal of 1886, from page 55S to
575, and the testimony Of all the
Witnesses was given under oath, and
signed by them. l propose to quote
from this report, without giving
names of witnesses, who may not
desire needless publicity, but they
are all of record in the report to
which reference will be made.
One Of the agents of Phillips Mar
shall & Eyens, in answer to the ques-
ton edo you know whether or not
The State Officials through whom
these patents were obtained, knew
of the manner in which they were
being obtained" said 81 think the
Swamp Land Commissioner knew
all about 1t, so also, the Secretary Of
State, and the Governor. I'm
fact it was somewhat notorious and
was mentioned in the papers"
(page $50. } Another witness testi-
lied III frequently talked of the mat
ter myself, according to my recollec-
ton, with the then Secretary Of State,
ex Governor Stone, and Governor
Lowry, and perhaps with others. ]
further recollect that all agreed that
it was an evasion Of the spirit of the
law while its letter had been com
piled with" (page 56I).
NJ. S. Baldwin, who has already
been mentioned as a member of the
Eyers Syndicate, was asked this
question. "Did the State Officials
know that the parties who were
ostensibly entering lands, we're
entering, not for their own benefit
but for the benefit of Phillips, Mar
shall & Coz" He answered, "they
did l talked to most of them my
self l talked to Mr.. Gwin Mr.
Hemn ingway, Mr.. Myers, MIR. Smy-
lie, and the Attorney General, I"
! (page 56G } In another place (page
564) he says that before making
entries he consulted the Attorney
General (Catchings,) who advised
him that the lands could be pur-
chased despite the prohibitory Act of
1877.
Another witness, prominent At
torney in Jackson, made this state
ment 'tthe process of acquiring title
began under Governor Stone and
was continued with equal vigor I'm
der Governor Lowry. 1t was mat
ter of general notority among the
officials and agents connected with
the transfer, and it seems simply
impossible that the Governors sign
ing the patents should have been
ignorant Of the transaction" (page
1919
Another prominent lawyer, who
was Attorney for the Syndicate, by
the way, stated before the Committee
that he received letter from New
York advising him of the peculiar
plan adopted for purchasing the lands
and asking his opinion as to whether
it was lawful or not. He further
says, "on the day after the receipt
of this letter Mr.. NJ. S. Baldwin
came into our office and stated sub
stantially the same facts as we're con-
tanned in the letter of our New York
Correspondent, and asked me what
l thought about it. 1 replied that
the transaction was a questionable
one, that the Statute was being
thanked" and 1 thought the result
might be unfortunate for the parties
who were investing money in the
enterprise. (page 500 He adds
"shortly after my interview with
Mr.. Baldwin, as above stated,
called upon the Swamp Land Com
missioner and asked him if he was
aware of the facts connected with
the purchase Of the swamp and over
flowed lands, so called, and that the