The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-02-23
To the Editor of the Pioneer.


S1R,-Last week VIM. Stewart,
justice of the peace, and a few others,
were the perpetrators of an act which,
if successful, is the most devilish in
design and atrocious in character
which has ever disgraced the history
Of this county.
On Tuesday last they served a
notice on the commissioners that they
had commenced an action at law, at
the expense Of the taxpayers, to have
the Offices of Clerk of the Court and
District Attorney declared vacant, on
the ground that such Offices do not
now nor aver did exist in this county.
While this act looks. harmless
enough Oh the face Of it, [ wish to
draw the earnest attention Of your
readers to some of the results that
will surely follow, and which Stewart
& Co. well know, should they succeed
in this nefarious scheme.
LIST. If the office of Clerk of Court
does not exist, all parties who have
taken out citizen papers and taken
the oath of allegiance before him, are
not qualified to take or hold land in
this country until they take the oath
over again before some Clerk Of Court
where court is held.
I'd. That all the land Mr.. Bennett
has made filings on for settlers is yet
government land and is liable to be
taken from the present holders by the
fist qualified party that m along.
Sd. That all the final proofs he has
taken are null and void, and the
settler must therefore go to all the
expense and trouble of proving up
again or lose the land.
4th. All official documents he has
certified to, all afidavits taken before
him, and all acts that are usually
committed by law to hat officer to do,
are thereby rendered void, and from
their nature could not be legalized
without a special act of Congress and
also an act of the Legislature of this
Territory, which could only be had at
great trouble and expense, if in both
cases they could be got at all.
Let us now look at a few of the
disadvantages we will labor under in
future, if Stewards theory should b.
right. Every man that wants to file
on a claim will have to 60 to Devils
Lake; if he wants to sell a farm that
is proved up, he will have to 20 or
send to Minnewaukan for an abstract
paper, before he can give a clear title
to the land, and we will be laboring
under many other disadvantages too
numerous to mention. The taxpayer
will also note that whether the county
wins or loses, so to speak, the county
will have to foot a large bill before it
is settled of anywhere between $500
and $1,000. And besides, there is
every possibility of a.bill now being
acted on by Congress, becoming law,
creating a new judicial district, and
if so, there will be a term Of court
held In Bottineau, if wanted, next
fall, while in this a 8 these offices
would be legalized and all the law ex-
penses would be thrown away, which,
to say the least, would make this law
business q very foolish undertaking.
I would say to your readers who
would be directly affected, that there
is no tear of an adverse decision az to
the Office Of Clerk of the Court. for !
have carefully run over the facts, if
it were so, to show what this rule or
ruin party, Of whom Squire Stewart
is the acknowledged head, would d.
if they had the chance. I trust ii
will be a lesson to the people that will
not soon be forgotten, that these
human hyenas who have made the
nights hideous for the past three
years with their howls about economy
and the farmers rights and other
political clap trap. to blind the facts
from the. voters, that they have been
sucking the, hind teat Of the county
oow, and now when she has dried uE
on them, like their near relative the
snake in the grass, when they cannot
get milk, they are burying their
poisonous fangs in her vitals to finish
her existence.
In plain English, these unprincipled
vampires would wreck our homes and
scatter q hard earnings to the winds
and bring q food Of untold misery
and calamity on our county generally,
all, it is said, IN order to yentilate
their private spite against the present