St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1890-11-08

general land laws of the United States
and the rights of settlers attached nat
urally to the lands on which they re
sided.
The Land Offices in Louisiana hae
been consolidated, and the Land Office
at New Orleans opened for business il
July, 1867. Applications on behalf o
the settlers to eute. their lands wa:
made to the Office by myself and 9th
ers from and after 1867, and as otter
were they denied under instruction:
from the General Land Office, that of
fee claiming that the reversion provi
ded for in section of the granting act
was not an absolute reversion, but
must be supported by law repeating
and declaring forfeited Ito the settlers,
the lands covered by the act, This was
done by the Act of July Ia, 1870: "An
Act to declare forfeited to the United
States certain lands granted to the
State of Louisiana to aid in the con.
structing of railroad therein" which
said act after reciting the forfeiture
provided az These lands shall
hereafter be disposed of as other public
lands of the United States" The lands
thus having been restored to its own
ers, the people, it was then thought
there would no longer be any difficulty
in the matter of the settlers getting
paper titles to the lands already their
own by virtue of their settlement
thereon. Applications poured into the
Land Office; the Register being inn
pressed with the justice of these claims
received them and issued his receipts
for the applications but the Office
was forbidden by the General Land Of
fee to allow entries, that Office hold
ing that the lands embraced in the
grant of June Sd, 1856, must be recon-
veyed by the State Of Louisiana to the
United States before action could be
allowed. The date Of this reconvey-
ance is believed to hare been in Janu-
airy or February, 1888 and the lands,
although actually and legally subject
to settlement entry, we're not subject
to be again disposed Of to a railroad
company by Congress until after such
reconveyance. There vas no selection
of these lands by the State Or the rail-
road company. There was withdrawal
of the odd sections, not alone in the
granted limits, but also in the In
demnity Limits Is which withdrawal
being unauthorized hy law was abso-
lutely null, especiallv as far as the
lands within the g Indemnity Limits -
were concerned,
March Sd, 1871 Congress passed "An
Act to incorporate thA Texas Pacific
Railroad Co1npany, U. S. Stat
utes l6 to SIS. BY th Act there was
granted to the New rleans, Baton
Rouge and Yicksbnsg ilroad Com
pany, on the. condit ton Hat the rail-
road should be comp piate pithin five (O
years all the odd na1ercd sections
along the line of said x,ad for twen-
t. (20 miles ON eacl4 The pro-
posed nute was fro1ll Orleans by.
way of Baton Rouge to Vicksburg, with
a branch from some point above Baton
Rouge, crossing the. Mississippi river
and going to Marshall, Texas, to con-
meet with the Texas Pacific railroad.
Congress being in very amiable mood
and evidently believing that this rail-
road company had been since 1903 a
joint owner with the people of the lands
in Louisiana, and to reimburse said rail
road company for the odd sections
wrongfully sold by the gsSerppent
since 1903, provided in said Act Of
March Sd, 1871, that an Indemnity
Grant y of all the odd sections within
ten (1O) miles on each side Of the gran
ted limits should be allowed to said
company, from which to select odd
numbered sections in lieu of those dis
posed of within the granted limits.
The New Orleans, Baton Rouge and
Vicksburg railroad was never built, not
dollar was expended, in 1876 its grant
expired by limitation, and its charter
was forfeited by legislative enactment
in 1881. Some OF the former officers
of this defunct corporation sold, for
one dollar, to the New Orleans Pacific
Railway Company the grant of land
which would have belonged to the N.
O., B. and V. railroad company had
they built the road before March Sd,
1876. The dollar which was the con-
sideration of this sale was more than
the true value of the grant /; but the
n 0. Pacific company (Which had the
railroad partly completed already had
the audacity to file said sale in the ar
ehives of the Land Department, and
the Secretary of the Interior not only
allowed it to be so filed, but in 1883 al
lowed the said N. O. Pacific company
to select the lands embraced in the
grant to the defunct. n. o., B. and V.
railroad company, not alone in the
granted lands but in the Indemnity
Limits" also. It is we'll here to notice
that there was no provision of law au-
thorizing the withdrawal OF lands in
the Indemnity Limits, nor could they
be selected until the loss in the grant
ed district should have been ascertain
ed. This loss has never yet been
ascertained.
The sale by some of the former Off
GERS of the n. o., B. r. and V. railroad
to the n. 0. Pacific company, being
absolutely null and of no effect, and
being so looked upon by all except the
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