The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1892-01-09
Bots Blanc Island.

lne Supreme Cour. recently handed
down two opinions denying writs Of
manaamus compelling the Commits
sioner OF the Land Office to issne pat
en- 10 land on Bois Blanc Island,
which are of more than ordinary inter
est. The relator on one of the cases
had contract for building state road
from Bessemer to the mouth of Black
Greek in the Upper Peninsula under nm
act Of the Legislature in 1889, which
appropriated swamp land located In
the Upper Peninsula. The road was
built and Mays allowed scrip to the
amount Of $2l, ,O29.
Tn Juno, 1891, he fled list of select
lens in the island above named, upon
the grouad TINT that island being at
ttched to an Upper Peninsula county,
the lands could be selected. Upon tho
refusal of the Commissioner to patent,
! he applied for on order compelling
such action, but the court denied il
upon the ground that the state has
treated the lands as distinctive from
those in the Upper Peninsula, as did
the United States in making the sur
vey, and they not being SO located can
not be selected by the relator.
The other case is that of Donald Nc
Rar, vs. the Commissioner OF the Land
Office, in which he asks for manda-
mus compelling the patenting to him OF
the same lands selected by Mays, upon
| the ground that certain lands in Bois
Bl,nc Island had been advertised for
public sale on November IL, 1889, but
were not sold, and in January, 1891,
stood under the graduated act of 1869
atthe price of 81 per acre, at which
time lie selected IL ,0C0 acres.
He was refused certificates upon the
ground that the swamp land board of
control had in October, 1889, resolved
to withhold from cash or homestead
entry all vacant swamp lands in the
Upper Peninsula. Also, that the lands
had been specially appropriated by act
277, laws OF 1877, for building road
upon said island. The act in question
authorized the building of the road and
appropriated 6lS acres for each
mile of SAID road. and The contract was
let to George w. Webber, of Ionia,
who built twelve miles of road.
McRae also contended that act 277
was unconstitutional, rs it was not pas
sed by two-thirds vote of the Leg;s.
lature. The court holds the act to be
valid, but if it wero not the relator
would have no right to the lands at 81
per acre, when the commissioner shows
thcm to be worth So. and there is no
law which gives the absolute right to
to purchase lands at the minimum
price, but it implies that greater price
may be asked, and it would he breach
of official trust in the commissioner to
sell the lands at the minimum price
when he knows them to be worth doub-
le that amount.
Justice Morse files separate opinion
and while it concurs in the result he
cannot refrain to say what his opinion
is of act 277. He says he is not pre-
pared to hold the act valid. he be-
lieves all such legislation to be invalid,
and if there is no way of reaching it
through the courts it Is misfortune.
He says the answer of the Commissioner
furnishes food for thought. An act Of
the Legislature authorized the con-
struction of state road on the island
for the ostensible purpose of reclaiming
the swamp lands. The contractor gets
$4,000 worth of land for building q
dirt road thirteen miles in length, and
it was wisely provided that after the
construction of the road it should be
seeded with timothy and other grasses
for the purpose, probably, of pasturage,
until sufficient population renders the
road necessary or desireable. The
swamp lands upon this island have
peen donated to some one for the labor
ofreclaiming them. In such case a
two-thirds vote OF the Legislature
should be required to grant the land.
Cona,.ryS ption (surad