Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-13
ANSWER BY MR.. BONAPARTE
Attorney General Replies to Part of
Mr.. Tillman's Speech.
RESOLUTION DRAWN BY REQUEST
south Carolina senator Was
Acting in OmeIal Capacity-suit
Filed to Forfeit Lands
September 4.

WASHINGTON. Jan. 12-Attorney Gem
eral Bonaparte tonight issued a statement
replying to that part of the speech of SEN
ator Tillman delivered yesterday in which
he declared that the resolution in regard
to the Oregon land grants. introduced by
him in the senate on January 81, 1905, had
been prepared by the attorney general and
that his interest In the matter had been
first aroused by a desire to purchase some
of the timber land" Mr.. ~Bonaparte also
replies TO Senator Tillman's remark in the
senate last February that he had not
bought any land anywhere in the west or
undertaken to buy any"
The full text of the attorney generals
statement is as follows:
January u. 199.-There are two passages
in the remarks OF Senator Tillman, pub
lished in today's Congressional Record,
which demand notice from me. He SAYS:
1T might be we'll to inquire whether or
not the attorney general has been ordered
not to obey the law Of congress passed last
April-which ! will call the Ttllman-Bona-
parte law-ordering suit to be instituted for
the recovery of these lands. My Culpa-
bility is of such enormity and magnitude In
contemplating the purchase of lao acres
of land at S2.50 an acre in the eyes OF this
stickler for official rectitude in others that
II may be found that he is determined toI
block my so-called 'nefsrious transactions
The man who announces to congress
that he, Theodore Roosevelt, assumed the
right to permit the Steel trust to absorb
its greatest rival contrary to law would
doubtless not hesitate to help his dear
friend Hartman in holding 100000 acres of
the public domain, simply because Ben TILL
man has contemplated and wanted TO buy
l 40 acres
Suit FILED september 4.
on September A., 1898, suit was brought by
the United States for the district of oregon
against the Oregon & California Railroad
company, the Southern Pacific company,
the Union Trust company, Individually and
as trustee; Stephen T. Gage, Individually
and as trustee, and a large number of in
%dividual defendants. The purpose of this
suit Is. in substance, to declare and enforce |
a forfeiture of the public lands claimed by
the railroads under Mr.. Harriman's control
by virtue of the original grant to the Ore
don & California railroad.
1t was filed in accordance with the direc-
tons of the joint resolution to which Sen
ator Ttllman refers, as soon as practicable
after the passage of the said resolution, and
the fact OF its institution has been published
and could have been verified by anyone
through inquiry at this department for
more than four months |
Senator Tillman SAYS IN another part of
his speech CRecord, Page 1872:
In my conversation with the attorney
general in regard to the resolution which I
introduced and which he himself prepared,
after we had talked over the whole land sit
uation ! distinctly remember telling him
that my interest in the natter had first
timber land and that my coming to hin was !
due to the fact that I had discovered that
could not buy IT. through any agency
whatever, that | could not buy II even by a
law suit. because I was advised by very
able lawyers In the west. among them Hon.
George Turner of Washington. that in at
lacking the holders of those land grants no
one would have any standing in court eX-
what TilIman Said.
Senator Tillman called on me at the De-
psrtment of Justice a few days before the
Introduction by him of the resolution,
which, see, he presented to the senate on
therefore a little less than three weeks be
fore his letter of February Is to Messrs
Feeder and Watkins, i'm which he requested
of the best quarter sections and probably
a little more than three weeks before his
statement in the senate that he had not
bought any land anywhere in the vest, or
undertaken to buy any" He told me he
wished as to the status of the
lands embraced in these Oregon grants be-
cause he had heard so much complaint
about the conduct of the corporations claim
Ing them during his recent journey through
the states of the Pacific slope. Hs criti-
cised, with great severity, the policy of
granting the public domain to such cor
porations, and mentioned that on some oc-
casions he had said to certain of his col
leagues: You may as well give them
what they want row; you have given them
pretty much everything else"
He said according to my recollection,
that the lands had become of great value
and many persons wished to purchase
them. and added, that he would have been
glad to do so himself IL he could. but he
never told me a word of any connection
on his part with an arrangement to ac-
quire some part Of these lands, nor that he
intended, expected or even desired, at that
time, to make any such purchase, As
stated by him., his reason for making these
inquiries was that he might better dis
charge his public duties, and was totally
ignorant until l saw the documents trans
mitted by the president to Senator Hale
that Senator T1llman, at the time of his
conversation with me. had any private in
terest, whether actual or in expectation, in
connection with the subject OF our CONVEX
sation.
why Resolution Was Drawn.
I gave him a full statement Of the IN
formation which had been collected by the
department as the result OF a protracted
investigator made by Messrs. Townsend
had continued during a Considerable part
of the preceding year, I told him also that
we deemed 1t advisable to secure congress
sional action in the form of a resolution
empowering the attorney general to claim
a forfeiture of these lands and that I felt
some apprehension lest such action should
be opposed by the large interests which IN
would affect. Senator Tllman then offered
to introduce a resolution on the subject II
a resolution, which was introduced by him
and subsequently, adopted. During this in
tervtew | explained to him that IL would be
tmpracticable To compel the corporations
claiming these lands to sell any particular
portion or them to any particular person;
establish a forfeiture OF rights under the
grant the lands might become afterward
onen TO entry on the same terms as any
other portion of the public domain. OF
course, II 1t was. at the time, his purpose
to secure some part of the lands In aues-
ton, through arrangements with Messrs.
Reeder and Watkins, or otherwise, this
forfeiture might tend TO promote his in
diyiduai interests but I had no reason to
credit him with any such purpose, and 1
dealt with him throughout as skiing the
information and advice I could give only
that he might fulfill his duty as a nublia
officer.