The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-07-23
Col. Lounsberry's Washington Letter

~~~-~-~~---~-~~- 1898
Court House. 70 killed: at Savannah, 70
killed. at Norfolk. killed, wounded and
missing, 80. There were many battles
| in the civil war where the losses were
greater than the entire loss of the
revolutionary war period.
1t cost much to establish this gov
eminent. II cost very much more to
preserve 1t. ! am sorry to say almost
every man who opposed the prosecution
| OF the war for the preservation of the
union was a democrat. Some were
brave, true, patriotic and fought with
the true patriots from start to finish.
But there were others. Sunset Cox at
the democratic national convention in
1864 said:
Abraham Lincoln has deluged this
country with blood, created debt of
$4,000, 100000 and sacrificed 100000
human lives. At the November cleo
tions we will damn him with eternal
infamy. Even Jefferson Davis is no
greater enemy of the constitution"
Henry Clay Dean said, in speaking
of Lincoln
with all of his vast armies Lincoln
has failed, failed, failed, failed, failed.
And still the monster usurper wants
more victims for his slaughter pens. /
blush that such felon should occupy
the highest gift of the people. Perjury
and larceny are written all over him.
Ever since the usurper, traitor and ty-
rant has occupied the presidential
chair, the republican party has shouted
war to the knife and the knife TO the
hilt. Blood has flowed in torrents, and
yet the thirst of the old monster Is
not quenched. His cry is for more
blood"
1t was such speeches as these the
surrender platform adopted by the ma
tional convention of 1864, and the
general course of the democratic party
during the war, that makes the old
soldiers republican almost without ex-
ception. And it is a good thing to
sometimes remind the men from other
political Affiliations, why the soldiers
political affiliations, why the soldiers
stand in solid banks with and for the
party which held up their hands and
encouraged them, while fighting the
battles of teir country.
And during the Cleveland admins
tration it was the Sparks order sus-
pending, practically the issuance of
land patents that cost many thousand
people their homes in the great and
now prosperous west. He Cancelled
claims on the f1imiest kind of evidence
and encouraged contests. In his re-
port for 1887 on page 102 he said 49,
500 individual contests were then
pending and new ones were being en-
tered at the rate of 1000 a month.
Many settlers had made proof, Dor
rowing 5000 to $500 on their home
steads who lost them because their
patents were not issued. Mears used
to say that the only safe claim to buy
was a fraudulent claim for the reason
that the man making such a claim
would make his proof strong enough
to carry it through without regard to
proof. In Lakota township thereSwera
thirty-six claims suspended and they
remained so until after the Harrison
administration came in. l saw at one
time in one letter a list of over $4,000
claims in the Fargo district that were
held for investigation, resulting in de-
lay, inconvenience and loss. He es-
timated the per cent of fraudulent
proofs on five year claims at 40 per
CGilL. Tie Sdlu TIC lEduuulSl1L COHl-
muted entries could be more nearly
estimated at the hole number than
any other manner, and the filings
where REIMBURSEMENT followed filing
was exactly 100 per cent. In three
years of the Sparks administration of
the general landoff1ce under Mr.. Cleve-
land, there were 81, 623 land patents is
sued; under four years or the Harri-
son administration the number was
369,17S.
Immigration was checked, develop
ment discouraged, the homestead and
other entrymen harrassed, outraged
and in many instances bereft of their
homes, and land values kept down in
many instances even below the govern
ment price. There are many hundred
quarter sections in North Dakota today
worth from $4,000 to $4,000 which at
that time could not have been sold at
5000. SCR C. Al.