Year: 1872

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
Effect of the Political Situation on Le9is.
lnti0n-RaiirOnd Outrages Upon the
Settlers-The President Places Them
Under Military Surveillnnce-The P0.
litical Aspect at Washington.


Especial Correspondence Of the Republican,
WASHINGTON, February H. 1872.
RAILROAD OUrRAGEs.


Legislation is slow here, and measures


that have anything like a bearing on the
approaching contest tor the Presidency, OF
| can be used as weapons by the opposition
Democratic or Republican, are dealt with
| cautiously. Those introduced by friends OF
the administration are allowed to sleep il
they are remotely liable to injure the Grant
cause, while such as have been carried SO


far as to meet with opposition, are dropped


like hot Goals. Especial care is exercised


with respect to the disposition of the public


lands, and the settlement of differences be-


tween the Western railroad companies and


the settlers. Enough has been done al


reay by the Interior Department to ALLEVIATE


thousands of voters from the Republican


party in the States west of the Mississippi


for these honest settlers are not the men to


abandon true principles because Of oppres-


sion by a member of their own party in


power. SO when the railroad land iobbers,


who at the outset were made rich by the


liberal grants Of Congress, and who have


ever since been stealing the homes of poor


people, come here for the purpose of obtain


ing additional legislation in their favor,


they find the wheels locked. They come to


procure the passage of laws to sanction


their unlawful acts, to confirm unlawful de


cisons of the Interior Department in their


interest, and to give their additional subsi-


dies of lands or bonds. Hardly one Of these


companies could be named to whom the


original grant of land by Congress was not


equal to double the value required to con-


struct and equip their road. Many of them


had bonds besides. Yet, they clamor for


more subsidy, the while Obtaining by theft


what they have little hope of gaining hon


estly. Fearing that the settlers who failed


to obtain redress of their grievances, upon


application to the government, would rise


in arms to resist the encroachments upon


their rights, and avenge the Outrages al


ready committed, these companies in
voked the aid of the military power
of the government. 1t is a black mark
1S al, ,s.,<r
furnished for this purpose. In Kansas, for
more than two years past, soldiers to the
number of 300 have been quartered in the
Cherokee neutral lands, under the command
of Brigadier General Hazen. Why was
there need for theml There had never


been any attempt or threat ON the part of
the settlers to resist process of court. Not
one OF the numerous emissaries of the rail
road company who swarmed the country
had been struck by a settler. The answer
of repeated and grievous wrongs perpe-
trated by them upon the settlers and fore
saw the approach of a serious reckoning.
The friends of President Grant will hardly
think it creditabe TO him that he allowed
himself through the influence of James


+. Joy, Of the Missouri River, Fort
Scott and Gulf railroad to become the
oppressor of these people. Transporta-
ton and quarters were furnished to
the troops by Joy free of cost to the
assumed to give passes to the settlers to
travel about the country, implying that
they had no right to be at large without his
consent-the exercise of an authority with
which even the President is not invested by
the constitution. When their special dele
gate in Washington, having in his hand a
petition signed by 100 ex-soleier settlers,
asking that the troops be removed, pre-
sented himself at the White House. Presi-
dent Grant refused to hear him. Was the
President stupid enough to think that he
could afford to turn his back upon such an
application, and to disregard the wrongs of
the people, when he himself was party to
those wrongs, and chiefly responsible,
Does he think that his military record has
rendered him forever immaculate, and that
nothing he may do will blemish his political
reputation and make him, in the eyes of
the people, unworthy of the highest office
in their gifts We fear that he is the spoiled
child Of the war, and that his willfulness
will be his ruin.


In April last Secretary Delano rendered
decision in which he held that odd num-
bered sections of land, or portions of them,
within the limits of railroad grants covered,
at the time the line of the road is located,
by homestead or pre-emption claims, revert
or belong to the government on being sub
abandoned by the settlers: that
this was the direct result of the language
in the granting acts-these grants
giving to the railroad company the odd
numbered sections not sold, reserved, or
appropriated, and to which home
stead or pre-emptiOn claims may not have
at the time the line of the road is
definitely fixed, and that such tracts are re-
served from the grant, Congress having re-
tanned them fol the benefit of the settlers,
with the view Of issuing patents to such as
should comply with the law. This decision
was reversal of the previous practice of
n r