The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session Forty-First Congress; Together with an Appendix, Embracing the Laws Passed at that Session Page: 2,904
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2904
THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
April 22,
The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a
third reading, was read the third tiuar, and
passed.
FORT RIDOKI.Y RKSKRVATION LANDS.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Secretary
will report the next bill.
The Secretary. The next bill on the Cal-
endar is the bill ^S. No. 8511 for the protection
of the settlers withiu the Fort Ridgelv military
reservation. Minnesota.
There being no objection, the bill was con-
sidered as in Committee of the Whole*.
The Committee on Public Lands reported
an amendment, to strike out all after the en-
acting clause and insert the following ns a
substitute:
That the War Department having abandoned the
^ - 1 _ \ . . . —. . A - >. ^ If Wk ^ 1 it A yv ♦ tn4k
improvements upon said re.-ervation, and shall re-
port the value thereof to tho Commissioner ot' tho
<ieneral Land Office, designating t*ie particular l s:il
subdivision of land upon which the s uno exist, and
tho land* within sj d ros«ratiun-iioi heretofore
entered aad j>. :er.ted shjl! he subject to disposal
under the pre-tnp'.ion l*ws of the I nitetl States, or
at private entry atter public olt'rriug and tor cash
only, and persons entering upon or purchasing said
lands shall pay the aprruisvd value of the Govern-
ment improvements titr.t asav appear to exint on
their respective claimt at the date of proving up or
of purchase at private eutry.
fete. 2. Ami be it further rnarteJ, That all entries
which have been made on lands within tbe limits of
said reserve, and lor which the General Land Office
may have issued patents in regular form, not having
at tho time knowledge of said reserve, be. and the
same are hereby, confirmed: I'romdeil, That the
value of the Government improvements thereon
have been or shall be paiii for by the persons making
said entries or by toeir assigns: .4nit provided fur-
ther, That tbe same shall be pail for within oneyear
from tae passage ot taw act: and it the same are not
paid for within the timo designated the Secretary of
the Interior is hereby authorized to and shall im-
mediately thereafter institute judicial proceedings
against any and alt of the said parties or their assigns
tailing to makesaid payment, with the view to vacate
the patents which may have issued.
Stc. S. And It it further enncterl. That all entries
heretofore made on said lands and not yet patented
are hereby declared, at the discretion of the Commis-
•ioner.noll and void, and directed to be canceled by
t.ie said Commissioner of the General Land Office,
and tbe lands embraced therein shall be disposed of
under the provisions of this act.
Mr. HOWARD. I ask the chairman of the
Committee on Public Lands whether by this
bill these lands are to be sold on a credit?
Mr. POMEROY. Yes; there is a credit of
one year to these settlers.
Mr. HOWARD. I infer from the reading
of the bill that patents can issue even before
the purchase-money has been paid.
Mr. RAMSEY. No, sir.
Mr. HOWARD. Let it be read again. The
Government did not make anything by the old
practice of selling lands on credit.
The Secretary again read the substitute.
Mr. HOWARD. Certainly it contemplates
a proceeding to vacate a patent. The patents
are to be issued before the land is paid for.
Mr. POMEROY. No.
Mr. WILLIAMS. I think I can explain to
the Senator from Michigan in & moment. Pat-
ents have been issued for a small portion of
this reservation in ignorance of the fact that
there was a military reservation there and the
improvements of the United States are upon
the lands that were so patented. This pro-
vision is that the persons holding those patents
shall pay for those improvements within one
year from the passage of this act, otherwise
proceedings shell be instituted to set aside
their patents. The credit only applies to the
improvements on the land.
Mr. HOWARD. I see. Very well; I do
not object.
Mr. HOWE. As I understand this bill, it
provides for the sale of these lands absolutely
to anybody at tbe sum at which they shall
have been appraised without any offering of
tbe lands at public sale.
Mr. POMEROY. If they are actual settlers
they may have them at $1 25.
Mr. HOWB. Suppose they are not actual
settlers ?
Mr. POMEROY. Then they do not get
them at all.
Mr. HOWE. Not get them at all I
Mr. POMEROY. No. They can be pre-
ernpted, but there is no offering at public sale.
Mr. HOWE. Ought there not to bo?
Mr. llAMSEY. The lands are all occupied.
Settlers have been on them for years.
Mr. HOWE. The bill does not give us that
information. It docs not provide for those who
are actual settlers ou the lands, and have made
improvements.
Mr. RAMSEY. It docs provide for them.
Mr. HOWE. They may be provided for, but
it provides for everybody else as well.
Mr. POMEROY. It provides only for set-
tlers.
Mr. HOWE. I do not understand that to
be so.
Mr. POMEROY. Read it.
Mr. HOWE. It says:
The lands within taid reservation not heretofore
entered and patented shall be subject to disposal
uuder tho preemption laws of the Luitod Status, or
at private entry after public offering and for cash
only.
Mr. RAMSEY. What is the objection to
that ?
Mr. HOWE. The objection is that it does
not seem to me to declare that there shall be
an offering at public sale.
Mr. RAMSEY. It says so; "'after public
offering and for cash only."
Mr. HOWE. That is what I want to know.
The chairman of the committee says it does
not provide for a public sale.
Mr. POMEROY. It does not compel a
public sale; it allows it if the Department
thinks proper.
Mr. RAMSEY. The Senator from Wiscon-
sin must be satisfied. Why persist in opposi-
tion?
Mr. HOWE. I should like lo have a com-
mittee of investigation, and have this bill re-
ferred to it in order to ascertain whether it
does provide for a public sale or not.
Mr. HARLAN. This bill does not, but the
general law does.
Mr. HOWE. Will the general law control
the disposal of these lands?
Mr. POMEROY. There is no general law
to compel a pnblic sale. It only allows it when-
ever the Department chooses. These lands are
by this bill declared public lands, and then the
general law applies.
Mr. HOWARD. Does not the general law
require a pnblic sale?
Mr. HARLAN. Certainly it does.
Mr. HOWARD. That general law would
not apply to a military reservation.
Mr. HARLAN. It would when it is declared
to be pnblic land, except as to those who claim
under the preemption laws; their lands would
not be offered at public outcry, but thejr would
be notified to come in at a given period and
buy the lands before the offer at public outcry.
Mr. HOWE. I v/ould like to have the
opinion of the Senator from Iowa, then, on this
point: take such portion of this reservation as
is not now actually settled upon and occupied
by settlers, and thus brought under the opera-
tion of the preemption laws, could those lands
be purchased at private entry at the appraised
value without being offered at public sale to
the highest bidder under this bill ?
Mr. HAMLIN. I have not read this bill
critically.
Mr. RAMSEY. The language is: "and the
lands within said reservation not heretofore
entered and patented shall be subject to dis-
posal under the preemption laws of the Uni-
ted States." What more do you want? The
appraisement is of the improvement put upon
the land.
Mr. HOWE. And not of the land.
Mr. RAMSEY, No.
Mr. WILLIAMS. When this reservation is
surveyed as a part of the public domain of the
United States the lands are offered at public
sale like other pnblic lands. If they nre not
purchased, then they nre subject to private entry
like other public lands. This bill simply puts
the lands in this reservation on the same foot-
ing with the other public lands of tho United
States, subject to preemption on private entry,
but it is necessary before the lands can be sub-
ject to private entry that they should be exposed
for public sale; and if they aro not purchased
at such public sale, then they are subject to
private entry.
Mr. HOWE. That is the very point on
which I have been trying to get a legal opin-
ion. I understood the Senator from Kansas
to deny that construction of it-
Mr. POMBROY. No, sir.
Mr. HARLAN. The text of the amend-
ment provides explicitly for the offering of the
land at private sale: "shall be Rubject to dis-
posal under the preemption laws of the United
States, or at private entry after public offer-
ing, a'ud for cash only." So that they cannot
be bought at private eutry until they have been
offered at public sale.
Mr. POMEROY. It only allows the offer-
ing ; it does not compel the offering.
Mr. HARLAN. It says, "or at private entry
after public offering." That would require
that the land should first be offered publicly,
as other public lands are offered for sale,
before they become subject to private entry.
Mr. POMEROY. They must be offered,
but there is no time fixed when they shall be
offered. It is left to the Department whether
they shall be offered this year or next year.
They cannot be entered, however, at private
entry until they are offered.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The question is
on the amendment reported by the Committee
on Public Lands.
The amendment was agreed to.
The bill was reported to the Senate as amend-
ed ; and the amendment made as in Committee
of the Whole was concurred in.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a
third reading, was read the third time, aud
passed.
The title of the bill was amended so as to
read: "A bill for the disposal of the lands within
the Fort Ridgely military reservation, Minne-
sota."
HXEOBTtVK BUSINESS.
Mr. MORTON. I move that the Senate pro-
ceed to the consideration of executive busi-
ness. ["No!" "No!"]
Mr. HOWE. That is not in order.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Chair is re-
minded that the order states no other business
shall be in order except the consideration of
the general orders on the Calendar.
BLACK BOB INDIANS.
Mr. ROSS. I move to reconsider the mo-
tion which was made yesterday and passed by
which the Black Bob resolution was referred
back to the Committee on Indian Affairs. I
make that motion for the purpose of enabling
the joint resolution (S. R. No. 173) to retain
its place on the Calendar.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator
enters a motion to reconsider. The pendency
of the motion to reconsider suspends the pre-
vious order so as to have tbe effect the Sen-
ator from Kansas desires. The Secretary will
report the next bill on the Calendar.
The Secretary. The next bill on the Cal-
endar is a bill (S. No. 164) to amend an act
entitled "An act for the relief of Alexander J.
Atocha," approved February 14, 1865.
The VICE PRESIDENT. A Honse bill
has passed of the same character. If there be
no objection this will be indefinitely postponed.
It is so ordered.
BILLS OBJECTED TO.
The next bill on the Calendar was the bill
(S. No. 401) to amend an act entitled "An act
granting lands to aid in the construction of a
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session Forty-First Congress; Together with an Appendix, Embracing the Laws Passed at that Session, book, 1870; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30886/m1/76/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.