Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Memorial.

Request.

Instructions.

Forwarded.

MEMORIAL NO. 1.

EXTENSION OF BOUNDARY.

MEMORIAL AND JOINT RESOLUTION for the extension of the Wes-
tern Boundary Line of the State of Iowa to the Missouri river.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled:

Your memorialists, the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, would respectfully respresent that the Missouri river is the most natural and appropriate western boundary for the State of Iowa; and that it is highly important to the best interests of said State, as it will be to the people who may hereafter settle and occupy the delta of land, located between the present western boundary of said State and said river, that the same should be attached to and made a part of the State of Iowa, so that the Missouri river may constitute the entire western boundary line of said State, and as a parallel of latitude, (forty-three degrees, thirty minutes,) extending from the Mississippi river to the Missouri river, may constitute the northern boundary line of said State.

Your memorialists would therefore respectfully ask of your honorable bodies, that a law may be passed providing for the immediate extinguishment of the Indian title to said land, and for its annexation to the State of Iowa.

Resolved, That the Senators ftom this State be instructed, and the Representatives be requested, to use their best exertions to procure the passage of a law, as asked for in the foregoing memorial, and that the Secretary of State forward a copy thereof to each.

APPROVED, July 12th, 1856.

MEMORIAL NO. 2.

FOR GRANT OF LANDS

MEMORIAL AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS, asking Congress for a grant of land to aid in the construction of a Rail Road, from McGreggor's landing on the Mississippi River, to a point in the Western bounds of the State of Iowa, between Sargeant's Bluffs, and the north bounds of the State, and in case the bounds of the State be extended to the Missouri River on the northwest, said grant to extend to the then west bounds of said State.

WHEREAS, by an act of Congress, approved May 15th, Preamble. 1756, in answer to a memorial of the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, a grant of land was made to said State, to aid in the construction of three several Rail Roads as applied for in said memorial. And Whereas, one road to wit that from McGreggor's landing named in said memorial of the General Assembly, was left out of the said grant, and whereas the route of said road from McGreggor's landing would be at least eighty miles north of the most northern of the said roads, provided for in said grant ;-and whereas it is believed that a great portion of the north western part of the State of Iowa, and the south western portion of Minnesota, must remain for a long time unsettled, unless encouraged by Rail Road facilities; and whereas it is believed that the granting of alternate sections to the State under proper restrictions for the purpose of aiding in the construction of all practicable Rail Roads in the State, has a direct tendency to promote not only the best interests of the State, but of the General Government; therefore, Resolved, by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, Instruction. That our Senators be instructed, and Representatives in Congress be requested to procure the passage of a law granting to the State of Iowa, the alternate sections of land along the line of the proposed road, to an equal extent, under like privileges and restrictions with the grant made to the said other roads by said act of May 15th, 1856, to wit:

Commencing at McGreggor's landing on the Mississippi, McGregor's to thence on the most practicable route to a point in the western N. boundary bounds of the State between Sargeant's Bluffs and the north

boundary of the State, and in case the west bounds of the State be extended to the Missouri on the North West, that the said grant of land be also extended to the other western boundary, and that the lands likely to be within the scope of the applied for grant now for sale, be immediately withdrawn from market, and wherever the lands are not in market the same be withheld from sale, until sufficient time shall have expired for the particular location of this road, and the selecting of said lands, to be conveyed in said grant.

Forward copy Resolved, That the Secretary of State be instructed to forward a copy of the foregoing memorial and resolutions. to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, to the Secretary of the Interior, and to the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

APPROVED July 15th 1856.

Recital.

MEMORIAL NO. 3.

SWAMP LANDS.

MEMORIAL AND JOINT RESOLUTION in relation to the swamp land.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States, in Congress assembled.

Your memorialists, the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, respectfully represent, that under the act of Congress entitled "an act to enable the State of Arkansas, and other states, to reclaim the swamp lands within its limits," approved September 28th, 1850, a considerable amount of such land accrued to the State of Iowa; that by an act of the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, passed in January, 1852, entitled "an act to dispose of the swamp and overflowed lands within the State, and to pay the expenses of selecting and surveying the same," those lands were

granted to the counties respectively in which they were situated, in trust for the purpose of draining and reclaiming the same, and provisions were made for the selection, survey and disposal of the same.

That under the last named act the greater part of the or-Selections. ganized counties of the State, containing swamp lands, proceeded to select and survey the same.

That much of the land so selected has been returned, ac- Returned. cording to the provisions of law, and the instruction of the proper department, to the land offices of the several districts in which it was situated, marked upon the plats as swamp land, and withheld from sale or entry, and plats of land so withheld furnished to the several counties in which it was situated, that subsequently, to-wit: on the 25th of January, 1855, an act of the General Assembly of this State was approved, entitled "a bill to prevent trespass or waste upon the swamp or other lands in the State of Iowa, and for other purposes;" by which, among other things, pre- Pre-emptions. emption rights were granted to actual settlers upon the swamp or overflowed lands, when the same had been selected, and return thereof made to the County Judges of the several counties; and at the same session of the General Assembly, an act was passed authorizing the Governor of the State, to cause the swamp lands in the unorganized counties of the State to be selected.

That under the provisions of the acts above mentioned, a Lands sold. large quantity of these lands has been sold to or pre-empted by actual settlers, and especially since the passage of the law above named, granting pre-emption rights; the withdrawal of the same from sale or entry, at the land offices, and the furnishing of the several County Judges with plats thereof, having been considered by the people settling upon the same and by the counties as a sufficient guarranty of title in the State, and through the State to the counties in Guarantee of which they are situated. That in many of the counties the funds arising from the sale of the swamp lands have been Funds appor appropriated according to the intent of the act of Congress tioned." to reclaiming the same, and contracts have been entered in- Contracts. to for ditching and draining.

title.

Commis'r.

Instructions of Your memorialists would further represent, that under the instructions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, dated February 11th, 1856, much hardship, and in many instances great injustice has been and will be wraught upon actual settlers upon the swamp lands, as well as upon the counties in which they are situated; under those instructions the question as to whether the lands selected were swamp or not, has been permitted to be opened, and applications for said lands been allowed at the Land Offices, by filing the following affidavit, viz:

[blocks in formation]

Not final.

On this

ed before me the undersigned

of Iowa,

-1856, personally appear

in the State

who being

by me duly sworn deposes and says that he is well acquainted with the character of the soil in the following described tract of land, to-wit:

in township

of section

of range

trict of lands subject to sale at

in the disin the county of

That he has been over and examined the lines of said land and the marks or designations on the corner posts or trees, and from such examination has ascertained and knows the greater part of each forty acre tract thereof to be dry and fit for cultivation, without artificial drainage or embankment, and free from such regular periodical overflow, either at the planting, growing, or harvesting season, as would materially injure or destroy a crop.

And further, that such was the character thereof on the 28th day of September, 1850, the day on which the Swamp Land Law was passed.

Subscribed and sworn before me, on the day aforesaid. Those instructions are based upon the supposition that the selections made by the state or county agents, even when properly authenticated, and followed by a withdrawal of the lands so selected from sale or entry, are not final nor binding upon the General Government. This supposition your memorialists do not design at this time to controvert, nor do they deny that the selections may not in some in

« ZurückWeiter »