EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 21, 1889_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith return without approval House bill No. 1368, entitled "An act
to quiet title of settlers on the Des Moines River lands, in the State
of Iowa, and for other purposes."
This bill is to all intents and purposes identical with Senate bill
No. 150, passed in the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress, which
failed to receive Executive approval. My objections to that bill are set
forth in a message transmitted to the Senate on the 11th day of March,
1886.[32] They are all applicable to the bill herewith returned, and
a careful reexamination of the matters embraced in this proposed
legislation has further satisfied me of their validity and strength.
The trouble proposed to be cured by this bill grew out of the
indefiniteness and consequent contradictory construction by the officers
of the Government of a grant of land made in 1846 by Congress to the
State of Iowa (then a Territory) for the purpose of aiding in the
improvement of the Des Moines River. This grant was accepted on the 9th
day of January, 1847, by the State of Iowa, as required by the act of
Congress, and soon thereafter the question arose whether the lands
granted were limited to those which adjoined the river in its course
northwesterly from the southerly line of the State to a point called the
Raccoon Fork, or whether such grant covered lands so adjoining the river
through its entire course through the Territory, and both below and
above the Raccoon Fork.
The Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office, on the 17th day of
October, 1846, instructed the officers of the land office in Iowa that
the grant extended only to the Raccoon Fork.
On the 23d day of February, 1848, the Commissioner of the General
Land Office held that the grant extended along the entire course of the
river.
Notwithstanding this opinion, the President, in June, 1848, proclaimed
the lands upon the river above the Raccoon Fork to be open for sale and
settlement under the land laws, and about 25,000 acres were sold to and
preempted by settlers under said proclamation.
In 1849, and before the organization of the Department of the Interior,
the Secretary of the Treasury decided, upon a protest against opening
said lands for sale and settlement, that the grant extended along the
entire course of the river.
Pursuant to this decision, and on the 1st day of June, 1849, the
Commissioner of the General Land Office directed the reservation or the
withholding from sale of all lands on the odd-numbered sections along
the Des Moines River above the Raccoon Fork.
This reservation from entry and sale under the general land laws seems
to have continued until a deed of the lands so reserved was made by the
State of Iowa and until the said deed was supplemented and confirmed by
the action of the Congress in 1861 and 1862.
In April, 1850, the Secretary of the Interior, that Department having
then been created, determined that the grant extended no farther than
the Raccoon Fork; but in view of the fact that Congress was in session
and might take steps in the matter, the Commissioner of the General Land
Office expressly continued the reservation.
In October, 1851, another Secretary of the Interior, while expressing
the opinion that the grant only extended to the Raccoon Fork, declared
that he would approve the selections made by the State of Iowa of lands
above that point, "leaving the question as to the construction of the
statute entirely open to the action of the judiciary."
In this condition of affairs selections were made by Iowa of a large
quantity of land lying above the Raccoon Fork, which selections were
approved and the land certified to the State. In the meantime the State
had entered upon the improvement of the river and it appears had
disposed of some of the land in furtherance of said improvement. But in
1854 the State of Iowa made a contract with the Des Moines Navigation
and Railroad Company for the continuance of said work at a cost of
$1,300,000, the State agreeing in payment thereof to convey to the
company all the land which had been or should thereafter be certified to
the State of Iowa under the grant of 1846.
In November, 1856, further certification of lands above the Raccoon Fork
under the grant to the State of Iowa was refused by the Interior
Department. This led to a dispute and settlement between the State of
Iowa and the Des Moines Navigation and Railroad Company, by which the
State conveyed by deed to said company--
All lands granted by an act of Congress approved August 8, 1846, to the
then Territory of Iowa to aid in the improvement of the Des Moines River
which have been approved and certified to the State of Iowa by the
General Government, saving and excepting all lands sold and conveyed,
or agreed to be sold and conveyed, by the State, by its officers and
agents, prior to the 23d day of December, 1853, under said grant.
This exception was declared in the deed to cover the lands above the
Raccoon Fork disposed of to settlers by the Government in 1848 under the
proclamation of the President opening said lands to sale and settlement,
which has been referred to; and it is conceded that neither these lands
nor the rights of any settlers thereto are affected by the terms of the
bill now under consideration.
The amount of land embraced in this deed located above the Raccoon Fork
appears to be more than 271,000 acres.
It is alleged that the company in winding up its affairs distributed
this land among the parties interested, and that said land, or a large
part of it, has been sold to numerous parties now claiming the same
under titles derived from said company.
In December, 1859, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that
the grant to the Territory of Iowa under the law of 1846 conveyed no
land above the Raccoon Fork, and that all selections and certifications
of lands above that point were unauthorized and void, and passed no
title or interest in said lands to the State of Iowa. In other words, it
was determined that these lands were, in the language of the bill under
consideration, "improperly certified to Iowa by the Department of the
Interior under the act of August 8, 1846."
This adjudication would seem to conclusively determine that the title to
these lands was, as the law then stood, and notwithstanding all that had
taken place, still in the United States. And for the purpose of granting
all claim or right of the Government to said lands for the benefit of
the grantees of the State of Iowa, Congress, on the 2d day of March,
1861, passed a joint resolution providing that all the title still
retained by the United States in the lands above the Raccoon Fork, in
the State of Iowa, "which have been certified to said State improperly
by the Department of the Interior as part of the grant by act of
Congress approved August 8, 1846, and which is now held by _bona
fide_ purchasers under the State of Iowa, be, and the same is hereby,
relinquished to the State of Iowa."
Afterwards, and on the 12th day of July, 1862, an act of Congress was
passed extending the grant of 1846 so as to include lands lying above
the Raccoon Fork.
The joint resolution and act of Congress here mentioned have been
repeatedly held by the Supreme Court of the United States to supply a
title to the lands mentioned in the deed from the State of Iowa to the
Navigation and Railroad Company, which inured to the benefit of said
company or its grantees.
No less than ten cases have been decided in that court more or less
directly establishing this proposition, as well as the further
proposition that no title to these lands could prior to said
Congressional action be gained by settlers, for the reason that it had
been withdrawn and reserved from entry and sale under the general land
laws. It seems to be perfectly well settled also, if an adjudication was
necessary upon that question, that all interest of the United States in
these lands was entirely and completely granted by the resolution of
1861 and the act of 1862.
The act of 1862 provides for the setting apart of other lands in lieu of
such as were covered by the act, but had been before its passage sold
and disposed of by the United States, excepting such as had been
released to the State of Iowa under the joint resolution of 1861.
It is claimed, I believe, that in a settlement of land grants thereafter
had between the United States and the State of Iowa lands were allowed
to the State in lieu or indemnity for some of the lands which it had
conveyed to the Des Moines Navigation and Railroad Company. But if the
title of the company is valid to lands along the river and above the
Raccoon Fork, under the deed from Iowa and the joint resolution and act
of Congress, it can not be in the least affected by the fact that the
State afterwards, justly or unjustly, received other lands as indemnity.
The bill under consideration provides that all the lands "improperly
certified to Iowa" under the grant of 1846, as referred to in the joint
resolution of 1861, and for which indemnity lands were selected and
received by the State, as provided in the act of 1862, "are, and are
hereby, declared to be public lands of the United States."
The claims of persons and their heirs who, with intent in good faith to
obtain title under the preemption and homestead laws of the United
States, have entered and remained upon any tract of said land prior to
1880 are confirmed and made valid to them and their heirs, not exceeding
160 acres; and upon due proof and payment of the usual price or fees it
is directed that such claims shall be carried to patent.
It is further provided that the claims of settlers and claimants which
do not come in conflict with the claims of the parties above mentioned
are confirmed and made valid. By the second section of the bill it is
made the duty of the Attorney-General, as soon as practicable, and
within three years after the passage of the act, to institute legal
proceedings to assert and protect the title of the United States to said
lands and to remove all clouds from its title thereto.
One result of this legislation, if consummated and if effectual, would
be to restore to the United States, as a part of the public domain,
lands which more than twenty-five years ago the Government expressly
granted and surrendered, and which repeated decisions of the Supreme
Court have adjudged to belong by virtue of this action of the Government
to other parties.
Another result would be not only to validate claims to this land which
our highest judicial tribunal have solemnly declared to be invalid, but
to actually direct the issue of patents in confirmation of said claims.
Still another result would be to oblige the Government of the United
States to enter the courts ostensibly to assert and protect its title to
said land, while in point of fact it would be used to enforce private
claims to the same and unsettle private ownership.
It is by no means certain that this proposed legislation, relating to a
subject peculiarly within the judicial function, and which attempts to
disturb rights and interests thoroughly intrenched in the solemn
adjudications of our courts, would be upheld. In any event, it seems to
me that it is an improper exercise of legislative power, an interference
with the determinations of a coordinate branch of the Government, an
arbitrary annulment of a public grant made more than twenty-five years
ago, an attempted destruction of vested rights, and a threatened
impairment of lawful contracts.
The advocates of this measure insist that a point in favor of the
settlers upon these lands and important in the consideration of this
bill is found in the following language of the constitution of the State
of Iowa, which was adopted in 1857:
The general assembly shall not locate any of the public lands which have
been or may be granted by Congress to this State, and the location of
which may be given to the general assembly, upon lands actually settled,
without the consent of the occupant.
The State under its constitution was perfectly competent to take the
grants of 1861 and 1862. The clause of the constitution above quoted
deals expressly with "lands which have been or may be granted by
Congress to the State," and thus of necessity recognizes its right to
take such grants. This competency in the State as a grantee was all that
was needed to create, under the joint resolution of 1861 and the act of
1862, a complete divestiture of the interests of the United States in
these lands. It must be borne in mind, too, that prior to this time
these lands had been conveyed by the State of Iowa in furtherance of the
purposes of the original Congressional grants, and that the joint
resolution of 1861 and the act of 1862 were really made for the benefit
of those who held under grants from the State. After these grants by the
Government it had no concern with these lands. If in any stage of the
proceedings the general assembly of Iowa was guilty of any neglect of
duty or failed to act in accordance with the constitution of the State
of Iowa, the remedy should be found in the courts of that State; and it
is difficult to see how the situation in this aspect can be changed or
improved by the bill under consideration.
I am not unmindful of the fact that there may be persons who have
suffered or who are threatened with loss through a reliance upon the
erroneous decisions of Government officials as to the extent of the
original grant from the United States to the Territory of Iowa. I
believe cases of this kind should be treated in accordance with the
broadest sentiments of equity, and that where loss is apparent arising
from a real or fairly supposed invitation of the Government to settle
upon the lands mentioned in the bill under consideration such loss
should be made good. But I do not believe that the condition of these
settlers will be aided by encouraging them in such further litigation as
the terms of this bill invite, nor do I believe that in attempting to
right the wrongs of which they complain legislation should be sanctioned
mischievous in principle, and in its practical operation doing injustice
to others as innocent as they and as much entitled to consideration.