of conveyance on the 18th day of May, 1858. These fifteen deeds, it is claimed, by the Company, convey 266,108 acres, of which about 53,367 are below the Raccoon Fork, and the balance, 212,741 acres, are above that point.

Besides the lands deeded to the Company, the State had deeded to individual purchasers 58,830 acres above the Raccoon Fork, making an aggregate of 271,571 acres, deeded above the Fork, all of which had been certified to the State by the Federal Government.

By act approved March 28, 1858, the Legislature donated the remainder of the grant to the Keokuk, Fort Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad Company, upon condition that said Company assumed all liabilities resulting from the Des Moines River improvement operations, reserving 50,000 acres of the land in security for the payment thereof, and for the completion of the locks and dams at Bentonsport, Crotton, Keosauqua and Plymouth. For every three thousand dollars' worth of work done on the locks and dams, and for every three thousand dollars paid by the Company of the liabilities above mentioned, the Register of the State Land Office was instructed to certify to the Company 1,000 acres of the 50,000 acres reserved for these purposes. Up to 1865, there had been presented by the Company, under the provisions of the act of 1858, and allowed, claims amounting to $109,579.37, about seventy-five per cent. of which had been settled.

After the passage of the act above noticed, the question of the extent of the original grant was again mooted, and at the December term of the Supreme Court of the United States, in 185960, a decision was rendered declaring that the grant did not extend above Raccoon Fork, and that all certificates of land above the Fork had been issued without authority of law and were, therefore, void (see 23 How., 66).

The State of Iowa had disposed of a large amount of land without authority, according to this decision, and appeal was made to Congress for relief, which was granted on the 3d day of March, 1861, in a joint resolution relinquishing to the State all the title which the United States then still retained in the tracts of land along the Des Moines River above Raccoon Fork, that had been improperly certified to the State by the Department of the Interior, and which is now held by bona fide purchasers under the State of Iowa.

In confirmation of this relinquishment, by act approved July 12, 1862, Congress enacted:

That the grant of lands to the then Territory of Iowa for the improvement of the Des Moines River, made by the act of August 8, 1846, is hereby extended so as to include the alternate sections (designated by odd numbers) lying within five miles of said river, between the Raccoon Fork and the northern boundary of said State; such lands are to be held and applied in accordance with the provisions of the original grant, except that the consent of Congress is hereby given to the application of a portion thereof to aid in the construction of the

Keokuk, Fort Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad, in accordance with the provisions of the act of the General Assembly of the State of Iowa approved March 22, 1858. And if any of the said lands shall have been sold or otherwise disposed of by the United States before the passage of this act, except those released by the United States to the grantees of the State of Iowa, under joint resolution of March 3, 1861, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed to set apart an equal amount of lands within said State to be certified in lieu thereof: Provided, that if the State shall have sold and conveyed any portion of the lands lying within the limits of the grant the title of which has proved invalid, any lands which shall be certified to said State in lieu thereof by virtue of the provisions of this act, shall inure to and be held as a trust fund for the benefit of the person, or persons, respectively, whose titles shall have failed as aforesaid.

The grant of lands by the above act of Congress was accepted by a joint resolution of the General Assembly, Sept. 11, 1862, in extra session. On the same day, the Governor was authorized to appoint one or more Commissioners to select the lands in accordance with the grant. These Commissioners were instructed to report their selections to the Registrar of the State Land Office. The lands so selected were to be held for the purposes of the grant, and were not to be disposed of until further legislation should be had. D. W. Kilburne, of Lee County, was appointed Commissioner, and, on the 25th day of April, 1864, the General Land Officer authorized the selection of 300,000 acres from the vacant public lands as a part of the grant of July 12, 1862, and the selections were made in the Fort Dodge and Sioux City Land Districts.

Many difficulties, controversies and conflicts, in relation to claims and titles, grew out of this grant, and these difficulties were enhanced by the uncertainty of its limits until the act of Congress of July, 1862. But the General Assembly sought, by wise and appropriate legislation, to protect the integrity of titles derived from the State. Especially was it the determination to protect the actual settlers, who had paid their money and made improvements pr or to the final settlement of the limits of the grant by Congress.

VII. THE DES MOINES RIVER SCHOOL LANDS.

These lands constituted a part of the 500,000 acre grant made by Congress in 1841; including 28,378.46 acres in Webster County, selected by the Agent of the State under that grant, and approved by the Commissioner of the General Land Office February 20, 1851. They were ordered into the market June 6, 1853, by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who authorized John Tolman, School Fund Commissioner for Webster County, to sell them as school lands. Subsequently, when the act of 1846 was construed to extend the Des Moines River grant above Raccoon Fork, it was held that the odd numbered sections of these lands within five miles of the river were appropriated by that act, and on the 30th day of December, 1853, 12,813.51 acres were set apart and approved to the State by the Secretary of the Interior,

as a part of the Des Moines River grant. January 6, 1854, the Commissioner of the General Land Office transmitted to the Superintendent of Public Instruction a certified copy of the lists of these lands, indorsed by the Secretary of the Interior. Prior to this action of the Department, however, Mr. Tolman had sold to individual purchasers 3,194.28 acres as school lands, and their titles were, of course, killed. For their relief, an act, approved April 2, 1860, provided that, upon application and proper showing, these purchasers should be entitled to draw from the State Treasury the amount they had paid, with ten per cent. interest, on the contract to purchase made with Mr. Tolman. Under this act, five applications were made prior to 1864, and the applicants received, in the aggregate, $949.53.

By an act approved April 7, 1862, the Governor was forbidden to issue to the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company any certificate of the completion of any part of said road, or any conveyance of lands, until the company should execute and file, in the State Land office, a release of its claim-first to certain swamp lands; second, to the Des Moines River Lands sold by Tolman; third, to certain other river lands. That act provided that "the said company shall transfer their interests in those tracts of land in Webster and Hamilton Counties heretofore sold by John Tolman, School Fund Commissioner, to the Register of the State Land Office in trust, to enable said Register to carry out and perform said contracts in all cases when he is called upon by the parties interested to do so, before the 1st day of January, A. D., 1864.

The company filed its release to the Tolman lands, in the Land Office, February 27, 1864, at the same time entered its protest that it had no claim upon them, never had pretended to have, and had never sought to claim them. The Register of the State Land Office, under the advice of the Attorney General, decided that patents would be issued to the Tolman purchasers in all cases where contracts had been made prior to December 23, 1853, and remaining uncancelled under the act of 1860. But before any were issued, on the 27th of August, 1864, the Des Moines Navigation and Railroad Company commenced a suit in Chancery, in the District Court of Polk County, to enjoin the issue of such patents. On the 30th of August, an ex parte injunction was issued. In January, 1868, Mr. J. A. Harvey, Register of the Land Office, filed in the court an elaborate answer to plaintiffs' petition, denying that the company had any right to or title in the lands. Mr. Harvey's successor, Mr. C. C. Carpenter, filed a still more exhaustive answer February 10, 1868. August 3, 1868, the District Court dissolved the injunction. The company appealed to the Supreme Court, where the decision of the lower court was affirmed in December, 1869.

An act of Congress, approved March 28, 1850, to enable Arkansas and other States to reclaim swampy lands within their limits, granted all the swamp and overflowed lands remaining unsold within their respective limits to the several States. Although the total amount claimed by Iowa under this act does not exceed 4,000,000 acres, it has, like the Des Moines River and some of the land grants, cost the State considerable trouble and expense, and required a deal of legislation. The State expended large sums of money in making the selections, securing proofs, etc., but the General Government appeared to be laboring under the impression that Iowa was not acting in good faith; that she had selected a large amount of lands under the swamp land grant, transferred her interest to counties, and counties to private speculators, and the General Land office permitted contests as to the character of the lands already selected by the Agents of the State as "swamp lands." Congress, by joint resolution December 18, 1856, and by act March 3, 1857, saved the State from the fatal result of this ruinous policy. Many of these lands were selected in 1854 and 1855, immediately after several remarkably wet seasons, and it was but natural that some portions of the selections would not appear swampy after a few dry seasons. Some time after these first selections were made, persons desired to enter parcels of the socalled swamp lands and offering to prove them to be dry. In such cases the General Land office ordered hearing before the local land officers, and if they decided the land to be dry, it was permitted to be entered and the claim of the State rejected. Speculators took advantage of this. Affidavits were bought of irresponsible and reckless men, who, for a few dollars, would confidently testify to the character of lands they never saw. These applications multiplied until they covered 3,000,000 acres. necessary that Congress should confirm all these selections to the State, that this gigantic scheme of fraud and plunder might be stopped. The act of Congress of March 3, 1857, was designed to accomplish this purpose. But the Commissioner of the General Land office held that it was only a qualified confirmation and under this construction sought to sustain the action of the Department in rejecting the claim of the State, and certifying them under act of May 15, 1856, under which the railroad companies claimed all swamp land in odd numbered sections within the limits of their respective roads. This action led to serious complications. When the railroad grant was made, it was not intended, nor was it understood that it included any of the swamp lands. These were already disposed of by previous grant. Nor did the companies expect to receive any of them, but under the decision of the Department adverse to the State the way was opened, and hey were not slow to enter their claims. March 4, 1862, the At

It was

torney General of the State submitted to the General Assembly an opinion that the railroad companies were not entitled even to contest the right of the State to these lands, under the swamp land grant. A letter from the Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office expressed the same opinion, and the General Assembly by joint resolution, approved April 7, 1862, expressly repudiated the acts of the railroad companies, and disclaimed any intention to claim these lands under any other than the act of Congress of September 28, 1850. A great deal of legislation has been found necessary in relation to these swamp lands.

IX. THE RAILROAD GRANT.

One of the most important grants of public lands to Iowa for purposes of internal improvement was that known as the "Railroad Grant," by act of Congress, approved May 15, 1856. This act granted to the State of Iowa, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of railroads from Burlington, on the Mississippi River, to a point on the Missouri River, near the mouth of Platte River; from the city of Davenport, via Iowa City and Fort Des Moines to Council Bluffs; from Lyons City northwesterly to a point of intersection with the main line of the Iowa Central Air Line Railroad, near Maquoketa; thence on said main line, running as near as practicable to the Forty-second Parallel; across the said State of Iowa to the Missouri River; from the city of Dubuque to a point on the Missouri River near Sioux City, with a branch from the mouth of the Tete des Morts, to the nearest point on said road, to be completed as soon as the main road is completed to that point, every alternate section of land designated by odd numbers, for six sections in width, on each side of said roads. It was also provided that if it should appear, when the lines of those roads were definitely fixed, that the United States had sold, or right of pre-emption had attached to any portion of said land, the State was authorized to select a quantity equal thereto, in alternate sections, or parts of sections, within fifteen miles of the line so located. The lands remaining to the United States within six miles on each side of said roads were not to be sold for less than the double mininum price of the public lands when sold, nor were any of said lands to become subject to private entry until they had been first offered at public sale at the increased price.

Section 4 of the act provided that the lands granted to said State shall be disposed of by said State only in the manner following, that is to say: "That a quantity of land not exceeding one hundred and twenty sections for each of said roads, and included within a continuous length of twenty miles of each of said roads, may be sold; and when the Governor of said State shall certify to the Secretary of the Interior that any twenty continuous miles of any of said roads is completed, then another quantity of land hereby