did not extend above the Raccoon Fork of the Des Moines River. The Iowa members of Congress appealed from this decision of the Secretary, to the President, and cited the former construction placed upon the extent of the grant by Secretary Walker, on March 2d, 1849. The President referred the question to the Attorney-General, Reverdy Johnson, who after careful examination of the subject, gave it as his opinion that “The grant ran the entire length of the river within the then Territory of Iowa,” and that the decision of Secretary Walker could not be legally revoked; that it was a final adjudication and was beyond the control of his successor. This opinion was given on the 19th of July, 1850.
In the early part of 1851, President Taylor died and his successor, President Fillmore, selected a new Cabinet with Mr. Crittenden as Attorney-General. The question as to the extent of the grant was submitted to him. On the 30th of June, 1851, he gave an opinion that the grant did not extend above the Raccoon Fork. Here in a period of less than four years we have the opinions of five eminent lawyers, all high Government officials, three holding that the grant extended throughout the entire limit of the Des Moines River in the Territory of Iowa; and two holding that it did not extend above the Raccoon Fork.
On October 30th, 1851, the Secretary of the Interior, approved a list of 81,707 acres of land lying above the Raccoon Fork and in March, 1852, another list of 143,908 with the following qualifications:
“Subject to any right which may have existed at the time the selections were made known to the Land Office by the agents of the State, it being expressly understood that this approval conveys to the State no title to any tract or tracts which may have been sold or otherwise disposed of prior to the receipt, by the local land officer, of the letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, communicating the decision of Secretary Walker, March 2, 1849—to the effect that the grant extended above the Raccoon Fork.”
