the House in 1874, and failed in the Senate. Congress, therefore, in 1894, after twenty years of delay, finally appropriated $200,000 to begin to indemnify the surviving settlers and the heirs of the great majority who did not live to see their wrongs righted. The Commissioner appointed to settle the claims was required to investigate, hear and determine the claims of all settlers, their heirs and assigns, who under the homestead, preëmption or other public land laws, entered or filed upon lands included in the grant of August 8, 1846, or by the joint resolution of March 2, 1861.
The Commissioner was also required to find the reasonable sums due the respective claimants, the measure of whose damages should be the amounts heretofore expended by them respectively to purchase the paramount title of the lands; or in case they had not purchased such title, the reasonable value of such title, if they were still in possession, or in case of eviction the reasonable value of the same at the time of such eviction.
He was further required to find and determine:
“First—The amount of just claims of persons, their heirs or assigns holding patents or other written evidences of title from the United States, who are now or have been in continuous possession thereunder.
“Second—The claims of persons, their heirs or assigns, holding written evidence of title from the United States who have been evicted from said lands by process of court at the suit of the Des Moines Navigation Company, or its assigns.
“Third—The claims of persons, their heirs or assigns, for a valuable consideration, whose claim of title runs back to the person making the original entry of said lands who have heretofore purchased the paramount title.”
There was a further provision that
“if the amount appropriated is not sufficient to settle all claims for entries where the entry men or their grantees appeared and presented their claims to the Commissioner, such remaining claims unpaid shall be submitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Interior, giving the amount of such claim, and payment made, and shall not include any claim or any prëemptor or
