enter and perfect his title. The Secretary in reviewing the law in this case refers to the Walcott decision in the following language:
"The effect of this decision is therefore only to exclude from the railroad grant, lands lying north of the Raccoon Fork, and to restore them to the public domain, at least so far as to subject them to the operations of the preëmption and homestead laws. Further by act of Congress, June 2, 1864, amendatory of the grant of 1856, additional lands were granted to the State, and new provisions were engrafted upon the original law. One of these, the last proviso to the fourth section, excludes from the railroad grant any land settled upon and improved in good faith by any bona fide inhabitant under color of title derived from the United States, or the State of Iowa, adverse to the grant. The bona fide inhabitants need not necessarily be preëmption settlers but must be bona fide settlers claiming from the United States or the State of Iowa. It is not material to consider whether this land has ever been reserved so as to exclude it from the operation of the preemption laws. Even if such had been the case the difficulty would be removed by the proviso of the act of 1864, and it is only necessary to ascertain whether he is a bona fide settler. From the evidence it appeared that Battin settled upon the land in good faith in October, 1857, and has complied with the requirements of the preëmption laws and has been allowed to enter the land. That entry is in accordance with the law and will be carried into patent."
Mr. Browning was not only the highest official of a Government Department having control of the public lands, but he was one of the most eminent lawyers of the United States. His decision in this case was in strict accord with the various acts of Congress and of the State of Iowa and with the intention of the individual members of these legislative bodies who framed the acts, all of which were designed to fully protect the rights and homes of the actual settlers from all classes of adverse claimants.
The ruling of the Secretary of the Interior was followed in numerous similar cases. On the 10th of June, 1868, the Commissioner of the General Land Office directed the Register of the Land Office at Des Moines to allow Jeremiah Elliott to prove up and pay for a tract
