of the General Land Office and while the bill was before the committee on public lands, he addressed a communication to that committee strongly urging its passage as an act of justice. He said:
“The settlers are without remedy to save their homes which they have practically been invited by the officers of the Government, acting in their official capacity, to rear upon these lands * * * Considering the fact that these settlers have acted in good faith, relying upon the decisions of the Government officers, who were supposed to know the law, I think they are entitled to relief. * * * As the settlers in going upon these lands had a right to believe that their titles would be perfected in the ordinary manner and have invested their labor and means in improvements which they cannot abandon without ruinous loss, an exception to the general rules and practice should be made in their favor.”
After a full hearing the act was seen to be one required by every consideration of justice and it passed the House by a large majority.
If all of the settlers could at this time have realized that this decision was to be final, that their homes were lost to them beyond hope of recovery, that the only remedy possible for Congress to provide was compensation for their losses, and had all united in urging the passage of the bill, there is no doubt that it would have been passed by the Senate and become a law in 1874. But many of them could not be made to believe that the Government which had given them its highest title to their homes, for which it had taken their money, would permit them to be driven from them; and still entertained a strong hope that, in some way, it would make their titles good. In this belief they not only refused to apply to Congress for indemnity but actively opposed that remedy.
George Crilly who had entered his farm when the Government lands were offered for sale, had received a patent signed by the President of the United States conveying to him the best title it was possible for the Government to give a citizen. This farm was adjoining the town of Fort
