The Indian Dispossessed
price offered by a speculating syndicate, and the device intended to capture the good land for a song, without taking the poor, failed to entrap the Indians.
Viewed from the professional boomer's standpoint, there is nothing to be gained by opening lands to public settlement at somewhere near its value; it is not the land, but the value above its selling price, that is depended upon to bring a rush of prize-seekers into a new country. The greater the value to be given away, the more deluded fools with money will struggle with each other for the few prizes, and the greater the resulting boom.
The South Dakota statesmen were sad. Inspired by the good old saw, "if at first you don't succeed," they had tried again—and failed again. But there is in the philosophy of the sanguine land-grabber another bit of cheer, equally inspiring—"if again you don't succeed, try Congress."
In Washington, "far from the madding Indians," the schemers then gathered together and drafted a bill after their own liking for taking over the Indian lands. Here is their beneficent proposition:
The Indians were to "cede, surrender, grant, and convey to the United States all their claim, right, title, and interest" to the 416,000 acres, excepting the allotments to individual Indians.
Next, "The United States stipulates and agrees to pay for sections sixteen and thirty-six, or an equivalent of two sections in each township, two
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