Speech #480124104

Another army followed. the Army of the United States. with its loaded guns and its bayonets fixed. to drive those men out of that territory. It has been but two or three days since Senators upon this floor in great anxiety have declared their apprehensions that when the grass springs up again in the Oklahoma country war would be started there because of a dispute between the Government of the United States and the claimants to settlement on the public lands. and that those claimants are backed by a decision of a court and that is enough for them. We understand the force.of a tide of immigration. and we understand the demand which the AngloSaxon makes for land whenever he gets within reach of it. We have our own examples and our own history to refer to in order to refresh our recollections and to admonish us about matters of this kind. In view of this case. suppose a court in California. in Arizona. in New Mexico. in Texas. or it may be in Louisiana. shall decide that the Southern Pacific Railway Company did have the right to buy the whole tract of land. and that they have a good title in consequence of the purchase. then your people swarm out upon these lands and buy them. and afterward when that case gets to the Supreme Court of the United States and is reversed. you will have reenacted upon an immense scale the very controversy which has engaged the attention of the Senate for six mornings in succession. and which would engage it for six more in debate were it not entirely improper to be extended at this late hour of the session.