Speech #490051305

Connecticut. and Maryland. combined. "Should you seek a remedy for the present unsatisfactory condition of affairs. I would most respectfully recommend that the Secretary of the Interior. or Congress. compel the grantees of all these tracts. or their representatives. to definitely locate the area conceded them by the Commissioner of the General Land Office within some limited time. So soon as this is done all this land will be open to preemption and entry and both the Government and the settlers will he largely benefited thereby. ome of these grants are already inhabited by several thousand settlers. or squatters. as they are called. who can not secure Government patents for their claims. and who fear to make valuable improvements until these Mexican grantees locate the quantity of land awarded them by the decisions of the Secretary of the Interior. "I sincerely believe that the interests of the General Government. and of our people. and the growth both of this Territory and New Mexico. will be subserved by the adoption of some policy which will enable emigrants who desire in good faith to settle upon the public lands. to know where they can make their selections without fear of future disturbance by adverse claimants. This whole matter is becoming so serious a drawback to the settlement of some portions of this Territory. that I feel it incumbent upon me to call the attention of your Department to the subject. "It seems to me that if practicable the Ute reservation should be reduced in quantity. or at least the limits should be thoroughly defined by a public and official survey. marked by such monumnents as will prevent future trespass upon the domain of the savages." Some of the claims heretofore conlirmed by Congress and surveyed cover principalities in extent. the claimed limits of oiie such embracing by estimation more than 2.000.000 of acres. It is most important to the growth and prosperity of those Territories. to which settlement is being rapidly attracted by the extension of railroads. that a separation be made at the earliest possible period between the public lands and those claimed under foreign titles.