It is also provided that the "patents shall convey no title to any mineral lands except iron and coal, or to any lands held by right of possession, or by any other title, except Indian title, valid at the time of the selection of the said lands." The company are to have the privileges of ordinary preemptors and be subject to the same restrictions as such preemptors with reference to wood and timber on the lands, with the exception of so much as may be necessarily used in the erection of buildings and in the legitimate business of manufacturing iron.
The parties upon whom these privileges are conferred are designated in the bill as "The New York and Montana Iron Mining and Manufacturing Company." Their names and residence not being disclosed, it must be inferred that this company is a corporation, which, under color of corporate powers derived from some State or Territorial legislative authority, proposes to carry on the business of mining and manufacturing iron, and to accomplish these ends seeks this grant of public land in Montana. Two questions thus arise, viz, whether the privileges the bill would confer should be granted to any person or persons, and, secondly, whether, if unobjectionable in other respects, they should be conferred upon a corporation.
The public domain is a national trust, set apart and held for the general welfare upon principles of equal justice, and not to be bestowed as a special privilege upon a favored class. The proper rules for the disposal of public land have from the earliest period been the subject of earnest inquiry, grave discussion, and deliberate judgment. The purpose of direct revenue was the first object, and this was attained by public sale to the highest bidder, and subsequently by the right of private purchase at a fixed minimum. It was soon discovered that the surest and most speedy means of promoting the wealth and prosperity of the country was by encouraging actual settlement and occupation, and hence a system of preemption rights, resulting most beneficially, in all the Western Territories. By progressive steps it has advanced to the homestead principle, securing to every head of a family, widow, and single man 21 years of age and to every soldier who has borne arms for his country a landed estate sufficient, with industry, for the purpose of independent support.
Without tracing the system of preemption laws through the several stages, it is sufficient to observe that it rests upon certain just and plain principles, firmly established in all our legislation. The object of these laws is to encourage the expansion of population and the development of agricultural interests, and hence they have been invariably restricted to settlers. Actual residence and cultivation are made indispensable conditions; and, to guard the privilege from abuses of speculation or monopoly, the law is rigid as to the mode of establishing claims by adequate testimony, with penalties for perjury. Mining, trading, or any pursuit other than culture of the soil is interdicted, mineral lands being expressly excluded from preemption privileges, excepting those containing coal, which, in quantities not exceeding 160 acres, are restricted to individuals in actual possession and commerce, with an enhanced minimum of $20 per acre.
For a quarter of a century the quantity of land subject to agricultural preemption has been limited so as not to exceed a quarter section, or 160 acres; and, still further to guard against monopoly, the privilege of preemption is not allowed to any person who owns 320 acres of land in any State or Territory of the United States, nor is any person entitled to more than one preemptive right, nor is it extended to lands to which the Indian usufruct has not been extinguished. To restrict the privilege within reasonable limits, credit to the ordinary preemptor on offered land is not extended beyond twelve months, within which time the minimum price must be paid. Where the settlement is upon unoffered territory, the time for payment is limited to the day of public offering designated by proclamation of the President; while, to prevent depreciation of the land by waste or destruction of what may constitute its value, penal enactments have been made for the punishment of persons depredating upon public timber.
Now, supposing the New York and Montana Iron Mining and Manufacturing Company to be entitled to all the preemption rights which it has been found just and expedient to bestow upon natural persons, it will be seen that the privileges conferred by the bill in question are in direct conflict with every principle heretofore observed in respect to the disposal of the public lands.
The bill confers preemption right to mineral lands, which, excepting coal lands, at an enhanced minimum, have heretofore, as a general principle, been carefully excluded from preemption. The object of the company is not to cultivate the soil or to promote agriculture, but is for the sole purpose of mining and manufacturing iron. The company is not limited, like ordinary preemptors, to one preemptive claim of a quarter section, but may preempt two bodies of land, amounting in the aggregate to twenty sections, containing 12,800 acres, or eighty ordinary individual preemption rights. The timber is not protected, but, on the contrary, is devoted to speedy destruction; for even before the consummation of title the company are allowed to consume whatever may be necessary in the erection of buildings and the business of manufacturing iron. For these special privileges, in contravention of the land policy of so many years, the company are required to pay only the minimum price of $1.25 per acre, or one-sixteenth of the established minimum, and are granted a credit of two years, or twice the time allowed ordinary preemptors on offered lands.
Nor is this all. The preemption right in question covers three sections of land containing iron ore and coal. The act passed on the 1st of July, 1864, made it lawful for the President to cause tracts embracing coal beds or coal fields to be offered at public sale in suitable legal subdivisions to the highest bidder, after public notice of not less than three months, at a minimum price of $20 per acre, and any lands not thus disposed of were thereafter to be liable to private entry at said minimum. By the act of March 3, 1865, the right of preemption to coal lands is granted to any citizen of the United States who at that date was engaged in the business of coal mining on the public domain for purposes of commerce; and he is authorized to enter, according to legal subdivisions, at the minimum price of $20 per acre, a quantity of land not exceeding 160 acres, to embrace his improvements and mining premises. Under these acts the minimum price of three sections of coal lands would be thirty-eight thousand four hundred dollars ($38,400).
By the bill now in question these sections containing coal and iron are bestowed on this company at the nominal price of $1.25 per acre, or two thousand four hundred dollars ($2,400), thus making a gratuity or gift to the New York and Montana Iron Mining and Manufacturing Company of thirty-six thousand dollars ($36,000).
On what ground can such a gratuity to this company be justified, especially at a time when the burdens of taxation bear so heavily upon all classes of the people?