Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/285

 HE decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Litchfield case having established the fact that the original Des Moines River grant did not extend north of the Raccoon Fork, the Secretary of the Interior, Cabel B. Smith, on the 10th of April, 1862, directed the Commissioner that the lands granted to Iowa, May 15th, 1856, to aid in the construction of east and west railroads, that said railroads were entitled to the odd numbered sections of land north of the Raccoon Fork within five miles of the Des Moines River, without any regard to the claim of the old Navigation Company, except such lands as had been preempted by settlers. It will be observed in all legislation and decisions of the Land Department the rights of the settlers had been carefully protected. It seemed now after sixteen years of uncertainty as to titles to lands within the limits of the old Des Moines River grant that all doubt was removed and a permanent settlement and perfection of titles had finally been adjusted.

The claim of the Navigation Company, however, was revived and given new life by a decision of the United States Supreme Court. In March, 1859, the Attorney-General of the United States had given an opinion that the grant of 1846 did not extend north of the Raccoon Fork; but a land speculator in New York by the name of Samuel Walcott, five months after that opinion was published, took his chances on the title and bought three hundred twenty acres of land of the Des Moines Navigation Company, lying in Webster County, north of the Raccoon Fork. By arrangement with the Company he brought suit in the United States Circuit Court of New York, in order to have the court pass upon the title given by that