Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/299

 indemnity bill was presented as a substitute for the bill which was passed and vetoed, but it was not adopted.

After Harrison became President, Attorney-General Miller was instructed to begin a suit, such as was contemplated by the act which was vetoed. The case was brought in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Iowa and was tried at Fort Dodge before Judge Shiras. The suit was entitled “United States of America vs. Des Moines Navigation and Railroad Company, et al.”

John Y. Stone, the Attorney-General of Iowa, Whiting S. Clark and D. C. Chase appeared for the Government and B. J. Hall and C. H. Gatch for the defendants. The case was decided in favor of the defendants (the Des Moines Navigation Company) and the Government appealed to the United States Supreme Court which confirmed the decision.

In the course of his opinion Judge Shiras said:

This decision was accepted by all parties as the end of litigation. There was but one way to, in some measure, repair the great wrong done the settlers by the Government and the courts and that was the method proposed by Captain Orr in his indemnity bill which passed