Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/675

 ture. It was a flagrant abuse of the trust of the people conferred upon the legislative body, and of the powers conferred upon the officers of the state by the constitution. It was a temptation to speculators, who rapidly possessed themselves of extensive tracts, and enriched themselves at the expense of the state, besides retarding settlement.

One effect of the swamp-land act was to bring in conflict with the speculators actual settlers who had squatted upon some unsurveyed portions of these lands, and cultivated them under the homestead law. If it could be proved that the land settled on belonged to the state under the swamp-land act, the settler was liable to eviction. Wherever such a conflict existed, appeal was had to the general land-office, the case was decided upon the evidence, and sometimes worked a hardship, which was contrary to the spirit and intention of the government in granting lands to the state.

The legislature of 1872 urged the Oregon delegation to secure an early confirmation of title, no patent, however, being required to give the state a title to what it absolutely owned by law of congress. It also passed an act to provide for the sale of another class