grant which the Supreme Court of the
United States in the year 1862 had pronounced void, soon after
which numerous settlers went upon the land as pre-emptors, as they
had a right to do. Their claims as such, being disputed by parties
asserting title under the void grant, the General Land Office, on
the reference of the question to that department, decided in favor
of the pre-emptors, upon which the opposing parties procured the
submission of the question to the Attorney-General. That officer
gave his opinion to the effect that a settler under the pre-emption
laws acquires no vested interest in the land he occupies by virtue
of his settlement, and can acquire no such interest, till he has
taken _all_ the legal steps necessary to perfect an entrance in
the Land Office, being, in the meantime, a mere tenant-at-will,
who may be ejected by the Government at any moment in favor of
another party. In pursuance of this opinion scores of _bona fide_
settlers were driven from their pre-emptions, which the laws of
the United States had offered them, on certain prescribed conditions,
with which they were willing and anxious to comply, and their homes,
with the valuable improvements made upon them in good faith, were
handed over to speculators and monopolists. The proceeding was as
outrageous as the ruling which authorized it was surprising to the
whole country; and it naturally awakened uneasiness and alarm among
our pioneer settlers everywhere. It seemed to me very proper,
therefore, that in a bill to quiet land titles in California, these
troubles on this Ranch should be settled by a fitting amendment,
which should protect the rights of these pre-emptors against the
effect of the ruling referred to. The opinions of the Attorney-
General had completely overturned the whole policy of the Government
as popularly understood, and I simply proposed to restore it by a
proviso guarding the rights of _bona fide_ settlers who were claiming
title under the laws of the United States; but to my perfect
amazement I found the California delegation bitterly opposed to
this amendment. The reading of it threw them into a spasm of rage,
and showed that they were less anxious to quiet titles in their
State than to serve the monopolies and rings which had trampled on
the laws of the United States, and thus involved themselves in
trouble. The zeal and industry of the delegation in this opposition
could only be paralleled by their labors for th