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labor and improvements of the pioneer settlers of the country, who came to the country at an early day, and were exposed to all the hardships and privations peculiar to the settlement of a new and wild country. Those privations and hardships can be appreciated by those and those only who are acquainted with the nature and character of savage and uncivilized Indian tribes, with which Wisconsin, in the days of the early settlement of this portion of the country was filled. These settlers have, by their own hands, subdued the forests, cultivated the prairies, opened the mines, constructed roads, &c., and have thus done much and every thing towards developing the rich resources of the country, and paving the way for the unparalleled growth and settlement of the richest portion of the hitherto public domain of the United States.

In other instances these lands have been sold, and transferred by the original settlers, to other persons, who have purchased, in good faith, and paid large considerations for improvements thereon, and from time to time have made further and other valuable improvements, equal in many instances to five times, at least, the original value of the land. These lands so entered, and transferred from individual to individual, in some cases many times, and by deeds of warranty, are now offered for sale a second time under proclamation.

As the most injurious and disastrous consequences would result to a large and respectable portion of the citizens of Wisconsin, if the lands entered and paid for should again be disposed of at public sale, the legislative assembly of the territory of Wisconsin, deem it an act of duty to the people residing in said district, to address your honorable body in their behalf. ·

Your memorialists regard the welfare of any one portion of the territory as intimately connected with the growth and prosperity of the whole, and therefore that whatever concerns the prosperity of the people of the western part of the territory affects more or less all other portions of the territory.

Of the highest importance to the settlers of the country is the tenure by which they hold their lands. If the tenure be fixed, stable, and permanent, industry is encourged, perma

nent and valuable improvements are made, and a settled and thrifty population occupy the soil.

If there have been occasional instances of fraud in this entry of lands, offered for sale, it is respectfully suggested that the judicial tribunals of the land are alone the proper tribunals to investigate such matters and apply the proper remedy, and that again to expose to sale the lands embraced in said proclamation, which have been once entered, without such entries having been set aside as fraudulent, by a decree of a competent judicial tribunal, would be making the innocent purchaser suffer from the act of the fraudulent, and would be fraught with injustice and ruin to a large number who have violated no law, and who are not obnoxious to the slightest charge of having wronged or defrauded the government. If the object of the contemplated sale be to reach cases of fraud in the entry of these lands, the result will be, that where the fraud is rebuked by reaching one who really has practised fraud in the entry and purchase of any such land, many persons entirely innocent of any such fraud, who are holding lands as grantees, perhaps five or six transfers remote from the original purchaser at the land office, would be entirely stripped of the property, and who would be left without any remedy whatever, the original purchaser being dead, having removed from the country, or utterly insolvent; such persons having purchased in good faith, relying more for the soundness of their title, and their security in their homes, upon the government, than upon the pecuniary responsibility of their grantors. To expose these lands to sale, then, would be to strip a large number of the settlers of our territory of their dear bought homes, to take from them thousands of dollars of the hard earnings of years of toil and labor, which they have brought upon these lands, and invested in the form of improvements, to invite cupidity and avarice, to take advan tage of the poor and necessitous, to open the door to opression and injustice, and to hazard the peace and the welfare of an important portion of our territory. The disastrous effects, and the inevitable ruin [of] a large number of our best and most enterprising citizens consequent upon a resale of the beforementioned lands, and the serious effects upon the pros

perity of our territory, now about emerging from territorial dependence to the position of a sovereign and independent state, cannot fail to be obvious to your honorable body. In view of all these facts urged by the most important considerations of public policy and public and private justice, and as the only effectual means of protecting and securing the rights of innocent parties, the legislative assembly of the territory of Wisconsin respectfully and most earnestly petition your honorable body, to provide by law, for withholding from sale all lands in the Mineral Point land district heretofore sold, and for the issuing of patents for all lands purchased at said land office, saving such entries as have been, or may hereafter be, declared fraudulent entries, by the proper tribunals.

WILLIAM SHEW,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
MASON C. DARLING,

APPROVED, February 10, 18.

HENRY DOI GE.

President of the Council.

A MEMORIAL

To the congress of the United States in relation to the improvement of the Des Moine and Rock River Rapids of the Mississippi river.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

Your memorialists, the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin, beg leave again to urge

upon your attention the importance of improving the navigation of the Mississippi river, by removing the obstructions at the rapids. It is well known to your honorable body that the only obstruction to the navigation of the Mississippi river, from its mouth to the Falls of St. Anthony, are the Des Moine rapids near the southern boundary of lowa, and the Rock river rapids about one hundred and fifty miles above. These rapids cut off the navigation of the river for steam boats, except at periods of high water, in general not exceeding two months per year. During the greater part of the season, all freight passing up or down the river has to be towed over the rapids in keels, at great risk, delay, and expense, or transported by land a distance of about twelve miles. The extent of the obstruction to navigation is such as to make the cost of transportation from St. Louis to Galena, while the rapids are impassable for steam boats, double, and often four times as great as when boats can pass freely through. Many boats, also, are shattered, and large amounts of property destroyed every year in attempting to make the passage. When it is considered that the Mississippi river, for seven hundred miles above the lower rapids, runs through the most fertile and beautiful country in the west, and is the natural highway for all the commerce of that vast and teeming valley; when it is considered that all the produce of the lead mines, all the grain, and other productions of this region must seek a market, and all its supplies in return be borne upon the Mississippi; and when it is considered with what rapidity, hitherto unparalleled, this region is increasing in population and wealth, it will be seen what great interests, present and prospective, will be subserved by the improvement to which we have felt it our duty to call your attention. It is believed from careful estimates, that the annual loss to the people of Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois, in the increased price of transportation caused by the rapids, amounts to as much as the whole cost of removing them, large though it be. Sound policy and the interests of the country evidently demand this improvement. That it is constitutional, that it is within the power, and is the duty of the

general government to keep open the channel of this great arm of the ocean, seems to be agreed by those who contend for the most strict construction.

Your memorialists therefore respectfully urge upon you the importance and necessity of this work, and pray that an appropriation may be immediately made to accomplish it. And the President of the United States is most respectfully requested to sanction the law making said appropriation, should one be made by congress.

WILLIAM SHEW,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
MASON C. DARLING,

APPROVED, February 10, 1847.

HENRY DODGE.

President of the Council.

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MEMORIAL

To congress on the subject of mail routes.

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled:

The memorial of the Legislative Assembly for the Territory of Wisconsin respectfully represents :

That a mail route is greatly needed from Prairieville, in Waukesha county, to Addison, viz: Clark's mills, Lisbon, Warren, Erin, Night's, terminating at Addison, on the Milwaukee mail route to Fond du Lac, distance about thirty miles from Prairieville.

Also, a mail route from Mukwanago, viz: Summit, in Waukesha county, to Waupun, in Fond du Lac county.

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