"from noticing it further than by an apology to his sons for having been weak enough in many instances of rivalry, or precedence between those sons and other agents, to rule or decide against the gentlemen of his own name," it is not deemned necessary to encumber the already voluminous transcripts by bringing copies of such papers before the Senate, particularly as they relate to a past matter, of long standing, and may not be regarded as directly pertinent to and within the purview of the resolution. In the administration of the arduous, multifarious, crowding, and constantly accumulating business of this office, we must necessarily, as a general rule, restrict our correspondence to the merits of cases, merely presenting the points examined and the decisions rendered. It was therefore not necessary, nor indeed coincident with our taste, to deal with the false, defamatory, and indecent terms of much of the correspondence herewith of the late register and present prosecutor of claims, unlawfully allowed during his administration of a public trust, first, because we rest upon reputation which is before the country unblemished, as we think, and which designing men cannot tarnish, and hence are ready, and cheerfully commit our official acts, past and present, to the high tribunal of public opinion reflected in the Congress of the United States; and, next, because the language of decorum will not allow the correspondence of the party named to be characterized with the opprobrium it deserves. With great respect, your obedient servant, Hon. JACOB THOMPSON, Commissioner. Secretary of the Interior. Schedule of the papers with the report, dated April 5, 1858, of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the United States of the 8th of March, 1858. Paper A being a copy of a report to the Secretary of the Interior, dated March 16, 1858. No. 1. A letter from the Commissioner to the register at Plattsburg, Missouri, dated August 19, 1856, deciding the case presented by Horace Everett, and enclosing a copy of a letter to the register at Council Bluffs, Iowa, of the 12th of July, 1856, which inclosed one to the register at Fort Dodge, Iowa, dated June 17, 1856, relative to the proper method of conducting the business of his office during a great competition to enter land. No. 2. A letter from the Commissioner to the register and receiver at Plattsburg, Missouri, dated October 12, 1856, deciding the case of Redan and White, and instructing the land officers: First. That it is the duty of a register to receive, act upon, and consummate all applications at the time of reception in the regular order of the business of each day. Second. That he is not to permit a monopoly of entries or locations in favor of one person, or to permit any one person to purchase or locate at one time more than to the extent of an ordinary entry. Third. That it is the duty of the receiver to receive in cash, land warrants, or scrip, payment for each tract, certified to him by the register as sold, in the regular order of reception, during each day; of the proper certificate from the register, and full consideration for the tract so purchased or located. Fourth. That no greater number of applications should be received during a day than can be attended to and consummated during that day. Fifth. That if a greater number of applications are tendered than can be so fully acted upon, they must be allowed to remain in the hands of the respective applicants until they can be so acted upon. Sixth. That the fact, that such an application is tendered by a person at a time when it cannot legally be acted upon, gives him no preference over a person who makes a proper application and tender for the same tract at a time when it can be so acted upon. No. 3. The application made through the General Land Office, February 5, 1857, by Peter McLaughlin and Henry F. Felix, to locate 152 land warrants on certain specific tracts in the Plattsburg district. No. 4. A letter from the Commissioner to the register and receiver at Plattsburg, February 6, 1857, inclosing the 152 land warrants, with instructions to locate them in accordance with the written application before alluded to, and a copy of the receipt of the express company for $477. No. 5. A letter from the register and receiver to the Commissioner, dated March 3, 1857, submitting the case of Hardin vs. Jackson, with the reply of the Commissioner, dated April 21, 1857. No. 6. A letter from the register and receiver to the Commissioner, dated March 7, 1857, in answer to the Commissioner's letter of the 6th of February, 1857, in which the register regrets the delay in the reception of the instructions of the 6th of February, inasmuch as the greater portion of the land thereby to be located were covered and carried by the locations of mere speculators on the 2d instant. No. 7. A letter from the Commissioner to the register, March 19, 1857, with an explanatory statement made by W. V. H. Brown attached. No. 8. A letter from the Commissioner to the register and receiver, April 1, 1857, calling attention to the discreditable aspect of the case as stated in the letter of the register and receiver of March 7, 1857. No. 9. Statement made under oath by James Power, Anthony S. Felix, Owen O'Reilly, Peter McLauglin, and H. F. Felix, April 8, 1857. No. 10. A letter from the Commissioner to the register and receiver, April 11, 1857, inclosing a copy of the above mentioned statement, and requiring a thorough investigation of the case. No. 11. A letter from the late register to the Commissioner, dated April 15, 1857, stating that he had surrendered the books and papers of his office to the receiver, in obedience to a "telegraph" to the receiver, dated March 26, 1857, and complaining of the indecent haste exhibited in his dismissal from office. No. 12. A letter from James H. Birch to the Secretary of the Interior, April 16, 1857, inclosing the letter of the 15th addressed to the Commissioner, and referring to it as containing charges against the Commissioner of delinquency in the discharge of his duties. No. 13. A letter from James H. Birch to the Secretary of the Interior, April 21, 1857, in continuation of his charges against the Commissioner and his clerks. No. 14. A letter from the Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior, June 14, 1857, in answer to the three letters from J. H. Birch, of the 15th, 16th, and 21st of April, above mentioned. This letter contains a full history of the case of Felix and McLaughlin, so far as then known to the General Land Office, and incloses copies of the correspondence then had, and which are marked in this schedule Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, and 17. No. 15. Statement showing the amounts received by James H. Birch and his son C. C. Birch, respectively, during their incumbency as register of the land office at Plattsburg, Mo., and is one of the papers submitted to the Secretary June 14, 1857. No. 16. Statement showing tracts applied for and subsequently located by Felix and McLaughlin, and the conflicting locations made by Birch, jr., Yonley, Turney, Bassett, and others. ་ No. 17. Tabular statement showing locations made by J. H. Birch, J. H. Birch, jr., C. C. Birch, and H. Whittington, from October 5, 1855, to March 30, 1857, and is also one of the papers submitted to the Secretary June 14, 1857. No. 18. A letter from the Commissioner to the register and receiver, July 10, 1857, rescinding the instructions of April 11, 1857, so far as they related to serving notice and making further investigations at Plattsburg. No. 19. A letter from Felix & McLaughlin, June 12, 1857, to the Commissioner, inclosing three diagrams, showing the tracts therein which were vacant on the 20th of December, 1856. No. 20. A letter from the Commissioner to the Secretaty of the Interior, July 13, 1857, inclosing a copy of the letter addressed to the register and receiver on the 10th of that month.-(See No. 18.) No. 21. A letter from James H. Birch to the President of the United States, August 4, 1857. No. 22. A letter from James H. Birch to the Secretary of the Interior, August 6, 1857. No. 23. Report made by the Secretary of the Interior to the President of the United States, September 4, 1857. No. 24. A letter from the President of the United States to James H. Birch, September 7, 1857. No. 25. A letter from the present register and receiver at Plattsburg, enclosing affidavits by J. H. Birch and M. Jeff. Thompson. No. 26. A letter from T. D. W. Yonley to the Secretary of the Interior, August 31, 1857, appealing from the decision of the Commissioner in relation to the applications made by Felix & McLaughlin. No. 27. Report made by the Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior, September 24, 1857, on the appeal taken by T. D. W. Yonley. No. 28. Letters addressed by the Secretary of the Interior, September 26, 1857, to T. D. W. Yonley and John T. Hughes. No 29. A letter addressed, (without date,) by James H. Birch, jr., to the President of the United States, but inclosing a copy of "an informal certificate," signed J. H. Birch, register, and H. Whittington, receiver, March 2, 1857, and certified as a true copy by Moses Shoemaker, clerk, October 21, 1857. No. 30. A letter from J. H. Birch to the Secretary of the Interior, October 26, 1857. No. 31. A letter from the Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior, November 19, 1857, in answer to the letter addressed by J. H. Birch, jr., to the President of the United States. (See No. 29.) No. 32. Affidavit made by Peter McLaughlin and H. F. Felix, February 27, 1858, in relation to the charges made by J. H. Birch against the Commissioner and his clerks. No 33. A true transcript from the official monthly abstract forwarded to the General Land Office by J. H. Birch, as register, indicating the locations made at Plattsburg, Missouri, in March, 1857, with bounty land warrants issued under the act of March 3, 1855, which transcript shows all the locations made by J. H. Birch, J. T. D. Yonley, T. E. Turney, and others on the tracts previously applied for by Felix & McLaughlin. A. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, March 16, 1858. SIR: Under reference of the 11th instant, this office received the letter herewith of that date, from the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Lands, with the inclosed petition, igned by T. D. W. Yonley and four others, and requesting you to examine the same and report to the committee the facts connected with the matters set forth in the petition, so far as the same came to the knowledge of the department." The facts are these: Early in February, 1857, Messrs. Felix and McLaughlin, of Pennsylvania, were introduced at this office, by their representative in Congress, as honest, respectable citizens, representing a number of families who were desirous of locating lands for actual settlement in the Plattsburg district, Missouri. They stated that their committee, on the 26th November previous, had made personal application for that purpose at the land office at Plattsburg, the register being present, and were informed the office was closed. Thus denied their lawful rights, they repaired and appealed to the General Land Office for justice; presented the bounty land warrants, with their written application, dated February 5, 1857, designating the same by numbers, (transcript paper A,) and the tracts to be located by each which were vacant, filed a receipt from the express company (copy B) of the remittance to the register and receiver of the location fees, and called upon the Commissioner to cause these warrants to be located, as the bounty land law of the 28th September, 1850, in express terms orders him to do in the case of any warrant which the holder may transmit to the General Land Office for that purpose, in such State and land district as the said holder or warrantee may designate. When the parties applied, on the 26th of November, 1856, at the register's office, that office was, in truth, not then closed, either by law or instructions from the department; but, on the contrary, in contemplation of law it was then in fact open, and so continued for four months thereafter, until closed pursuant to a telegraph dated March 25, 1857, from the department, requiring the receiver to "close the register's office immediately on receipt of this, and until Colonel Birch's successor is qualified." The closing of the register's office by the late register, Birch, partial or absolute, then and afterwards, was a deceit practiced upon the public and the department; was a breach of official duty, and in violation of the rights of our citizens, all alike, to have free access to that office to make entries and locations of the public lands, without favoritism or partiality. Therefore, in view of the denial of the rights of the parties by the late register, Birch, on their appeal here with their applications and warrants, the Commissioner, in the exercise of his right of "supervision and control," as delegated by the act of July 4, 1836, and in accordance with the peremptory mandate of the bounty land law of September 28, 1850, despatched the warrants and specific application presented by Felix & McLaughlin, with instructions, dated February 6, 1857, (copy C,) to the register and receiver at Plattsburg, referring to the purpose of the applicants, "in making these locations, of forming an actual and permanent settlement, in a manner to advance the public interest, both State and federal," and directing these officers, "without delay," to "examine the records and plats of their office, and locate the warrants, in accordance with the descriptive list, on such of the tracts therein named as are, at the date of the reception of that letter, vacant public lands subject to such locations." Birch, senior, then register, by letter, in his handwriting, (copy D,) reported that the warrants which, with an exact and specific application, were, on the 6th February, 1857, sent to him, did not reach him until the 7th March following; at the same time he admits, what he was sure would come to light, that "the agent of the Pennsylvania parties was there on the opening on the 2d," saying he was not prepared. The certificate of that agent shows that "before the 2d March, before the applications were put in," he "gave Judge Birch and the agent notice that the lands were applied for in Washington city," and "that he had heard they were entered there.” Birch was embarrassed at the turn of events; he had shut and opened the United States Land office to suit his purpose, in contempt of law, of instructions, and in shameless disregard of the rights of every citizen, without discrimination, to have free access to the office. Plain dealing men had been foiled by him more than three months before in seeking honestly to effect locations of lands, not for speculation, but as homes for actual settlement. They were back again with |