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Show PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS 91 of line with those being charged by California lawyers in similar cases.7 The first step taken by Congress to provide for the land claims in the region north of the Ohio was a resolution of 1788: it confirmed the claims of the French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers who by 1783 had accepted American citizenship or citizenship of any state, and granted up to 400 acres to heads of families. The donation was later extended to settlers in the Wabash country; men who were not heads of families and persons in the militia not receiving any other grant were given 100 acres.8 Everywhere the confusion in the records, if any records existed, made it most difficult to separate the legitimate from the fraudulent claims. Grants were forged by several prominent persons in Indiana and Illinois who were at the same time buying up headrights, militia rights, grants, and improvement claims. Francis Phil-brick found that John Edgar had by 1808 acquired or fabricated claims to 130,400 acres; Robert Morrison, 45,200 acres; William Morrison, 46,480 acres; Nicholas Jarrot, 39,900; and Robert Reynolds, 24,477 acres. Territorial governors and secretaries, notably Arthur St. Clair, William Henry Harrison, and Winthrop Sargent, along with their other tasks had to work through the more than 4,000 land claims in the region under their supervision without any carefully defined system or set of rules to guide them. They kept minutes badly, if at all, and in their haste made serious blunders. St. Clair confirmed invalid grants to his sons and greatly enlarged their boundaries-one tract of 30,000 acres was confirmed to his son and John 7 William N. Brigance, Jeremiah Sullivan Black (Philadelphia, 1934), pp. 50-55, 131-44. Cf. Letters of William Carey Jones, in Review of Attorney General Black's Report to the President of the United States on the Subject of Land Titles in California (San Francisco, 1860), pp. 1-31. 8 Philbrick, The Laws of Indiana Territory, 1801- 1809 (Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library), Vol. 21, lxvii; 1 Stat. 221. Edgar-while Harrison, eschewing nepotism, committed errors of judgment as serious as those of St. Clair.9 Public dissatisfaction with the territorial government's inconsistency in handling the claims and with its long delay in arriving at decisions finally led the Federal government in 1804 to create a Board of Land commissioners to examine all the Illinois claims. This was followed by a second board appointed in 1812 to deal with the previous confirmations of the administrative officers. These boards unearthed "incredible forgeries, fraud, subornation and perjuries" including 700 perjured depositions given before one magistrate. The largest of the dealers in claims were the most guilty. When the Commissioners had completed their labors they had reduced by nearly 50 percent the number and the acreage of confirmed claims, and had saved of the public domain nearly 200,000 acres.10 Some of the witnesses brought before the Board of Land Commissioners by John Edgar, Robert Morrison, or Robert Reynolds in support of their claims were described by the board as follows: Johnston Amerson. This poor wandering wretch, equally destitute of morality or character, died some years ago in a drunken fit; he has, we believe, been willing to testify, on moderate terms, for any man who would pay him for it, and before any body who would take his testimony. Joseph Page. This man is a Frenchman, and has been a great swearer; we have perhaps two hundred of his depositions, generally given in favor of the large land jobbers. Forty-three of his depositions were held to be false. Other witnesses were described as "without property, fond of liquor," and "a 9 Philbrick, lxxvii ff. 10 Philbrick, lxxxiii ff. Some claims rejected by the Commissioners were later approved by Congress among whose members friendship and political considerations, miscalled equity, sometimes were more influential than with the members of the Boards. |
