Chapter 35

Chapter 35
pages 193 - 198

THE FRENCH CLAIMS CONTROVERSY.

     For many years a controversy existed between the citizens of Peoria and certain speculators. That controversy originated as follows:
     There had never been any survey of the French village, nor did they claim title under any government, but were mere squatters, claiming under an act of Congress, approved May 15, 1820, entitled "An act for the relief of the inhabitants of the Village of Peoria, in the State of Illinois," and another act of Congress, approved March 3, 1823, entitled "An act to confirm certain claims to lots in the Village of Peoria, in the State of Illinois," and the report of the Register of the land-office at Edwardsville, and a survey that was long after made by Joseph C. Brown, a deputy from the Surveyor General's office at St. Louis; and some times also they claimed under a patent from the United States, issued in pursuance of those laws. For, although the law neither gave the Secretary of the Treasury nor any one else the power to adjudicate between the claimants and say who, if any, were entitled to patents; yet the Secretary of War did undertake that arduous task, and did issue patents to some, and refuse them to others. The land between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers was surveyed to be given to the soldiers of the war of 1812, as bounties, and this survey was made, and patents were granted to the soldiers, before either of those laws were passed, or said French survey was made; but no fractional sections were granted to the soldiers, and all those lying along the river were fractional and therefore not granted, and were liable to be preempted, under the preemption laws of 1830, 1832, and 1834.
     When a preemption was claimed to any particular piece of land, and the proper proofs of improvements and residence were made before the register and receiver, they had no option. The law required them to let the entry be made, because, whatever opinion they may have had as to the validity of those French claims, there was nothing in their office showing any conflict between any French claim and the land proposed to be entered. Although, when the United States surveys, in 1817 and 1818, were made, so soon after the French had left, their lots might have been connected with the public surveys, yet, as the place was entirely abandoned by the French, and the Americans had not yet found their way here, it was not done. And when the French laid in their claims before the register and receiver at Edwardsville [see Chapter VI, page 21] they probably did not know that said survey had been made. At least, the register in his report says "I have not been able to ascertain, with precision, upon what particular quarter-sections of the military surveys these claims are situated."—3d Am. St. Papers, page 422.
     All the lands on which any of these French claims were located, by Brown, had been disposed of by the government to other parties, the money paid, and patents issued, and the land possessed and occupied long enough for the statutes of limitation to protect them, were their titles bad. Under these circumstances, and since the excitement of the day had passed away, the reader will wonder how any controversy could have been gotten up sufficient to interfere with the repose of our society. But, strange as it may seem, a controversy was gotten up, which lasted about twenty years, in which the author spent many thousand dollars and much precious time; but those controversies are all happily settled, and we can say to the world buy and build without fear, for our titles are as good now as those of any other city.
     This is not the place to discuss the merits of those controversies: suffice it to say that man is a gregarious animal, not only physically, but mentally. Men are not only inclined to move in masses, but to be affected in masses, as by an influenza. Some times men are generally taken with a religious monomania; some times with apolitical one; some times with patent-right invention mania; and some times with a gold-mine mania. On this occasion they were taken with a French-claim mania. Men generally believed that every man professing to hold a French claim ought to succeed against any one else although his claim may have been decided against by government, and he lacked proof to connect him with the original claimant; and although the defendant may have had a patent from the United States, and been in actual possession by residence, for any length of time. The first suits were brought in the state court, and were all successful; but a half-dozen of them were taken to the Supreme Court of Illinois, and all reversed. This closed the state courts as to this sort of business. Some suits in the state court were dismissed, and then brought in the United States Circuit Court. A great many new ones were commenced there, and resulted as the others had done, and were carried to the Supreme Court of the United States. Here, although the law was not always laid down correctly, enough principles were settled adversely to the plaintiffs to prevent them from bringing any more suits any where.
     This mania, for a few years, was astonishingly great. It pervaded the country generally: it found its way into the jury-box, the bar, and even to the bench. I have known honest jurors to find verdicts against evidence and honest judges to overrule the plainest principles of law that have been established since the days of Lord Coke, to aid the speculators in these controversies. I have known a certain speculator in those days to take a surveyor and survey about block 34 (to which he had no more title than the king of Dahomey), and look wise, and say nothing, while all the inhabitants of that block were running out and begging him not to dispossess them, promising submission, and agreeing to pay whatever he said they should. He haughtily replied, "if they had any business with him to call at his hotel." So they did, and he presented them a paper containing a requisition on each of them for an arbitrary sum, such as he thought they could be scared into, and they all, every mother's son of them, paid the sum set opposite their names, and thought him a generous-hearted gentleman for exacting no more.
     In those days, the best men in the community, without knowing any thing of the merits of the controversy, pitied me if they were my friends, and hated me if they were my enemies, for what they supposed to be an obstinate and mulish disposition. If I am not mistaken with regard to public sentiment at this time, it has entirely changed on that subject. I have been as much flattered and caressed of late, on account of my success, as I once was pitied and condemned for my supposed obstinacy. I hope I have borne both with equanimity.
     The quantity of ground in dispute was never so great as the number of suits brought, or the number of claims filed in the land-office, would seem to indicate. The property was cut up and many more suits brought than necessary, to prevent writs of error to the Supreme Court of the United States; as the land in controversy must be worth $2,000 to give that court jurisdiction. Although the number of claims filed in the land-office was 70, it should be remembered,—
1st, There were not so many claimants, for each claimant generally claimed more than one lot, some times several.
2d, There were not as many pieces of ground claimed as there were claims, for it often happened that two, under different numbers, claimed the same ground.
3d, A portion of them were located at the old village, which had been voluntarily abandoned long before the war, and were not valid claims, under the law, as the Supreme Court of the United States decided in the case of Hall vs. Papin, 24 Howard, 132.
4th, As the said court decided in the same case, said law "applies only to the new town, and the land in question is an outlot or field of ten acres, near the old Village of Peoria."

Prev Table of Contents Next

Submitted by your Host

Any contributions, corrections, or suggestions would be deeply appreciated!