OF THE COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE FOR THE YEAR 1886. WASHINGTON: 1886. REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., October 7, 1886. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the annual report of the General Land Office for the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1886. In my previous report I referred to the imperative need of reform in the administration of the public land laws, to the end of protecting the public interest rather than ministering to the advantage of speculation and monopoly, private or corporate. With the means at my command, and in a spirit of justice to the Government and fairness to the public, I have sought to inaugurate and carry out such reform. The steady purpose in which I have endeavored to reflect the aims approved by all good men has been the protection of the public domain and its preservation for inhabitancy by actual cultivators, to whom it rightfully belongs. No higher duty could inspire nor more important public service demand the resolute and devoted efforts of an official. I found this great estate of the people rapidly wasting under a system in which the Government appeared to have no place except as an agency for its own despoilment. It has been my endeavor to establish and maintain the principle that the Government has a deep interest in its public lands. I found illegality and fraud intrenched in the system and defended in the practice of the land department. It has been the object and purpose of all my efforts to maintain the integrity of the laws and to secure the rights of actual settlers to actual homes on the public lands. The evidences of "widespread, persistent land robbery" laid before you in my last report were furnished by the officers and agents appointed by the last administration. The developments of the past year under the agencies of the new administration have justified every word said in that report. The work of correcting the evils pointed out and known of all men is not a holiday pastime. It was not anticipated by me that it would be such when I entered upon it. On the contrary, it was expected then, as it has since proven to be, a work requiring intense labor and sleepless vigilance. By the devotion to it of 3 |