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by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and confirmed. Provided, however: That whenever, after the passage of this act, any person or persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or damage the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That wherever, prior to the passage of this act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of pre-emption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in quantity no: to exceed one hundred and sixty acres; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the act of Congress approved May 20, 1862, entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," and acts amendatory thereof.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That upon the survey of the lands aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of the said lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands of the United States, and subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same.

2.—PERMANENT TITLES TO MINERAL LANDS IN THE UNITED STATES.

In glancing back over the history of California for the last eighteen years, we cannot overlook the fact that the State has, for the want of a permanent mining population, lost what would be worth more than a hundred millions of money. The work has been done mostly by men who had no homes, and who did not intend to remain in California. Their enterprises generally were undertaken for the purpose of making the most profit in a brief time. There was no proper care for a distant future; and without such care no society is sound, no State truly prosperous. If a claim could, by hastily washing, be made to pay $10 per day to the hand for three months, or $6 for three years by a careful washing, the hasty washing was preferred. If a fertile valley that would have yielded a revenue of $5 per acre for century after century to a farmer could be made to yield $5 per day to a miner for one summer, its loam was washed away, and a useless and ugly bed of gravel was left in its place. The flumes, the ditches, the dwellings, the roads, and the towns were constructed with almost exclusive regard to immediate wants. The good turnpike roads were private property, on which heavy tolls were levied, so that not unfrequently a gentleman in a one-horse buggy would have to pay $5 or $10 toll in a day's travel. The claims were made small, so that everybody should have a chance to get one; but the pay-dirt was soon exhausted, and then there must be a move. In such a state of affairs miners generally could not send for their families or make elegant homes. Living alone and lacking the influences and amusements of home-life, they became wasteful and wild. Possessing no title to the land, they did nothing to give it value, and were ready to abandon it at any moment. The farmers, merchants, and other fixed residents of the mining counties are agitated and frightened nearly every year by the danger of a migration of the miners to some distant place. One year it is Peru; another it s British Columbia, Idaho, Reese river, Pahranagat, or Arizona; and it may 1 ext be Brazil, Liberia, or Central Africa, for all we know.

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The losses to individuals and to the State have been so great from these migrations that for years past there has been an increasing desire for some change in the tenure of mining lands, so that the mining population shall be attached to the soil, and thus have an opportunity and a motive for establishing permanent homes and a personal interest in improving and enriching the country. The act of Congress passed at the last session for the granting of fee-simple titles to lode mines, and to the agricultural lands in the mineral districts, is the beginning of a new and better era in the history of the Pacific coast. So soon as the necessary surveys can be completed, many applications will be made for patents, and in a few years great and beneficial changes will result. Such is the general opinion among the more intelligent miners and public men of the coast. As an indication of the manner in which the news of the passage of the act was received, the following passages are quoted from leading editorials in influential newspapers:

The San Francisco Bulletin, in its issue of July 31st, said:

*

*

"No measure of equal consequence to the material, and, we may add, to the moral interests of the Pacific States, was ever before passed by Congress. * * The passage of the bill, whatever defects it may develop when more critically examined and enforced, marks a change in the public land policy equal in importance to the adoption of the pre-emption and homestead system; indeed its practical effect will be to extend the now unquestionable benefits of that system to the vast field of the mineral regions which have hitherto been largely excluded from those benefits. * * It was one of the greatest evils of the negative policy of Congress regarding the mineral lands that, while it prevented our own people from acquiring titles to them, it opened their treasures freely to the transient adventurers from abroad, who only came to take them away without leaving any equivalent. As a measure calculated to give homogeneity and fixedness to our population, security to titles, and encouragement to investments of capital and labor, the new mining law is full of promise. We believe it will have the effect also to stimulate exploration and production in the mining districts. Its good features are apparent; its bad ones will appear in time and can be easily remedied."

The Alta Californian of the same date, said:

"The passage of the bill will be regarded in future times as an epoch in the history of the State. It offers a patent to every lode miner who desires it; it opens all the agricultural land in the mineral districts to pre-emption and homestead claims, and it will give secure titles, build up comfortable homes, and fix a large permanent population in the rich mining country of the Pacific slope."

The Mining and Scientific Press, in its issue of the 14th of July, 1866, spoke thus, editorially:

"The papers generally throughout the State (California) and Nevada appear to approve the bill; and so far as we can judge there is a general feeling favorable to its passage, as a necessity for quieting the public mind upon this vexatious question."

The Stockton Independent of January 8, 1866, spoke thus of some of the evils which this bill was designed to cure :

There are now over one hundred thousand adult men and women in the mines of California and Nevada without homes or the possibility of acquiring them. Shall we let this preposterous rule go on from generation to generation, until from hundreds of thousands this nomadic population amounts up to millions and tens of millions? From the twenty-seventh to the forty-seventh meridian of longitude, and from latitude thirty-four to the extremest northern line of the

United States, all is mineral land-all has been prospected and proven to be such.

Is it the part of wise statesmanship to adopt as a permanent law the rule that the millions who are in the next quarter of a century to occupy this vast area -over one-third of our territory-shall be without homes? Such a thing is horrible to contemplate. Compared with it the anarchy and social demoralization which have reigned in Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish American countries for the last half century are as nothing. The policy is wholly opposed to the instincts and habits of the Anglo Saxon race-opposed to the idea of law and government. It invites the nation to anarchy and offers a premium to crime and pauperism.

It is high time that the rule were changed. All the mineral lands ought to be surveyed in small lots and sold, or at least given away in fee to the occupants. These people should have homes and the means of acquiring permanent property and status as citizens."

The Sacramento Union of the 23d of June said:

"There are many miners who feel as deep an interest in the matter as others who devote themselves exclusively to farming, for prosperous miners, who do not wish to abandon the hills and valleys where they have harvested fortune, have a passion for pretty homes and a blooming ranch. Upon the whole, this bill has been framed with a more intelligent regard for the interests of the people of the Pacific coast than any other previous measure that we can now recall, and it is probable that its provisions can be executed without inflicting injury upon the rights which accrued under the policy hitherto pursued by the government. It is a great stride towards the final adjustment of a dangerous question, and a vast improvement upon the measures broached at Washington at various periods during the past three years."

Governor McCormick, of Arizona, in his annual message delivered to the legislature on the 8th of October, 1866, said:

"The act of Congress to legalize the occupation of mineral lands, and to extend the rights of pre-emption thereto, adopted at the late session, preserves all that is best in the system created by miners themselves, and saves all vested rights under that system, while offering a permanent title to all who desire it, at a mere nominal cost. It is a more equitable and practicable measure than the people of the mineral districts had supposed Congress would adopt, and credit for its liberal and acceptable provisions is largely due to the influence of the representatives of the Pacific coast, including our own intelligent delegate. While it is not without defects, as a basis of legislation it is highly promising, and must lead to stability and method, and so inspire increased confidence and zeal in quartz mining."

The Virginia Enterprise, the leading journal of the State of Nevada, in its issue of July 13, advocating the passage of the bill, said:

"The bill proposes nothing but what already exists, except giving a perfect title to the owners of any mine who may desire it. But the effect of this single title clause, if the bill becomes a law, will be of wonderful benefit to our State. Domestic, and especially foreign capitalists, who have been restrained from investing in our mines on account of the uncertain tenure by which they were held, and the general insecurity of title, will not hesitate to invest when they are guaranteed unmolested and permanent possession by the government. It will give an impetus to prospecting, for discoveries will be salable; to developments and heavy operations generally, for titles will be quiet and secure. will create an unprecedented demand for labor, and inaugurate enduring prosperity throughout the State. The poor and the rich, the workingman and the capitalist, will be equally benefited by it."

H. Ex. Doc. 29——15

It

It may be useless to regret past mistakes, and there is some difference of opinion among miners whether any serious mistake has been made, but it is evident that if the mining population could have been made permanent residents of the various counties as early as 1849, California would now be thrice as rich, in a pecuniary point of view, as she is at present. Her gold produce alone has been $900,000,000; and the produce of her agriculture and other branches of industry has been nearly as much, and yet the total assessed value of the taxable property of the State is only $180,000,000, of which nearly half is land alone; so it seems California, with all her wonderful wealth, intelligence, and industry, has made only five per cent. profit on her business in a period of twenty years of such an abundance of gold and comparative cheapness of the necessaries of life as were never witnessed elsewhere in the world.

SECTION 11.

4.

1. Mining laws.-2. Need of congressional legislation.-3. Customary limitation of size. Proposed width of claims.-5. Work required to hold claims.-6. Proposed change as to work required.-7. Law needed for centuries of mining.-8. Congress alone can establish uniformity.-9. Miners' regulations in Nevada county.-10. Miners' regulations in Sierra county.-11. Miners' regulations in Tuolumne county.-11. Miners' regulations in Sacramento county.-12. Miners' regulations in Columbia district.-13. Miners' regulations in North San Juan district.-14. Miners' regulations in Pilot Hill district.-15. Miners' regulations in New Kanaka camp.-16. Miners' regulations in Copperopolis district.-17. Statute of Nevada.-18. Blank district, Nevada -19. Virginia district, Nevada.-20. Regulations of Reese River district.-21. Quartz statute of Oregon.-22. Quartz statute of Idaho.-23. Quartz statute of Arizona.-24. The mining laws of Mexico.

1.-MINING LAWS.

Mining for gold and silver is a business new in Anglo-Saxon life, and not provided for in our laws. Suddenly the American government has found itself in the possession of the richest deposits of the precious metals in the world, with the certainty that the mining industry based upon them will be one of the greatest and most permanent interests of the country. It is necessary now to foster this industry, to protect it, to frame a code of laws that will leave every possible liberty to the miner who wishes to work fairly in extracting the metal from the earth, and will throw every possible obstruction in the way of the drones and swindlers who wish to defraud the honest laborer by compelling him to pay for the right of working mines that should be open to him without charge.

And, first, let us look at the regulations adopted by the miners and the statutes adopted by certain States and Territories in regard to mining for gold and silver.

It is impossible to obtain, within the brief time allowed for this preliminary report, a complete collection of the mining regulations, and they are so numerous that they would fill a volume of a thousand pages. There are not less than five hundred mining districts in California, two hundred in Nevada, and one hundred each in Arizona, Idaho, and Oregon, each with its set of written regulations. The main objects of the regulations are to fix the boundaries of the district, the size of the claims, the manner in which claims shall be marked and recorded, the amount of work which must be done to secure the title, and the circumstances under which the claim is considered abandoned and open to occupation by new claimants. The districts usually do not contain more than a hundred square miles, frequently not more than ten, and there are in places a

dozen within a radius of ten miles. In lode mining, the claims are usually two hundred feet long on the lode; in placers the size depends on the character of the diggings and the amount of labor necessary to open them. In hill diggings, where the pay dirt is reached by long tunnels, the claim is usually a hundred feet wide, and reaches to the middle of the hill. Neglect to work a placer claim for ten days in the season when it can be worked is ordinarily considered as an abandonment The regulations in the different districts are so various, however, that it is impossible to reduce them to a few classes comprehending all their provisions. The States of Nevada and Oregon and the Territories of Idaho and Arizona have each adopted statutes in regard to the size and tenure of mining claims, and these statutes, so far as they conflict with the district regulations, probably supersede them, although the act of the last session of Congress to legalize the occupation of the mineral lands provides for the issue of patents to only the holders of those lode claims which are occupied and improved according to the local custom or rules of miners in the district where the same is located.*

Question might arise whether the statute of the State or Territory is to be recognized as of any force in determining the right of claimants to patents. The congressional act mentions only "the local custom or rules of miners in the district;" and those words certainly do not describe a statute; and yet the statute should be preferred, because it is uniform, clear, preserved in unquestionable records, accessible to all, and of precise jurisdiction; whereas the local customs and rules are various, and in many districts indefinite, unrecorded, almost inaccessible, and conflicting in their jurisdiction.

The evils of the system of local customs and rules are well stated in a report made to the senate of Nevada on the 23d February last by the committee on mines and mining. The subject under consideration was the adoption of a general statute to supersede these local customs and rules. The committee say:

In the establishment of a code of mining laws in this connection there are certain self evident principles which should be adopted

"First. The interest in question being coextensive with the area of the State, and intimately blended with every part of it, the laws which seek to regulate it should be general in their character, uniform in their application, and universal in their dissemination.

"Second. It being a vital and permanent interest, the laws which govern it should have the vitality and stability of legislative enactment.

"Third. It being an interest pertaining to our own people, but valueless to them without foreign aid, the aim of the laws should be twofold, to give protection to our citizens and encouragement to capital."

Does the present system answer all or any of these requirements?

1. As to uniformity: there is now nothing approaching it. There never was confusion worse confounded. More than two hundred petty districts within the limits of a single State, each one with its self-approved code; these codes, differing not alone each from each other, but presenting numberless instances of

* SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, That whenever any person or association of persons claim a vein or lode of quartz, or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and improved the same according to the local custom or rules of miners in the district where the same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements thereon an amount not less than one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose possession there is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall or may be lawful for such claimant or association of claimants to file in the local land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise as to conform to the local laws, customs, and rules of miners, and to enter such tract and to receive a patent therefor, granting such mine, together with the right to follow such vein or lode with its dips, angles, and variations to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject

to this condition.

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