day, providing for the transferring of the entire management of Indian affairs from the Department of Interior to that of the War Department. Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to forward a copy of the foregoing resolution to our Senators and Representatives in Congress at as early a day as practicable. No. IX.-Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 19, relative to [Adopted February 1, 1876.] Preamble. WHEREAS, There is at present but a tri-weekly mail over United States mail route number forty-six thousand one hundred and nine, from the Town of San Mateo to the Town of Pescadero, in the County of San Mateo, and but a weekly mail from the Town of Pescadero to the Town of Santa Cruz, in the County of Santa Cruz; and, whereas, the rapidly increasing population and necessities of business demand a more frequent communication; therefore, be it Increase of mail service and Santa Cruz. Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate in San Mateo concurring, That our Senators in Congress be instructed and our Representatives requested to use their influence for the establishment of a daily mail service over so much of said mail route number forty-six thousand one hundred and nine as extends from the Town of San Mateo, by the way of Halfmoon Bay, to the Town of Pescadero; and for the establishment of a tri-weekly mail service from the Town of Pescadero to the Town of Santa Cruz. Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor of the State of California be requested to forward a copy of these resolutions to the Postmaster-General of the United States, and to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress. Increase of between Crescent No. X.-Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 14. [Adopted February 1, 1876.] Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our mail service Senators in Congress be instructed and our Representatives requested to use their influence for the establishment of a tri-weekly mail service from Crescent City, California, to Jacksonville, Oregon, via Waldo. City and Jacksonville. Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor of the State of California be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the Postmaster-General of the United States, and to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress. No. XI.-Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 7. [Adopted February 1, 1876.] The Memorial of the Legislature of the State of California, to the Congress of the United States, respectfully represents: That the Harbor of Crescent City, in Del Norte County, Preamble. and State of California, is one of the most important on the coast line of said State north of San Francisco, and the only place suitable for a harbor of refuge between San Francisco and Puget Sound. The business of said port is increasing yearly, being the outlet for the large and rapidly extending trade of nearly the whole of Southern Oregon, and a part of Northern California; and, whereas, the construction of a breakwater in the said Harbor of Crescent City would greatly increase the safety and facility of said harbor, enabling vessels to receive and discharge cargo, to the great reduction of expense and saving of time, and affording a relief for vessels in storms and high winds; and, whereas, chiefs of the engineering corps of the Pacific Coast, the Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco, and practical engineers have represented, in their official reports and resolutions, the said harbor to be a proper place for the construction of a breakwater for the protection of commerce; therefore, be it Crescent Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our ImproveRepresentatives in Congress be requested and our Senators ent of instructed to use all honorable means in their power to City Harbor. obtain from Congress an appropriation for the improvement of said harbor and the construction of said breakwater, and that the Governor of this State be requested to transmit a copy of this preamble and resolution to each of our Representatives and Senators, with a request that they take speedy action in the matter. No. XII.-Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 6. [Adopted February 1, 1876.] Obispo Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our San Luis Senators be directed and the several Representatives of the Harbor. State of California in the Congress of the United States be requested to use their best endeavors to secure an appropriation for the improvement of the Harbor of San Luis Obispo, and also, to have a law passed declaring the Port of San Luis Obispo a port of entry. Preamble. To prevent fraud in claims. No. XIII.-Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 23, relative to soldiers' and sailors' additional homestead claims. [Adopted February 1, 1876.] WHEREAS, Under the provisions of an Act passed by Congress, March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, entitled "An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Act to enable honorably discharged soldiers and sailors, their widows and orphan children, to acquire homesteads on the public lands of the United States,' and the amendments thereto, large bodies of the public lands in this State have been located as additional homesteads for soldiers. and sailors of other States; and, whereas, while such locations appear on their face to be for the benefit of the soldiers. and sailors entitled to the benefit of said Act, they are in reality made by and for the sole benefit of land-grabbers and speculators; and, whereas, such additional homestead rights are being offered for sale and purchased by speculators, and used by them in the same manner as scrip for location on unoffered lands; and, whereas, under the rules established in the United States District Land Offices in this State, parties holding such additional homestead claims are allowed to, and do file the same upon lands already filed upon by preemption claimants, and although a preemptor of the public lands is allowed by law thirty-three months from the time of his settlement in which to prove up and pay for his quarter section, such District Land Offices have issued citations to bona fide preëmptors to appear at the United States Land Offices and contest their right to hold the land preëmpted by them in good faith, with a holder of these soldiers' additional homestead claims; that such citations are being issued to preemptors within ten months after their settlement upon the land; and, whereas, but few of the actual settlers on the public lands are prepared or able to present themselves, with their witnesses, at the land offices at the time they are cited to appear, thereby permitting, without laches on their part, a judgment by default to be taken against them, in favor of the speculator, and not the soldier or sailor in whose name the claim is placed upon the land; and, whereas, owing to the action of the United States land officers in this State, in regard to the location of these additional homestead claims, that immediate relief and protection is required of Congress for the bona fide settler on the public lands; therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That our locating Senators in Congress be instructed and our Representatives requested to procure such action on the part of the General Land Office as shall speedily as possible put a stop to further locations of fraudulent additional homestead claims, and also to procure the passage of an Act by Congress requiring that all additional homestead entries in California shall be made by the application in person before the Register and Receiver, and that no such application shall be filed or allowed unless the applicant is the party, or his heir, entitled to such additional homestead, and a resident of this State, and that no patent therefor shall issue until after the expiration of six months from the date of the location, and that any sale, or agreement to sell, or power of attorney to sell, made or executed prior to the issuance of the patent, shall be null and void; and such other action to be taken by our Senators and Representatives as to them seems best, for the relief and protection of the actual settler on the public lands. Resolved, That the Governor is hereby instructed to forward a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress. No. XIV.-Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 19, memorial to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled. [Adopted February 10, 1876.] Your memorialist, the Legislature of the State of California, now in session, do respectfully represent as follows: Congress to Central Pacific Congress did, on the first day of July, A. D. eighteen hun- Memorial to dred and sixty-two, pass an Act entitled an Act to aid in the concerning construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri land grants River to the Pacific Ocean and to secure to the Government and Western the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes. Railroads. Section eighteen of said Act, page four hundred and ninetyseven, volume twelve of the United States Statutes at large, provided that Congress should add to, alter, amend, or repeal said Act. Congress did, on July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, pass an Act entitled an Act to amend an Act entitled as aforesaid, and that section twenty-two of said amended Act, page three hundred and sixty-five, volume fifteen, United States Statutes at large, did provide that Congress may at any time alter, amend, or repeal this Act; that the Central Pacific and Western Pacific Railroad Companies, corporations duly formed under the laws of the State of California, were benficiaries under said Acts, and, as such, on the performance of certain conditions specified and enumerated in said Acts, were to receive from the United States patents for every alternate section of public land designated by odd numbers, to the amount of ten alternate sections per mile on each side of said road, not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of by the United States, and to which a preemption or homestead claim may not have attached at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed, provided all mineral lands shall be excepted, etc., except coal and iron, and provided that said Acts should not defeat or impair any preëmption, homestead, swamp land, or other lawful claim, nor include any Government reservation, or the improvements of any bona fide settler, etc. Further, that at the dates of said Acts of Congress there were numerous private land Congress Memorial to claims in the Courts of the United States unadjusted and concerning awaiting adjudication; that said private land claimants land grants have, in numerous cases, subdivided and sold their lands in and Western good faith and to innocent purchasers, and under the laws to Central Pacific Railroads. of the State of California, and all this, too, before any finality had been reached before the United States Supreme Court; that the persons owning or claiming said lands held under such foreign title derived from Spain or Mexico, as well as those persons who bought in good faith said lands, as well as very many other persons, held that no portion of such lands lying within the exterior boundaries of said private grant claims as were sub judice at the dates of the several Acts of Congress herein enumerated, inured to the benefit of said Central and Western Pacific Railroad Companies, but were protected therefrom by treaty. Further, that such view was held and acted upon by the Land Department of the United States, so that when said private land claims were finally adjusted, the lands so claimed reverted to the general body of public lands, and as such were subject to disposal under the homestead and preemption laws of the United States. Further, that such was the rule of action by the General Land Office at Washington until the date when Mr. Columbus Delano, acting as Secretary of the Interior, just prior to his vacating said office, did, in a decision known as the "Dillingham decision," reverse said rule, and did award all lands of such class to the said railroad companies. Your memorialist further represents that said decision of Secretary Delano, since it reversed his own decision in the same case after hearing all the facts and arguments presented, as well as the decisions of all his predecessors upon similar cases, and that, too, upon an ex parte hearing of the case, has worked and is still working much hardship in this State; that the principles involved therein are claimed to be involved in a test case now before the United States Supreme Court, to wit: the case of Charles W. Sauger versus G. D. Newhall, but that before any such decision can be had, that patents and certificates of purchase heretofore issued to persons other than said railroad companies are being canceled and set aside by the Land Department, with the expressed intention of patenting the same to said railroad company. In view, therefore, of the very great importance of this matter to large numbers of citizens in California, and in view of the right to alter, amend, or repeal said legislation of Congress as hereinbefore referred to, your memorialist would respectfully request that Congress may, at its present session, enact such legislation in the premises as may afford protection to the actual settlers on such lands in California, having due regard to the rights of said companies named herein, and as were intended by said Acts of Congress to be conferred by said legislation. Your memorialist would further request that Congress may, upon the receipt of this memorial, by resolution or other appropriate action, request the Commissioner of the General Land Office and Secretary of the Interior to suspend all further action touching either the issuance to said railroad company of any evidence of title, or the cancellation of the |