Hugo Black

“ Here, as in the 1929 Act, which applied to the claims of only one railroad, we think Congress intended to bar any future claims by all accepting railroads which arose out of any or all of the land-grant acts, in ofar as those claims arose from originally granted, indemnity or lieu lands. All the Acts here involved, the Acts of 1866, 1874, 1904 and 1940, relate to a continuous stream of inter-related transactions and controversies, all basically stemming from one thing-the land grants. ”

“ The 1866 Act had specifically recited that if the Government, because of prior settlement of part of the granted lands by homesteaders, could not give possession to some of the lands granted to the railroad, it could select, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, other public lands in lieu of them as an indemnity. Respondent had large outstanding claims against the Government for these 'indemnity' lands when it signed the release and concedes that the release extinguishes these claims. ”

“ During the depression years beginning in the late 1920's and immediately following, railroad earnings declined considerably, and a movement began to relieve the roads of their land-grant rate obligations. ”