Morrison Waite

“ At this time all the Indian title that could, by any possibility, interfere with the grant, as claimed by the state, was in the process of extinguishment. Treaties which were to have that effect had already been negotiated with the Indians, and were waiting ratification by the United States. There could hardly have been a doubt in the minds of any of the parties that long before any judicial determination of the matters in dispute every vestige of Indian title would be gone. ”

“ The act of 1862 afterwards, in express terms, granted to the state, for the use of its grantees, 'the alternate sections, designated by odd numbers, lying within five miles of said river, between the Raccoon Fork and the northern boundary of the state.' At this time there was no Indian title in the way of the grant, and if the reservation was good as against the railroad companies in 1856, the title of the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company, the grantee of the state, was perfected. ”

“ The ratification of these treaties, in the form they were originally made, was not advised by the senate, but on the twenty-third of June, 1852, certain amendments were proposed, on the acceptance of which the president was authorized to conclude the treaties 'as amended.' The amendments were agreed to by the Indians on the fourth and eighth of September, 1852, and the ratification of the treaties was duly proclaimed on the twenty-fourth of February, 1853. ”