Samuel Freeman Miller

“ What a chance for the exercise of the arts of persuasion in procuring a contract, all the advantages of which should be on one side, but which must affect the interests of the county after it should have become well populated.
But we are not left to surmise on this subject. This small population was divided into seven civil townships, each one of which had a supervisor; and these supervisors, when assembled at the county seat, constituted the governing body of the county. ”

“ In entering upon this inquiry, the first thing that strikes one upon the face of the record is the very vague idea which the supervisors of the county, and still more the citizens who voted on the proposition, must have had of the value of the thing they were selling. What lands were swamp lands had never been clearly settled by the department, and how many acres were or ever had been embraced by the grant in Wright County was still more uncertain. ”

“ The case before us is a bill in chancery to set aside said contract and deed, and for an accounting, so far as the company has sold lands or received money on account of swamp lands due to said county. On final hearing, the court made a decree to that effect.
The American Emigrant Company claims to be organized as a corporation under the laws of the State of Connecticut, and its professed object is to aid the immigrantion of foreigners to this country, by settling them on farm lands in the West. ”