USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 38
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As before stated, this city government had been collecting large sums of money, and for no public purpose. In the investi- gation afterwards ordered by the govern- ment of the United States, from the im- perfect data available, it was found that the city had received :
For 726 City Lot certificates. . $3,297.00
143 Lot Certificates at $2.00 .. 286.00
Occupation tax 713.35
Fines Police Court 1,163.00
Total of $5,459.35 which was probably about twenty-five per cent of the real sum that had been collected.
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Soon everybody was informed that no person had a right to collect this money, and when this investigation was started, the city treasurer picked up, bag and bag- gage, and went off carrying with him $5,390 of this money, and that was the last seen of him or the money either. This treasurer had given heavy bond to the city, to faith- fully account for all moneys received. Of course this whole thing was void, and noth- ing could be done, and nothing ever was done with the fellow about the matter.
When this state of facts, as hereinbefore set out, became known to the government of the United States, the government sent down a United States marshal, to take en- tire charge and he did so, and thereupon the Seminole government was closed up, and all interference with lots, or lot owner- ship and right of possession was stopped, and the collection of all kinds of taxes ended; the police court was closed up, and nobody was tried. Judge Violet was given the name of "Judge Posey," on account of his name.
This order sending down the United States marshal, with directions to hold things just as he found them, and to permit no changes, was what was known as the "Statu quo order." As soon as this city government stopped its operation, there was the most perfect peace, quiet and order, and in fact better than in the best governed city in the United States.
In fact it was such a complete success that nearly everybody became converted to
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the theory that if the people were left to themselves without law they would enjoy the best government known.
I never saw a man arrested during that whole period by the officers of the United States, so perfect and quiet was the condi- tion of affairs.
The coming of this "statu quo order" terminated what was known as the Sem- inole and Kickapoo wars.
I have always felt that but for the pleas for peace and order, so constantly made by the Kickapoos, and their continued efforts to obtain redress by appeal to the depart- ment as Washington, that nothing but vio- lence could have resulted from the condi- tion of affairs existing.
IV.
In response to the request for an account of the struggle in the first legislative as- sembly, to remove the capital of the terri- tory from the city of Guthrie, I will say that, Oklahoma territory was created by act of Congress, on May 2, 1890, and that act provided for a legislature and that there should be two houses, one called the "council" or "upper house," and composed of thirteen members, and of course seven would be a majority in that body. The house of representatives contained twenty- six members, and of course fourteen would be a majority.
The act creating the territory provided that the capital of the territory should be located at Guthrie, until otherwise provided by the legislature.
I was elected from Oklahoma county as a member of the council. George Steele, ex- member of Congress from Indiana, was ap- pointed governor, and was a strong and rabid Republican. Nominations for the legislature were made by political parties,
but there was very little voting on party lines. Nothing was to come before the leg- islature which was of a Democratic or Re- publican character, except the question of which party should have the little offices about the legislature.
As soon as the legislature met, the fight for the location of the capital commenced brewing. The Republicans had a majority of two in the house of representatives, and a majority of one in the council, and could of course have organized both houses.
There were two Republicans in the house, and one in the council from Okla- homa county. The minority of the house and council was composed of Populists and Democrats.
The Populists and Democrats proposed to the two Republicans in the house, and the one Republican in the council, from Oklahoma county, that if they would unite with the minority party and give them the legislative offices, they, in turn, would unite with these Republicans from Oklahoma county, and promptly pass a bill locating the capital at Oklahoma City.
I was the Republican in the council from Oklahoma county, and opposed this deal, because I was satisfied it never could and never would be carried out.
This kept the houses from organizing for something near a week. During this time a large popular meeting was called and held in Oklahoma City, and I was sent for to come down, and give an account of my unwillingness to enter the capital deal, for the benefit of my own city, and I came.
The meeting was an enormously large one, and held in the streets. I told the people of the difficulties in the way, that I was sure Governor Steele would veto the bill if passed, and that it took two-thirds to pass the bill over his veto, which we
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never could hope to get, but that we could house, I heard the expression, "By God, get two good institutions, and possibly that fellow [meaning the fellow in the council who had been fixed] wasn't worth hog meat before that amendment was made, was he? But now, he is worth over a thousand dollars, ain't he?" three, to-wit, the state university, the agri- cultural college, and the penitentiary, and that if we would give Guthrie the capital, we could unite their forces in the legisla- ture with ours, and take anything we wanted except the capital. This proposi- tion, to unite with Guthrie, was met with derisive yells, and a unanimous resolution was passed, with a great whoop, demand- ing the capital or nothing.
While talking to that meeting on that occasion, such remarks as "Corner lots in Guthrie," and "ropes," and "telegraph . poles" were plainly to be heard.
I told the meeting that their order would be obeyed, and went back to Guthrie, gave the Democrats and Populists the legislative offices, and I at once prepared Council Bill Number 7, providing for the removal of the capital to Oklahoma City, upon a date named in the bill. This bill was promptly passed through the council by a vote of 7 to 6, and sent to the house, and there it began to meet all kinds of difficulties, most important of which was what was then sus- pected and afterwards known, that the peo- ple of Guthrie had raised money and bribed two of the Populists in that house, and one Democrat.
For these men in the house to vote against the bill would be too bare-faced and so they amended the bill by fixing the date at which the capital should come to Oklahoma City just one week later than that named in the bill as it passed the coun- cil.
I was present in the house when this was done, and was of course very angry over the matter. There were rumors that one Populist in the council had also been fixed, and as I walked out of the hall of the lower
Overhearing this conversation directed my attention at once to that member of the council. The capital bill had now of course to be sent back to the council, for that body to concur in the amendment so made by the house. The plan of those op- posing the bill was to have it so amended in the house, and then fix the council, by getting just one man, in such a way that the council would then stand seven against the bill and would never concur in the amendment, and thus kill the bill.
The bill was held in the council without action, over the three days allowed by the house to reconsider their vote, whereby they had amended the bill. The point to that by the opponents of the bill was to fix it in such a shape that it could never get back into the lower house, because the time allowed for reconsideration was passed.
After the time was thus passed, the capi- tal bill was called up in the council, and a motion made to concur in the amendment made by the house. The suspected fellow, sure enough, voted against concurrence, but another man, who had been fixed, by means known only to certain Oklahoma politi- cians, which was said to be a thousand dol- lars, paid by an agent of a railroad com- pany, to the utter amazement of the Guth- rie people, voted to concur, which of course gave the bill seven votes to concur and the bill was passed.
By all law and parliamentary usage this should have sent the bill to the governor for his signature or veto, but the house of
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representatives, in violation of all parlia- mentary rules, promptly passed a vote to recall and reconsider the bill, and voted so to do.
Things were now desperate in the house of representatives, and what afterwards be- came a known fact was that the people of Oklahoma City and vicinity raised five thousand dollars, and sent it by a trusted agent, now a prominent man of Oklahoma City, and not the writer hereof, into the house of representatives, and with it part of the Kingfisher county delegation, in that body, was bought outright, and thus the reconsideration defeated.
The bill was then sent to the governor, and just as I expected, was vetoed by him. The people of Kingfisher determined now to introduce a bill locating the capital in that city. This bill was introduced into the house of representatives, and had a clear majority, if they could hold the members from Oklahoma county.
Soon rumor began to have it, that the Oklahoma county delegates in the lower house would not vote for the Kingfisher capital bill, unless this five thousand dollars was returned to the Oklahoma City people.
The Kingfisher members had squandered or spent the money, and hence could not re- turn it, and so the people of Kingfisher raised it and paid this five thousand dollars to a member of the house of representa- tives, as was subsequently developed, over an old stove in a hotel in Guthrie, which hotel is now torn down. Not strange to say, this money never got back to the peo- ple of Oklahoma, who gave it, but the King- fisher bill passed, and in turn was vetoed by the governor.
The act of Congress provided that no law passed by the legislature should be- come effective until after the legislature
adjourned. There was then no efficient bribery law in force, and there was none until our present law against bribery (passed by that legislature) went into ef- fect with the adjournment of that body.
The whole thing from beginning to end was a rotten, disgusting mess, of which I think every member of the assembly was thoroughly sick before it was done with. I found that every man that had a corrupt bill, or a scheme, or a graft, would de- mand of the persons in favor of one of these capital bills that he should champion and pass that man's pet measure, and if he went back on that, that the other fellow would go back on the capital bill, and thus this bill was held as a club over the heads of every honest legislator, to try to drive him into the support of such other ne- farious measures.
Quite a number of scenes of violence were enacted in connection with that bill. On one occasion a crowd of Guthrie people got after the Hon. Daniel Peery, and chased him out of the house of representa- tives, and through the hall where the coun- cil sat, when he, by a lucky dodge, landed in a large unused ice-box, and there re- mained from about two o'clock in the after- noon until relieved by his friends, about sun-down, and was then, I do think, the worst frightened man I ever saw. The reason of the chase was that his pursuers thought Mr. Peery had the capital bill, and they seemed determined to get it, apparent- ly with the intent to destroy it. The facts were that Mr. Peery did not have the bill at all, but he heard only their curses and threats, and didn't know what they were chasing him for, but was clearly of the opinion that "prudence was the better part of valor," and hence fled.
The council sat in the back end of a
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long store room, and across that room was a railing with a gate in it, which cut off about one-third of the rear end of the room, and held it for the use of the council when sitting as a body, the front two-thirds be- ing used as a public lobby.
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At one time when this capital bill was under consideration in the council, the lob- by was full of people opposed to the bill, and they undertook to raid the council, when they were met at this gate by a Mr. Nesbit, of Cleveland county, who declared he would shoot the first man who came through that gate, and so determined were his appearance and actions that he held that whole crowd at bay.
During that time, a member of the coun- cil from Guthrie was making all kinds of objections and disturbances to prevent a vote on the bill. He was seized and held down in his chair while the vote was being taken, and it was this act which came so near provoking this rush on the council.
Justice would demand that history should state the names of the persons who paid out these corruption funds, and the names of the persons who received them, but owing to the prominence of many of the parties, some of whom are still in Okla- homa, prudence demands that their names be omitted; but be it said that in that first legislative assembly there were many as honest and pure men, and men of as good intentions, and patriotic purposes, as ever sat in a legislative hall.
After the enaction of these scenes, Con- gress passed acts forbidding the territorial legislature to remove or locate the capital of the territory.
Another thing I would say, that it is an exceedingly dangerous and unwise thing for any people or community to contribute money, and place it in the hands of agents, to be used in fixing legislators or other
public officers, for the reason that it is al- most an absolute certainty that large amounts of it are kept by such agents, and only a small portion, and many times none at all, paid to the public officers; this, be- sides the dishonesty in the whole business.
This was abundantly shown in the trans- action had during this capital fight, and further shown by the fact that the five thousand dollars returned by Kingfisher never made its way back to the people who had contributed it.
In. conclusion, I will add that subsequent developments confined the giving and tak- ing of bribes to just four men in the coun- cil, and to not over five in the house, but the two houses were so close that that num- ber was sufficient to determine any measure in either house, and those parties soon be- came thoroughly known in their respective houses, and were despised and without in- fluence, either in or out of the house, after their fellow members became morally cer- tain of their corrupt actions, and for them all, I have personally, at all times, shown the deep contempt I feel for them.
When the countless difficulties and dis- putes over homesteads and town lots have been reviewed the inquiry naturally arises, What was the final outcome of all these troubles and how were the contested claims settled, and in what manner was order es- tablished among the inhabitants of the terri- tory? In order to secure a detailed answer to these questions, and to throw additional light on the conditions arising from the settlement of Oklahoma, Mr. W. F. Harn was asked to contribute an article on the "sooner" and perjury trials which were brought by the federal government. Mr. Harn was the special attorney of the inte- rior department sent to Oklahoma to in- vestigate and prosecute these cases, and he
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therefore writes from the standpoint of an expert and intimate observer of the events which he describes. His article follows :
SOONER AND PERJURY CASES. By W. F. Harn.
In the fall of 1890 the secretary of the interior, Hon. John W. Noble, received a communication from the register and re- ceiver of the United States land office at Oklahoma City stating that perjury was be- ing committed so generally in contest cases in that district that it was next to impos- sible for those officers at times to even as much as guess approximately which side in a trial was telling the truth. The letter appealed to the department for a special agent to make an investigation on the ground and to take such action as might be necessary in the premises.
At the opening of Oklahoma Territory but two land offices were authorized, one at Guthrie and the other at Kingfisher. It soon became apparent that the lands close to Oklahoma City, being vastly superior to those of other sections of the new country, were being so vigorously contested for that a land office at that place was an absolute necessity. Hence in 1890, a year or so after the opening, a new land office was created at Oklahoma City, which at once became the busiest land office in the United States.
The interior department was looking about, in the closing days of December, 1890, amongst its several hundred special agents, for a suitable person to undertake the Oklahoma perjury investigations, when Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, suggested the name of W. F. Harn, of Mansfield, in that state, as a person capable of satisfac- torily performing the delicate task.
Mr. Harn was selected, and with the sim- ple instructions to proceed to Oklahoma
City and assist the local United States of- ficers in an attempt to eradicate the crime of perjury and prosecute the offenders, ar- rived at his destination the first of January, 1891.
In order to understand thoroughly the perjury situation in the territory, it is neces- sary that something be said about the con- ditions existing at the time of the opening of the country to settlement, as well as be- fore and after.
For many years prior to the legal open- ing of Oklahoma, ambitious and adven- turous citizens of bordering states made repeated pilgrimages into the territory for the purpose of making homes therein, but invariably the United States government detailed bodies of the Ft. Reno and Ft. Sill soldiery to drive these would-be settlers out of the country. The reason given was that the rights of the Indian tribes had not yet been fully extinguished and under the vari- ous treaties the government was bound to keep the country free from white intruders.
There was the additional reason, how- ever, that the country was soon to be thrown open to homestead settlement and it was intended to give every qualified citi- zen, whether residing in Maine, Kansas or California, the same opportunity to get a home in the country whose fertility and agricultural possibilities were known to be equalled by few and surpassed by no other section in the American Union.
It was, therefore, the most natural thing for Congress to include, in the act provid- ing for the opening of the country to settle- ment, a provision having in view the clear- ing of the promised land of all intending settlers, so that every one could have a fair and even chance with every other to pro- cure a home as a gift from the government.
Oklahoma was composed of two sections of Indian lands, namely, those ceded by
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the Creeks, and those joining the latter on the south, ceded by the Seminoles. In the act of Congress of March 1, 1889, re- lating to the Creek cession, Congress pro- vided that,
"Any person who may enter upon any part of said lands in said agreement men- tioned prior to the time that the same are opened to settlement by act of Congress shall not be permitted to occupy or to make entry of such lands or lay any claim there- to."
In the act of Congress of March 2, 1889, in relation to the Seminole cession, provid- ing for the opening of the Oklahoma coun- try to settlement, the following language was also used: "But until said lands are opened for settlement by proclamation of the president no person shall be permitted to enter upon and occupy the same and no person violating this provision shall ever be permitted to enter any of said lands or ac- quire any rights thereto."
On March 23, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison issued his proclamation naming 12 o'clock noon, April 22, 1889, as the time of the opening of Oklahoma to settlement and reiterated the warning of Congress that the lands, which were particularly de- scribed, "will at and after the hour of twelve o'clock, noon, of the twenty-second day of April next, and not before, be opened for settlement under the terms of and subject to all the conditions, limitations and restrictions contained in said act of Congress approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and the laws of the United States applicable thereto."
The proclamation gave the further warn- ing, "that no person entering upon and oc- cupying said lands before said hour of twelve o'clock, noon, of the twenty-second day of April, A. D., one thousand eight
hundred and eighty-nine, hereinbefore fixed, will ever be permitted to enter any of said lands or acquire any rights thereto, and the officers of the United States will be required to strictly enforce the act of Congress to the above effect."
Notwithstanding these repeated warn- ings, both by Congress and by the presi- dent of the United States, intending set- tlers swarmed into Oklahoma during the prohibited period and the soldiery had its hands full driving them from the coun- try. As rapidly as they were expelled, the more venturesome, and they were in the vast majority, would recross the lines into the forbidden land. The attempt to enforce the prohibition, therefore, became a mere travesty, for Congress had not provided a penalty other than a disqualification to ac- quire any of the lands as a homestead.
Hence, at 12 o'clock, noon, April 22, 1889, the hour set for the opening of the country to settlement, the great mass of people seeking homes in the new country had divided themselves into three distinct classes.
One was the official class in the employ of the government or the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, who were in the country by permission on account of their employment.
The second comprised those who slipped into the country under cover of night. These selected the most desirable tracts of land that appeared to be unclaimed and put such improvements thereon as in law would be sufficient to furnish proof of prior legal settlement.
In this second class was also a contingent who boldly or secretly, as the individual case seemed to require in order to evade Uncle Sam's bluecoats, before the hour of opening went upon land adjoining the tract
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he wished to claim and immediately after the hour of 12 o'clock, noon, April 22, 1889, stepped upon the tract selected as his home- stead.
The third class comprised the great body of homeseekers, who believed that the law meant what it said, and therefore remained on the line till the time named in the presi- dent's proclamation as the time of the open- ing
When the latter class invaded the coveted lands afoot, on horseback, in wagons, in buggies and in every imaginable means of conveyance, behind horses, mules and even oxen, at breakneck speed, there is little wonder that every valuable piece of land in the valleys and every tract of land close to the promising larger townsites were en- tered upon and occupied by settlers who seem to have sprung from the ground or dropped from the skies.
Many of these premature settlers had tents up, shacks and dugouts under way, and even gardens made with the vegetable plants glistening bright and green in the brilliant sunlight of an Oklahoma April day, thus apparently surpassing the magic of the Oriental jugglers who will grow a beautiful rose bush in full bloom while one looks on in wonderment and admiration.
After one had ridden like mad for many miles, almost killing his horse, through black jacks, over sand hills and prairie, and across streams and ravines, only to find that some one had beaten him afoot, there was but one thing to do for him who remained on the line in obedience to the law, and that was to squat on the land evidently set- tled upon unlawfully by the man he found in occupancy. This was done by thousands and nearly all the valuable tracts from one end of the territory to the other were claimed by two or more settlers, while some of the more valuable pieces of land in the
vicinity of Oklahoma City were claimed by as high as ten or a dozen persons.
In the land department of the United States government a judicial system had been evolved whereby settlers on public lands could have their respective rights in- quired into after the manner much similar to that prevailing in a court of law without the jury. This suit is called a contest, and is initiated by the aggrieved person filing in the land office an affidavit setting out the cause of the contest stated concisely and corroborated by two witnesses in writing under oath deposing to the facts stated in the affidavit of contest from personal knowl- edge and observation. On the allegations contained in the affidavit of contest a "hear- ing" is ordered and the trial proceeds in the usual manner, except that the testimony of the witnesses is taken by a stenographer and the typewritten testimony is signed by the witness.
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