d on February 27, 1885, by my predecessor,
a portion of the tract of country in the territory known as the Old
Winnebago and Crow Creek reservations was directed to be restored to
the public domain and opened to settlement under the land laws of the
United States, and a large number of persons entered upon those lands.
This action alarmed the Sioux Indians, who claimed the territory as
belonging to their reservation under the treaty of 1868. This claim
was determined, after careful investigation, to be well founded, and
consequently the Executive order referred to was by proclamation of
April 17, 1885,[4] declared to be inoperative and of no effect, and
all persons upon the land were warned to leave. This warning has been
substantially complied with.

The public domain had its origin in cessions of land by the States to
the General Government. The first cession was made by the State of New
York, and the largest, which in area exceeded all the others, by the
State of Virginia. The territory the proprietorship of which became
thus vested in the General Government extended from the western line of
Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River. These patriotic donations of the
States were encumbered with no condition except that they should be held
and used "for the common benefit of the United States." By purchase with
the common fund of all the people additions were made to this domain
until it extended to the northern line of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, and
the Polar Sea. The original trust, "for the common benefit of the United
States," attached to all. In the execution of that trust the policy of
many homes, rather than large estates, was adopted by the Government.
That these might be easily obtained, and be the abode of security and
contentment, the laws for their acquisition were few, easily understood,
and general in their character. But the pressure of local interests,
combined with a speculative spirit, have in many instances procured
the passage of laws which marred the harmony of the general plan and
encumbered the system with a multitude of general and special enactments
which render the land laws complicated, subject the titles to
uncertainty, and the purchasers often to oppression and wrong. Laws
which were intended for the "common benefit" have been perverted so
that large quantities of land are vesting in single ownerships. From
the multitude and character of the laws, this consequence seems incapable
of correction