Mr. Gue in his history of Iowa claims that the act of congress of 1861 was only intended for the protection of those purchasers from the state who had actually settled upon their lands and made improvements thereon, and that congress in using the words "bona fide purchasers from the state of Iowa" did not include in those words citizens or residents of the state of New York who had bought their lands in good faith from the state of Iowa. The supreme court of the United States in the very purpose of its organization was intended by the constitution to organize a judicial body or tribunal before which all citizens of the United States should be equal before the law, without regard to the state in which they had their residence or location. There was no question about the fact that the Des Moines Navigation Company was a bona fide purchaser of these lands. At the time that they paid their money and took a conveyance from the state of Iowa, the stockholders of that company honestly believed they were getting a good and perfect title and were paying out their money for same in the utmost good faith. The statement of Mr. Gue in his history before referred to, that the persons who received deeds for these lands from the Des Moines Navigation Company were mere speculators, purchasing for a song a doubtful and disputed title, is wholly without foundation and fact, and the denunciation of the supreme court of the United States because the court made no distinction between bona fide purchasers because of their location or residence, very greatly mars the reliability and impartiality that ought to have been characteristic of this history of Iowa. Mr. Gue was a resident of Fort Dodge, where for years the atmosphere of that locality was permeated by the passion of men who had been disappointed in their attempt to secure a title to lands that they all knew before and at the time of the location and attempted entry on the same, had already been sold for a valuable consideration by the state of Iowa. The opinion of the supreme court, delivered by Justice Miller in the case of Williams vs. Baker, reported in 17 Wallace, 144, contains an accurate and clear exposition of this entire controversy, which fortunately was settled by the supreme court of the United States, and to which they have continuously and consistently adhered. Long after the diversion of the remaining lands of this grant to the Keokuk, Fort Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad Company, the Iowa Homestead Company, grantee of the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company brought suit for a portion of these lands embraced in the river grant above the Raccoon fork, and attempted to disturb the title. In the meantime the Keokuk, Fort Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad Company had mortgaged these lands for the purpose of continuing their road from Des Moines to Fort Dodge. On the foreclosure of this mortgage these remaining lands were sold to a company known as the Des Moines & Fort