different amendments, and learn the duties of the secretary of the interior respecting their construction and the issuing of bonds and land certificates, and he will conclude that the secretary was ignorant of what the law made it his duty to know--that he was inexcusably negligent in the discharge of his duty, or what is most probable, that the same potent influences that controlled congress in aiding these companies, found their way successfully to the chief parlor of the interior department. Without the secretary's approval of the companies' work and accounts, they could not possibly have committed such gross frauds upon the government. If additional proof of the fact that the secretary of the interior was influenced by, and used his official position to assist the railroad corporations, in the raids upon the treasury, was needed, we have it in his action relative to the homestead and pre-emption rights of settlers upon the public lands, within the limits fixed by congress for the selection of lands by the different railroad companies. In all cases where lands have been granted to railroad companies, lands to which pre-emption rights attached at the time the line of the road was fixed have been saved to the pre-emption and homestead claimants. In many instances the railroad companies have not been able to find, within the limits fixed, the amount of lands granted to them belonging to the government. This has caused them to make war upon pre-emption and homestead claimants. If these claimants could be forced from their lands, some millions of acres would be thus seized by, and allowed to, the railroad companies. The practice of going upon the public land under the pre-emption and homestead acts had become so common, that these claims had been recognized by the public and the government as vesting in the claimant a title, which could only be defeated by his failure to comply with the provisions of the law respecting the perfection of his title. No one, save where two or more pre-emption claimants were contending for the same tract, could interfere; nor is there any provision of statute by which railroad companies can call in question the pre-emption or homestead right. In the absence of any contest between pre-emptors, the claimant has only to show a substantial compliance with the law, pay the required amount, and obtain his title. So, also, in regard to homestead rights. Nor did any difficulty arise until railroad companies began to interfere. The acts granting lands to railroad companies made no provision for the selection by them of lands held by pre-emption or homestead claimants at the time the lines of their roads were fixed, and subsequently abandoned. The companies applied to the secretary of the interior, and procured from him a construction of the statutes, giving them the right to select as railroad lands all such so abandoned. This was the first decision in their favor, and committed the secretary to their interest.