Council Bluffs Bugle

The expenses for reclaiming and ditching, sum up all the expenses: that the county can get this work done by good and reliable men, who are anxious to take the contract at the above figures. The reader will see, after deducting six thousand five hundred dollars, which covers all the expenses of reclaiming and ditching, from the twenty-five thousand dollars, which is the worth of the lands, we have the nice sum of eighteen thousand five hundred dollars left for the benefit of the county after all expenses are paid. This handsome sum the people are called upon to give for four thousand dollars, and that to be paid in work, and an extra bonus to induce the people to ratify the contract the Company agree to bring and cause to settle in the said county of Cass, fifty persons, old and young; not, if we are correctly informed, to be hard working and industrious white men, but free negroes, who are to be located on these lands.

In proof of this statement, we quote the language of a citizen of Iowa, an agent of the Company, who, in a communication to the St. Louis Republican, says:

"It is one of the most difficult questions of the time, to determine what is to be done with the free negroes now overflowing the country; the remedy is at hand. Let the slaves remain where they are, but the free negroes must have a home where they can be fed, clad and cared for. Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, need free blacks for servants. Iowa could, out of this population, readily employ twenty thousand colored men instead of the laborers which have been taken from the fields by the war. Societies should be formed for the relief and transportation of blacks to Iowa. The people of Iowa want them, and in his late message, the Governor has invited them to the State. Let societies at once be formed to send a portion of them to Western Iowa, where they can obtain, through the influence of the American Aid Society, which will place these poor blacks on the swamp and overflowed lands where this poor class of people can be made comparatively happy. This is the time for the colored population to emigrate to Iowa, and let there be no quarreling about it."

Citizens of Cass, are you prepared to give away your swamp and overflowed lands to be settled by colored gentry instead of the brave soldiers who have gone to defend our soil from a rebel foe. I think you have more respect for those who have volunteered their lives in the defence of the stars and stripes of our glorious country.
put the lands mentioned in low figure--entirely too low. After lands are reclaimed by ditching, they will be the best lands in Cass county, and could be sold readily at $4 per acre, to actual settlers, the county giving the settler time on three-fourths of the purchase money. By pursuing this course, the county would secure the settlement of the county, and at the same time have a fund of $13,000 left with which to make other improvements in the county. If the county is not able, she could allow the settler to do it and deduct the value of the work out of the price of the land. This course, in our opinion, would be far better for Cass county.