Report from the Secretary of the Treasury, in Compliance with a Resolution of the Senate, in Relation to the Execution of the "Act Granting Land to Certain Exiles from Poland"

S. l. (Washington, DC): Blair & Rives, Printers, 1839. First Edition. Very good. First edition; 8 3/4 x 5 1/2; pp. [1], 2-20; self-wraps, removed; minor age-toning and spotting to margins; in very good or better condition.In 1834, 235 exiled Polish revolutionaries petitioned the US Congress for a grant of land, for the purpose of establishing a colony on the American frontier. The Government was sympathetic to the struggles of the Poles against Russia's tyranny in the Polish Revolution of 1830 and did grant the land, in Northern Illinois, although to call it a "grant" would have been generous, as it was more of a preemption right to purchase the land, after occupying it and cultivating it for ten years. Matters woulld get worse, when the land chosen by the Polish agent had already been occupied by native squatters. Support and sympathy for the Poles would war back and forth with anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic sentiments for the next few years and extensive debates would be held as to who was best suited to settled the land. Ultimately, Congress would side with the squatters, allowing them to purchase the land and nullifying the Polish grant in 1842. The current document was part of the ongoing battle.