Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1854-10-24
THE TIMES TO ITS READERS

ly allude to the position assumed by the Times ut
the period when the news first reached us of the
passage of the Minnesota Land Bill, and to our
subsequent course on this measure, feeling conf
dent that the promulgation of the facts as they
exist, will tend to place right before the pub
lie. We do this, not because we care for the
sneers of this one or the anathemas of that, but
because we have been grossly misrepresented and
justice to ourselves as we'll as justice to our
friends demand of us some explanation.
When, therefore, the news of the passage of the
Ril reached us. we wnre the frst to make the
fact known and the first to rejoice the result.
We were glad that Minnesota had been success
full in her efforts to procure grant of land for
railroad purposes. Wewere glad that the new
Bill had passed by so large majority, and know
ing that the Bill contained provision, or rather
that it originally contained provision submit
ting the matter to our next Legislature for act
ion, we were glad that every thing was working
so we'll for the speedy construction of great
thoroughfare from what was termed the hyper
borean regions to the interior of the Atlantic
States. Now thought we, all the inharmonious
elements in Minnesota on this subject, can be re-
conciled. The charter which was so hastily and
loosely drawn, and rushed so impetuously through
our Legislature, can be thrown aside-a new
charter be passed, liberal in its provisions to
any company that may accept it, at the same time
securing the interests of our territory, and with
this charter we can bury the hatchet, create har-
mony, secure the cordial cooperation of all
parties, and thus hasten the consummation of the
great enterprise. Up to this time we had never
heard of any other Bill before Congress for
grant of land for Minnesota but that which con-
tanned the words ''future'' and "or'-words ex-
pressly inserted to bring the Bill before our Le-
gislaturc, and without which the Bill never could
have passed Congress. This was the impression
Of every gentleman with whom we conversed, and
when abstract of the Bill reached us with the
word ''or' in it, we were fully persuaded that We
were correct in our conclusions and that there
was now chance to bring about that which was
so much desired-a unanimity of action and an
energy Of purpose highly necessary to the at
tainment of the object Believing, therefore, that
every thing connected with this railroad matter
had been carried on in good faith, we penned an
article in which we stated that according to the
reading of the bill and the general understand
never heard diverse opinions on the subjcct) the
matter would come before our Legislature and
then we hoped that all conflicting interests would
be submerged into the general good. This article
called out the Minncsotian (whose editor appear
cd to be well postcd) and We were informed 10y
that print that the abstract Of the bill we had
published, was incOrrcct-that the bill did not
contain the word ''or'' but the word ''and' and
that the word s'futurc'' was not in it. At or
about the same time, we were waited upon by
one Of the to-he Attorneys of the road, and were
shown the original bill, or copy of it, with the
word or'' printed in it, but stricken out, and the
word 'and'' inserted in different hand writing
from that of the clerk. lie stated to us that
every thing was right, and he hoped that we
would refrain from saying any thing further on
the subject. lie thought it would be for our in
tcrest. We told him if every thing was right we
were glad of it, but it was very strange to us how
the word ''or'' came out of the bill when there
was nothing on record to show any such altcra-
ton. Shortly afterwards we were visited by
other gentlemen who fairly abused us for even
daring to intimate that there had been q fraudu-
lent alteration in the bill, and who insisted, on
penalty of incurring their displeasure, that we
should let the matter rest where it was. Tho
earncstncss of these gentlemen to cover up the
disputed point, and the different hand writing of
the word ''and," excited our, suspicious, and we
were then determined to ferret out the wrong, if
a wrong had been committed, if by doing so, we
should lose every subscriber we had. The next
day we replied to the article of the Mnnesotian,
and after reviewing the matter, asked the editor
to answer us three questions, viz:
l. Were the words 'sfuture'' and ssor'' in the
original bill?
2. If so, how came they out 4?
3. BY what authority were they erased?
These certainly were pertinent questions, and
we bound ourselves that if they were answered
satisfactorily, to drop the subject and unite with
the Minnesotian in doing what we could to ad-
vance the progress of the railroad. How were
they answered. Simply by the editor remark
ing that if there were any legal questions or
technicalities, he should leave them to be settled
by the courts; they were not fit subjects for
public journalists This determined disposition
on the part of one who was supposed to know all
about the workings of the bill to evade the ques-
tions, only fixed the conviction still deeper in our
own mind that wrong had been committed, and
from that hour We decided to trace it to its le-
gitimate source. We had conversed with no
gentlemen on the subject, but the persons alluded
to above.
The attention of Gov. German was first called
to the discrepancy in the two bills on reading the
discussion in the Times and the Minnesotian.-
Meeting that gentleman we inquired of him if the
words " future'' and 6" or'' were in the original
BILL He informed us that they were. He re-
marked that there must be some mistake about the
matter, as it was we'll understood at Washington
before he left that these words were to be in the
bill, for it could not pass without them. He sta
ted that he would inquire into the matter. This
is all Gov. German had to do with bringing this
railroad subject before the public through the col
umns of the Times. We make this point here,
because the oft-repeated charge of the Minneso-
tian that We are the organ of Gov. German, and
that the Times has been under its dictation, may
receive credence in quarters where it should
not. When, however, we found that Gov. Cor
man was right, we defended him, and we shall do
so again, should a similar emergency arise. We
did not call in the aid of others-we consulted
our own sense of Right and Justice, and believ-
ing that &c Truth crushed to earth will rise again."
we relied upon our own powers to carry us