Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-03-06
OPEN YOUR EYES.

A few days since we stated that we believed
that the amendments to the NJ. & N. W. r. R.
Company, were not worth the snap of the finger,
so far as the territory was concerned, and that
the Company only gulled the members of the
Legislature when the amendments were passed
How far we are correct in our belief, time only
will develope, but we find others arc of the same
opinion as ourselves. For instance, Hon. Isaac
VAN ETTEN, in a speech in the Council on the 10Th
February, as reported in the Pioneer, remarked !:
''The object of the Company in the bill thus
returned by the Governor, was to get an extern
tion of the time in which they were to construct
the Telegraph from St. Paul to Dubuque, and in
the construction of the first 50 miles of the road,
and more particularly to re-enact the original
charter, constituting the Company, which charter
had been disapproved of by Congress without a
dissenting voice. 1t was, therefore, of vital I'M
porance to the company, to carry the bill through
the legislature. notwithstanding the executive
veto. To accomplish that object this supplement
tai bill was introduced, not with the expectation
or belief that the amendments contained in the
bill would ever be adopted by the company or as
sented to by them. Twice in the fifth section of
the supplemental bill, to which this amendment is
proposed, you render it obligatory upon the COM
pany to adopt the amendments contained in it
within six months from the date of its passage
Du1s uuucT tuc CudrCer, you refused
to reserve to yourselves and the future legislatures
of this territory the right to alter, amend or re-
peal this bill. You, therefore, Invested yourselves
of the right power to interfere with the rights
they obtained under it. You cannot either en-
large, restrict or modify their powers.
The supplemental bill now before the Council
and the amendments contained therein, unless
said company voluntarily accept them, are not
worth the paper upon which they are written.
The Territory is poworless unless Congress ex-
ercises the right reserved to itself in the organic
act, and interposes between this Company and
the Territory, by disapproving of the original
charter. Sir, no man will hazard the opinion
that any power, legislative or judicial, can COM
pei this company to accept the amendments to
their original charter, proposed in this bill. And
we'll does this company know it. Well does their
attorney know it. And in drafting this supple
mental bill, he nor they cared not for the amend
ments, whether they passed this body or not, so
long as other objects, which they were desirous
OF accomplishing, were attained" -r ~
1t should be remembered that Mr.. VAN ErrEN
is the first gentleman who exposed the defects of
the Charter last year and fought it bravcly, and
it is at least reasonable to suppose that he knows
something of the motives and intentions of the
Company in desiring the passage of the amend
ments, not for the purpose of accepting them,
but to reafirm the old Charter, and get their
clutches on the lands of the Territory. Possibly
we are mistaken, but if We are, the surrounding
circumstances do not warrant US in so believing.
We ask careful perusaf of Mr.. VAN ErrEN's
remarks.