The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1855-02-17

nous sum is proposed to be given over in fee
simple to q company to build railroad, without
taking any security that they will build it in
the TINE or in the MANNER, or that they will
faithfully apply the proceeds thereof as required.
Minnesota thus loans to this Company six
million dollars on three years. time without
asking security. It is not the Minnesota and
Northwestern r. r. Company that proposes
to build this road it is Minnesota that pro-
poses to build it, through her agents, to whom
She furnishes the capital! Would any Com
pany undertake such work at present with
out some bonus? Surely not! Then it is the
immense value the Company sets upon the
land, that induces her to hang on our legisla-
tive halls, and ask for time and further privi-
leges. But it is said we want road, and
must have it This is all correct. We should
have road in the shortest possible time, and
it matters not what agents we employ to build
it, if we take sufficient guarantees for their
faithful performance.
AS the NJ. & N. w. r. r. Co.'S. charter is
reenacted by the bill before me, am again
called upon to approve every section as if it
was an original bill.
The 9th section of said charter grants the
right of way two hundred feet wide through
the whole length of said proposed road, with
power to take all the necessary timber, stone,
solutely all the lands within said (200) two
hundred feet, which is now owned by Mime
sofa, or which she may hereafter own.
1t is known to every man of ordinary intel
ligence tina, Minnesota is forbidden by her or
ganic act from interfering with the primary
disposal of the soil.
Therefore, to give and grant to any body
the right of way and the soil to the width of
two hundred feet, from the Iowa line to Lake
Superior, is clearly in violation of the organic
act.
10 avoid this, Congress must first grant the
right of way to Minnesota, and then she may
grant it to company, and not before. This
will not be denied by any one, presume, un-
less his pecunia7y interest blinds his Judgment.
If the act of Congress approved 29th June,
1854, granting lands to Minnesota for Rail-
road purposes was now in full force, and unre-
pealed, the right of way a. been accidentally
omitted to he granted unless by implication
arising out of the right to build Railroad
from and to certain points. The right of way
is only granted expressly over the reserved
lands, subject to the approval of the President
of the United States.
I'd. Ii the right OF way was granted, by the
act of the 29th June, 1854, that act has been
repealed by the act of the 4th August, 1854.
But it is said that Congress had no right to
repeal the grant because the company had
commenced the construction of the road and
had thereby a vested right. This utterly
deny; and distinctly aver that said compa-
ny have not expended one dollar or one cent
in the construction of said road. And in
proof of my position, have in my possession,
land have transmitted copy to your body,)
the report of the acting President and Treas
urer made to me on the first day of January,
1855. Under their oaths, duly attested by a
competent officer, that said company had not
expended any sum arhateUer, in the construc-
tioa of said road; but that they had expended
about nine thousand dollars, in some way not
made known to me.
By the bill presented to me it appears that
the 10th section of the charter of the NJ & n
w. r. R. Co. is repealed The section thus
repealed is the one which declares the charter
absolutely Uoid if they fail to comply with all
its provisions, and the substitute in the Sd
section of the bill before me, declares that said
charter shall only be roid if the company fail
to build the "said fifty miles of Railroad, from
st. Paul North, within three years, and
the whole line within three years thereafter,
and to complete line of Telegraph from
Dubuque to st. Panl within % months, after
the passage of said act" while the 10th section
thus repealed required that the board of drec-
tors should have been organized on or before
the LIST day of July, 1854. 1t is believed that
here is the difficulty with this NJ. & N. w.
R. r. Co. from the beginning, that they in all
probability have not complied with this pro-
vision as it has not been made known public
ly, at least who their officers and directors are
or whether they did elect and organize them,
by the time required, and this legislation is
intended, presume, to cure this default. 1t
was this clause that caused the alteration 10
be made in the act of Congress, whereby we
lost our lands. Mr.. Breckenridge, in his official
report to Congress, says that "The parties
who were dissatisfied with the Minnesota
Charter, and who desired the grant to be
thrown before future legislature, wished the
Sd section to be reported from the committee,
and passed by the House in the above form;
while those who desired the company to re-
ceive the grant by virtue of the charter, wish
ed the word future before the word 'Legiis-
lature,' to be stricken out, and the word and
to be substituted for the word or between
the words constituted and 'organized.'"
This explains the reasons for the alteration,
and points out who did it, and why it was
done, especially when we observe the 18th
section of the NJ. & N. w. r. r. Co.'S. charter.
Another section of the bill proposes to ex-
empt their lands from taxation until the patent
issues, and there is no other right of taxation
reserved to the Territory. Under existing
circumstances have serious objections to this
clause. LIST. BY the time the patent is ready
to be issued after the completion of the twenty
miles, the lands will have been in the posses
sion of our citizens as purchasers from the
company, aid thereby cause the settlers and
owners to pay the tax and not the company.
In the next place, the 9th section of the M. l.
n. w. X. r. Co.'S charter, declares the capital
stock Of said company to be personal PROPERTY.
which will only be taxed where the owners |
and holders reside, unless you expressly reserve
the right of taxation: and it is clear that this
provision was to avoid taxation in Minnesota.
l therefore cannot let 60 our right to tax their
capital stock, and all their property, both real
and personal; our fellow citizens are taxed on
all their capital stock of every kind and des-
criptiOn; instead therefore, of this clause bet
tering the old charter, so far as the interests
of our people are concerned, l. puts the burden
of the shoulders of the company on to that
of our own citizens.
But let us look at the question of taxation in an. |
other light. 1t has been proclaimed that we have |
the right to tax the capital stock, without it is ex.
pressly exempted by law. Suppose this to he true.
BY declaring the whole Of their capital stock FER.
sonal property" you can only tax the stockholders