Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-06-08
The Five per cent. Fund Claim.

ton correspondent % r." dated 10th instant,
published in your paper of the Goth inst in
relation to the claim of Wisconsin for the 80
called .fue per cent. fund, and the claim of the
Rock River Canal Company, is so full of cor
fusion and error, that beg to correct it for
the benefit of your readers.
Your correspondent says:
An able and extended report has been made to
the senate by Mr.. Hendricks, from the committee
on public lands. "a relation to the tre per cenl.
fund due the State of Wisconsin; by which 1t is
clearly established that the canal lands charged TO
The st ate at 81. per acre should be reduced to
81 IS and the balance paid to the state ter deduct
ina the amount due the canal company /or utetf
sr1enditurss and disbursements. The conclusions
are irresistible and resolution is now before the
Senate in accordance Herewith. Thus is demon
strated the folly of the legislators of Wisconsin IN
refusing to listen to the proposals of the Canal
Company, when it offered to cancel its obligations
for 81 900 and allow the state to receive the full
amount of the proceeds of the lands and the five
per cent fund Judge Howe made an able and
unanswerable argument in behalf of the resolu-
ton OF the committee, ana III Will uhuouoteoIS
pass.
The facts in brief are these:
The act of Congress admitting Wisconsin
into the Union, granted to the State for the
use of schools, fire per ce'atam of the net pro-
ceeds of public lands thereafter sold in the
State. No part of this money, now amount
ing to some 100000, has ever been paid to
the State, and Senator Howe's resolution
seeks to enforce the payment. 1t is with
held by the accounting officers Of the United
States, who charge this State with the sum
of $3.50, 900. set-off being the price of
$1,000 acres of land granted by act of
Congress to the Territory of Wisconsin in
1888 to aid in the construction of canal
from Milwaukee to the Rock River. That
act provided that the granted lands should be
sold at 81 so pei acre, and that if the canal
should net be completed within ten years,
the State should be responsible for the pay
ment into the United States treasury of the
proceeds thereof at not less than s. 80 per
acre; also, that in order to render etfectual
these provisions, the State legislature should
pass an act asserting to it. The State was
not admitted until the ten years had nearly
elapsed, and it neger asse'eted to tie foregoing
terms Senator Howe therefore argues, and
the committee fully agrees: First, that the
State ought to have the five per cent. fund
and, second that it ought not to pay g 80
an acre for the lands, which is now ex-
acted, Notwithstanding but one mile of
the canal was ever completed. The Ter
ritory did sell part of the lands and apply the
proceeds to the construction of the canal, be-
sides making great but Intellectual exertions
to borrow money for the same object. In
1912, the funds and credit of the company
being exhausted, the best lands being sold,
and the others selling very slowly, and the
canal company having expended its last dol
lar and completely drained its resources, and
| the canal being, in the view of the Legisla-
ture, for these and other reasons utterly i'm
practicable, and perhaps not very desirable,
the territorial government abandoned the
work. Subsequent legislatures concurred in
these opinions, and repeatedly petitioned
| Congress to take back the grant, and to re-
| duce the price of the lands &c the usual rate,
| 81 % per acre. This was not done. In 1916,
and afterwards, the territory sold most ofthe
| remaining lands for 81 % per acre, and re-
| funded to former purchasers the excess paid
| beyond that rate. Thus the Territory got
only dollar and quarter an acre for about
| 900 acres of land, the remaining 10 900
acres of the canal grant being taken by con-
| sent of Congress as part of the 100000 acres
| granted to Wisconsin for the use of schools,
on its admission. From the amount so re
ceived, should be deducted the expenses of
sale and collection which were considerable.
Now Senator Howe's resolution, which he
has very ably supported in his argument be-
fore the Senate, provides that an account
shall be taken between the State and the Unit
ed States on these equitable principles, namely:
credit the State with the FIVE per cent fund
withheld; charge to the State the money
t,tally received and used By tie Territory fer its
oacn benefit; and pay over to the State the
difference Thus the expenses of selling the
lands and making the collections, and the
large sums mot less than $50, 900 in alD paid
by the Territory towards the construction of
the canal, would be deducted from the gross
proceeds of the canal land sales charged to
the State. In other words, the S156, 900,
gross proceeds of sales, would be reduced by
these deductions to about 800, 900, and that
sum subtracted from the $3.50, 900, fTe per cent
fund would leave remainder of some $780,
900 to be added to our school fund.
% lar tue report OI lIlc committee ana
the substitute resolution introduced by them
do not dissent from the proposed terms of
settlement and the State may thus be said
to have the committees appreciation of its
entire demands, with one exception, Sena-
tor Howe's resolution directs that the State
be also credited with all other sums dis
bursed by the Territory TO defray the expens-
es which by law were chargeable upon the
treasury of the United States" 1t has been
claimed for our State-with how much JUS
tice do not know-that the expenses of the
constitutional conventions, which were paid
by the Territory III part out of the canal land
funds, should have been paid by the United
States, and should therefore now be allowed
by the United States This allowance, if
proper, could have been made under the
clause quoted from the resolution. The com
mittee, without abiding to the matter at all,
have omitted this clause from The substitute
they report. This action, il sanctioned by
I