Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-06-09
The Five per cent. Fund Claim.


called fac per cent fund, and the claim Of the
Rock River Canal Company, is so full of con.
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
an nublic lands in relation to the fps per cent
fund due the State Of Wisconsin; by which it is
clearly established that the canal lands charged to
the state at 81. so per should be reduced to
81 IS and the balance paid to the state ater deduct
ing the amount due the canal company for their
erpe.ditures aud disbursements. The conclusions
are irresistible and a resolution is before the
Senate in accordance Herewith. Thus is demon
srated 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 SIS 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 res lu
ton of the committee, and it will undoubtedly
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, .fue per- centuna of the net pro-
ceeds of public lands thereafter sold in the
State. No part of this money, now amount
ing to some $780, 900, has ever been paid to
the State, and Senator Howes 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 S350,OOO, as set-off. being the price OF
100000 acres of land granted by an act of
Congress to the Territory of Wisconsin in
1888 to aid in the construction of a 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 not 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 81 80 per
acre. also, that in order to render effectual
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 never ossented to the 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 81 so
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 it's 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 10 the usual rate,
81 % per acre. This was not done. In 1916,
and afterwards, the territory sold most of the
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
$4,000 acres Of land, the remaining $4,000
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 &C.
tually received and used By the Territory for 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 (not 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 $4,000,
gross proceeds of sales, would be reduced by
these deductions to about 100000, and that
sum subtracted from the $500, 900, five per cent
fund, would leave remainder of some $780,
900 to be added to our school fund
So far the report of the committee and
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 it's
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 in 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,
they report. This action, if sanctioned by |
Congress, does not reject the claim Of the
State, merely putting it aside for the present,
but it would certainly be desirable that all
the questions should have been passed upon
together, and all the items of the account |
settled
But the new feature, mainly Distinguishing
the committees substitute from the original |
resolution, relates to the claim Of the |