Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-03-23
The Proposed Minnesota Land Grant for Kali
read from st. Paul TO Lake Superi0r-Aetien
of the Wisconsin Senators.

81 OF the WISCONSIN, SeHatofSs
A violent partizan newspaper in this State
attacks our Senators in Congress for oppos-
ing the bill pending in the Senate to make a
graut of lands to the Lake Superior and Mis-
sissippi Railroad Company in the State of
Minnesota. to aid in the construction of the
Railroad of said Company from st. Paul to
Lake Superior.
We had intended ere this TO give some quo
tations from the debate'on the subject, as re-
ported in the Globe, to show the position of
the Senator'S from this State The Sentinel
having anticipated US IN this we avail our
selves fits summary.
The bill in question contemplates the en-
dowment of company said to be created by
the Legislature Of Minnesota, with an amount
of lands stated BY Senator Ramsay of that
State to be about 400, 900 acres, and by SEN
ator Howe of this State to be a quantity, per
mile. greater than Congress has ever made
for any private company, for the pun pose of
3 aiding in the construction of the road referr-
. cd to. The motion pending on which the de-
g bate took place, was that of Senator Doolit-
Y tie that the bin be recommitted to the com
& mttee on public lands.
Sen. How thought there were important
q questions III connection whit which the com
mittee had not considered, one Of the first of
which was whether teere was any such COM
psny In existence as the one to which it was
proposed to give the lands. A company of
that name and nature tad been created un-
der the territorial government which had for
feted It's privileges by non-user, and the
u State government was prohibited by its con
stitution from making any special laws for
such objects. The friends of the measure
4 however ayerred that there was such com
pany with a legal existence but did not, new
ertheless, make il appear very clearly that
such was the fact.
Senators HOWE and DooLrrLE both, how
& ever, opposed the bill on broader and higher
grounds \ grant Of land had already been
made by Congress for the construction of
road from Hudson 20 Lake Superior, with ter
. mini at Superior and Bayfield,. 1t was com
planned that Wisconsin had done nothing with
the grant Said Senator Howe:
"Now, | need not remind the Senate what
. difficulties have lain in the way of building
. new roads since 1856. We have have had
one proTacted season of great commercial
J. disaster, followed by pretty big specimen of
war, and we have not had much time to build
railroads The railroad is not completed
. have heard it said here, / think carelessly
said, that il has not been commenced. That
has not been said upon the authority of the
. committee that reported this bill | am in
formed that II has been commenced. | am
informed that individuals have put large sums
1 u money into the construction of that road.
I am Informed that twenty miles of the road
I have been graded | am informed that the
ties have been purchased for forty miles of
the road, and that iron enough TO lay twenty
miles Of rail has been purchased and is to lie
delivered in the coming SPRING,
The Senator then proceeded to show that
TINS proposed grant contemplated a road par
alleI and but "A few miles distant from that
. already established by the Wisconsin grant,
aud that it was actually no farther to Lake
Superior to connect st. Paul with Hudson,
the southern terminus Of the Wisconsin grant
BIZ a road some fifteen OF twenty miles long.
than ii b the proposed route directly
. from S. Paul, and that c0usequ, .Itlv they
were proposing 70 luaugurate rival parallel
. road without even shortening the distance
!. between the points from which they proposed
ID start and to terminate the road Said the
senator
Mr. PRESIDENT hope my friends who rep
resent Minnesota viii do me the Justice tG
acknowledge that l am advocating no narrow
. interest here. I simply find an enterprise
already ON foot, endowed hv the liberality of
& tie Congress Of the United States, and through
the influence of that endowment the capital
! ot men invested in it to build a road running
4 right through the section of country through
which this road IS designed to go. / say to
the Justice of Congress- Keep your hands off
that The Senators from Minnesota say, Do
!. nut do 1t, button the contrary send into the
] market an endowment exceeding tat made
Is the Hudson and Superior road by four sec
tioas Of land to the mile outbid in the mar
. kst Of the world the enterprise which YOU
. aave already set on foot
Senator HOWE continued
Now, in anticipation Of remark which
las been made aside repeatedly, that we are
rather iIGberal, when Congress has endowed
road running through Wisconsin to oppose
road running through Minnesota, I beg TO
sax that | think the State Of Minnesota Is, on
she contrary, little too ambitious. She has
right 20 ask n, at deal / am ordinarily
inclined to give her everything she does ask
for but in this particular instance she not
only asks that we shall agree 10 a grant which
viii Kill a road already in construction through
our State, but that we shall consent 10 the
cyssioa of part of our State in order to give
them a terminus on Lake Superior within
their own State. They really ask Of Wiscon-
sa to stand silent while grant Is being made
q Kill this road already u construction
through our own limits, and then to consent
Is grant to Minnesota the northern terminus
at the road, the town of Superior and the adj
aeeut country, in order that Minnesota may
aaye the road run through her own limits and
. terminate within her own limits. Sir, | CON
gelyc that this IS asking great deal of the
maguulImIty Of " isconsin. Wisconsin claims
& be magnanimous, generous, bouutitul; but
>a. really cannot afford to SIT still and be
. picked to pieces aftc- that fashion, ] hope
ca.s demand will be surrendered by my friends
from Minnesota
senator DooLuTLE urged similar arguments
+ regard to the building parallel lines of
raad from st. Paul to Lake Superior, when
there was no necessity for more than one
HE continued:
desire To state another fact 10 which [