Middletown transcript., 1869-01-23
publit 9flirys. s
Plund.r of the Public Lands.

tised upon the people of the United States
by the passage of, the, various Pacific
Railroad bills, is attracting the attention
Of the leading newspapers of the country.
The Stockholders of the Union, Pacific
Railroad will have clear profit of S16,-
034 per mile on their road of l, 100 miles
in length, which is to terminate at Salt
Lake, making gross aggregate of Sl7,-
637 400. In addition to this there is the
land grant Of 12,600 acres per mile,
amounting in all to 14,208, 900 acres.
This is enormous, and yet this is only one
of many similar schemes which Congress
has placed under the fostering care of the
public Treasury. ~
Of the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad
Company, General Boynton writes to the
Cinoinnati Gesettee as follows:
e There was a. clause in the original
Pacific Railroad bill which required the
Union Pacific Railroad Company to con-
struct branch from Sioux City to con-
meet with their main road, by the "near-
est and most practicable route"
.' The road thus provided for would, if
any attehtion had been paid to the law
authorizing it,, have. been built from a
point on the Missouri River, opposite
Sioux City; in a direction elfnost exactly
southwest, to Columbus, in Nebraska on
the main stem, a distance of 96 miles.
ssIFi Instead of doing this, however, the
road was built down the rich and level
bottoms of the Missouri, ina direction
considerably east of SOUTH. and for .GS
miles of the distance, at the end of each
successive mile, the track-layers were
4. further from the Pacific Ocean than when
Is they began, and at the 6Sth mile were 90
miles further east than the meridian of
Sioux City. Then turning westward, and
crossing the Missouri 80 miles above
Omaha, the line strikes the main stem at
Fremont, making the branch thus built
100 miles in length, and its terminus at
this point of junction only six miles nearer
the Pacific Ocean than the -peint where its
first rail was laid o. -1As'5-t---- ~
- And for this road lying almost wholly
in the State of Iowa, in no sense Pa
cific road, and in almost all senses pri-
ssate. one, bonds, by way of Government
subsidy, have been issued by the Secretary
OF the Treasury, at the rate of about
$l6,O00 per mile, and lands have been
certified by the Secretary of the Interior
at the rate of 12, 800 acres per mile, and
byiegislation already perfected, this branch
thus constructed in violation of law. is
regularly receiving its proportion of these
subsidies, and claims the whole, namely
$1,6OO, 1000 and 1 ,2S0, 900 acres of land"
.1fgOf the Leavenworth, Lawrence and
Galveston Railroad, General Boynton
says: =
81 The portion of this road which lies in
Kansas is $50 miles long, and the cost of
building this will not average over $40
600 per mile. This road has already re-
ceivcd the following aid: The Govern
ment has granted it 500, 900 acres of ex-
a ec1ent land the state of Kansas has
given 125, 900 acres, and the counties
through which it passes have issued it
their bonds to the amount of 100000
= This company, in the person of
representative, is now before the Senate
urging the ratification of treaty, known
as the Usage treaty, which enables this
company to buy 5000, 900 acres of land
at l9 cents per acre; the payment having
Is years to run. These lands have been
variously estimated by good judges, who
{ are all acquainted with the tract, as worth
from $4,000, 900 to $12, 100000.
''The whole affair has been from its in
ception gigantic plundering scheme, aud
/ Senators have been in it, are in it still
and it is said that one has declared that
some time when the Senate was tired and
most had gone to dinner he would get it
u through" -
~ s'The quantity of lands conveyed by
these grants" says the Commissioner of
b the General Land Office, lis of empire
extent, exceeding in the aggregate, by
more than 5 1000, 600 of acres, the entire
- areas of the six New England States, ad-
ded to the surface of New York, New Jer-
sey, Pennsylvania, Ohio Delaware, Mary
land and Virginia" He says the grants
1 70 the Pacific Railway lines. alone esare
: within about fourth of being twice the
united area of England, Scotland, Wales,
Ireland, Guernsey, jersey, the Isle of Man,
and the islands of the British seas, and
within less than tenth of being equal to
the French empire proper,
General Beynton gives other start
ling details of facts which were brought to
notice Of the House in March last by Mr..
Julian, Chairman of the Committee of
Public Lands. Concerning land grants
he says; s..-5f saa-5,3 : II.
sCoegross up to March last had grant
ed in all to various Western and Southern
States over 81. 600 600 acres of lands for