Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-02-02
RESTORE THE PLUMBER.
Thirty Millions OF Acres OF Land llle-
gally Held by a Railroad
Corporation.
Let the Contract be Declared For.
teited, and the Land Restored
to the People.
The History OF the Northern Pacific
Railroad Land Grants.
a Remarkable Endorsement of One OF
the PIanks of the Greenback
Labor Platform,

| "'S''a' NdOle CnuoTSeWent OF One {
the PIanks of the Greenback
Labor Platform.
In its platform of 1880 the Greer
back Labor party inserted the follow
ing plank:
"Rairoad land grants forfeited b
reason of non-fullillment of contraC
Should be immediately reclaimed b
The government; and henceforth III
public domain reserved exclusively d
homes for actual settlers"
Neither Of the od parties dared
open their mouths on the subject. To
many Of their leaders were hand-il
glove with railroads whose grants ha
been forfeited.
But certain facts are coming to ligh
which bear valuable testimony to tn
'oundness of the Greenbaci positio
upon the subject.
In the columns of the New Yor
Mail and Express, Jan. 8. 1882, unde
ihe head of Another Great RailrOa
Scandal" we find the following lette
from its special Washington CORES
pondent:
a piece of legislative dynamit
which will cause widespread havoc be
fore the session ends, was introduce,
in the House to-day by Mr. Cassidy o
Nevada. 1t was in the shape of Il bill
% restore to the public domain TN
lands which have been granted to tn
Northern Pacific Railroad cOmpan,
since the original grant lapsed, becaus,
of its failure to complete the road in {
specified time. And in the Senate Mr.
Teller introduced a resolution callin!
for the decision of ex-COmmissionel
williamson, Of the land Office, anC
eX-Secretary Schurtz of the intel ior de
partment, in relation to the extension
of this lapsed grant.
To the better informed members OF
beth Houses the bill and resolution dl
not come in the shape of a surprise
They have known for years that 3 !,
10000 acres OF the best wild land il
the United States have been held with
out legal authority by the Northeu
Pacific railroad company. Various ant
powerful influences have kept this
fact from the exposures that are nov
certain to he made.
In anticipation of the action of to-
day, your correspondent has made 4
careful examination Of the history Of
the vast land grants TO the Northern
Pacific, the results of which are as fol
lows:
The Northern Pacific land grant ex
pired by limitation July 4, 1877, al
though it is claimed that legally speak
ing it has been forfeited even before
Some years previous, however, The
general land office had Obligingly al
lowed the Northern Pacific railroad It
run up and down the fertile valleys Of
Washington Territory, and had looked
up all the land for 100 miles in width
along this line, for the use, present and
prospective, of the road. After the
result of the various Indian wars had
opened up to settlement other fertile
lands not included in the above imagin.
AIRY line, the North Pacific desired tC
locate definitely, as they claimed, on
another and more advantageous line.
1t is undoubtedly the fact that a
change of location necessarily involves
a new grant, us does also an extension
of time for building railroad; but
Secretary Schurz made quite IA number
of new grants for the benefit of differ.
ent companies, principally in Mime
sofa and Wisconsin, most of them
feeders of the Northern Pacific, with.
out any congressional action whatever
The grant to the Northern Pacific ap,
proved July 2, 1864, provided, in prin.
cipal conditions that the road should
be commenced in two years, that fifty
miles or more should be built each year
after the second year, and that the
whole should he completed by July 4,
1876. In 1866, no road having been
commenced, congress further extend
ed the time for beginning the work
two years, but shortened the time re.
quired for completion one year, and
required one hundred miles a year to
be built, instead of fifty as first pro-
vided.
This was the compromise entered
into between the government and the
projectors of the road, in view of the
fact that the road had already made
two folfeitures by default. But by the
terms of renewal thus settled by COM
promise, congress provided (section Is,
p 255) "that each and every grant,
right and privilege herein are so made
and given to and accepted by the said
Northern Pacific Railroad Company
upon and subject to the following con,
ditions, namely: That the said COM
pany shall commence the work upon
said road, within two years from and
after the said 4th day of July, 1868,
and shall complete not less than 100
miles per year after the second year
thereafter, and shall construct equip,
furnish and complete the whole road
by the 4th day of July, Ammo Domini,
eighteen hundred and seventy-seven.
This, of course, was a new contract
entered into and accepted by both par
ties, which absolutely superseded and re-
pealed, in terms, all former enactments
herewith.
Secretary Schurz made formal de-
cision, however. that the time for CON-
pleting the Northern Pacific Railroad
did not expire until July A, 1879. The
construction he saw fit to place upon
the question was that the act of 1868,
being an amendment to the act of 1864,
took effect in 1864 and inasmuch as
the act of 1866 extended the time two
years for completing the road, this pro.
vision applied to the act of lS6S-that
therefore the time fixed by the act OF
1868 did not expire until two years af,
ter the time fixed by It'll In other words,
Secretary Schurz legislated two addl-
tional years of limit by placing this
construction" upon statute that
which needed no construction other
than the plain and unmistakable Ian.
guage, which required the absolute
completion of the whole road on July
4, 1877.
The decision revived and extended
the old grant and supplied the basis for
q new grant on amended lines. More