St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-05-08
RAILROAD GRANTS.
Senator Hill on the Stolen Grant
to a Defunct Louisiana
Company.
Discussion of the Shipping Bill i'll
the Senate to Close This
Afternoon.
The House Refuses Concurrence in Senate
Amendments to the Fitz John P0r-
ter Bill.
The Ancient French SpoliatiOn Claims
Again Before the House and De-
manding Payment
The Senate.


portion of the Fort Hayes military reserva-
ton in Kansas, to Ellis County Agricultural
society, Kansas.
The following bills were introduced and
referred:
By Senator Edmunds To place q. S.
Grant, late general of the army of the United
States, upon the retired list of the army. In
moving the reference of the bill to the COM
mittee on military affairs, Edmunds com
mended its early consideration by that com
mittee for reasons he said which everybody
understood.
By SeHator Gibson, to increase the endow-
ment of the louisiana State University and
Agricultural college.
By Senator Ingalls,, to create the quillent
land district in Washington territory.
By Senator Blair, to provide for the adjust
ment of the accounts of laborers, workmen
and mechanics, arising under the eight bour
law.
Senator Hill addressed the senate in rela-
ton to declare the forfeiture of the
lands granted the New Orleans, Baton
Rouge q Vicksburg Railroad company. The
| question involved, Hill said, was the validity
of the claim of the New Orleans Pacific Rail-
way to the lands conditionally granted the
New Orleans, Baton Rouge & Vicksburg Rail-
road company by the act of March 3rd, 1871,
creating the Texas Pacific Railroad. Hill re-
viewed the history of the legislation creating
the companies named, and granting the lands
to the Baton Rouge company. The New
Orleans Pacific company having failed to get
land grant from congress, made an agree
ment with the president of the New Orleans,
Baton Rouge 81 Vicksburg Railroad, which
argument purported to convey to the New
Orleans Pacific Railroad the lands granted to
the New Orleans, Baton Rouge 81 Vicksburg
company. In consideration of zone dollar
and other good and valuable considerations, :"
and the conclusion seemed to have been
reached by the department of the interior,
that the agreement signed by the individual
who was president of the Baton Rouge COM
pany, who transferred this land in question
There had been no investigation of the regu-
larity of the proceedings of the stockholders
arising from the conveyance or ratifying it.
Hill would not attempt to enter upon a dis
cussion of the legal questions involved, but
/
brought by his consideration of the case. 1t
was fatal objection to the pretension of the
New Orleans Pacific railway to the convey
ance of the lands, that it was built over
route differing materially from the route to
which the conditional grant of land was
made. The constitutional grant was to the
| company whose chartered line was from
New Orleans to Baton Rouge on the east side
of the Mississippi river, and was not trans
ferable to company whose line
started at a point near New Orleans on
the west side of the Mississippi river, and
did not leave the west side in any part of its
course. 1t was also a fatal objection to the
pretensions of the New Orleans Pacific Rail
way that it had not yet completed its line
and SO far as known, did not propose to
complete its line to the eastern terminus of
the Texas Pacific Railway which was fixed
by the act of March 2, 1871. This attempt
transfer was the first case of the kind, the
legality of which received the favorable
opinion of the attorney general. The opin-
ion of Attorney General Brewster in its
favor was not binding on the Interior de-
partment, and not only SO, but an executive
officer could not shield himself from respon-
sibility for his own acts by taking refuge be-
hind the opinion of the attorney general
No law or practice compelled the secretary of
the interior to accept the opinion of the at
torney general. The heads of departments
had the right to ask the opinion of
the attorney general, but were not
bound to accept them, and in fact had no
right to accept them unless satisfied of the
correctness upon which they were based
They were no more bound to accept them
! than clients were to accept the
views of lawyers whose advice they seek, and
paid for. There was nothing judicial in the
function of giving opinions which the attor-
ney general possessed, and nothing judicial
in the manner in which the function was ex-
ercised. He generally heard only one side.
and always acted upon case made I'D for
him to act upon. In this case the claim of
the New Orleans Pacific company was sup
ported by elaborate briefs and arguments
from astute, experienced and highly paid
railroad lawyers, Dillon, Green, Swigler and
Pierepont, while the other side, which was
that of the government and the country
whose lands were the prize in the controversy,
was represented by nobody. The attorney
generals mind might have been conducted
to the opposite conclusion, if he got at the
facts from the versions of them given by both
sides, and if he had heard the council en-
| ployed by the government to look I'D and
present all the precedents, cases, principles
and authorities adverse to the pretensions of
the New Orleans Pacific railway
The attorney general was in the same un-
fortunate predicament in which the COM
mittees of the senate and house find them
selves in bearing railroad and other cases,
where great and wealthy corporations were
interested on the one side, and when the on
posing interest was only that of the public.
Hill had, he said, some experience of that.
and there were older senators who had a good
deal more. The best legal talent, stimulated
by mnniticent fees, and with ample time to
hunt up all the favoring precedents and
authorities appeared on the side of the cor
porate interest, while the public interest was
not represented at all on legal points.
Senator Hill concluded as follows: 'sW1th
no disposition to reproach our predecessors
in these halls, and making all allow
duces lOI Iuelr over eSUlulaCeS OF Jne real cost
of railroads., and their under estimates of
the rapdity with which railroads become
remuneratiye, 1 must express the feeling
which is now universal, that the grants of
lands in and of the construction of railroads
have been enormously, 1 might say fright
fully, excessive. The methods in which
these grants have been administered bv the
executive officials, have also carried the lib
erality to the verge downright looseness and
waste. Reserving the true rule, that grants
to private corporations should be construed