St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-27
Record Of Judge Wilson in the Famous
Railroad Land Grant Case of 1857
and 1881.
How He Opposed an Ubiquitous Measure
Single Handed and Alone and Gained
Victory.
Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars
Saved to the Taxpayers Through
His Persistent Efforts.
Some Unwritten History in Which
Loren Fletcher and Gov. Pillsbury
Cut Prominent Figures.

years residence III Minnesota. 1nefe is no
necessity for anything else. and his future
course may be correctly judged by his past
life and services. His record while in the
legislature is one Of the strong features of
his present campaign, and when the facts
are generally known throughout the district.
hundreds nj voters will be certain to llUck
to his support. 1t is a matter of record
that he has always opposed railroads and
corporations as a legislator, while, as an
attorney, he has never received a stipulated
salary. A GLOBE representative, talking
with the Judge at WinOna, yesterday, pre-
vailed upon him to give detailed account
of his connection with the famous %, 600,
900 land grant and loan of state credit to
the railroads, extending from 1857 to 1851.
The facts given are an important cOntribu-
ton to history and the political literature
of the First district, and will be found of
absorbing interest to all classes of voters
the farmers and laboring men especially.
The story OF Gov. PilIsbury's and Speaker
Fletcher's connection with the legislation
in 1881 has never been printed before.
The stand taken by Judge Wilson in this
one instance should win at least l, 900 votes
for him from the Republican ranks in the
First district. 1t cannot be charged, in the
light of these facts. that Judge Wilson is
the candidate of the railroads. The fact is,
they are opposed to him and are favorable
to Lovely. The story. as told by the judge,
is as follows:
ach
back so far viii recoiiect, the United States
made Il grant OF
SEVERAL MILLIONS
of acres of land 10 Minnesota to aid in the
building of q number OF lines of railroad
The lanGs were by the legislature transferred
to certain railroad companies, which agreed
TO build the roads. The companies agreed to
pay, in lieu Of all other taxes, per centum
OF their gross earnings, and the lands were,
on that consideration exempted from taxa
tion until they should he sold or contracted to
be sold by the companies. This immunity
from taxation was only Of the property of
the companies paying the 3 per centum of
their earnings. The property of no one else
was exempted. The land-g railroad com
panies in 1858 applied for loan Of state
credit to the amount of S. 900, 900. This
could not be granted but by an amendment
of the constitution. which required vote of
the people. One of toe roads, whose eastern
terminus was at WinOna. was to have 81 ,25O-
COZ of loan. The directors of the company
lived at Winona, and they. by the loan,
EXPECrED TO BE ENRICHED,
and the people of the city expected that it
would be greatly benefited by the building of
the road. ] saw, or supposed L saw, that the
scheme was one intended, and whose effect
would be, to plunder the state. as it, in fact,
proved to be. l, therefore, opposed it, for,
though the officers OF the railroad company
who asked for bonds claimed that the state
would never be called on to pay a dollar,
was not satisfied with the honesty or truth of
the statement All the companies stood
together in the jealous scramble for the plum
der. AT the election in WiDona on that meas
ure there were cast 1882 votes 1--WE had hon
estly six or seven hundred1, and of these, ], ISL
were for the loan, one against it. was the
one. They tried to create such a feeling in
our town that no one would dare to vote
against it. Though they could not deter me
they caricatured and, so far as they dared.
inSuted and abused me for my course. After
the work had advanced so far that few
hundred dollars had been expended on each
OF the roads. the companies and the gov
ernor disagreed as to the security to be-
given by the companies as condition prece-
dent to the Issue of the bonds. The governor
claimed that the state should have a first lien
on the property of the company, which they
claiming that the law did not require
this. Some of the companies applied for
mandamus to compel the issue of the
bonds on
THEIR TERMS.
Such writ was issued in at least one of the
districts. An application was made to me by
one of the companies in my district then
being judge of this district. l refused even
to entertain jurisdiction or consider the ques-
ton. After considerable amount of bonds
had been issued, the companies conceived the
4 of hnrlx i0n ociS and
thus getting The money into the hands of the
people. undoubtedly well knowing that the
currency so issued would be unsecured.
Against this | also raised my voice The
railroad companies succeeded in obtaining
about half of the S5,000,000. In 1881 was q
member of the legislature when the holders
of the bonds made the final assault Oh it for
payment. The bonds were largely in the
hands of railroad men or railroad companies.
Selah Chamberlain, on behalf OF himself and
most of the other bondhoders, made an offer
to accept in full settlement 30 per cent. of
the face value of the bonds. This was
favored by many, though, when the legisla-
ture met, not by nearly majority.
THE SCHEME
7 thought both dishOnorable and unjust-dis-
honorable because it put the state in the light
of a repudator of on e-half of its apparent
debt, and unjust to the state because 1t re-
ouired the payment of many times more than
the state owed on any principle of law or
equity The scheme was pushed through by
methods that would be glad for the honor of
the state to have forever forgotten. That l
opposed this earnestly and untiringly from
first to last, those who were then lin the legis-
lature or in the state will not have forgotten.
HE DECLINED TO TOUCH THEM.
A clause was inserted in the bill-to aid in
floating it thrOugh-giving out of the sum
going to the bondholders s150,O00 to pay
clai-us due for the construction of the roads.
These claims were largely held in Winoua, and
many of them we're at once offered to me for
collection. But 1 declined to accept
them. being determined not to place
myself in position where my
interest or the interest of my clients
should stand opposed to my duty as legisa-
tor; and also being determined to oppose the
measure at every move, so long as opposition
could be of any avail. l thus lost indvidu-
ally thousands of dollars in fees. The bill
providing for the payment of the bonds was
at the same time introduced into both the
house and senate. 1t provided that there
should be issued ''such an amount of new
bonds as should be equal to so per cent. of
the amount of the principal and interest
which shall be due on said Minnesota State
railroad bonds and the coupons thereto at
tached on the 1st day of January, 1884" By
the bill, as it was introduced and as it passed
the senate it was provided that the bonds to
be issued should bear interest at per cent.
per aunum, and it will be observed that, ac-
cording to the terms of the bill, the old bonds
and coupons were
Giro DRAW INTEREST
until January. 1884, at the rate of per cent
This was greatly in excess of the offer of
compromise made by Mr.. Chamberlain. The
bill In the house was referred to a committee
of ten, all of whom were in favor of it but
two---Mr. McCracken. of Fillmore county, and
myself Iu the committee either Mr.. Nc
Cracker or l proposed, as an amendment,
that the rate of interest on the bonds to be
issued should be per cent. per snnum, in
stead of 5, and, after protracted discussion,
the committee, with one exception, agreed to
that. L, also, in the committee moved to
amend so that the rate Of interest to be cal
culated on the bonds and coupons after the
date of the act up to January, 1884, should
be per cent. instead of Z, and that the
interest should be computed on only so per
cent of the sum then due, instead of the
whole sum as provided in the bill. This was
also agreed to by the committee, with but one
dissent, and the bill was ordered reported
back to the house with the recommendation