Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1138457
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 16:57:15+00:00

Document:
75 the inhabitants of the said territory, as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor. Likewise, acts of Congress enabling the people of the territories to form state governments and acts providing for the admis- sion of new states contained declarations that navigable waters shall be common highways and forever free.8 Corresponding declarations that navigable waters shall be deemed "public highways" appeared in various acts providing for the sale of public lands in the territories.6 However, for many years tolls were charged by states and private companies for passage through nonfederally owned canals and through privately constructed navigation works. Congress aided the states in the construction of canals by do- nating public lands for the canal sites, and for sale in order to obtain funds for waterway improvements.7 In such cases, it provided that no tolls were to be charged for Government use of the canals. Congress further aided the development of water- ways by authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase specified numbers of shares of capital stock in canal companies, ' See, e. g., Act of April 8, 1812, § 1, 2 Stat. 701, 703 (Louisiana); Act of March 6, 1820, § 2, 3 Stat. 545 (Missouri); Act of September 9, 1850, § 3, 9 Stat. 452 (California) ; Act of February 14,1859, § 2,11 Stat. 383 (Oregon). • See, e. g., Act of May 18,1796, § 9,1 Stat. 464, 468; Act of March 3,1803, § 17, 2 Stat. 229, 235; Act of March 26, 1804, § 6, 2 Stat. 277, 279; Act of February 15,1811, § 12, 2 Stat. 617, 621. T Canal Sites: Act of March 2, 1827, 4 Stat. 234 (Canal, Illinois River to Lake Michigan); Act of March 2, 1827, 4 Stat. 236 (Canal, Wabash River to Lake Erie); Act of August 8,1846, 9 Stat. 77 (Des Moines River, Iowa) ; Act of August 8, 1946, 9 Stat. 83 (Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, Wisconsin) ; Act of August 26,1852,10 Stat. 35 (Canal, St. Marys Falls, Michigan) ; Act of March 3, 1865, 13 Stat. 519 (Harbor and Ship Canal, Portage Lake to Lake Superior) ; Act of April 10, 1866, 14 Stat. 30 (Green Bay and Lake Michigan Canal). Waterway Improvements: Act of March 2, 1819, §6, 3 Stat. 489, 491 (Territory of Alabama); Act of March 14, 1826, 4 Stat 149 (Mississippi); Act of September 4,1841, § 9, 5 Stat. 453 (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Michigan); Act of February 26, 1857, § 5,11 Stat. 166,167 (Territory of Minnesota).

References: § 1
 § 2
 § 3
 § 2
 § 9
 § 17
 § 6
 § 12
 §6
 § 9
 § 5