Year: 1873

reservation Ofeighty Enilea Ia width


through the public lands cor The IoSa.


zion Orsame.


We have been So often tod .of late. ira.
the great object in passing this bill. With
tne immense donation Of land. and the res
erEation that i provides Tor its location, i
Ior me protection Of the frontier, that Il
becomes Necessary FOR me, having the honor
as 20, = IN part represent g frontier dis.
tnct, and one through which this road is to
pass, TO say something in explanation Of my
reasons for voting against this bin in its
present shape


have taken no part heretofore in the dis
eusslon Of this bin, in the hope that my
objections TO it would, in great measure
be removed, by striking ont the provision
setting apart reservation OF eighty miles
IN width, and four hundred and fftv in
length, to become sacred to the savage Of
the plains. and the incorporators OF this
road


Gentlemen, I trust, viii at least rive me
credis for sincerity when say that am so
unaecustomed to legislative honors. or to
legislative customs, as 10 pause at the ex-
tent and magnihecnce Of the present, that
we are asked, rs the representatives. Of the
people, 10 bestow on this corporation. and
IKE country boy to pause with my money
IN my hand and ask myself this question, If
the whistle IS not q little too deer at the
price


But, Mr.. Speaker, l am told that this
measure will be worth millions to us ia the
way Of frontier defense. Excuse us. gen
tlemen, If we do not properly appreciate
the favor. But twenty years ago your pred
ecessors grave us strip of this same sort of
protection, only it was sixteen miles in
width, instead of eighty; and from that
good day to this there has stretched
across the western border of our
State-across some of her fairest
streams and richest valleys. this plague
cursed belt of land where the weary and
fOot-sore pioneer of civilization dares not
halt to rest


For twenty long years has this gigantic
corporation, that comes to us now with
these unselish offers of protection, stood
guard over this reservation, and said to
every pioneer that approached it, tread
nightly, for the ground upon which you
tread is sacred ground"


Judging the future by the past, is the
protection you propose voting to us by this
eighty mile reservation of the same char
acte rs athat we have received from the six
teen mile reservation, except that it Is to be
increased in the proportion that sixteen
bears to eightyl l say pardon US, gentle
men, 1t our modesty forces US to decline
your profered kindness.


Now am willing, Mr. Speaker, to do
ample justice to this road, not by it for its
oft violated pledges and broken contracts
with the State, or for its shrewd speculations
with the Paris bankers, but l am willing
to encourage it by the same liberal dona-
tions of land that we have given to other
roads. l am willing to so even further, but
not to the extent that this bill provides.


But we are urged to the adoption of this
bill by the threat that if it is not adopted
that the State is to be involved in ruinous
litigation. | certainly thought when l
heard the gentlemen talking in this way.
that they were only visiting to keep their
courage up, for no one knows better than
the gentlemen who use this argument, that
this corporation is itself in no condition to
go into the courts, and if it does, Shylock
like, claiming its bond, that it viii be
forced to take its pound of flesh without
Shedding one drop Of christian blood


No one knows better, or will acknowledge
more readily than the friends of this bill.
that it is to theincrease of population alone
that we can look for the permanent ele-
ments of protection; then why, let me ask,
if this be true, shall we, by legislative enact
ment, exclude this very element of protee-
ton from this vast belt of country, stretch
ing across our immediate frontier


Satisfied, as l am from the oft expressed
opinion of the people of my district, in
regard to the sixteen-mile reservation. that
they do not desire to extend it to eighty,
shall vote against the bill as it now stands.