NYDfc 
 
 .STATEMENT 
 
Hq^tMBten, & 
 
 Washington, June 30th, 1868. 
 To the Gentlemen of the House Public Land Committee : 
 
 The following on behalf of the Terminal Central Pacific Railway- 
 Company of California, is respectfully submitted : 
 
 STATEMENT. 
 
 The Terminal Central Pacific Railway Company was organized 
 under the general Railroad law of the State of California, with the 
 object of connecting Vallejo and the terminus there of the California 
 Pacific Railroad, with San Francisco by the shortest possible rail and 
 ferry communication. By the located line of the road that connec- 
 tion embracing the ferriages opposite San Francisco and across the 
 Straits of Carquinez is found to be 25.5 miles, which added to the 
 59.75 miles length of road of the California Pacific Company will 
 make the connections with Sacramento 85,25 miles in length. 
 
 Yerba Buena or Goat Island was the point selected in the location 
 of road of the Terminal Central Pacific Railway as the site for de- 
 pots ; but by a Report of the U. S. Engineers relating to the com- 
 mercial occupation of that Island, recommendation was made that 
 the whole Island be retained for military purposes, and the represen- 
 tatives of the^Company immediately secured from the State of Cal- 
 ifornia a grant of 150 acres of the shoals north of the Island for 
 their depot purposes, and now ask of Congress permission to take 
 such material from the Island as may be relinquished by the War 
 Department for the purpose of filling upon and reclaiming that 
 shoal property. 
 
 The objections that have been urged are as follows : 
 
 1. That the United States may need the shoals as part of the Is- 
 land defences. 
 
 2. That the Terminal Central Pacific Railway Co. have not yet 
 built any road, and that the desire to obtain this privilege appears 
 of a speculative character. 
 
 3. That the Company intend a species of black mailing operations 
 against the Western Pacific Railroad Company, and that the cession 
 
to the T. C. P. R. W. Co. of this privilege to go upon and take 
 from the Island rock material, will interfere with the legitimate de- 
 sign of said Western Pacific Railroad Company. 
 
 1. It is respectfully submitted that the whole question of rights 
 of the Company holding those shoals depends upon the respective 
 powers and legal rights of the State and National Governments. 
 By reference to the following Supreme Court decisions in 15 Peters, 
 pp. 407,-9 Howard, p. 471,-9 Wheaton, p. 203,-7 Howard, p. 
 185, 16 Peters, p. 234, and particularly 3 Howard, p. 212, Pol- 
 lards lessee vs. Hagan, it will be seen that the right of the State to 
 jurisdiction over the submerged lands within her borders is definite- 
 ly settled. The right of disposal existing, carries with it the right 
 to erect such structures as the owners may choose, but in time of 
 war or threatened war, the United States can appropriate to its use 
 said structures or property. The right of condemnation of private 
 property over which the United States has had no prior title, for 
 war or defensive purposes, in time of peace, is not yet accorded the 
 National Government. Such a process would naturally be by the 
 advice founded upon the mere opinion of the officers of the Army, 
 and the commercial necessities and property of the citizens of the 
 United States, have not yet been made subservient to any such opin- 
 ions, but only in time of actual war or danger of war does the popu- 
 lar voice justify the Executive in taking possession of private prop- 
 erty for National defensive purposes. While holding this war power 
 over the shoals in question, the United States can have no legal 
 voice in their disposal, occupation or uses during time of peace. 
 
 The Company, in asking for this material from the Island, ask it 
 as rendering them indirectly so much financial aid ; should they fail 
 in receiving this concession, it would not interfere with the projected 
 occupation of the shoals, but would force them to incur a million 
 dollars extra expense in their improvement. Financially, too, it is 
 to the benefit of the United States that the concession asked with 
 the accompanying restrictions, should be granted. Yerba Buena 
 Island is an unimproved mountain, without battery, earth-works, or 
 guns, of 116 acres area and with its ridge 342 feet above high water. 
 By reference to the frequent and heavy appropriations for harbor 
 defences of San Francisco, it will be seen that to make this Island 
 in any way effective, there is inevitably necessary a large amount 
 
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 3 
 
 of costly excavation and work. The Company, by the provisions 
 of the bill pending, ask permission to reduce the hight of said Island, 
 to terrace its slopes, to scarp its sides and bluffs, or in any other 
 wa y that is the plan of the Chief Engineer do the work of pre- 
 paring the Island for proper defensive uses in which material is to 
 be excavated and removed. To remove that rock will cost either 
 the Company or the United States at least 75 cents per yard cubic, 
 and the Company need for their purposes about two and a half mil- 
 lions cubic yards. The provisions of the bill permit them to take 
 this amount or less should the Engineer's plans so dictate, but 
 should the plans for the defensive improvement of that Island de- 
 velop the fact that the removal of that amount of material would 
 increase its value, then its removal by the Company will be $1,875,- 
 000, value to the United States, and whatever amount is required 
 to be moved, will be of proportional value. 
 
 On the other hand, while rendering a financial as well as mili- 
 tary service to the United States, the company save by the per- 
 mission to take rock from a half mile distance from its site for 
 depots, all that would otherwise be expended in building an ex- 
 pensive piling across the water, their main bridge being in con- 
 stant commercial use, and hauling their rock from a distance of 
 six miles, with all of the extra contractors plant, and necessary 
 wear and tear of that plant. The State's right to the disposal of 
 submerged lands being established by frequent decisions of the 
 Supreme Court, and that right being exercised in transferring to 
 the Terminal Central Pacific Railway Company proprietorship 
 over 150 acres of shoals north of YerbaBuena Island, it is respect- 
 fully submitted that the United States has no legal ground of ob- 
 jection to the occupation and use of said shoals for commercial 
 purposes ; and further, that it can have no substantial military 
 ground of objection, as the shoals are such that no enemy's vessel 
 can ride over them, and the heights of commercial structures and 
 buildings will be so much lower than the redoubts on the crest of 
 the Island, that all of the surrounding bay can be effectively reached 
 by the guns. 
 
 2. The second objection, that the company has not yet built 
 any road, is in the face of the history of all Western Railroad 
 progress rather unjust and invidious. Railroads in California 
 have to be built from eastern or foreign capital, secured by bonds 
 
\)\l\ 
 
 
 and mortgage of company franchises and stock. In asking this 
 capital to invest, any well managed project must show that every 
 precaution has been taken to secure the most economical invest- 
 ment of the funds furnished, in order to preserve the legitimate 
 value of the company's bonds. In the subsidized roads there is 
 no guarantee required except that there shall be built certain ac- 
 cepted lengths of road upon which the bonds and lands are issued. 
 None of the Government roads struck pick in the ground until it 
 was definitively settled that the United States should, certain con- 
 ditions being fulfilled, transfer values to the company upon such 
 liberal terms as to partake almost of the character of a free gift. 
 The Central Pacific of California, the Western Pacific of Califor- 
 nia, the Union Pacific, all waited until Congress guaranteed them 
 the funds with which to build their roads; it is respectfully sub-- 
 mitted whether the size of the Corporation alters the principle in- 
 volved ! But the required guarantee that this Terminal Central 
 Pacific Railway Company will fulfill its agreement with the State 
 and the United States is of a stringent character, not equalled by 
 any of the larger and more favored recipients of Government 
 bounty. The company' before being allowed to commence work, 
 must give to the State a bond for $250,000 that it will accomplish 
 the improvement of those shoals and the building of the road. 
 
 It must expend within a year at least $100,000 on the shoal im- 
 provement alone, and finally must within four years have built and 
 put in running order its entire road : after this shall be done the 
 company receive their patent for the shoal property. To make the 
 first working connection between San Francisco and Vallejo will 
 cost the company $2,000,000, which must be expended before they 
 obtain title to the very ground upon which it is fixed this material 
 from the Island is to be used. Is there any enterprise in the 
 United States that is forced to give such a practical guarantee that 
 it intends to make bona fide use of its granted privileges ? It is 
 true that the company have not built any road, but against great 
 opposition they are striving to place the project upon such a foot- 
 ing that capital may safely be asked to invest and build the road ? 
 The company are seeking for a natural and favorable birth into the 
 world of finance; the opposition would make it a profitless abor- 
 tion instead. 
 
 Is it speculative ? No amount of restrictions can prevent par- 
 
ties from transferring their individual rights one to another, but as 
 a company, the privileges from the State are acquired, and as a 
 company, must the recipients fulfill their obligations. The shoals 
 cannot be patented until the Terminal Central Pacific Railway 
 Company, whoever may be its members, has completed its road* 
 The public and .State receive their full benefits as agreed upon, and 
 hence by the very terms upon which the State grant is made, it is 
 impossible that the movement should be speculative, and that the 
 individuals engaged shall be made rich and the State and commu- 
 nity made poor. 
 
 3. The most ungenerous as well as the most illogical and ground- 
 less opposition is from the representatives of the Western Pacific 
 or Central Pacific Railroad Company of California. Although 
 aware of the enormous disparity in the forces engaged in a dispute 
 with the greatest prospective corporation in the United States, there 
 is a principle to be fought for which commands the earnest efforts 
 of every opponent of monopoly and extortion, whether he represent 
 a greater or smaller interest a principle^! which every friend of 
 a great Northern Railroad, and an equally important and great 
 Southern Railroad, should join hands to sustain ; effort must be 
 made to force the dog to come from the manger, and permit other 
 new and worthy enterprises to at least have an unprejudiced op- 
 portunity to seek Government aid. 
 
 It is respectfully submitted, whether there can be any black mail 
 in a project that has not the location to extort from the Western 
 Pacific Railroad Company. 
 
 The route of that Western Pacific Railroad is to San Jose, but 
 by private arrangements, the Company have received several hun- 
 dred acres of shoal ground in front of the city of Oakland, and 
 running out to ship channel, for a terminus, and has also received 
 from the State of California thirty acres in the city of San Fran- 
 cisco, also for a terminus. The Company to reach these two ter- 
 minii, will have to build branches from their present legal and sub- 
 sidized road. But these branches will be in entirely different di- 
 rections from the route of the Terminal Central Pacific Railway 
 and unless the owners of that Western Pacific Company are pre- 
 pared to admit that they have used the wealth conferred upon their 
 road by the United States for the purpose of pushing it ahead, in 
 buying up and absorbing local enterprises, they cannot even claim that 
 
6 
 
 the Terminal Road or connections will compete with them. This 
 Western Pacific Company having such an abundant area on both sides 
 of the Bay of San Francisco, granted them for the express purpose 
 of making terminii, it is fair to presume, that the Congress of the 
 United States will not grant them Yerba Buena Island as the third 
 and only remaining terminal site, or at least, not the monoply of that 
 Island, and inasmuch as the Company have neither possessory or pros- 
 pective title there to the detriment of other roads, the question of 
 interference has not even the foundation for discussion. The Ter- 
 minal Central Pacific Railway Company respectfully pray that the 
 concession asked for be granted, and that they be thus enabled to 
 go before the financial world with the sure guarantee that the mate- 
 rial for the reclaimation of the shoals shall be obtained at the mini- 
 mum expenditure. 
 
 WM. B. HYDE, 
 Chief Engineer and Representative Terminal Central Pacific 
 
 Railway Company. 
 
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U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
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