30th Congress, 
 2d Session. 
 
 [SENATE.] 
 
 Rep. Com., 
 No. 244. 
 
 n 
 
 IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 December 19, 1848. * 
 
 Submitted, and ordered to be printed. 
 
 Mr. Breese made the following 
 
 ■ REPORT 
 
 [To accompany bill S. No. 355.] 
 
 The Committee on Public Lands , to whom was referred the bill 
 granting to the State of Illinois the right of way and a donation 
 of public lands , for making a railroad connecting the upper and 
 lower Mississippi with the chain of northern lakes , at Chicago , 
 have given it the most carejul examination , and respectfully ask 
 leave to report: 
 
 That the bill proposes to grant to the State of Illinois, for the 
 purpose of aiding that State in completing the Central railroad 
 from Cairo, via Chicago, on Lake Michigan, to the upper Missis¬ 
 sippi, on the most eligible route; and also for the northern cross 
 railroad extending from the Mississippi river, via Springfield, to 
 the Indiana line, with a branch to Alton, from a point between 
 Springfield and the Illinois river, on the most eligible route, a 
 quantity of land equal to one-half of six alternate sections in width 
 on each side of said railroads, to be selected by an agent or agents, 
 to be appointed by the governor of the State, subject to the ap¬ 
 proval of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 As alternate sections alone are granted, the bill provides that 
 those which remain to the United States shall not be sold for less 
 than two dollars and fifty cents per acre, at which price a pre-emp¬ 
 tion right is granted to the State on those sections for five years 
 from the passage of the act. 
 
 The bill further provides that these lands shall be applied to 
 those uses by the State, and none other; and that the railroad shall 
 be a public highway, for the use of the government of the United 
 States, free from toll or other charge upon the transportation of 
 troops and munitions of war of the United States. 
 
 It is further provided by the bill, that the lands proposed to be 
 granted shall be disposed of by the State in the following man¬ 
 ner namely: that a quantity, not exceeding sixty sections on 
 on each of said roads, and included within a continuous length of 
 ten miles of each road, may be sold when the governor of the State 
 shall certify to the Secretary of the Treasury that ten miles of any 
 
UNIVERSITY OF 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 
 [ 2#r]u:r:.ANA -champaigns 
 ILL. HIST. SURVEY 
 
 of said roads are completed; then another like quantity may be 
 sold on the road, and so on from time to time until the roads are 
 completed; and if the roads are not completed within ten years, 
 no further sales shall be made, and the unsold lands shall revert to 
 the United States. 
 
 The bill further provides, that before it shall be competent for 
 the State to dispose of any of the lands to be selected, a plat or 
 plats of the courses, and distances, and points of termination of 
 the roads shall be furnished by the State to the Commissioner of 
 the General Land Office. 
 
 The bill further proposes to authorize the State to survey and 
 mark through the public lands the routes of these roads, and to 
 vest in the State, forever, one hundred feet for a road-way for each 
 road, on both sides of each road respectively; and it is provided that 
 no lands reserved for schools, or for military or other purposes, or 
 mineral lands, or lands to which the right of pre-emption has at¬ 
 tached, shall be selected. 
 
 The last section provides that the mails of the United States 
 shall be carried on these roads under the regulations of the 
 Post Office Department, at the minimum price for similar services 
 paid on other railroads, and in case of disagreement between the 
 State and the department as to the price, then the matter in dis¬ 
 pute is to be referred to the United States district judge of that 
 State for his decision. 
 
 Having given this synopsis of the bill, the committee would re¬ 
 mark, that at the last session of Congress, several bills were referred 
 to this committee, accompanied by memorials numerously signed 
 by all the functionaries of the State of Illinois; by the members of 
 the convention assembled to amend their State constitution, and by 
 individuals in different parts of the State, praying for a grant or a 
 pre-emption on a portion of the public lands, to aid in completing 
 the central railroad in that State; a road, which the committee are 
 informed, occupied the most prominent place in that vast system 
 of internal improvements commenced by her on her own unaided 
 resources in 1837, and on which work alone she has expended more 
 than one million of dollars, and which runs for almost its entire 
 length through lands owned by the United States. 
 
 It did not seem to be a part of the plan of those memorialists 
 to include in their prayer a grant of land for any other road but 
 the central railroad, extending from the mouth of the Ohio river 
 north to Galena, on the upper Mississippi river. Other memorialists 
 suggested the plan of forming the connexion between the lower 
 Mississippi at the mouth of the Ohio, and the upper, at Chicago, an 
 important city on Lake Michigan, and thus bring those vast navi¬ 
 gable waters into immediate and close connexion. Neither set of 
 memorialists proposed a grant for any other roads; and the com¬ 
 mittee, having determined in favor of the last proposition, re¬ 
 turned the bill to the Senate, accompanied by an elaborate report, 
 to which this committee respectfully refer, and invoked the fa¬ 
 vorable action of Congress upon it. In the Senate the bill was 
 amended, by adding to it a grant of alternate sections for the com- 
 
3 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 pletion of the northern cross railroad, extending from the Indiana 
 line west through Springfield, the seat of government of the State, 
 to Quincy, a growing and important city on the upper Mississippi,' 
 and nearly on the proper line of connexion of the distant frontiers 
 of Missouri and the Pacific ocean with the Atlantic. This road 
 was also, the committee are informed, another important part of the 
 State’s great system, and on which more than a million of dollars 
 has been expended by the State, and a portion of which is now in 
 active and profitable operation. Another amendment was made in 
 the Senate, proposing a grant of land for a branch of this road to 
 Alton, also on the Mississippi river; and in this form, thus 
 amended, it passed the Senate by a vote of more than two to one. 
 
 It is now before the committee in the form in which it has before 
 received the sanction of the Senate, with the important additional 
 provision, that on the alternate sections reserved to the United 
 States > the price of which is doubled by the bill, a pre-emption is 
 proposed to be granted to the State for five years at that price. 
 
 This, the committee believe, is a brief but correct history of the 
 progress of this measure, and Congress is again called upon to give 
 its aid to effect the important purposes contemplated by it. 
 
 The committee will not present, at this time, in detail, the con¬ 
 siderations which influenced them at the last session to report fa¬ 
 vorably upon this proposition, presuming they have not, escaped 
 the attention of the Senate. Some general views, confined to the 
 importance of these roads to the State of Illinois, and to the United 
 States, and to the constitutional power of Congress to render the 
 aid^desired, in the form of grants of land, with a reference to acts 
 of Congress passed for similar purposes, from the foundation of the 
 government to the present time, will alone be presented. 
 
 If Congress has power to make the grants' for the purposes indi¬ 
 cated, there will then remain to the committee no other labor but 
 to show the importance of the roads to the State, for whose benefit 
 ‘he grant is proposed to be made, and to the United States, the 
 grea^ proprietor of the public domain. 
 
 And, first, as to the power of Congress under the constitution, 
 to make the grants. 
 
 Whilst the committee repudiate the idea of favoritism to a 
 system of internal improvements by the money of the general gov¬ 
 ernment, they are unanimously of opinion, that the policy of grant¬ 
 ing lands by the great proprietor of the public domain, through 
 whicn roads are proposed to be made by the States in which the 
 lands are situate, has no analogy whatever to such a system, pro¬ 
 ducing none of the evils of it, and unmeasured benefit to the pro¬ 
 prietor—the United States. The constitution of the United States, 
 oy the second clause of the third section of the fourth article, has 
 given to Congress in express terms, u power to dispose of, and 
 make all needtul rules and regulations respecting the territory or 
 other property belonging to the United States.” These lands are 
 the. u territory” and u property” of the United States, or at least 
 ; claimed to be, and the power of Congress to dispose of them as 
 such territory, or property, is full, ample, and unqualified. What 
 
4 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 shall be a proper disposal of them, under this expressly granted 
 power, is a question solely in the discretion of Congress, in subjec¬ 
 tion only to the declaration of the trust with which their cession 
 to the United States was accompanied. 
 
 What was that declaration? 
 
 That the lands so ceded “ shall be formed into distinct republi¬ 
 can States,” and “shall be considered as a common fund for the use 
 and benefit of all the States, and shall be faithfully and bona fide 
 disposed of for that purpose, and no other.” 
 
 The very first act of any importance performed by the United 
 States under this trust, so called, was to pledge these lands for 
 the payment of the revolutionary debt, and that was considered a 
 proper disposal of them for the common benefit of all the States. 
 What is the disposal of them for the common benefit of all the 
 States, is a question for Congress, in which all the States are 
 represented, to decide. The receipt of money for them is not 
 necessarily a common benefit to all the States, for there are*other 
 varied and multiplied considerations which may, consistently 
 with a proper appreciation of, and a sacred regard to, the common 
 benefit, control the action of Congress in their disposal, in which 
 money need not be an element. Congress may convey the title 
 to all of them to the States in which they are situate, if in its 
 judgment the common interest would be-promoted thereby. It is 
 a proper question for Congress to determine, in the honest execu¬ 
 tion of the trust, if the common benefit, under a certain state of 
 circumstances, would not be best promoted by an unconditional ces¬ 
 sion of all the lands to the States in which they lie. A direct pe¬ 
 cuniary gain is not a necessary element. Whilst they were pledged 
 for the payment of the debts of the revolution, the Congress of 
 the confederation gave frequent evidence of their views of their 
 power under the trust, the correctness of which has never been 
 questioned, by granting for religious purposes one section of land 
 in each township within the boundaries of the several tracts pf 
 land sold to the Ohio company and to John Cleves Symmes. In 
 1788, a grant was made of ten thousand acres to the society of the 
 “United Brethren” for the same purpose; in the same year, Con¬ 
 gress ceded to Pennsylvania the tract on Lake Erie, known as the 
 “Triangle,” which the United States owned by cession from Mas¬ 
 sachusetts and new York, and made donations to the heads of fami¬ 
 lies of four hundred acres each, distributed by lot to the early set¬ 
 tlers of Illinois and Indiana- 
 
 After the adoption of the constitution, in 1796, Congress granted 
 to the French settlers at Galliopolis 24,000 acres, on condition of 
 actual settlement in five years; and to Ebenezer Zane a tract of 
 three miles square for opening a road and constructing bridges and 
 ferries upon it, from Wheeling ,to Limestone, passing in its entire 
 length through the public lands of the United States. By accept¬ 
 ing this trust and pledging the lands for the.payment of the revo¬ 
 lutionary debt, an obligation of the most imperious nature rested 
 upon Congress to adopt such measures as should tend to make the 
 lands valuable and productive; for, as waste and unappropriated 
 
5 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 lands, they could contribute but in a very limited degree, in pro¬ 
 portion to their extent, to pay the public debt, or promote the com¬ 
 mon benefit of all the States. These grants tended to open to the 
 view of the enterprising the richness and capabilities of the lands 
 the United States had acquired, and prepared them for sale, settle¬ 
 ment, and cultivation by purchasers, who, from various motives, 
 might be attracted to them. No one, it is believed, has ever ques¬ 
 tioned the power of Congress thus to dispose of the lands. 
 
 In more recent times, Congress has granted to the new States 
 formed out of the ceded territory a section in each township of six 
 miles square to the inhabitants thereof, for the use of schools. 
 Pecuniary gain to the United States was the ruling motive, for, 
 before the granted section could be useful or available, it became 
 indispensable that the remaining thirty-five sections should be pur¬ 
 chased. 
 
 Trace the action of Congress still further. In 1802, Congress, 
 in admitting Ohio into the Union as a State, the first formed out of 
 ceded territory, gave the most unequivocal indications of their idea 
 of their powers under the trust, by .granting to her one-twentieth 
 part of the net proceeds of the sales of all such lands as should be 
 -sold within her limits, after a certain period, to be applied to the 
 laying cut and making public roads leading from the navigable 
 waters of the Atlantic to the Ohio river; and to the State of Ohio 
 and through the same. It is true this grant was for certain ex¬ 
 emptions from the exercise of State power, supposed to be bene¬ 
 ficial to the United States; yet who can doubt that the most 
 powerful motive operating with Congress was to sell the lands. 
 The approach to Ohio, at that day, was difficult and dangerous, not 
 inviting any but the most hardy, bold, and enterprising men. 
 They only would risk the dangers attendant upon an advance to 
 the fertile grounds beyond the mountains. Their numbers were 
 few, and the quantity of land sold by the government out of the 
 twenty-five millions of acres it owned in that State, had not ex¬ 
 ceeded, at that time, 800,000 acres, exclusive of the sale to the 
 Ohio company and to John Cleves Symmes. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, in March, 1806, approved the “act to regulate the 
 laying out 'and making a road from Cumberland, in the State of 
 Maryland, to the State of Ohio,” under this grant. 
 
 In 1816, during the administration of Mr. Madison, Congress ap¬ 
 propriated $8,000 to open a common road through the public lands 
 in the territory of Illinois, from the Ohio river to Kaskaskia, near 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 On the 15th of May, 1820, Congress passed an act to continue 
 the Cumberland road through the States of Ohio, Indiana and 
 Illinois, having, on their admission into the Union, previously made 
 the same grants of five per cent, of the net proceeds of the public 
 lands to them for the construction of roads. The title of the act 
 is, “An act to authorize the appointment of commissioners to lay 
 out the road therein mentioned;” and the preamble to it is as 
 follows: “Whereas, by the completion of the Cumberland road 
 from Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, through the States of 
 
6 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the lands of the United States may be¬ 
 come more valuable.” Ten thousand dollars out of any unappro¬ 
 priated money in the treasury was appropriated for the purpose, 
 and the bill passed the Senate, where it originated, without a di- 
 vi: ion, and the House, by a vote of seventy-four ayes to thirty-five 
 noes. Enhancing the value of the public lands was the object—the 
 means to be used the ordinary revenues of the nation; thus estab¬ 
 lishing the principle, that being the great land owner, though in 
 trust for the States, the money of the cestui que trust could be 
 lawfully used to make the lands valuable by making roads through 
 them. Congress considered if the United States could rightfully 
 own all the lands in those States, they had the same right an indi¬ 
 vidual owner would have, to make them saleable for the common 
 benefit by such improvements upon them. A denial of this right 
 would seem to involve a denial of the right to own them. 
 
 The grants to the States of lands for seminaries of learning, for 
 seats of government, for canals and turnpike roads, which have 
 been so often made, and under different administrations, are to be 
 referred to the same motive—pecuniary gain—giving away a por¬ 
 tion to make the residuum more saleable; and the desired result 
 has been produced, as may be seen in the rapid sales of the public 
 lands since the grants w 7 ere made, stimulated unquestionably by 
 them. The official reports of the General Land Office show, that 
 up to the present time, there has been received for sales of public 
 lands in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois more than sixty-three millions 
 of dollars. That the common benefit of all the States has been 
 promoted by thus appropriating from this trust fund to improve it, 
 not only in regard to these moneys paid into the treasury, exclud¬ 
 ing the direct taxes and duties they who work the lands have also 
 paid, but in respect to the increased strength afforded to the con¬ 
 federacy by the developement of the u great west,” outstripping, 
 as it has, the brightest visions of our most sanguine and sagacious 
 statesmen, none will deny. 
 
 The committee have prepared a list of all the acts passed since 
 1802, for purposes of internal improvement, under the power grant¬ 
 ed to Congress to dispose of the territory of the United States. 
 It is marked (A,) and an inspection of it will show, that under 
 every administration, nearly, such acts have received the Exe¬ 
 cutive sanction, and become laws. 
 
 The committee insist that there is no difference in the principle 
 of grants of this nature and those compacts made with all the new 
 States, without exception, by which they receive from the treasury 
 of the United States five per cent, of the net proceeds of the sales 
 of the public lands, to be applied to purposes of internal improve-, 
 ment and education. Such bills have received the sanction, as 
 well of the present as preceding Presidents, and no constitutional 
 objection was ever, at any time, started to them. 
 
 Having disposed of this part of the case, the committee will ad¬ 
 vance a few suggestions upon the remaining question, of the im¬ 
 portance of the proposed road to the State of Illinois, to the States 
 generally as united States. 
 
7 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 The State of Illinois, the committee are informed, by documen¬ 
 tary and other evidence before them, commenced her system of in¬ 
 ternal improvements in l836-’37, with a view not only of benefitting 
 her own citizens, but to encoura-ge emigration into the State, which, 
 by the construction of railroads and canals, would cause their lands 
 to be purchased of the United States and cultivated, for with the 
 railroad improvements the products of the soil could then be sent 
 to market at a remunerating price. The State, having incurred a 
 debt of more than twelve millions of dollars on account of these 
 improvements, was compelled, in 1841, to suspend all further ad¬ 
 vancements for them, not having the credit to raise the necessary 
 means for works so extensive as those she had projected. Upon 
 the canal, connecting Lake Michigan with the Illinois river, the 
 State had expended over five millions of dollars, and to complete 
 which a million and a half of dollars were necessary. Being un¬ 
 able to borrow this sum, the holders of the bonds of the canal debt 
 agreed to advance the sum required upon a pledge, among other 
 things, of the lands granted to the State by Congress, which, when 
 sold, were to be applied to the payment of this last advance. 
 Under this arrangement the canal has been completed, a part of 
 the land has been sold, and one-half of the cost of completing it 
 realized; and the residue of the land, it is believed, will more 
 than pay the balance of the debt, and save the interest on the re¬ 
 maining bonds originally issued. 
 
 For the railroads, of w T hich the committee understand the two 
 first indicated in the bill under consideration were the principal 
 ones, the State has incurred a debt of more than eight millions of 
 dollars. She asks now a donation of land on each side of these 
 roads of one half of six sections, and a pre-emption right for the 
 other, half, in preference to other purchasers, for five years, at two 
 dollars and fifty cents per acre. 
 
 With this grant of land the State will have inducements to offer 
 to her creditors to assume these roads as they did the canal, and 
 complete them, and thus relieve the State and themselves from this 
 heavy debt, annually increasing as it is by the accumulation of 
 unpaid interest. y 
 
 The lands asked for have been in market, as appears by a state¬ 
 ment made to the committee by r the Commissioner of the General 
 Land Office, on an average of tw T enty years, some of them more 
 than thirty, and though rich and highly productive, being so far 
 removed from market and from timber, cannot be cultivated to ad¬ 
 vantage for the cost of sending the produce to a market is more 
 than it will command wdth the labor of producing added. Thus 
 these lands are valueless for cultivation, without a cheap and expe¬ 
 ditious mode of forwarding their productions to a market. In ad- 
 dit : on to this, the United States, by the conditions of the bill, if the 
 roads are made, will receive the full value of all the granted 
 lands in five years, by the pre-emption in favor of the State at the 
 enhanced price of $2 50 per acre. 
 
 It is believed, by those most conversant with the facts, that the 
 lands on these railroads, will bear a proportionate value to those 
 sold on the canal, so that the State will be in a position to invite 
 
8 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 capital, or the holders of the bonds to assume these unfinished 
 roads, and the benefit of the grant of land, and complete them, 
 thereby rendering valuable the lands, and thus create a fund by 
 which the whole cost of completing them may be liquidated, and 
 the income derivable from the roads be appropriated to pay the 
 interest on the first expenditures, and probably a sinking fund, to 
 absorb, in time, the whole debt. 
 
 The committee are of opinion that the position in which the 
 State of Illinois is placed in respect to her public debt, created for 
 improving the property of the general government, as much as that 
 of her own, demands the most favorable consideration of Congress. 
 It cannot be denied that the government will be greatly benefit- 
 ted, as well as that State, by the completion of these roads, or 
 of any one of the leading ones. Fertile lands within a distance of 
 thirty miles will be purchased for cultivation, which, without the 
 roads, may not be saleable for many more years to come. They 
 are believed to be among the most fertile lands in the State, and 
 with easy means of access to market, will readily command the go¬ 
 vernment price. 
 
 It may be objected to the proposed grants that they are very 
 large, and will absorb a large quantity of the public lands. The 
 committee think that the length of the roads, requiring large grants 
 of land, is one of the strongest arguments in favor of them, for if, 
 as is unquestionably the case, the public lands through which it is 
 proposed to run them, are now unsaleable for the reasons already 
 stated, and are likely to remain so for years to come; the more 
 extended the road, the more important it is to the government, de¬ 
 riving, as it will, all the money benefit to accrue from their construc¬ 
 tion, and the longer the road through unsaleable lands, the greater 
 the benefit. The wTiole amount of what was public lands in the 
 State of Illinois, according to the report of the Commissioner of 
 the General Land Office, exceeds thirty-five millions of acres, and 
 of them there remain unsold at this time more than fifteen mil¬ 
 lions of acres, those nearest to the water courses and timber and 
 market having been sold, and near twenty millions of dollars paid 
 into the national treasury for them. Those that remain unsold, 
 being too far removed from navigable rivers and timber for farm¬ 
 ing and buildings, are unfit for cultivation, but such improvements 
 through them, as proposed by the bill, will make them saleable at 
 once. 
 
 The same argument will apply to all the States where there are 
 large bodies of unsold public lands, and it is, the committee 
 conceive, a mistaken idea to suppose that such a grant is a boon 
 given to those States. If they make the roads through those lands, 
 an expenditure will be required of $15,000 per mile, on an average, 
 before the roads can be open for use. The government grants to 
 the State proposing to make a road, for every mile of road, one- 
 half of six sections on each side of it, and hold the reserved alter¬ 
 nate sections at $2 50 per acre, upon which, as in the present bill, 
 a pre-emption is granted to the State at that price for five years, 
 which privilege will enable the State to fix a minimum price upcu 
 the whole of the six sections that will justify such an enormous 
 
9 
 
 [244 ] 
 
 expenditure; and whilst the State disposes of the lands granted to 
 her, she also sells those for which she has the pre-emption at the 
 same pnce, so that the general government participates in the pro¬ 
 ceeds of the sale of the land as -the roads progress, and in the end 
 receive th e full minimum price of % 1 25 per acre for the whole six 
 sections. Mo danger need be apprehended, the committee believe, 
 that the State will keep those lands from sale for the purposes of 
 speculation, for it would be manifestly her policy to sell them, so 
 that they may be cultivated as soon as practicable, and in small 
 portions to actual settlers upon them, for the population of a State 
 is its wealth, and the income of the roads would be increased by 
 their settlement and cultivation, by furnishing increased freight 
 and travel. 
 
 It may also be objected to these proposed grants that the lands 
 are pledged for the payment of the public debt, and that it would 
 be a breach of good faith thus to misapply any portion of the 
 fund. 
 
 When it is considered that the public domain of the United 
 States in the twelve States and organized 'and unorganized terri¬ 
 tories exceeds 1.400 millions of acres, arfd that the Indian title 
 has been extinguished to 371 millions, an ample fund will remain 
 to our creditors, after these grants shall be made, more than suffi¬ 
 cient to secure them were the debt increased four fold, if such 
 security is at all required. But the committee believe these grants 
 of so small a part of the public domain to improve the residue, 
 will increase our ability to discharge our debt, and more speedily 
 than it can be if the proposed improvements are not made. That 
 debt, the President tells us in his late message, is small in comparison 
 with the debts of other nations, and is now in a course of reduc¬ 
 tion by the ordinary revenues of the country. These revenues are 
 derived principally from customs and public lands, the latter esti¬ 
 mated at about three millions of dollars for the fiscal year ending 
 30th of June next, and mostly to be derived from the sale of fresh 
 lands in the newest States. It is from these the greatest part of 
 our revenue from lands has been derived for several years past, and 
 that policy which brings them rapidly into market has always 
 been putsued by the government as the best for it and for the people; 
 The construction of any one of the leading roads through them, 
 the committee believe, will have the same effect upon the great 
 body of the lands within thirty miles of it, which have remained 
 unsold for thirty years, that surveying and bringing into market 
 fresh lands would have. The routes of the roads are, for the most 
 part, over vast prairies, with unparalleled powers of production, 
 yet destitute of timber, and remote from ready and cheap means 
 of conveyance to market. In this wide waste, the United States 
 have an interest amounting to millions, and which will be realized 
 so soon as a great avenue to market is opened through them, and 
 purchasers will eagerly take an interest in what is now a worthless 
 possession. It will operate as a most powerful stimulus to their 
 sale, as it will bring to the lands a thoroughfare far surpassing all 
 others used by man. Thus an increased income will be derived from 
 them, to be applied to the payment of our loans as they become 
 
30 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 due. In this point of view, then, such grants would not be a 
 breach of faith to our creditors, as it will not decrease the fund 
 set apart for their security. 
 
 The committee believe that the old States of the confederacy are 
 quite as much interested in the construction of these roads as the 
 State through which they are projected, for the immense produc¬ 
 tions of that State, now daily on the increase, will seek a market, 
 at some seasons of the year, over their works of a similar kind, and 
 articles of consumption, to supply them, be transported to the west 
 by the same means; the prices of which, to the consumer, being 
 reduced by the reduced rates of transportion, and the price of their 
 productions enhanced by the same cause. Although the old States 
 do not directly participate in the grant itself, yet they have a large 
 proportion of the advantages to flow from it by the increased trade 
 with the west, an object of so much importance to them as to have 
 induced the expenditure already of millions of dollars to secure. 
 
 To illustrate more clearly the importance, of these western roads, 
 through the public lands, to every section of our Union, the com¬ 
 mittee have prepared a skeleton map, appended to this report, 
 showing the railroads completed, and in progress, in the United 
 States, and those propos’ed through the public lands, and their con¬ 
 nexion with the harbors on the lakes and seaboard; and, as distance 
 is no longer measured by miles, but by minutes, it will be seen, on 
 reference to the map, that, by the shortest railroad routes, at the 
 average speed of twenty-five miles per hour, assuming the mouth of 
 the Ohio as u the geographical centre of the United States,' 5 that 
 
 distance is almost annihilated. 
 
 From Cairo to— Hours. 
 
 Mobile... 
 
 Pensacola.... .... 
 
 New Orleans. 26 
 
 Nashville... 
 
 Charleston..... 
 
 Louisville.. 
 
 Cincinnati... 
 
 St. Louis... 
 
 Alton. 
 
 Springfield. 10 
 
 Peru. 12 
 
 Chicago. 10 
 
 Galena... ... 
 
 Detroit... 
 
 Buffalo. 33 
 
 Indianapolis ..... 
 
 Columbus. 
 
 Wheeling. 
 
 Pittsburg.. 
 
 Baltimore. 36 
 
 Philadelphia. 38 
 
 New York. 42 
 
 Boston. 
 
 Portland . 55 
 
11 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 And in the same proportion for intermediate points. 
 
 Now, by the most speedy steamboat routes, the trip to New 
 Orleans, from the mouth of the Ohio, requires four and a half days; 
 to Pittsburg six days, and to Galena three and a Jialf days. As 
 ‘time is money,” here is an immense gain, which should not escape 
 attention, and should have its proper weight, not only in regard to 
 the var-t business operations of our people, but in regard to the in¬ 
 ducements presented by such works through tpe public lands, to 
 their sale and settlement. Besides, the great facilities afforded by 
 such works, for frequent and rapid intercourse between the most 
 distant and divided parts of the Union, will have a certain effect to 
 destroy much of the prejudice which now exists among them, and 
 tend very greatly, in the opinion of the committee, to preserve the 
 harmony and union of the States. 
 
 To show the extent of the inland navigation in the valley of the 
 Mississippi, the committee submit the following extract from 
 u Peck’s Gazette of Illinois and Missouri,” a work of decided 
 merit, and prepared by one of the most intelligent citizens of the 
 west: u The Mississippi and Ohio, with their tributary rivers, form 
 an inland navigation exceeding 20,000 miles, for various class of 
 boats during two-thirds of the year to the point of junction at 
 Cairo; from thence to New Orleans, a distance of 1,000 miles, the 
 river is navigable the whole year for the largest class of boats.” 
 
 With the rich back country bordering on these rivers, railroads 
 and canals, how vast must be the exports and imports of these 
 western States at some future day, and what immense revenue they 
 must pour into\the national treasury? And, in this view of the 
 question, the committee will submit a few remarks in vindication 
 of the policy of these grants. 
 
 As to the extent of the grants asked for by the several States, 
 the committee believe great misapprehension exists even among 
 the best informed, and for the purpose of arriving at something 
 like a correct estimate of the quantity to be granted by the several 
 propositions before Congress, the committee have made much in¬ 
 quiry, and cannot make the quantity to exceed 7,814,400 acres, being 
 for 2,035 miles of railroads, and on every mile of which there must 
 be an average expenditure of $15,000, to make the grants available 
 for anyjpurpose, causing an expenditure of thirty and a half millions 
 of dollars by the States accepting the grants. 
 
 The committee leave out of view the grant asked for by a single 
 individual to construct a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pa¬ 
 cific, which alone would require ten times the quantity of land on 
 all the proposed railroads of the several States, and which, if 
 granted, must deprive all the«^t States of any reasonable hope of 
 obtaining an acre of public land. The committee throw that pro¬ 
 position out of view in this estimate, and then insist that if the 
 roads are constructed by these grants, the United States, by the 
 sale of the residuum to be caused by the improvements, and by. the 
 increase of our exports and imports, by opening to cultivation so 
 many more millions* of acres, as they will do, must be a great 
 gainer by the grants. 
 
12 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
 The leading road proposed by the bill ? as the committee have 
 already stated, passes through lands as fertile as any in the State, 
 which have now been, quite one-half of them, in market for more 
 than a quarter of a century, and yet unsold, because they are about 
 equidistant from the Wabash and Mississippi rivers, and so remote 
 from each that the expense of transporting grain renders the crop * 
 of no value; whereas, if these roads were made on any one of 
 them, the expense of transportation would be so much reduced 
 that these lands, now unoccupied and unproductive, would be put 
 under cultivation, and, by increasing the exports, greatly increase 
 the imports, and thus increase the revenue. If we assume that the 
 central railroad will be via Chicago to the upper Mississippi, five 
 hundred miles in length, and, if made, will cause one-twentieth part 
 of the lands lying within twenty miles of it to be cultivated in 
 wheat, and that one-fourth part of the wheat thus produced will 
 be sent abroad to market, the result upon the revenue will surprise 
 those who have not examined the proposition in this aspect. Thus, 
 it the road be five hundred miles long, twenty miles on each side 
 will embrace an area of twenty thousand square miles, or twelve 
 millions eight hundred thousand acres, one-twentieth part of which 
 is six hundred and forty thousand acres. If we assume that the 
 average product of the six hundred and forty thousand acres would 
 be twenty bushels per acre, it would give twelve millions eight 
 hundred thousand bushels, one-fourth of which is three millions two 
 hundred thousand bushels. If we assume that the average price in 
 the port of New’ York to be but one dollar per bushel, and it be 
 true that the amount of our imports is equal to our exports, and 
 that the average rate of duty is but tw T enty-five per cent., then the 
 effect of the grant proposed w r ould be to bring under cultivation 
 six hundred and forty thousand acres of land, producing twelve 
 millions eight hundred thousand bushels of wheat, one-fourth or 
 three millions two hundred thousand bushels might be sent abroad; 
 and, if so, would pay for three millions two hundred thousand dol¬ 
 lars’ worth of foreign merchandise, which would pay eight hundred 
 thousand dollars per annifm revenue into the treasury. And in this 
 aspect of the case the committee urge, that astounding as this re¬ 
 sult would seem, it is indeed less than the actual result to flow 
 from the measure proposed; and that by adding so much to the 
 agricultural resources of the country, Congress will do much more 
 to advance the interests, welfare, and prosperity of the United 
 States, than if they permit these lands to remain as they now are, 
 unoccupied and unproductive. ' 
 
 But there is another argument \^hich the State can urge w’ith 
 peculiar force. It is this: the direct interest she has in the sale 
 and settlement of these lends, so that they may be subjected to her 
 taxing power. The government is pledged, impliedly at least, in 
 the judgment of the committee, to cease the ownership over these 
 lands in a reasonable time, in order that the States may exercise 
 their sovereignty over them. They have undertaken to form them 
 into distinct republican States—not mere physical divisions of ter¬ 
 ritorial surface marked by lines and called. States, but political 
 
I 
 
 13 
 
 [244 ] 
 
 communities, having the same rights of freedom, sovereignty and'' 
 independence the old States possess. Now, it is manifest this can¬ 
 not be done perfectly, so long as the United States control the dis¬ 
 posal of the soil, and to the extent of that control are the States 
 deprived of their rights to tax property within its limits. Justice, 
 then, to the State" would seem to require that all reasonable acts 
 should be done by Congress which, without being injurious to the 
 government, shall so greatly benefit the State, and enable her to 
 raise taxes from them to support her government and pay her debts. 
 
 In view of the rapidity by which distance can be passed over by 
 a system of railroads, such as is exhibited by the map, and to the 
 benefits resulting to community at large, by the certain and rapid 
 transmission of the mails, thereby increasing mail matter, and, con¬ 
 sequently, the revenues of that important department, under a sys¬ 
 tem of cheap postages, the committee are further strengthened in 
 their confidence of the importance of the proposed measure, to say 
 nothing of the advantages to result to the country as a great and 
 important aid in our national defences, rendering the collection of 
 troops from the interior, upon any threatened point on the sea¬ 
 board, at once speedy and certain. 
 
 In view of all the considerations presented, the committee do not 
 hesitate to recommend the passage of the bill, without amendment. 
 
 A.' 
 
 Statement of laws of the United States , making grants of lands to 
 the new States , for purposes of internal improvement , viz: 
 
 Vol. Page. 
 
 1802, Ap’l 30. The 20th part of the net proceeds of lands jn Ohio, granted to 
 
 make roads from waters of Atlantic to Ohio river, &c... 2 175 ’ 
 
 1803, Mar. 3. Three per cent, of net proceeds of lands in Ohio, granted for 
 
 making roads within that State. 2 226 
 
 1811, Feb. 20. Five per centum of proceeds of sale of lands in State of Louisiana, 
 
 to be applied to making roads and levees in that State. 2 643 
 
 1816, Ap’l 19. Five per centum of proceeds of lands in Indiana, to be applied to 
 
 making roads and canals. 3 290 
 
 1817, Mar. 1. Same as it regards proceeds of lands in State of Mississippi. 3 349 
 
 1818, Ap’l 18. Two-fifths of five per cent, of net proceeds of sales of public lands 
 
 in Illinois, to be applied to making roads. 3 430 
 
 1819, Mar. 2. Five per cent, on net proceeds of sales in Alabama, to be applied 
 
 to internal improvements.... 3 491 
 
 1820, Mar. 6. Five per cent, on net sales in Missouri, to be applied to making 
 
 roads and canals. 3 547 
 
 1827, Mar. 2. One-half of five sections in width, on each side of canal in Illi¬ 
 
 nois, and reserving each alternate v section to the United States 
 from one end of the said canal to the other, granted to the 
 
 State of Illinois, to be subject to the disposal of the Legislature • 
 of that State, for that purpose.... 4 
 
 234 
 
[ 244 ] 
 
 14 
 
 i f 
 
 Vol. 
 
 1827, Mar. 2. Same quantity, for the purpose of making the Wabash and Erie 
 canal, granted to the State of Indiana, subject to like con- 
 
 ^ * ditions..... 4 
 
 1827, Mar. 2. The strip of land ceded to the United States by treaty by the Pot- 
 . tawatomie Indians, October 16, 1826, granted to the State of 
 Indiana, for the purpose of making a road from Lake Michigan, 
 by Indianapolis, to some convenient point on the Ohio river, 
 viz: a strip of land, from Lake Michigan, thence to the Wabash, 
 
 100 feet wide, for a road; and, also, one section of good land, 
 contiguous to the said road, for each mile of the same; and, 
 also, for each mile of a road, from the termination thereof, 
 through Indianapolis, to the Ohio river. (The right to locate 
 the road, and dispose of the grant, was secured to Indiana by 
 the 2d article of the said treaty). 4 
 
 1827, Mar. 3. Granted to the State of Ohio, to aid the Columbus and Sandusky 
 
 Turnpike Company in making a road, one-half of a quantity of 
 land,'equal to two sections, on the western side of said road, 
 and most contiguous thereto, to be bounded by sectional lines, 
 from one end of said road to the other, wheresoever the same 
 may remain unsold; reserving to the United States each alter¬ 
 nate section the whole length of said road through the lands of 
 the United States: provided that no toll be paid by the United 
 States, &c.*. 4 
 
 1828, Ap’l 17. In lieu of the lands appropriated by the preceding act, there was 
 
 granted to the State of Ohio 49 sections of land, to be located 
 in the Delaware land district in a particular manner, therein 
 
 stated...... 4 
 
 1828, May 23. 400,000 acres »f land granted to Alabama, to be applied to the 
 improvement of the Muscle shoals and Colbert’s shoals, in the 
 Tennessee river, and the navigation of certain other rivers.... 4 
 1828, May 24. Granted to the State of Ohio, to extend the Miami canal from 
 Dayton to Lake Erie, by the Maumee route, a quantity of 
 land, equal to one-half of five sections in width, on each side of 
 said canal, between Dayton and the Maumee river, &c., See.; 
 also, 500,000 acres, to aid the State of Ohio in paying the debt 
 contracted by that State in the construction of canals within the 
 same, and the interest thereon.. 4 
 
 1835, Mar. 3. Land over which certain railroads would be constructed in Ala¬ 
 
 bama, Georgia, and Florida, granted to the companies incor¬ 
 porated by the legislatures, viz: the land over which the roads 
 shall pass, and 30 feet on each side thereof, and the privilege 
 of using the timber for 100 yards on each side of said roads, for 
 the construction and repair of said roads ; also, 10 acres at the 
 termination of said roads, &c.. 
 
 1836, July 2. Land, 80 feet wide, granted to the New Orleans and Nashville 
 
15 
 
 s 
 
 \ 
 
 [244 ] 
 
 Yol, Page. 
 
 Railroad Company; and, also, five acres for every 15 miles of 
 the road, for depots, &c... 
 
 1836, July _ 4. Five per cent, of the net proceeds of the sales of the lands within 
 
 the States of Mississippi and Alabama, granted to those States 
 respectively, for purposes of internal improvement within the 
 same. 
 
 1837, Jan. 31. Land, 80 feet wide, and certain privileges granted to certain in- 
 
 corpprated railroad companies in Florida, &c. 
 
 1837, Mar. 3. The same granted to Atchafalaya Railroad and Banking Com- 
 • pany, incorporated by the State of Louisiana, &c. 
 
 1837, Mar. 3. The same granted to the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad 
 
 Company, incorporated by the Legislature of Louisiana. 
 
 1838, June 23. Land, 80 feet wide, and certain privileges, granted to the Florida 
 
 Peninsula Railroad and Steamboat Company, incorporated by 
 
 the legislative council of Florida. 
 
 183S, June 18. Granted to Wisconsin, for opening a canal to unite the waters of 
 Lake Michigan with those of Rock river, between the point of 
 intersection wfith said river, of the line dividing towns, 7 and 
 8 and the Lake Koshkonong, all the land heretofore not other¬ 
 wise appropriated or disposed of in those sections and frac¬ 
 tional sections which are numbered with odd numbers on the 
 plats of the public surveys, within the breadth of five full sec¬ 
 tions, taken in north and south, or east and west tiers, on each 
 side of the main route of said canal, from one end thereof to the 
 other, and reserving the even numbered sections and fractional 
 sections, taken as above, to the United States ; and the said 
 land, so granted to aid in the construction of said canal, shall 
 be subject to the disposal of the legislature of the said territory, 
 
 for the purpose aforesaid, and no other .. 
 
 1841, Sept, 4. Granted by the “ Act to appropriate the proceeds of the. sales of 
 the public lands, and to grant pre-emption rights,” as follows, 
 viz : “That, from and after the 31st day of December, 1841, 
 there be allowed and paid to each of the States of Ohio, Indi¬ 
 ana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ar¬ 
 kansas, and Michigan, over and above what each of the said 
 States is entitled to by the terms of the compacts entered into 
 between them and the United States, upon their admission into 
 the Union, the sum of ten per centum upon the net proceeds of 
 the sales of the public lapds, which, subsequent to the day afore¬ 
 said, shall be made within the limits of each of said States re¬ 
 spectively; and the residue of the proceeds of the sales of the 
 public lands, after deducting the expenses for their survey and 
 management, to be divided among the several States and Terri¬ 
 tories of the United States.” And, in addition to the above, 
 there was granted to each of the new States above mentioned, 
 and to such new States as may be hereafter admitted, 500,000 
 
[ 244 ] 
 
 16 
 
 Vol. Page. 
 
 acres of land within their limits respectively, deducting in each 
 
 case from that quantity any lands previously granted to them as » 
 
 States or as Territories. 
 
 1844, June 15. A section of land granted for the improvement of Grant river, at 
 
 the town of Potosi, in Wisconsin Territory.. 
 
 1845, Mar. 3. By the “ Act to grant certain lands to the State of Indiana, the 
 
 better to enable the said State to extend and complete the 
 Waba^i and Erie canal, from Terre Haute to the Ohio river,” 
 there was granted to said State one moiety of the public lands, 
 
 (remaining unsold and not otherwise disposed of, encumbered, 
 or appropriated,) a strip five miles in* width on each side of said 
 canal, to be selected by an agent, ko., reserving to the United 
 States each alternate section, kc., from one end of said canal to 
 the other. There was also granted by this act, for the same 
 object, one moiety of all the other lands in the Vincennes land 
 district, in said State, and which remain as aforesaid unsold and 
 not otherwise disposed of, encumbered, or appropriated. 5 731 
 
 1845, Mar. 3. By the act supplemental to the act for the admission of the States 
 
 of Iowa and Florida into the Union, there was granted to the 
 State of Iowa five per cent, of the net proceeds of sales of all 
 
 • >• i • i). t • • * / , 
 
 > public lands lying within the said State, which have been, or 
 
 shall be sold by Congress, from and after the admission of said 
 State, after deducting all the expenses incident to the same, 
 shall be appropriated for making public roads and canals within 
 the said State, as the legislature may direct. 5 790 
 
 1840, Aug. 8. Granted by act of this date to the Territory of Iowa, for'the pur¬ 
 pose of aiding said Territory to improve the navigation of the 
 Des Moines river from its mouth to the Racoon Fork, (so 
 called,) in said Territory, one equal moiety, in alternate sec¬ 
 tions of the public lands, (remaining unsold, kc.,) in a strip 
 five miles in width on each side of said river.—Pamphlet laws, 
 
 1st session 29th Congress, page 115... 
 
 1846, Aug. 8. Granted by act of this date to the State of Wisconsin, on the ad¬ 
 
 mission of such State into the Union, for the purpose of improv¬ 
 ing the navigation of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, in the Ter¬ 
 ritory of Wisconsin, and of constructing the canal to unite the 
 said rivers at or near the portage, a quantity of land, equal to 
 one half of three sections in width, on each side of said Fox 
 river, and the lakes through which it passes, frohi its mouth to 
 the point where the Portage canal shall enter the same, and on 
 each side of the said canal, from one stream to the other, 
 reserving the alternate sections to the United States, kc. —Pam¬ 
 phlet laws, 1st session 29th Congress, page 140... 
 
 
 I 
 
30th Congress, 
 2d Session. 
 
 [SENATE.] 
 
 Rep. Com., 
 No. 245. 
 
 \ 
 
 IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. * 
 
 December 28, 1848. 
 
 Submitted, and ordered to be printed. 
 
 Mr. Downs made the following 
 
 REPORT: 
 
 The Committee on Private Land Claims , to whom was referred the 
 
 petition of Joshua Holden , report: 
 
 That, from the memorial and evidence before them, it appears 
 that the petitioner is, by settlement, entitled to the same right of 
 pre-emption on the 16th section of township 15, range 5 east, 
 in the district of lands subject to entry at Ouachita, Louisiana, as 
 
 -Sexton, in favor of whom a bill has been reported and passed 
 
 the House of Representatives. The petitioner Holden claims the 
 west half of the southwest quarter of said section, and said Sexton 
 claims the east half of the same quarter. There is, therefore, no 
 conflict between them, but both may be allowed to secure their im¬ 
 provements. The committee therefore recommend that the bill in 
 favor of Sexton be so amended as to include the petitioner, and 
 direct their chairman to move sbch amendment to the bill when it 
 comes up. 
 
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