onward were settled; the general equality in wealth was maintained; no princely estates; no cry of labor for bread. Up to the time the Republican party came into power not an acre of land had been granted by Congress to a corporation; but the grants made by Congress to States for internal improvements and applied by the States to making of roads, canals, and railroads amounts in the aggregate to 31,600,846. This includes all the grants made by Congress from the adoption of the Federal Constitution on the 17th day of September, 1787, to the 4th day of March, 1861, when the party now controlling public affairs came into power, covering a period of seventy-four years.

"And here I present, sir, a table of the grants of public lands made by Congress since the Republican party came into power on the 4th day of March, 1861, covering a period of twenty-one years-not grants made to States for public purposes and subject to State control and State taxation, but made to corporations for the gain and profit of corporations which are even now almost, if not entirely, above either State or Federal control,

No. 1.-Statement exhibiting land concessions by acts of Congress to States and corporations for railroad, canal, and military wagon-road purposes from March 4, 1861, to June 30, 1874.

Do... Do..

July 28, 1866.

July 4, 1866..
July 28, 1866..
July 4, 1866.
June 2, 1864..
June 2, 1864

Memphis and Little Rock..

Little Rock and Fort Smith
Iron Mountain..

Cairo and Fulton..

Do

Jan. 31, 1873..

Act to quiet the title to certain lands in

1,298,739.00

Grants to railroad corporations
Grants for roads and canals....

Total..........

RECAPITULATION.

192,081,155.52 3,112,542.00

195,193,697.52

"Thus while the old parties, Federalist, Democrat, and Whig, had carefully guarded the public land through a period of seventy-four years against the countless schemes of proposed and pretended development and improvement, through which the designing and the crafty sought to reach them, and through that long period granted 31,600,846 acres to States for internal improvements, the Republican party in a period of fourteen years gave to railroad corporations 192,081,155.52 acres. All of these grants, aggregating 192,081, 155.52 acres, were made between the 4th day of March, 1861, and the 4th day of March, 1875, a period of fourteen years, for on the 4th day of March, 1875, the Democratic party came into the control of this House, and since then no grant has been made, renewed, or enlarged.

"And who can estimate the fatal injury inflicted by this system on the integrity of the public service? Each grant has its own peculiar history of national humiliation.

"The exhaustion of the public land was not the only evil of this system of land grants. In the many struggles to renew, enlarge, and extend the grants, spectacles were presented on this floor which cannot be recalled without a sense of national humiliation and dishonor, when great stockholders of the corporations holding these grants, members of this House, unblushingly attempted to vote in their own interest, and were arraigned before the bar of the House for the discreditable attempt. When the most fertile regions of the public domain had been reached and appropriated by these grants, and not till then, the minority of this House were able to check this corrupting policy. The time for the completion of these land-grant railroads has expired. The last grant, according to various laws creating the grants, expired on the 2d day of May, 1882, The time for the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, with its enormous grant of 48,215,040 acres, expired on the 4th day of July, 1879.

'In all of these grants, except to the Northern Pacific, it is in substance provided that the corporations should complete a specified portion of their respective roads each year, receiving the lands accruing upon the completion of each section of twenty miles, and should complete their respective roads within a specified period, generally ten years, and upon failing to do so the lands remaining should "revert to the United States." In some of these acts the language is still more specific and declares that upon such failure the act shall be "null and void," and the remaining lands "shall revert to the United States." There is not the least ambiguity in the conditions to these grants, by which the corporation is entitled to a given number of sections of land on the completion of each section of twenty miles, and if there is a failure to complete the road within the period specified the remaining land "shall revert to the United States."

"In the grants to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company the terms are different. The eighth section of the act is specific and unequivocal. It is as follows:

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That each and every grant, right, and privile e herein are so made and given to, and accepted by, said Northern Pacific Railroad Company, upon and subject to the following conditions, namely: That the said company shall commence the work on said road within two years from the approval of this act by the President, and shall complete not less than fifty miles per year after the second year, and shali construct. equip, furnish, and complete the whole road by the 4th day of July, Anno Domini 1876.

There is no ambiguity in this language. Each and every grant, right and privilege herein is "given to, accepted by " said company on the condition that the work shall be commenced within two years after the approval of the act, (July 12, 1864,) not less than fifty miles a year shall be completed after the second year, and the whole road shall be constructed, equipped, furnished, and completed by the 4th day of July, 1876. Then follows the most unmeaning jumble of words ever hid in the verbiage of an act of Congress, written as if the crafty lawyer who drew it wished to create an ambiguity on which a corporation might set up some pretense of a right not granted by the law. Here is this remarkable section:

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the United States make the several conditioned grants herein, and that the said Northern Pacific Railroad Company accept the same, upon the further condition that if the said company make any breach of the conditions hereof, and allow the same to continue for upward of one year, then, in such case, at any time hereafter, the United States, by its Congress, may do any and all acts and things which may be needful and necessary to insure a speedy completion of the said road.

"If this corporation gains anything by this section it will only be when it is sufficiently powerful to order the interpretation of a law against the plainest dictates of common sense. It accepts the grant on the condition that its "whole road" shall be completed by the 4th day of July, 1876, and if it breaks its contract then the United States may do what is necessary "to insure a speedy completion of said road." Well, suppose this corporation forfeited its land grant by failing to complete its road by the 4th day of July, 1879, for the time was extended by the joint resolution of May 7, 1866, to that date, without any other change in the conditions, and Congress declared, as it rightfully might and should, the remaining lands forfeited to the United States, certainly the Government might complete the road if it thought proper and had the constitutional power, or might regrant the lands for that purpose; but does this ninth section confer a power or impose a duty on the United States? Does it mean that Congress cannot declare the forfeiture under the eighth section without providing for the completion of the road?

"No, sir; it means simply that the United States might do exactly what it might have done if this ninth section had not been a part of the law. This corporation will have to be stronger than Congress or the Federal judiciary before it will be able to obtain a decision that the United States cannot declare the forfeiture under the eighth section until they assume the obligation to complete the road under the ninth section. Perhaps this corporation will have the effrontery to claim that under the ninth section if it forfeits the grant, then the United States are compelled to complete the road for its benefit. And yet this extraordinary claim would not be more startling than the claim that if the corporation forfeited its rights then the United States were bound to provide for the completion of the road for the benefit of the United States. But happily the last section of the act leaves the whole subject under the control of Congress. It provides:

SEC. 20. And be it further enacted, That the better to accomplish the object of this act, namely, to promote the public interest and welfare by the construction of said railroad and telegraph line and keeping the same in working order, and to secure to the Government at all times (but particularly in time of war) the use and benefits of the same for postal, military, and other purposes, Congress may at any time, having due regard for the rights of said Northern Pacific Railroad Company, add to, alter, amend, or repeal this act.

"The stump-speech in favor of this imperial grant embodied in this last section, craftily framed as it is, will deceive no one; it has but one meaning, and that is "that Congress may at any time, having due regard for the rights of said Northern Pacific Railroad Company, add to, alter, amend, or repeal this act." In view of the forfeiture which occurred of this grant on the 4th day of July, 1879, what rights have that corporation which the United States are bound either in law or equity to regard?

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It might have been fairly presumed that, as those corporations were entitled to patents for the land as each successive section of the road was completed, the land remaining when the period for the final completion of each road expired would at once become a part of the public domain; but the Supreme Court holds otherwise, that the law vested in the corporation the right to the land, that the condition of forfeiture for failing to complete the road within the time specified was a condition subsequent," and hence an act of Congress was necessary to declare the forfeiture and restore the land to the public domain. I present here a statement of the several grants which have been forfeited. The last of these grants, that to the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, expired on the 2d day of May, 1882.

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