Fifty Years In The Northwest
section 7, where it is enacted that "the term of each of the executive
officers named in this article shall commence upon taking the oath of
office, _after the State shall be admitted by Congress into the Union,
etc._"
Section 9, same article, provides that "Laws shall be passed at the
first session of the legislature _after the State is admitted into the
Union_ to carry out the provisions of this article.
"Section 1, article 16, _schedule_, provides that all process which
may be issued under the authority of the territory of Minnesota
previous to its _admission into the Union of the United States_, shall
be as valid as if issued in the name of the State."
Section 8, same article, provides that if the constitution shall be
adopted by a vote of the people, the governor of the Territory shall
forward a certified copy of the same to the president of the United
States, "_to be by him laid before the Congress of the United
States_."
The minority claimed that under the first of the above cited sections
there can be no qualified governor (_elected under, and according to
the provisions of the constitution_) to whom "bills" _must_ be
submitted before they can become laws, until _after_ "admission"--nor
indeed can there be _any_ executive officers, contemplated to perform
the duties of their several offices, until that time.
In reference to the provisions of section 18, article 16, _schedule_,
as inconsistent with that view, it was claimed that the territorial
government should continue, and that its officers should exercise the
sovereign powers delegated to them by the Union, until, upon an
admission by Congress, and a surrender of sovereignty to the State,
its authority should commence.
It was claimed that this section (6) of article 16, requiring the
legislature to convene on the first Wednesday of December, 1857, was
an oversight or error. After considerable debate the majority report
was adopted by a party vote. A similar protest, signed by all the
Republican members of the house, was presented to that body. In
addition to these protests there was in both branches of the
legislature continuous and various protests by the minority against
the exercise of legislative functions.
In the house, on Jan. 25, 1858, Mr. Sheetz offered a resolution with
reference to the causes of the delay in the admission of Minnesota,
asking that a committee of three be appointed with instructions to
investigate the circumstances of this delay and report to this house
upon these points:
_First_--As to whose duty it was to forward to the president for
submission to Congress a copy of the constitution.
_Second_--Why an incorrect or incomplete copy of said constitution was
forwarded to the president.
_Third_--What official correspondence, if any, has passed between the
governor and the acting governor in regard to this matter.
On motion the resolution was adopted.
Mr. Sheetz, from the committee appointed to communicate with the
acting governor relative to the admission of the state of Minnesota,
submitted the following report:
_To the Honorable House of Representatives:_
Your committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the probable
delay in the admission of Minnesota into the Union, ask leave to make
the following report:
Your committee find that according to section 8 of the schedule to the
constitution, it is made the duty of the governor of the Territory,
upon the adoption of the constitution by the people, to forward a
certified copy of the constitution to the president of the United
States, to be by him submitted to Congress.
Your committee have conferred with his excellency, Acting Gov. Chase,
and have ascertained from him that at or about the time of the
adjournment of the constitutional conventions, there were deposited
with him, as acting governor in the absence of Gov. Medary, two copies
of the constitution as adopted by the two branches of the
constitutional convention, one copy signed by _fifty-one_ members of
the Democratic branch of the convention, and the other signed by
_fifty-three_ members of the Republican branch of the convention, that
the two copies were preserved by him in the same safe, side by side
where they now are.
Your committee are further informed that a short time prior to the
departure of our senators and representatives elect for Washington,
the governor caused to be made a transcript of the constitution as
requested by the schedule and that instrument, which transcript was
forwarded to the president of the United States.
No record is known to your committee to exist of the time and manner
of making such transcript, and your committee, in the absence of the
governor and his private secretary, can not ascertain whether said
transcript contained the names of the members of the two branches of
the constitutional convention or not.
Your committee are also informed by Acting Gov. Chase that there has
been no official correspondence between the governor and himself upon
this subject since the departure of the former for Washington.
All of which is respectfully submitted and signed.
H. W. SHEETZ,
G. L. OTIS,
J. J. CRUTTENDEN,
_Committee_.
LAND GRANTS, RAILROAD SURVEYS AND CONSTRUCTION.
In May, 1857, Congress gave to Minnesota, then a territory, a
magnificent grant of about 9,000,000 acres of land, to aid in the
construction of several projected trunk roads through her bounds. The
roads specified were: From Stillwater, by way of St. Paul and St.
Anthony Falls, to a point between the foot of Big Stone lake and the
mouth of the Sioux Wood river, with a branch via St. Cloud and Crow
Wing to the navigable waters of the Red River of the North; from St.
Paul and St. Anthony via Minneapolis to a convenient point of junction
west of the Mississippi to the southern boundary of the Territory in
the direction of the mouth of the Big Sioux river, with a branch via
Faribault to the north line of the state of Iowa, west of range 16;
from Winona to a point on the Big Sioux river south of the forty-fifth
parallel of north latitude; also from La Crescent via Target lake, up
the valley of Root river, to a point of junction with the last
mentioned road, east of range 17, every alternate section of land
designated by odd numbers, for six sections in width on each side of
said road and branches. It was enacted that the lands granted were to
be subject to the disposal of the legislature.
An extra session of the legislature was convened in June, 1857, to
accept the grant and devise means to build the road.
The financial crisis of 1857 and unwise legislation in 1858, notably
the attempt to issue $5,000,000 in bonds to aid in building the roads,
served to delay the various enterprises projected, and for many years
but little work was done, notwithstanding persistent effort at every
state legislature to effect favorable changes in the condition of
affairs.
A few of the $5,000,000 bonds were issued, but the general
dissatisfaction, and feeling that they were not issued on a legal or
rational basis, depreciated their value, and they were sold at a
sacrifice and afterward redeemed by the State.
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
The idea of a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific was openly
discussed as early as 1837, in which year Dr. Hartwell Carver
memorialized Congress on the subject and promulgated his views through
the press and by pamphlets. In 1845 Asa Whitney evolved a plan for
the northern route, and awakened considerable popular enthusiasm, but
by many the project was considered as a swindling scheme, or at best a
visionary enterprise. Mr. Whitney made a preliminary survey from
Prairie du Chien as far as the Rocky mountains. Mr. Josiah Perham,
afterward the first president of the Northern Pacific Railroad
Company, in 1857 projected a road from Maine to Puget Sound, to be
known as the People's Pacific Railway, and obtained a charter from the
Maine legislature, but on bringing his scheme to the attention of
Congress was prevailed upon by Thaddeus Stevens to abandon this scheme
for another, agreeing to aid him in the passage of a bill for the
construction of the present Northern Pacific route. The bill passed
both houses and was signed by President Lincoln, July 2, 1864. The
first permanent officers were: Josiah Perham, president; Willard Sear,
vice president; Abiel Abbott, secretary; J. S. Withington, treasurer.
The grants of land voted by Congress were accepted, and in the
following year the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota granted right of
way. Not much was done until 1869, when Jay Cooke & Co. became
financially interested in the road, and might have been successful in
placing the bonds of the road upon the eastern markets but for the
European war, during which time the firm of Jay Cooke & Co. went down
overburdened with railroad securities. The financial panic of 1873
which followed found the company in possession of 555 miles of
completed railroad, of which 450 reached from Duluth to Bismarck, and
105 from Klamath to Tacoma on Puget Sound; but embarrassed by want of
funds the enterprise made but little headway, and in 1875 Henry
Villard was appointed receiver, and a decree of sale obtained by which
the bondholders were enabled to become the preferred stockholders.
Under the new arrangement and by the powerful aid of Henry Villard and
Thomas F. Oakes, the public, and especially the capitalists of the
country, regained faith in the enterprise, and the work was pushed
steadily forward until September, 1883, when the golden spike was
driven at Gold Creek by Henry Villard. Mr. Villard resigned the
presidency of the road in December of the same year, and Robert Harris
succeeded him. The main line of this road extends from Duluth to
Tacoma, a distance of nearly 2,000 miles, and the number of miles on
the main and branch lines aggregates 3,395.
The magnitude of the work, the leagues of wilderness to be traversed,
the mountain ranges to be crossed, the streams to be bridged, the
supposed obstructions from wintry storms to be overcome, all these
were of such a nature as to make the project seem impossible. It was,
nevertheless, through the liberality of the government and the
enthusiasm and executive ability of its managers, accomplished in a
comparatively short time.
The government contributed to this road a land grant of forty sections
to the mile. With this liberal basis, bonds for the required amount of
money were speedily furnished to build and equip the road from Lake
Superior to the Pacific coast. This road has, however, the advantage
of southern roads, in that it traverses a rich agricultural and
mineral region throughout almost its entire extent, passing through
belts of timbered land not excelled in the quantity and quality of
their production. The mineral regions are rich in gold, silver,
copper, lead and coal.
The country along the road is being rapidly settled, and the property
in its possession, and that of those who have made improvements along
its line, has increased to many hundred times its original value.
THE CHICAGO, ST. PAUL, MINNEAPOLIS & OMAHA RAILROAD.
The Wisconsin legislature in 1854 chartered a company to construct and
operate this road, then called the St. Croix, Superior & Bayfield
railroad. May 3, 1856, Congress granted twelve sections of land to the
mile to aid in building a railroad from Hudson in the St. Croix valley
to Bayfield on Lake Superior, with a branch to Superior City. July 5,
1864, this grant was increased to twenty sections per mile, with
indemnity lands to make up deficiencies. These lands were ceded
directly to the State. A company was created by the state legislature