It seems to have been the intention of Congress to give, by this act, to each of said roads, the benefit of one hundred and twenty sections of the lands granted before any road was built. The State was required to dispose of the said lands as follows: "That a quantity of lands not exceeding one hundred and twenty sections for each of said roads, and included within a continuous length of twenty miles of each of said roads may be sold; and when the Governor of said State shall certify to the Secretary of the Interior, that any twenty continuous miles of any of said roads is completed, then another quantity of land hereby granted, not to exceed one hundred and twenty sections for each of said roads having twenty continuous miles completed as aforesaid, and included within a continuous length of twenty miles of each of said roads, may be sold; and so from time to time until said roads are completed."

The act further provides that if any of said roads are not completed within ten years, no further sale shall be made, and the lands unsold shall revert to the United States.

This grant was accepted by the State of Iowa, by act of the General Assembly passed at a special session thereof, and approved July 14, 1856, upon the terms, conditions and restrictions contained in said act of Congress.

Said act of the General Assembly also grants, upon certain conditions and restrictions, the "lands, interests, rights, powers and privileges as are or may be granted and conferred in pursuance of the act of Congress aforesaid," to the following railroad companies respectively, to-wit: the Burlington and Missouri River, the Mississippi and Missouri, the Iowa Central Air Line, and the Dubuque and Sioux City and Tete des Morts Branch.

Said act provides that the lines or routes of the several roads shall be definitely fixed and located on or before the first day of April next after the passage of said act, and that maps or plats shall be filed in the office of the Governor, and the office of Secretary of State, and that the Governor, after affixing his official signature, shall file such map in the department in Washington having control of the public lands; such location to be considered final only so far as to fix the limit and boundary within which lands may be selected.

The agents to select the lands in lieu of the odd sections disposed of were to be appointed by the Governor, but their compensation, and the costs and expenses of making the selections, was to be defrayed by the railroad companies respectively.

The several companies were required to have seventy-five miles of

their road completed and equipped within three years from December 1, 1856, thirty miles in addition in each year thereafter for five years, and the remainder of the whole line in one year thereafter. In case of the failure on the part of any company to comply with these requirements, the State reserves the right to resume all lands granted to said company which remain undisposed of.

The gauge, style of road, duties of the several companies relative to providing the necessary crossings, turnouts, sidelings, switches, etc., is specified.

The protection of valid claimants in their rights to any of these lands is provided for.

The written assent and acceptance of the several companies of the provisions of the act is required, the same to be filed in the office of the Secretary of State.

The several railroad companies are at all times to be subject to the rules and regulations prescribed by the legislature, and are required to make an annual report, a copy of which is to be filed with the Secretary of State.

Those companies accepting the grant, "take the same with the conditions imposed and incumbrances specified in this act, and shall, in no event, have any claim or recourse whatever upon the State of Iowa, for a misapplication of said grant, incumbrances or conditions in this act imposed."

The several companies accepted the grant on the conditions and restrictions specified in the act.

A copy of this act of the general assembly was sent to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, by the Secretary of State, on August 12, 1856. The Commissioner acknowledged the receipt of same, but objected to that portion of the act having reference to the location of the roads and filing plats of same in the Department at Washington, which stipulates that the location shall be considered final, "only so far as to fix the limit and boundary within which lands may be selected." This, he stated, was in conflict with the act of Congress making the grant, which contemplates that the lines or routes of said roads must be definitely fixed before any title could vest; and that the certificate of the Governor, on the maps returned to that Department, `must set forth that such maps delineate the routes as "definitely fixed," before they would be acted upon.

The Iowa Central Air Line Railroad Company failed to comply with the requirements of said act, and the general assembly, by act approved

March 17, 1860, resumed all rights to the lands, interests, rights, powers and privileges which had been conferred, or intended to be conferred, upon said company; and by act of the same session, approved March 26, 1860, granted the same to the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company, under certain conditions and restrictions. (See Special Acts 1860, p. 40.)

The grant was accepted by the company.

By act of the General Assembly, approved April 7, 1862, the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company, successor to the Dubuque & Pacific Railroad Company, was required to release, by deed, to the county in which the same might be situated, all the swamp and overflowed lands that have been approved, or that might be approved by the Surveyor General, within the fifteen miles limits of said road, including all such swamp and overflowed lands as were returned to the General Land Office, and ratified to the State by act of Congress of March 3, 1857; also, to transfer to the Register of the State. Land Office, their interest in the lands sold by John Tolman in Webster and Hamilton counties, to enable the Register to fulfill contracts made with the purchasers from said Tolman; also, to release by deed to the State, all lands in the odd sections above the Raccoon Fork within five miles of the Des Moines river, sold by the State prior to May 7, 1854, and of such other of said lands as have been sold since that date, and prior to the first day of January, 1862, that are improved and occupied by actual settlers, who purchased the same in good faith, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to any one settler.

These deeds were not required to describe the tracts, but were to be a general release of each kind referred to. The deeds to be filed and recorded in the State Land Office.

In consideration of the relinquishments, the Company was to have the time for completing their road extended one year.

The only release the Company has filed under this act, is a release to all lands sold by John Tolman as school lands.

It is thought by some, that this act conflicts too much with judicial decisions and with subsequent legislation of the State to be of any validity.

The Company has nothing to release as to lands in the odd sections within the five miles limit of the Des Moines river; the Supreme Court of the United States having decided that said lands were reserved from the operations of the grant of May 15, 1856, and that all certificates of the same by the Department under said act of Congress,

were void and of no effect. The lands granted to said Company were all resumed by the State in 1868, as will be seen further on, and in the re-grant there is no provision for releasing any lands.

There was no law which conferred any authority for certifying lands to said company, until the enactment of the law embodied in Sec. 93 of the Code; the swamp land interests are very carefully guarded by this law, for it provides that no lands, selected by the State or any county as swamp, shall be included in the lists certified, and that if any such lands are included no title shall pass, and that no title shall pass to any other lands included in said lists to which the company is not in equity entitled.

By act of the General Assembly approved March 20, 1858, the several railroad companies were authorized to mortgage the whole or any part of their property to raise money for the construction and equipment of their roads.

The act of Congress approved June 2, 1864, which is amendatory of the act of May 15, 1856, permits the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company, (now Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company), to modify or change the line of its road, and requires a plat of such modified line to be filed in the Department at Washington, and the Secretary of the Interior is required to certify to said company, and also to the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company, out of any of the public lands within six miles of their lines of road, an amount of lands equal to that authorized to be granted by the act of May 15, 1856, and if that amount could not be found within said six miles limit, then the selections could be made within twenty miles limit of sid roads. The Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company's selections were to be made along the modified line of their road and were not to interfere with any lands within the fifteen miles limit of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad.

Said act also provides that the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company, (the successor to the Iowa Central Air Line Railroad Company,) "may modify or change the location of the uncompleted portion of its line, as shown by the map on file in the General Land Office, so as to secure a better and more expeditious line to the Missouri river, and to a connection with the Iowa branch of the Union Pacific Railroad; and for the purpose of facilitating the more immediate construction of a line of railroad across the State of Iowa, to connect with the Iowa branch of the Union Pacific Railroad Com pany aforesaid, the said company is authorized to connect its line by

It

a branch with the line of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Company." Said act provides, that said "Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company shall be entitled for such modified line, to the same lands and to the same amount of lands per mile, and for such connecting branch, the same amount of lands per mile as originally granted to aid in the construction of its main line, subject to the conditions and forfeitures mentioned in the original grant." The right-of-way through the public lands of the United States was also granted. was made the duty of the Secretary of the Interior, as soon as said lines of road were located and a map of same filed in the General Land Office, "to certify and convey to said company, from time to time, as the work progressed on the main line, out of any of the public lands belonging to the United States not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of, or to which the right of pre-emption, or homestead, has not attached, and on which a bona fide settlement and improvement has not been made under color of title derived from the United States or State, within fifteen miles of the original main line, an amount of land equal to that originally authorized to be granted to aid in the construction of said road by the act of May 15, 1856; and if the said amount cannot be found within said fifteen miles limit, then the selections may be made along such modified line and connecting branch, within twenty miles thereof." The act further provides, that in case the line is so modified or changed as not to reach the Missouri river at or near the forty-second parallel, the company shall, in a reasonable time after completion of the road to the Missouri river, construct a branch road to some point in Monona county, in or at Onawa City, and shall have the same amount of land per mile for said branch, as for the main line, to be selected within twenty miles of said main line and branch, and reserved and certified in the same manner as those for the main line. A map of said branch is required to be filed with the Secretary of the Interior.

No lands can be certified by the Secretary of the Interior to aid in the construction of said connecting branch, except as the Governor certifies to the completion of the main line.

No lands are to be conveyed to said company lying within fifteen miles of the original line of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad.

The Secretary of the Interior is also required to reserve from the lands granted for the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad a quantity sufficient, in the opinion of the Governor, to secure the construction of a branch railroad from Lyons, to connect with the main line in or west of Clinton.