ties of consoli Proviso. telegraph as shall so be in continuation of its constructed road and tel- Powers and duegraph, and to the construction and equipment thereof, all and singular, dated organizathe several acts and things hereinbefore provided, authorized, or granted tion. to be done by the company hereinbefore authorized to construct and equip the same, and shall be entitled to similar and like grants, benefits, immunities, guarantees, acts, and things to be done and performed by the gov ernment of the United States, by the President of the United States, by the Secretaries of the Treasury and Interior, and by commissioners in reference to such company, and to such portion of the road hereinbefore authorized to be constructed by it, and upon the like and similar terms and conditions, so far as the same are applicable thereto. And said consolidated company shall pay to said defaulting company the value to be estimated by competent engineers of all the work done and material furnished by said defaulting company, which may be adopted and used by said consolidated company in the progress of the work under the provisions of this section: Provided, nevertheless, That said defaulting company may at any time, before receiving pay for its said work and material, as hereinbefore provided, on its own election, pay said consolidated company the value of the work done and material furnished by said consolidated company, to be estimated by competent engineers, necessary for, and used in, the construction of the road of said defaulting company, and resume the control of its said road; and all the rights, benefits, and privileges which shall be acquired, possessed, or exercised, pursuant to this section, shall be to that extent an abatement of the rights, benefits, and privileges hereinbefore granted to such other company. And in case any company authorized thereto, shall not enter into such consolidated organization, such company, upon the completion of its road as hereinbefore provided, shall be entitled to, and is hereby authorized to, continue and extend the same under the circumstances, and in accordance with the provisions of this section, and to have all the benefits thereof, as fully and completely as are herein provided, touching such consolidated organization. And in case more than one such consolidated organization shall be made, pursuant to this act, the terms and conditions of this act, hereinbefore recited as to one, shall apply in like manner, force, and effect to the other. Provided, however, That rights and interests at any time acquired by one such consolidated organization, shall not be impaired by another thereof. It is further provided that, should the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California complete their line to the eastern line of the State of California, before the line of the Union Pacific Railroad Company shall have been extended westward so as to meet the line of said first-named company, said first-named company may extend their line of road eastward one hundred and fifty miles on the established route, so as to meet and connect with the line of the Union Pacific road, complying in all respects with the provisions and restrictions of this act as to said Union Pacific road, and upon doing so, shall enjoy all the rights, privileges, and benefits conferred by this act on said Union Pacific Railroad Company. Proviso. Branch froin 1862, ch. 120, SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That so much of section fourteen of said act as relates to a branch from Sioux City be, and the same is Sioux City. hereby, amended so as to read as follows: That whenever a line of rail- § 14. road shall be completed through the States of Iowa, or Minnesota, to Vol. xii. p. 496, Sioux City, such company, now organized or may hereafter be organized under the laws of Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, or Nebraska, as the President of the United States, by its request, may designate or approve for that purpose, shall construct and operate a line of railroad and telegraph from Sioux City, upon the most direct and practicable route, to such a point on, and so as to connect with, the Iowa branch of the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha, or the Union Pacific Railroad, as such company may select, and on the same terms and conditions as are provided in this act and the act to which this is an amendment, for the construction of the Railroad need not construct the branch. Bonds. Lands. Union Pacific said Union and Pacific Railroad and telegraph line and branches; and said company shall complete the same at the rate of fifty miles per year: Provided, That said Union Pacific Railroad Company shall be, and is hereby, released from the construction of said branch. And said company constructing said branch shall not be entitled to receive in bonds an amount larger than the said Union Pacific Railroad Company would be entitled to receive if it had constructed the branch under this act and the act to which this is an amendment; but said company shall be entitled to receive alternate sections of land for ten miles in width on each side of the same along the whole length of said branch: And provided, further, That if a railroad should not be completed to Sioux City, across Iowa or Minnesota, within eighteen months from the date of this act, then said company designated by the President, as aforesaid, may commence, continue, and complete the construction of said branch as contemplated by the provisions of this act: Provided, however, That if the said company so designated by the President as aforesaid shall not complete the said branch from Sioux City to the Pacific Railroad within ten years from the Forfeiture, if, passage of this act, then, and in that case, all of the railroad which shall have been constructed by said company shall be forfeited to, and become the property of, the United States. Time of completion. &c. Burlington and Missouri River road may extend its road. SEC. 18. And be it further enacted, That the Burlington ard Missouri River Railroad Company, a corporation organized under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Iowa, be, and hereby is, authorized to extend i[t]s road through the Territory of Nebraska from the point where it strikes the Missouri River, south of the mouth of the Platte River, to some point not further west than the one hundredth meridian of west longitude, so as to connect, by the most practicable route, with the main trunk of the Union Pacific Railroad, or that part of it which runs from Omaha to the said one hundredth meridian of west longitude. And, for the purpose of enableing said Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company to construct that portion of their road herein authorized, the Right of way. right of way through the public lands is hereby granted to said company for the construction of said road. And the right, power, and authority is hereby given to said company to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof. Said right of way is granted to said company to the extent of two hundred feet where it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds for stations, buildings, workshops, depots, machine shops, switches, side-tracks, turn-tables, and water-stations. And the Indian titles to United States shall extinguish, as rapidly as may be, consistent with pubbe extinguished. lic policy and the welfare of the said Indians, the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this section and required for the said right of way and grant of land herein made. SEC. 19. And be it further enacted, That for the purpose of aiding in Lands granted. the construction of said road, there be, and hereby is, granted to the said Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company, every alternate section of public land (excepting mineral lands as provided in this act) designated by odd numbers, to the amount of ten alternate sections per mile on each side of said road, on the line thereof, and not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of by the United States, and to which a preëmption or homestead claim may not have attached at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed: Provided, That said company shall accept this grant within one year from the passage of this act, by filing such acceptance with the Secretary of the Interior, and shall also establish the line of said road, and file a map thereof with the Secretary of the Interior within one year of the date of said acceptance, when the said Secretary shall withdraw the lands embraced in this grant from market. Proviso. Commission to be appointed. SEC. 20. And be it further enacted, That whenever said Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company shall have completed twenty con Patents to secutive miles of the road mentioned in the foregoing section, in the manner provided for other roads mentioned in this act, and the act to which this is an amendment, the President of the United States shall appoint three commissioners to examine and report to him in relation thereto; and if it shall appear to him that twenty miles of said road have been completed as required by this act, then, upon certificate of said commission- issue. er[s] to that effect, patents shall issue conveying the right and title to said lands to said company on each side of said road, as far as the same is completed, to the amount aforesaid; and such examination, report, and conveyance, by patents, shall continue from time to time, in like manner, until said road shall have been completed. And the President shall appoint said commissioners, fill vacancies in said commission, as provided in relation to other roads mentioned in the act to which this is an amendment. And the said company shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities granted to the Hannibal and Saint Joseph's Railroad Company by the said last-mentioned act, so far as the same may be applicable: Provided, Provisos. That no government bonds shall be issued to the said Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company to aid in the construction of said extension of its road: And provided, further, That said extension shall be completed within the period of ten years from the passage of this act. SEC. 21. And be it further enacted, That before any land granted by this act shall be conveyed to any company or party entitled thereto under this act, there shall first be paid into the treasury of the United States, the cost of surveying, selecting, and conveying the same, by the said company or party in interest, as the titles shall be required by said company, which amount shall, without any further appropriation, stand to the credit of the proper account, to be used by the commissioner of the general landoffice for the prosecution of the survey of the public lands along the line of said road, and so from year to year until the whole shall be completed, as provided under the provisions of this act. SEC. 22. And be it further enacted, That congress may, at any time, alter, amend, or repeal this act. APPROVED, July 2, 1864. Cost of survey ing, &c., to be paid before con. veyances are made. This act may be altered, &c. CHAP. CCXVII. -An Act granting Lands to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and July 2, 1864. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Northern Pacific Railroad Com pany incorpor ated. Names of cor porators. pany. Powers, &c. May lay out, &c., a railroad and telegraph line. Northern Paci- F. Perkins, Richard Chenery, Samuel Brannan, George Rowland, fic Railroad Com- Henry Platt, of California; William F. Mercer, James W. Brownley, of Virginia; John H. B. Latrobe, W. Prescott Smith, of Maryland; Greenbury Slack, A. J. Boreman, of West Virginia; Thomas E. Bramlette, Frank Shorin, of Kentucky; John Brough, John A. Bingham, Oran Follett, John Gardner, S. S. L'Hommedieu, Harrison G. Blake, Philo Chamberlin, of Ohio; John A. Duncan, Samuel M. Harrington, of Delaware; Thomas A. Morris, Jesse L. Williams, of Indiana; Samuel L. Case, Henry L. Hall, David H. Jerome, Thomas D. Gilbert, C. A. Trowbridge, of Michigan; Edward H. Broadhead, Alexander Mitchell, Benjamin Ferguson, Levi Sterling, Marshal, of Wisconsin; J. C. Ainsworth, Orlando Humason, H. W. Corbett, Henry Failling, of Oregon; J. B. S. Todd, M. K. Armstrong, J. Shaw Gregory, J. Le Berge, of Dakota Territory; John Mullan, Anson G. Henry, S. D. Smith, Charles Terry, of Washington Territory; H. W. Starr, Platt Smith, Nixon Denton, William Leighton, B. F. Allen, Reuben Noble, John L. Davies, of Iowa; Willard P. Hall, George R. Smith, H. Gayle King, John C. Sargeant, of Missouri; William H. Wallace, of Idaho Territory; J. H. Lathrop, Henry D. Cooke, H. E. Merrick, of the District of Columbia, and all such other persons who shall or may be associated with them, and their successors, are hereby created and erected into a body corporate and politic, in deed and in law, by the name, style, and title of the "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," and by that name shall have perpetual succession, and shall be able to sue and to be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in all courts of law and equity within the United States, and may make and have a common seal. And said corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain, and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph line, with the appurtenances, namely, beginning at a point on Lake Superior, in the State of Minnesota or Wisconsin; thence westerly by the most eligible railroad route, as shall be determined by said company, within the territory of the United States, on a line north of the forty-fifth degree of latitude to some point on Puget's Sound, with a branch, via the valley of the Columbia River, to a point at or near Portland, in the State of Oregon, leaving the main trunk-line at the most suitable place, not more than three hundred miles from its western terminus; and is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges, and immunities necessary to carry into effect the purposes of this act as herein set forth. Capital stock. The capital stock of said company shall consist of one million shares of one hundred dollars each, which shall in all respects be deemed personal property, and shall be transferable in such manner as the by-laws of said corporation shall provide. The persons hereinbefore named are hereby Commissioners. appointed commissioners, and shall be called the board of commissioners of the "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," and fifteen shall constitu[t]e a quorum for the transaction of business. The first meeting of said board of commissioners shall be held at the Melodion hall, in the city of Boston, at such time as any five commissioners herein named from Massachusetts shall appoint, not more than three months after the passage of this act, notice of which shall be given by them to the other commissioners by publishing said notice in at least one daily newspaper in the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Chicago, once a week at least four weeks previous to the day of meeting. Said board shall organize by the choice from its number of a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer, and they shall require from said treasurer such bonds as may be deemed proper, and may from time to time increase the amount thereof as they may deem proper. The secretary. shall be sworn to the faithful performance of his duties, and such oath shall be entered upon the records of the company, signed by him, and the oath verified thereon. The president and secretary of said board shall in like manner call all Quorum. First meeting of commissioners. Officers, &c. Books of sub stock. other meetings, naming the time and place thereof. It shall be the duty Meetings. of said board of commissioners to open books, or cause books to be opened, at such times, and in such principal cities or other places in the United States, as they, or a quorum of them, shall determine, within six months scription. after the passage of this act, to receive subscriptions to the capital stock of said corporation, and a cash payment of ten per centum on all subscriptions, and to receipt therefor. So soon as twenty thousand shares shall in good faith be subscribed for, and ten dollars per share actually paid into the treasury of the company, the said president and secretary of said board of commissioners shall appoint a time and place for the first meeting First meeting of the subscribers to the stock of said company, and shall give notice thereof of subscribers to in at least one newspaper in each state in which subscription books have been opened, at least fifteen days previous to to the day of meeting, and such subscribers as shall attend the meeting so called, either in person or by lawful proxy, then and there shall elect by ballot thirteen directors for said corporation; and in such election each share of said capital stock shall entitle the owner thereof to one vote. The president and secretary of the board of commissioners, and, in case of their absence or inability, any two of the officers of said board, shall act as inspectors of said elec- Inspectors of tion, and shall certify under their hands the names of the directors elected election. at said meeting; and the said commissioners, treasurer, and secretary, shall then deliver over to said directors all the properties, subscription books, directors. and other books in their possession, and thereupon the duties of said commissioners, and the officers previously appointed by them, shall cease and determine forever, and thereafter the stockholders shall constitute said body politic and corporate. Annual meetings of the stockholders of the said corporation for the choice of officers (when they are to be chosen) ings. and for the transaction of business shall be holden at such time and place and upon such notice as may be prescribed in the by-laws. Directors. Commissioners to deliver to Annual meet Materials for SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the right of way through the Right of way. public lands be, and the same is hereby, granted to said " Northern Pacific Railroad Company," its successors and assigns, for the construction of a railroad and telegraph as proposed; and the right, power, and authority is hereby given to said corporation to take from the public lands, adjacent to the line of said road, material of earth, stone, timber, and so forth, for the construction thereof. Said way is granted to said railroad to the extent construction. of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad where it may pass through the public domain, including all necessary ground for station buildings, workshops, depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn-tables, and water-stations; and the right of way shall be exempt from taxation within the territories of the United States. The United States shall extinguish, as rapidly as may be consistent with public policy be extinguished. and the welfare of the said Indians, the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act, and acquired in the donation to the [road] named in this bill. Indian titles to Grant of public SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there be, and hereby 18, granted to the "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," its successors and assigns, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and lands. telegraph line to the Pacific coast, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores, over the route of said line of railway, every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile, on each side of said railroad line, as said company may adopt, through the territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections of land per mile on each side of said railroad whenever it passes through any state, and whenever on the line thereof, the United States have full title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwise appropriated, and free from preemption, or other claims or rights, at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed, and a plat thereof filed in the office |