OCR Text |
Show 350 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT actually received 1,480,409 acres plus the 266,535 acres granted for it in Ohio, or a total of 1,746,944 acres in the two states. This was the largest land grant Congress made for canals or river improvements.29 Illinois, with its scattered 55,000 people in 1820, a property tax base at the most not exceeding 200,000 acres, and a state income that would not pay the Governor's salary today, was as eager to build roads and canals as were eastern and better developed states. Shortly after admission its Representatives urged Congress to grant it land for the construction of a canal to connect the Illinois River, a tributary of the Mississippi, with the Chicago River which flowed into Lake Michigan. Congress responded in 1822 with a measure authorizing the state to survey and mark through the public lands a route for the canal, giving it 90 feet on each side and requiring that every section of land through which the canal should pass be reserved from sale. The state was permitted to use timber, stone, gravel and sand on adjacent public lands for construction purposes. The route was to be surveyed within 3 years and the canal was to be completed "suitable for navigation within twelve years."30 This tiny grant was the first land donation for waterways and the forerunner of the extension grants to Indiana for the Wabash and Erie Canal. Optimistic as the people of Illinois were, there was slight prospect of their being able to do anything about the canal for many years to come. Subsequently Congress, during its great burst of enthusiasm for internal improvements, in 1827 made a more generous grant for the Illinois and Michigan Canal. By an Act of March 2, it granted "a quantity of land equal to one-half of five sections in width, on each side" of the canal, and reserved each alternate section for government sale. The lands were to be used solely for the canal and were to be subject to sale as soon 29 Esarey, "Internal Improvements in Early Indiana," passim; Donaldson, The Public Domain, p. 258. 30 3 Stat. 659. as they were selected. Construction of the canal was to begin within 5 years and was to be completed within 20 years.31 Before any work was done and after years of frustration and uncertainty as to the ability of the state to build such an expensive canal, during which period the new steam railroad seemed certain to become a threat to canal transportation, the State of Illinois on December 20, 1832, memorialized Congress to allow it to use the canal grant for a railroad if subsequent studies justified such action. Congress responded in what was the first railroad land grant act, authorizing Illinois to use the lands for a railroad.32 Further delay followed, during which it was realized that, promising as the railroad was, it would not displace water transportation. In 1836 and 1837 the state again authorized the construction of the canal as well as numerous railroads and river improvements and voted to borrow large sums to finance the extensive program. In common with all the states which were involved in large programs of internal improvements in the late thirties, Illinois was brought close to bankruptcy. Illinois was more fortunate than some states in that a portion of its canal grant was located in what soon became the mushrooming city of Chicago. Also, its officials decided not to unload the grant at a time when values were low but to hold it for a substantial rise. As early as 1830 canal lots in Chicago were bringing high prices and over a million dollars was grossed from sales in a few years time. Most of the land and city lots were sold between 1848-56. From its 324,283 acres the canal trustees had grossed $5,858,547 by 1871. This was a far better record than other states made in disposing of their internal improvement lands.33 31 4 Stat. 234. 32 Act of March 2, 1833, 4 Stat. 167; John H. Krenkel, Illinois Internal Improvements, 1818-1848 (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1958), p. 33. 33 By the time the state had selected its land some 32,895 acres to which it would have been entitled had been lost to others either as preemptions, cash purchases, or possibly as school lands. On Aug. 3, |