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Show 364 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT great deal of pulling and hauling in Congress over routes and termini of the proposed Pacific railroad, though the issues finally were resolved enough at least to permit enactment on July 1, 1862, of the Pacific Railroad Act. Military demands for men and the capital needs of other enterprises, combined with weaknesses in the Act of 1862, delayed action. Congress was urged to liberalize the chartering act, which it did on July 2, 1864.72 The Union Pacific Railroad, thus chartered, was given a 400-foot right-of-way through the public lands and 10 (20 under Act of 1864) odd numbered sections of land for each mile of railroad it constructed from Omaha on the Missouri River, to the western border of Nevada. The Central Pacific Railroad, a California chartered company, was given the same right-of-way and lands to build to the California border and 150 miles farther if it got there before the Union Pacific. To prevent persons anticipating the railroad in selection of its land, the acts provided that the two companies should locate their routes within 2 years. When informed of the routes, the Secretary of the Interior was to withdraw all lands from entry of any kind for a distance of 15 miles (25 under the Act of 1864) from the line. This meant that a solid area 30-later 50-miles wide extending from Nebraska to California would be withdrawn from all entries, including homestead and preemption, though all such claims established prior to the enactment of the measures, including locations made under the Morrill Act of 1862, were not affected. This was made fairly clear by the words: "And any lands granted by this act . . . shall not defeat or impair any preemption, homestead, swamp land, or other lawful claim. . . ." But in a later proviso to this section the act states that "the quantity thus exempted by the operation of this act. . . shall not exceed one hundred and sixty acres for each settler who claims as an agriculturalist. ..." Since it was legal for settlers to file both a preemption and a homestead entry totaling 320 acres, though not simultaneously, the two provisions were not in harmony and the second did threaten to deprive settlers of rights they might have established within the 50-mile area before it was selected.73 The railroads were denied the right to select mineral land, though after a proviso was added permitting iron and coal land to be selected the restriction was not particularly meaningful. In addition to the broad right-of-way, the land grant, and the right to take timber and stone from public lands, Congress authorized loans of $16,000, $32,000, and $48,000 in 6 percent, 30-year government bonds for each mile to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads for construction of their lines; the amount depended on the difficulty and cost of construction. In exchange for the loan, the railroads were to give the government a first mortgage on their lines. In the 1864 Act this was changed to second mortgage, thus enabling the railroads to sell their first mortgage bonds as well as the government bonds to finance construction. According to the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, five eastern branches of the Pacific railroad were to be built, from Sioux City, Omaha, St. Joseph, Leavenworth, and Kansas City, to converge at some point on the 100th meridian. This was later changed to permit the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, to build from Kansas City due west to Denver and then by way of the Denver Pacific to join with the Union Pacific line at Cheyenne; the other branches were freed of their obligations to converge with the main line on the 100th meridian. To each of these lines was given the same land subsidy of 10 sections (20 sections 72 12 Stat. 489 and 13 Stat. 356. 73 Section 4 of the Act of July 2, 1864. Preemption and homestead entries on even sections within the 50-mile belt were sanctioned in the Act of March 6, 1868. 15 Stat. 39. Robert W. Fogel, The Union Pacific Railroad; A Case of Premature Enterprise (Baltimore, Md.); Wallace D. Farnham, "The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862," Nebraska History XLIII (Sept. 1962) pp. 141-68. |