The Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. No. 2415,) entitled "An act for the relief of Lot North, late postmaster at Patriot, Indiana,” with the memorial and evidence accompanying it, make the following report:

On the night of March 28, 1867, the store of claimant, in which he kept the post office, was entered by burglars, who stole from him (or the firm of Pate & North, of which he was a member) sundry articles of merchandise, and blew open with powder his safe, and stole therefrom money belonging to said firm and postage stamps to the amount of $135, for which the claimant was officially responsible, and which robbery occurred without any fault or neglect on the part of claimant.

The committee recommend the passage of the bill without amendment.

The Committee on the Pacific Railroad, to whom was referred the bill (S. No. 1019,) entitled "An act to incorporate branches of the Southern Trans-continental Railway Company, under the name and style of the Western North Carolina Extension Railway Company,” have authorized me to ask that the following report may be printed:

That the object of said railway company, as provided in section second of said bill, is to construct and establish, with railways already chartered, by the respective States through which they pass, and are partly constructed, a complete and continuous railway communication through Asheville, North Carolina, and Ducktown, Tennessee, to Cleveland, in said State of Tennessee, or to Dalton, Georgia, thereby connecting the ports of Newbern, Moorehead City, and Wilmington, in North Carolina, and city of Charleston, South Carolina, with the ports of San Diego and San Francisco, California, by means of the Pacific Railway companies.

The said railroads asking this consolidation have been incorporated by the respective States through which they pass, and are partially constructed, but the private subscriptions thereto have proved unequal to their completion as contemplated. They therefore come to Congress and ask such relief by the donation of public lands as will enable them to complete so much as three hundred and seventy-five miles of said road, as provided for in section ten.

This will then make an unbroken chain of communication by railroad from the ports of Newbern, Wilmington, and Charleston to San Diego and San Francisco, California; also from the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, to Charleston, South Carolina, via the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap, and Charleston Railway Company.

Section 9 of said bill provides that there shall be granted to said Western North Carolina Railway Company the same number of sections of public lands of the United States per mile of railway as may be located within the States through which said road passes as was granted to the Northern Pacific Railway Company by act of Congress approved July 2, 1864, and by acts supplementary thereto; and if there be no public lands belonging to the United States in said States, then the said company shall have the right to locate their grants of lands on any portion of the public domain open to entry and not otherwise reserved

to actual settlers.

In support of the grant of lands asked for, not contiguous to the line

of said railway company, reference is made to Volume 1, Laws of North Carolina, page 436, section 5, act of 1783, by which said State ceded to the Cherokee Indians the greater portion of the lands through which said road passes, for services rendered by said Indians in the Revolu tionary War, and the remainder of the lands of said State as a reward for services rendered by her officers and soldiers in said war.

The State having thus parted with its domain or public lands for the defense of the General Government, the bill asks the grant of lands outside of the States through which said road is now partially constructed and to be built, such grants having been extended in several instances to enterprises of a like nature by acts of Congress.

Reference is also made to the act approved January 1, 1796, (vol. 1. Statutes at Large, page 491,) by which the State of North Carolina ceded to the United States the whole of the territory by the name and title of the State of Tennessee, which said territory, as a State, was at once given representation in the Congress of the United States.

As precedents are not without value, attention is called to former legislation which has a bearing on the question of granting lands not contiguous.

The acts of Congress since the foundation of the Government in granting lands to towns and institutions of learning in the various States, are numerous, and in some instances they were allowed to sell the lands and use the proceeds thereof.

Attention is called to the following acts of Congress, granting lands for the purpose of aiding in the construction and completion of railroads and canals in the various States.

An act approved March 2, 1827, granted to the State of Indiana, to aid in the construction of the Wabash and Erie Canal, a quantity of land equal to one-half of five sections wide on each side of said canal. Subsequently, May 9, 1848, a supplementary act was passed, authorizing said State to select out of any of the public lands therein, subject to private entry, to make up the quantity required for the construction of said canal. (Statutes at Large, vol. 9, pages 219 and 220.)

An act approved March 2, 1849, granting all the swamp lands located in the State of Louisiana to that State for building levees along the Mississippi River; under this grant over ten millions of acres were appropriated. (Vol. 9, Statutes at Large, page 353, and report of Land Com missioner for 1870, page 306.)

An act approved May 24, 1828, secured a large grant of land to the State of Ohio, to enable the completion and extension of the Miami Canal from Dayton to Lake Erie.

By the act approved August 26, 1852, there was granted to the State of Michigan a very considerable amount of land to aid the State in constructing and completing a ship canal around the Falls of Saint Mary. to be selected from any lands within said State. (Statutes at Large. vol. 10, page 35.)

The act approved September 20, 1850, granted alternate sections of Land to the State of Illinois for the purpose of building the Illinois Central Railroad. This act expressly stipulates that when the line or route of said road and branches is definitely fixed by the authority of said State, in case the United States shall have sold any of said sections granted, or the right of preemption has attached to the same, it shall be lawful for any agent or agents appointed by the governor of said State to select from lands of the United States, most contiguous

to the tier of sections specified, so much land, in alternate sections or parts of sections, as shall be equal to such lands as the United States have sold, &c. (Statutes at Large, vol. 9, pages 466 and 467.)

To the State of Iowa similar grants of lands were made for the same purpose, with like privileges and restrictions. (Statutes at Large, vol. 11, page 89.)

The more recent grant of lands to the Northern Pacific Railroad most entirely establishes the latitude to which Congress has gone in granting lands to railroads to aid in their construction. (Statutes at Large, pamphlet laws, page 379.)

Again: by the act approved July 3, 1866, Congress expressly provides that land be granted to the State of Michigan in the building of a harbor and ship canal at Portage Lake, Keewenaw Point, Lake Superior, provided that the land be selected in the upper peninsula of Michigan. (See vol. 14, page 81, Statutes at Large.)

For the completion of this railway aid is now asked of Congress to the limited amount set forth. It is well known that it will open up a portion of the country extremely rich in mineral resources. In the article of copper alone there was smelted in the year 1860 thirty thousand tons, which sold in New York for over $1,000,000. This was produced from one mine alone, on the immediate line of said road. There are twelve other copper mines of similar capacity, requiring only a railroad to develop even greater results, which the completion of this road would bring at once into working order.

That portion of the road which it is sought to complete by the aid of the grant of lands asked forms the connecting link of the road between the cities of Charleston and Cincinnati, an object which was attempted by the people of the States of North and South Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio over thirty years ago, and the importance of which was fully appreciated at that time.

This railroad is national in its character, because it completes a railroad system between the North and the South, and between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, on parallels of latitude where obstructions from extreme heat or cold can never interrupt travel or traffic.

It couples together some of the largest manufacturing towns and cities of the interior with the most valuable shipping points on the Atlantic coast, and passes through a country from which the raw material for manufacture can be obtained to an unlimited extent.