The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill granting to the State of Illinois the right of way and a donation of public lands, for making a railroad connecting the upper and lower Mississippi with the chain of northern lakes, at Chicago, have given it the most careful examination, and respectfully ask leave to report:

That the bill proposes to grant to the State of Illinois, for the purpose of aiding that State in completing the Central railroad from Cairo, via Chicago, on Lake Michigan, to the upper Mississippi, on the most eligible route; and also for the northern cross railroad extending from the Mississippi river, via Springfield, to the Indiana line, with a branch to Alton, from a point between Springfield and the Illinois river, on the most eligible route, a quantity of land equal to one-half of six alternate sections in width on each side of said railroads, to be selected by an agent or agents, to be appointed by the governor of the State, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury.

As alternate sections alone are granted, the bill provides that those which remain to the United States shall not be sold for less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre, at which price a pre-emption right is granted to the State on those sections for five years from the passage of the act.

The bill further provides that these lands shall be applied to those uses by the State, and none other; and that the railroad shall be a public highway, for the use of the government of the United States, free from toll or other charge upon the transportation of troops and munitions of war of the United States.

It is further provided by the bill, that the lands proposed to be granted shall be disposed of by the State in the following manner namely: that a quantity, not exceeding sixty sections on on each of said roads, and included within a continuous length of ten miles of each road, may be sold when the governor of the State shall certify to the Secretary of the Treasury that ten miles of any

of said roads are completed; then another like quantity may be sold on the road, and so on from time to time until the roads are completed; and if the roads are not completed within ten years, no further sales shall be made, and the unsold lands shall revert to the United States.

The bill further provides, that before it shall be competent for the State to dispose of any of the lands to be selected, a plat or plats of the courses, and distances, and points of termination of the roads shall be furnished by the State to the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

The bill further proposes to authorize the State to survey and mark through the public lands the routes of these roads, and to vest in the State, forever, one hundred feet for a road-way for each road, on both sides of each road respectively; and it is provided that no lands reserved for schools, or for military or other purposes, or mineral lands, or lands to which the right of pre-emption has attached, shall be selected.

The last section provides that the mails of the United States shall be carried on these roads under the regulations of the Post Office Department, at the minimum price for similar services paid on other railroads, and in case of disagreement between the State and the department as to the price, then the matter in dispute is to be referred to the United States district judge of that State for his decision.

Having given this synopsis of the bill, the committee would remark, that at the last session of Congress, several bills were referred to this committee, accompanied by memorials numerously signed by all the functionaries of the State of Illinois; by the members of the convention assembled to amend their State constitution, and by individuals in different parts of the State, praying for a grant or a pre-emption on a portion of the public lands, to aid in completing the central railroad in that State; a road, which the committee are informed, occupied the most prominent place in that vast system of internal improvements commenced by her on her own unaided resources in 1837, and on which work alone she has expended more than one million of dollars, and which runs for almost its entire length through lands owned by the United States.

It did not seem to be a part of the plan of those memorialists to include in their prayer a grant of land for any other road but the central railroad, extending from the mouth of the Ohio river north to Galena, on the upper Mississippi river. Other memorialists suggested the plan of forming the connexion between the lower Mississippi at the mouth of the Ohio, and the upper, at Chicago, an important city on Lake Michigan, and thus bring those vast navigable waters into immediate and close connexion. Neither set of memorialists proposed a grant for any other roads; and the committee, having determined in favor of the last proposition, returned the bill to the Senate, accompanied by an elaborate report, to which this committee respectfully refer, and invoked the favorable action of Congress upon it. In the Senate the bill was amended, by adding to it a grant of alternate sections for the com