FORICST COMMISSIONERS REPORT. QI 



to be worth a great deal more than this sum, and the road had 

 the promise of this aid and also whatever could be secured 

 from Massachusetts and the General Government. In the 

 winter of 1868 the people of Bangor, and of Eastern Maine 

 generally, who were greatly interested in the road, applied to 

 the legislature to remove these conditions under which the land 

 was granted, in 1864, and let the company have the same with- 

 out paying the debt due Massachusetts. 



The senate passed the bill but the house refused to concur, 

 and the measure was lost. In 1869 the matter was again 

 brought before the legislature and the bill giving the lands free 

 of charges, and compelling the state to pay the $280,000 due 

 Massachusetts, passed both branches without a division upon 

 party lines. 



This is the only instance in the history of the state in which 

 she directly aided in building a railroad. 



Governor Dingley stated in his inaugural address of Janu- 

 ary 8, 1874, that the State gave away "not far from 700,000 

 acres of land, valued at more than $300,000." What remained 

 of th-e State's once great and magnificent domain of 8,000,000 

 acres or more was, upon resolve of the legislature sold at public 

 auction. 



The conditions which existed at the time of these sales is 

 given in a condensed and comprehensive manner by Land 

 Agent Parker P. Burleigh in his report of 1873: 



"By the act of March 24, 1864, chapter 401, and the subse- 

 quent act of March 3, 1868, chapter 604, all the timber and 

 lands belonging to the State, situated upon the waters of Penob- 

 scot and St. John rivers," were granted to the European and 

 North American Railway Company, to aid in the construction 

 of its line of railway, except the lands and timber, granted by 

 that or previous legislatures ; also, all lands set apart, and 

 designated for settlement under the existing laws. By resolve 

 of March 21, 1864, chapter 326, the timber upon ten town- 

 ships was appropriated for the permanent school fund, with the 

 right in the State to take it ofif in ten years, the term being 

 afterwards extended until 1884. 



"All the land then belonging to the State upon the Penobscot 

 and St. John rivers, except, only those specially reserved, 

 passed to the Railway Company. This grant embraced about 



