LAND GRANTS IN AID OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. ito 
direction of Lake Superior, ‘“‘every alternate section of land designated by 
odd numbers for six sections in width on each side of said road within said 
Territory”; but in case it should appear that the United States had, when 
the line of the road was definitely fixed, sold any section or any part 
thereof granted, or that the right of preémption had attached to the same, 
then it should be lawful for any agent or agents to be appointed by the 
governor of said Territory, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the 
Interior, to select lands from alternate sections within fifteen miles of the 
road to make up the deficiency. The lands granted were to be applied to 
the construction of the road only. Section 2 increased the price of the 
“reserved” tracts. 
Section 3 provided that the lands should be disposed of by the legis- 
lature for the purposes aforesaid and were not to inure to the benefit of any 
company then constituted or organized. The road was to remain a high- 
way, as in previous grants; and the lands could not be sold until they had 
first been “offered” at the increased price. 
3y section 4 no title was to vest in said Territory or patent issue for 
any part of the lands until a continuous length of twenty miles of said road 
had been completed; and when the Secretary of the Interior was satisfied 
that any twenty continuous miles of said road had been completed, then 
patent was to issue for a quantity not exceeding one hundred and twenty 
sections of land; and so on from time to time until the road was completed. 
If the road was not completed within ten years no further sales could be 
made, and the lands remaining unsold were to revert. 
By an act approved August 4, 1854, the act of June 29, 1854, was 
repealed; and although four grants have been declared forfeited, for failure 
of the grantees to perform the required conditions, this is the only one 
which Congress has in terms repealed. 
It is to be regretted that subsequent legislation was not as devoid of 
ambiguity. Had it been, much embarrassment might have been saved the 
Government. I refer particularly to that clause or section respecting the 
vesting of title and the manner in which the State was to acquire rights 
under the grant. By the terms thereof no patents were to issue except as 
the work of building the road progresse d. 
