LAND GRANTS IN AID OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 181 
latter could not, on any contingency, be selected within that limit. * * * 
It would be strange, indeed, if the [indemnity] clause had been intended to 
perform the office of making a new grant within the ten mile limit, or 
enlarging the one already made. Instead of this, the words employed 
show clearly that its only purpose is to give sections beyond that limit for 
those lost within it by the action of the government between the date of 
the grant and the location of the road. This construction gives effect to 
the whole statute, and makes each part consistent with the other.” 
If it be thought, however, that such was not the intention of the legis- 
lators who framed the statutes, consolation can be found in the construction 
given to the clause inserted in every grant, substantially as follows: ‘And 
the said road shall remain a public highway for the use of the Government, 
free from toll or other charge upon the transportation of troops or other 
property of the United States.” 
It is declared by the Supreme Court that the purpose of that clause 
was to allow the Government the right to place its locomotive engines and 
cars upon the railroad tracks, and- to use such tracks as a public highway. 
The court say: ‘We are of opinion that the reservation in question secures 
to the Government only a free use of the railroads concerned; and that it 
does not entitle the Government to have troops or property transported by 
the companies over their respective roads free of charge for transporting 
the same.” 
The section providing for the disposal of the lands, recited in full in 
the Missouri grant of 1852, has been construed as vesting in the State the 
right to sell one hundred and twenty sections of land, contained within a 
continuous length of twenty miles at any place along the grant, even though 
the road contemplated was never built; and the title acquired by purchase 
from the State is valid. And the clause with which the section referred to 
ends, to the effect that if the road be not completed within a certain time 
the lands shall revert to the United States, has been declared inoperative 
without further action by the Government, either legislative or judicial, 
looking to an enforcement of the reserved right. 
Fears have been awakened as to the power to ultimately control 
these corporations, on account of the enormous extent to which they have 
