MINNESOTA. 



627 



political departments of tho State, to facilitate 

 t!io object for which tho State government is 

 instituted; but the act of the Legislature of 

 1858 authorized the devoting of the lands to 

 widely different purposes than what the origi- 

 nal tfrant was intended to secure. It endeav- 

 ored to throw off all responsibility of the trust. 

 Tho purchasers were to relieve the State and 

 county from all liability for reclaiming the lands 

 that is, release them from their responsi- 

 bility as trustees of these lands; and this ab- 

 surd form was adopted in the contracts and 

 conveyances that were made. How could the 

 purchaser release the State and county from 

 an obligation imposed by an act of Congress? 

 It is probable, however, that the Legislature 

 meant that the purchaser should indemnify the 

 State and county for their liability ; but how 

 does that better the matter ? Can the public 

 officers of Iowa throw off their trusteeship in 

 this easy manner, by taking the indemnity of 

 private parties against the consequences of their 

 breach of trust? Tho State or county could 

 most certainly sell the lands to purchasers out 

 and out, freed from any lien or trust in relation 

 to the improvements which they were intended 

 to secure ; but the State or county would hold 

 the proceeds of such sales as a fund devoted to 

 the purposes of the grant, although the pur- 

 chasers would not be bound to look to the ap- 

 plication of the purchase-money. The public 

 authorities might even waste or misapply tho 

 fund without any legal remedy to prevent ; but 

 that does not prevent the stamp of illegality 

 from being impressed upon a deliberate scheme 

 of spoliation of the trust fund, conceived in the 

 form of law and carried out with an entire dis- 

 regard of public obligations. 



The valuation of property in the several coun- 

 ties of the State in 1879, according to the local 

 boards of equalization, amounted to $229,791,- 

 042. The returns of personal property by the 

 same boards amounted to $57,193,455 for 1879 

 and $53,665,943 for 1878, showing an increase 

 of $3,527,512. 



The extent of railroad construction in 1878 

 was 375 miles. This was more miles of new 

 road than were opened by any other State dur- 

 ing that year. The number of miles in opera- 

 tion in the State at the close of that year was 

 2,608, all of which has been constructed with- 

 in seventeen years. A narrow-gauge road of 

 three feet was opened from Wabasha to Zum- 

 brota, a distance of 60 miles, during the year, 

 which is the only one in the State. The fol- 

 lowing table shows the comparative business 

 for five years of all the railroads doing business 

 in the State : 



The sales of railroad lands in 1878 were nn- 

 precedentedly large, as shown in the following 

 table compared with preceding years : 



Total sold to December 1, 1878, 2,144,215 

 acres. Total receipts to December 1, 1878, 

 $9,762,258. There was no serious railroad acci- 

 dent on any of the roads during the year. Min- 

 nesota railroads have had a remarkable exemp- 

 tion from railroad disasters, the Brainerd bridge 

 accident, by which five lives were lost, in 1875, 

 being the only serious one in the history of the 

 State. 



A bill was brought before Congress at its 

 early session during the year for the construc- 

 tion of a sluiceway over St. Anthony's Falls in 

 the Mississippi River, and to regulate and pro- 

 vide for the same. It was not enacted. 



An act was passed which grants additional 

 rights tohomestead settlers onpublic lands with- 

 in railroad limits, not only in Minnesota but in 

 other States. It declares that the even sec- 

 tions within the limits of any grant of public 

 lands to any railroad company, or to any mili- 

 tary road company, or to any State in aid of 

 any railroad or military road, shall be open to 

 settlers under the homestead laws to the extent 

 of 160 acres to each settler ; and any person 

 who has, under existing laws, taken a home- 

 stead on any even section within the limits of 

 any railroad or military road land-grant, and 

 who by existing laws shall have been restricted 

 to eighty acres, may enter under the home- 

 stead laws an additional eighty acres adjoin- 

 ing tho land embraced in his original entry, if 

 such additional land be subject to entry ; or if 

 such person so elect, he may surrender his en- 

 try to the United States for cancellation, and 

 thereupon be entitled to enter lands under the 

 homestead laws the same as if the surrendered 

 entry had not been made; and the residence 

 and cultivation of such person upon and of the 

 land embraced in his original entry shall be 

 considered residence and cultivation for the 

 same length of time upon and of the land em- 

 braced in his additional or new entry, and shall 

 be deducted from the five years' residence and 

 cultivation required by law. 



Suits were instituted against about seventy- 

 five persons for trespass upon the Government 

 pine-lands of Minnesota, and about twenty-five 

 other cases were in process of examination by 

 the agents of the Interior Department. The 

 seventy-five cases alluded to were ready for 

 trial at the June term of the United States 

 Court, but the trespassers succeeded in getting 

 a stay of proceedings, which carried over all 

 suits not otherwise disposed of to the Decem- 

 ber term. Ten of these cases involved an ag- 

 gregate stnmpage of about $75,000, mostly if 

 not entirely against the Minneapolis lumber- 



