214 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (LAND-GBANT RAILEOADS.) 



bill will be utterly useless. I hope it will be of 

 some use. I hope it may serve the purpose of 

 announcing to the country that the Congress 

 of the United States recognizes the injustice 

 of longer pursuing a course which invites popu- 

 lations less than the ratio of representation 

 for one member upon this floor to balance and 

 control and negative, it may be, the policy of 

 this great Union, if not in this at least in the 

 other end of the Capitol. We have gone too 

 far already in administering the Government 

 in this particular ; too far in denying the vast 

 populations and vast interests of the great 

 States their just influence and their equal share 

 in proportion to their population. They should 

 have an influence in this Government as far as 

 possible under the Constitution equal to their 

 population and importance. 



"I think, sir, it is time to recognize in Con- 

 gress, and to announce it from the Congress of 

 the United States, that it is to be the policy of 

 the country, at least so far as this particular 

 Congress is concerned, that the great popula- 

 tions of the great States are not to be over- 

 ridden and their just influence denied by ad- 

 mitting States on the frontiers with one Rep- 

 resentative on this floor and two in the Senate, 

 when they have scarcely population enough to 

 make a respectable town in one of the older 

 States. Look for a moment at the influence of 

 these States in the other end of the Capitol as 

 to the treaty-making power, and the power in- 

 tended to be a portion of the appointing power 

 of the Executive. I regret to say they have 

 arrogated to themselves the power of con- 

 trolling the executive funciions and action of 

 this Government. 



" The bill can do no harm in giving this no- 

 tice to the Territories of the country. It simply 

 says to them, ' You will not be admitted here 

 as a State until, according to the judgment of 

 Congress, you have a population sufficient to 

 entitle you to one Representative on this floor.' 

 To my mind any other course is monstrously 

 unjust to the older States of the Union. I be- 

 lieve in the moral effect of the bill, and I would 

 pass it if for no other purpose than to give that 

 notice to the country. 1 " 



The bill was tabled by a vote of 109 yeas to 

 15 nays. 



Clearance - Fees of Domestic Vessels. In the 

 House, June 20, a bill to amend sections 4381 

 and 4382 of the Revised Statutes of the United 

 States, relative to fees levied and collected from 

 the owners and masters of vessels in domestic 

 commerce, was brought forward and passed. 

 It is as follows: 



Be it enacted, etc., That paragraphs numbered 6 aijd 

 pectively. ,,f section numbered 4381, be and the 

 same are hereby severally amended so aa to read as 

 follows : 



"Sixth. For porti tying manifests and granting a 

 permit for a licensed vessel to proceed from district to 

 district, ton < 



" Seventh. For receiving a certified manifest and 

 planting a permit on the arrival of such licensed ves- 

 sel, ten cents." 



SEO. 2. That paragraphs numbered 6 and 8 respect- 



ively, of section numbered 4382 of the Eevised Stat- 

 utes of the United States, be and the same are hereby 

 severally amended so as to read as follows : 



" Sixth. For certifying manifest, including master's 

 oath, and granting permit for vessel to go from dis- 

 trict to district, ten cents. 



" Eighth. For receiving manifest, including mas- 

 ter's oath, on arrival of a vessel from one collection 

 district to another, whether touching at foreign inter- 

 mediate ports or not, ten cents." 



SEC. 3. That paragraphs numbered 7 and 9, re- 

 spectively, of section 4382 of the Eevised Statutes 

 of the United States, be and the same are hereby re- 

 pealed. 



Its purpose was explained by Mr. Maybury, 

 of Michigan, who said : 



"The bill just read was reported from the 

 Committee on Commerce as a substitute for a 

 bill introduced by myself. The report of the 

 committee is unanimous. The bill is also rec- 

 ommended by the Secretary of the Treasury, 

 whose letter accompanies the report. 



"The object of the bill is that the clearance- 

 fees of vessels navigating the lakes of the North- 

 west, and also vessels engaged in the coasting- 

 trade, shall be reduced from fifty or twenty-five 

 cents, according to the tonnage, to ten cents. 

 Under the present system, which was inaugu- 

 rated in the early years of the war, and was 

 made a source of revenue, vessels navigating 

 the rivers and lakes of the Northwest are 

 obliged to pay entrance and clearance fees of 

 twenty-five to fifty cents, according to their 

 tonnage. Under this system a vessel plying 

 upon our rivers fro"m one district to another is 

 obliged to pay these clearance-fees, which, in 

 the case of excursion-boats, amount to five or 

 six or even as high as ten dollars for a single 

 trip along the river and lakes. 



" This is an oppressive imposition upon com- 

 merce, and the Secretary of the Treasury, to 

 whom the matter was submitted, says in his 

 letter that there is no reason in the world why 

 this imposition should be kept up ; that the 

 object of clearance is simply to keep track of 

 the tonnage and the passenger-list, and that 

 this can be accomplished as well by a fee of ten 

 cents as by a fee of fifty cents." 



The bill passed the Senate July 3, and was 

 approved by the President July 7. 



Land-Grant Railroads. Various bills forfeit- 

 ing land grants were considered. In the House 

 a bill was passed January 31, entitled "An 

 act declaring forfeited certain grants of land 

 made to certain States in aid of the construc- 

 tion of railroads." The grants aimed at were 

 made by the acts of Aug. 11, 1856, June 3, 1856, 

 and March 3, 1857, and others of the same era, 

 to Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisi- 

 ana, to aid in the construction of certain State 

 and interstate railways. The Senate took no 

 action on the measure. The same day an act 

 was passed by the House declaring forfeited 

 all unearned lands granted to the Texas Pacific 

 Railroad by the act of March 3, 1871, and acts 

 amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto. 

 The vote was 260 to 1 in favor of the measure ; 

 but the Senate did not take it up. June 4, the 



