306 
Sanborn—Railroad Land Grants. 
RAILROAD LAND GRANTS. 
JOHN BELL SANBORN, L. M. 
The act of September 20, 1850, granting lands for the Illinois 
Central and the Mobile and Ohio railroads, marked an import¬ 
ant epoch in the history of our public domain, being the first 
of a series of laws whereby some 155 million acres were granted, 
directly or indirectly, to railroads. 1 It has been customary to 
date the history of railroad land grants from the passage of this 
act. However, for some twelve years previous the question had 
received considerable attention in Congress. 
The first, and for 17 years the only, land grant law was an 
act of March 2, 1833, 2 by which the grant for the Michigan and 
Illinois canal was transferred to the aid of a railroad. But this 
was never utilized 3 and has little bearing on the subsequent 
legislation, although made on the same principle as later grants. 
The first serious attempt to secure lands for a railroad was 
made in 1838. At that time a bill granting lands to the Mount 
Carmel and New Albany Railroad company was favorably re¬ 
ported in the Senate. 4 The bill was supported by the argument 
which was to become classical in such discussions — that it 
Donaldson, Public Domain, p. 273. 
2 4 Statutes at Large, p. 662. 
3 Donaldson, p. 261. 
4 Senate Documents , 2nd Bess., 25th Cong., No. 203. New Albany was 
at the falls of the Ohio river and Mount Carmel at those of the Wabash. 
With the proposed railroads in Illinois the low water of the Ohio would be 
avoided and an outlet to the Mississippi secured for the products of Ohio, 
Indiana, and Kentucky. See “ Report of committee and memorial of cit¬ 
izens of New Orleans,” Sen. Docs., 3rd Se3s., 25th Cong., No. 49. For 
the Illinois internal improvement scheme of 1837, see Moses, Illinois, 
Historical and Statistical, I, 411. 
