EARLY GENERAL RAILWAY LEGISLATION IN WISCON¬ 
SIN, 1853-1874. 
BALTHASAR H. MEYER, PH. D. 
The railway history of Wisconsin before 1853, together with 
a detailed study of railway charters granted up to that date, 
has been published elsewhere. 1 This paper will present the be¬ 
ginnings of general legislation, leading up to the Potter Law. 
The Potter Law itself as well as subsequent legislation will be 
reserved for later treatment, so that the Hamlet of our play 
will not be introduced to the reader of these paragraphs. The 
Granger movement, too, had better be treated in connection 
with the Potter Law. Contrary to expectations, the material 
on the early periods of Wisconsin railway history accumulated 
in such large quantities that the writer did not find it practi¬ 
cable to attempt to complete the work before publishing these 
preliminary chapters, which, in a measure at least, form a uni¬ 
fied whole. 
I. GENERAL LEGISLATION Ifcj OTHER STATES BEFORE 1853. 2 
No attempt is made here to present a history of general rail¬ 
road legislation in the United States; yet, a cursory glance at 
what had been done in some of the other states will supply us 
with a fitting background for a study of general legislation in 
Wisconsin. 
It is generally true that the states began with special legis¬ 
lation and later drifted into general legislation. The railway 
charters granted by the legislatures of different states are essen¬ 
tially alike, but occasionally we meet provisions which are pe- 
3 Wisconsin Historical Collections , Vol. X. 
2 Based on Private and Local Laws and Public Laws of the various 
states. Poor’s Railroads of the United States , Vol. I, was helpful for 
several states. 
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