Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1874 — A “Reform” Governor in Wisconsin. [ARTICLE]

A “Reform” Governor in Wisconsin.

It is not too strong an expression to say that the Governor of Wisconsin has betrayed the people. That he has done this under the forms of law is only legally, not morally, less reprehensible. Lei us briefly look at the facts. In 1804 Congress granted certain lands to the State of Wisconsin to aid in the construction of a railway from Portage City, Berlin, Doty’s Island, or Fond du Lac, as the State might determine, in a northerly direction to Bayfield and thence to Superior or Lake Superior. It was provided also that whenever twenty consecutive miles of the road should be completed patents should issue, conveying the lands on each side of the road, so far as the same was completed, to the company entitled thereto ; and patents were to issue in like manner; as each twenty miles of said road should be built. It was provided in addition that no patents as above .described should issue until the Goverhor of the State should certify to the Secretary of the Interior that such portion of the road had been built in the manner required by the act- The Legislature of Wisconsin in 1866 granted these lands to the Portage & Superior and the Winnebago & Lake Superior Railway Companies on the terms prescribed. These companies afterward consolidated under the name of the Wisconsin Central Railway Company. There are _ portions of the lands thus granted which are very valuable, while other portions are well-nigh worthless. The act making the grant was rather loosely worded, but the plain intent was to provide for the commencement of the line at Portage City, and thence continue it to its destination, awarding the lands as each consecutive miles was completed. To say that the railway could buila twenty miles of road through the most valuable of the lands, and having obtained these leave the rest of the proposed road unbuilt and the worthless lands unclaimed, would be such a palp able violation of the spirit and intent of the act that the idea of successfully accomplishing such r B trick would be scouted as ridiculous by all honest men; and yet this is precisely what has been accomplished by the Wisconsin Central Railway Company, through the act of the Reform Governor of that State. The railway has built a road through the richest of the lands, and has received the certificate 6f the Governor entitling it to patents therefor, while the

rest of the promised highway remains unbuilt. It was, of course-intended that the grant should give to Wisconsin the whole line of road, and that the advantages should be taken with the disadvantages. But through the assistance of the Governor this intention is thwarted, and the whole design of the act perverted .and abused. What wonder is it that the population of the counties of Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc, Sheboygan, Ripon, Berlin, Portage, and others, who by this act are swindled out of the benefits which the Government intended to bestow upon them, are. thundering their maledictions into the ears of this Gubernatorial of. fender. It may be mentioned that "by the decision of the United States Court, two years ago, it was held that these longed to the State of Wisconsin, and that they were therefore under the control of the Legislature of the State, which had the power to make any additional regulations it might see proper for conveying these lands not inconsistent with the original grant. Under the conditions imposed by Congress and the Legislature, Governor Washburn had refused to give a certificate to the road unless, $s stated in the original grant, it was commenced at Portage City. It is a very important fact that this decision was sustained by the Secretary of the Interior, as it w-as by the people of Wisconsin; and whatever Governor Taylor's views may Tiave been regarding the letter of the law there was ample reason for his following the example of his Republican predecessor, and withholding his certificate until the ques tion could have been decided by the Legislature or the courts. But he has surrendered—surrendered to the railways against whose rapacity innocent Reformers imagined he was to protect them, and has left his motives to be hinted at by some, suspected by others, and denounced by all. When the “ new party,” the socalled “ Reformers,” gained a victory over the Republicans in Wisconsin, we asked the people to watch that State and mark the sequel. The flood of bvil lias come much sooner than we anticipated, but it is no greater or more pronounced than we had reason to expect. And the end is not yet. —Chicago Inter-Ocean.