Appendix to the Congressional Globe: Containing Speeches, Reports, and the Laws of the Second Session Forty-First Congress Page: 392

                                
392
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
[May 27,
Ho. of Reps.
Fifteenth Amendment—Mr. Townsend.
41st Cong....2d Sess.
larly observe this fact; this company is allowed
by the terms of the joint resolution to go a dis-
tance of one hundred and twenty miles to make
up any deficiency in this or former grants. They
will make tip any deficiency where the most
valuable lands are to be found, and upon those
lands the company will fix its own price, which
every man desiring to settle upon them will
have to pay.
There is another fact important to be con-
sidered. In constructing its branch to Puget
sound this company has power to diverge at
any convenient point which it may select upon
its_ m&in line. This branch may start at a
point six hundred or a thousand or fifteen
hundred miles cast of the Pacific ocean. There
is nothing in the resolution to limit the com-
pany in fixing the point at which the branch
shall diverge. For this reason the grant itself
is unlimited, and may embrace seventy-five or
raoro millions of acres. I call the attention
of gentlemen particularly to the provision of
the resolution in this respect. There is no
indication whatever as to the point where the
branch road shall diverge from the main lino
to_ go to Puget sound. The resolution con-
tains no restriction in this respect; and for
the whole extent of that branch, whatever its
length, the company is entitled under this res-
olution to a grant of forty sections per mile
for its construction.
I do not wish to have my position on this
resolution misunderstood. 1 say frankly and
openly that unless we can now insert in it
some restriction, unless we can restrict the
company to the sale of those lands to actual
settlers upon the terms I have designated in
nay amendment, 1 hope the resolution will be
defeated. I think the defeat of the resolution
in any event would conduce to the interests of
the country. I think this grant was too large in
the first place. Tho subsidy oflands made to
this company is far greater than the subsidy of
lands and money combined made to the com-
panies that have already completed a line of
railroad to the Pacific.
Tho highest elevation to bo reached on the
whole line of this road is only a little over five
thousand feet, while on tho road now built the
elevation rises to more than eight thousand
loet above the sea. In the construction of the
road already built all supplies and materials
had to be transported over great distances at
great expense. _ In tho construction of tho
Northern Pacific road the country through
which it is to pass is exceedingly well adapted
lor the cheap construction of a railroad. .Bo-
sides this the region of country through which
it is to be built abounds in coal, iron, and tim-
ber in inexhaustible quantities, thus furnishing
the cheapest possible materials for building the
road.
These lands are valuable; they furnish homes
for settlers. On the opening of the road, if
the land could be purchased by actual settlers
at a low price, they would rush into the coun-
try in great numbers; and these settlers locat-
ing along the line of the road would furnish it
a business which must be immensely profitable.
But the road already constructed runs to a
large extent through an inhospitable wilder-
ness where settlers can never live. The lands
through that region of country are consequently
of no value and can never furnish any business
whatever to the road. Hence I say that this
land subsidy of forty sections to the mile is of
much greater value than the whole subsidy of
lands and money which was given for the con-
struction of the Pacific railroad already built.
I believe the true policy of Congress is to
refuse any further aid to this company. If the
company cannot build the road upon the terms
already defined by existing laws let this grant
lapse ; and when Congress makes another grant
of lands, let it be l'or half the quantity hereto-
fore granted, and give the company the pro-
of the odd-numbered sections, instead
of vesting them with the control of the lands.
I insist, sir, that Congress ought never to de-
part from this rule. Congress ought never to
give to any railroad company or any corpora-
tion whatever the control of a single foot of the
public lands in this country. If railroads must
be aided, let them be aided by the money that
shall be received from the sale to actual settlers
of the odd-numbered sections and within rea-
sonable limits.
The enormity of this grant is seen in the fact
that its own board of directors, as has been
already shown, estimated the grant to be worth
$350,000,000 more than it would cost to con-
struct tho entire road. Such a grant as this is
wholly indefensible upon any principle what-
ever, and I can only do justice to the subject
by saying that it is simply monstrous—a bald,
naked swindle. A grant to a railroad company
of forty sections per mile is simply enormous.
It is a grant that ought never to be made.
Congress owes it to itself and to the poor men
of this country to recover, if it can by honor-
able means, the grant which it has made to
this railroad company. If the company shall
fail to go on and complete the road under the
terms and conditions of the existing law, the
grant will be recovered by operation of law.
Ab yet, so far as I am advised, nothing what-
ever has been done toward its conetruction.
Sir, this country is great in all the elements
that go to make up a powerful nation. It is
great in tho character of its people; it is great
in its sources of wealth. It may aid railroads,
if it will, by money. But, sir, man, with all
his achievements, with all his endowments,
even in this age when he binds oceans together
by railroads, when the telegraph bears his
thoughts as upon the lightning's wing round
the world; man, with all his wisdom, cannot
create one foot of land. Not one foot of laud
has been created since the morning of the first
day. Then let us see to it that the lands we
now have are reserved for the actual settler.
If you wish to aid a railroad company do it by
money, money derived from the sale of these
lands to actual settlera; but do not give them
to be locked up by powerful monopolies.
I trust, Mr. Speaker, that my amendment,
fixing the price at which these lands shall be
sold to actual settlers at $2 60 per acre, pro-
viding that in no case shall they be sold to
other than actual settlers in quantities not
exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to one
person, will bo attached to this resolution. If
this company does not see fit to take the grant
with that condition attached to it, let it refuse
it. If it takes the grant we have the power to
impose this condition. While we may not have
power to impose this condition upon the lands
originally granted to this company as an inde-
pendent proposition, yet if it desires further
legislation, if it desires we shall aid it still fur-
ther in tho construction of this road, we have
the power, and we ought to impose these re-
strictions upon it; and if it takes the grant,
let it take it subject to these conditions.
Fifteenth Amendment.
REMARKS OF HON. W. TOWNSEND,
of pennsylvania,
In tub House of Representatives,
May 27, 1870,
Tho Houso having under consideration tho bill (H.
It. No. 1293) entitled "An act to enforce the right
of citizens of the United Stotes to vote in the sev-
eral States of the "Union, and for other purposes.
Mr. TOWNSEND. Mr. Speaker, the appre-
hension of the gentlemen on the other side of
the House that this bill will perpetuate the pre-
dominance of the Republican party of the coun-
try is, I trust, not without foundation. It is a
bill to secure to all men the rights to which
they are entitled under the fifteenth amend-
ment of the Constitution, and as the persons
who were denied the privilege of the ballot
and eligibility to office before that amendment
was ratified were deprived of that enjoyment by
the Democratic party, it is reasonable to sup-
pose that the newly-enfranchised citizens will
not be likely to support the party that oppressed
them.
The fifteenth amendment gave to the col-
ored race the rightto vote and to hold office; but
as constitutions are but declarations of rights
and duties, and point out the means whereby
those rights and duties may be secured and
enforced, it yet remains necessary that there
should be appropriate legislation to effect the
same. The situation of political affairs at tho
South since tho ratification of that amendment,
as manifested in the obstruction to registra-
tion of .colored voters who are entitled to the
ballot, and the attempts to intimidate them
from voting, show conclusively that some strin-
gent law is necessary to neutralize the deep-
rooted prejudice of the white race there against
the negro, and that the only means of the latter
to secure his dearest privileges are to be found
in national legislation. This security cannot
be obtained through State legislation, for where
the laws are made by an oppressing race they
will not do justice to the oppressed. South-
ern legislation was always hostile to the negro
and still remains so. Southern politicians
and men in power have not yet accepted the
situation of affairs, andhence arises the neces-
sity of enacting this law.
This act provides—
" That all citizons of tho United States who are or
shall bo qualified by law to vote at any election by
tho people in any State, Torritory, district, county,
city, parish, township, school district, municipality,
or other territorial subdivision, shall bo allowed to
voto at all such elections, without distinction of raoo,
color, or previous condition of servitude, any con-
stitution, law, custom, usage, or regulation of any
State or Territory, or by or under its authority, to
tho contrary notwithstanding."
It punishes with fine and imprisonment any
person who shall by force or intimidation pre-
vent any citizen from taking the proper means
to qualify himself to voto. It also provides—
" That if any person shall prevent, hinder, control,
or intimidato, or shall attempt to prevont, hindor,
control, or intimidato any person from exorcising or
in exorcising the right of suffrage, to whom tho right
of suffrago is secured or guarantied by the fifteonth
amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
by moans of bribery, threats, or threats of depriving
such person of employment or occupation, or of
ejecting such person from rented houses, land, or
othor property, or by threats of refusing to renew
leases or contra ots for labor, or by threats of violeneo
to himself or family, such person so offending shall
bo deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on
conviction theroof, be fined not less than $500, or bo
imprisoned not less than one month and not more
than onoyear, or both, at the discretion of the court."
It strikes a deadly blow at the Kuklux Klans
that are continually interfering in a murder-
ous manner with elections, by making it a
penal offense to go disguised to intimidate any
citizen with intent to hinder his free exercise
or enjoyment of any right or privilege granted
or secured to him by the Constitution. It gives
to all persons equal benefit of all laws and pro-
ceedings for the security of person and prop-
erty as fully as is now enjoyed by white persons,
and prevents the unequal taxation of immi-
grants to this country.
To enforce these and other provisions it
gives jurisdiction to tho national courts of
offenses against the act, and provides that the
President shall have power to employ the land
and naval forces when necessary to aid in the
enforcement of judicial process underthe act.
The allegation of gentlemen of the Demo-
cratic party that it is unconstitutional is un-
sound, for it is an act not to annul or destroy
the Constitution, but to preserve and defend
it, and to secure according to its true intent
and meaning the rights ana privileges therein
granted. It cannot engender antagonism be-