United States v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.

Citations

• 141 U.S. 358
• 12 S. Ct. 13
• 35 L. Ed. 766
• 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2526

Syllabus

<p>■ongress, March 3, 1863, granted to Kansas every alternate section of land,, designated by odd numbers for ten sections in width on each side, in aid of the construction of the following roads and each branch thereof r First, a railroad and telegraph from the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, by the way of Lawrence and the Ohio City crossing of the Osage River, to the Southern line of the. State in the direction of Galveston Bay, in Texas, with a branch from Lawrence by the valley of the Wakarusa. River to the point on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad, where that road intersects the Neosho River; Second, a railroad from the city of Atchison, Kansas, via Topeka, to the western line of that State, in the direction of Fort Union and Santa Fé, New Mexico, with a branch where the latter road crosses the Neosho, down said Neosho Valley to the point where the road, first named, enters the Neosho Valley. The- . act provided that in the case of deficiencies in place limits, it should “ be-the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to cause to be selected, for the purposes aforesaid, from the public lands of the United States hearest to-tiers of sections above specified, so much land, in alternate section's, or parts of sections, designated by odd numbers, as shall be equal to such lands as the United States have sold, reserved or otherwise appropriated, or to which the rights of preemption or homestead settlements have-attached.” The act also provided that the “sections and parts of sections of land which, by such grant, shall remain to the United States, within ten miles on each side of said road and branches ” [that is, the eaere-numbered sections within the place ór granted limits,] “shall not. be sold for less than double the minimum price of the public lands when sold; nor shall any of said lands become subject to sale'at private entry until the same shall have been first offered at public sale to the highest. ■ bidder, at or above the increased minimum price, as