not more than three hundred miles from its western terminus; and is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges, and immunities necessary to carry into effect the purposes of this act as herein set forth. The capital stock of said company shall consist of one mil. lion shares of one hundred dollars each, which shall in all respects be deemed personal property, and shall be transferable in such manner as the by-laws of said corporation shall provide. The persons herein before named are hereby appointed commissioners, and shall be called the board of commissioners of the "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," and fifteen shall constitu[t]e a quorum for the transaction of business. The first meeting of said board of commissioners shall be held at the Melodion hall, in the city of Boston, at such time as any five commissioners herein named from. Massachusetts shall appoint, not more than three months after the passage of this act, notice of which shall be given by them to the other commissioners by publishing said notice in at least one daily newspaper in the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Chicago, once a week at least four weeks previous to the day of meeting. Said board shall organize by the choice from its number of a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer, and they shall require from said treasurer such bonds as may be deemed proper, and may from time to time increase the amount thereof as they may deem proper. The secretary shall be sworn to the faithful performance of his duties, and such oath shall be entered upon the records of the company, signed by him, and the oath verified thereon. The president and secretary of said board shall be in like manner call all other meetings, naming the time and place thereof. It shall be the duty of said board of commissioners to open books, or cause books to be opened, at such times and in such principal cities, or other places in the United States, as they, a quorum of them, shall determine, within six months after the passage of this act, to receive subscriptions to the capital stock of said corporation, and a cash payment of ten per centum on all subscriptions and to receipt therefor. So soon as twenty thousand shares shall in good faith be subscribed for, and ten dollars per share actually paid into the treasury of the company, the said president and secretary of said board of commissioners shall appoint a time and place for the first meeting of the subscribers to the stock of said company, and shall give notice thereof in at least one newspaper in each state in which subscription books have been opened, at least fifteen days previous to to the day of meeting, and such subscribers as shall attend the meeting so called, either in person or by lawful proxy, then and there shall elect by ballot thirteen directors for said corporation; and in such election each share of said capital stock shall entitle the owner thereof to one vote. The president and secretary of the board of commissioners, and, in case of their absence or inability, any two of the officers of said board shall act as inspectors of said election, and shall certify, un

der their hands, the names of the directors elected at said meeting; and the said commissioners, treasurer and secretary shall then deliver over to said directors all the properties, subscription books and other books in their possession, and thereupon the duties of said commissioners, and the officers previously appointed by them, shall cease and determine forever, and thereafter the stockholders shall constitute said body politic and corporate. Annual meetings of the stockholders of the said corporation for the choice of officers (when they are to be chosen) and for the transaction of business, shall be holden at such time and place and upon such notice as may be prescribed in the by-laws.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the right of way through the public lands be, and the same is hereby, granted to said "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," ts successors and assigns, for the construction of a railroad and telegraph as proposed; and the right, power and authority is hereby given to said corporation to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, materials of earth, stone, timber, and so forth, for the construction thereof. Said way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad where it may pass through the public domain, including all necessary ground for station buildings, workshops, depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn-tables and water stations; and the right of way shall be exempt from taxation within the territories of the United States. The United States shall extinguish, as rapidly as may be consistent with the public policy and the welfare of the said Indians, the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act, and acquired in the donation to the [road] named in this bill.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there be, and hereby is, granted to the "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," its successors and assigns, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line to the Pacific coast, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores over the route of said line of railway, every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile, on each side of said railroad line, as said company may adopt, through the territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections of land per mile on each side of said railroad, whenever it passes <through any state, and whenever on the line thereof, the United States have full title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwise appropriated, and free from pre-emption or other claims or rights at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed, and a plat thereof filed in the office of the commissiner of the general land office; and whenever, prior to said time, any of said sections or parts of sections shall have been granted, sold, reserved, occupied by home

stead settlers, or pre-empted, or otherwise disposed of, other lands shall be selected by said company in lieu thereof, under the direction of the secretary of the interior in alternate sections and designated by odd numbers, not more than than ten miles beyond the limits of said alternate sections: Provided, That if said route shall be found upon the line of any other railroad route to aid in the construction of which lands have been heretofore granted by the United States, as far as the routes are upon the same general line, the amount of land heretofore granted shall be deducted from the amount granted by this act: Provided further, That the railroad company rceeiving the previous grant of land may assign their interest to said "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," or may consolidate, confederate, and associate with said company upon the terms named in the first section of this act: Provided, further, That all mineral lands be, and the same are hereby, excluded from the operations of this act, and in lieu thereof a like quantitity of unoccupied and unappropriated agricultural lands, in odd numbered sections, nearest to the line of said road may be selected as above provided: And provided further, That the word "mineral," when it occurs in this act, shall not be held to include iron or coal: And provided further, That no money shall be drawn from the treasury of the United States to aid in the construction of the said "Northern Pacific Railroad."

SEC. 4.

And be it further enacted, That whenever said. "Northern Pacific Railroad Company" shall have twenty-five consecutive miles of any portion of said railroad and telegraph line ready for the service contemplated, the president of the United States shall appoint three commissioners to examine the same, and if it shall appear that twenty-five consecutive miles of said road. and telegraph line have been completed in a good, substantial, and workmanlike manner, as in all other respects required by this act, the commissioners shall so report to the president of the United States and patents of lands, as aforesaid, shall be issued to said. company, confirming to said company the right and title to said lands, situated opposite to, and coterminous with, said completed. section of said road; and, from time to time, whenever twenty-five additional consecutive miles shall have been constructed, completed and in readiness as aforesaid, and verified by said commissioners to the president of the United States, then patents shall be issued to said company conveying the additional sections of land as aforesaid, and so on as fast as every twenty-five miles of said road is completed as aforesaid: Provided, That not more than ten sections of land per mile, as said road shall be completed, shall be conveyed to said company for all thst part of said railroad lying east of the western boundary of the state of Minnesota, until the whole of said railroad shall be finished and in good rnnning order, as a first-class railroad from the place of beginning on Lake Superior to the western boundary of Minnesota: Provided also, That lands.

shall not be granted under the provisions of this act on account of any railroad or part thereof constructed at the date of the passage of this act.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That said "Northern Pacific Railroad shall be constructed in a substantial and workmanlike manner, with all the necessary draws, culverts, bridges, viaducts, crossings, turnouts, stations, and watering places, and all other appurtenances, including furniture and rolling stock, equal in all respects to railroads of the first class, when prepared for business, with rails of the best quality, manufactured from American iron. And a uniform gauge shall be established throughout the entire length of the road. And there shall be constructed a telegraph line of the most substantial and improved description, to be operated along the entire line: Provided, That the said company shall not charge the government higher rates than they do individuals for like transportation and telegraphic service. And it shall be the duty of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to permit any other railroad which shall be authorized to be built by the United States, or by the legislature of any territory or state in which the same may be situated, to form running connections with it on fair and equitable terms.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the president of the United States shall cause the lands to be surveyed for forty miles in width on both sides of the entire line of said road, after the general route shall be fixed, and as fast as may be required by the construction of said railroad; and the odd sections of land hereby granted shall not be liable to sale, or entry, or pre-emption before or after they are surveyed, except by said company as provided in this act; but the provisions of the act of September, eighteen hundred and forty-one, granting pre-emption rights, and the acts amendatory thereof, and of the act entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," approved May twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, shall be, and the same are hereby, extended to all other lands on the line of said road, when surveyed, excepting those hereby granted to said company. And the reserved alternate sections shall not be sold by the government at a price less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre when offered for sale.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the said "Northern Pacific Railroad Company" be, and is hereby authorized and empowered to enter upon, purchase, take, and hold any lands or premises that may be necessary and proper for the construction and working of said 1oad, not exceeding in width two hundred feet on each side of the line of its railroad, unless a greater width be required for the purpose of excavation or embankment; and also any lands or premises that may be necessary and proper for turnouts, standing places for cars, depots, station houses, or any other

structures required in the construction and working of said road. And the said company shall have the right to cut and remove trees and other material that might, by falling, encumber its road-bed, though standing or being more than two hundred feet from the line of said road. And in case the owner of such lands or premises and the said company cannot agree as to the value of premises. taken, or to be taken, for the use of said road, the value thereof shall be determined by the appraisal of three disinterested commissioners, who may be appointed, upon application of either party, to any court of record in any of the territories in which the lands or premises to be taken lie; and said commissioners, in their assessment of damages, shall appraise such premises at what would have been the value thereof if the road had not been built. And upon return into court of such appraisement, and upon the payment into the same of the estimated value of the premises taken for the use and benefit of the owner thereof, said premises shall be deemed to be taken by said company, which shall thereby acquire full title to the same for the purposes aforesaid. And either party feeling aggrieved at said appraisement may, within thirty days after the same has been returned into court, file an appeal therefrom, and demand a jury of twelve men to estimate the damage sustained; but such appeal shall not interfere with the rights of said company to enter upon the premises taken, or to do any act necessary and proper in the construction of its road. And said party appealing shall give bonds, with sufficient surety or sureties, for the payment of any cost that may arise upon such appeal; and in case the party appealing does not obtain a verdict, increasing or diminishing, as the case may be, the award of the commissioners, such party shall pay the whole cost incurred by the appellee as well as his own, and the payment into court, for the use of the owner of said premises taken, of a sum equal to that finally awarded, shall be held to vest in said company the title of said land, and of the right to use and occupy ihe same for the construction, maintenance and operation of said road. And in case any of the lands to be taken, as aforesaid, shall be held by any infant, femme covert, non compos, insane person, or other persons residing without the territory within which. the lands to be taken lie, or persons subjected to any legal disability, the court may appoint a guardian for any party under any disqualification, to appear in proper person, who shall give bonds, with sufficient surety or sureties, for the proper and faithful execution of his trust, and who may represent in court the persou disqualified, as aforesaid, from appearing, when the same proceedings shall be had in reference to the appraisement of the premises to be taken for the use of said company, and with the same effect as has been already described; and the title of the company to the lands taken by virtue of this act shall not be affected or impaired by reason of any failure by any guardian to discharge faithfully his trust.