In conclusion, the questions arising in this case and in Railway-Compensation Case (ante) having already been settled by the decisions of the courts, nothing, as stated, has been left for the Comptroller but to apply to these questions the rulings of the courts as found in the cases cited-which rulings, briefly summed up, are as follow:

First. As to the compensation for transportation-services rendered for the Government on bond-subsidized roads

(1) Only "one-half thereof" can be retained "to be presently applied to the liquidation of the interest paid and to be paid * upon the [subsidy] bonds," unless such bond-subsidized roads are among those named in the act of May 7, 1878:

(2) Then, and in that case, "the whole amount" thereof can be retained, (a) one-half "to be presently applied to the liquidation of the interest paid and to be paid upon the [subsidy] bonds," and (b) the other half "to be turned into the sinking-fund" created by said act of May 7, 1878:

(3) And, while Congress cannot change the charter-contract entered into under the acts of July 1, 1862, and July 2, 1864, either (a) as to the amount to be retained "to be presently applied to the liquidation of the interest paid and to be paid upon the [subsidy] bonds," or (b) as to the sources from which such amount so to be retained and applied is to be derived:

*

(4) Yet it may by legislation on the subject apply the provisions of the sinking-fund act of May 7, 1878, as to retention, in the mode above set forth, to all the bond-subsidized roads alike-as well to those named, as to those not now named, therein: (See Annual Report of the First Comptroller for the fiscal year 1883.)

Second. As to the compensation for transportation services rendered for the Government on non-bond-subsidized roads owned, leased, controlled, or operated by bond-subsidized roads

(1) None, neither the whole nor the half thereof, can be retained, (a) either "to be presently applied to the liquidation of the interest paid and to be paid * * * upon the [subsidy] bonds" or (b) "to be turned into the sinking-fund" created by the act of May 7, 1878.

(2) Yet, as to these roads so owned, leased, controlled, or operated, it is an open question whether Congress may, subject to the restrictions as to changing the charter-contract above mentioned, adopt such legislation as seems most suitable and proper, looking to an extension of the provisions of the sinking-fund act. (See Annual Report of the First Comptroller for the fiscal year 1883.)

Third. As to contracts for transportation services rendered for the Government

(1) Such contracts, (a) when "authorized by law," or (b) when made "in the War" Department (Rev. Stat., 3732), are valid, though there may be no appropriations adequate to their fulfillment.

Fourth. As to a balance certified by the Second Comptroller for transportation-services rendered for the Government

(1) The amount so certified is "conclusive upon the Executive branch of the Government";

(2) But the party entitled by law to payment is to be determined by the authorities, respectively, who (a) grant and (b) countersign the warrant for payment.*

SIR: In reply to the communication of the First Comptroller of the Treasury, dated the 12th instant, and referred to this office for report on the 13th, I have the honor to submit the following, relative to certain railroads embraced in the act of Congress approved May 7, 1878.

The Comptroller particularly desires to be informed as to "what railroad companies have been merged in and consolidated with said Central Pacific Railroad Company" as recited in the preamble of the act above alluded to, "also the miles of road of each, and the miles of road of the Central Pacific proper.”

The Central Pacific Railroad Company, as at present constituted, is a consolidation of the following roads, viz:

CALIFORNIA AND OREGON R. R. Co. Consolidated Jan. 16, 1868, under the name of

and

MARYSVILLE R. R. Co.

CALIFORNIA AND OREGON R. R. Co.

and

YUBA R. R. Co.

SAN FRANCISCO AND ALAMEDA R. R.

Co.
and

SAN FRANCISCO, ALAMEDA AND STOCK-
TON R. R. Co.

WESTERN PACIFIC R. R. Co.

and

SAN FRANCISCO BAY R. R. Co.
CENTRAL PACIFIC R. R. Co.

and

WESTERN PACIFIC R. R. Co.

SAN FRANCISCO AND OAKLAND R. R.

Co.
and

SAN FRANCISCO AND ALAMEDA R. R.
Co.

"California and Oregon R. R. Co."

Consolidated Dec. 18, 1869, under the name of "California and Oregon R. R. Co."

Consolidated Oct. 15, 1868, under the name of "San Francisco and Alameda R. R. Co."

Consolidated Nov. 2, 1869, under the name of "Western Pacific R. R. Co."

Consolidated June 23, 1870, under the name of "Central Pacific R. R. Co."

Consolidated June 29, 1870, under the name of "San Francisco, Oakland and Alameda R. R. Co."

The following portions of the road have received a subsidy in bonds, &c.:

Miles.

Subsidized with

Terminus of Union Pacific to Sacramento

737.50

Bonds and lands.

Terminus of Union Pacific to Ogden, Utah (leased from Union Pacific)
Ogden Station, Utah, to Crossing of Utah Southern Railr'd..

Under the acts of 1862 and 1864, the Central Pacific received bonds on 737.50 miles, and the Western Pacific on 123.16 miles, but owing to the abandonment of a certain portion of the track of the latter road near Brighton, the aided mileage at present is only 121.37 miles.

On January 24, 1880, the Union Pacific Railroad Company, the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company, and the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, formerly the "Union Pacific Railroad Company, Eastern Division," which was the successor of the Leavenworth; Pawnee and Western Railroad Company, were consolidated under the name and title of the "Union Pacific Railway Company" The mileage of each road, separately, is as follows:

Union Pacific

Denver Pacific

Kansas Pacific

Total owned.

The following portions of the road have received a subsidy in bonds:

Miles. 1,042. 4130 106.0000 671. 1000

1, 819. 5130

Bridge Junction, Omaha, Nebr., to Ogden Station, Utah
Ogden Station, Utah, to Junction with Central Pacific (leased and
operated by Central Pacific Railroad Company)
Kansas City, Kansas, to a point between Monument and Gopher
Station

The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company received a subsidy in bonds on 101.77 miles of road, extending from Sioux City, Iowa, to California Junction, Iowa, a distance of 69.75 miles, and from California Junction, Iowa, to Fremont, Nebr., 32.02 miles.

The Central Branch Union Pacific Railroad Company was originally chartered as the Atchison and Pike's Peak Railroad Company, but by a vote of the majority of the stockholders the title was changed as above, to take effect January 1, 1867. It is now operated as a division of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. A subsidy in bonds was granted on 100 miles of road, extending from Atchison, Kans., to Waterville, Kans. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully,

W. H. ARMSTRONG,

Commissioner.

IN THE MATTER OF THE RIGHT OF THE STATE OF NEBRASKA TO RECEIVE FIVE PER CENT. ON THE VALUE AT ONE DOLLAR AND TWENTYFIVE CENTS PER ACRE OF THE ESTIMATED QUANTITY OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS IN THAT STATE PRIOR TO THE EXTINCTION OF THE INDIAN OCCUPANCY, AND SALE BY AUTHORITY OF LAW.-NEBRASKA FIVE PER CENT. CASE.*

1. Quaere. Whether the Secretary of the Interior has any supervisory authority over the Commissioner of the General Land Office in auditing and settling public accounts relative to the public lands? (Rev. Stat. 436.)

2. If so, the decision of the Secretary cannot serve to direct the action or decision of the First Comptroller relative to such accounts.

3. The permanent Indian reservations in Nebraska are not "public lands" within the meaning of the 12th section of the act of April 19, 1864 (13 Stat., 49).

4. In construing a statute, words loosely and unnecessarily used cannot change the true nature of a transaction, nor alter the meaning of other words properly used. 5. The effect of "reference statutes" considered.

*This case is now published because an application was made during the current year by Hon. R. P. Lowe with Sanborn & King, agents of the State of Minnesota for the payment of five per cent. on the value at $1.25 an acre of the permanent Indian eservations in that State. The application was denied.

6. That provision of the act of April 9, 1864 (13 Stat., 49, sec. 13), which provides "that the laws of the United States not locally inapplicable shall have the same force and effect within said State [of Nebraska] as elsewhere within the United States," was intended to provide simply that "within the said State" the rights of persons and the rights of property, as also the forms of judicial procedure should be preserved and followed in the State as prescribed by the laws of the United States. It was not designed to increase grants of lands to the State contained in the section immediately preceding, nor to oblige the Government of the United States to pay money from the Treasury in excess of the specific and limited sums granted by said act.

7. The permanent Indian reservations in Nebraska do not constitute any portion of the territory legally within the boundaries of the State.

8. The State of Nebraska is not entitled to five per centum on the estimated value of $1.25 per acre of the permanent Indian reservations in the State.

NOVEMBER 4, 1875.

I have presented for the action of this office, a report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, allowing to the State of Nebraska, $53,938.33, being five per cent. on the value at $1.25 per acre of the estimated quantity of Indian reservations in that State, and I am embarrassed by the statement in the report of the Commissioner that the claim of the state is allowed "pursuant to decisions of the Secretary of the Interior, of November 9 and December 1, 1874," copies of which accompany the report.

The first question for consideration is, then, what, if any, authority the decision of the Secretary of the Interior has over the action of this office. The Commissioner had previously reported against the claim, and on appeal to him the Secretary of the Interior, in his decision of November 9, after stating his views of the law of the case, says: "I reverse your decision and direct that an account be stated with the State of Nebraska, upon the principles I have above indicated."

By section 9 of the act establishing the General Land Office, 2 Stat., 716, the Commissioner is vested with "power to settle and audit all public accounts relative to the public lands, provided, that it shall be the duty of the said Commissioner, upon the settlement of any such account, to certify the balance, and transmit the account with the vouchers and certificates to the (First) Comptroller of the Treasury for his exami nation and decision thereon." [Rev. Stat., 456.] A subsequent act declares that the decisions of the Comptroller upon audited accounts, duly certified, shall be final and conclusive upon the Executive Departments. [Rev. Stat., 191.] It is, therefore, apparent, that in cases of this nature, the decision of the Secretary cannot serve to direct the action or decision of the Comptroller.

Without following the line of argument presented by those who support the claim of the State, but adopting my own, the views of this office may be stated as follows:

The right of the State to receive moneys from the Treasury of the United States must depend upon a grant of such moneys by act of Congress; for a State has no natural or constitutional claim to such moneys in the absence of legislative grant.

The act of April 19, 1864 (13 Stat., 47), prescribed the boundaries of the State and authorized the inhabitants "to form a constitution and State government," but required a pledge, on the part of the people of the State, that they forever disclaimed all right and title to the unappro priated public lands lying within said Territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States,

and that no taxes should be imposed by the state "on lands or property therein belonging to, or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States."

It will be observed here that both the United States and the State admit that there are lands within the nominal boundaries of the latter, which do not belong to the former, and the effect of this admission may be gathered from the provisions of section 37, of the act 10 Stat., 277, to organize a territorial government, under the protection of which the people who organized the State government entered into and settled the Territory. To the first section there was a proviso, "that nothing in this act contained, shall be construed to impair the rights of person or property now pertaining to the Indians in said Territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to include any territory, which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but all such territory shall be excepted out of the boundaries, and constitute no part of the Territory of Nebraska, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the United States, to be included within the said Territory of Nebraska," and in section 37 of that act, it is declared, that, "all treaties, laws, and other engagements made by the Government of the United States with the Indian tribes inhabiting the Territories embraced within this act, shall be faithfully and rigidly observed, notwithstanding anything contained in this act." The act of 9th of February, 1867 (14 Stat., 391, section 2), admitted the State into the Union, "subject to all the restrictions and conditions" of the act of April 19, 1864, which restrictions and conditions the people of the State had accepted. I assume, therefore, as logically incontrovertible, that the terms of admission having been mutually agreed upon, the State was not subject to any diminution of, nor restrictions upon, the rights and privileges conferred upon her, except by her own assent, and that she was not entitled to any benefits other than those expressed in the Acts of Congress just referred to, unless subsequently granted by like acts. The Act of 1864 contained the following grants of land by the United States to the State from the public domain.

For the support of common schools one eighteenth part of all the public lands in the State; for buildings for legislative and judicial purposes, twenty sections; for a State prison, fifty sections; for a State university, seventy-two sections; and all salt springs, not exceeding twelve, with six sections of land adjoining or contiguous to each, to be used or disposed of at the pleasure of the State.

Section 12 is as follows, viz: "That five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of all public lands lying within said State, which have been or shall be sold by the United States, prior or subsequent to the admission of said State into the Union, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said State for the support of common schools."

This is the only provision in the enabling act authorizing the pay. ment to the State of five per cent., or any other per cent., and this provision limits the allowance to a percentage on "the proceeds of sales of all public lands lying within said State," " after deducting all expenses incident to the same." The Indian reservations were not public lands [School-Fund Case, 2 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., 2d ed., 592, n.], nor did setting them apart constitute sales. They were not only not public lands, but distinctly declared to be the property of the Indians and were not "to be included within the territorial limits of any State or