pay to the United States the proceeds of any land sold, and the remaining land shall revert to the United States. SEC. 6. The United States troops to be transported on the road at prices fixed by Congress. SEC. 7. The same rights and equivalent lands herein conveyed and granted to the States of Alabama and Mississippi respectively, for prolonging the railroad through those States to Mobile. Approved September 30, 1850. The magnificence of such a project as the building of this road, and the facility for its completion offered in the grant of the lands, could not fail to fall within the comprehensive speculation of certain New York gentlemen, and they at once proposed to the Governor of Illinois to take the donated lands and build the road by July, 1854, with a single track, in all respects like the Massachusetts Western Road. The State wisely granted a charter, of which the following is a synopsis: STATE OF ILLINOIS-AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. SECTION 1. Incorporates Robert Schuyler, George Griswold, Governeur Morris, Franklin Haven, David A. Neal, Robert Rantoul, Jonathan Sturges, Thomas W. Ludlow, John F. A. Sanford, Henry Grinnel, Wm. H. Aspinwall, Leroy M. Wiley, and Joseph W. Alsop, under the name of the "Illinois Central Railroad Company." SEC. 2. Empowers the corporation to construct a railroad from the city of Cairo to the southern terminus of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, with a branch thence to Chicago, and another to Galena. SEC. 3. Grants the right of way through the State lands, two hundred feet in width, together with the power to take stone and other materials for construction. SEC. 4. The capital of the company to be $1,000,000, with privilege of increasing it. The capital to be divided into shares of $100 each. SEC. 5. Invests the powers of the company in a board of twelve Directors. SEC. 6. Appoints the twelve persons named in section 1 first board of Di rectors. SEC. 7. The President and Directors empowered to execute all powers herein granted, in relation to the road. SEC. 8. Empowers the company to make by-laws, rules, and regulations. SEC. 12. Every servant of the company to wear a badge upon his cap. SEC. 14. Provides for filing a map of the road and of the lands taken for its use, in the office of the Secretary of State. SEC. 15. Grants to the company the lands and privileges received from Congress by the State, under the Act of September 20, 1850; also, the right of way, lands, grading, and all materials and personal property obtained by the State heretofore for the said road. On the organization of the company, and its formal acceptance of this act of incorporation, and after the payment of 20 per cent of its capital into the hands of the Treasurer of the company, and after the deposit of $300,000 of Illinois State bonds, or $200,000 in specie, or $200,000 in United States 6 per cent stocks, with the Treasurer of the State, to be by him retained in pledge until 50 miles of the road are completed, the Governor, on behalf of the State, to deliver to the company a deed of all the State property belonging to the said road and of all the property granted by the United States in aid of it. The company at the same time to execute a deed of trust to Morris Ketchum, John Moore, and Samuel D. Lockwood, conveying to them all the property con tained in the said deed, and in addition thereto, the railroad to be built, and all the property belonging to it to secure-1. The construction of this road, according to the provisions of this act. 2. The faithful application of the lands according to this act and the act of Congress. 3. The indemnification of the State against any claim of the United States Government. 4. The State lien hereby created; provided, that if 50 miles of road are not built within two years, the funds deposited with the State Treasurer shall become forfeited to the State. The company on its organization shall take possession of all the State property in the road, and shall proceed to construct it, nowhere departing more than seventeen miles from a straight line, between Cairo and the southern termination of the canal. The main road to be put in operation within four years, and the branches within six years, and to be equal in all respects to the Massachusetts Western Railway. The trustees shall hold one-fourth of the lands conveyed, applicable to the exigencies of the company, and to the interest on loans, no portion of this land to be sold until work is actually commenced on the road; and to no greater amount than the actual expenditures on the same. The company may issue its bonds, bearing not more than 7 per cent interest, payable semi-annually, and redeemable at the pleasure of the company, before 1875; the payment of the bonds to be secured by the deed of trust. SEC. 16. On the completion of 50 miles of road, the trustees may proceed to sell the lands, giving complete titles to buyers; all the proceeds to be applied to the bonds. SEC. 17. The trustees not to sell lands to a greater amount than the actual expenditure on the road at the time. SEC. 18. In consideration of these grants, the company to pay semi-annually 5 per cent of the gross income of the road to the State; the first payment in four years from date of trust. SEC. 19. Survey of lands to be at cost of company, and roads to be free for the use of the United States. SEC. 20. In case of the death of any of the trustees, the Governor and the company to fill the vacancies alternately. SEC. 21. The company shall permit side tracks to intersect the road in cities. SEC. 22. The lands held by the company not to be taxed until sold, and other property exempt for six years, and the tax then not to exceed three-fourths of 1 per cent. This tax and the 5 per cent of income not to exceed 7 per cent of the gross income of the company. SEC. 23. All the grants to cease unless accepted within 60 days, and unless work is began before January, 1852. SEC. 24. State to have a prior lien for all penalties, taxes, &c. SEC. 25. Admits occupants of land granted to have pre-emptive right of purchase at $250 per acre. SEC. 26. Confers the rights enumerated upon any other company, enumerated in section 1 do not accept. SEC. 27. This act declared public. Signed, February 10, 1851. in case those On the 22d of March, 1851, the company, through its President, Robert Schuyler, Esq., accepted the act. On the same day the Treasurer of the company, in accordance with its provisions, deposited with the State Treasurer $200,000 in specie. On the 24th, the Governor executed this deed of "all the lands granted by the Government of the United States to the State of Illinois; also the lot of ground obtained by the State of Illinois within the city of Cairo for a depôt; also all the right of way, grading, embank ments, excavations, survey, work, materials, profiles, plates, and papers in anywise appertaining to said railroad and branches." On the same day, March 24, the company executed a deed of trust to Morris Ketchum, John Moore, and Samuel D. Lockwood, of all the above property to secure the objects mentioned in the act above quoted. Congress having donated six sections, of 640 acres each, on each side of the road, it follows that the grant is 3,840 acres per mile. The final location of the road determined its length at 670 miles, consequently the aggregate grant is 2,572,800 acres. For that land patents have been issued from the Land-Office to the company, and under the trust these lands have been appropriated, and classed as follows, to secure construction bonds:— The amount of bonds to be issued not to be over $17,000,000, and the works erected by their expenditure are additional security for their payment. The interest is secured by the interest fund; thus, for twenty-four years the interest on $17,000,000 of bonds will amount to $28,560,000. The earnings of the Michigan Central Railroad, one-third the length of this great Illinois work, are $1,100,000. Under the supposition that this road yields no more, the amount will be $26,400,000. The interest fund will then be: This low estimate is sufficient to show how unquestionable is the investment. The revenues of the Illinois Road will be at least triple those of the Michigan work, the stock of which sells at 116. On the completion of these papers the company issued its bonds, of which $5,000,000 were negotiated in London and 70,000 tons of iron were purchased at a low price, one-half cash and one-half bonds. This iron has since advanced in value equal to one million of dollars. The 50 miles of road, the completion of which dates the right of the company to sell lands, will be completed in January, 1953, and the whole road is being put under contract. In connection with the value of the lands held by the road, we may state that the total quantity of unsold land belonging to the government in Illinois was, as appears by the land table above, at the close of the last fiscal year, 10,243,157 acres. The government had sold 15,832,157 acres, and had received $20,491,177 cash, which was an average of $1 30 per acre. Of the above 10,243,157 unsold acres, 1,608,876 acres, on the line of the Central Railroad, had been under proclamation of sale an average of 15 years, and had found no buyers at the minimum price of the government, viz.: $1 25. Out of that quantity, 10,243,157 acres, the government granted 2,572,000 acres to the Central Railroad, and there remains to it 7,672,157 acres, including one-half of that which had been so long upon the market. At the land sales this fall, those lands were eagerly taken up at $3 a $7 per acre-the average was $5, and it will be borne in mind that the price would have been much higher but for an agreement among settlers not to bid on each other, and also for their combination against speculators. Those lands that so long were neglected by the buyers, were situated, as per Land-Office reports, as follows:-In Kaskaskia District, 23,681 acres, over 30 years on the market; Shawneetown, 401,873 acres, over 30 years: Vandalia, 344,672 acres, over 25 years; in Danville, 372,702 acres, over 20 years; and in Dixon, 465,948 acres, over 10 years. All these lands are within five miles of the great Central Road, and one-half of them now form part of its property. The government land is, as we have said, selling at $5. The government would have been glad to get $2,000,000 for the whole, but it is through the influence of the road getting $4,000,000 for half, in the ratio of $8,000,000 for the whole. No State has suffered more through mismanagement, in times gone by, than this State, which is emphatically the garden of the West--perhaps of the continent. Its position being south of Michigan and Wisconsin, insures to it a better and softer climate, of which the farmer feels practically the benefit, in shortening by a month the season for foddering cattle, and in the security of the corn crop from those frosts which, borne on the winds that sweep the Lakes, so often "kill out" the harvests of the Northern States. The broad and rich prairie lands afford advantages which the settlers in the wooded districts of other States do not appreciate, and which indeed are not brought out fully without the operation of internal works of improvement, which supply all that nature has withheld. It is seldom that any spot of land combines all the gifts of Providence. It is there that she has spread as a lawn the richest lands, charged with more fuel and water than almost any other section. Her streams flow gently through the rich alluvium, and Sir Charles Lyell states:- "There is more good bituminous coal in Illinois than in England, and it is far more easily mined and laid out ready for transit than there." There is an absence of timber, which has been considered by immigrants a drawback. Experience has, however, shown the contrary. Those who have settled the timbered lands of Ohio and Pennsylvania can testify to the weary life-times of labor required to clear those tracts of stumps, and to wrench from the frowning forest the breadth of a good farm for cultivation. In Illinois the matter is different. As an instance :-In the month of April, 1844, a Massachusetts farmer, finding the buz of spindles increase faster than the hum of bees, and the crops that tumbled from railroad cars far more abundant than those in the barns of the section, started for Ogle County, Illinois, and entered upon 700 acres, 590 acres of which was a broad prairie, on which the tall grass waved in uninterrupted billows. As is usual, he immediately, with four yoke of oxen and a breaking plow, turned over the sods, and dropped the corn between them, without further labor. Thirty acres so treated gave him 1,200 bushels of corn in September, when 280 acres was ready for wheat. This gave little more labor. Twenty-six bushels, weighing 66 lbs. per bushel, to the acre. After this wheat was sown the process of fencing in commenced, and within this year 500 acres were fenced in, and 6,000 bushels of wheat, (prime wheat,) and 1,200 bushels of corn, were in the barn! Such is Illinois. From this it will be observed that timber is the great nuisance upon fresh land, beyond what is wanted for posts, rails, and buildings. Now, all the head waters of the Mississippi and the Missouri command limitless timber lands. From the Falls of St. Anthony alone, more timber can be delivered than would supply an empire. That timber rafted to Cairo will supply, over the great Central Road, which runs north 117 miles, then forks and traverses the whole State in two lines, in a convenient form, all the wants of the farmers far cheaper than they could cut it themselves, without leaving a stump in their way. The same railroad which brings their timber carries away their produce. One of the most extensive and intelligent farmers of Illinois, who is also a commission merchant at Toledo, has a farm of 4,000 acres in the interior of Illinois, stocked with 1,500 head of cattle, 2,000 sheep, and 2,500 hogs. He has been accustomed to haul wheat to Springfield, carrying back pine lumber, salt, &c., a distance of 50 miles. His wood he hauled 100 miles, to Terre Haute and Covington, on the Ohio River. The railroad now sweeps by his farm, carrying to him his supplies, and pouring his rich produce into the bosom of Chicago. The produce of that farm alone will give the Central Road a freight of $3,000 per annum. It may be necessary here to describe the connection of this great work with the sea-board. It will be remarked that its southern terminus is Cairo, situated at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and following the sinuosities of that stream, 1,012 miles from New Orleans. The Mobile and Ohio Railroad, however, connects Cairo with Mobile, 470 miles, or about the length of the Erie Railroad of New York. In the United States law, above quoted, grants of land were made in aid of this work, which is all under contract, and will be completed next year. This places Cairo within 600 miles of New Orleans, about half the river distance. The River Illinois drains a large section of its produce, which reaches St. Louis in about 600 arrivals per annum. That produce is transhipped, and seeks New Or leans by steamboat for a market. The Illinois Railroad, by its two immense branches, drains the most fertile and largest portion of the whole State, and concentrating the produce at Cairo, dispatches it over the railroad to a quicker and safer market. From the terminus of the northern branch at Chicago, two great railroads run easterly. These are the Michigan Central and the Michigan Southern Roads. In our number for February, 1850, we, in treating upon the debts of Michigan, described the process by which those two roads came into the hands of private companies. Mr. George Griswold, of New York, and Mr. J. W. Brooks, of Detroit, are the leading proprietors of the great Central Road. Under his charter, quoted in an article for February, 1850, the company completed its line, 227 miles, from Detroit to Michigan City, on the Indiana line. The company then petitioned the Legislature for a law to extend its road from Michigan City, through Indiana, to the Illinois line, 40 miles. This was not granted, and the company formed an arrangement with the New Albany and Salem Railroad, possessed of an old Indiana charter, by which they extended the road. This right was disputed by the great Michigan Southern Road, but the company have abandoned its ground of complaint, and the Michigan Central Road will connect on the Illinois line with the Illinois Central Road. This line will then be prolonged as follows: |