On the next day (March 3) an act was approved granting to Ohio one-half of two sections along the entire line of a road to be constructed from Sandusky to Columbus.
By an act approved May 23, 1828, a grant of 400,000 acres of “the relinquished lands” in certain counties in Alabama was made in aid of the improvement of the Tennessee and other rivers in that State; and in case that amount of “said relinquished lands” could not be found unappropriated, the necessary quantity could be selected from another section of the State. Provision was made for the sale of the lands, at the minimum price, but in case said lands or the proceeds thereof were applied to any purposes other than that for which they were granted, the grant was to become null and void.
In this grant we find the first provisions for indemnity if the grant was not full by reason of prior sales or disposals by the Government. There, if the lands were not to be found “in place”, selections “in lieu” could be made from another county.
Grants like the one just referred to were made from time to time, differing but little in their character and extent.
By an act approved March 2, 1833, the State of Illinois was authorized to apply the lands granted by the act of March 2, 1827, for canal purposes, to the construction of a railroad instead; and the same restrictive impositions were continued.
This is the first act looking to the construction of a railroad through the assistance of land donations.
The railroad system was then but in its infancy, and the few miles built had been constructed by private means.
It is proper to add, however, that the State did not avail itself of the privilege granted, for it subsequently built a canal.
An act approved March 3, 1835, granted, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of a railroad by a corporation organized in Florida, the right of way through the public lands over which it might pass, thirty feet of land on each side of its line, and the right to take and use the timber for “one hundred yards” on each side for the construction and repair of said road; it was also granted “ten acres of land at the junction of the St. Mark’s and Waculla Rivers”, the point where said road terminated. This was the first right of way grant in favor of railroads, the previous grant having been for a canal.
Following this came an act approved July 2, 1836, granting the right of way “through such portion of the public lands as remain unsold”, not to exceed 80 feet in width, to the New Orleans and Nashville Railroad Company. The first section of that statute required that a description of the route and surveys should be filed in the General Land Office within sixty days after the survey. The second section granted for depots, watering-places, and workshops, essential to the convenient use of the road, certain plats of land, not exceeding five acres in any one spot, nor nearer than fifteen miles to each other.