by John Marshall Harlan

“ The result of a premature withdrawal on uncertain basis would be unjust to the pioneer settler, detrimental to the public interests in arresting the progress of settlement and disposal in that direction of the public domain, and to that extent checking the growth and prosperity of our frontier, and that, too, in the vicinity of a colonial dependence of a powerful nation ”

“ Whenever the companies, or either of them, had 20 or more consecutive miles of any portion of the railroad and telegraph line ready for service, it became the duty of the President to appoint three commissioners to examine the same, and when it appeared that 20 consecutive miles of railroad and telegraph had been completed and equipped in all respects as required, the commissioners were to report the fact under oath to the President, whereupon patents were to issue for the lands granted, to the extent of and conterminous with the completed section of the railroad and telegraph line ”

“ By an act approved July 25th, 1866, Congress authorized the California & Oregon Railroad Company, a California corporation, and such company as the legislature of Oregon should thereafter designate, to lay out, locate, construct, finish, and maintain a railroad and telegraph line between Portland, Oregon, and the Central Pacific Railroad in California ”

“ In case the companies failed to comply with the terms and conditions required by not filing their assent thereto as provided in § 6 of the act, or by not completing the same as provided in that section, the act was to be null and void, and all the lands not conveyed by patent to the company or companies, as the case might be, at the date of such failure, should revert to the United States ”

“ By other sections of the act it was provided: § 6. 'That the President of the United States shall cause the lands to be surveyed for 40 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 ”