Republican Vindicator

Mr. Letcher and the Minnesota Fraud.

It will be remembered by our readers that a bill passed Congress at its last session granting lands to the Territory of Minnesota for the benefit of any railroad whose companies might be or had been "chartered or organized." The Clerk, in transcribing the bill, at the suggestion of several land pirates, changed the word "or" to "and." It so happened that no company but the Northwestern Railroad Company was "chartered and organized." With the "or" in the bill, the lands were placed in the hands and under the control of the territorial government. With the "and" in the bill, the lands came into the possession of the Northwestern Company, to the exclusion of all others which might be formed. And thus the Company, which had been empowered by the Territorial Legislature to construct this road, would have received the benefit of the appropriation of the equivalent of about five million of dollars, the Territory not even to be considered as a stock holder, or entitled to dividends.

The fraud was discovered and exposed. The act granting the land was repealed. In consideration of the contemplated robbery by this Company, and the character of the charter granted by the Legislature, under which they operate, Mr. Letcher, in order to quash the whole affair, has, with his usual watchfulness, and apt insight into such political leprosy, proposed the following remedy:

Mr. Letcher, by unanimous consent introduced the following resolution, which was considered, and agreed to:

Whereas, the law authorizing the Territory of Minnesota, in the last clause of section six, in the following terms viz: "All laws passed by the Legislative Assembly and Governor, shall be submitted to the Congress of the United States and, if disapproved of shall be null and of no effect," reserves to Congress the right of revising and disapproving all laws passed by said Territorial Legislature: Therefore,

Resolved, That the acts of said Territorial Legislature as certified to this body, be referred to the com. on the Judiciary, and that said committee inquire into the propriety of declaring the act chartering the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company "null and of no effect," and that they make report to this House of their action in the premises.