United States v. St. Paul, M. & M. Ry. Co.

[1] By Act March 3, 1857, c. 99, 11 Stat 195, and Act March 3, 1865, c. 105, 13 Stat. 526 , there was granted to the territory of Minnesota certain public lands for the purpose of aiding in the construction of railroads in that territory. The appellee the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company has succeeded to all the rights and privileges of the territory of Minnesota under the provisions of these acts. At the time the grant was made the Missouri river formed the western boundary of the territory, but soon thereafter the state of Minnesota was admitted into the Union, with its western boundary fixed at a point considerably east of the western boundary of the former territory. In the administration of this land grant the land department held that it was the fixed policy of the government to limit grants in aid of railroads wholly within a *28 state or territory to lands lying- within the same state or territory, and the claim' o.f the railroad company to lands within the limits of the grant, but without the limits of the state of Minnesota, was rejected. In St. Paul, etc., Ry. Co. v. Phelps, 137 U. S. 528 , 11 Sup. Ct. 168, 34 L. Ed. 767 , it was held that the specific…