en who now cry out loudly against
confiscatory measures. By an act of Congress approved May 12, 1864, the
State of Iowa was granted, for the use and benefit of the McGregor
Western Railroad Company, every alternate section of land designated by
odd numbers for ten sections in width on each side of the proposed road.
The act contained the condition that in the event of the failure of said
McGregor Western Railroad Company to build twenty miles of said road
during each and every year from the date of its acceptance of the grant
the State might resume the grant and so dispose of it as to secure the
completion of the road in question. The McGregor Western Railroad
Company failing to comply with the conditions of the grant, the General
Assembly on the 27th day of February, 1868, resumed the lands and on the
31st day of March of the same year regranted them to the McGregor and
Sioux City Railway Company. The act specially provided that the company
accepting the grant "shall at all times be subject to such rules,
regulations and rates of tariff for the transportation of freight and
passengers as may from time to time be enacted and provided for by the
General Assembly of the State of Iowa, and further subject to the
conditions, limitations, restrictions and provisions contained in this
act and in the acts of Congress granting said lands to the State of
Iowa." It also contained the condition that at least twenty miles of
road should be built by the company every year and that the whole road
should be completed to the intersection of the then proposed railway
from Sioux City to the Minnesota State line by the first day of
December, 1875.

The McGregor and Sioux City Railway Company also failing to comply with
the terms of the grant, the lands were again resumed by the General
Assembly on March 15th, 1876, and regranted to the McGregor and Missouri
River Railroad Company upon the condition that it complete the road to
the intersection of the Sioux City and St. Paul Railroad on or before
the first day of December, 1877.

But the State found itself again disappointed, and two years later the
General Assembly for the third and last time resumed its grant and then
conferred it upon the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company
upon the express conditions that it complete the road to Spencer on or
before the first day of January, 1879, and to Sheldon within a year
thereafter, and that the road should at all times be subject to