proval of
all the parties. The debt was paid by the issue of new bonds, at the
rate of fifty per cent of the principal and interest of the outstanding
ones and the surrender of the latter. This adjustment ended a
transaction that was conceived and executed in folly, and was only
prevented from eventuating in crime by the persistent efforts of our
most honorable and thoughtful citizens throughout the state. The
transaction has often been called by those who advocated repudiation,
"An old Territorial fraud," but there was nothing in it but a bad
bargain, made under the extraordinary pressure of financial
difficulties.

THE FIRST RAILROAD ACTUALLY BUILT.

The state was restored to all the lands and franchises of the various
companies by means of foreclosure, and on March 8, 1861, passed an act
to facilitate the construction of the Minnesota & Pacific Railroad, by
which act the old railroad was rehabilitated, and required to construct
and put in operation its road from St. Paul to St. Anthony on or before
the first day of January, 1862. The company was required to deposit with
the governor $10,000 as an earnest of good faith. Work was soon
commenced, and the first ten miles constructed as required. This was the
first railroad ever built and operated in Minnesota. The first
locomotive engine was brought up the river on a barge, and landed at the
St. Paul end of the track in the latter part of October, 1861. This
pioneer locomotive was called the "William Crooks," after an engineer of
that name who was very active and instrumental in the building of the
road. This first ten miles of road cost more energy and brain work than
all the rest of the vast system that has succeeded it. It was the
initial step in what is now known as the Great Northern Railway, a road
that spans the continent from St. Paul to the Pacific, and reflects upon
its enterprising builders all the credit due to the pioneer.

It was not long before the Northern Pacific Railroad Company was
incorporated by act of congress, passed on July 2, 1864. This road was
to extend from the head of Lake Superior to Puget Sound, on a line north
of the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, with a branch via the
valley of the Columbia river to Portland, Ore. The company had a grant
of land of twenty alternate sections through the states. It was
commenced shortly after its incorporation, but met with financial
disaster, and was sold under foreclosure of a mortgage,