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38th Congress, 1st Session SENATE Ex. Doc. No. 27
MESSAGE
OF THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
COMMUNICATING,
In answer to a resolution of the 1st Instant, a report of the Secretary
of the
Interior, relating to the point of commencement of the Pacific railroad,
together with an executive order fixing the point of commencement of the
branch road on the western boundary of Iowa.
March 11, 1864.—Referred to the committee on the Pacific Railroad and ordered to be printed.
To the Senate of the United States:
In
compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, respecting
the points of commencement of the Union Pacific railroad on the one hundredth
degree of west longitude, and of the branch road from the western boundary
of Iowa to the said one hundredth degree of longitude, I transmit the accompanying
report from the Secretary of the Interior, containing the information
called for.
I
deem it proper to add, that on the 17th day of November last, an executive
order was made upon this subject and delivered to the vice-president
of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which fixed the point on the western
boundary of the State of Iowa, from which the company should construct
their branch road to the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and declared
it to be within the limits of the township, in Iowa, opposite the town
of Omaha, in Nebraska. Since then the company has represented to me that,
upon actual surveys made, it has determined upon the precise point of departure
of their said branch road from the Missouri river, and located the same
as described in the accompanying report of the Secretary of the Interior,
which point is within the limits designated in the order of November last;
and inasmuch as that order is not of record in any of the executive departments,
and the company having desired a more definite one, I have made the order,
of which a copy is herewith, and caused the same to be filed in the Department
of the Interior.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 9, 1864.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, March 8, 1864.
SIR: I have the honor to return herewith the Senate resolution of the 1st instant, which you referred to me for report, in the following words, viz:
"Resolved, That the President of the United States is hereby requested, if not inconsistent with the public interest, to inform the Senate whether he has, as authorized by the 5th section of the act incorporating the Union Pacific Railroad Company, fixed the point of commencement of said road on the one hundredth degree of west longitude; and if so to set forth a description of said point, and to furnish like information touching the point of commencement on the Western boundary of Iowa of the branch road from that point to the said one hundredth degree of longitude, authorized by the 14th section of said act."
In obedience to your direction, I have to state that the point of commencement of said road on the one hundredth degree of west longitude has not yet been fixed.
The point fixed for the commencement, on the western boundary of Iowa, of the branch road, thence to the said one hundredth degree of west longitude, authorized by the 14th section of the act, was fixed by an executive order of the 7th instant, a copy of which is herewith submitted, and is therein described as “east of, and opposite to, the east line of section 10, in township 15 north, of range 13 east, of the sixth principal meridian, in the Territory of Nebraska."
l have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,
J. P. USHER,
Secretary of the Interior.
The PRESIDENT of the United States.
In pursuance of the provisions of section 14 of the act of Congress
entitled "An act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph
line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the
government the use of the same for postal, military, 
and other purposes,"
approved July 1, 1862, authorizing and directing the President of the United
States to fix the point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa, from
which the Union Pacific Railroad Company is by said section authorized
and required to construct a single line of railroad and telegraph upon
the most direct and practicable route, subject to the approval of the President
of the United States, so as to form a connexion with the lines of said
company at some point on the one hundredth meridian of longitude in said
section named, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do,
upon the application of the said company, designate and establish such
first above-named point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa, east
of, and opposite to, the east line of section 10, in township 15 north,
of range 13 east, of the sixth principal meridian, in the Territory of
Nebraska.
Done at the city of Washington this seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Courtesy of the Bruce C. Cooper Collection.
Advertisement for Abraham Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois Law Practice from the
Daily Illinois State Journal newspaper, Springfield, 1859. Courtesy Timothy
Hughes
Rare Newspapers. Lincoln was a railroad
lawyer in a landmark case establishing a railroad's right to bridge
a navigable river.
