Committee Urges Forfeiting Northern Pacific Railroad Land Grant
A scathing House committee report accuses the Northern Pacific Railroad of failing its contractual obligations while hoarding millions of acres of public domain.
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The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill to forfeit the land grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, have had the matter under consideration. They in their report declare that the road, insofar as it was completed on the 4th day of July, 1879, has been since said date subject to forfeiture, and that justice to the United States and the claimants of the lands to the public domain should be declared by act of Congress. The act of Congress containing the grant to this company was approved July 2, 1864, and the grant itself was in fact the most significant of all the princely donations made in the era of liberality to aid in the construction of railroads. The consideration of this munificent grant was to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores. In round numbers, 10,772,300 acres are by the bill reported conceded to the company, and 47,382,940 acres subject to forfeiture.
“The grant itself was in fact the most significant of all the princely donations made in the era of liberality to aid in the construction of railroads.”
This 1886 report highlights the long-standing tension between the expansion of corporate infrastructure and the rights of public settlers. Today, debates over land use, transit-oriented development, and the obligations of massive corporations to the public good echo these same 19th-century battles over the control of Washington's landscape.
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