Speech #490070390

Would any man now undertake to grant these great concessions to a railroad company to build a railroad in the State of Ohio with its millions of population? And that is what the argument of those who deny this forfeiture means. The country of that grant has now become largely settled. its lands have risen from being worthless to being worth from four to five dollars an acre. in many places $10 an acre. and will any man deny the statement that the conditions upon which the grant was made. the conditions of public policy for which it was made. are not the same now as they were when this country was a wilderness. namely. that the public policy to be served is not the construction of a road after the settlement of the country. after immigration has made the country populous and the land valuable. but that it was to be done before that time. and that for this reason the time for its performance was limited. The argument in all such cases is that there are certain grounds and purposes of public policy to be attained. and when the country has attained them you can not say that the public policy which dictated the original act now justifies or requires it when there is a totally different condition of things. when the country has become settled. and settled at a period of time beyond that fixed for the completion of the road. But.