State Gazette Appendix. (Austin, Tex.), No. 54, Ed. 1, Wednesday, July 9, 1856 Page: 3 of 16
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1856.
LEGISLATIVE- PROCEEDINGS.
8?
Mr. Scott of Harrison said The bill
now pending before the Senate is oue I had
the honor to introduce in the early part of
this Session last winter to ninend the Texas
Western Railroad Charter. The amend-
ments proposed in this bill arc simple in
their provisions easily understood and do
not propose to increase in any material
manner the franchise granted in the original
charter. The reasons prompting the com-
pany to ask these amendments to be made
were pretty fully explained to this Senate at
the time it was before this body last winter;
but as the Executive has seen proper to
return it to the Legislature for reconsidera-
tion together with his objections thereto it
will be necessary for me to recapitulate much
that was said on that occasion in order to
refute these objections of the Executive and
to place the subject in it- proper light before !
this body. .
The h'rst amendment proposes to change
the name of this company from Texas '
Western Railroad company to that of South-1
ern Pacific Railroad company. To this
amendment however the Executive makes j
no objection. The second section of the I
amendment proposes that this
uuiuj oe renevea irom tne duty ot laying
down the ten miles of iron which under
the existing charter is required to bo done
by'the 16th February 1857 to the 16th
February 1858. The reasons for making
this extension of time for laying down the
iron of the load are these : At the time
this charter was granted to this
and at the time of the
mencini
company
company s corn-
operations on this road it was
expected that they would be able to make
connection with the Louisiana railroad at
the Eastern boundary of the State which
was then in course of construction and with-
out said connection we could not get the
iron for our road without hauling over land I
for a considerable distance and at large
expense. Unless this requirement of the
charter is removed this company will be
compelled to forfeit a portion of the benefits
of the road or be forced to an expense of '
near forty thousand dollars in transporting
the iron for the first section of ten miles of j
road in order to save the rights of the
charter. The company believe that such J
relief will not result in any injury to the '
State or to any individual in the State.
And beside this a railroad hero would be
utterly worthless if completed unless it
had some connection cither with another 'j
railroad or with some navigable river This
relief then will work no hardship on any
party but will be a great relief to the com-'
ptny in enabling them to comply with the '!
requisitions of the charter and thus retain !
all the privileges and benefits of the exist-
ing or original charter. It seeme3 to me
Mr. President it should be the policy of
this State to deal with as much lenity as
possible with those companies who are
making evey exertion in their power to con-
struct railroads in this State; and more
especially when such a course of action or
relief will result in the promotion of the
interests of the people. All that the second
amendment rcquiies is that the company
snail be relieved horn laying down the iron
of the first section of ten miles within the
time fixed in the charter. It asks for no
other relief. The company is still required
i to furnish the crossties do the grading and
do every thing necessary to the construction
of the road except the laying down of the
iron until they can have opportunity to make
I connection with the Louisiana road which
' is now in process of construction and iu all
probability will be finished to the State line
in time for our company to complete their
t first section of ten mile previous to the
16th February 1858. The second section
of the charter was amended in the House
of Representatives. A proviso wa-. added
i by that body to this act providing that this
company shall have no branching privileges
i no risrht under the file made in the fleneral
'' Land Office us a designation of the location
I of our road. It cuts us off from any branch-
;' ing privilege-' and fixes upon u- all the
i provisions of the general railroad law We
' have submitted to it. It goes further sir.
company ;. and provides that if this bill becomes the
law that the company shall comply with all
the requirements of the railroad law pas-ed
by the Legislature iu 185C. The friends
of the bill have acreed to these amendments
and if this bill passes will be binding upon
us. These amendments exempt us from
thestrongestobjections set forth in the Exe-
cutive veto that of fiximr the domicil of the
company m Texas. There is another
objection of His Excellency that of having
a majority of the directors of this company
residents of the State of Texas which is
entirely groundless and is fully met for the
second article of the by-laws of this com-
pany adopted by the board of directors and
published that a majority of said directors
shall reside in this State.
I confess 3Ir. President I cannot see by
what kind of reasoning the Governor arrives
at the conclusion that this amendatory act
will legalise the supposed sale of this
charter for 3600000. If sueh sale would
have been illegal under the old charter or
name it would also be illegal under the
new one. Nor can it by tortuous construc-
tion be so construed as to legaliso this sale
if one was made in any manner whatever.
The first part of section second provides
that all acts done by this company under
the old name shall be as valid and binding
on them under the new name as under the
old. Then I repeat if this sale of the
charter was illegal under the old name no
process of construction can make it legal
under the new name.
His Excellency makes uc of the follow-
ing language. " If the object is to make
legal all the acts heretofore done by the
company and to declare such acts legal and
binding on all the parties connected there-
with what acts this is intended to legalise
I have no means of knowing but if it is
intended to legalise the sale that i3 generally
understood to have been made of this
charter to a company organised under the
laws of another Stat'c I am unwilling to
sanction any such proceeding. "First. I
have to say Mr. President His Excellency
is mistaken in regard to the sale of this
charter. I speak positively on this subject
because I have a knowledge of all the trans-
action? of thi company and I know no such
vile icas ever made. It is true sir that
during the pendency of the Mississippi and
Pacific Railroad charter this company did
agree to hold up thcircharterforatime with
the expectation that that company would
build the road. AH we desired was a rail-
road and if this Pacific Company would
build it our object would be accomplished.
It was with expectation that the Mississippi
and Pacific railroad company would build
ine roaa mat we agreed to wituliold our
charter. As soon as wc became satisfied
that the Mississippi and Pacific Railroad
Company would not build wc proceeded fa
organise a company under the charter now
proposed to be amended to procure the
subscription of stock make assessments and
commence operations on the road at once.
During the past four months laborers have
been kept constantly employed by this
company About one hundred hands are
at work and I am assured by the Chief
Engineer of the roadflfS'the grading will
be done and the crossties laid down by the
time required in the charter the 16th day of
February 1857. All that wo ask now is
that wc be relieved from the duty of laying
down the iron of the first section until we
can make connection with the Western
terminus of the Louisiana road. This
relief will not work any hardship upon any
party. It will relieve the company of the
necessity of paying out some forty thousan I
dollars in the transportation of iron.
Unless a connection with the Louisiana
road is made our road would be worthless.
I trust this Senate will see proper to pass
this bill to aid this company which has
struggled long and faithfully to construct 3
road and it seems to me it should be the
policy of this State to grant relief to rail-
road companies where such companies are
making every effort in their power to comply
with the conditions of their charter.
As to the charge of the Executive that
this company is composed of foreigners
who arc endeavoring to speculate upon the
citizens of Texas I have only to add that
quite the contrary is the case. I have
already said that a majority of the directors
are resident citizens of Texas the subscrip-
tion books are opened in our State citizens
of the State arc subscribing stock to this
road and if there is any speculation in it
the people of this State will be the recipients
of its benefits
Mrt. Lott of Smith aid Mr. Pres-
ident I had purposed making some remarks
in reply to the objections of the Executive
to the bill amending the Charter of tne
Texas Western Railroad Comyany as ex-
pressed in the Veto Message now before tlio
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Oldham, W. S. & Marshall, John. State Gazette Appendix. (Austin, Tex.), No. 54, Ed. 1, Wednesday, July 9, 1856, newspaper, July 9, 1856; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth81249/m1/3/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.