hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

576 RAILROADS—CENTRAL PACIFIC SYSTEM.
city of the north and many of the soutli with enthusiasm.
Especially at Sacramento and San Francisco
were the rejoicings loud and earnest. But how
soon do we rise to the greatest event, making it seem
commonplace I Finished and yet not complete, for
the commissioners appointed to examine the road reported
that a further expenditure of $4,493,380 would
oe required to put in a completed state the 551 miles
east of Sacramento, and especially that part of the
road east of Truckee and in the Humboldt valley.
A clause in section 6th of the original Pacific railroad
act declared that "after the said road is completed,
until said bonds and interest are paid, at least five
per centum of the net earnings of said road shall also
be annually applied to the payment thereof." Upon
the report of the commissioners the president ordered
deposited with the secretary of the treasury, in first
mortgage bonds, the four millions and over in which
the road was deficient, and that patents to land should
be withheld where not already issued until the road
should be completed according to law.
In September 1869 the railroad company made
application to withdraw the four millions of bonds,
which was denied. But it appearing a few months
later that the deficiencies had been supplied to a considerable
extent, the secretary of the interior allowed
patents for half the lands to issue, and soon after the
withdrawal of the bonds. In March 1871 the secretary
again refused to issue patents to the land held
for security, the road still being incomplete in the eye
of the law. In 1874 a bill was pending in congress
providing for giving the company a title to the granted
lands in order that they might be taxed by the states
through which they passed. While the matter was
being taken under advisement by the secretary, a
new commission reported that the road had been fiilly
completed at a cost of $5,121,037.23. Of this sum
$1,014,681.34 was for wharves and depot buildings at
Oakland and Sau Francisco; $241,490,87 for im-