nefit of another people; and especially would this be the case if the interest can be remitted, not only what is past, but that which is hereafter to become due, until twenty miles of the rail-road shall be completed, agreeably to the project of the bill contained in this paper. Our people are not dolts and blockheads enough to be gulled by the clamor which has been raised against the canal company for the benefit of politicians; and though some of them are poor, they are not so ignorant as to advocate such measures as would inevitably ruin themselves, for the benefit of any set of politicians, however fair might be their professions.

It might not be amiss by way of demonstrating the motives which in part impels and sustains these movements so hostile to the people; to mention that a certain prominent leader and boisterous declaimer for the "poor settlers," the "poor against the rich," &c., was himself, an agent to lend money to the "poor settlers" off the canal grant, at 100 per cent. advance in four years, with interest annually on the compound sum; and it may be possible that he would like to please the " "" settlers poor on the canal grant to the same tune, and therefore has great anxiety to get it reduced to $1 25 per acre.

But suppose there were no poor "settlers" at all, but that every man had the means in hand to enter his land when brought into market-would it be just to those who have purchased and paid for their land in full at $2 50 per acre, without the expectation of the canal being made, to abandon the work entirely, and thus deprive them of the advantages which they expected to secure by paying the high price? Certainly not.

Many there are who have thus paid for their lands to the canal fund, and the Territory has paid it to their officers, not to the canal company, and for work done on the canal.

If the whole enterprise were abandoned by the Territory, have not these persons a fair claim on the Territory for $1 25 per acre for all lands by them thus purchased and paid for? There is also another class of our citizens who cannot be overlooked by a wise and impartial Legislature, who are the guardians of the whole people, and not of any class—and these are the purchasers of the even sections from government within the boundaries of the grant, who have paid $2.50 per acré

for their lands, under the pledge and faith of the Territory, for the prosecution of the canal. Shall the people be neglected or sent to Congress with an idle petition, begging to have refunded from the National Treasury the sum of $1 25 per acre, for the land by them purchased and paid for, in anticipation of benefits to be derived from expenditures on the work? Certainly not. No Legislature can adopt the course urged upon it it at this time, by those who are attempting to get np an excitement unless it shall have resolved to disregard every obligation of faith, law, and right, as a sovereign power, and as a paternal government, to be careless of the dearest rights of the citizen.

It is worse than idle, then, to urge the Legislature to ask of Congress to reduce the price of those lands, or to authorize them to be surrendered to the government. Such a course would not only be oppressive and unjust to the settlers on those lands, but it would leave the Territory liable for all debts incurred by its authority; and not only so, would leave it subject to the provisions of the act of Congress making the grant, to refund to the government all the moneys which had been received in payment for the lands sold.

These are reasons sufficiently conclusive to my mind, why the Legislature would not entertain such a proposition, and also why Congress would grant no such request, if made.

If, then, it should be considered a settled point that the lands ought not and will not revert to the Government, the question recurs what shall be done with them. Shall they be applied to the construction of the canal? Circumstances have rendered this difficult, if not impracticable. Shall they then be permitted to lie dormant, an injury to the settlement and improvement of the country, and of no use to the Territory?

This would appear impolitic. Is there then any better course to pursue, than so to use them as to secure the construction of a rail road, binding together the great inland seas of our continent with the father of waters, with an iron band; and by means of the business facilities thus secured, binding together indissolubly the people of the remote sections of our own favored Territory-and by the same operation to relieve the Territory at once and forever free of all liabilities incurred-the purchasers of lands from their present liabil

ities, and lighten those of the furture-and doing justice to an incorporation whose members have labored anxiously and zealously in the cause of improvement, and, as they believe, in the cause of the country. Very respectfully,

The Committee's obed't serv't,

BYRON KILBOURN,

Prest't Mil. and R. R. Canal Co.

COMMUNICATION OF HON. J. H. TWEEDY, TO A COMMITTEE OF THE COUNCIL, A COPY FURNISHED THE COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE.

To the Chairman of the Select committee of the council to whom was referred the report of Byron Kilbourn, Esq., Loan Agent of the Territory, &c.

SIR. On the 10th inst. a communication was submitted to the Council by Byron Kilbourn, Esq., lately acting as agent of the Governor in negotiating a loan for the Milwaukee and Rock river Canal, professing to render a full account of his doings and of the results of his operations as such agent.

In this singular pamphlet of 23 printed pages-in which the duties of the author as an agent of the Government, and his interest as the chief stockholder and manager of a corporation, are stangely confused—is contained an exposition of his policy as the projector and conductor of the canal, an elaborate justification of some of his acts in the making and disposal of certain loans, (and as a part of said justification) a most violent assault upon the official conduct of the Register and Receiver of the canal fund.

The report prefers grave charges against these functionaries of an abuse of trust reposed in them by the Legislature, of arbitrary assumption of power of direliction of a duty and of a wilful violation of law all evincing a design steadily pursued and successfully accomplished to arrest and entirely defeat the progress of the canal.

In this part of the report the author gives vent to feelings of the most violent animosity and indulges in abuse and vituperation which

would be in wretched taste in a newspaper warfare, and much less become a grave communication to the Legislative Assembly.

By a resolution of the Council this paper and a copy of a subsequent official report made by the same gentleman to the Eexecutive, of his acts as Loan Agent, have been printed and referred to a select committee for consideration which committee "has been instructed to receive and consider any information which may be submitted by any person or officer of the Territory, relating to the negotiation of the canal loan, and the matters contained in said communication."

As this document is not the report of an officer of the Territory, and does not in fact contain an aswer to the resolution of the Council calling for certain information (though presented as such answer in the letter by which it was accompanied,) it can be regarded in itself only as the gratuitous submission of the views and information of a private individual touching matters deemed by him worthy of the consideration of the Legislature.

But this report is sent forth to the world under the sanction of the authority of the Council, and by the further action of that body the charges in that paper acquire some character and importance.

As one of the canal commissioners thus formally presented to the Legislature for official misconduct, and especially as being the individual who has been particularly assailed, I feel it to be due to the Legislature and to myself to vindicate the conduct of myself and associates, in a manner as public as that conduct has been assailed, and at the same time to submit for the consideration of the committee such other information as I may be able, relative to the matters embraced in said report.

I shall strive to perform this duty in a manner becoming myself and the character of the committee.

The personal and political relations between the Loan Agent and myself, which have been brought into view in the report, its many imputations, its lofty defiance and its vituperation and abuse, I shall pass unnoticed.

They present a picture of depraved malice and of disordered passion humiliating to human nature. I have no taste for controversies of this character, neither have I ever provoked such warfare. I

have no private griefs to avenge, much less have I indulged the hope or published the vain glorious boast, that by a single stroke of my "puny arm," I could crush any adversary.

With these preliminary remarks, I will now proceed to consider those portions of the report which are proper to be noticed.

The report charges, in substance, that the Receiver has been guilty of an arbitrary and unwarrantable interference with the duties of the Loan Agent, from motives of secret hostility to the canal, and has by such interference arrested and defeated a loan of $30,000.

That the commissioners urged by the same motives, have been guilty of a reckless disregard of duty, and of a wilful violation of law, in not making provision for the payment of interest due on bonds sold, by calling in the interest due from purchasers of canal lands.

That the consequences of their conduct has been the accomplishment of their design to prevent the negotiation of any loan by dishonoring the credit of the Territory, and in that way to strike a death blow at the policy of the canal.

The whole scope and design of a great portion of this pamphlet, is to fix upon one or more of the commissioners the odium of being the contrivers and workers of the destruction of the canal, and with it, of the fondest hopes of its friends and the people. The credit of acting the chief part in this work of mischief has been given to me.

The truth of these charges and the justice of the credit or odium" imputed to myself and others, will clearly appear from a true presentment of the facts.

And here in the outset, it will be proper to bring into full view, the powers and duties of the Loan Agent, under the law and authority of the Governor.

In so doing, the authority of the Governor to appoint such agent, though denied by many, will here be assumed.

The act of Feb. 12th, 1841, sec. 2, after authorizing the issue and execution of bonds to the amount of $100,000; provides "That all, or any part of any moneys whtch may be borrowed in pursuance of this act, may be deposited in any sound specie-paying banks, which may be selected by the canal commissioners and the Governor of the Territory, subject to the draft of the Receiver of the canal fund,