LAND GRANT. A legislative appropria tion of a portion of the public domain either for charitable or eleemosynary purpose, or for the promotion of the construction of a railroad or other public work.
Although the public lands of the United States and of the various states have been to a great extent conveyed by deeds or patents issued in virtue of general laws, many specific grants have also been made, and were the usual method of transfer dur ing the colonial period. See 3 Wash. R. P. 181; 4 Kent 450, 494; Johnson v. McIntosh, 8 Wheat. (U. S.) 543, a L. Ed. 681.
It is always to be borne in mind in con struing a congressional grant that the act by which it is made is a law as well as a conveyance, and that such effect must be given to it as will carry out the intent of congress ; and this intent should not be de feated by applying to the grant the com mon-law rule making grants applicable only to transfers between private parties ; Mis souri, K. & T. R. Co. v. R. Co., 97 U. S. 491, 24 L. Ed. 1095. To ascertain that intent courts will look to the condition of the coun try at the time of making the grants, as well as the purpose of the grants as express ed on their face ; Winona & St. P. R. Co. v. Barney, 113 U. S. 618, 5 Sup. Ct. 606, 28 L. Ed. 1109.
All government grants are to be strictly construed against the grantees. Nothing passes but wbat is conveyed in clear and explicit language, and nothing can be im plied; Dubuque & P. R. Co. v. Litchfield, 23 How. (U. S.) 66, 16 L. Ed. 500; Pennsyl vania R. Co. v. Ry. Co., 23 N. J. Eq. 441; Leavenworth, L. & G. R. Co. v. U. S., 92 U. S. 733, 23 L. Ed. 634. Technical words of conveyancing are not required ; Shaw v. Kel logg, 170 U. S. 341, 18 Sup. Ct. 632, 42 L. Ed. 1050.
The grant of lands to a state in aid of a railroad does not interfere with the settle ment of the lands granted, but otherwise of a grant to a railroad ; St. Joseph & D. C. R. Co. v. Baldwin, 103 U. S. 426, 26 L. Ed. 578.
The provisions of various acts of con gress that the land-grant railroads "shall be and remain a public highway for the use of the government, free from all toll or other charge for transportation of any property or troops of the United States," mean that the government may use the roads, with all fixtures and appurtenances, but not that it may compel the roads to transport property and troops without com pensation ; Lake Superior & M. R. Co. v. U.
S., 12 Ct. CL 35. Such a railroad is under a perpetual contract made by the Land Grant Act of May 17, 1856, to carry the mails at such rates as congress may by law direct or the postmaster-general determine ; Jackson ville, P. & M. R. Co. v. U. S., 21 Ct. Cl. 155.
Priority of grant settles the title of the railroad where the claims conflict and not the priority in filing maps of definite loca tion ; U. S. v. R. Co., 146 U. S. 570, 13 Sup. Ct. 152, 36 L. Ed. 1091; and when grants are made to two railroads, none of the land passes to the second which comes within the prospective rights of the first; U. S. v. Lime Co., 146 U. S. 615, 13 Sup. Ct. 163, 36 L. Ed. 1104.
Title does not vest until the lands are actually selected and set apart under the direction of the secretary of the interior; U. S. v. Ry. Co., 141 U. S. 358, 12 Sup. Ct. 13, 35 L. Ed. 766 ; Resser v. Carney, 52 Minn. 397, 54 N. W. 89.
In case of conflict between railroad land grants the elder title must prevail. So held, where the Northern Pacific Railroad claimed land in Minnesota under a grant of July 1864, and the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad claimed part of the same lands under acts a congress of March 3, 1865, and March 3, 1871; St. Paul & P. R. Co. v. R. Co., 139 U. S. 1, 11 Sup. Ct. 389, 35 L. Ed. 77.
Where lands are granted by acts of con gress of the same date, or by the same act, in aid of two railroads that must necessa rily intersect, each grantee takes an un divided moiety of the lands within the con flicting limits ; Sioux City & St. P. R. Co. v. U. S., 159 U. S. 349, 16 Sup. Ct. 17, 40 L. Ed. 177 ; Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. v. U. S., 159 U. S. 372, 16 Sup. Ct. 26, 40 L. Ed. 185.