MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNOR

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., April 14, 1869.

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives:

A bill for "An act in relation to a portion of the submerged lands and Lake Park grounds lying adjacent to the shore of Lake Michigan, on the eastern frontage of the city of Chicago," which originated in the House of Representatives, is herewith returned without my signature and approval.

The pecuniary value of the public property which it is proposed to dispose of by this bill, and the grave questions of policy and good faith, on the part of the State, that underlie it, have concurred to influence me to give the measure a careful and deliberate examination.

The bill offers to confer upon the common council of the city of Chicago, three-fourths of the aldermen elect concurring, full power and authority to sell all the right, title and interest of the State of Illinois in and to so much of fractional section fifteen, in township thirty-nine north of range fourteen east of the third principal meridian, in the city of Chicago, as is situated east of Michigan Avenue and north of Park Row, and south of the south line of Monroe street, and west of a line running parallel with and four hundred feet east of the west line of Michigan Avenue, being a strip of land three hundred and ten feet in width, and that contains about thirty-two acres; and to apply the proceeds of any sale that may be made of said lands to the purchase and improvement of parks in each of the three divisions of that city, in propor tions to be ascertained by means provided by the bill.

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The bill also offers to confirm the right of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, under the grant from the State in its charter, and under and by virtue of its appropriation, occupancy, use and control, and the riparian ownership incident to such grant, appro priation, occupancy, use and control, in and to the lands submergel or otherwise lying east of the said line running parallel with and four hundred feet east of the west line of Michigan Avenue, in fractional sections ten and fifteen, township and range aforesaid; and further offers to the Illinois Central Railroad Company all the right and title of the State of Illinois in and to the submerged lands constituting the bed of Lake Michigan, and lying east of the tracks and breakwater of said company, for the distance of one mile, and between the south line of the south pier in Chicago harbor extended eastwardly, and a line extended eastwardly from the south line of lot twenty-one south of and near the round house and machine shops of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, in fee forever, upon condition that the fee of the property thus granted shall be held by said company in perpetuity, and upon the further condition that all gross receipts from the use, profits, leases, or otherwise of said lands, or the improvements thereon, or that may hereafter be made thereon, shall form a part of the gross proceeds, receipts and income of the Illinois Central Railroad Company; upon which said company shall forever pay into the State treasury, semi-annually, the per centum provided for in its charter; and upon the further provision that nothing in the bill contained shall authorize obstructions to Chicago harbor, or impair the public right of navigation, nor exempt the Illinois Central Railroad Company, its lessees or assigns, from any act of the General Assembly which may hereafter be passed regulating the rates of wharfage and dockage to be charged in said harbor.

The tract offered to the Illinois Central Railroad Company extends along the shore of the lake for a distance of nine thousand five hundred and eighty feet, and contains a superficial area of about one thousand and fifty acres.

In addition to the provisions of the bill already stated, it offers all the right and title of the State of Illinois in and to the lands submerged or otherwise, lying north of the south line of Monroe street, and south of the south line of Randolph street, and between the east line of Michigan Avenue and the track and roadway of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and constituting parts of

fractional sections ten and fifteen before mentioned, in fee, to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, and the Michigan Central Railroad Company, their successors and assigns, for the erection thereon of a passenger depot, and for such other purposes as the business of said companies may require, with the proviso that upon all the gross receipts of the Illinois Central Railroad Company from the leases of its interest in said grounds or improvements thereon, or other uses of the same, the per centum provided for in the charter of said company shall be forever paid, in conformity with the requirements of said charter; and it is further provided that, in consideration of the grant to the Illinois Central, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and Michigan Central Railroad Companies of the land aforesaid, the said companies are required to pay to the city of Chicago the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars, to be paid in quarterly installments as stated in the bill.

This tract fronts on Michigan Avenue for about the distance of thirteen hundred and thirty-two feet, and runs back to the track or roadway of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, three hundred and ten feet.

The bill, it will be observed, offers to the grantees of each of the parcels of property it describes a fee simple title, and by implication asserts for the State a capacity to confer upon each of its proposed grantees the absolute ownership of the property.

The history of the title of the several tracts of land described in the bill is necessary to be understood before it will be possible to determine whether the offer made in the bill is within the power of the State, and as that history is brief it may well be given here.

By an act of the Congress of the United States, approved March 30, 1822, the State of Illinois was authorized "to survey and mark, through the public lands of the United States, the route of a canal connecting the Illinois river with the southern bend of Lake Michigan," and by the same act it was provided that "every section through which said canal route may pass is hereby reserved from future sale until specially directed by law."

By another act of the Congress of the United States, approved March 2, 1827, it was provided "that there be and is hereby granted to the State of Illinois, for the purpose of aiding said. State in opening a canal to unite the waters of the Illinois river

with those of Lake Michigan, a quantity of land equal to onehalf of five sections in width on each side of said canal, and reserving each alternate section to the United States, to be selected by the Commissioner of the Land Office, under the direction of the President of the United States, from one end of said canal to the other, and the said lands shall be subject to the disposal of the Legislature of the said State for the purpose aforesa:d, and no other."

Other acts were passed by the Congress of the United States on this subject, and the matter also received the attention of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, so that on the 30th day of March, 1830, by the approval of the President of the United States, fractional fifteen, township number thirty-nine north, of range fourteen east of the third principal meridian, became the property of the State of Illinois, for the purposes specified in the acts of Congress.

By the 7th section of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, entitled "an act for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal," approved January 9, 1836, the Governor of the State was required, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint three practical and skillful citizens of this State, to constitute a board to be known by the style and description of "the Board of Commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan Canal," and by the 32d section of the same act the commissioners are required to examine the whole canal route and select such places thereon as may be eligible for town sites, and cause the same to be laid off into town lots, and they shall cause the canal lands in and near Chicago, suitable therefor, to be laid off into town lots," and the 33d section provided "and the said Board of Canal Commissioners shall, on the 20th day of June next, proceed to sell the lots in the town of Chicago, and such parts of the lots in the town of Ottawa, as also fractional section fifteen adjoining the town of Chicago, it first being laid off and sub-divided into town-lots, streets and alleys as in their best judgment will best promote the interest of the said canal fund."

On the 13th day of June, 1836, Wm. F. Thornton, W. B. Archer and Gurdon S. Hubbard, the Board of Canal Commissioners, caused a map of their survey of fractional section fifteen to be prepared and severally acknowledged as is required by the act of February 15, 1833, entitled "an act providing for the recording

of town plats," which map was recorded in the Recorder's office of Cook county on the 20th day of July, 1836.

On this map or plat, made and recorded by the canal commissioners, Michigan avenue is represented, without any line limiting it on the eastern side other than the lake shore line, as a strip of land extending from Madison street south to Twelfth street, apparently about five hundred feet average width from the front of the lots on the west line of Michigan avenue and the lake shore, and on the map is marked the words " Michigan avenue," and thus the whole strip of land was dedicated to public use as one of the avenues or streets of the canal commissioners' addition to the town of Chicago.

The history of the tract of land described as "part of fractional section ten, township thirty-nine north, range fourteen east of the third principal meridian," is much more brief.

The site of Fort Dearborn, it was separated from the bulk of the public lands offered for sale by the United States by being reserved from such sale for military purposes. Its great prospective, though certain value, early attracted the attention of farsighted men, and efforts were made by individuals and continued. with great persistence in the courts of the State of Illinois and of the United States, to acquire the title.

But these attempts to secure the tract failed, and on the 6th day of June, 1839, it was, by the authority of the United States, laid out into blocks, lots, streets, and public grounds, as "Fort Dearborn addition to Chicago," and a map or plat of this addition was prepared, certified and acknowledged according to the laws of the State, and recorded in the Recorder's office of Cook county, on the 7th day of June, 1839.

On this map that portion of the land referred to in the bill as being in fractional section ten, and which extends from Randolph street to the center of Madison street, is delineated as an entire tract, and upon the map of the addition, as recorded, is written "public grounds, forever to remain vacant of buildings."

From the foregoing account it will be seen that by the acts of the United States, the proprietor of the south-west fractional quarter of section ten, and of the State of Illinois, which was in the same legal sense the proprietor of fractional section fifteen, all the lands described in the first and fourth sections of this bill,