Chapter XVI: Section 3: declared that the river should forever remain a public

highway for the use of the Government, free from toll or other charge whatever; and provided that the Territory or State should not dispose of the lands at a price less than the minimum price of public lands.

The grant to Wisconsin for the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, though approved the same day, was somewhat different from the Des Moines grant. It provided that “there be, and hereby is, granted to the State of Wisconsin”, upon the admission of Wisconsin as a State (which, by the way, had been provided for by an act approved two days before), “for the purpose of improving the navigation of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers in the Territory of Wisconsin, and of constructing the canal to unite the said rivers, at or near the portage, a quantity of land, equal to one-half of three sections in width on each side of said Fox River, and the lakes through which it passes from its mouth to the point where the portage canal shall enter the same, and on each side of said canal from one stream to the other, reserving the alternate sections to the United States, to be selected under the direction of the governor of said State, and such selection to be approved by the President of the United States”. The rivers, when improved, were to remain forever public highways for the use of the Government, free from toll; and the sections reserved to the United States were not to be sold for less than $2.50 per acre.

By the second section, the legislature of the State was to accept the grant and fix the price at which the lands were to be sold (at not less than $1.25 per acre), and adopt such kind and plan of improvement as was for the best interests of the State.

The provisions for the sale of the lands were the same as in the Iowa grant, except that the sum to be realized by such sales was fixed at $20,000.