Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/758

 750 FEDERAL BBPOBTEE. �of its obligations and duties to the government, and to the public. �In my judgment the act of July 1, 1862, and its amend- ments, must be construed as chartering the Union Pacific EaiIrOad Company, and devolving upon it, individually and personally, the power and duty of constructing, operating and maintaining a line of telegraph, as well as a railroad. This is made manifest by the consideration that the government endowed the corporation with large grants of land and bonds, to aid in the construction of these lines, and impressed upon the Company the duty of reimbursing the government from the earnings of the road and telegraph line. Section 6, act of 1862. It is also clear from the language of the first sec- tion of said act, which empowers the corporation "to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain and enjoy a continuons railroad and telegraph, with the appurtenances," that the power conferred was personal, and carried with it a duty and an obligation which could net be transferred. �The very same language which authorizes the construction and operation of the telegraph line also authorizes the con- struction and operation of the railroad, and the property in the one is as necessary to the performance of the public duties of the corporation as that in the other, The charter of the Company, with the amendments, considered as a whole, was manifestly intended to create a corporation which should be personally amenable to the government, in the exercise of the powers conferred, and which should in quasi public capac- ity perform the duties imposed, and render an aecount of its earnings. �The purpose was not to authorize the construction of a line either of railroad or telegraph to be thereafter sold, leased or transferred to other parties, leaving the government to the chances of securing from or through the lessee or vendee its proportion of the earnings. This is made still more clear by the provisions of the act of June 20, 1874, amending the charter, which imposes upon the company and its officers and agents penalties for a failure to operate or use said railroad or telegraph, so far as the public and the government are con- ��� �