Page:1862 Territory of Dakota Session Laws.pdf/517

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
500
MILITARY ROADS.
[CHAP. XCVI.

MILITARY ROADS.


CHAPTER 96.

A MEMORIAL OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE TERRITORY OF DAKOTA TO CONGRESS, FOR AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF MILITARY ROADS.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States.

The memorial of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Dakota respectfully represents:

Section 1. That the transportation of supplies for the use of the military and Indian departments of government on the Upper Missouri, forms an important item of the expenditures for these departments in this territory.

Sect. 2. That during the season of low-water, the supplies for these departments must be carried by land a distance of some hundred and fifty miles, over roads that have been constructed temporarily, and at great expense, and therefore as yet inconvenient, and, at certain seasons of the year, difficult to pass over.

Sect. 3. That the difference in the cost of transportation of government supplies would, in a few years, repay the government for an expenditure of money in the construction of a good road for the transportation of military and Indian supplies necessary for Fort Randall and the Yankton Sioux agency

Sect. 4. That the construction of a military road would tend to open to settlement a large tract of valuable agricultural lands along the line of the road, and thus by the increased value of the government lands, contribute largely toward refunding to the national treasury any expenditure in constructing such road. Your memorialists would therefore most respectfully, but urgently ask your honorable bodies to make an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the construction of a military road commencing opposite Fort Randall and