ing land in Michigan, the law of the state must govern in proceedings to enforce the contract in a federal court within the state. Brine v. Ins. Co. 96 U. S. 627; Connecticut Ins. Co. v. Cushman, 108 U. S. -; [S. C. 2 SUP. CT. REP. 236;] Equator Co. v. Hall, 106 U. S. 86; [S. C. 1 SUP. CT. REP. 128.] The result is that the decree must be reversed, without costs to either party in this court, and the case remanded to the circuit court with directions to enter a decree for the plaintiffs, with costs, modified by striking out the allowance of the solicitor's fee. cordingly. Decree ac (110 U. S. 27) CEDAR RAPIDS & M. R. R. Co. and another v. HERRING.' (No. 142.) LAND GRANT-CONSTRUCTION OF THE ACT OF CONGRESS OF JUNE 2, 1864-RAIL. ROADS OF Iowa. Congress in 1856 granted to the state of Iowa, to aid in the construction of a railroad upon a designated route, six sections of land for every mile of the road constructed. This land was made over by the legislature of Iowa to the plaintiff corporation. By the act of congress of June 2, 1864, amending the previous act, the plaintiff was permitted to build by a shorter way, being "entitled for such modified line to the same lands, and to the same amount of lands per mile, as originally granted"" Held, that the plaintiff was only entitled to six sections for each mile of road actually constructed, and not to six sections for each mile of the original route. 18. C. 3 N. W. Rep. 786. as. C. 16 N. W. Rep. 344. By the act of 1864 the railroad company, in case the sections designated were occupied by bona fide settlers, was at liberty to select other sections within 15 miles of the road. The company was required to file in the land-office a map of the modified route whenever it was established, and it then became the duty of the secretary of the interior to reserve an amount of land within 15 miles of the road, equal to that originally authorized. Held, that until the company filed the map and selected the sections to which it was entitled, it could acquire no lien upon any part of the land out of which the selection was to be made; but that settlers entering in the interval were entitled to hold their claims. In Error to the Supreme Court of the State of Iowa. MILLER, J. These are ten writs of error to the supreme court of the state of Iowa to review judgments in that court of affirmance in favor of the parties named. The railroad company was plaintiff in the inferior state court, and on appeal in the supreme court of the state, and in the writs of error in this court. The suit in the court of original jurisdiction was in the nature of a bill in chancery to quiet title, and to compel a conveyance of the legal title held by defendants under patents from the United States to plaintiff, who asserted title to it in equity. The cases all depend on the same pleadings and evidence, and were consolidated in the inferior court, and have been considered and argued together in the supreme court of Iowa, and in this court, except No. 1,139-the Jewell Case-which is submitted in this court on the same argument. The defendants are in possession of the land in controversy in each case under a purchase from the United States, with a patent from the government, and the plaintiff, the railroad company, asserts a superior title, either legal or equitable, under certain land grants by act of congress to aid in building railroads. The first of these acts is that of May 15, 1856, (11 U. S. St. 9,) by which congress granted lands lying within the state of Iowa to that state to aid in building four principal railroads from the Mississippi to the Missouri river. One of these was for a road "from Lyons city, on the Mississipi river, to a point of intersection with the main line of the Iowa Central Airline Railroad near Maquoketa; thence on said main line, running as near as practicable to the forty-second parallel across the said state to the Missouri river." For each of these roads there was given to the state of Iowa, "as soon as the road is completed, every alternate section of land designated by odd numbers for six sections in width. on each side of each of said roads." And it was provided that if, when the line of a road was definitely located, it was found that the United States had disposed of any of these odd sections, or rights had attached to them by pre-emption or otherwise, an agent appointed by the state might, in lieu of these, select other alternate sections anywhere within 15 miles of the line of the road. The state of Iowa, by an act of the general assembly approved July 14, 1856, accepted the trust reposed in it by the above act of con gress, and granted and conferred upon four corporations all these lands, under the terms and restrictions of the act of congress. These corporations were to construct the roads across the state according to that act, and the corporation on whom was conferred the grant for a road from Lyons to the Missouri river was the Iowa Central Air-line Railroad Company. The only result of this particular grant of the state was that the company received the 120 sections of land which this court held, in the case of Railroad Land Co. v. Courtright, 21 Wall. 310, could be secured before any road was built; but having built no road up to March 17, 1860, the state, by an act of its legislature of that date, declared the grant forfeited and resumed control of it. On the twenty-sixth of that month, by another act of assembly, the state granted the same lands to the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company-the plaintiff in error-upon conditions similar in all material respects to the grant to the Air-line Company. The Air-line Company had before this time surveyed and located the line of the road from Lyons to the Missouri river through the town of Cedar Rapids, and the map of this survey and location had been accepted by the state of Iowa and the land-office of the United States. as the true line, and as governing the location of the land grant for that road. A road had also been built by another company, the Chi-s cago, Iowa & Nebraska, which had no land grant, from a point on the Mississippi river within three miles of Lyons city to Cedar Rapids. Hence, the grant of the state to the Cedar Rapids Company required them to build speedily from Cedar Rapids west along the line thus adopted to the Missouri river. Under this arrangement the Cedar Rapids Company pushed its road on the designated line, so that it had completed about a hundred miles west of the town of that name by the year 1864, when several matters seemed to call for legislation by congress in regard to it, and to the other companies building roads across the state under the grants of the act of 1856. As regards the Cedar Rapids Company, it had become clearly unnecessary to build another road from the Mississippi at Lyons to Cedar Rapids, along the line occupied by the Iowa & Nebraska road. It had also become apparent that a shorter and better line to the Missouri river could be had from the point to which the road had now been constructed, and it was thought that a road from some point on its existing line to some point south of it, on the line of the Mississippi & Missouri River Railroad,-one of the four land-grant roads,-would be desirable. It had also been ascertained that the necessary quantity of lands in lieu of the odd sections disposed of within six miles could not be satisfied by alternate sections within the 15-mile limit. In this condition of the matter congress passed the statute on which the result of this litigation depends, which was approved June 2, 1864. 15 U. S. St. 95. This statute, after granting certain relief to the Mississippi & Missouri River Railroad Company and to the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Com. pany, two other of the land-grant roads in Iowa, proceeds in its fourth section to grant relief to the present plaintiff company. The fourth section of that act-the one which we are required to construe-reads as follows: "Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, that the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company, a corporation established under the laws of the state of Iowa, and to which the said state granted a portion of the land mentioned in the title of this act, may modify or change the location of the uncompleted portion of its line, as shown by the map thereof, now on file in the general land-office of the United States, so as to secure a better and more expeditious line to the Missouri river and to a connection with the Iowa branch of the Union Pacific Railroad; and for the purpose of facilitating the more immediate construction of a line of railroads across the state of Iowa, to connect with the Iowa branch of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, aforesaid, the said Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company is hereby authorized to connect its line by a branch with the line of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Company; and the said Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company shall be entitled, for such modified line, to the same lands and to the same amount of lands per mile, and for such connecting branch the same amount of land per mile, as originally granted to aid in the construction of its main line, subject to the conditions and forfeitures mentioned in the original grant, and, for the same purpose, right of way through the public lands of the United States is hereby granted to said company. And it is further provided, that whenever said modified main line shall have been established or such connecting line located, the said Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company shall file in the general land-office of the United States a map definitely showing such modified line and such connecting branch aforesaid; and the secretary of the interior shall reserve and cause to be certified and conveyed to said company, from time to time, as the work progresses on the main line, out of any public lands now belonging to the United States not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of, or to which a pre-emption right or right of homestead settlement has not attached, and on which a bona fide settlement and improvement has not been made under color of title derived from the United States or from the state of Iowa, within fifteen miles of the original main line, an amount of land equal to that originally authorized to be granted to aid in the construction of the said road by the act to which this is an amendment. And if the amount of land per mile granted, or intended to be granted by the original act, to aid in the construction of said railroad, shall not be found within the limits of the fifteen miles therein prescribed, then such selections may be made along said modified *line and connecting branch within twenty miles thereof: Provided, however, that such new located or modified line shall pass through or near Boonesboro, in Boone county, and intersect the Boyer river not further south than a point at or near Dennison, in Crawford county: And provided further, that in case the main line shall be so changed and modified as not to reach the Missouri river at or near the forty-second parallel north latitude, it shall be the duty of said company, within a reasonable time after the completion of its road to the Missouri river, to construct a branch road to some point in Monona county in or at Onawa City; and to aid in the construction of such branch the same amount of lands per mile are hereby granted as for the main line, and the same shall be reserved and certified in the same manner; said lands to be selected from any of the unappropriated lands, as herein before described, within twenty miles of said main line and branch; and said company shall file with the secretary of the interior a map of the location of said branch: And provided further, that the lands hereby granted to aid in the construction of the connecting branch aforesaid shall not vest in said com. pany, nor be incumbered or disposed of, except in the following manner: When the governor of the state of Iowa shall certify to the secretary of the interior that the said company has completed in good running order a section of twenty consecutive miles of the main line of said road west of Nevada, then the secretary shall convey to said company one-third, and no more, of the lands granted for said connecting branch. And when said company shall complete an additional section of twenty consecutive miles, and furnish the secretary of the interior with proof as aforesaid, then the said secretary may convey to the said company another third of the lands for said connecting branch; and when said company shall complete an additional section of twenty miles, making in all sixty miles west of Nevada, the secretary, upon proof furnished as aforesaid, may convey to the said company the remainder of said lands to aid in the construction of said connecting branch: Provided, however, that no lands shall be conveyed to said company on account of said connecting branch road until the governor of the state of Iowa shall certify to the secretary of the interior that the same shall have been completed as a first-class railroad. And no land shall be conveyed to said company situate and lying within fifteen miles of the original line of the Mississippi & Mis-* souri Railroad as laid down on a map on file in the general land-office: Provided, further, that it shall be the duty of the secretary of the interior, and he is hereby required, to reserve a quantity of land embraced in the grant described in this section, suflicient, in the opinion of the governor of Iowa, to secure the construction of a branch road from the town of Lyons, in the state of Iowa, so as to connect with the main line in or west of the town of Clinton, in said state, until the governor of said state shall certify that said branch railroad is completed according to the requirements of the laws of said state: Provided, further, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to release said company from its obligation to complete the said main line within the time mentioned in the original grant: Provided, further, that nothing in this act shall be construed to interfere with or in any manner impair any rights acquired by any railroad company named in the act to which this is an amendment, or the rights of any corporation, person or persons, acquired through any such company; nor shall it be construed to impair any vested right of property, but such rights are hereby reserved and confirmed: Provided, however, that no lands shall be conveyed to any company or party whatsoever, under the provisions of this act and the act amended by this act, which have been settled upon and improved in good faith by a bona fide inhabitant, under color of title derived from the United States or from the state of Iowa, adverse to the grant made by this act, or the act to which this act is an amendment. But each of said companies may select an equal quantity of public lands as described in this act, within the distance of twenty miles of the line of each of said roads, in lieu of said lands thus settled upon and improved by bona fide inhabitants in good faith under color of title as aforesaid. We are of opinion that the purpose of this enactment was-(1) To relieve the company from the obligation to build that part of its line as found in the land-office, between the Mississippi river and Cedar Rapids, because there already existed a road between those points built by another corporation. (2) To require the company to connect the city of Lyons with that corporation's road, so that it would be, as originally intended, the Mississippi terminus of the land-grant road across the state. This required the construction of about two and a half miles of road. (3) To authorize the company to change the lo |