UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
LAKE SUPERIOR & MISSISSIPPI R. CO. V. UNITED STATES, 93 U. S. 442 (1876)
93 U. S. 442U.S. Supreme Court
Lake Superior & Mississippi R. Co. v. United States, 93 U.S. 442 (1876)
Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad Company v. United States
93 U.S. 442
Syllabus
1. A provision in an act of Congress granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad that
"said railroad shall be and remain a public highway for the use of the government of the United States free from all toll or other charge for the transportation of any property or troops of the United States"
secures to the government the free use of the road, but does not entitle the government to have troops or property transported over the road by the railroad company free of charge for transporting the same.
2. Where, throughout an act of Congress, a railroad is referred to, in its character as a road, as a permanent structure, and designated and required to be a public highway, the term "railroad" cannot, without doing violence to language and disregarding the long established usage of legislative expression, be extended to embrace the rolling stock or other personal property of the company.
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