Chapter CXII. *authorizing the Construction of a Line of Telegraph from the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers to the Pacific Ocean.* Feb. 17, 1855. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That Hiram O
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Chap. CXII.— An Act *authorizing the Construction of a Line of Telegraph from the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers to the Pacific Ocean.* Feb. 17, 1855. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That Hiram O. Alden and Right of way granted for a telegraph to the Pacific.James Eddy, their associates and assigns, are hereby authorized and empowered to construct, at their own expense, a line of telegraph, from such point on the Mississippi or Missouri River as they may hereafter select, through the public lands belonging to the United States, over which lands the right of way two hundred feet in width, for that purpose, is hereby granted, to San Francisco, in California, in as direct a line as practicable.
THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 117, 118. 1855. 611 Sec. 2. *And be it further enacted,* That all voluntary or intentional injuries to said line of telegraph, or to any property thereto belonging, Penalties for injuries to such telegraph.within the territories of the United States, shall be deemed, and are here by declared to be wilful and malicious trespasses, and shall be punished as such; and all laws of the United States now in force in any territory thereof, or which may hereafter be enacted for the better security and protection of property, and applicable to such offences, shall be, and they are hereby, extended, for the protection of said line of telegraph, into and over all the territory belonging to, and under the jurisdiction of, the United States, through which the same may be constructed; and all legal process and proceedings for the detection and punishment of the aforesaid offences shall be within the jurisdiction of the courts, and shah be issued and executed by the proper law officers in the States or organized territories.
Approved, February 17, 1855.