The Act of July 2, 1864,[542] empowered the Northern Pacific corporation to build a line from some point on Lake Superior, in the state of Minnesota or Wisconsin, westerly on a line north of the 45th degree of latitude, to a point near or at Portland, Oregon. It provided for organization on subscription for 20,000 shares out of an authorized capital of 1,000,000 shares with 10 per cent paid in, and granted forty alternate sections of public land per mile throughout the territories, and twenty alternate sections throughout the states across which the road should pass. This liberal donation was influenced in part by the fact that the value of lands in the Northwest was then low, and in part by the refusal of any money subsidy. The Government was to issue patents on the completion of stretches of twenty-five miles built in “good, substantial, and workmanlike manner,” and was to survey lands for forty miles on each side of the line[543] as fast as the construction of the road should require. The company was to begin work within two years and was to finish the line within twelve years, and it was provided that in case of non-fulfilment of these conditions Congress could do “any and all acts and things which (might) be needful and necessary to insure a speedy completion of the road.” A section which gave trouble till amended forbade the issue of mortgage or construction bonds, or the making of a mortgage or lien upon the road in any way except by the consent of the Congress of the United States. The company was to obtain the consent of the legislature of any state before commencing construction through it, and finally the Act was to be void unless bona fide subscriptions of $2,000,000 to the stock, with 10 per cent paid in, should be obtained within two years. A project so daring as the construction of a railroad through the unsettled Northwest not unnaturally found it difficult to obtain financial support. The capitalists who at first undertook the work were unable to carry it through.[544] In 1869 and 1870 two developments occurred: the prohibition of bond issues contained in the act of incorporation was removed, and Jay Cooke became interested in the building of the road. Both facts were of far-reaching importance. Mr. Cooke was one of the foremost financiers of his time. He was a man of great personal energy, large fortune, and extensive personal following, and was admirably adapted to the promotion of the work in hand. The removal of the prohibition upon bond issues made it possible, with his support, to secure some funds from a mortgage issue and to allow construction to begin.