ship. range, and area. Should policy, prudence, or other consideration oppose such wholesale divestiture of right by Congressional action, whereby it might be feared a dangerous precedent might be established, then I would recommend an act similar to the Missouri act of June 12th, 1866. The objects of that act were confined to lots or other lands within the city of Saint Louis, of which prior confirmations, relinquish ments, or recognitions of title by the United States were predicable. The evil to be remedied was the difficulty proprietors met in showing documentary and other evidence of title or boundaries against the United States, and the act liberally allowed the United States district court at Saint Louis, with right of appeal to the circuit court, to adjudicate the question of prior confirmation, recognition, or relinquishment, with boundaries, and to afford appropriate evidence of the facts found in a proper decree. The parallelism between the case of the Saint Louis lot owners and the occupants of the unconfirmed claims in Louisiana is closer than at first glance it might appear; for although antecedent title against the sovereign was pleadable in favor of the former, and founded the right to a decree declaratory of its existence and limits, and the theory of the latter is that no proof of title can be shown against that sovereign, yet in point of practice we know that examination and research develop such title in many cases, and that in all the sovereign impliedly admits its existence by non-claim and indifference. Indeed, if the strict principies of law applicable to royal lands in England, immemorially enjoyed and occupied in opposition to the Crown, should by our courts be applied to the class of lands under consideration, it may safely be assumed that the ancient and continued occupa ion and enjoyment of these lauds in a public and unequivocal manner, with the full knowledge and sufferance of the sovereign, would afford judicial proof of the existence of grants good against the United States but lost through lapse of time. Hence it would not be stretching the Missouri precedent very far to apply it to the lands in Louisiana immemorially possessed by her citizens, who are unable to exhibit their grants and boundaries. Although I favor, for reasous stated in my report for 1874, an act of relinquishment which will require no expensive legal or other proceedings on the part of its beneficiaries, yet if such an act would be unwise, one similar to the Missouri act would be the next best thing, and against it certainly no objections could be urged. Congress should pass one or the other of these acts at once, because the present anomalous condition of these lands exposes their possessors to vexatious annoyances and suspicions, and in some cases to depreciation in value of plantations consisting in whole or part of such claims. I again desire to invite your attention to the necessity of an appropriation to enable me to bring up, while yet it is practicable, the long suspended work of this office, and to which I and my predecessors have so often called attention that it is becoming an oft told tale, and I fear wearisome. There are about 784 townships in the State, the surveys of which are complete, and the original notes of which are on file in this office. Those are among the early surveys. Contrary to law, the copies of these notes have never been made and sent to the bureau for safe custody. Should an accident happen to the records here, by which they should be stolen or destroyed, every vestige of a record showing the surveys in those townships would be swept away, and no power on earth could restore them or duplicate them. During the war these records were taken possession of by the authorities of the Confederate States, removed from place to place, and many of them lost, stolen, or destroyed. Since the war, the custom house, where they now seem to be secure, was often in the midst of riot and danger, and once was in the theater of battle, where shot and shell and bullets did their bloody work. In 1865 the entire records of the United States land office for the old southeastern district of Louisiana, located in this city, were destroyed by fire, and irreparable loss inflicted on many of the property holders in this section of the State, whose claims and evidences of title were recorded among them. In course of time the custom and the policy of the law will require that this office be closed and its records transferred to the State. Perhaps the liability of the records to destruction will then be greater than now. In view of all this, I should now be copying these notes and sending the copies to the seat of National Government, as the law directs, and as wisdom aud prudence dictate. Then, too, before patents can issue according to law, this office must prepare and furnish to the local land offices patent plats in about 6,170 private land claims heretofore duly surveyed, and now represented upon the township plats. It is the duty of the government to issue these patents, and the law requires the piat to be annexed to the patent as a part of it. All this work, so long neglected, should now be brought up. Special attention has been called to the subject in the reports from this office for 1871 and 1873, and to which I respectfully refer you. There are a few of the leading heads of work in arrear in this office, none of which is of modern origin. It is all left to this office as a legacy of the early surveyors gen eral and their clerks. Much more work could be stated of a miscellaneous nature now sadly in arrear, which should be brought up, but I cannot enter upon any of it. I have for this current year but $2,000 for clerk hire, and I shall endeavor to retain the two efficient gentlemen I have had so long, but it will only be at beggarly salaries no just government would expect its servants to work for, and which, indeed, competent men would not work for but as an escape from the hard fate which the poverty of the times has visited upon this part of our country. My own salary has been cut down from $2,000, allowed since the office was created in 1831, to $1,800, and I submit as gracefully as I may, no alternative being left me. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner of the General Land Office. O. H. BREWSTER, Surveyor General Louisiana. A.-Statement of surveying contracts entered into by the surveyor general of Louisiana on account of the appropriation of $18,000 for fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. Sabine reservation returned and transmitted Remarks. B.-Statement of surveying contracts entered into by the surveyor general of Louisiana on account of the appropriation of $15,000 for the fiscal year ending 193 07 Surveys completed; notes approved; maps Work completed and approved; maps and Work completed in the field; notes will be Work completed in township 14 south, range Work completed and approved; maps and Notes returned and approved; maps and 1,000 20 ship 15 south, range 7 east. Appropriation as per act of Congress approved June 23, 1874 Balance unexpended. 10,387 79 15, 000 00 4, 612 21 Remarks. C.-Statement of surveying contracts entered into by the surveyor general of Louisiana on account of the appropriation of $15,000 for the fiscal year ending Surveys completed and approved; $180 00 Work completed; plats and transcript Deputy surveyor was relieved of this Survey completed as far as to cover Amount paid nder deposit. Township 7 south, 1ange 3 west; Southwestern $5,000 00 $5, 259 72 townships 8 and 9 south, ranges 3. 300 00 230 15 Southwestern 5,000 00 5,071 99 Township 18 south, ranges 21 and 22 Southeastern. east, and township 19 south, range Township 4 south, ranges 1 and 2 Southwestern 1,000 00 7 May 15, 1876 James L. Bradford. Townships 5 and 6 soutb, range 1 Southwestern' west, and township 5 south, ranges 2 and 3 west. $69 85 2.14 71.99 |