lieu thereof for any other tract: Provided always, That the party shall never be allowed 10 May 1800. thus to withdraw his former application, and to apply in lieu thereof for another tract, except when the tract described in his former application shall have been applied for previous to the date of that his former application.

Ibid. 11.

238. The secretary of the treasury shall and may prescribe such further regulations, in the manner of keeping books and accounts, by the several officers in this act men- Secretary to pre tioned, as to him may appear necessary and proper, in order fully to carry into effect scribe regulathe provisions of this act.

tions.

ters.

239. The registers of the land offices, respectively, shall be entitled to receive from Ibid. 12. the treasury of the United States, one-half per cent. on all the moneys expressed in the Compensation receipts by them filed and entered, and of which they shall have transmitted an account and fees of regis to the secretary of the treasury, as directed by this act; and they shall further be entitled to receive, for their own use, from the respective parties, the following fees for services rendered, that is to say: for every original application for land, and a copy of the same, for a section three dollars, for a half-section two dollars; for every certificate stating that the first fourth part of the purchase-money is paid, twenty-five cents; for every subsequent receipt for moneys paid, twenty-five cents; for the final settlement of account and giving the final certificate of the same, one dollar; for every copy, either of an application or of the description of any section or half-section, or of the plat of the same, or of any entry made on their books, or of any certificate heretofore given by them, twenty-five cents for each; and for any general inspection of the book of surveys, or general plat, made in their presence, twenty-five cents.(a)

Ibid. 18

of public sales.

240. The superintendents of the public sales, to be made by virtue of this act, and the superintendents of the sales which have taken place by virtue of the act entitled "An Compensation of act providing for the sale of the lands of the United States in the territory north-west superintendents of the river Ohio and above the mouth of Kentucky river," shall receive five dollars a day for every day whilst engaged in that business; and the accounting officers of the treasury are hereby authorized to allow a reasonable compensation for books, stationery and clerk hire, in settling the accounts of the said superintendents.

241. The fee to be paid for each patent for half a section shall be four dollars, and for every section five dollars, to be accounted for by the receiver of the same.(b)

242. The lands of the United States reserved for future disposition, may be let upon leases by the surveyor-general, in sections or half-sections, for terms not exceeding seven years, on condition of making such improvements as he shall deem reasonable.

Ibid. 14.

Fees for patents.

Ibid. 15.

Reservations may be leased. Ibid. 16.

who have erected

243. Each person who, before the passing of this act, shall have erected, or begun to erect, a grist-mill or saw-mill upon any of the lands herein directed to be sold, Pre-emption shall be entitled to the pre-emption of the section including such mill, at the rate of rights of persons two dollars per acre: Provided, The person or his heirs, claiming such right or pre- mills. emption, shall produce to the register of the land office satisfactory evidence that he or they are entitled thereto; and shall be subject to and comply with the regulations and provisions by this act prescribed for other purchasers.

Thil. 17.

244. That so much of the act, providing for the sale of the lands of the United States in the territory north-west of the river Ohio and above the mouth of Kentucky river, Repeat. as comes within the purview of this act, be, and the same is hereby, repealed.

2 Stat. 405.

245. That so much of any act or acts as authorize the receipt of evidences of the 18 April 1806 1. public debt, in payment for the lands of the United States, shall, from and after the 30th day of April 1806, be repealed: Provided, That the right of all persons who may have Provision for payment in pubpurchased public lands previous to the passage of this act, to pay for the same in stock, lic stocks reshall in no wise be affected or impaired: And provided further, That there shall be pealed. allowed on every payment made in money, at or before the same shall fall due, for lands purchased before the 30th day of April 1806, in addition to the discounts now allowed Discount to be by law, a deduction equal to the difference at the time of such payment, between the market price of six per cent. stock and the nominal value of its unredeemed amount; which market price shall, from time to time, be stated by the secretary of the treasury to the officers of the several land offices.

allowed, in oertain cases.

D. OF LANDS NORTH OF THE OHIO AND EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
I. SURVEY OF LANDS.

2 Stat. 277.

246. The powers vested by law in the surveyor-general, (c) shall extend over all the 26 March 1804 31 public lands of the United States to which the Indian title has been or shall hereafter be extinguished, north of the river Ohio and east of the river Mississippi; and it shall Powers and dube the duty of the said surveyor-general to cause the said lands to be surveyed into general.

(a) See supra, 51.

(b) But see supra, 117.

ties of surveyor.

(c) See supra, 151. And see act 29 April 1816, to provide for the appointment of a surveyor of the public lands in the territories af Illinois and Missouri. 3 Stat. 325.

20 March 1804. townships, six miles square, and divided in the same manner and under the same regu lations, and to do and perform all such other acts in relation to the said lands, as is provided by law in relation to the lands of the United States, situate north-west of the river Ohio and above the mouth of Kentucky river: Provided, That the whole expense of surveying and marking the lines shall not exceed three dollars for every mile that shall be actually run, surveyed and marked: And provided also, That such tracts of land as are lawfully claimed by individuals within the said boundaries, and the title whereto has been or shall be recognised by the United States, shall be laid out and surveyed at the expense of the parties respectively, in conformity with the true boundaries of such tracts. And it shall also be the duty of the said surveyor-general to cause to be run, surveyed and marked such of the Indian boundary lines of the said lands, as have not yet been surveyed; and, with the approbation of the president of the United States, to ascertain by astronomical observations the positions of such places north of the river Ohio and east of the river Mississippi, as may be deemed necessary for the correctness of the surveys, and to be the most important points of the geography of the country.

Indian boundaries.

& April 1818 31. 3 Stat. 412.

247. The surveyor of the lands of the United States in the territories of Illinois and Missouri, shall hereafter be allowed an annual compensation of two thousand dollars, in Salary and clerk lieu of the compensation now fixed by law; and shall also be allowed three clerks, whose whole compensation shall not exceed two thousand dollars per annum.

hire.

4 Stat. 494.

3 March 1831 7. 248. All the lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished lying north of the northern boundary of the state of Illinois, west of Lake Michigan, and east of the MisLands in Wiscon- sissippi river, shall be surveyed in the same manner and under the same regulations, provisions, restrictions and reservations as the other public lands are surveyed. (a)

sin to be sur

veyed.

3 March 1845 1. 5 Stat. 758.

Surveyor-general's office to be removed to Michigan.

249. Said surveyor-general's office north-west of the Ohio shall be removed to and kept at such place in the state of Michigan as the president of the United States shall from time to time direct. And on the removal of the said office as aforesaid, or as soon thereafter as practicable, the surveyor-general of said district shall be required to deliver over to the secretaries of state of the states of Ohio and Indiana, or such other officers To deliver copies as may be authorized to receive them, all the field notes, maps, records, and other papers appertaining to the surveys and land titles within their limits.

of papers.

Expense of surveys.

26 March 180432.

2 Stat. 277.

Land districts established.

Detroit.

Vincennes.
Kaskaskia.

250. The surveyor-general for the states of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, shall be, and hereby is, authorized to pay for the surveys to be made in the northern peninsula of Michigan and in the northern part of the southern peninsula of that state, at a rate not exceeding five dollars per mile for township boundaries, and four dollars per mile for section lines.

II. LAND OFFICES.

251. For the disposal of the lands of the United States, north of the river Ohio and east of the river Mississippi, in the Indiana territory, three land offices shall be established in the same, one at Detroit for the lands lying north of the state of Ohio to which the Indian title has been extinguished; one at Vincennes for the lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished, and which are included within the boundaries fixed by the treaty lately held with the Indian tribes of the Wabash; and one at Kaskaskia, for so much of the lands included within the boundaries fixed by the treaty of the 13th of August 1803, with the Kaskaskia tribe of Indians, as is not claimed by any other Indian Registers and re- tribe. And for each of the said offices a register and a receiver of public moneys shall be appointed, who shall give security in the same manner, in the same sums, and whose compensation, emoluments and duties, and authority, shall, in every respect, be the same in relation to the lands which shall be disposed of at their offices, as are or may be by law provided, in relation to the registers and the receivers of public moneys in the several offices established for the disposal of the lands of the United States, north of the river Ohio and above the mouth of the Kentucky river.

ceivers.

Ibid. 16. President may

252. The president of the United States shall have full power to appoint and commission the several registers and receivers of public moneys of the land offices established commission offi- by this act, in the recess of congress; and their commissions shall continue in force until the end of the session of congress next ensuing such appointment.

cers in the recess.

3 March 1805 21. 2 Stat, 343.

253. The lands lately purchased from the Indian tribes of the Wabash, and lying between the rivers Wabash and Ohio, and the road leading from the falls of the river Lands purchased Ohio to Vincennes, shall be attached to, and made a part of the district of Vincennes; and be offered for sale at that place, under the same regulations, at the same price, and on the same terms as other lands lying within the said district.

from the Wabash Indians, to be sold at Vincennes.

Ibid. 2.

Where lands ceded by the

254. Such and so many of the tracts of land lying north and west of the Indian boundary, established by the treaty of Greenville, which were ceded by that treaty to the United States, as the president of the United States shall direct, shall be surveyed and subdivided in the same manner as the other public lands of the United States; and (a) See act 12 June 1838, to create the office of surveyor of public lands in the Wisconsin territory. 5 Stat. 243.

treaty of Green

ville, to be sold.

shall be offered for sale at Detroit, or at such of the other land offices established by law 3 March 1805. in the state of Ohio, or in the Indiana territory, as the president of the United States shall judge most expedient, under the same regulations, at the same price, and on the same terms, as other lands lying within the same district.

Ibid. 23.

255. So much of the tract of land lately purchased from the Indian tribes known by the name of Sacs and Foxes, as the president of the United States shall think expedient Lauds purchased and shall direct, shall be attached to, and made a part of the district of Kaskaskias; and of the Sacs and shall be offered for sale at that place, under the same regulations, at the same price, and axes at Kas on the same terms as other lands lying within the said district.

kaskia

2 Stat. 448.

lands between

and Connecticut

256. For the disposal of the lands of the United States, situated between the United 8 March 1807 1 States military tract and the Connecticut reserve, a land office shall be established, which shall be kept at such place as the president of the United States may direct; and Office for sale of for the disposal of the lands of the United States, lying on the Ohio river, between the the military tract Cincinnati and Vincennes districts, a land office shall be established at Jeffersonville. reserve. And for each of the said offices a register and receiver of public moneys shall be appointed, who shall give security in the same manner, in the same sums, and whose compensation, Office at Jeffer · emoluments, duties and authority, shall, in every respect, be the same, in relation to the' lands which shall be disposed of at their offices, as are or may be provided by law, in relation to the registers and receivers of public moneys in the several offices established Registers and re for the disposal of the lands of the United States, north of the river Ohio and above' the mouth of Kentucky river.

sonville.

ceivers.

sale, except see

Delaware reserva

257. All the lands of the United States, in the said districts, shall, with the exception Ibid. 2 2. of the section number sixteen, and with the exception also of thirteen sections, (a) Lands to be including the lower town of the Delaware tribe of Indians, and their improvements, offered at public (which said thirteen sections shall be designated by the secretary of the treasury, and tion sixteen, and shall be reserved for the use of the said tribe and their descendants, so long as they con- tions. tinue to reside thereon, and cultivate the same) be offered for sale to the highest bidder, under the direction of the register of the land office and of the receiver of public moneys, at the places respectively where the land offices are kept, and on such day or days as shall, by proclamation of the president of the United States, be designated for that purpose; the sales shall remain open at each place for six weeks, and no longer; the lands shall not be sold for less than two dollars an acre; and shall in every other Price. respect, be sold in tracts of the same size, and on the same terms and conditions, as have been, or may be by law provided for lands sold north of the river Ohio and above the mouth of the Kentucky river. All the lands of the United States, in the said districts, Lands unsold to be subject to with the exceptions above mentioned, remaining unsold at the close of the public sales, private entry. may be disposed of at private sale, by the register of the respective land offices, in the same manner, under the same regulations, for the same price, and on the same terms and conditions, as are or may be provided by law for the sale of the lands of the United States, north of the river Ohio and above the mouth of the Kentucky river. And Patents. patents shall be obtained for all lands sold in said districts, in the same manner and on the same terms as are provided by law, for other public lands sold in the state of Ohio and the Indiana territory.

Ibid. 2 5

258. The several lead mines in the Indiana territory, (b) together with as many sections contiguous to each as shall be deemed necessary by the president of the United States, Lead mines to be shall be reserved for the future disposal of the United States; and any grant which may reserved. hereafter be made for a tract of land containing a lead mine, which had been discovered previous to the purchase of such tract from the United States, shall be considered fraudulent and null. And the president of the United States shall be, and is hereby May be leased by the president. authorized to lease any lead mine which has been or may hereafter be discovered in the Indiana territory, for a term not exceeding five years.(c)

2 Stat. 503.

259. The lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished by the treaty made at 25 April 1808 ₫ 5. Detroit on the 17th of November 1807, shall be attached to and made a part of the district of Detroit; and be offered for sale at that place, under the same exceptions and Lands celed at regulations, at the same price, and on the same terms, as other land: lying in that to that district. district.

Detroit attached

2 Stat. 590.

260. All that tract of land, to which the Indian title was extinguished by the treaty 30 April 1810 2 1 made at Fort Wayne, on the 30th day of September in the year 1809, lying west, and adjoining to the boundary line established by the treaty of Greenville, shall be attached Where lanas to, and made a part of the district of Cincinnati; and the residue of the lands to which Wayne to be sold.

(a) See supra, 225, as to the sale of the reserved lands. (b) These mines may still be leased under the law, though the territory has been divided, and afterwards organized into two states. The term territory, in this respect, is used as descriptive of the locality of the mines, and not to limit the exercise of the power by any subdivisions of it. Such a power exercised by the federal government, does in no respect interfere with state sove

ceded at Fort

reignty. United States v. Gratiot, 1 McLean, 454. 8. C., 14 Pet. 526.

(c) The power of congress to "dispose of" the public lands is not limited to sales thereof; they may be leased. United States v. Gratiot, 14 Pet. 525, 8. C., 1 McLean, 454. 40pin. 499. A lea-e for smelting ore is within the law. It is unnecessary for the lease to require the lessee to perform all the operations of mining.

Public sales.

30 April 1810. the Indian title was extinguished by the said treaty, and other treaties made at Vincennes in the same year, shall be attached to, and made a part of the district of Vincennes. And the said lands, with the exception of section number sixteen, which shall be reserved in each township for the use of schools within the same, shall be offered for sale to the highest bidder, under the direction of the register of the land office and of the receiver of public moneys, at the places respectively where the land offices are kept, and on such day or days as shall, by proclamation of the president of the United States, be designated for that purpose; the sales shall remain open at Cincinnati one week, and at Vincennes three weeks and no longer; the lands shall not be sold for less than two dollars an acre, and shall in every other respect be sold in tracts of the same size, and on the same terms and conditions, as have been or may be provided for lands sold in the same districts. All the lands in the said tracts, with the exception above mentioned, remaining unsold at the close of the said sales, may be disposed of at private sale by the register of the respective land offices, in the same manner, under the same regulations, for the same price, and on the same terms and conditions, as are or may be provided by law for the sale of lands in the same districts; and patents shall be obtained in the same manner, and on the same terms as for other public lands, sold in the same districts.

Private entries.

Ibid. 22.

Ibid. 2 3. Boundary be

261. The several superintendents of public sales directed by this act, shall receive four dollars a day, for each day's attendance on the said sales.

262. The second principal meridian established by the surveyor-general in the Indiana territory, shall be the boundary between the districts of Vincennes and Jeffersonville; tween districts of and the lands included in the said districts respectively, according to the boundaries

Vincennes and
Jeffersonville.

8 March 1819 1. 3 Stat. 521.

above mentioned, shall become a part of the district in which they are included, and shall be sold at the same place, in the same manner, and on the same terms and conditions as the other public lands, lying in the same district.

263. For the sale of the unappropriated public lands in the state of Ohio, to which the Indian title is extinguished, the following districts shall be formed, and land offices District of Piqua. therefor established: all the public lands as aforesaid, lying between the western boundary line of the state of Ohio, and a north and south line to be drawn at forty-eight miles east of the said boundary line, and bounded on the south by the Indian boundary, established by the treaty of Greenville, and on the north by the northern boundary of the state of Ohio, shall form a district, for which a land office shall be established at Piqua: and all the public lands as aforesaid, lying between the above described district and the western limits of the Connecticut reserve and Canton land district as first established, and bounded on the south by the Indian boundary established by the treaty of Greenville, and on the north by the northern boundary of the state of Ohio, shall form a district for which a land office shall be established at the town of Delaware.

Delaware.

District of Brookville.

Terre Haute.

Jeffersonville.

seivers

264. And for the disposal of the unappropriated public lands in the state of Indiana, to which the Indian title is extinguished, the following districts shall be formed, and land offices established: all the public lands as aforesaid, to which the Indian title was extinguished by the treaties concluded at St. Mary's in the month of October 1818, lying east of the range line, separating the first and second ranges east of the second principal meridian, extended north to the present Indian boundary, and north of a line to be run, separating the ninth and tenth tiers of townships north of the base line, shall form a district, for which a land office shall be established at Brookville: and all the public lands as aforesaid, the Indian title to which was extinguished by the treaties aforesaid, and lying west of the last described district, shall form a district for which a land office shall be established at the town of Terre Haute: and all the public lands as aforesaid, the Indian title to which was extinguished by the treaties aforesaid, lying east of the second principal meridian, and south of a line to be run, separating the ninth and tenth tiers of townships north of the base line, shall be, and are hereby, attached to the diзtrict of Jeffersonville: and the said lands shall be offered for sale with the same exceptions, and on the terms and conditions, in every respect, both at public and private sales, as is provided for the sale of the lands in the districts aforesaid: Provided also, That the president of the United States shall have power, and he .s hereby authorized, to remove, whenever he shall judge it expedient so to do, the land office from Jeffersonville, to some central and suitable place within the district.

Ibid. 2 2. 265. The president is hereby authorized to appoint, by and with the consent and Registers and re advice of the senate, for each of the districts aforesaid, a register of the land office and receiver of public moneys; which appointments shall not be made for any of the aforesaid respective land districts, until a sufficient quantity of public lands shall have been surveyed within such district, as to authorize, in the opinion of the president, a public sale of land within the same; which registers of the land office and receivers of public moneys, when appointed, shall each, respectively, give security in the same sums, and in the same manner, and whose compensation, emoluments and duties, and authority

shall, in every respect, be the same, in respect to the lands which shall be disposed of at 3 March 1819. their offices, as or may be provided by law in relation to the registers and receivers of public moneys in the several land offices, established for the disposal of the public lands of the United States, in the states of Ohio and Indiana.

266. The president of the United States shall have power, and he is hereby author ized, to remove, whenever he shall judge it expedient so to do, any and each of the land Rer oval of land offices established by this act, to such suitable place within the district for which it was established, as he shall judge most proper.

Ibid. 24.

offices.

267. Each of the registers of the land office and receivers of public moneys, shall receive five dollars for each day's attendance in superintending the public sales in their respective districts.

III. LANE CLAIMS.

2 Stat. 278.

268. Every person claiming lands within any of the three tracts of land described in 26 March 180423. the preceding section, (a) by virtue of any legal grant made by the French government, prior to the treaty of Paris of the 10th of February 1763; or of any legal grant made Declaration to be delivered by by the British government, subsequent to the said treaty, and prior to the treaty of peace claimants. between the United States and Great Britain, of the 3d of September 1783; or of any resolution or act of congress subsequent to the said treaty of peace; shall, on or before the 1st day of January 1805, deliver to the register of the land office, within whose district the land may lie, a notice in writing, stating the nature and extent of his claims, together with a plot of the tract or tracts claimed; and may also, on or before that day, Evidence to be deliver to the said register, for the purpose of being recorded, every grant, order of survey, deed, conveyance or other written evidence of his claim; and the same shall be recorded by the said register, in books to be kept for that purpose, on receiving from the parties at the rate of twelve and a half cents for every hundred words contained in such written evidence of their claim; and if such person shall neglect to deliver such notice, In default, to be in writing, of his claim, or to cause to be recorded such written evidence of the same, all his right, so far as the same is derived from any resolution or act of congress, shall become void and for ever be barred.

66

recorded.

barred.

ceivers to ex

269. The register and receiver of public moneys, of the three above-mentioned land Ibid. 24. offices, shall, for the lands respectively lying within their districts, be commissioners for Registers and re the purpose of examining the claims of persons claiming lands by virtue of the preceding amine claims. sections. Each of the said commissioners shall, previous to entering on the duties of his appointment, respectively, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation, before some person qualified to administer the same: I, do solemnly swear (or affirm) Oath. that I will impartially exercise and discharge the duties imposed upon me, as commissioner for examining the claims to land, by an act of congress, entitled An act making provision for the disposal of the public lands in the Indiana territory, and for other purposes.' 270. It shall be the duty of the said commissioners to meet at the places where the To meet and le said land offices are by this act established, respectively, on or before the first day of cide claims. January 1805; and each board shall, in their respective districts, have power to hear in

pointed.

a summary manner all matters respecting such claims; also to compel the attendance Their powers. of witnesses, to administer oaths and examine witnesses, and such other testimony as may be adduced, and to decide thereon according to justice and equity; which decision shall be laid before congress in the manner hereinafter directed, and be subject to their decision thereon. The said boards, respectively, shall have power to appoint a clerk, Clerk to be apwhose duty it shall be to enter in a book to be kept for that purpose, full and correct minutes of their proceedings and decisions, together with the evidence on which such decisions are made; which books and papers, on the dissolution of the boards, shall be His duties. deposited in the respective offices of the registers of the land offices; and the said clerk shall prepare two transcripts of all the decisions made by the said commissioners in favor of the claimants to land, both of which shall be signed by the said commissioners, and one of which shall be transmitted to the surveyor-general, and the other to the secretary of the treasury; and the lands, the claims to which shall have been thus affirmed by the commissioners, shall not be otherwise disposed of until the decision of congress thereupon shall have been made. It shall likewise be the duty of the said commissioners Report to secreto make to the secretary of the treasury a full report of all the claims filed with the try of rejected register of the proper land office, as above directed, which they may have rejected, together with the substance of the evidence adduced in support thereof, and such remarks thereon as they may think proper; which reports, together with the transcripts of the To be laid before decisions of the commissioners in favor of claimants, shall be laid by the secretary of congress. the treasury before congress at their next ensuing session. Each of the commissioners Compensation. and clerks aforesaid shall be allowed a compensation of five hundred dollars in full for his services as such. And each of the said clerks shall, previous to his :ntering on the

(a) See supra, 251.

claims.