(ACT of April 20th, 1818.)

SEC. II. So soon as, in the opinion of the president of the United States, there shall be a sufficient quantity of the public lands surveyed, within all or either of the land districts hereby established, to authorise the opening of all, or either of the land offices aforesaid, he shall cause the same to be opened, and shall proceed from time to time to appoint, with the advice and consent of the senate, for each of the said offices a register, and receiver of public moneys, who shall 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 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 land offices established for the disposal of the lands of the United States, north west of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky river.

SEC. III. Whenever a land office shall have been established in any of the districts aforesaid, and a register and receiver of public moneys appointed for the same, the president of the United States shall be, and he is hereby authorised to direct so much of the public lands lying in such district, as shall have been surveyed according to law, to be offered for sale, with the same reservations and exceptions and on the same terms and conditions in every respect, as was provided for the sale of the public lands in the territory of Louisiana, by the tenth section of an act, entitled "An act providing for the final adjustment of claims to lands, and for the sale of the public lands in the territories of Orleans and Louisiana; and to repeal the act passed for the same purpose, and approved February sixteenth, one thousand eight hundred and eleven," except that the register and receiver of public moneys alone may be competent to superintend the public sales, and that instead of one township for the support of a seminary of learning, there shall be two townships located for the purpose by the secretary of the treasury, and reserved from sale: Provided, That one of the said townships shall be located on the waters of the Missouri, and the other on the waters of the Arkansas.

ACT of April 3, 1818. Pamphlet edit. 41.

An act allowing additional salary and clerk hire to the surveyor for the Illinois and Missouri territories.

59. [See LANDS, northwest of the Ohio 80, ante page 492.]

ACT of April 20, 1818. Pamphlet edit. 133.

60. SEC. 1. The president of the United States shall have power, and he is hereby authorised, whenever in his opinion it shall be consistent with the public interest, to abandon the use of the navy arsenal, military hospital, and barracks, in the city of New Orleans, and of Fort Charlotte, at the town of Mobile; to cause

(ACT of March 3d, 1819.)

the lots of ground whereon the said arsenal, hospital and barracks in New Orleans, and Fort Charlotte, at Mobile, now stand, to be surveyed and laid off into lots, with suitable streets and avenues, conforming, as near as may be, to the original plan of the city and town aforesaid; and, when the surveys are completed, one plat thereof shall be returned to the secretary of the treasury, and another to such officer or agent as the president shall have authorised to dispose of the said lots; and the said lots of ground shall be offered at public sale at the city of New Orleans and town of Mobile, respectively, on such day or days as the president shall, by his proclamation, designate for that purpose, in the same manner, and on the same conditions and terms of credit, as is provided by law for the sale of public lands of the United States, and patents shall be granted therefor as for other public lands sold by the United States.

SEC. 11. The president of the United States is hereby authorised, as soon as in his opinion the public interest will permit, to cause the Fort St. Charles to be demolished, and the navy yard in said city to be discontinued, and the lot of ground on which the said fort is erected, shall be appropriated to the use of a public square, and may be improved for that purpose by order of the corporation of the said city.

ACT of March 3, 1819. Pamphlet edit. 81.

An act explanatory of the act, entitled "An act for the final adjustment of land titles in the state of Louisiana and territory of Missouri.”

61. SEC. 1. The provisions of the fifth section of the act of congress, entitled "An act for the final adjustment of land titles in the state of Louisiana and territory of Missouri," passed the twelfth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, shall be so construed as to extend to the citizens of the county of Howard, in the Missouri territory, as established by the act of the legislature of the territory, passed the twenty-third day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, any construction to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. II. The right of preemption given by the aforesaid provisions, as explained and extended by this act, shall not be so construed as to effect any right derived from the United States, by purchase, at public or private sale, of the lands claimed under the aforesaid act.

SEC. 1. Any person or persons who have settled on, and improved, any of the lands in the said territory, reserved for the use of schools, before the survey of such lands were actually made, and who would have had the right of preemption thereto by the existing laws, had not the same been so reserved, shall have the right of preemption thereto, under the same terms and conditions, and subject to the same restrictions, provided for other cases of a

(ACT of March 3d, 1819.)

right of preemption in said territory; and the register of the land office, and receiver of public moneys, for the district, shall have power to select any other vacant and unappropriated lands, in the same township, and as near adjacent as lands of equal quantity and like quality can be obtained, in lieu of the section, or parts of a section, which shall have been entered in right of preemption, according to the provision of this section.

ACT of March 3, 1819. Pamphlet edit. 97.

An act for adjusting the claims to land, and establishing land offices, in the districts east of the island of New Orleans.

62. [SEC. 1.] All the claims to land, founded on complete grants from the Spanish government, reported to the secretary of the treasury by the commissioners from the districts east and west of Pearl river, appointed under the authority of an act, entitled "An act for ascertaining the titles and claims to lands in that part of Louisiana which lies cast of the river Mississippi and island of New Orleans," which are contained in the several reports of the commissioners, and which are, in the opinion of the commissioners, valid, agreeably to the laws, usages, and customs, of the said government, are hereby recognised as valid and complete titles against any claim on the part of the United States, or right derived from the United States: And that all claims founded on British grants, contained in the said reports, which have been sold and conveyed, according to the provisions of the treaty of peace, between Great Britain and Spain, of the third of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, by which that part of Louisiana, lying east of the island of Orleans, was ceded to Spain, under the denomination of West Florida, or which were settled and cultivated by the person having the legal title therein, at the date of said treaty, are recognised as valid and complete titles, against any claim on the part of the United States, or right derived from the United States.

SEC. 11. All claims, reported as aforesaid, and contained in the several reports of the said commissioners, founded on any order of survey, requette, permission to settle, or any written evidence of claim, derived from the Spanish authorities, which ought, in the opinion of the commissioners, to be confirmed, and which, by the said reports, appear to be derived from the Spanish government, before the twentieth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and three, and the land claimed to have been cultivated and inhabited, on or before that day, shall be confirmed in the same manner as if the title had been completed: Provided, That in all such claims, where the plat and certificate of survey, made prior to the fifteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, under the authority of the Spanish government, in pursuance of such claim, has not been filed with the said commission

(Act of March 3d, 1819.)

ers, such claim shall not be confirmed to any one person for more than twelve hundred and eighty acres; and that for all the other claims to land comprised in the reports aforesaid, and which ought, in the opinion of the commissioners, to be confirmed, the claimant to such lands shall be entitled to a grant there for as a donation: Provided, That such grant, as a donation, shall not be made to any one person, for more than twelve hundred and eighty acres; which confirmation of the said incomplete titles and grants of donations, hereby provided to be made, shall amount only to a relinquishment forever, on the part of the United States, of any claim whatever to the tract of land so confirmed or granted: And provided also, that no such claim shall be confirmed to any person to whom the title to any tract of land shall have been recognised under the preceding provisions,

SEC. 1. Every person, or his or her legal representative, whose claim is comprised in the lists, or register of claims, reported by the said commissioners, and the persons embraced in the list of actual settlers, or their legal representatives, not having any writ ten evidence of claim reported as aforesaid, shall, where it appears, by the said reports, or by the said lists, that the land claimed or settled on had been actually inhabited or cultivated, by such person or persons in whose right he claims, on or before the fifteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, be entitled to a grant for the land so claimed, or settled on, as a donation; Provided, That not more than one tract shall be thus granted to any one person, and the same shall not contain more than six hundred and forty acres; and that no lands shall be thus granted which are claimed or recognised by the preceding sections of this act.

SEC. IV. Every person comprised in the said list of actual settlers, not having any written evidence of claim to land in said districts, and who, on the twelfth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, shall have inhabited or cultivated a tract of land in either of the said districts, not claimed by virtue of either of the preceding sections of this act, shall be entitled to a preference, on becoming a purchaser, from the United States, of such tract of land, on the same terms and conditions, and at the same price, for which the other public lands are sold at private sale: Provided, That the first instalment of the purchase money shall be paid to the receiver of public moneys of the district within which the land lies, within two years after the opening of the land office for such district.

SEC. V. For the purpose of adjusting the titles and claims to lands in the districts aforesaid, and for the disposal of the lands which may remain the property of the United States therein, a land office shall be established in each of the said districts, to be kept, for the western district, at St. Helena court house, and, for the eastern district, at Jackson court house; and a register and re

(ACT of March 3d, 1819.)

ceiver of public moneys shall be appointed for each of the said land offices, who shall give security in the same manner, and in the same sums, and whose compensation, duties, and authority, shall, in every respect, be the same, in relation to the lands which shall hereafter be disposed of, at their respective offices, as are by law provided in relation to the other registers and receivers of public money's for the several land offices of the United States.

SEC. vt. Every person or persons, claiming lands in either of the said districts, whose claims have not heretofore been filed with the commissioner of the land office, of the district wherein the lands lie, shall be allowed until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, to deliver notices in writing, and the evidences of their claims, in the said districts, respectively, to the register of the land office at Jackson court house and at St. Helena court house; and the notices and evidences so delivered, within the time limited by this act, shall be recorded in the same manner, and on the payment of the same fees, as if the same had been delivered before the commissioners closed their said regis

ters.

SEC. VII. Every person or persons, who had filed his or their notice of claims to land, within either of the said districts, with the commissioner of the land office, according to the former laws, but have not exhibited sufficient testimony in support of the same, and whose claim has not been recommended for confirmation, shall be allowed until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, to deliver written evidence, or other testimony, in support of his or their claim, the notice of which had been filed as aforesaid, to the register of the land office at St. Helena, for lands lying in the district west of Pearl river, and to the register of the land office at Jackson court house, for the lands lying in the district east of Pearl river; and the evidence of claims, the notice whereof had been filed, as aforesaid, for lands lying in the said district, delivered, within the time limited by this section, to the said registers, shall be recorded by them, respectively, in the same manner as was directed by former acts, on receiving the same fees allowed by said acts, for recording evidence of claims to lands in the same districts.

SEC. VIII. The register and receiver of public moneys of the said respective land offices, at Jackson court house and at St. Helena court house, shall have the same powers, and perform the same duties in every respect, in relation to the claims that may be filed in virtue of the sixth section of this act, and in relation to the claims, the notices of which had been filed under former acts, as well as to the additional evidence which shall be adduced in support thereof, agreeably to the seventh section of this act, as the commissioners for the districts east and west of Pearl river would have had, or should have performed, if such notices had been filed,