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lots, which have been confirmed by this and former acts of congress, in their district, shall 2 March 1829. be located and surveyed, having regard to the laws, usages and customs of the Spanish Location of con government on that subject, and also the mode adopted by the government of the United firmed claims. States, in surveying the claims confirmed by virtue of the second and third sections of an act of congress entitled "An act regulating the grants of lands, and providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States, south of the state of Tennessee," approved the 3d of March 1803;(a) and that so much of the fourth section of the "Act supplementary to the several acts for adjusting the claims to land and establishing land offices in the district east of the island of New Orleans," approved the 8th of May 1822, as interferes with the power granted to the register and receiver of the land office at Saint Stephen's, be and the same is hereby repealed.(b)

4 Stat. 408.

district of Jack

confirmed.

411. Certificates of confirmation and patents shall be granted for all lands and town Ibid. 26. lots confirmed by virtue of the provisions of this act, in the same manner as patents are Certificates of granted for lands and town lots confirmed under former acts of congress. confirmation, &c. 412. All the claims to lands reported by the register and receiver of the land office for 28 May 1830 § 1. the district of Jackson Court-house, in the state of Mississippi, under the provisions of the act of congress, approved on the 24th day of May 1828, entitled "An act supple- Spanish grants in mentary to the several acts providing for the adjustment of land claims in the state of son Court-house Mississippi," as founded on any order of survey, requette, permission to settle or other written evidence of claim derived from the Spanish authorities, which ought, in the opinion of the said register and receiver, to be confirmed, and which, by the said reports, appear to be derived from the Spanish government prior to the 20th of December 1803, Conditions 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 15th day of Limitation. April 1813, under the authority of the Spanish government, in pursuance of such claim, has not been filed with the said register and receiver, 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 comprised in the reports as aforesaid, and which ought, in the opinion of the register and receiver, to be confirmed, the claimant to such land shall be entitled to a grant therefor, as a donation, not to exceed twelve hundred and eighty acres to any one person: And provided also, That the claim of the representatives of Louis Boisdore, numbered four, in report numbered three, shall not be confirmed to more than twelve hundred and eighty acres. And all the confirmations of the said incomplete titles and Effect of congrants of donations, hereby provided to be made, shall amount only to a relinquishment for ever, on the part of the United States, of any claim whatever to the tract of land so confirmed or granted without prejudice to the interests of third persons.

firmation.

1813.

Ibid. 2.

413. Every person, or his or her legal representatives, whose claim is embraced by the said register and receiver in their reports numbers five, six and seven, of actual settlers, Donations to or their legal representatives, not having any written evidence of claim, shall, where it settlers prior to appears by the said reports that the land claimed or settled on had been actually inhabited and cultivated by such person or persons, in whose right the same is claimed, on or before the 15th day of April 1813, 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 granted to any one person, and the same shall not exceed six hundred and forty acres, to include his or her improvements, and to be bounded by sectional or divisional lines; and that no lands shall be thus granted which are claimed or recognised by the preceding section.

Ibid. § 3.

414. Every person, or his or her legal representatives, comprised in the aforesaid reports of actual settlers, not having any written evidence of claim, who, on the 3d day Settlers without of March 1819, did, as appears by those reports, actually inhabit and cultivate a tract evidence of title to have right of of land in the said district, not claimed under any written evidence of title legally pre-emption. derived from the French, British or Spanish governments, or granted as a donation, shall be entitled to become the purchaser of the quarter-section, or two-eighths of any section, on which the improvements may be, and including the same, at the same price for which other public lands are sold at private sale: Provided, That the same shall be entered with the register of the land office, within the term of two years, or before, if the same shall be offered at public sale: And provided also, That, where any such person is settled on, and has improved any school lands in said district, such person shall be governed by the provisions of the fourth section of the act approved on the 22d day of April 1826, (c) entitled "An act giving the right of pre-emption, in the purchase of lands, to certain settlers in the states of Alabama, Mississippi and territory of Florida."

Ibid. 84.

415. The register and receiver of the said district shall possess the same powers and perform the same duties, in relation to the claims confirmed by this act, as are given to, powers of regis and required of them by the act of congress of the 8th of May 1822, (d) entitled “An ter and receiver. (a) See supra, 41, 354, 388.

(b) See infra, 473.

(c) See infra, 601.

(d) See infra, 473.

28 May 1830.

5 Aug. 1848

9 Stat. 273.

1.

act supplementary to the several acts for adjusting the claims and titles to lands, and establishing land offices in the district east of the island of New Orleans."

416. All confirmed claims and settlement rights for lands situate in the state of Mis sissippi, east of the Pearl river and south of thirty-first degree of north latitude, which Confirmation of had not been actually surveyed on the ground, and for which no plats of actual survey

unsurveyed

laims.

Surveys to be made.

had been returned to the surveyor-general's office south of Tennessee, on or before the first day of January 1839, shall be and are hereby confirmed, according to actual surveys hereafter to be made, as herein provided for, in the same manner that said claims actually surveyed on the ground, and returned to the surveyor-general's office at the time aforesaid, are confirmed by the act to which this is a supplement; and the surveyorgeneral is hereby authorized and directed, on request of any party interested, to cause the survey of said claims, without delay, and at any time between the passage of this act and the first day of January 1850, to be made and returned to his office; and he shall certify the return and plats of such actual surveys, so made, to his office, to the register and receiver for lands in the Augusta district for said state. And the surveyor-general, and the said register and receiver, shall regard these claims and plats of actual survey, in all respects, upon the same footing with the claims confirmed as actually surveyed upon the ground, by said act to which this is a supplement, and subject to and entitled When warrants to the benefits of all the provisions of said act: Provided, That if it shall appear to the surveyor-general, from the plats of actual survey already returned to his office, that any of said claims cannot now be actually surveyed on the ground, owing to their conflict with other claims already confirmed as actually surveyed on the ground, by the act to which this is a supplement, (a) then it shall be lawful for him to grant to the claimant, so deprived of his location, a warrant, as provided by the fourth section of said act, without causing the survey to be made.

to issue for deficiencies.

Ibid. 2.

warrants.

417. All warrants which have been heretofore issued, or which shall hereafter be Location of such issued, by the surveyor-general south of Tennessee, under the provisions of the original act to which this is a supplement, and under the provisions of this act, be and they are hereby authorized to be located upon any lands subject to sale at private entry in the state of Mississippi, in any of the land districts in said state, in the same manner that said warrants are now authorized to be located in the Augusta land district.

2 March 1805 24. 2 Stat. 326.

Notice of claim

to be filed with the register.

Evidence to be recorded.

II. ASCERTAINMENT OF CLAIMS.

418. Every person claiming lands in the above-mentioned territories, by virtue of any legal French or Spanish grant, (b) made and completed before the first day of October 1800, and during the time the government which made such grant had the actual possession of the territories, may; and every person claiming lands in the said territories, by virtue of the two first sections of this act, (c) or by virtue of any grant or incomplete title, bearing date subsequent to the first day of October 1800, shall; before the first day of March 1806, (d) deliver to the register of the land office, or recorder of land titles, within whose district the land may be,(e) a notice in writing, stating the nature and extent of his claims, together with a plat of the tract or tracts claimed: (g) and shall also, on or before that day, deliver to the said register or recorder, for the purpose of being recorded, every grant, order of survey, deed, conveyance or other written evidence of his claim; (h) and the same shall be recorded by the register or recorder, or by the translator herein. after mentioned, in books to be kept by them 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: Provided however, That where lands are claimed plete grant to be by virtue of a complete French or Spanish grant as aforesaid, it shall not be necessary for the claimant to have any other evidence of his claim recorded, except the original Derivative titles grant or patent, together with the warrant or order of survey, and the plat; but all the to be exhibited. other conveyances or deeds shall be deposited with the register or recorder, to be by them laid before the commissioners hereinafter directed to be appointed, when they shall take the claim into consideration. And if such person shall neglect to deliver such barred, in default notice in writing of his claim, together with a plat as aforesaid, or cause to be recorded with the requisi- such written evidence of the same, all his right, so far as the same is derived from the tions of this act. two first sections of this act, shall become void, and for ever thereafter be barred; nor shall any incomplete grant, warrant, order of survey, deed of conveyance or other written evidence, which shall not be recorded as above directed, ever after be considered or admitted as evidence in any court of the United States, against any grant derived from

Recording of comsufficient.

Claims to be

of compliance

(a) Act 3 March 1845, to confirm the survey and location of claims for lands in the state of Mississippi. east of the Pearl river, and south of thirty-first degree of north latitude. 5 Stat. 740. (b) See act 11 August 1842, to settle the title to certain tracts of land in the state of Arkansas. 5 Stat. 505.

(c) See supra, 400–1.

(d) Time extended, infra, 425, 432, 436, 441, 523. (c) See infra, 126.

(g) See infra, 424.

(1) Congress has never allowed to these claims any standing other than that of mere orders of survey and promises to give title; which promises addressed themselves to the sovereign power in its political and legislative capacity, and which must act, before the courts of justice could interfere and protect the claim. Meu ard's Heirs v. Massey, 8 How 308.

the United States. (a) The said register and recorder shall commence the duties hereby 2 March 1805 enjoined on them, on or before the first day of September next, and continue to discharge the same, at such place in their respective districts, as the president of the United States shall direct.

419. Two persons to be appointed by the president alone, for the district of Louisiana, Ibid. 25. and two persons to be in the same manner appointed for each of the districts directed by Commissioners this act to be laid off in the territory of Orleans, (b) shall, together with the register or appointed. recorder of the district for which they may be appointed, be commissioners for the purpose of ascertaining within their respective districts, the rights of persons claiming under any French or Spanish grant as aforesaid, or under the two first sections of this act. The said commissioners shall, previous to their entering on the duties of their appointment, respectively take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation, before some person qualified to administer the same: “ I, ——————————, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will Oath. impartially exercise and discharge the duties imposed on me by an act of congress, entitled 'An act for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land within the territory of Orleans and the district of Louisiana,' to the best of my skill and judgment." It shall be the duty of the said commissioners to meet in their respective districts, at such place as Meetings. the president shall have directed therein, for the residence of the register or recorder, on or before the first day of December next, and they shall not adjourn to any other place nor for a longer time than three days, until the first day of March 1806, and until they shall have completed the business of their appointment.

commissioners.

420. Each board, or a majority of each board, shall, in their respective districts, have Powers of the power to hear and decide in a summary manner, all matters respecting such claims, also to administer oaths, to compel the attendance of, and examine witnesses, and such other testimony as may be adduced; to demand and obtain from the proper officer and officers, all public records, in which grants of land, warrants or orders of survey, or any other evidence of claims to land, derived from either the French or Spanish governments, may have been recorded; to take transcripts of such record or records, or of any part thereof; to have access to all other records of a public nature, relative to the granting, sale, transfer or titles of lands, within their respective districts; and to decide in a summary way, according to justice and equity, on all claims filed with the register or recorder, in conformity with the provisions of this act, and on all complete French or Spanish grants, the evidence of which, though not thus filed, may be found of record on the public records of such grants; (c) which decisions shall be laid before congress in the manner Their decisions to hereinafter directed, and be subject to their determination thereon: Provided however, That nothing in this act contained, shall be construed so as to recognise any grant or incomplete title, bearing date subsequent to the first day of October 1800, or to authorize the commissioners aforesaid to make any decision thereon.

be laid before congress.

pointed.

421. The said boards respectively shall have power to appoint a clerk, whose duty it Clerk to be apshall 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 deposited in the respective offices of the registers of the land offices, or of the recorder of land titles of His duties. the district; and the said clerk shall prepare two transcripts of all the decisions made by the commissioners in favor of the claimants to land; both of which shall be signed by a majority of the said commissioners, and one of which shall be transmitted to the officer exercising in the district the authority of surveyor-general, and the other to the secretary of the treasury. It shall likewise be the duty of the said commissioners, to Report to be made on rejected make to the secretary of the treasury, a full report of all the claims filed with the register mais. of the proper land office, or recorder of land titles, as above directed, which may have been 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 Reports to be laid transcripts of the decisions of the commissioners in favor of the claimants, shall be laid by the secretary of the treasury before congress, at their next ensuing meeting. When when corrobora any Spanish or French grant, warrant or order of survey, as aforesaid, shall be produced tive evidence to to either of the said boards, for lands, which were not, at the date of such grant, warrant or order of survey, or within one year thereafter, inhabited, cultivated or occupied, by or for the use of the grantee; or whenever either of the said boards shall not be satisfied that such grant, warrant or order of survey, did issue at the time when the same bears date, but that the same is antedated or otherwise fraudulent; the said commissioners shall

(a) This provision does not apply to complete titles; but to claims under incomplete titles, and claims arising from possession and cultivation, under the first and second sections of the act. United States v. Power's Heirs, 11 How. 582.

(b) See infra, 438.

before congress.

be required.

inure to the benefit of the holder of the true French or Spanish title. And where the French owner twice conveyed, and possession went with the junior title, and its holder presented his claim, and it was confirmed, and the holder of the elder title wholly omitted to do any act under the laws of congress, it was held that he was

(c) A confirmation by the commissioners does not necessarily entitled to no benefit therefrom. Strother v. Lucas, 6 Pet. 763.

&c.

2 March 1805. not be bound to consider such grant, warrant or order of survey, as conclusive evidence of the title, but may require such other proof of its validity (a) as they may deem proper, Compensation of 422. Each of the commissioners and clerks aforesaid, shall be allowed a compensation commissioners, of two thousand dollars in full for his services as such. And each of the said clerks shall, previous to his entering on the duties of his office, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation, to wit: "I, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will truly and faithfully discharge the duties of a clerk to the board of commissioners, for examining the claims to land, as enjoined by an act of congress entitled 'An act ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land within the territory of Orleans, and the district of Louisiana.'" Which oath or affirmation shall be entered on the minutes of the board.

Oath of clerks.

Ibid. 26.

Law agents to be appointed.

Their duties.

Translator.

28 Feb. 18063. 2 Stat. 353.

claims have not

Surveys to be directed.

423. The secretary of the treasury shall be and he is hereby authorized to employ three agents, one for each board, and whose compensation shall not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars each, for the purpose of appearing before the commissioners in behalf of the United States, to investigate the claims for lands, and to oppose all such as said agents may deem fraudulent and unfounded. It shall also be the duty of the said agent for the district of Louisiana, to examine into and investigate the titles and claims, if any there be, to the lead mines within the said district, to collect all the evidence within his power, with respect to the claims to, and value of the said mines, and to lay the same before the commissioners, who shall make a special report thereof, with their opinions thereon, to the secretary of the treasury, to be by him laid before congress at their next ensuing session. The said board of commissioners shall each be authorized to employ a translator of the Spanish and French languages, to assist them in the despatch of the business which may be brought before them, and for the purpose of recording Spanish and French grants, deeds or other evidences of claims on the register's books. The said translator shall receive, for the recording done by him, the fees already provided by law, and may be allowed not exceeding fifty dollars for every month he shall be employed: Provided, That the whole compensation, other than that arising from fees, shall not exceed six hundred dollars.

424. That so much of the act entitled "An act for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land within the territory of Orleans and the district of Louisiana," Plats need not be as makes it the duty of every claimant to lands within the territory of Louisiana, tc delivered, where deliver to the recorder of land titles a plot of the tract or tracts claimed by him, be and been surveyed. the same is hereby repealed, so far as relates to claimants whose tracts had not been surveyed by the proper officer under the Spanish government, prior to the 20th day of December 1803. And the commissioners appointed for ascertaining the titles and claims to lands, within either the territory of Louisiana or that of Orleans, are hereby authorized to direct the officer exercising the powers of surveyor-general within the same, to execute such surveys as they may think necessary for the purpose of deciding on claims presented for their decision: Provided, That the expense of executing such surveys shall be defrayed by the parties claiming the land, unless the same be claimed by a legal French or Spanish grant, made and completed before the first day of October 1800: And provided also, and it is hereby further enacted, That every such survey, as well as every other survey, by whatever authority heretofore executed, those of the above mentioned legal and complete titles only excepted, shall be held and considered as private Re-surveys to be surveys only; (b) and all the tracts of land, the titles to which may be ultimately conmade, before is firmed by congress, in conformity with the provisions of the act above mentioned, shall, prior to the issuing of patents, be re-surveyed, if judged neccessary, under the authority of the person exercising the powers of surveyor-general, and at the expense of the parties.

All others to be deemed private Eurveys.

suing of patents.

21 April 1806 3. 2 Stat. 391.

tended.

425. That the time fixed by the act to which this act is a supplement, for delivering to the register of the proper land office notices in writing, and the written evidences of Time for exhibit- claims to land in the territory of Orleans, be and the same is hereby extended till the ing claims exfirst day of January next; and persons delivering such notices and evidences, shall be entitled to the same benefits as if the same had been delivered prior to the first day of March last; but the rights of such persons as shall neglect so doing within the time limited by this act, shall be barred, and the evidences of their claims never after admitted as evidence, in the same manner as had been provided by the fourth section of the act to which this act is a supplement, (c) in relation to claims, notices and written evidences of which should not be delivered prior to the said first day of March last. 426. That the registers of the land offices in the territory of Orleans, respectively, be and they are hereby authorized to appoint so many deputies, not exceeding one for each

Ibid. 4

(a) By proof of validity, must be understood, of its genuineness and authenticity, and that it is not fraudulent, so as to satisfy themselves as to those doubts which authorized them to require further proof than the grant itself, of its legal, full and fair execution; not of the authority of the officer who made it; no law gives power to exact proof of that. United States v. Arredondo, 6 Pet 725.

(b) After the passage of this act, no surveys were deemed pub lic ones, except such as were made under the superintendence of the surveyor-general. This law equally applied to confirmations by the commissioners under the act 3 March 1807, (infra, 451) Jourdan v. Barrett, 4 How. 182. And see Mackay v. Dillon, Ibid 421.

(c) See supra, 418.

duties.

county, in their respective districts, as they may think necessary; whose duty it shall 21 April 1806. be to receive, enter and file notices, and to receive and record written evidences of claims Registers to apto lands lying in the county or counties to them respectively assigned, in the same man-point deputies. ner as the register might do; and also to transmit to the register the said notices and Their powers and evidences, or such transcripts of abstracts of the same, as the said register, or the commissioners may direct; and generally to do and perform all such acts, in relation to such claims, as the said register may direct. Persons having claims to land, may deliver the notices and evidences of the same at their option, either to the register of the proper land office, or to his deputy for the county in which such land lies; and each of the said Compensation deputies shall be entitled to receive the recording fees allowed to the register by the act to which this act is a supplement; and in addition thereto, (or a compensation of five hundred dollars in full for all his services) at the rate of one dollar for every claim filed with him, to be paid out of the moneys appropriated for carrying into effect the act to which this act is a supplement.

Ibid. 25.

tended.

claims to back

427. The commissioners, appointed for the purpose of ascertaining the rights of persons claiming lands in the territory of Orleans, shall, in their respective districts, have powers of comthe same powers, and perform the same duties, in relation to the claims thus filed before missioners exthe first day of January next, as if notice of the same had been given before the first day of March last, and as was provided by the act to which this act is a supplement, in relation to the claims therein described. Transcripts of the decisions of the said commissioners, and reports of the claims filed in conformity with the provisions of this act, shall be made and transmitted, as was provided by the act to which this act is a supplement, in relation to the claims therein described. It shall likewise be the duty of the To inquire into said commissioners, to inquire into the nature and extent of the claims which may arise concessions. from a right, or supposed right, to a double or additional concession on the back of grants or concessions heretofore made :(a) or from grants or concessions heretofore made to minors, and not embraced by the provisions of this act; or from grants or concessions made by the Spanish government, subsequent to the first day of April 1800, for lands which were actually settled and inhabited on the 20th day of December 1803; and to make a special report thereon to the secretary of the treasury; which report shall be, by him, laid before congress at their next ensuing session. And the lands which may be embraced by such report shall not be otherwise disposed of, until a decision of congress shall have been had thereupon.

Ibid. 46.

commissioners.

reduced.

428. Each of the registers aforesaid shall, in addition to his other emoluments, receive a compensation of five hundred dollars, for the services to be performed under this act, Compensation of prior to the first day of January next; and each of the commissioners aforesaid, shall registers and receive at the rate of six dollars a day for every day's actual attendance on the duties of his office, subsequent to the first day of January next: Provided, That the whole amount of compensation thus allowed, shall not for any commissioner exceed two thousand dollars: And provided also, That the president of the United States may, if he shall think Number may be proper, reduce, after the first day of January next, the number of commissioners on either or both boards, to one or two persons; and in case of such reduction, the commissioner or commissioners constituting the board, shall have the same powers which are vested by this act, or by the act to which this act is a supplement, in the board established by the act to which this act is a supplement. The clerk of each of the boards shall be Salaries of clerks and age ts. entitled to receive at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars a year; the translators at the rate of six hundred dollars a year; and the agents employed by the secretary of the treasury at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars a year, from the first day of January next, to the time when each board shall respectively be dissolved: Provided, That no more than one year's compensation be thus allowed to each of the said clerks, translators and agents: And provided also, That the secretary of the treasury may discontinue either one or both of said agents, whenever he shall think it proper.

Ibid. 7

429. That the commissioners appointed for the purpose of ascertaining the rights of persons, claiming lands in the territories of Orleans and Louisiana, be and they are Place of meeting hereby authorized, if they shall think it necessary, for the purpose of obtaining oral may be changed. evidence, either in support of, or in opposition to claims, which evidence could not be given at the usual place of their sittings, without oppression to the parties or witnesses, to remove their sittings, or to send for that purpose one or more members of the board to such other place or places, within their respective districts, as they may think necessary: and each of the commissioners going for that purpose, to such other place or Extra compensa places, shall, in addition to his compensation, receive at the rate of six dollars for every twenty miles, going to and returning from such place or places: Provided, That no com

(a) The commissioners reported that, by the laws and usages of the Spanish government. no front proprietor. by his own act. could acquire a right to land further back than the ordinary depth of forty arpens, and although that government invariably refused to grant the second depth to any other than the first proprietor, yet nothing short of a grant or warrant of survey from the

tion.

governor could confer a title or right to the innd. Jourdan v Barrett, 4 How. 181. Surgett v. Lapice, 8 Ibid. 67. In conse quence, congress, by act 3 March 1811, (infra, 485), gave to suck front proprietors a pre emption right to their back lands, rot ex ceeding forty arpens in depth.

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