No. 12 B.-An Act recognizing the survey of the Grand Cheniere Island, State of Louisiana, as approved by the Surveyor-General, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the anomalous survey of the Grand Cheniere Island, in the Southwestern District of Louisiana, as approved by R. W. Boyd, Surveyor-General, on the twenty-eighth day of February, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, be, and the same is hereby, confirmed, and persons residing thereon at the date of this act who, according to the pre-emption laws now in force would be entitled to a preemption, shall be allowed such right on the lands referred to in this bill; but such preference right shall be confirmed to the single subdivision of land upon which the party may reside, and shall exceed, in no case, one hundred and sixty acres.

Approved, June 16, 1860.

No. 13 B.-An Act for the relief of congressional township number two north, of range number nine west, of the fourth principal meridian, in Adams County, State of Illinois.

Whereas section number sixteen in township number two north, of range nine west, of the fourth principal meridian, in Adams County, Illinois, is located in a lake or pond, and is in consequence thereof wholly unfit for cultivation, and is worthless to the inhabitants of said township for school purposes: Therefore

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the school trustees for the said township be, and they are hereby authorized to select one section of land in legal subdivisions of any of the public lands of the United States subject to entry or sale, at the minimum price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That when the same shall have been selected by the trustees aforesaid, and a description thereof returned to and approved by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, a patent or patents shall issue therefor to the inhabitants of the said congressional township, and shall be held and disposed of by them for the use of schools within the said congressional township in the same manner as other school lands are held and disposed of.

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SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said section sixteen in the township aforesaid shall revert to and invest in the United States, and be disposed of in the same manner as other public lands. Approved, June 16, 1860.

No. 14 B.-An Act for the relief of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be paid, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the Missionary

Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the sum of twenty thousand dollars, upon filing in the proper department a release to the United States, to be approved by the Attorney-General, of all claim to the land embraced within the limits of the military reservation at the Dalles, in Oregon Territory, and of all claim for damages for destruction of property on or near the said land by the United States troops or volunteers, or Indians, at any time anterior to the date of said release. Approved, June 16, 1860.

No. 15 B.-An Act confirming certain land entries under the third [proviso to the first] section of the act of third March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five,* entitled, An Act making appropriations for the service of the Post Office Department, during the fiscal year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-six.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all entries which have heretofore been allowed by registers and receivers, and in regard to which no adverse claims have arisen under decisions of the Secretary of the Interior, or of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, setting aside such entries, under that portion of the third proviso to the first section of an act, approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, entitled "An Act making appropriations for the service of the Post Office Department, during the fiscal year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six," in the following words: "That each contractor, engaged or to be engaged, in carrying the mails through any of the Territories west of the Mississippi, shall have the privilege of occupying stations at the rate of not more than one for every twenty miles of the route on which he carries a mail, and shall have a pre-emption right therein when the same shall be brought into market, to the extent of six hundred and forty acres, to be taken contiguously, and to include his improvements; but no such pre-emption right shall extend to any pass in a mountain or other defile," be, and the same are hereby, confirmed, subject to any bona fide claim under any law of the United States, to the whole or any portion of the lands embraced in said entries or locations made prior or subsequent to the date of the selection thereof by the persons aforesaid; and the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby directed to issue a patent for the lands embraced in said entries, upon payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for the land embraced in such patent: Provided, That each contractor shall satisfy the Secretary of the Interior that he has complied with the terms of his contract, and that said entries have been used and occupied as stations on the line of the route during the existence of his contract; and that the provisions of this act shall be restricted to one and the first bona fide set of pre-emptors on one and the same line of route.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That no rights, from and after the passage of this act, shall accrue under the provisions of the aforesaid act of third March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, which provisions are hereby repealed, saving all rights heretofore acquired or those provided for in the foregoing; and that for the purpose of facilitating the transportation of the public mails of the United States west of the Mississippi

* Vol. I. No. 279.

River to the Pacific Ocean, and intermediate points, the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized, upon the application of the Postmaster-General, to reserve, as mail stations, for the use and occupancy of mail contractors, during the existence of their contracts, a quantity of public lands, not exceeding the area of one section at any and all such localities as in his judgment are deemed necessary or advisable, to be taken where the public surveys have been made, according to the lines of those surveys; but where stations have been or may hereafter be designated in advance of the public surveys, such stations shall be laid off, under the direction of the Postmaster-General, in a square form, with power to order the adjustment hereafter of such boundaries, to conform to the lines of the public surveys, if such adjustment be deemed advisable, which lands thus reserved as stations shall be held as permanent mail service reservations, not subject to the operation of any existing pre-emption or other general land laws.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That whenever, from any cause, any of the reservations made under the second section of this act, shall be no longer needed for the purposes originally intended, or the convenience of the service shall require a change of location, the reservation thus abandoned by the Postmaster-General shall be laid off into suitable lots or parcels, and sold at public sale to the highest bidder, after at least three months' public notice, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and patents therefor shall issue as in case of the sale of other public lands, and all laws or parts of laws, heretofore passed, granting the pre-emption. privilege to mail contractors, be, and the same are hereby, repealed; but this repeal is not to affect any rights which may have actually existed under those laws before the passage of this act. Approved, June 21, 1860.

No. 16 B.-An Act to confirm certain private land claims in the Territory of New Mexico.*

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the private land claims in the Territory of New Mexico, as recommended for confirmation by the Surveyor-General of that Territory, and in his letter to the Commissioner of the General Land Office of the twelfth of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, designated as numbers one, three, four, six, eight, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, and the claim of E. W. Eaton, not entered on the corrected list of numbers, but standing on the original docket and abstract returns of the SurveyorGeneral as number sixteen, be, and they are hereby, confirmed: Provided, That the claim number nine, in the name of John Scollay and others, shall not be confirmed for more than five square leagues; and that the claim number seventeen, in the name of Cornelio Vigil and Ceran St. Vrain, shall not be confirmed for more than eleven square leagues to each of said claimants.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That in surveying the claim of said John Scollay, it shall be lawful for him to locate the five square leagues confirmed to him in a square body in any part of the tract of twenty-five

* See No. 90 B.. Amended No. 227 B.

square leagues claimed by him; and that in surveying the claim of said Cornelio Vigil and Ceran St. Vrain, the location shall be made as follows, namely: The survey shall first be made of all tracts occupied by actual settlers holding possession under titles or promises to settle, which have heretofore been given by said Vigil and St. Vrain, in the tracts claimed by them, and after deducting the area of all such tracts from the area embraced in twenty-two square leagues, the remainder shall be located in two equal tracts, each of square form, in any part of the tract claimed by the said Vigil and St. Vrain, selected by them; and it shall be the duty of the Surveyor-General of New Mexico immediately to proceed to make the surveys and locations authorized and required by the terms of this section.

SEO. 3. And be it further enacted, That the private land claims in the Territory of New Mexico, as recommended for confirmation by said Surveyor-General in his reports and abstract marked Exhibit A, as communicated to Congress by the Secretary of the Interior in his letter dated the third of February, eighteen hundred and sixty, and numbered from twenty to thirty-eight, both inclusive, be, and the same are hereby, confirmed, with the exception of the claim numbered twenty-six, in the name of Juan B. Vigil, which claim, numbered twenty-six, is not confirmed.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the foregoing confirmation shall only be construed as quit claims, or relinquishments, on the part of the United States, and shall not affect the adverse rights of any other person or persons whomsoever.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall or may be lawful for the said Juan B. Vigil, or any person claiming title under him, to institute suit against the United States for the lands claimed and embraced in said claim number twenty-six, not confirmed under the provisions of the third section of this act; said suit to be instituted in the Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico, to be defended by the District Attorney of the United States for said Territory, under the direction of the Attorney-General of the United States, with the right of appeal to either party from the decision of said Supreme Court to the Supreme Court of the United States, if such appeal be asked for within one year from the rendition of the judgment in said Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico, and not thereafter: Provided, That if the suit authorized by this section be not instituted within two years from the passage of this act, the said claimants shall be presumed to have abandoned all right or title to the lands embraced in said claim number twenty-six, and said lands shall thenceforth be held and deemed to be public lands belonging to the United States: And provided further, That in the determination of the suit authorized to be instituted by the terms of this section, the courts shall be governed by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the law of nations, the laws, usages, and customs of the government from which the claim is derived, the principles of equity, and the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, so far as they are applicable.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the heirs of Luis Maria Baca, who make claim to the said tract of land as is claimed by the town of Las Begas, to select, instead of the land claimed by them, an equal quantity of vacant land, not mineral, in the Territory of New Mexico, to be located by them in square bodies, not exceeding five in number. And it shall be the duty of the Surveyor-General of New Mexico to make survey and location of the lands so selected by said heirs of Baca when thereunto required by them: Provided, however,

That the right hereby granted to said heirs of Baca shall continue in force during three years from the passage of this act, and no longer. Approved, June 21, 1860.

No. 17 B.-An Act to grant to the city of Port Huron, Michigan, a part of the military reservation of Fort Gratiot for the enlargement of the city cemetery at that place.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby authorized and required to convey to the city of Port Huron, Michigan, of the military reservation of Fort Gratiot, a lot not to exceed thirty acres, to be taken from the land adjoining the city cemetery, and to be used for its enlargement and for no other purpose, so far and under such conditions and reservations as in the opinion of the Secretary of War the public interest, present or prospective, may require. Approved, June 22, 1860. .

No. 18 B.-An Act to declare the meaning of the act entitled "An Act making further provisions for the satisfaction of Virginia land warrants," passed August thirty-one, eighteen hundred and fifty-two.*

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior, in executing the provisions of the act passed August thirty-one, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, entitled "An act making further provisions for the satisfaction of Virginia land warrants," be required so to construe the same as to authorize the satisfaction in scrip of all warrants or parts of warrants issued on allowances made by the executive of Virginia prior to the first day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, coming within the principles already recognized by the Department of the Interior in the execution of the provisions of the said act, and whether issued before or since the first day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-two: Provided, however, That no warrant or part of a warrant shall be satisfied in scrip, founded or issued on any allowance made by the executive of Virginia since the first day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-two.

Approved, June 22, 1860.

No. 19 B.—An Act for the relief of congressional townships number six, south of range number eight west, in Randolph County, State of Illinois.

Whereas section number sixteen, in townships number six south, of range number eight west, in Randolph County, Illinois, is covered by a private claim number two thousand and fifty, by reason whereof the

* Vol. I. No. 211.