CHAPTER VI.

ADMINISTRATION AND SURVEYS.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

The public lands being under the entire control and direction of Congress, that body has from time to time enacted various laws creating agents to sell and otherwise dispose of the public domain, and from 1776 it has made grants. From May 20, 1785, and after, under order of Congress, the Board of Treasury (three commissioners), the then Treasury Department, made sales of the public lands and gave certificates. April 21, 1792, Congress authorized the President to give patent to "the Ohio Company of Associates" (Winthrop Sargent Cutler, Rufus Putnam, and others). May 5, 1792, the President was authorized to give patent for lands to John Cleves Symmes and his associates. The money in these cases was paid direct to the Secretary of the Treasury. By act of May 18, 1796, for the sale of the lands in the Northwestern Territory, now in Ohio, the Secretary of the Treasury received a set of plats of survey, kept check-books of sales, gave notice of sales, and performed other executive duties. He became the executive power or agent in the sale or disposition of the public domain, issuing patents for grants of land, &c., with the aid of registers and receivers of district land offices after 1810, and remained so until the organization of the General Land Office in his Department.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE CREATED.

April 25, 1812, Congress created the office of Commissioner of the General Land Office, and made his bureau in and subordinate to the Treasury Department, issuing patents, and performing duties formerly executed by the several departments. The Secretary of the Treasury, by a series of acts of Congress following this, obtained supervision of the acts of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and appeals from the action of the commissioner were made to him. July 4, 1836, the General Land Office was reorganized by law.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR CREATED.

March 3, 1849, Congress created the Home (now Interior) Department, and by section 3 of that law provided that the Secretary of the Interior "shall perform all the duties in relation to the General Land Office of supervision and appeal now discharged by the Secretary of the Treasury." Thereafter the General Land Office became and continues to be a bureau in the Interior Department. The Secretary of the Interior is now charged with the supervision of the public business relating to the public lands, including mines and pension and bounty lands. (See Chapter XI, section 441 page 75, Revised Statutes United States.)

Chapter III, section 453, page 77, Revised Statutes United States, provides thatThe Commissioner of the General Land Office shall perform, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, all executive duties appertaining to the surveying and sale of the public lands of the United States, or in anywise respecting such public lands, and, also, such as relate to private claims of land, and the issuing of patents for all [agents] [grants] of land under the authority of the Government.

The Commissioner of the General Land Office is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate; receives an annual salary of $4,000, and holds office indefinitely. He performs, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, all executive duties appertaining to the surveying and sales of the public lands of the United States, or in any wise respecting such public lands, and also such as relate to private claims of land and the issuing of patents for all lands under the authority of the Government. His duties are fully set out in Chapter III, Revised Statutes of the United States, pp. 76–78, sections 446 to 461; also, therein, the organization of the General Land Office. (See Report Public Land Commission, February 1, 1880, for details as to duties and importance of this bureau.)

IMPORTANCE OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

The General Land Office holds the records of title to the vast area known as the public domain, on which are hundreds of thousands of homes. Its records constitute the "Doomsday Book" of the public domain of the United States.

All the business pertaining to the survey, disposition, and patenting of the public lands of the United States is transacted through it, or under its order and supervision. No more responsible bureau of the Government exists.

Important questions of law often arise in the various divisions of this Office as to rules of evidence, as to boundaries, riparian rights, entries, locations, cultivation improvements, settlement, domicile, expatriation, jurisdiction of executive officers, such as the power of the Commissioner of Pensions to cancel land warrants under various circumstances after they have issued or after they have been located; as to the authority of this Office to set aside or cancel patents after execution, and before delivery and after delivery; as to rights of way and water rights; as to when patents take effect; as to when patents are valid, void, or merely voidable; as to when legal title passes without patent; in construing foreign treaties and Indian treaties; as to forfeitures, abandonments, assignments; as to rights of parties holding scrip of various kinds; as to the rights of owners of lost instruments; as to advancements for surveys, deposits and

excess.

The laws and decisions of various States and Territories have to be examined to determine who are the lawful wives, widows, heirs, devisees, executors, administrators, or guardians; to determine the jurisdiction of local courts and the validity of proceedings therein, and the legality of judicial sales.

Since the organization of the Government about three thousand acts have been

passed by Congress concerning the public lands. Many of these acts are composed of numerous sections, and many of these sections present a number of difficult questions of construction. These provisions are generally construed in the first instance by this office; it is often many years before a judicial interpretation is obtained, if ever. The Supreme Court of the United States has on more than one occasion declared that the construction and practice of this Department is entitled to great respect, and such construction is usually followed by the State courts. It is true that many of these enactments have been repealed; but under imperfect administration in former years, titles acquired or supposed to be acquired under such repealed provisions are found to be imperfect, and necessitate an examination and consideration of the early acts of Congress and of the rights of parties thereunder. In determining and in deciding these cases careful opinions must be written deciding the questions of fact and of law, giving reasons for conclusions and citing authorities.

Rules of practice in cases before the district land offices, the General Land Office, and the Department of the Interior are provided. (See circular approved October 9, 1878, and revised rules.

PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

Commissioner, James A. Williamson, of Iowa.

Chief Clerk, Curtis W. Holcomb, of Connecticut.

This bureau is charged with the survey and disposal of the public lands of the United States. There are at the present time, subordinate to the General Land Office, sixteen surveying districts, each in charge of a surveyor-general, with a competent corps of assistants and deputies, through whom the current and annual surveys are made and reported to this bureau. For the duties of surveyors-general, see Revised Statutes United States, section 2207 to section 2233, pp. 388-391.

There are also ninety-six land districts, each with an office conveniently located for the sale or other disposal of the public lands. These offices are in charge of registers, to whom application is made for lands, and receivers of public moneys, who, as the name indicates, receive all moneys in payment for the same, and are situated in the different public-land States and Territories. For the duties of registers and receivers, see Revised Statutes United States, sections 2234 to 2247, pp. 392-394.

The transactions of these subordinate offices are at regular intervals of time reported to the General Land Office, and the duty of classifying, examining, and definitely disposing of the work done in these offices, together with supervising and directing the same, forms the principal part of the work of the General Land Office, giving employment to an average of two hundred clerks.

In the execution of this work the necessities of the case have led to the system of subdividing the office into divisions, each in charge of a principal clerk, and to each of which respective work is referred when received from the district offices. These divisions are at present designated by letters from A to N, and in all correspondence sent from the bureau the initial letter of the division from which it emanates is marked, in order that the same may be the more readily referred to in after days.

Division A.

The chief clerk has charge of this division. Its work consists in receiving, briefing, and properly referring all communications received; in keeping the record of all appointments, resignations, or dismissals in the clerical force of the bureau; in supervising the opening or closing of district land offices; investigating charges against land officers; the matter of official bonds; the drawing of requisitions for printing; the expenditure of the contingent expense fund; and the assignment and general regulation of the clerical force of the bureau. In this division, also, all fees for exemplifications of records are received by a clerk designated for that purpose.

The chief clerk is, by law, made the Acting Commissioner during the absence of the Commissioner. (See section 447, Revised Statutes United States.)

Division B.

This division is in charge of the recorder of the General Land Office. (See section 447, Revised Statutes United States.)

In this division patents are prepared for all tracts sold or located with warrants or scrip at the district land offices, after such transfers have been properly examined in other divisions of the bureau.

A correct record is here kept of all patents issued, and letters transmitting patents are prepared.

The original papers forming the basis of patent are here filed, and all patents undelivered or uncalled for are retained in this branch of the office.

To this division are finally referred, for examination and proper action, the papers in locations made in satisfaction of military bounty-land warrants issued by authority of various acts of Congress. The same reference is made of locations by agricultural college scrip, and the special scrip issued to Porterfield. In this division land warrants and scrip, submitted for official approval, are examined as to genuineness and regularity of assignment.

All revolutionary bounty-land scrip is here prepared, as also are patents for lands in the Virginia military district, Ohio.

The recorder is appointed by the President, and, by law, is required to countersign all patents after they have received the signature of the President.

The number of patent records in Division B is as follows:

In charge of the principal clerk of public lands. (See section 448, Revised Statutes United States.) In this division are kept the numerous "tract-books," which show, in well-arranged order, the status of every surveyed tract of land which is or has been included in the public domain.

All sales or other disposals of land made and reported in the district offices are noted in the proper places in these books. They also show reservations for Indian, military, or other purposes, private grants and special appropriations of land.