25, 1812, under orders of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, then a bureau in the Treasury Department, to whom they were and are now subordinate.

The act of April 24, 1820, the general provisions of which have been carried into the Revised Statutes, fixed the minimum price of the public lands at $1.25 per acre Thereunder the lands were sold to the highest bidder at public sales for not less than the minimum rate per acre, and at private sale, after the offering, at the minimum rate. The general pre-emption law of September 4, 1841, required payment at the minimum rate for lands entered thereunder; that is, the minimum rate fixed by the act of 1820. This is the price required of pre-emptors and parties who commute their homestead entries under section 2301 of the Revised Statutes, except where the lands have been enhanced to the double minimum price of $2.50 per acre, in which case the preemptor or homesteader is required by law to pay for the same at the increased rate. Congress, upon making grants of alternate sections of land for railroad purposes within certain limits, provided that the sections within such limits reserved to the government should be enhanced to the price of $2.50 per acre. This rate is double that of the minimum rate established by the act of 1820, and is, therefore, termed the "double-minimum" rate. These are the existing rates of disposal under the general provisions of law for the sale of the public lands upon bringing them into market, or under the pre-emption statutes and section 2301, Revised Statutes, above mentioned. Lands subject to entry, which had been enhanced to the double minimum price and put in market prior to January, 1860, by reason of railroad grants, were reduced to the minimum price by the act of June 15, 1880.

DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC LANDS BY PUBLIC OFFERING AND SALE.

In some of the early acts of Congress providing for bringing lands into market dates were fixed for the sales, and the superintendence of the sales was placed under the register of the land office, or the governor or secretary of the Territory. In the act of March 3, 1803, which, among other things, provided for the disposition of lands belonging to the United States south of the State of Tennessee, it was provided that the President of the United States should make public proclamation of the sales, fixing therein a day or days for the same to take place. By this act it was provided that the sales should be made under the direction of the governor of the Mississippi Territory, the surveyor of the lands, and the register of the land office, the sales to take place where the land offices were "kept." The act directing the survey and sale of the public lands in the Territories of Orleans and Louisiana, approved March 3, 1811, provided for proclamation of the sales of lands in the Territory of Louisiana by the President, and that the same should be under the direction of the register and receiver of the land office and the principal deputy surveyor. In the acts of 1803 and 1811 it was directed that the sales remain open for three weeks, and no longer.

The statutes and rules at present in force in respect to offerings are briefly stated below.

The act of April 24, 1820 (see sections 2360, 2353, eighth subdivision, and 2238, R. S.), provided that the public sales authorized thereby should be kept open two weeks, and no longer; it also provided that the tracts to be sold be offered for sale in halfquarter-sections; and thereby registers and receivers were allowed a fee of $5 each per diem for superintending the sales.

The act of June 25, 1834 (section 2359, R. S.), provided that lands exposed to public sale by order of the President shall be advertised for a period of not less than three nor more than six months prior to the day of sale, unless otherwise specially provided. The act of August 3, 1846 (section 2455, R. S.), authorized the Commissioner of the General Land Office to order into market after due notice, without the formality and expense of a proclamation of the President, such isolated or disconnected tracts or parcels of unoffered lands which, in his judgment, it would be proper to expose to sale, and required that public notice of the offering for a period of at least thirty days should be given by the district officers pursuant to directions of the Commissioner. It is the rule to resort to published notice in such cases.

By a regulation of the General Land Office, district officers are allowed a crier and a clerk during the progress of the sales, at a stated per diem compensation.

Lands are offered for sale by public outcry, at not less than the minimum or double minimum price per acre, as the case may be, and are sold to the highest bidder in case bids are received.

Technical quarter-sections are sold in half-quarter-sections. Where practicable the north half of the section should be sold first, the order of offering being as follows: East half of northeast quarter; west half of northeast quarter; east half of northwest quarter; west half of northwest quarter; east half of southeast quarter; west half of southeast quarter; east half of southwest quarter; west half of southwest quarter. Such portions of sections as are designated by numbers on the plats are sold in the order of the numbers, as follows: Lot 1, lot 2, lot 3, lot 4.

The regulations require the district officers to keep a complete record in abstract form, day by day, as the sales progress, of each subdivision offered, and to note the sales made in the margin thereof, such notings as the following being desirable: Name of purchaser, date of sale, and the number of the certificate of purchase issued as the basis of a patent (which is also the number of the receipt for the purchase-money accompanying the certificate, a duplicate of which is given to the purchaser); and opposite the description of tracts offered, but not sold, the facts are required to be noted as follows: "Offered; no bids." When the sale is closed, it is required that the abstract of offerings be sent as a part of the official report of the district officers to the General Land Office, after making a copy of the same to be retained as a record in the district office. The practice in regard to making up the official reports of offerings has varied to some extent, but the above is substantially the present method.

The authority to proclaim lands for sale is not limited by law to a stated period of time after survey thereof. Of course it is not deemed safe or advisable to proclaim lands for sale prior to survey, even if contracts for survey thereof have been entered into.

The President is not empowered to proclaim lands for sale not authorized to be exposed to public sale by law of Congress; the laws authorizing such sales have reference to particular localities therein mentioned. There is no general provision of law authorizing public sales of all the vacant lands of the government, and a portion of the lands in the far west, the Territory of Utah, for instance, is not subject to be proclaimed for sale. The vacant lands generally in the Louisiana purchase are subject to be proclaimed for sale under the act of 1811, referred to above. The lands in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which were restricted to homestead entry by the act of June 21, 1866, were authorized to be brought into market by proclamation for sale at public offerings by the act of June 22, 1876. Lands within the limits of the Pacific Railroad and branches, belonging to the government, in the even-numbered sections, were restricted to homestead and pre-emption entry by the act of March 6, 1865.

In view of a resolution of the House of Representatives, which passed some time after the recent war of the rebellion, and the general drift of public sentiment expressed in various ways, it is the present policy to hold lands outside of the Southern States above mentioned, not yet proclaimed for sale, for actual settlers. The following is a printed form for proclamation of sales by the President:

Proclamation by the President of the United States.

In pursuance of an act of Congress of June 22, 1876, I, Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and make known that a public sale of valuable Government land will be held at the land office at Natchitoches, in the State of Louisiana, on Tuesday, April 13, 1880, at which time will be offered all lands not previously disposed of in the undermentioned townships and parts of townships, viz: -meridian:

North of base-line and west of the

[Here is given lists of townships to be sold. |

Lands appropriated by law for the use of schools, military, or other purposes, or reserved for railroad purposes, will be excluded from the sale.

The offering of the above lands will be commenced on the day appointed, and will proceed in the order in which they are tabulated in the lists of sectional subdivisions until the whole have been offered and the sales thus closed; but the sale shall not be kept open longer than two weeks, and no private entry of any of the lands will be admitted until the day after the close of the public offering. All lands held at double minimum price will be disposed of at not less than two dollars and fifty cents ($2.50) per acre, and all the lands held at minimum price will be disposed of at not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents ($1.25) per acre. Lists of sectional subdivisions are in the hands of the district officers, and will be open for the examination of those desiring to purchase.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this

By the President:

J. A. WILLIAMSON,

Commissioner of the General Land Office.

day of
A. D. 18-.
R. B. HAYES,

President of the United States.

Notice to pre-emption claimants.

Every person entitled to the right of pre-emption to any of the lands within the townships and parts of townships above enumerated is required to establish the same to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the Natchitoches land office, and make payment therefor as soon as practicable after seeing this notice, and before the day appointed for the commencement of the public sale of the lands embracing the tract claimed; otherwise such claim will be forfeited.

No pre-emption claim based on a settlement subsequent to the date of this proclamation, and prior to the offering, will be recognized by the Government.

J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner of the General Land Office.

SEVERAL PRICES OF THE PUBLIC LANDS AT VARIOUS PERIODS.

The United States from 1785 to 1880 has sold land at various prices, as follows: Agricultural lands at the rates of 121, 25, 50, 66, and 75 cents, and $1.00, $1.25, and $2.50 per acre. Under the cash sales and pre-emption acts a vast area containing coal, and millions of acres of timber land, have been sold at the foregoing rates.

Mineral lands. In Michigan, Wisconsin, and other States lands containing copper and lead were formerly offered at public sale at not less than $5 per acre, and if not then disposed of they were to be held for private sale at that rate. Persons in possession under leases from the War Department, however, were to have preference right of purchase, at the rate of $2.50 per acre. Under present laws, except in the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas, lands valuable for minerals contained in veins or lodes, or "rock in place," including lead, copper, gold, silver, cinnabar, iron, &c., are sold at the rate of $5 per acre. Lands containing "placer" deposits of minerals are sold at the rate of $2.50 per acre. In the States above excepted all lands are sold as agricultural.

Coal lands are sold at $20 per acre where situated within fifteen miles of a completed railroad; otherwise at $10 per acre.

Desert lands are sold at $1.25 per acre;

Satine lands at $1.25 per acre; and
Timber and stone lands at $2.50 per acre.

CHAPTER IX.

DONATIONS OF LAND AND SPECIAL GRANTS.

MISCELLANEOUS DONATIONS.

Running through the statutes of the United States for a period of ninety years is a series of laws for the disposition of the public domain other than by the cash, preemption, or homestead methods, perhaps a thousand in number, most of them obsolete because of execution, others still in force waiting confirmations under them or entire execution.

Congress for many years after the organization of the Government took up special and meritorious cases, and made grants of land in satisfaction of conceded cases of equity or merit.

LAND BOUNTIES TO BRITISH DESERTERS.

The first act of the Congress of the United States as to the disposition of public land was an act of the Continental Congress of August 14, 1776-an act offering to receive and make citizens of deserters from the British army (Hessians and British), and tendering each deserter, and to him or his heirs, to be held by him or them in absolute property, fifty acres of unappropriated land in some one of the States. By another act, of August 27, 1776, Congress proffered a quantity of unappropriated land in absolute dominion to such officers as should leave the armies of his Britannic majesty in America.

GRANT FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES.

Congress, July 23, 1787, in the ordinance defining the " powers to the Board of Treasury to contract for the sale of western territory," called attention to the reservation by the ordinance of May 20, 1785, of four sections in each township, viz: sections Nos. 8, 11, 26, and 29, to the use of the United States and for future disposition by Congress, and ordered the Board of Treasury to give lot (section) No. 29 in township or fractional part of a township perpetually for the purposes of religion. This grant was made for this purpose only in the Ohio Company's (Putnam and Cutler's) purchase and in the John Cleves Symmes tract, now in the State of Ohio. The patents to both the Ohio Company and John Cleves Symmes, issued by President Washington, set up this reservation of the twenty-ninth section in each township in the several tracts for the purpose of religion. This is the only direct and specific grant of land for religion to be found upon the United States statute books, although some grants have been made for mission purposes.

THE DORHMAN GRANT.

Arnold Henry Dorhman was agent for the United States at the court of Lisbon during the Revolutionary War. His house was an asylum for American sailors who had been captured by British cruisers. He fed, clothed, and nursed these unfortunates. Congress, October 1, 1787, after stating an amount, for which he produced vouchers, recited that there was a still larger amount due him for such expenditures and for 14 L O-VOL III 209

which he could not produce vouchers satisfactory to the Treasury Department, in consideration of which they granted him, free of cost of survey or other charges, with legal reservations therein, a township of land in the now State of Ohio. The act of Febru ary 27, 1801, directed the President to issue patent for the thirteenth township in the seventh range to Arnold Henry Dorhman, or his legal representatives. This tract is known as the "Dorhman grant" or "tract."

GRANTS TO REFUGEES FROM CANADA AND NOVA SCOTIA.

During the War of the Revolution there was a force of Canadian officers and men in the Army of the United States, who were known as " refugees from Canada." Jonathan Eddy and others were also refugees from the province of Nova Scotia at the same time. They became refugees on account of their attachment to the cause and interests of the United States. Congress, April 23, 1783, in considering the Canadian and Nova Scotian refugees, ordered "that they (the Canadian refugees) for their virtuous sufferings in the cause of liberty be further informed that whenever Congress can consistently make grants of land they will reward, in this way, as far as may be consistent, the officers, men, and other refugees from Canada." Like action was had in the case of the refugees from Nova Scotia. With the addition of recommending them to "the humanity and particular attention of the several States in which they respectively reside." A long series of acts of Congress followed. The ordinance of May 20, 1785, reserved three townships on Lake Erie-now in Ohio-for the satisfaction of the grants to these refugees. This was never fully carried into effect, as other lands were appropriated in lieu thereof by the act of July 18, 1801.

GRANTS TO EBENEZER AND ISAAC ZANE.

May 17, 1796, Congress granted to Ebenezer Zane three tracts of land one mile square, one on the Muskingum, one on the Scioto, and one on the Hockhocking River, in the State of Ohio, for the purpose of building ferries on the road from Wheeling, Va., to Limestone, which road he was to open under the direction of the President of the United States. These grants were confirmed to Zane and patented February 14, 1800, The rates of ferriage at said ferries were to be "ascertained [fixed] by any two of the judges of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, or such authority as shall be appointed for that purpose."

April 3, 1802, Congress ordered the same allowance to Isaac Zane, his heirs or assigns, locatable within the Northwest Territory, now in the State of Ohio.

GRANT TO THE FRENCH OF GALLIOPOLIS.

The French grant to the French inhabitants of Galliopolis (now in Ohio) was made by Congress March 3, 1795.

October 27, 1787, the Board of Treasury contracted with the Ohio Company for the sale to them of certain lands in (now Ohio) the western territory-Cutler, Sargent, and others. Cutler and Sargent, October 29, 1787, assigned a moiety of the land described in the (second) contract with the Board of Treasury to William Duer and associates. This portion of the land Joel Barlow was sent to Europe to dispose of. Duer and associates became the Scioto Company, to whom the lands purchased of the Ohio Com pany by Duer were conveyed. The agent of this company in conjunction with Barlow disposed of the lands to companies and individuals in France. These purchasers came to America, and were met by Duer as agent for the Scioto Company and sent to Galliopolis, on the Ohio River. Here each settler was presented with a deed for two lots in town and a four-acre out-lot. The place of these locations was discovered to be outside of the lands embraced in the first contract between the United States and the Ohio Company, and also the land confirmed to that company by Congress April 21, 1792. So, to quiet their title and give their holdings a legal status, Congress passed the several relief bills, beginning March 3, 1795, and followed by two several acts thereafter.