GRANTS TO THE MARQUIS LAFAYETTE.

March 3, 1803, Congress directed the Secretary of War to issue land warrants to Major-General La Fayette for 11,520 acres. The land was to be located, surveyed, or patented at his option, or the warrants could be received in payment for lands within the present State of Ohio. March 27, 1804, Congress ordered that the warrants above granted might be located by General La Fayette in Orleans Territory.

Congress, December 28, 1824, ordered that $200,000 be paid to General La Fayette, and granted him or his heirs a township of land, which was afterward located in Florida.

THE LEWIS AND CLARKE GRANT.

March 3, 1807, Congress granted Lewis and Clarke and their subordinates lands for services in exploring the Louisiana purchase.

THE NEW MADRID GRANT.

February 17, 1815, Congress ordered that persons owning lands in the county of New Madrid, in Missouri Territory (now State), November 10, 1812, and whose lands had been materially injured by earthquake, should be permitted to locate the like quantity of land on any of the public lands of the said Territory, the sale of which was authorized by law. This act was frequently amended, and scrip issued.

THE LEVEE GRANTS.

May 26, 1824, Congress granted tracts of land in their limits to the parish of Point Coupee and the parish of West Baton Rouge on condition that they should keep a good and sufficient levee on said land, in front and on the river Mississippi.

MORAVIAN INDIAN GRANTS.

John Etwein, president of the Moravian Brethren's Society, at Bethlehem, for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, petitioned Congress for a grant of land in the western country for the use of certain Indians formerly residing thereon. The ordinance of May 20, 1785, provided "that the towns of Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrun, and Salem, on the Muskingum, and so much of the lands adjoining to the said towns, with the buildings and improvements thereon, shall be reserved for the sole use of the Christian Indians who were formerly settled there, or the remains of that society." Congress, September 3, 1788, ordered that the reservations be made (which was done) of 4,000 acres for each of the three towns named, all being in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. August 4, 1823, Lewis D. de Schweinitz, on behalf of the Society of the United Brethren for Promulgating the Gospel among the Heathen, and Lewis Cass, on the part of the United States, at Gnadenhutten made an agreement whereby the Moravians retroceded the grants of land above set out to the United States. After deducting leaseholds and grants made by the society, $43,356 was expended by the society under this trust up and to August 21, 1822, and their receipts from the lands were $9,998.581, leaving a deficit of $32,5-7.504. The United States reimbursed the society for surveys and locations.

The agreement set out that the revocation of the trust and transfer to the United States was conditioned upon the consent of the persons for whom the trust was created being first obtained-"the persons" meaning the Christian Indians, who were formerly settled there, or the remains of that society, including Killbuck and his descendants, and the nephews and descendants of the late Captain White-Eyes, Delaware chiets—or such persons as are now entitled to the benefits of the trust: "the motives of the society being to divest themselves of a trust burdensome to them and useless to the Indians, that their funds devoted to charitable purposes may be applied where there is a prospect that they will produce some permanent advantage." This agreement was affirmed by the society September 26, 1823.

November 8, 1823, Lewis Cass, for the United States, made an agreement with the Indians above named, or their heirs or descendants, known as the Society of Christian Indians, affirming and consenting to the act of retrocession to the United States of date August 4, 1823, with certain conditions as to reservation of land. This agreement granted them annuities, which were realized by the sale of the lands in the tracts named and placing the principal at interest. The deed of retrocession was executed April 24, 1824, President Monroe having approved the agreement November 8, 1823.

GRANT TO POLISH EXILES.

June 30, 1834, Congress granted a quantity of land for certain Polish exiles-two hundred and thirty-five in number-embracing thirty-six sections, which agents located for them. Two townships were surveyed for them near Rock River, in Illinois. These exiles from Poland were sent to the United States under order of the Emperor of Austria.

LANDS GRANTED TO THE DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM OF KENTUCKY.

By the act of April 5, 1826 (6 Stats., p. 339), there was granted to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Kentucky one township of land, excepting the sixteenth section, for the education of indigent deaf and dumb persons, with authority to sell said lands within five years, to be located in one of the Territories on lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished.

By the act of January 29, 1827 (4 Stats., p. 202), the location of so much of the grant as had been located on lands previously taken by claims of pre-emptors in the Territory of Florida was extended to unappropriated and unreserved lands in either of the Territories of Florida or Arkansas.

By the act of March 3, 1843, the trustees of the Centre College of Kentucky were invested with all the rights of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Kentucky in the grant, provided that the proceeds of the sale of the lands were not diverted from the purposes and intention of the original grant.

By the acts of April 11, 1836, July 20, 1840, April 14, 1842 (6 Stats., pp. 629, 810, 828), February 18, 1847 (9 Stats., p. 684), March 11, 1852 (10 Stats., p. 726), and February 7, 1857 (11 Stats., p. 496), the time within which the lands were to be sold by the original grant, was extended to 1862, excepting that portion located in Arkansas, which was limited to two years from the 5th day of April, 1842.

The lands located and patented under the grant amounted to 22,508.65 acres, of which 20,411.22 were situated in Florida, and 2,097.43 in Arkansas.

GRANT TO JEFFERSON COLLEGE, IN MISSISSIPPI.

The grant to Jefferson College, Mississippi, is concisely stated in the order of the Secretary of the Treasury dated October 5, 1812, as follows:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT.

Whereas by an act of Congress passed on the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and three, entitled "An act regulating the grants of land, and providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States south of the State of Tennessee," thirty-six sections of land to be located in one body, by the Secretary of the Treasury, for the use of Jefferson College were excepted from the sales of public lands in the Mississippi Territory;

And whereas by another act of Congress passed on the twentieth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, entitled "An act authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to locate the lands reserved for the use of Jefferson College in the Mississippi Territory," the Secretary of the Treasury is specially authorized and empowered to make the said location on any lands within the said Territory not sold or otherwise disposed of, and to which the Indian title has been extinguished.

Now therefore be it known that I, Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance of the authority vested in me as aforesaid, do hereby locate for the use of Jefferson College the sections numbered one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty

six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirtythree, and thirty-six, in township numbered ten in the second range west of the basis meridian, and the adjoining sections numbered thirty and thirty-one, in township numbered ten in the first range west of the basis meridian of the land district east of Pearl River, in the Mississippi Territory.

Given under my hand and seal of office this fifth day of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twelve. [SEAL]

ALBERT GALLATIN,
Secretary of the Treasury.

SPECIAL GRANTS AND DONATIONS.

These special grants or donations, comprising almost all of any note, run through a period of more than fifty years. For a complete list thereof see Statutes at Large from 1789 to 1850. Considering the tens of thousand of schemes presented, asking for donations of lands, the past legislation would indicate a jealous care on the part of Congress of special legislation relating to donations from the public domain.

The enactment of general settlement laws and the organization of a pre-emption system prevented many more special grants from being made. The obtaining of grants in many instances depends upon the energy and ability of the persons interested in them.

CHAPTER X.

THE PRE-EMPTION ACTS.

The first enactment relating to pre-emption was the act of March 3, 1801, giving a right of "pre-emption" to certain persons who had contracted with John Cleves Symmes, or his associates, for lands lying between the Miami rivers, in the Territory of the United States, northwest of the Ohio River. These persons were living upon the lands once within the Symmes tract, but were not included in the patent for the reduced area, which he finally obtained.

This pre-emption or preference right thus first established was a step toward abolishing the sale of unoffered land, and giving a settler the first right or preference as against a person desiring to purchase and hold for investment or speculation.

The essential conditions of a pre-emption are actual entry upon, residence in a dwelling, and improvement and cultivation of a tract of land. The several pre-emption acts give a preference to the settlers.

Pre-emption is a premium in favor of and condition for making permanent settlement and a home. It is a preference for actual tilling and residing upon a piece of land. The original act was followed through the period from 1801 to 1841-forty years--by sixteen acts; the most important being the act of 1830. Under the act of April 5, 1832, the Secretary of the Treasury, in 1834, ordered the subdivision of 80-acre tracts into 40-acre lots-quarter-quarter sections-and the minimum subdivision for sale or entry was a 40-acre parcel at $1.25 per acre.

EFFORTS TO CONFINE ITS BENEFITS TO CITIZENS.

During the consideration and prior to the passage of the pre-emption act of June 22, 1838, first session Twenty-fifth Congress, Mr. Merrick, of Maryland, in the Senate, moved as an amendment: "That the benefits of pre-emption be confined to citizens of the United States, excluding unnaturalized foreigners, or those who had declared their intentions to become citizens."

The vote upon Mr. Merrick's motion was-yeas: Messrs. Bayard, Clay of Kentucky, Clayton, Crittenden, Davis, Knight, Prentis, Preston, Rives, Robbins, Smith of Indi ana, Southard, Spence, Tallmage, Tiption-15. Nays: Messrs. Allen, Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Calhoun, Clay of Alabama, Cuthbert, Fulton, Grundy, Hubbard, King, Linn, Lumpkin, Lyon, Manton, Nicholas, Niles, Nowell, Pierce, Roane, Robinson, Sevier, Walker, Webster, White, Williams, Wright, Young of Illinois-28.

So the amendment was not adopted.

June 1, 1840, and the more complete act of September 4, 1841, gave a preference right only where the settlement was made subsequent to survey, which were amended and improved by acts of March 5, 1843, March 3, 1853, March 27, 1854. The two latter acts modified this rule as to settlement, so as to permit pre-emptions to extend to unsurveyed lands in California, Oregon, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, and New Mex ico.

The act of May 30, 1862, and sundry bills for relief of settlers passed at different dates, extended the time of payment on account of drought, plague from grasshoppers, &c. The act of March 3, 1873, authorized joint entries, and the act of March 3, 1879, prescribed the manner of making "final proof."

By the act of March 3, 1853, preference rights attached to alternate even-numbered sections along the lines of railroads where settled upon and improved prior to final allotment of the granted sections, and to lands once covered by French, Spanish, or other grants declared invalid by the Supreme Court of the United States.

By act of March 27, 1854, persons were secured in lands withheld for railroads where their settlements were made prior to the withdrawal from market.

The municipal town-site law of 1844, and the pre-emption provisions in the graduation act of 1854, gave way, the former to the town property and coal-land legislation of 1864 and 1865, the latter to the homestead statutes of 1862, 1864, 1866, the law of 30th May, 1862, intervening in regard to pre-emption and other important interests.

PRESENT LAW, JUNE 30, 1880.

The privilege of pre-emption now extends to settlement on unsurveyed as well as on surveyed lands, and a credit of from twelve to thirty-three months is given the pre-emptor by residence thereon.

By act of application at a district land office and the payment of a fee for the registration of his claim, a person gains the right to occupy thereunder a certain tract of land, offered or unoffered, now not more than 160 nor less than 40 acres (in the first act the quantity was 640 acres), for a limited period, with obligation at the end of that period to pay to the United States $1.25 per acre for the land in the tract claimed or entered, and receive a patent therefor.

Any person seeking the benefits of pre-emption under the laws now in force must be the head of family, a widow, or a single man over twenty-one years of age, a citizen of the United States, or must have filed a declaration of intention to become such, and that he is not the owner of 320 acres of land within the United States, and must be a person who has not quit or abandoned his or her own land in the same State or Territory to reside upon the public lands.

Actual settlement upon the tract claimed, for the exclusive use and benefit of the pre-emptor, and not for purposes of sale or speculation, must be shown, under the rules and regulations of the department, to the satisfaction of the register and re ceiver. Upon these simple requisites entry may be made to the extent of one quartersection or other compact body, not exceeding 160 acres (unless the quarter-section subdivision exceeds this amount by a fractional number of acres) upon any of the public lands of the United States to which the Indian title has been extinguished, not reserved, nor included within the limits of any incorporated town or selected for townsite purposes, or actually settled and occupied for trade and business, or lands which contain any known salines or minerals, except in the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, in which, by special act of Congress of June 2, 1866, the public lands are brought exclusively under the provisions of the homestead act, and by act July 4, 1876, are subject to private entry, after first being offered.

THE BENEFITS OF THE PRE-EMPTION SYSTEM.

The pre-emption system arose from the necessities of settlers, and through a series of more than 57 years of experience in attempts to sell or otherwise dispose of the public lands. The early idea of sales for revenue was abandoned, and a plan of disposition for homes was substituted. The pre-emption system was the result of law, experience, Executive orders, departmental rulings, and judicial construction. It has been many-phased, and was applied by special acts to special localities, with peculiar or additional features, but it has always and to this day contains the germ of actual settlement, under which thousands of homes have been made and lands made productive, yielding a profit in crops to the farmer and increasing the resources of the Natiou. The necessity of protecting actual settlers on the public domain and giving a preference right to persons desiring to make homes thereon became more apparent in the years from 1830 to 1840. The receipts of the government from cash land sales, during that period, was $81,913,017.83; in the years 1835 and 1836 being, respectively,