REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND WAR OF 1812.

The following statement exhibits the warrants in acres issued under several acts of Congress for the Revolutionary war and war of 1812:

Revolutionary war:

Act of September 16, 1776.

Act of February 18, 1801.

Act of March 3, 1803..

War of 1812:

Act of May 6, 1812.

Act of March 5, 1816..

Total

Acres.

The following exhibit shows the amount of "scrip" issued by the United States to claimants, in lieu of land warrants for military service, to June 30, 1880:

It will be noted that the several acts of Congress on and after May 6, 1812, making changes or alterations in the then existing laws, from time to time, down to July 2, 1862, generally presented as curative acts, and with the intention of covering existing cases of hardship, always resulted in the increase of the land-bounty class, and further depleted the public domain.

LOCATIONS OF WARRANTS FOR YEAR TO JUNE 30, 1880.

Statement of the total number of acres located at the various United States district land offices with military-bounty land warrants issued under the acts of 1847, 1850, 1852, and 1855, in the several land States and Territories, for the year ending June 30, 1880.

Grade of warrants.

BOUNTY LAND GRANTS-NUMBER OF WARRANTS AND ACRES.

The following table shows the bounty-land grants under the acts of 1847, 1850, 1852, and 1855, which included nearly all the wars the United States has been engaged in, and all operations thereunder to June 30, 1880:

Statement, under acts of 1847, 1850, 1852, and 1855, showing the issues and locations with bounty-land warrants, and the number outstanding, from the commencement of operations under said acts to June 30, 1880.

Acres embraced thereby.

CHAPTER XV.

TWO. THREE, AND FIVE PER CENT. FUNDS.

GRANTS TO STATES OF PORTION OF NET PROCEEDS FROM SALES.

Congress, by several acts of dates given below, granted and allowed to the several States containing public lands, with the exception of California, two, three, and five per cent. upon the net proceeds of the sales of public lands therein. These allowances were in lieu of State taxation of United States public lands within said States, and in many instances took effect from the date of admission into the Union.

Alabama, September 4,1841, and March 2, 1855.

Mississippi, September 4, 1841....

Missouri, February 28, 1859..

Ohio, April 30, 1802, and June 30, 1802..

Indiana, February 1, 1816, and April 19, 1816..

Mississippi, March 1, 1817, and July 4, 1836.

Illinois, April 18, 1818..

Missouri, March 6, 1820..

Alabama, March 2, 1819, and July 4, 1836..

Louisiana, act February 20, 1811.

Michigan, June 23, 1836..

Arkansas, June 23, 1836.

Florida, March 3, 1845.

Iowa, March 3, 1845, and December 28, 1846.

Iowa, March 2, 1849..

Colorado, March 3, 1875.

Per cent.

2

2

3

3

3

3

5

5

Nebraska, April 19, 1864.

Nevada, March 21, 1864..

Oregon, February 14, 1859.

Minnesota, February 26, 1857, and May 11, 1858

Wisconsin, August 6, 1846, and May 29, 1848....

Statement of the amounts which have accrued to the following named States on account of the two, three, and five per cent. upon the net proceeds of the sales of public lands to June 30, 1880, inclusive.

TAXATION OF PUBLIC LANDS.

Under the present practice, after the register's certificate and receiver's receipt have been issued for lands purchased of or acquired from the United States, the authorities of the States or Territories in which they lie list them for taxation although no patent has issued. Prior to this only the value of improvements is taxed, not the land, as the fee is in the United States. States containing public lands renounce their right to tax the public domain at the time of their admission into the Union. A State may tax land after it has been entered and paid for, although no patent has been entered (issued) therefor. (Carroll v. Safford, 3 How., 441; Levi v. Thompson, 4 How., 17; Carroll v. Perry, 4 McLean, 25; Astrom v. Hammond, 3 McLean, 107; Witherspoon v. Duncan, 4 Wall., 210; S. C., 21 Ark., 240.)

CHAPTER XVI.

INDIAN RESERVATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

EXTINGUISHING THE INDIAN TITLE TO LANDS.

Preliminary to survey of lands within the public domain the United States requires the extinction of the Indian title or Indian right of occupancy thereof. Without this being done the surveys will not be made.

The ninth article of the Articles of Confederation declared

The United States in Congress assembled have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians not members of any of the States: Provided, That the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not infringed or violated.

Under this, September 22, 1783, Congress issued a proclamation prohibiting and forbidding all persons from making settlements on lands inhabited or claimed by Indians without the limits or jurisdiction of any particular State, and from purchasing or receiving any gift or cession of such lands or claims without the express authority and direction of the United States in Congress assembled.

It further declared that every such purchase or settlement, gift or cession, not having the authority aforesaid should be "null and void," and that no right or title should accrue in consequence of any such purchase, gift, cession, or settlement.

INDIAN OCCUPANCY TITLE TO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN-HOW EXTINGUISHED.

From the organization of the National Government it has been the rule of the Nation to purchase the occupancy right from the Indians, generally giving them more value in the compensation than the use of the ceded lands is worth to the Indians. The Government has never attempted to survey and dispose of lands prior to their cession by the Indians.

The civil status of the Indians has been defined by a long series of statutes and court rulings.

In the cases of the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (5 Peters, 1), and Worcester v. Georgia (6 Peters, 515), the Indian tribes residing within the United States were recognized in some sense as political bodies, not as foreign nations nor as domestic nations, but still possessing and exercising some of the functions of nationality; but by act of Congress of March 3, 1871, it was provided that hereafter no recognition by treaty or otherwise should be made by the United States of the claim of any Indian tribe as being an independent nation, tribe, or power. They hold a relation of wardship to the General Government and are subject to its control. A State legislature has no jurisdiction over the Indian territory contained within the territorial limits of the State; but in the case of New York v. Dibble (21 Howard, 366), it was decided that the State holds the sovereign police authority over the persons and property of the Indians, so far as necessary to preserve the peace and protect them from imposi tion and intrusion.

In regard to right of soil it was settled in the case of the United States v. Rogers (4 Howard, 567), that the Indian tribes are not the owners of the territories occupied by them. These are vacant or unoccupied public lands belonging to the United States.