to the 31st degree of latitude, thence extending along that parallel of latitude to the river Mobile, and thence about sixty miles up the branch of that river called Tombigby." This tract having an inconsiderable breadth on the Mississippi is not estimated to contain more than six millions of acres.

66

A large tract of country in upper Louisiana appears also to have been ceded by the Sacs and Foxes, and by the Osages. No other treaties have been made by the United States with Indian tribes west of the Mississippi. It is however believed that the Indian title is extinguished to all the lands bordering on the west bank of that river as high up at least as the Missouri, but on what depth is not understood.

THE SECOND PART of this collection consists of the acts of Congress for the disposal of the public lands, and those have been arranged under four sections.-1. General provisions.-2. Donations.-3. Special Sales north of the Ohio.-4. Adjustment of private claims. But this being a collection and not a digest of the laws, and the text of the law having therefore been uniformly preserved, it has not been practicable to follow in the details as methodical an arrangement as would have been desirable.

A considerable part of the country had been successively subject to several foreign powers: the territories of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois to France and then to England; the southern part of the Mississippi territory, first to France, afterwards to England, and finally to Spain; Louisiana to France and then to Spain. A part of the land was claimed by the inhabitants and others, either by right of occupancy or under titles said to be derived from those several governments, or from the le

cal authorities. Eight boards of commissioners were instituted by various acts of Congress, for the purpose of investigating those claims, one for each of the territories of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Louisiana, two for the Mississippi and two for the Orleans territory. The rules prescribed by law to the commissioners have varied according to the nature of the claims respectively coming before them. But the object appears uniformly to have been to guard against unfounded or fraudulent claims, to confirm all bona fide claims derived from a legitimate authority even when the title had not been completed, and to secure in their possessions all the actual settlers who were found on the land when the United States took actual possession of the country where it was situated, though they had only a right of occupancy. In some cases also, a right of pre-emption has been granted to persons who had occupied lands in the Mississippi territory subsequent to the time when the United States had taken possession. The commissioners in that territory were authorised to decide finally on the claims; they have completed their work, and the boards are dissolved. The commissioners for the territories of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois were only authorised to investigate the claims, and to report their opinion to Congress. Their respective reports have been received, all their confirmations have been ratified by Congress, and the whole business has been completed in Michigan and Indiana. But it remains for Congress to decide on a great number of claims in the Illinois terri tory rejected as fraudulent by the commissioners. In the territories of Orleans and Louisiana, the commissioners have been authorised to decide finally on all claims not exceeding one league square, and to report their opinion to Congress on those of a greater extent, or for lead mines. Their reports have not yet been made; but those for Louisiana and the eastern part of the Orleans territory are expected within a short time.

The laws included under the head of "Donations" are

those respecting the bounties in land given to the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war, the grants made to the refugees from Canada and Nova Scotia in compensation of their losses and services, certain donations for public purposes in the state of Ohio, and miscellaneous grants made by Congress, to the United Brethren, to A. H. Dohrman, to the French inhabitants of Galliopolis, to General La Fayette, to Captains Lewis and Clarke, to Isaac Zane, and to some Indian tribes now residing within the boundaries of the lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished. These, together with the donations to actual settlers abovementioned, with another donation of 100,000 acres to settlers in the tract sold to the "Ohio Company," and with the reservations for schools and seminaries of learning hereafter noted, include all the lands given by the United States. The laws providing for granting patents to persons entitled to land in the Virginia military reservation, between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami have also been inserted under this head.

Three tracts of land had been sold by contract prior to the adoption of the present form of government, that is to say. 1. To the state of Pennsylvania, the triangular tract on Lake Erie abovementioned, containing 202,187 acres. 2. To an association called "the Ohio Company," a tract on the rivers Ohio and Muskingum, originally intended to contain about two millions of acres, but afterwards reduced at the request of the parties to 964,285 acres. 3. To John Cleves Symmes and his associates, a tract on the Ohio between the rivers Little and Great Miami, originally supposed to contain one million of acres, but which by an alteration, and then a failure in the contract has been reduced to 248,540 acres. All those lands were sold at the rate of two-thirds of a dollar an acre payable in evidences of the public debt of the United States, and a part of the two last tracts was paid for in military land warrants, each acre in such warrant being received in payment for one acre

and a half of land. A right of pre-emption, at the rate of two dollars an acre, has been allowed to persons who had made purchases from I. C. Symmes within the boundaries of his first contract. The laws respecting those subjects, those authorising the sale of lots at Cin cinnati and Shawnee Town, those allowing a right of pre-emption of 640 acres to George Ash, and of, 320 acres to William Wells, and that for the sale of 2560 acres to John James Dufour are arranged under the head of "Special Sales."

All the other public lands sold by the United States, have been sold under general laws. No more than 121, 540 acres had thus been sold prior to the act of 10th May, 1800, viz. 72,974 acres at public sale at New York, in the year 1787, for 87,325 dollars, in evidences of the public debt; 43,446 acres at public sale, at Pittsburg, in the year 1796, for 100,427 dollars; and 5,120 acres at Philadelphia, in the same year, at two dollars an acre. The system now in force was organised by the act last mentioned, but has received some subsequent modifications. Its general outlines, as it now stands, are as followeth :

1. All the lands are surveyed before they are offered for sale; being actually divided into townships six miles square, and these subdivided into 36 sections one mile square, and containing each 640 acres. All the dividing lines running according to the cardinal points, cut one another at right angles: except where fractional sections are formed by the navigable rivers, or by an Indian boundary line. The subdividing lines of quarter sections are not actually surveyed, but the corners, boundaries and contents of these are designated and ascertained by fixed rules prescribed by law. This branch of the business is conducted under the superintendance of two principal surveyors, who appoint their own deputies. The powers and duties of the first, who is called Surveyor General, extend over all the public lands north of the river Ohio, and over the territory of Louisiana. The

other, known by the name of Surveyor of the Public Lands south of the State of Tennessee, superintends the surveys in the Mississippi and Orleans territories. Both make returns of the surveys to the proper land office, and to the treasury.

2. The following tracts are excepted from the sales, viz. 1. One thirty-sixth part of the lands, or a section of 640 acres in each township, is uniformly reserved and given in perpetuity for the support of schools in the township. 2. Seven entire townships, containing each 23,040 acres, viz. two in the state of Ohio, and one in each of the territories of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi and Orleans, have been also reserved and given in perpetuity for the support of seminaries of learning. 3. All salt springs and lead mines are also reserved, but may be leased by the President of the United States. Three other sections were formerly reserved in each township for the future disposition of Congress; but this reservation has, since the act of 26th March, 1804, been discontinued. One section was also reserved in each township within the boundaries of the tracts respectively sold to the Ohio Company, and to John Cleves Symmes, and was given in perpetuity for religious purposes; but this reservation has not been extended to any other part of the public lands.

The Mississippi, the Ohio, and all the navigable rivers and waters leading into either, or into the river St. Lawrence, remain common highways, and forever free to all the citizens of the United States, without any tax, impost or duty therefor.

3. All the other public lands, not thus excepted, are, after the rightful private claims have been ascertained and confirmed, offered for sale at public sale in quarter sections of 160 acres each, but cannot be sold for less than two dollars an acre. The lands not purchased at public sale, may at any time alter be purchased in q art ́r sections at private sale, and at the rate of two dollars an acre, and without paying any fees whatever. The pur