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OF THE

COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE

FOR

THE YEAR 1866.

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

1867.

Extract from report of the Secretary of the Interior.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866, public lands were disposed of as follows:

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During the same period 6,423,984.18 acres were offered for sale. The cash receipts from sales and other sources were $824,645 08. The number of homestead entries exceeded that of the preceding year by more than sixty per cent.

There are sixty-one land districts and ten surveying departments. During the past year surveying operations have been prosecuted with energy in Minnesota, Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington, but have been deferred, on account of Indian hostilities, in New Mexico and Arizona. The anomalous condition of affairs in Utah has prevented any surveys there since the year 1857. At that date two and a half million acres had been surveyed. In order that they may be disposed of, it is recommended that a land district be created in that Territory.

The entire amount of the public domain is 1,465,468,800 acres, of which 474,160,551 acres have been surveyed.

The attention of Congress is again respectfully invited to the expediency of making early provision for the adjustment of claims to land situated in New Mexico and Arizona, arising under the laws of Spain or Mexico. The act of July 22, 1854, directs the surveyor general to ascertain the nature and extent of such claims under the laws, usages, and customs of Spain and Mexico, and to make a full report on all such as originated before the cession of the territory to the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Congress reserved the right to confirm, by its action, bona fide grants, and to give full effect to the stipulations of that treaty. Until such action, the lands covered by those claims are reserved from sale or other disposal by the government. The act does not apply to that valuable region of country acquired by the treaty concluded at Mexico, December 30, 1853. Good faith and sound policy require the separation from the public domain of private property held by an incipient and unperfected right, or by a complete title, under a grant of the government which preceded us in the exercise of jurisdiction and sovereignty over the soil. The confirmation of a private claim secures to the party a valid title. The location of his land, when ascertained by authentic surveys and noted upon our records, identifies the property of the United States, and facilitates the disposal of it. The authority of the surveyor general should extend to the lands ceded by the later treaty; and by a special tribunal created for the purpose, or through the action of the courts, all grants of this character could be definitely and finally disposed of. The boundary between New Mexico and Colorado, as well as that between California and Nevada, should be permanently established, and the limits between Florida and Georgia finally adjusted.

It has been the cherished policy of the government to assure upon the most liberal conditions to the actual settler a title to his home and improvements. His preference right of purchase is not confined to lands which were surveyed at the time of his settlement; nor is he required to pay for them, or for those surveyed but unoffered, until the day designated by the President's proclamation for the public sale. Differences of opinion exist as to the applicability to particular localities of some of the acts of Congress prescribing the period within which the declaratory statement for unsurveyed lands must be filed. No distinction ought to be made in regard to the time allowed for the payment for unoffered lands, and those which have been offered. I concur in opinion with the Commissioner of the General Land Office as to changes that might be advantageously made in existing pre-emption laws. They also should be greatly simplified and rendered more uniform in their operation. In this way controversies such as have been occasioned by incongruous and conflicting provisions will be avoided, and the benefits of this wise and just policy effectually secured.

The right of the pre-emptor attaches from the date of his actual personal settlement; that of the homestead settler from the date of his entry at the local land office. The latter is confined to surveyed lands. In either case the title may be consummated by a full compliance with the terms and conditions imposed by the law under which it was initiated. A party who has settled, with a view to pre-emption, upon a particular tract, and thus excluded all others from acquiring a right thereto, should not be permitted to abandon his original claim and enter the land under the homestead law. Such a privilege would, in many instances, inevitably lead to great abuse. The modes prescribed for acquiring title to land

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