thousand dollars; the recorder of the General Land Office, an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars; the principal clerk of the surveys, an annual salary of eighteen hundred dollars; and each of the said principal clerks, an annual salary of eighteen hundred dollars; from and after the date of their respective commissions: and that the said Commissioner be authorized to employ, for the service of the General Land Office, one clerk, whose annual salary shall not exceed fifteen hundred dollars; four clerks, whose annual salary shall not exceed fourteen hundred dollars each; sixteen clerks, whose annual salary shall not exceed thirteen hundred dollars each; twenty clerks, whose annual salary shall not exceed twelve hundred dollars each; five clerks, whose annual salary shall not exceed eleven hundred dollars each; thirty-five clerks, whose annual salary shall not exceed one thousand dollars each; one principal draughtsman, whose annual salary shall not exceed fifteen hundred dollars; one assistant draughtsman, whose annual salary shall not exceed twelve hundred dollars; two messengers, whose annual salary shall not exceed seven hundred dollars each; three assistant messengers, whose annual salary shall not exceed three hundred and fifty dollars each; and two packers, to make up packages of patents, blank forms, and other things necessary to be transmitted to the district land offices, at a salary of four hundred and fifty dollars each.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That such provisions of the act of the twenty-fifth of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twelve, entitled "An act for the establishment of a General Land Office in the Department of the Treasury," and of all acts amendatory thereof, as are inconsistent with the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That, from the first day of the month of October until the first day of the month of April, in each and every year, the General Land Office and all the bureaus and offices therein, as well as all those in the Departments of the Treasury, War, Navy, State, and General Post Office, shall be open for the transaction of the public business at least eight hours in each and every day, except Sundays, and the twentyfifth day of December; and from the first day of April until the first day of October, in each year, all the aforesaid offices and bureaus shall be kept open for the transaction of the public business at least ten hours in each and every day, except Sundays and the fourth day of July.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall apply to any register of any land office to enter any land whatever, and the said register shall knowingly and falsely inform the person so applying that the same has already been entered, and refuse to permit the person so applying to enter the same, such register shall be liable therefor to the person so applying for five dollars for each acre of land which the person so applying offered to enter, to be recovered by action of debt in any court of record having jurisdiction of the amount.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That all and every of the officers whose salaries are hereinbefore provided for, are hereby prohibited from directly or indirectly purchasing, or in any way becoming interested in the purchase of, any of the public land; and in case of a violation of this section by such officer, and on proof thereof being made to the President of the United States, such officer, so offending, shall be forthwith removed. from office.

Approved, July 4, 1836.

No. 33.-An Act to grant pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every actual settler of the public lands, being the head of a family, or over twenty-one years of age, who was in possession and a housekeeper, by personal residence thereon, at the time of the passage of this act, and for four months next preceding, shall be entitled to all the benefits and privileges of an act entitled "An act to grant pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands,"* approved May twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and thirty, and the said act is hereby revived and continued in force two years: Provided, That where more than one person may have settled upon and cultivated any one quarter section of land, each one of them shall have an equal share or interest in the said quarter section, but shall have no claim, by virtue of this act, to any other land: And provided always, That this act shall not be so construed as to give a right of pre-emption to any person or persons, in consequence of any settlement or improvement made before the extinguishment of the Indian title to the land on which such settlement or improvement was made, or to the lands lately acquired by treaty with the Miami tribe of Indians, in the State of Indiana, of which proclamation was made by the President of the United States on the twenty-second day of December, eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, or to any sections or fractions of sections of land included within the location of any incorporated town, or to the alternate sections to other alternate sections granted to the use of any canal, railroad, or other public improvement on the route of such canal, railroad, or other public improvement, or to any portions of public lands, surveyed or otherwise, which have been actually selected as sites for cities or towns, lotted into smaller quantities than eighty acres, and settled upon and occupied for the purposes of trade, and not of agricultural cultivation and improvement, or to any land specially occupied or reserved for town lots, or other purposes, by authority of the United States: And provided further, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect any of the selections of public lands for the purposes of education, the use of salt springs, or for any other purpose which may have been or may be made by any State, under existing laws of the United States: but this act shall not be so construed as to deprive those of the benefits of this act, who have inhabited, according to its provisions, certain fractions of the public lands within the land district of Palmyra, in the State of Missouri, which were reserved from sale in consequence of the surveys of Spanish and French grants, but are found to be without the lines of said grants. That before any person claiming the benefit of this law shall have a patent for the land which he may claim by having complied with its provisions, he shall make oath, before some person authorized by law to administer the same, which oath, with the certificate of the person administering it, shall be filed with the register of the proper land office when the land is applied for, and by said register sent to the office of the Commissioner of Public Lands, that he entered upon the land which he claims, in his own right, and exclusively for his own use and benefit, and that he has not, directly or indirectly, made any agreement or contract, in any way or manner, with any person or persons whatever, by which the title which he might acquire from the Government of the United States should inure to the use or benefit of any one except himself, or to convey or transfer the said land, or the title which he may acquire to the same, to any other person or persons whatever, at * See No. 22, and supplemental act, No. 40.

any subsequent time; and if such person claiming the benefit of this law as aforesaid, shall swear falsely in the premises, he shall be subject to all the pains and penalties for perjury, forfeit the money which he may have paid for the land, and all right and title to the said land, and any grant or conveyance which he may have made in pursuance of such agreement or contract as aforesaid, shall be void, except in the hands of a purchaser in good faith, for a valuable consideration without notice. And the certificate which shall be filed with the Commissioner, as aforesaid, shall be taken to be conclusive evidence that the oath was legally administered: And provided further, That it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause to be reserved from sale or entry, under the provisions of this or any other law of the United States, any tract or tracts of land reserved to any Choctaw, under the provisions of the treaty of Dancing Rabbit creek, of one thousand eight hundred and thirty, and also to reserve from sale or entry a sufficient quantity of the lands acquired by said treaty, upon which no such settlement or improvement has been made, as would entitle the settler or improver to a right of pre-emption under this act, to satisfy the claims of such Indians as may have been entitled to reservations under the said treaty, and whose lands may have been sold by the United States, on account of any default, neglect, or omission of duty, on the part of any officer of the United States; such reservation from sale to continue until the claims to reservations under said treaty shall be investigated by the board of commissioners appointed for that purpose, and their report finally acted on by Congress.

Approved, June 22, 1838.

No. 34.-A Resolution relating to the public revenue and dues to the Government.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall not be lawful for the Secretary of the Treasury to make or to continue in force any general order which shall create any difference between the different branches of revenue, as to the money or medium of payment in which debts or dues accruing to the United States, may be paid. Approved, May 31, 1838.

No. 35.-An Act to repeal the second section of "An act to extend the time for locating Virginia military land warrants and returning surveys thereon to the General Land Office," approved July seventh, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the second section of "An act to extend the time for locating Virginia military land warrants and returning surveys theron to the General Land Office," approved July seventh, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, be, and the same is hereby repealed.

Approved, March 3, 1839.

No. 36.-An Act making a donation of land to the Territory of Iowa, for the purpose of erecting public buildings thereon.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there be, and hereby is, appropriated and granted to the Territory of Iowa, one entire section of land, of any of the surveyed public lands in said Territory, for the purpose of erecting thereon the public buildings for the use of the Executive and Legislative departments of the Government of the said Territory: Provided, That the said section of land shall be selected under the authority of the Territorial Legislature, the seat of Government located thereon, and notice of said selection officially returned to the register of the land office in the district in which the land is situated within one year from the passing of this act: And provided further, That nothing herein contained shall authorize the selection of the sixteenth section in any township reserved for the use of schools, nor of any lot reserved for public purposes; and that in the selection to be made as aforesaid, no pre-existing improvement or right to pre-emption recognized by law, shall be prejudiced thereby.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if, at the time of the selection of the section of land to be made as aforesaid, the contiguous sections thereto have not been made subject to public sale, or being so subject have not been sold at public sale or by private entry, then each and every section contiguous to said selected section, and not so sold, shall be thereafter reserved and withheld from sale in any manner, until the further order of Congress thereon. But nothing herein expressed shall be construed to restrain the said Territory of Iowa, after appropriating a sufficient quantity of land within said selected section for the site and accommodation of the public buildings, from selling and disposing of the residue of said section in lots or otherwise, for the use of said Territory, in the erection and completion of said buildings.

Approved, March 3, 1839.

No. 37.-An Act for the relief of the Brothertown Indians, in the Territory of Wisconsin.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the township of land containing twenty-three thousand and forty acres, lying on the east side of Winnebago lake, in the territory of Wisconsin, which, by the proviso of a treaty made with the Menomonie Indians on the seventeenth February, eighteen hundred and thirty-one, and ratified on the ninth July, 1832, was reserved for the use of the Brotherton or Brothertown Indians, and which by a subsequent treaty with the Menomonie tribe, bearing date 27th October, 1832, and ratified 13th March, 1833, was further secured to the said Brothertown Indians, may be partitioned and divided among the different individuals composing said tribe of Brothertown Indians, and may be held by them separately and severally in fee simple, after such division shall have been made in the manner hereafter mentioned.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose of making partition and division of said lands among the individuals of said tribe of Brothertown Indians, a board of commissioners shall be constituted, to

consist of five of the principal or head men of said tribe, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum to do business, whose duty it shall be to make a just and fair partition and division of said lands among the members of said tribe, or among such of them as, by the laws and customs and regulations of said tribe, are entitled to the same, and in such proportions and in such manner as shall be consistent with equity and justice, and in accordance with the existing laws, customs, usages, or agreements of said tribe.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose of electing or choosing said board of commissioners, a meeting of said tribe shall be held at their church, or principal place, on the reservation of land aforesaid, on the first Monday in July next, at which all the male members of said tribe over the age of twenty-one years shall be allowed to vote for such commissioners; and the said five commissioners shall then and there be chosen or elected by the said tribe, by a majority of the whole number of such voters then present. And the judge of the district in which said lands are situated (or in his absence the register of the land office at Green Bay, or the commanding officer of the United States troops at Fort Howard) shall attend at the time and place aforesaid, and preside at said meeting, superintend the said election, and see that the proceedings are fairly conducted: and the said presiding officer may, in his discretion, prescribe whether the said election shall be by ballot or viva voce; and shall in other respects cause the proceedings to be conducted in such manner as to ensure a fair and proper choice or election; and after the said commissioners shall have been so chosen or elected, the said presiding officer shall immediately certify that fact, setting forth the names of the commissioners who shall be elected, and shall make two copies of said certificate, one of which he shall file in the office of the register of the land district at Green Bay, and the other he shall transmit by mail to the President of the United States.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That after the said commissioners shall have been elected or chosen as above prescribed, and as soon thereafter as conveniently may be, they shall proceed to make partition and division of all the lands aforesaid among the individual members of said tribe, or among such of them, as, by the laws, customs, usages, or agreements of said tribe are justly entitled to the same, and in such way and manner, and upon such principles and in such proportions as shall be agreeable to equity and justice, and consistent with the laws, usages, customs, and agreements of said tribe: Provided however, That the buildings and improvements, and the farms on which the same are situated, which are now held or possessed in severalty by the members of said tribe, shall, so far as the same can consistently be done, be allotted or apportioned to the present occupants; and that no person or individual of said tribe shall be dispossessed or deprived of the improvements or land which they now occupy, unless it shall be found by the said commissioners that such person or persons are in the possession of and occupying more land than they are justly entitled to, and then the overplus may be apportioned to others.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That after the said commissioners shall have made such partition and division as aforesaid, they shall make, or cause to be made, a full report of their proceedings in the premises, setting forth the name of each person to whom they have apportioned any part of said land, the quantity apportioned or allotted to each, with the metes and bounds, or other definite description of each several piece or parcel of land; and they shall accompany the said report with a fair and accurate map of the whole, showing the divisions and partitions aforesaid; which report and map, or a copy thereof, shall be deposited with the town clerk of said