a warrant for one hundred and sixty acres can take two eighty-acre, or four forty-acre tracts, forming a compact body of one hundred and sixty acres. Where the minimum price of the lands subject to private entry proposed to be located, is more than $1 25 per acre, the holder of the warrant can locate, in accordance with the instructions contained in the foregoing paragraph, the quantity specified in the warrant, by paying the difference in cash. This act does not authorize the holder of an eighty-acre warrant to locate therewith a forty-acre tract of land, at $2 50 per acre, in full satisfaction thereof, but he must locate, by legal subdivisions, the compact body of eighty acres, as near as may be, and pay the difference in cash. So also of one hundred and sixty-acre warrants. Each warrant is to be distinctly and separately located, so that it follows that no body of land can be located by an assignee of various warrantees, with a number of warrants; nor can a pre-emptor in any case use more than one warrant in the location of the land pre-empted by him, and the excess, if any, must be paid for by him in cash. The second section of this act provides, "that the Registers and Receivers of the land offices shall hereafter be severally authorized to charge and receive for their services in locating all military bounty land warrants, issued since the 11th day of February, 1847, the same compensation or per centage to which they are entitled by law, for sales of the public lands for cash, at the rate of $1 25 per acre, the said compensation to be hereafter paid by the assignees or holders of such warrants.' The third section of this act provides, "that Registers and Receivers, whether in or out of office at the passage of this act, or their legal representatives, in case of death, shall be entitled to receive from the Treasury of the United States, for services heretofore performed in locating military bounty land warrants, the same rate of compensation provided in the preceding section for services hereafter to be performed, after deducting the amount already received by such officers, under the act entitled, 'An act to require the holders of military land warrants to compensate the land officers of the United States for services in relation to the location of those warrants,' approved May 17, 1848: Provided, That no Register or Receiver shall receive any compensation out of the Treasury for past services, who has charged and received illegal fees for the location of such warrants: And provided further, That no Register or Receiver shall receive for his services, during any year, a greater compensation than the maximum now allowed by law." Where parties may desire to avail themselves of the privilege of having their warrants located through this Office, as provided for by the Act of 28th September, 1850, they must take the necessary steps to pay to the Register and Receiver the fees to which they are entitled. The same course must be observed by persons remote from the district land offices, in making applications by letter to those officers. Without the payment of those fees, the warrants cannot be located. By the terms of this law, the fees are as follows: For a 40 acre warrant, fifty cents each to Register and Receiver-total $1 00 For an 80 For a 160 one dollar (6 two dollars " 2 00 (( 4 00 J. BUTTERFIELD, Commissioner. P. S.-Numerous applications having been made for authority to sell. warrants and locations under powers of attorney, the following forms are prescribed for that purpose, which, however, must invariably be endorsed on the warrant, or they will not be recognized. No. 3.-FORM OF A POWER OF ATTORNEY. of Know all men by these presents, that I, (here insert the name of warrantee,) of the county of and State of do hereby constitute and appoint , my true and lawful attorney, for me, and in my name, to sell and convey the within land warrant, No. for acres of land, which issued under the Act of September, 1850. Signed in presence of (Warrantee's signature.) The acknowledgment of this power of attorney must be taken and certified in the same manner as the acknowledgments of the sales of the warrant or certificate of location herein before prescribed, and must also be endorsed on the warrant. J. BUTTERFIELD, Commissioner. No. 610. Circular. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, April 2, 1852. Gentlemen :-Enclosed you will receive the "forms and regulations for the assignment of land warrants and locations," and for the location of those warrants under the Act of 22d March, 1852, (No. 190.) These forms and regulations will be strictly complied with in all cases, and all the evidence in each case must be complete in itself. Where assignments are made under powers of attorney, the power of attorney must be endorsed on the warrant or certificate of location, the identity of the principal must be established as in cases of assignments, and the acknowledgment executed and certified in the same manner. The regulations in the enclosed circular, relative to the locations of these warrants, will govern you in all cases under this law, but are not intended, and must not be regarded, as affecting in any manner the rights and privileges granted by the Act of 14th August, 1848, (No. 155,) and the instructions under it, so far as the class of cases therein referred to are concerned, which remain intact. Each warrant must be located on a compact body of land; hence, tracts that lie diagonally to each other, that is, touch only at the corners, cannot be located; and where a residuary tract less than the amount called for in the warrant is applied for, it must be taken in full satisfaction of the war rant. This act authorizes you to charge and receive for your services, in locating all military bounty land warrants, the same compensation, or per centage, to which you are entitled by law for sales of public lands for cash, at the rate of $1 25 per acre, the said compensation to be hereafter paid by the assignees or holders of such warrants. This authorizes each of you to charge one per cent. on the amount that the land would have brought if paid for in cash. Hence, where a tract containing eighty acres is located by an eighty acre warrant, you will each charge one dollar; if it contains seventy acres, you will each charge eightyseven and a half cents; but if it contains one hundred acres, you should require the twenty acres additional to be paid for, and each charge the holder of the warrant one dollar, as you will obtain the balance of your per centage on the cash payment. In your quarterly accounts, the Receiver will charge himself with the amount of fees received by both, and credit himself with the per centage to which both are entitled, for fees and sales, not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars to cach per annum, the amount of per centage allowed by law; any amount beyond that sum, either for fees or per centage, will go into the Treasury. The accounts of the several land officers, for the amounts to which they are respectively entitled for services rendered prior to the passage of this act, will be adjusted, and the amounts remitted to them in drafts from the Treasury as soon as practicable. In all cases located since the passage of the act, and before the receipt. of these instructions, the patents will not be delivered till the fees are paid, and you will please so notify the parties interested, and in no case will the patent be delivered without the surrender of the certificate of location. Respectfully, your ob't serv't, J. BUTTERFIELD, Commissioner. Register and Receiver at No. 611. Circular to Registers and Receivers, under the Act of Congress approved 3d March, 1853, entitled "An Act to authorize the correction of erroneous locations of Military Bounty Land Warrants by actual settlers on public lands in certain cases. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Gentlemen :-By the first section of the act above referred to, (No. 225,) you will perceive that relief is extended only to such as were actually settled upon the land prior to their attempt to locate it at the Land Office, and, to entitle any one to a change of entry to the land actually settled upon and improved by him, (if it be vacant, and, if not, to any other vacant land,) he must prove that to be the fact. His own affidavit to that effect alone will not be sufficient, but must be supported by the best corroborative disinterested testimony he can procure. This evidence and affidavit may be taken before either of you, before a justice of the peace, or an officer using a seal authorized to administer oaths. If before a justice of the peace, a certificate of magistracy, under seal, from the clerk of the proper court, must accompany the proof. If the tract actually entered has not been patented, the party must surrender the certificate of location, and make oath before either of the officers indicated above that he has not sold or encumbered the title to the land in any way whatever; if it has been, he must surrender the patent, with his relinquishment to the United States endorsed thereon, and in addition to his own affidavit procure a certificate, under seal, from the recorder of deeds for the county in which the land is situated, that there is no conveyance or encumbrance of any kind of the land on record in his office. This evidence, with your own opinion as to the existence of the mistake, and the credibility of each witness, you will forward to this Office for its decision. of 2d. By the 2d section, the provisions of the Acts of 3d March, 1819, (No. 11,) and the 24th May, 1828, (No. 19,) are extended for the relief any locator of a warrant, and in acting under it you will be governed by the instructions from this Office of the 31st August, 1830, (Laws and Instructions, part 2d, pp. 430 to 434 inclusive.) 3d. In neither class of cases will the party be entitled to the return of any purchase-money which he may have paid upon the original location, and if the area of the tract to which the change of location is desired be greater than that of the original, and exceeds the quantity called for by the warrant, the excess in price must be paid. 4th. These changes of location you will bring in as "addenda" to your monthly abstracts, with reference to the letter from this Office authorizing them. 5th. The general tenor of the laws in relation to the sale and disposition of the public lands evidently contemplates a division of labor between the Register and Receiver, and that in the discharge of their respective duties each should be a check upon the other; and as the fees of Registers and Receivers for their services in locating warrants are equal, it is but fair that there should be a corresponding division of the labor; it is therefore hereby made the duty of the Register to receive the warrants and application of the party, issue the certificate of location, enter the location upon the tract and plat books, and then, each day, after the close of the office for sales and locations, to hand the warrants to the Receiver, who shall then proceed to make up the abstracts for daily examination as hereinafter required, and rendition at the expiration of each month. 6th. The Register is hereby required to post the books of his office each day, and the examination of certificates, receipts and applications with each other, and with the plat and tract books as also of the certificates of the location of warrants with the application of the purchaser and the plat and tract books, is required to be made daily, and the Receiver is required on the respective monthly abstracts of certificates issued and warrants located, to certify that these duties have been complied with. Register and Receiver at Very respectfully, JOHN WILSON, Commissioner. No. 612. Circular. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Gentlemen :-Numerous applications having been made to this Office on the subject, it has been decided, on full consideration, to recognize assignments of land warrants, when executed before two witnesses and acknowledged before a notary public; in all cases, however, to be accompanied by a certificate, under seal, from the proper authority, of the official character of the notary at the time of taking such acknowledgments, and of the genuineness of his signature. The instructions of the 23d March last will therefore be regarded as so amended. Very respectfully, Register and Receiver, Land Office at JOHN WILSON, Commissioner. No. 613. Circular to Registers and Receivers of the United States Land Offices.* GENERAL LAND OFFICE, October 17, 1853. Gentlemen :—The numerous inquiries made at this Office in reference to the assignment of land warrants under the Acts of 28th September, 1850, (No. 183,) and March 22, 1852, (No. 190,) together with the great mass of business thrown upon this Office by inattention at the local land offices to the proper requirements of the laws and instructions prior to the allowance of locations, render it necessary to issue this circular, not only with a view to public information, through you, but as a guide to you in your action in reference to the principles governing cases hereinafter referred to, and as to the papers necessary to establish the rights of those claiming to locate or dispose of said warrants. Warrants have been returned to this Office, located: 1st, upon assignments not written on the back of said warrants, or by virtue of powers of attorney not so written, as required by instructions; 2d, where, by reason of prior assignments, no further room exists on the warrants, subsequent assignments appear on separate pieces of paper, instead of being attached thereto in such a way as to show their execution to have been effected with the warrants, before the proper officers certifying to the acknowledgments thereof: 3d, upon assignments by minor warrantees, without proof of the time when they attained their majority; 4th, upon assignments by guardians of minor warrantees, or of minor heirs of deceased warrantees or assignees, without proof of guardianship, or of authority from the proper court for the sale of the real estate of their wards, and in case of the heirs of such deceased warrantees or assignees, without proof of such death, the time when, and that the persons named are the heirs, and only heirs-at-law, of the decedent; 5th, upon assignments executed by administrators or widows of deceased warrantees, neither of whom have any right to assign the same, except in such States where the administrator of an intestate is invested, by statutory provision, with power to alienate the real estate of his intestate; 6th, upon assignments unattested by two witnesses, or, without the proper certificate that the assignor was well known to the justice of the peace, or notary public, or other officer taking the acknowledgment, or without the proper evidence that the justice of the peace, or notary, or such other officer was such at the time, and that his signature is genuine; 7th, upon assignments executed by females, who were either femes sole, or femes covert, and without evidence, in the first case, that they were twentyone years of age, and in the latter, without a union in such assignments by their husbands; 8th, where two assignments exist-one made to one person, but before a perfection of the acknowledgment thereof, a second assignment is executed to another, without any satisfactory explanation as to the first; 9th, upon assignments where the blank is not filled with the name of the assignee who locates; 10th, upon assignments where the name of the assignee is inserted in the place occupied by the erased name of a prior assignee, or by an interlineation thereof above such erasure; 11th, upon assignments executed by a commissioner, or other designated person, alleged to be acting under a decree of a court, without the requisite evidence of his authority as such, and that the decree embraced the property assigned; 12th, upon assignments by executors, without a duly certified copy of the will, showing that power to sell was conferred on such executor; 13th, where certificates of location are unsigned by the parties locating; 14th, * Portions of this modified by Circular, November 1, 1858, which see. |