The law of pre-emption extends the privilege to three classes, each having the qualification of citizenship or having filed a declaration to that end. 1. "Every person being the head of a family."

3. "A single man over the age of twenty-one years."

The Homestead act of May 20, 1862 and supplements hold out still further inducements to settlements of public lands.

By this act any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of 21 years, or has performed service in the army or navy, and is a citizen of the United States, or shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, and has never borne arms against the Government of the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall from and after the 1st of January, 1863, be entitled to enter a quarter section (160 acres) of unappropriated public land upon which he or she may have already filed a pre-emption claim or which is subject to pre-emption at $1.25 per acre; or 80 acres of unappropriated land at $2.50 per acre. In order to make his or her title good to such lands, however, such person must make affidavit that such application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not, either directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever; and upon filing the affidavit, and paying the sum of $10 to the register or receiver, such person shall be allowed to enter the land specified; but no certificate or patent is issued for the land until five years from the date of such entry, and the land must during that time be improved and not alienated (it cannot be taken for debt). At any time within two years after the expiration of said five years, the person making the entry, or, in case of his or her death, his widow or heirs, may on proof by two witnesses that he or she has cultivated or improved said land, has not alienated any part of it, and has borne true allegiance to the United States, be entitled to a patent if at that time a citizen of the United States. In case of the abandonment of the lands by the person making the entry for a period of more than six months at one time, they revert to the United States.

Bounty Land warrants have been issued to the soldiers of the war of the revolution and to those who have served in subsequent wars under acts of 1847, 1850, 1852, and 1855, which from the commencement of operations under these acts to June 30, 1867 have amounted as follows:

Warrants issued, 542,248; number of acres embraced thereby, 59,631,610; nuniber of warrants located, 488,336, embracing 54,028,390 acres. The whole quantity conceded for military and naval services from 1776 to 1855, was 71,714,555 acres.

The Continental Congress, by the ordinance of May 20, 1785, respecting the territory northwest of the Ohio, prepared the way for the advance of settlements and education as contemporaneous interests. It determined that in every six miles square there should be established the school system, to be supported from a fund derived from the grant of section sixteen, of 640 acres, in every township; and at a later period for indemnity where the section

in place was not available; thus conceding one thirty-sixth part of the public lands in the interests of public education.

It was afterwards determined in the new land states and territories, the localities of which were distant from the political centre or centres of settlements, to increase the school concessions to two sections or 1,280 acres in each township, so that the school house, high school, and seminary, could be so advantageously placed in the township as to avoid inconvenience in daily attendance.

Besides the school allotment, provision has been made on a liberal scale for seminaries of learning and colleges, so that the land fund may be adequate to the support of institutions in which are taught all the higher branches of a liberal education.

To each organized Territory the sections in place and townships for seminaries have been reserved, and by the act of admission as a state into the Union, the reservation has been carried into a grant and confirmed. If there be added to the quantity already conceded to the public land states for school purposes, the area that will pass according to the principles of existing legislation to the organized territories when they shall become states, it will be found that the aggregate will reach 70,559,112 acres. Besides there have been granted for seminaries of learning 1,244,160 acres, making an aggregate thus conceded in the cause of learning of 71,803,272 acres, much of it of great value, and from which, if properly invested, ample funds may be derived for the continual support of the great object contemplated by the munificent grant.

For the support of colleges for education in agriculture, mechanics, and in the mineral interests, the act of July 2, 1862, and its supplements, made provisions not only for the states holding public domain, but for others which have none, giving to the former the right to select within their limits, and to the latter scrip redeemable in land; the amount conceded being 30,000 acres for each senator and member of the House of Representatives, which when made applicable to all the states, will include an area of 9,600,000 acres.

Most of the older states have received the allotment in scrip which has been disposed of, and the avails appropriated to the object designed; in the newer or land states, selections have been made by the state authorities for the same purpose.

By various acts of Congress from 1849 to 1860, large quantities of swamp and overflowed lands have been granted to several states. The first swamp land grant was made to Louisiana in 1849 to aid that state in constructing levees and drains along the Mississippi and other rivers to prevent the overflow of the bottom lands. In 1850 the grant was made general, so as to apply to other states in which such swamp and overflowed lands were situated.

At the close of the fiscal year June 30, 1867, state selections had been made under the internal improvement grant of September 4, 1841, as follows:

Grants of public lands have been made by acts of Congress to states and corporations, for railroad and military wagon road purposes from the year 1850 to June 30, 1867, as follows:

Grants by acts of Congress for Canal purposes from the year 1827 to June 30, 1867. Illinois, 290,915; Indiana, 1,439,279; Michigan, 1,250,000; Ohio, 1,100,361; Wisconsin, 325,431. Total quantity acres granted, 4,405,986.

Private Land Claims. In lands acquired by purchase or conquest from other nations, the grants of the government to individuals constitutes a class of private land claims. The principle adopted by the government has been that a well authenticated and clearly defined title from a former government was to be respected, and upon the presentation of such title a patent is always issued to the claimant; but where the boundaries, as is often the

*The States of Illinois and Alabama received grants under prior acts, which, with the quantities here given, make up the quantity of 500,000 acres.

case, are loosely defined and comprise a much larger territory than that granted, or where the metes and bounds are of uncertain position, and especially where there is ground for presumption of fraud, a severe scrutiny is instituted.

Since the act of Congress of September 4, 1841, large quantities of land have been claimed on pre-emption, i. e. as having been settled and improved by persons before they were surveyed or came into the market; and, these persons having thereby established a claim to purchase them at Government price before all others, this claim has been allowed, with some restriction, and the lands, thus pre-empted, withdrawn from public sale and reserved for private entry.

SUMMARY.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867, the total cash sales embraced..
The aggregate of military bounty-land warrant locations......

Acres.

756,619.61

476,760.00

The total quantity taken by homestead for actual settlement under acts of 1862, 1864 and 1866..

1,788,043.49

In the same period, there were approved swamps "in place" to several states as
grantees under acts of 1849 and 1850..
And selected as swamp indemnity..

.1,030,020.22

.36,429.93

Making a total of swamp lands or their equivalents, confirmed to states, of
In same fiscal year titles under railroad, wagon road and ship canal grants have been
vested in certain states for the quantity of...

1,066,450.15

.533,168.52

.....

The agricultural and mechanic college land scrip locations under act of 1862, and supplementals of 1864 and 1866, with selections by certain states within their respective limits under said acts make an aggregate of..... 2,420,072.73 Making a total of public lands disposed of during the year ending June 30, 1867, of 7,041,114.50 Amount disposed of during the year ending June 30, 1868.. ....6,655,742.50

.....

The moneys received in the same period for ordinary cash sales, pre-emptions, in military scrip received as money, for the ten dollar homestead payments, for homestead commissions, for fees in the locating of agricultural college scrip, for same on military warrants, and on railroad selections, for commissions on pre-emptions, donations, and for proceeds from furnishing transcripts under the act of July 2, 1864, make a cash aggregate of $1,347,862.52 received during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867, a sum greater than that received the previous year by more than half a million of dollars. Receipts for year ending June 30, 1868, $1,632,745.

2. PENSION OFFICE.

The Pension Office was established temporarily in 1833, and continued by subsequent legislation until it was made permanent by act of 19th of January, 1849. It constitutes a Bureau in the Department of the Interior, and is under the charge of the Commissioner of Pensions. The persons entitled to pensions have been designated by different acts of Congress.

The only surviving revolutionary soldiers receiving a pension died during the year closing June 30, 1867. Two other veterans were granted pensions by special acts of Congress passed that year. Of the widows of revolutionary soldiers married before the close of the war, but one enrolled pensioner was living in 1867.

There were, however, at the close of that fiscal year, 997 widows of revolutionary soldiers, of whom 119 were married previous to 1800.

Army Pensions. The number of original applications for invalid pensions, by reason of casualties occurring in the army service, admitted during the year closing June 30, 1867, was 16,452, at an average annual rate of $71.73 each, and an aggregate annual rate of $1,180,191.72.

The number of applications for increased pensions of the same class admitted during this period was 13,946, at an average annual rate of $78.09 each, and an aggregate annual rate of $1,089,003.62. Of original applications of widows, orphans, and dependent relatives for pensions by reason of deaths incident to the army service, 19,660 were admitted during the year, at an average individual rate of $100.66 per annum, and an aggregate yearly rate of $1,979,062.67. Of applications for increased pensions of the same class, 19,309 were admitted, at an average additional rate (chiefly on account of minor children under the age of sixteen years, as provided by the act of July 25, 1866), of $59.59 each, and at a total annual rate of $1,150,646.

The total number of enrolled invalid pensioners on the 30th of June, 1867, was 70,802, the total amount of whose pensions was $6,478,004.14; and the total number of widows, orphans, and dependent relatives, enrolled as pensioners was, at the same date, 82,291, and the yearly amount of their pensions $9,664,075.83; making an aggregate of 153,093 army pensioners of both classes, at a total annual rate of $16,142,079.97.

The whole amount paid to invalid military pensioners during the last fiscal year was $6,428,532.58; and to widows, orphans, and dependent relatives, $11,873,182.71; making the grand total of payments to army pensioners (including expenses of the disbursing agencies), for the year, $18,301,715.26.

Navy Pensions. The original applications for invalid pensions, by reason of casualties occurring in the navy service, admitted during the year ending June 30, 1867, numbered 137, at a total yearly rate of $10,317; and the admitted applications for increased pensions of the same class 206, at an annual aggregate of $17,892. Of original applications of widows, orphans, and dependent relatives for navy pensions 233 were admitted during the same period, at an aggregate rate of $31,856 per annum; and 120 pensioners of this class were increased, at a total yearly rate of $6,792. The total number of navy invalid pensioners whose names appeared on the rolls, June 30, 1867, was 1,054, at an aggregate yearly rate of $89,652.25; and the total number of widows, orphans, and dependent relatives whose names were on the navy pension rolls at the same date was 1,327, requiring an aggregate annual amount of $305,742.25.

The whole amount paid to navy invalid pensioners during the last fiscal year was $77,241.28; and the whole amount paid to widows, orphans, and dependent relatives of officers or seamen of the navy was $240,999.92, making the total amount of navy pensions paid during the year $318,241.20.

The balance of funds in the hands of the agents for paying navy pensions was, on June 30, 1867, $175,796.82.

Aggregate. The total number of pensioners of all classes whose names remained on the rolls June 30, 1867, was 155,474. The number of new pensioners added to the rolls during the year was 36,482, and the number of pensioners dropped from the rolls on account of deaths, remarriages, or other causes, was 7,932. The number of pensions increased during the last fiscal year, chiefly under the acts of June 6, and July 25, 1866, was 33,581. The total annual amount of pensions was, at the close of the year, $16,447,822.22, and the amount paid during the year, (including arrears and expenses of disbursement), $18,619,956.46.

The navy pension fund, invested under direction of Secretary of the Navy as trustee, now amounts to $13,000,000. There is an uninvested balance of $229,246.37. The income of this fund largely exceeds the annual amount at present required for the payment of navy pensions. Provision was made by the sixth section of an act of Congress approved March 2, 1867, for awarding from the surplus income of this fund additional pensions to disabled officers, seamen, and marines, for meritorious service, under certain specified conditions. Seven claims of this character, favorably reported by the Secretary of the Navy, as provided by law, were certified for payment by the Pension Office, in 1867.

Amount paid for army pensions at the agencies in the several States and Territories for the year ending June 30, 1867.