the Treasury when appeals are taken to him, or reports thereon are required by him, and records the same. 5th. He prepares all special or general instructions to registers and receivers, expounding any pre-emption laws in reference to any case or class of cases arising under those laws. There are, however, various exceptions in these laws as to the kind or description of land upon which they respectively operate; which particularities of said acts render great care in the examination and disposal of each claim indispensable. Also, great attention is required to the various Indian treaties by which lands are ceded to the United States, so as to determine whether any particular law is operative, at all, on the tract claimed; as, likewise, an inspection of the numerous proclamations of sales is demanded, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the land has not been offered at public sale since the passage of the particular law on which the claim is based, and the claim forfeited by reason of failure to make proof of claim and payment prior to the day fixed for said public sale. Also numerous conflicts arise between claimants under different laws, involving the consumption of much time in the examination of testimony adduced; and objections to claims, upon various questions of law, are often made, requiring much research; and further, when cases are finally settled, great caution is requisite thereafter to ensure the due application of those settled principles to cases subsequently arising. For practical illustration, see the subjoined "Tables of Details," (A) Instructions, IV. 1 to 22: (C) Reports, II. 1. (in part :) (D) Books, V. 1 to 4.

7. BUREAU OF MISCELLANEOUS DUTIES. There is a principal clerk with several assistants engaged in superintending and executing very important miscellaneous duties, similar to and connected with the duties performed in several of the other divisions of the General Land Office, and therefore this division may be considered as the auxiliary in common, of those other bureaus, in forwarding and consummating the same duties, which may be enumerated and described as follows.-1st. The principal clerk of this bureau receives from the several sub-divisions of the "bureau of sales and accounting," all certificates of purchase, (whether by pre-emption, by public sale, or by private entry,) which he causes to be registered and handed over to the Recorder's bureau for patenting-except such cases in which, upon re-examination instituted from different causes, errors are alleged in the quantity of acres in a tract sold, or in sales conflicting with reservations, or with former sales, which cases he suspends for the correction of such errors, by returning them to the proper district officers for that purpose.-2d. He prepares the correspondence from the office to district land offices, to the Secretary of the Treasury, and to individuals, in relation to private entries and public sales, in cases of illegal and conflicting sales, and instructs the receiver of the proper office to refund the purchase money paid for land erroneously sold, or the excess in cases of overpayment-3d. He prepares the correspondence to committees on public lands, in cases where the parties appeal to Congress for relief when this office has decided under existing laws, against their claims-and he prepares the forms of patents ordered to be issued in such, or other special cases under acts of Congress providing relief to claimants, and records and transmits the same after having been signed and countersigned and sealed.-4th. He prepares statements of facts from the records of the office, to be used as evidence in State courts, examines the chains of titles where deeds of transfer have been made by the original puchasers, and where titles have been vested in assignees, heirs, or other legal representatives, by virtue of decrees of State courts, by will, or otherwise, and prepares the forms of patents to be issued to assignees, devisees, trustees, or others, in such cases, and he records and transmits the same, after having been signed, countersigned, and sealed.-5th. He receives the patents engrossed and recorded in the Recorder's bureau as reported to the Commissioner and handed over to this bureau, and delivers the same personally in some special cases, or transmits them with the general mass to the registers of the proper land offices for delivery to the patentees in their respective districts, and prepares the letters of transmission.-6th. He also, (in common with the bureau of sales,) in the course of discharging certain portions of the duties above mentioned, devotes much of his attention in examining plots of surveys, returns of sales, circular instructions, opinions of Attorneys General, the laws of the United States and of the several States where public lands are situated, together with the evidence of titles in certain cases. For practical illustration, see the subjoined "Tables of Details,” (A) Instructions, 1. to -VI. (in part ;) ( Ċ) Reports, II. : (D) Books, VII. 1 to 8.

8. BUREAU OF THE RECORDER OF PATENTS. By the 4th section of the act of the 4th July, 1836, reorganizing the General Land Office, it is made the duty of the Recorder, in pursuance of instructions from the Commissioner, to certify, and affix the seal of the General Land Office to all patents for public lands; to attend to the correct engrossing and recording, and transmission of such patents; and prepare alphabetical indexes of the names of patentees, and of persons entitled to patents; and to prepare copies and exemplifications of matters on file, or recorded in the General Land Office, as the Commissioner may from time to time direct. In executing these provisions of the said act, the following routine is observed.1st. The Recorder receives all the "certificates of purchase" of public lands, which, after having been examined and their accuracy tested in the bureau of sales, and transmitted to the miscellaneous bureau,

are handed over by the latter to his bureau for patenting.-2d. He then places these certificates of purchase (otherwise called patent certificates) in hands for engrossing and patenting, as arranged in their proper classification of districts, which, being done, the engrossments are critically examined and compared with the certificates, to insure their accuracy.-3d. He next causes the engrossed patents to be recorded in volumes suitable for the purpose, by filling up printed forms or fac-similes of the said patents in said. volumes, averaging five hundred patents each, which record undergoes a like examination and comparison to insure its accuracy.-4th. The patents thus scrutinized, recorded, and favorably reported on, as to correctness and style of execution, by the examining board, are submitted to the President, who passes them, on his approval, to the secretary for signing patents in behalf of the President.-5th. The Recorder on receiving the patents with the presidential signature by proxy, countersigns them, and causes the seal of the General Land Office to be affixed to them.-6. He now causes them to be registered by numbers, and dates, and name of the patentees, and then reports a list of the same, with the patents to the Commissioner, who places them in charge of the miscellaneous division to be transmitted to the registers of the respective land offices for delivery to the patentees.-7th. He also causes the volumes of the record of patents to be alphabetically indexed-which being done, they are arranged under the heads of their respective land districts, for the convenience of ready reference and examination as occasion may require, to obtain information, or to make exemplifications [copies] of patents when required according to law.-8th. Though the Recorder is not charged with the engrossing and recording of patents for private land claims, Indian reservations, bounty land patents, and other patents of a miscellaneous character granted under special acts of Congress for the relief of individuals, &c., nevertheless, he countersigns and affixes the seal of office to all, and reports them for transmission and delivery. For practical illustration, see the subjoined "Tables of Details," (A) Instructions, VI. 1 to 22. (rightfully, but takes no part;) (D) Books, VIII. 1 to 5.

9. BUREAU OF DISTRIBUTION OF LANDS FOR INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AMONG NEW STATES AND TERRITORIES. Under the 8th section of the act of the 4th September, 1841, entitled an act "to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands and to grant pre-emption rights," a grant is made to each of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Michigan, of "five hundred thousand acres of land for internal improvement," with the following proviso, viz: "Provided, that to each of the said States which have already received grants for said purposes, there is hereby granted no more than a quantity of land which shall, together with the amount such State has already received as aforesaid, make five hundred thousand acres :—the selections of said lands to be made, in all the said States, within their limits respectively, in such manner as the legislatures thereof shall direct; and located in parcels conformably to sectional divisions and sub-divisions, of not less than three hundred and twenty acres in any one location, on any public land, except such as is or may be reserved from sale by any law of Congress or proclamation of the President of the United States-which said locations may be made at any time after the lands of the United States in said States, respectively, shall have been surveyed according to existing laws. And there shall be, and hereby is, granted to each new State that shall be hereafter admitted into the Union, upon such admission, so much land as, including such quantity as may have been granted to such State before its admission, and while a territorial government, for purposes of internal improvement as aforesaid, as shall make five hundred thousand acres, to be selected and located as aforesaid." To execute the said section of the aforesaid act, carrying out a branch of business in the General Land Office peculiar and distinct from the other divisions, this bureau was necessarily established by official arrangement, the duties of which may be thus described.-1st. The selections of lands thus appropriated in each of said States being first made by a State agent, and filed with the register of the district in which such lands lie, and the said register having reported those selections to the General Land Office, the clerk in charge of this bureau examines the same, with due exactness, and if found to have been made according to law, they are submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury for his "AFPROVAL.”—2d. When the locations or selections are approved and returned to this division by the Secretary of the Treasury, the clerk in charge reports the said approvals to the register of the district, and to the Governor of the State in whose behalf such selections were made.-3d. The clerk in charge also makes full "statements," at stated periods, of the number of acres of which the selections have been approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, and reports the same to the Governors of the States respectively, which statements are recorded in the general statement books kept in the chief clerk's division-the said "APPROVAL" of the selections of lands submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury being regarded as a confirmation of the grant, no patent is issued by the President conveying the title of the United States in such lands to the said States-as in all other cases, and should be in these, for the President only can consummate the alienation of the United States title to the public domain.-4th. When the examination of the reports of selections of land result in detecting irregularities, or conflicting claims, &c., the clerk in charge rejects or suspends such cases, and notifies the register of the district and other parties interested, that other

selections may be made, or the impediments be otherwise adjusted.-5th. The clerk in charge conducts the correspondence had with all the registers of district land offices in each State where selections of these lands are made-also with the Governors of the said States in relation thereto-with the State register of each State and with the Secretary of the Treasury. For practical illustration, see the subjoined Tables of Details," (C) Reports, I. 5: II. 1: (D) Books, IX. 1 to 4.

10. BUREAU OF SALARIES AND CONTINGENT EXPENSES. The clerk in charge of this bureau pays the salaries monthly of the commissioner, the recorder, the principal clerks of bureaus, and the other clerks of the General Land Office; also, the compensation of the messengers, and packers, and laborers; and the contingent expenses of the office; for which objects he makes requisitions for the commissioner on the Secretary of the Treasury for warrants on the Treasurer for advances from the proper appropriations; and he renders his account current of the same, quarterly, with the proper vouchers, to the First Auditor for settlement; and keeps an appropriate record thereof. He also has charge of the register, and of the adjustment of the accounts of treasury notes received by receivers, in payment for public lands, as cancelled, and transmitted by them in halves (the right hand halves first) in separate packages from their accounts current-which halves of said cancelled notes are united, the notes examined, registered, and again cancelled, by the said clerk, the interest computed on each, and his adjustment of the account and a report thereof, together with the notes, and an abstract of them, are transmitted to the First Comptroller for his revision and approval. In which capacity the said clerk is, to all intents and purposes, an auxiliary to the accounting bureau, independently of his functions in this bureau of salaries and contingent expenses of the land office proper. See the subjoined "Tables of Details," (B) Returns, IV. 1. and note thereon: (C) Reports, I. 2. 8: (D) Books, VI. 5. 11.

TABLES OF DETAILS.

[The Commissioner of the General Land Office (78) participates with the Secretary of the Treasury in the judicial functions of making decisions and giving instructions relative to the survey and disposal of the public domain, in pursuance of the laws, the advisory opinions of the Attorney General, and the directions of the President of the United States, as exemplified in the Table marked (A). The Commissioner also receives RETURNS from Surveyors General, Registers, and Receivers, relative to the transactions of their respective offices, and audits the accounts, as enumerated in Table marked (B). He makes reports, as described in that marked (C). And he orders and directs the keeping of the books of registry, record, and accounting, as described in that marked (D). Nothing can be more obvious than (in order to afford all facilities and efficiency therein) that the rules and regulations established by the laws, the instructions of the Department, and the opinions of Attorneys General, for the survey and disposal of the public domain, might be abstracted from those authorities, and arranged numerically according to their proper order of development and affinity, like unto the plan adopted in regard to the rules and regulations of the Military Establishment, and of the Post Office Department. As a further illustration of its practicability, and of the benefits that would result from such a digest, reference may also be made to some of the fundamental principles of those regulations and decisions here abstracted from said authorities, as referred to above, marked (A).]

(A)-INSTRUCTIONS, RULES, AND REGULATIONS.
(Respecting Surveys.)

I. Some of the fundamental Rules and Regulations established by Instructions, Decisions, &c., respecting the Survey of the Public Domain, viz:

1. Plots of each township are to be neatly and accurately protracted according to law, on durable paper, by a scale of two inches to a mile, which are to be recorded in books kept in the Surveyor General's office. See the Secretary's instructions, 14th March, 1797.

(78) It is perceived that, by the 1st section of the act of the 25th April, 1812, establishing an office in the Treasury Department, to be denominated "the General Land Office," and the chief officer thereof to be called "Commissioner of the General Land Office," the Secretary of the Treasury is empowered to DIRECT or control the said commissioner, in his duties to superintend, execute, and perform all such acts and things, touching or respecting the public lands of the United States, as heretofore have been done or performed in the offices of the Secretary of State, Secretary and Register of the Treasury, and Secretary of War, or which shall hereafter be by law assigned to said office. But, the act of the 4th July, 1836, reorganizing the General Land Office, seems, according to the tenor of the 1st section, to have contemplated the withdrawal of this direction and control over the functions of the commissioner, and to place it in the hands of the President, thereby establishing a distinct Executive Department of the public domain, co-ordinate with the other Departments, where it says, "that from and after the passage of this act, the executive duties now prescribed, or which may hereafter be prescribed by law, &c., respecting the public lands, &c., shall be subject to the supervision of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, under the direction of the President of the United States." Also, the several bureaus established in the land office by the same act would seem to corroborate this conclusion, except that the chiefs of those bureaus have no higher denominations than principal clerks, &c.

2. According to the act of the 11th February, 1805, concerning the mode of surveying the public lands of the United States, the corners and boundaries of the sections and sub-divisions of sections should be definitively fixed, but the ascertainment of the precise contents of each is not considered as equally important. Secretary's instructions, 13th March, 1805.

3. In pursuance of the act of the 24th of April, 1820, "making further provision for the sale of public lands," the Secretary of the Treasury directs that fractional sections containing more than one hundred and sixty acres [the act says, "one hundred and sixty acres or upwards"] shall be divided into halfquarter sections by north and south or east and west lines, [the act says, "by north and south lines," so as to preserve the most compact and convenient forms. Commissioner's instructions, 10th June, 1820. 4. The terms "surveyed according to law," used in the 3d section of the act of the 12th April, 1814, were, in the opinion of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to be restricted to the laws of the United States; but the opinion of the Attorney General is, that "they are applicable to the laws of any government under which a survey had been made❞—a construction more compatible with the general principles of law, if not with the intentions of Congress. Commissioner's instructions, 11th September,

1824.

5. No public lands can be considered as legally surveyed until the survey be approved by the proper Surveyor General, and endorsed on the plot. Commissioner's instructions, 4th September, 1828, and 9th April,

1838.

6. Surveyors are required to note lands producing live oak, yellow pine, and palmetto, in the vicinity of navigable streams. Instructions, 8th November, 1830.

7. In the preparation of township plots, it is required that they be made to exhibit a perfect delineation of the country, as represented in the field notes of the survey; such as, the proper delineation of rivers, creeks, lakes, swamps, prairies, hills, mountains, and other natural objects-mines, salt springs, salt licks, and mill seats-villages and settlements, forges, factories, cotton gins-the general course of roads and tracks, denoting the places to which they lead-also, the quantities of the sub-divisions of fractional sections, and separate totals of public lands and private claims, and, in connection with the latter, the names of the confirmees and reservees, &c. Commissioner's instructions, 28th July, 1831.

8. The term "quarter section is a technical description of a specific tract of land, and does not denote the precise quantity of one hundred and sixty acres, [as it may be a little more or less]. Attorney General's opinion, 30th August, 1833.

9. The disturbance of the lines of sub-divisions of sections is illegal. Opinion of Attorney General, 29th June, 1836.

10. The act of the 24th of April, 1820, and the instructions under it, directing the manner of sub-dividing fractional sections containing over one hundred and sixty acres, did not require the absolute plotting of every quarter or half-quarter of which the fraction was susceptible; but contemplated the exercise of discretion, so as to prevent small and inconvenient fractions of fractional sections. Opinion of Attorney General, 2d August, 1837.

11. It is the duty of the surveyors to sub-divide fractional sections according to law, and without reference to pre-emptions; but pre-emptions (or pre-emption claims) are entitled to a legal survey. Opinion of Attorney General, 5th August, 1837.

(Respecting Public Land Claims.)

II. Some of the fundamental Rules and Regulations established by Instructions, Decisions, &c., respecting Private Land Claims, under British, French, and Spanish grants; and under Indian treaties, viz:

(Under British, French, and Spanish grants.)

1. Claims under British and Spanish grants in the Mississippi territory, occupied on the 27th of October, 1795, entitle the parties to a confirmation of their claims, by the commissioners appointed for the adjudication of those claims, &c., in relation to whose proceedings therein, sundry regulations and forms are prescribed, to be observed by registers and receivers. Commissioner's instructions, 27th July, 1803.

2. Sundry regulations are prescribed for the government and observance of commissioners in the adjudication. of French and Spanish grants in the territory of Louisiana. Commissioner's Instructions, 8th Sep. 1806. 3. The laws and the established usages and customs of the Spanish government, in regard to private land claims in the territories of Orleans and Louisiana, are to govern in the decision of such claims by the respective officers of the United States. Secretary's instructions, 2d April, 1807.

4. The king of Spain had power to grant lands in Florida, whilst the province was his; and if made to a certain day, such grants were ratified by the treaty of cession of February, 1819. Opinion of Attorney General, 19th July, 1822.

5. British grants bearing date subsequent to the Declaration of Independence, by the United States, are invalid, unless recognised by some act of the government of the United States. Commissioner's instructions, 4th August, 1827.

6. The settled policy of Spain was, to parcel out her colonial domain with reference to the single object of population; and grants for the purpose of speculation were not tolerated: it was competent for the sovereign only making the grants, to release the conditions on which they were made; which power now devolves on the sovereign authority of the United States, who have taken, under the treaty of cession of Florida, the place of Spain. Opinion Attorney General, 1st April, 1829.

7. Private claims to lands in West Florida, under British grants, which were sold and conveyed, or settled, on or before the 3d September, 1783, according to the provisions of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and Spain of that date, by which West Florida was ceded to Spain, are recognised as valid and complete titles against the United States; but all such sales and conveyances, or settlements on such grants thereafter, or after the expiration of the extension of four months privilege therein by the king of Spain, are invalid, the grants being forfeited. Commissioner's instructions, 20th July, 1830, and 9th February, 1831.

8. Claimants under British patents must show that they [the patents] were sold, according to the treaty of peace between Great Britain and Spain of 3d September, 1783, within twenty-two months after said treaty, otherwise they are not confirmed by the act of 1819. Commissioner's instructions, 16th July,

1835.

9. Lands claimed by individuals under Spanish grants, &c., are not subject to entry, either by pre-emption claimants or otherwise. Commissioner's instructions, 3d March, 1837.

10. Claims under treaties are paramount to all pre-emption and other claims. Opinion Attorney General, 17th August, 1838.

(Under Indian Treaties.)

11. After an Indian treaty is ratified, by which reservations are made for individuals, such reserves as embrace particularly designated points are surveyed, and represented upon the official plats, as reservations; and those reservations, which are to be governed by the lines of the public surveys, are generally located by the proper Indian agent, whose report is submitted for the approval of the President: if the report is approved, the reservations are marked on the books of the General Land Office, and the register of the proper district office is advised of the selection of those tracts, and required to make such entries upon the plats and books of his office as will prevent their being sold as public lands. Secretary's instructions, 26th March, 1834.

12. Patents are not issued to reservees under Indian treaties, unless, by the treaty, patents are required to be issued to them. Commissioner's instructions, 26th March, 1834.

13. Whenever the President approves of the conveyance of an Indian reservation, such instrument of conveyance, with the approval endorsed thereon, and all the accompanying certificates, are recorded in the General Land Office, and then transmitted to the Indian agent, with instructions to deliver them to the grantee, upon his (the agent) being perfectly satisfied that the stipulated condition has been actually paid or satisfactorily secured. Commissioner's instructions, 26th March, 1834.

14. The President does not consider an Indian devise as a conveyance; but that the lands must go to the heirs of the RESERVEE. Commissioner's instructions, 26th March, 1834.

15. The locations of floating claims under Indian treaties are not to interfere with the anterior claims, vested rights, or treaty reservations. Opinion Attorney General, 2d January, 1835.

16. The renting of Indian reservations, or the removal of reservees, are abandonments, as the Indian has no power to lease, and he must have personal connection with the use and enjoyment of the land; and on the abandonment, the title becomes immediately vested in the United States; and is to be treated as if then for the first time acquired by treaty. Opinion Attorney General, 23d May, 1837.

17. The location of an Indian deed, or of a reservation of land under Indian treaty, if founded in error, though it may have been approved by the President, is (in either case) open to his revision and correction, for purposes of justice, before the issuing of a patent. Opinion Attorney General, 30th June, 1837.