Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1873.djvu/14

694 The surveys amounted to 30,488,132.83 acres, an increase on the quantity surveyed the previous year of 1,037,193.28 acres. The total area of the land States and Territories is 1,834,998,400 acres, of which 616,554,895 acres have been surveyed.

The Commissioner states that the arrearages of work in his office have been diminished, and that its business is now, in most of its branches, in an advanced condition. This business is, however, steadily increasing pari passu with the tide of immigration to the frontier; and to keep it in a satisfactory state will require a thorough re-organization of the clerical force. I would respectfully and earnestly invite the attention of Congress to the Commissioner's suggestions on this head, as well as to those concerning the expediency of repealing the pre-emption laws and requiring settlers on the public lands to obtain title thereto under the homestead laws only.

The report of the commissioner contains much valuable information; the principal rulings of the office and of the Department during the last fiscal year; circulars to carry into effect recent legislation relating to the public domain; all showing this important branch of the public service to be wisely managed by its energetic and capable head.

I desire to invite the attention of Congress to a request from a colony of Mennonites, now and for several generations residing in Southern Russia, near the shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, for a modification of the existing land laws in certain particulars, to enable them to settle upon our public domain in a compact colony.

By a decree of the Russian government this people, numbering between forty thousand and fifty thousand persons, have been deprived of certain immunities which they have enjoyed ever since their first settlement in Russia, and the granting of which had originally induced them to leave their former homes in Prussia and settle in their present place of abode.

It is their desire to come to the United States and to occupy a portion of our public lands in a compact body, with no strangers to their religious faith within the exterior bounds of their possessions. Such exclusive occupancy they deem essential to enable them to carry out their peculiar system of farming, which to some extent involves a community of interest in and occupancy of the lands; and they also wish to avoid, as far as possible, the presence of any disturbing elements in their immediate neighborhood.

The deprivation of the immunities heretofore enjoyed by them does not take effect until the expiration of ten years from June, 1871, the date of the imperial decree. Within that time it is their desire to dispose of their property in Russia, and remove to a country where they may enjoy civil and religious liberty; and they have selected the United States as a place where they can most fully realize such freedom.

In order, however, to enable them to obtain possession of lands in a