Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/267



upon me, by an act of Congress, intituled ‘An act regulating the grants of land and providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States south of the state of Tennessee,’ to the best of my skill and judgment.” And it shall be the duty of the said commissioners to meet in the county of Adams, and in Washington county aforesaid, respectively, on or before the first day of December next, and they shall not adjourn to any other place, or for a longer time than three days, until the first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and four, and until they shall have completed the business of their appointment. And each board, or a majority of each board, shall, in their respective districts, have power to hear and decide in a summary manner, all matters respecting such claims, also to administer oaths and examine witnesses, and such other testimony as may be adduced, and to determine thereon according to justice and equity; which determination, so far as relates to any rights derived from the articles of agreement above mentioned, or from the three first sections of this act, shall be final; and for the safe keeping of the papers and evidence produced and recording their proceedings, the said boards, respectively, shall have power to appoint a clerk, whose duty it shall be to enter in a book to be kept for that purpose, perfect and correct minutes of the proceedings, decisions, meetings and adjournments of the boards, together with the evidence on which such decisions are made; which books and papers, on dissolution of the boards, shall be transmitted to, and lodged in the office of the Secretary of State; and on or before such clerk’s entering on the duties of his office, he shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation, to wit: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm as the case may be) that I will truly and faithfully enter and record all minutes, proceedings and decisions of the board of commissioners for the county of  appointed under and by virtue of an act of the United States, intituled ‘An act regulating the grants of land, and providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States, south of the state of Tennessee,’ and well and faithfully do and perform all other acts and things in the said act pointed out as the duty of a clerk of the said board,” which oath and shall be entered on the minutes of the board; and when it shall appear to them that the claimant is entitled to a tract of land under the articles of agreement and cession with Georgia aforesaid, in virtue of a British of Spanish grant legally and fully executed, they shall give a certificate thereof, describing the tract of land and the grant, and stating that the claimant is confirmed in his title thereto by virtue of the said articles; which certificate, being recorded by the register of the land-office, whose duty it shall be to record the same in a book to be kept by him for that purpose, shall amount to a relinquishment for ever, on the part of the United States to any claim whatever to such tract of land: and when it shall appear to the said commissioners that the claimant is entitled to a tract of land by virtue of a settlement under the Bourbon act of Georgia, recognized in the said articles of agreement and cession, or of either of the two first sections of this act, they shall give a certificate thereof, stating the circumstances of the case, and that the claimant is entitled to receive a patent for such a tract of land by virtue of this act, which certificate being duly entered with the register of the land-office, on or before the first day of January, eighteen hundred and five, shall entitle the party to a patent for the said tract, which shall issue in like manner as is provided by this act for the other lands of the United States, without the party paying any thing therefor, except the surveying expenses and the fees of office. And when it shall appear to the said commissioners that the claimant is entitled to a right of pre-emption by virtue of the third section of this act, they shall give a certificate thereof, directed to the register of the land-office; which certificate being duly entered with the register of the land office, on or