Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/364



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, full and correct minutes of their proceedings and decisions, together with the evidence on which such decisions are made, which books and papers, on the dissolution of the boards, shall be deposited in the respective offices of the registers of the land-offices, or of the recorder of land titles of the district; and the said clerk shall prepare two transcripts of all the decisions made by the commissioners in favour of the claimants to land; both of which shall be signed by a majority of the said commissioners, and one of which shall be transmitted to the officer exercising in the district the authority of surveyor-general; and the other to the Secretary of the Treasury. It shall likewise be the duty of the said commissioners, to make to the Secretary of the Treasury a full report of all the claims filed with the register of the proper land-office, or recorder of land titles, as above directed, which may have been rejected, together with the substance of the evidence adduced in support thereof, and such remarks thereon as they may think proper; which reports, together with the transcripts of the decisions of the commissioners in favour of the claimants, shall be laid by the Secretary of the Treasury before Congress, at their next ensuing meeting. When any Spanish of French grant, warrant, or order of survey, as aforesaid, shall be produced to either of the said boards, for lands, which were not at the date of such grant, warrant, or order of survey, or within one year thereafter, inhabited, cultivated, or occupied, by or for the use of the grantee; or whenever either of the said boards shall not be satisfied that such grant, warrant, or order of survey, did issue at the time when the same bears date, but that the same is antedated or otherwise fraudulent; the said commissioners shall not be bound to consider such grant, warrant, or order of survey, as conclusive evidence of the title, but may require such other proof of its validity as they may deem proper. Each of the commissioners and clerks aforesaid, shall be allowed a compensation of two thousand dollars in full for his services as such; and each of the said clerks shall, previous to his entering on the duties of his office, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation, to wit: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm,) that I will truly and faithfully discharge the duties of a clerk to the board of commissioners, for examining the claims to land, as enjoined by an act of Congress, intituled ‘An act for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land within the territory of Orleans, and the district of Louisiana.’” Which oath or affirmation shall be entered on the minutes of the board.

. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall be, and he is hereby authorized to employ three agents, one for each board, and whose compensation shall not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars each, for the purpose of appearing before the commissioners, in behalf of the United States, to investigate the claims for lands, and to oppose all such as said agents may deem fraudulent and unfounded. It shall also be the duty of the said agent for the district of Louisiana, to examine into and investigate the titles and claims, if any there be, to the lead mines within the said district, to collect all the evidence within his power, with respect to the claims to, and value of the said mines, and to lay the same before the commissioners, who shall make a special report thereof, with their opinions thereon, to the Secretary of the Treasury, to be by him laid before Congress, at their next ensuing session. The said board of commissioners shall each be authorized to employ a translator of the Spanish and French languages, to assist them in the despatch of the business which may be brought before them, and for the purpose of recording Spanish and French grants, deeds, or other evidences of claims on the registers’ books. The said translator shall receive, for the recording done by him, the fees already