Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 3.djvu/158



or shares as have already accrued to the United States by operation of law, or by the provisions of this act, and to which the United States are to be considered entitled to the respective proportions for the same, a sum not exceeding in the whole two hundred and fifty thousand dollars: Provided, That any person having claim under either of the said companies, and entitled to indemnity by virtue of this act, shall receive such indemnity only in proportion to the amount of such claims: And provided also, That no claim shall be allowed, or any indemnification made therefor, to any person or persons who have voluntarily surrendered the evidence of their claims to the said lands under the act of Georgia of the thirteenth of February, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, or under any subsequent act of the said state, and which at the time of the surrender would have vested the title in such claimants had the title from Georgia been valid, or who have received the money deposited as the consideration of the purchase of said land thus surrendered; but all the consideration of the purchase of said land thus surrendered; but all such lands shall be deemed and taken to be vested in the United States, exonerated, and discharged from all such claims without any further surrender or release whatever, and the dividends to be made to claimants who shall be entitled to the benefits of this act shall be lessened in proportion to the claim so surrendered or withdrawn: And provided also, That no person or persons, nor the agent or trustee of any person or persons, shall be entitled to the benefits of this act, who, by himself, herself, or themselves, or by his, her, or their agent, or by any person or persons with privity and consent of him, her or them, shall have taken, received, or withdrawn from the Treasury of the State of Georgia any sum or sums of money, which had been paid and deposited as the consideration of the purchase of any of the aforesaid lands, which person or persons at the time of the taking, receiving or withdrawing of the said money, was or were not the bona fide claimant or claimants of the lands of for the purchase of which the said money had been deposited: but all and every the share or shares of such person or persons so fraudulently drawing the money as aforesaid, as may be found to have been claimed by such person or persons, at the time of recording in the office of the Secretary of State the evidences of their claim or claims shall be vested in the United States, and the dividends to be made to the claimants to the benefits of this act shall be lessened in proportion thereto: And provided also, That each and every person before receiving the certificates of stock aforesaid, shall, after the two foregoing provisos have been read to him, take and subscribe the following oath, viz: “I, A. B., do solemnly swear or affirm, as the case may be, that I have not, nor has any person for whose interest I now act, either as agent or trustee, or as executor, administrator, or heir at law, done and performed any act, which by the tenor or the two provisos I have heard read to me, would disqualify me from receiving the indemnity afforded by the provisions of this act.”

. And be it further enacted, That the said certificates of stock shall be receivable in payment of the public lands, to be sold after the date of such certificates, in the Mississippi territory: Provided, That on every hundred dollars to be paid for such land, ninety-five dollars shall be receivable in said certificates, and five dollars each: Provided, That no person or persons making payment for lands in certificates authorized to be issued by this act, shall be entitled to the discount for prompt payment now allowed by law to purchasers of public lands.

. And be it further enacted, That from and after such sufficient releases from the claimants to the United States shall be lodged in the office of Secretary of State, as is hereinbefore provided in this act, all such sum or sums of money remaining in the possession of the State of Georgia, which may have been deposited as the consideration of the purchase of the said lands, together with such interest, if any there be, as may have accrued thereon, shall be set over and paid by the said