Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 3.djvu/456



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for the state of Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles on all special entries and locations of lands in the said state, made pursuant to the laws of North Carolina, before the twenty-fifth day of February, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety, which were good and valid in law, and recognized by the act of the said state of North Carolina, commonly called the cession act, passed the day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, and which lie west and south of the line described in the ; and also to issue grants and perfect titles on all warrants of survey, interfering entries and locations, which might be removed by the cession act of North Carolina aforesaid, and which are good and valid in law, and which have not been actually located or granted, east and north of the aforesaid line; and all interfering grants which are good and valid in law, or the warrants or certificates legally issued, in consequence of such interference, on land lying south and west of the said line, in the manner and under the same or similar rules, regulations, and restrictions, as are prescribed by the laws now in force in the said state of Tennessee, for issuing grants and perfecting titles on claims of a like nature for lands lying north and east of the said line.

. And be it further enacted, That previous to issuing a grant or perfecting a title on any of the claims herein before described, the warrant, or other legal evidence of such claim, shall be laid before the commissioner of land claims for West Tennessee, for the time being, appointed by the authority of the said state, and approved by him as valid upon sufficient legal evidence being adduced of such validity, according to the rules and regulations prescribed by the laws of the said state now in force, for deciding on warrants and other land claims of the like nature, authorized to be perfected into grants, north and west of the aforesaid line; and upon such warrant or other legal evidence, of any of the claims aforesaid, being declared valid by said commissioner, it shall be lawful for the surveyor of the proper district, or county, to lay off and survey the same, in the manner prescribed by the laws of the said state in similar cases, and return such survey to the register of the land office of West Tennessee, who shall thereupon be authorized to make out a grant thereon, to be executed by the governor, and countersigned by the secretary of the said state, in the manner provided by the laws of the same: Provided, That no surveys shall be made, grants issued, or titles perfected by virtue of this act, for any land to which the Indian claim has not been previously extinguished.

. And be it further enacted, That those persons who have had surveys made, and obtained grants from the state of North Carolina, since the twenty-third day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eleven, for lands lying within the state of Tennessee, shall, upon surrendering such grants to the said commissioner of land claims for West Tennessee, for the time being, to be cancelled and vacated, be allowed to produce the entries, warrants, or other evidence of claims, upon which such grants were founded; and if the said claims shall be deemed good and valid by the said commissioner, then it shall be lawful for the state of Tennessee to issue grants and perfect titles on such claims in the same manner as if no such grants had been issued by the state of North Carolina.

, April 4, 1818.