Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 3.djvu/653



have been purchased from the United States, prior to the first day of July, eighteen hundred and twenty, it shall be lawful for any such purchaser, or other person or persons, being the legal holder of any certificate or certificates of land, on or before the thirtieth day of September, eighteen hundred and twenty-one, to file, with the register of the land office, where any tract of land has been purchased, a relinquishment, in writing, of any section, half section, quarter section, half quarter section, or legal subdivision of any fractional section, of land so purchased, upon which the whole purchase money has not been paid, and all sums paid on account of the part relinquished, shall be applied to the discharge of any instalments which may be, or shall hereafter become, due and payable upon such land, so purchased, as shall not have been relinquished, and shall be so applied and credited as to complete the payment on some one or more half-quarter sections where the payments by transfer are sufficient for that purpose: Provided, That all divisions and subdivisions, contemplated by this act, shall be made in conformity with the first section of an act making further provision for the sale of public lands, passed the twenty-fourth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and twenty: And, provided, also, That the right of relinquishment hereby given shall, in no case, authorize the party relinquishing to claim any repayment from the United States: And, provided, also, That where any purchaser has purchased, at the same time, two or more quarter sections, he shall not be permitted to relinquish less than a quarter section.

. And be it further enacted, That the interest which shall have accrued before the thirtieth day of September next, upon any debt to the United States, for public land, shall be, and the same is hereby, remitted and discharged.

. And be it further enacted, That the persons indebted to the United States, as aforesaid, shall be divided into three classes; the first class to include all such persons as shall have paid to the United States only one fourth part of the original price of the land by them respectively purchased or held; the second class to include all such persons as shall have paid to the United States only one-half part of such original price; and the third class to include all such persons as shall have paid to the United States, three-fourth parts of such original price; and the debts of the persons included in the first class shall be paid in eight equal annual instalments; the debts of the persons included in the second class shall be paid in six equal annual instalments; and the debts of the persons included in the third class shall be paid in four equal annual instalments, the first of which instalments, in each of the classes aforesaid, shall be paid in manner following, to wit: of the third class, on the thirtieth day of September next; of the second class, on the thirty-first day of December next; and of the first class, on the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two; and the whole of the debt aforesaid, shall bear an equal annual interest at the rate of six per cent.: Provided always, That the same shall be remitted upon each and every of the instalments aforesaid which shall be punctually paid when the same shall become payable as aforesaid.

. And be it further enacted, That in all cases where complete payment of the whole sum due, or which may become due, for any tract of land purchased from the United States, as aforesaid, shall be made on or before the thirtieth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, a deduction at the rate of thirty-seven and a half per centum, shall be allowed upon the sum remaining unpaid: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall authorize any discount upon payments made by a transfer of former payments under the provisions of the first section of this act.

. And be it further enacted, That each and every individual or company that has laid off, on any lands by him or them purchased of the