Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 3.djvu/740



which are contained in the reports of the commissioner, or of the register and receiver acting as commissioners, and which are, in their opinion, valid, agreeably to the laws, usages, and customs, of the said government, be, and the same are hereby, recognised as valid.

. And be it further enacted, That all the claims to lots in the town aforesaid, reported as aforesaid, and contained in the reports of the commissioner, or of the register and receiver acting as commissioners, founded on orders of survey, requettes, permissions to settle, or other written evidences of claims, derived from either the French, British, or Spanish authorities, and bearing date prior to the twentieth of December, one thousand eight hundred and three, and which ought, in the opinion of the commissioner, to be confirmed, shall be confirmed in the same manner as if the title had been completed.

. And be it further enacted, That all the claims to lots in the town aforesaid, reported as aforesaid, and contained in the reports of the commissioner, or of the register and receiver acting as commissioners, founded on private conveyances which have passed through the office of the commandant, or other evidence, but founded, as the claimants allege, on grants lost by time and accident, and which ought, in the opinion of the commissioner, to be confirmed, shall be confirmed in the same manner as if the titles were in existence: Provided, That, in all such claims where the quantity claimed is not ascertained, no one claim shall be confirmed for a quantity exceeding seven thousand two hundred square feet.

. And be it further enacted, That for all the other claims to lots in the town aforesaid, reported as aforesaid, which are contained in the report of the register and receiver, and which, by the said report, appear to have been built upon or improved and occupied, on or before the fifteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, the claimants shall be entitled to grants therefor as donations: Provided, That in all such claims, where the quantity claimed is not ascertained, no one claim shall be confirmed for a quantity exceeding seven thousand two hundred square feet; And provided also, That all the confirmations and grants provided to be made by this act, shall amount only to a relinquishment for ever, on the part of the United States, of all right and title whatever to the lots of land so confirmed or granted.

. And be it further enacted, That the registers and receivers of the land offices at St. Helena Courthouse and at Jackson Courthouse, respectively, shall have the same powers to direct the manner in which all lands confirmed by this act shall be located and surveyed, and also to decide between the parties in all conflicting and interfering claims, as are given by the act, entitled “.”

, May 8, 1822.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That so much of the public lands of the United States as lies east of the Mississippi river, north of the line separating the thirteenth and fourteenth tiers of townships north of the base line, and west of the third principal meridian, in the state of Illinois, shall form a land district, for the disposal of the said lands, and for which purpose a land office shall be established at such place therein as the President of the United States shall designate, until the same shall be permanently fixed by law.