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known as water lots, as are situated between the channel of the river and the front of the lots, known, under the Spanish government, as water lots, in [the] said city of Mobile, whereon improvements have been made, be, and the same are hereby, vested in the several proprietors and occupants of each of the lots heretofore fronting on the river Mobile, except in cases where such proprietor or occupant has alienated his right to any such lot, now designated as a water lot, or the Spanish government has made a new grant, or order of survey, for the same, during the time at which they had the power to grant the same; in which case, the right and claim of the United States shall be, and is hereby, vested in the person to whom such alienation, grant, or order of survey, was made, or in his legal representative; Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to affect the claim or claims, if any such there be, of any individual or individuals, or of any body politic or corporate.

, May 26, 1824.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any alien, being a free white person and a minor, under the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in the United States three years next preceding his arriving at the age of twenty-one years, and who shall have continued to reside therein to the time he may make application to be admitted a citizen thereof, may, after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, and after he shall have resided five years within the United States, including the three years of his minority, be admitted a citizen of the United States, without having made the declaration required in the first condition of the first section of the, three years previous to his admission: Provided, Such alien shall make the declaration required therein at the time of his or her admission; and shall further declare, on oath, and prove to the satisfaction of the court, that, for three years next preceding, it has been the bona fide intention of such alien to become a citizen of the United States; and shall, in all other respects, comply with the laws in regard to naturalization.

. And be it further enacted, That no certificates of citizenship, or naturalization, heretofore obtained from any court of record within the United States, shall be deemed invalid, in consequence of an omission to comply with the requisition of the first section of the act, entitled “,” passed the twenty-second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen.

. And be it further enacted, That the declaration required by the first condition specified in the first section of the, shall, if the same has been bona fide made before the clerks of either of the courts in the said condition named, be as valid as if it had been made before the said courts, respectively.

. And be it further enacted, That a declaration by any alien, being a free white person, of his intended application to be admitted a citizen of the United States, made in the manner and form prescribed in the first condition specified in the first section of the, two years before his admission, shall be a sufficient compliance with said condition; any thing in the said act, or in any subsequent act, to the contrary notwithstanding.

, May 26, 1824.