Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/446



twenty-sixth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four, entitled “,” shall be, and hereby is, continued in force, so far as the said act relates to the claims within the territory of Arkansas, until the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, for the purpose of enabling the court in Arkansas, having cognisance of claims under the said act, to proceed by bills of review, filed, or to be filed, in the said court, on the part of the United States, for the purpose of revising all or any of the decrees of the said court in cases wherein it shall appear to the said court, or be alleged in such bills of review, that the jurisdiction of the same was assumed, in any case, on any forged warrant, concession, grant, order of survey, or other evidence of title; and, in every case wherein it shall appear to the said court, on the prosecution of any such bill of review, that such warrant, concession, grant, order of survey, or other evidence of title, is a forgery, it shall be lawful, and the said court is hereby authorized to proceed, by further order and decree, to reverse and annul any prior decree or adjudication upon such claim; and thereupon such prior decree or adjudication shall be deemed, and held in all places whatever, to be null and void to all intents and purposes. And the said court shall proceed on such bills of review, by such rules of practice and regulations as they may adopt, for the execution of the powers vested or confirmed in them by this act.

. And be it further enacted, That no entries of land in any of the land offices in Arkansas, under any of the provisions of the said act, shall be made, until the further direction of Congress.

. And be it further enacted, That no patent shall be issued for lands under any decree of the said court, in any case in which the original warrant, concession, grant, or order of survey, has been withdrawn from the files of the said court, unless the person or persons claiming such patent shall first produce and deposit, in the office of the commissioner of the general land office, the original warrant, concession, grant, or order of survey, on which such decree was founded, and on which the said court took jurisdiction under the said act; and no patent shall be issued until the further order of Congress, in any case, under the said act, until it shall satisfactorily appear to the commissioner of the general land office that the warrant, concession, grant, or order of survey, on which any lands are claimed, under any decree of the said court, was, in fact, made or issued by or under the authority of the person or persons purporting to have made or issued the same, or unless the said warrant, concession, grant, or order of survey shall have been determined by the said court, on the hearing of a bill of review, to be genuine.

. And be it further [enacted], That no entry, survey, or patent, shall, at any time hereafter, be made or issued under the said act, except in the name of the original party to any such decree, and on proof to the satisfaction of the officers, respectively, that the party applying is such original party, or is duly authorized by such original party, or his heirs, to make, receive, or require such entry, patent, or survey.

. And be it further enacted, That in all cases in which the said court shall, by decree or adjudication, under this act, review and annul any prior decree or adjudication therein, any lands which may have been heretofore entered, under any such prior decree or adjudication, shall, thereafter, be subject to sale or entry as other public lands of the United States may be.

. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States is hereby authorized to employ, on behalf of the United States, such counsel on their part, in the territory of Arkansas, or elsewhere, to be associated for that purpose with the district attorney of the same