Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/98



. And be it further enacted, That nothing herein contained, shall be deemed or construed to take away or impair any other remedy which the United States may be now entitled to have against the person or property of debtors, to enforce the satisfaction of judgments obtained, or which may hereafter be obtained.

, May 26, 1824.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for any person or persons, or their legal representatives, claiming lands, tenements, or hereditaments, in that part of the late province of Louisiana which is now included within the state of Missouri, by virtue of any French or Spanish grant, concession, warrant, or order of survey, legally made, granted, or issued, before the tenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and four, by the proper authorities, to any person or persons resident in the province of Louisiana, at the date thereof, or on or before the tenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and four, and which was protected or secured by the treaty between the United States of America and the French republic, of the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and three, and which might have been perfected into a complete title, under and in conformity to the laws, usages, and customs, of the government under which the same originated, had not the sovereignty of the country been transferred to the United States, in each and every such case, it shall and may be lawful for such person or persons, or their legal representatives, to present a petition to the district court of the state of Missouri, setting forth, fully, plainly, and substantially, the nature of his, her, or their claim to the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, and particularly stating the date of the grant, concession, warrant, or order of survey, under which they claim, the name or names of any person or persons claiming the same, or any part thereof, by a different title from that of the petitioner; or holding possession of any part thereof, otherwise than by the lease or permission of the petitioner; and, also, if the United States be interested on account of the lands within the limits of such claim, not claimed by any other person than the petitioner; also, the quantity claimed, and the boundaries thereof, when the same may have been designated by boundaries; by whom issued, and whether the said claim has been submitted to the examination of either of the tribunals which have been constituted by law for the adjustment of land titles in the present limits of the state of Missouri, and by them reported on unfavourably, or recommended for confirmation; praying, in said petition, that the validity of such title, or claim, may be inquired into and decided by the said court; and the said court is hereby authorized and required to hold and exercise jurisdiction of every petition, presented in conformity with the provisions of this act, and to hear and determine the same, on the petition, in case no answer or answers be filed after due notice: or on the petition, and the answer or answers of any person or persons interested in preventing any claim from being established: and the answer of the district attorney of the United States, where he may have filed an answer, according to the evidence which shall be adduced by the petitioner, by any person interested in preventing the decree of the court in favour of the title of