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REGULATIONS AND DECISIONS.

BEING A

CONTINUATION OF ACTS OF CONGRESS RESPECTING THE
SALE AND DISPOSITION OF PUBLIC LANDS;

AND EMBRACING

LAND LAWS

PASSED SINCE THE PUBLICATION OF VOL. I.

FROM DECEMBER, 1859, TO JANUARY 1, 1870;

TOGETHER WITH

SELECTED DECISIONS OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, AND REGULATIONS

AND RULINGS OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

BY

W. W. LESTER,

ATTORNEY AT LAW, WASHINGTON, D. C.

VOLUME II.

PHILADELPHIA:

KAY & BROTHER,

LAW BOOKSELLERS, PUBLISHERS, AND IMPORTERS,

NO. 19 SOUTH SIXTH STREET.

1870.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870,

BY R. H. SMALL, JR.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA:

COLLINS, PRINTER.

INTRODUCTION.

THE same system and order of arrangement adopted in the first volume, have been continued in this.

A new series of numbers has, however, been commenced, and the letter "B" has been attached to them, in order that they may be distinguished. from corresponding numbers in the original work.

The annual reports of the present distinguished Commissioner of the General Land Office, Hon. Joseph S. Wilson, which, as most interesting and valuable contributions to the geographical, statistical, scientific, and legal literature of the day, are universally acknowledged and appreciated, have for several years past embraced rulings of his Bureau and of the Interior Department upon land questions, in a brief and compendious form. Those rulings, in addition to other important decisions, have been inserted in this volume.

The compiler has to express his acknowledgments to the editors of the "American Law Times," published in the city of Washington, from which periodical he has extracted a number of valuable papers, collected in accordance with the plan adopted by them of obtaining and publishing all important recent decisions of the Courts, State and Federal, and of the Departments of the General Government, thus furnishing the profession with reports and other legal information which could not be procured in another form, except at great labor and expense.

He is also greatly indebted to Henry Beard, Esq., of Washington city, for the use of his law library and for access to his ample collection of documents pertaining to public lands, and also for advice and suggestions rendered particularly valuable by reason of his extensive experience and thorough knowledge of the subject.

The land laws are given in full in the exact words of the statutes, and are inserted in chronological order.

The case relating to the Soscol Rancho in California, embracing an opinion of the Attorney-General, the decision of the Secretary of the Interior, and of Judge Wylie, of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (page 280), has furnished the occasion for a full and exhaustive discussion of the pre-emption system, which will be found of great interest and importance in the investigation of rights arising under those laws. The Supreme Court of the United States, at the December term, 1869, finally determined the questions involved, sustaining, in the main, the opinions of Attorney-Generals Bates and Speed, referred to in the note on page 388 of this volume.

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