By a regulation of the General Land Office, district officers are allowed a crier and a clerk during the progress of the sales, at a stated per diem compensation.

Lands are offered for sale by public outcry, at not less than the minimum or double minimum price per acre, as the case may be, and are sold to the highest bidder in case bids are received.

Technical quarter-sections are sold in half-quarter-sections. Where practicable the north half of the section should be sold first, the order of offering being as follows: East half of northeast quarter; west half of northeast quarter; east half of northwest quarter; west half of northwest quarter; east half of southeast quarter; west half of southeast quarter; east half of southwest quarter; west half of southwest quarter. Such portions of sections as are designated by numbers on the plats are sold in the order of the numbers, as follows: Lot 1, lot 2, lot 3, lot 4.

The regulations require the district officers to keep a complete record in abstract form, day by day, as the sales progress, of each subdivision offered, and to note the sales made in the margin thereof, such notings as the following being desirable: Name of purchaser, date of sale, and the number of the certificate of purchase issued as the basis of a patent (which is also the number of the receipt for the purchase-money accompanying the certificate, a duplicate of which is given to the purchaser); and opposite the description of tracts offered, but not sold, the facts are required to be noted as follows: "Offered; no bids." When the sale is closed, it is required that the abstract of offerings be sent as a part of the official report of the district officers to the General Land Office, after making a copy of the same to be retained as a record in the district office. The practice in regard to making up the official reports of offerings has varied to some extent, but the above is substantially the present method.

The authority to proclaim lands for sale is not limited by law to a stated period of time after survey thereof. Of course it is not deemed safe or advisable to proclaim lands for sale prior to survey, even if contracts for survey thereof have been entered into.

The President is not empowered to proclaim lands for sale not authorized to be exposed to public sale by law of Congress; the laws authorizing such sales have reference to particular localities therein mentioned. There is no general provision of law authorizing public sales of all the vacant lands of the government, and a portion of the lands in the far west, the Territory of Utah, for instance, is not subject to be proclaimed for sale. The vacant lands generally in the Louisiana purchase are subject to be proclaimed for sale under the act of 1811, referred to above. The lands in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which were restricted to homestead entry by the act of June 21, 1866, were authorized to be brought into market by proclamation for sale at public offerings by the act of June 22, 1876. Lands within the limits of the Pacific Railroad and branches, belonging to the government, in the even-numbered sections, were restricted to homestead and pre-emption entry by the act of March 6, 1868.

In view of a resolution of the House of Representatives, which passed some time after the recent war of the rebellion, and the general drift of public sentiment expressed in various ways, it is the present policy to hold lands outside of the Southern States above mentioned, not yet proclaimed for sale, for actual settlers. The following is a printed form for proclamation of sales by the President:

Proclamation by the President of the United States.

In pursuance of an act of Congress of June 22, 1876, I, Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and make known that a public sale of valuable Government land will be held at the land office at Natchitoches, in the State of Louisiana, on Tuesday, April 13, 1880, at which time will be offered all' lands not previously disposed of in the undermentioned townships and parts of townships, viz:

North of base-line and west of the -meridian: [Here is given lists of townships to be sold.]

Lands appropriated by law for the use of schools, military, or other purposes, or reserved for railroad purposes, will be excluded from the sale.

The offering of the above lands will be commenced on the day appointed, and will proceed in the order in which they are tabulated in the lists of sectional subdivisions until the whole have been offered and the sales thus closed; but the sale shall not be kept open longer than two weeks, and no private entry of any of the lands will be admitted until the day after the close of the public offering. All lands held at double minimum price will be disposed of at not less than two dollars and fifty cents ($2.50) per acre, and all the lands held at minimum price will be disposed of at not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents ($1.25) per acre. Lists of sectional subdivisions are in the hands of the district officers, and will be open for the examination of those desiring to purchase.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this

By the President:

J. A. WILLIAMSON,

Commissioner of the General Land Office.

day of
A. D. 18-.
R. B. HAYES,
President of the United States.

Notice to pre-emption claimants.

Every person entitled to the right of pre-emption to any of the lands within the townships and parts of townships above enumerated is required to establish the same to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the Natchitoches land office, and make payment therefor as soon as practicable after seeing this notice, and before the day appointed for the commencement of the public sale of the lands embracing the tract claimed; otherwise such claim will be forfeited.

No pre-emption claim based on a settlement subsequent to the date of this proclamation, and prior to the offering, will be recognized by the Government.

J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner of the General Land Office.

SEVERAL PRICES OF THE PUBLIC LANDS AT VARIOUS PERIODS.

The United States from 1785 to 1880 has sold land at various prices, as follows: Agricultural lands at the rates of 124, 25, 50, 66%, and 75 cents, and $1.00, $1.25, and $2.50 per acre. Under the cash sales and pre-emption acts a vast area containing coal, and millions of acres of timber land, have been sold at the foregoing rates.

Mineral lands. In Michigan, Wisconsin, and other States lands containing copper and lead were formerly offered at public sale at not less than $5 per acre, and if not then disposed of they were to be held for private sale at that rate. Persons in possession under leases from the War Department, however, were to have preference right of purchase, at the rate of $2.50 per acre. Under present laws, except in the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas, lands valuable for minerals contained in veins or lodes, or "rock in place," including lead, copper, gold, silver, cinnabar, iron, &c., are sold at the rate of $5 per acre. Lands containing "placer" deposits of minerals are sold at the rate of $2.50 per acre. In the States above excepted all lands are sold as agricultural.

Coal lands are sold at $20 per acre where situated within fifteen miles of a completed railroad; otherwise at $10 per acre.

Desert lands are sold at $1.25 per acre;

Satine lands at $1.25 per acre; and
Timber and stone lands at $2.50 per acre.

CHAPTER IX.

DONATIONS OF LAND AND SPECIAL GRANTS.

MISCELLANEOUS DONATIONS.

Running through the statutes of the United States for a period of ninety years is a series of laws for the disposition of the public domain other than by the cash, preemption, or homestead methods, perhaps a thousand in number, most of them obsolete because of execution, others still in force waiting confirmations under them or entire execution.

Congress for many years after the organization of the Government took up special and meritorious cases, and made grants of land in satisfaction of conceded cases of equity or merit.

LAND BOUNTIES TO BRITISH DESERTERS.

The first act of the Congress of the United States as to the disposition of public land was an act of the Continental Congress of August 14, 1776—an act offering to receive and make citizens of deserters from the British army (Hessians and British), and tendering each deserter, and to him or his heirs, to be held by him or them in absolute property, fifty acres of unappropriated land in some one of the States. By another act, of August 27, 1776, Congress proffered a quantity of unappropriated land in absolute dominion to such officers as should leave the armies of his Britannic majesty in America.

GRANT FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES.

Congress, July 23, 1787, in the ordinance defining the "powers to the Board of Treasury to contract for the sale of western territory," called attention to the reservation by the ordinance of May 20, 1785, of four sections in each township, viz: sections Nos. 8, 11, 26, and 29, to the use of the United States and for future disposition by Congress, and ordered the Board of Treasury to give lot (section) No. 29 in township or fractional part of a township perpetually for the purposes of religion. This grant was made for this purpose only in the Ohio Company's (Putnam and Cutler's) purchase and in the John Cleves Symmes tract, now in the State of Ohio. The patents to both the Ohio Company and John Cleves Symmes, issued by President Washington, set up this reservation of the twenty-ninth section in each township in the several tracts for the purpose of religion. This is the only direct and specific grant of land for religion to be found upon the United States statute books, although some grants have been made for mission purposes.

THE DORHMAN GRANT.

Arnold Henry Dorhman was agent for the United States at the court of Lisbon during the Revolutionary War. His house was an asylum for American sailors who had been captured by British cruisers. He fed, clothed, and nursed these unfortunates. Congress, October 1, 1787, after stating an amount, for which he produced vouchers, recited that there was a still larger amount due him for such expenditures and for 14 L O-VOL III 209

which he could not produce vouchers satisfactory to the Treasury Department, in consideration of which they granted him, free of cost of survey or other charges, with legal reservations therein, a township of land in the now State of Ohio. The act of February 27, 1801, directed the President to issue patent for the thirteenth township in tho seventh range to Arnold Heury Dorhman, or his legal representatives. This tract is known as the "Dorhman grant" or 66 tract."

GRANTS TO REFUGEES FROM CANADA AND NOVA SCOTIA.

During the War of the Revolution there was a force of Canadian officers and men in the Army of the United States, who were known as " refugees from Canada." Jonathan Eddy and others were also refugees from the province of Nova Scotia at the same time. They became refugees on account of their attachment to the cause and interests of the United States. Congress, April 23, 1783, in considering the Canadian and Nova Scotian refugees, ordered "that they (the Canadian refugees) for their virtuous sufferings in the cause of liberty be further informed that whenever Congress can consistently make grants of land they will reward, in this way, as far as may be consistent, the officers, men, and other refugees from Canada." Like action was had in the case of the refugees from Nova Scotia. With the addition of recommending them to "the humanity and particular attention of the several States in which they respectively reside." A long series of acts of Congress followed. The ordinance of May 20, 1785, reserved three townships on Lake Erie-now in Ohio-for the satisfaction of the grants to these refugees. This was never fully carried into effect, as other lands were appropriated in lieu thereof by the act of July 18, 1801.

GRANTS TO EBENEZER AND ISAAC ZANE.

May 17, 1796, Congress granted to Ebenezer Zane three tracts of land one mile square, one on the Muskingum, one on the Scioto, and one on the Hockhocking River, in the State of Ohio, for the purpose of building ferries on the road from Wheeling, Va., to Limestone, which road he was to open under the direction of the President of the United States. These grants were confirmed to Zane and patented February 14, 1800. The rates of ferriage at said ferries were to be "ascertained [fixed] by any two of the judges of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, or such authority as shall be appointed for that purpose."

April 3, 1802, Congress ordered the same allowance to Isaac Zane, his heirs or assigns, locatable within the Northwest Territory, now in the State of Ohio.

GRANT TO THE FRENCH OF GALLIOPOLIS.

The French grant to the French inhabitants of Galliopolis (now in Ohio) was made by Congress March 3, 1795.

October 27, 1787, the Board of Treasury contracted with the Ohio Company for the sale to them of certain lands in (now Ohio) the western territory-Cutler, Sargent, and others. Cutler and Sargent, October 29, 1787, assigned a moiety of the land described in the (second) contract with the Board of Treasury to William Duer and associates. This portion of the land Joel Barlow was sent to Europe to dispose of. Duer and associates became the Scioto Company, to whom the lands purchased of the Ohio Company by Duer were conveyed. The agent of this company in conjunction with Barlow disposed of the lands to companies and individuals in France. These purchasers came to America, and were met by Duer as agent for the Scioto Company and sent to Galliopolis, on the Ohio River. Here each settler was presented with a deed for two lots in town and a four-acre out-lot. The place of these locations was discovered to be outside of the lands embraced in the first contract between the United States and the Ohio Company, and also the land confirmed to that company by Congress April 21, 1792. So, to quiet their title and give their holdings a legal status, Congress passed the several relief bills, beginning March 3, 1795, and followed by two several acts thereafter.

GRANTS TO THE MARQUIS LAFAYETTE.

March 3, 1803, Congress directed the Secretary of War to issue land warrants to Major-General La Fayette for 11,520 acres. The land was to be located, surveyed, or patented at his option, or the warrants could be received in payment for lands within the present State of Ohio. March 27, 1804, Congress ordered that the warrants above granted might be located by General La Fayette in Orleans Territory.

Congress, December 28, 1824, ordered that $200,000 be paid to General La Fayette, and granted him or his heirs a township of land, which was afterward located in Florida.

THE LEWIS AND CLARKE GRANT.

March 3, 1807, Congress granted Lewis and Clarke and their subordinates lands for services in exploring the Louisiana purchase.

THE NEW MADRID GRANT.

February 17, 1815, Congress ordered that persons owning lands in the county of New Madrid, in Missouri Territory (now State), November 10, 1812, and whose lands had been materially injured by earthquake, should be permitted to locate the like quantity of land on any of the public lands of the said Territory, the sale of which was authorized by law. This act was frequently amended, and scrip issued.

THE LEVEE GRANTS.

May 26, 1824, Congress granted tracts of land in their limits to the parish of Point Coupee and the parish of West Baton Rouge on condition that they should keep a good and sufficient levee on said land, in front and on the river Mississippi.

MORAVIAN INDIAN GRANTS.

John Etwein, president of the Moravian Brethren's Society, at Bethlehem, for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, petitioned Congress for a grant of land in the western country for the use of certain Indians formerly residing thereon. The ordinance of May 20, 1785, provided "that the towns of Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrun, and Salem, on the Muskingum, and so much of the lands adjoining to the said towns, with the buildings and improvements thereon, shall be reserved for the sole use of the Christian Indians who were formerly settled there, or the remains of that society." Congress, September 3, 1788, ordered that the reservations be made (which was done) of 4,000 acres for each of the three towns named, all being in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. August 4, 1823, Lewis D. de Schweinitz, on behalf of the Society of the United Brethren for Promulgating the Gospel among the Heathen, and Lewis Cass, on the part of the United States, at Gnadenhutten made an agreement whereby the Moravians retroceded the grants of land above set out to the United States. After deducting leaseholds and grants made by the society, $43,356 was expended by the society under this trust up and to August 21, 1822, and their receipts from the lands were $9,998.581, leaving a deficit of $32,587.504. The United States reimbursed the society for surveys and locations.

The agreement set out that the revocation of the trust and transfer to the United States was conditioned upon the consent of the persons for whom the trust was created being first obtained-" the persons" meaning the Christian Indians, who were formerly settled there, or the remains of that society, including Killbuck and his descendants, and the nephews and descendants of the late Captain White-Eyes, Delaware chiefs-or such persons as are now entitled to the benefits of the trust: "the motives of the society being to divest themselves of a trust burdensome to them and useless to the Indians, that their funds devoted to charitable purposes may be applied where there is a prospect that they will produce some permanent advantage." This agreement was affirmed by the society September 26, 1823.