under authority of laws enacted by those States, and ratified as a common boundary by the act of the legislature of Arkansas, approved twenty-third December, eighteen hundred and forty-six, and of the legislature of Missouri, approved February sixteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, shall be, and the same is hereby, approved and confirmed as the boundary between those States, and between the surveying and land districts bordering thereon; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to have the surveys of the public lands of the United States closed on the line so surveyed as above mentioned: Provided, the expense thereof shall not exceed six dollars per mile for every mile and part of a mile actually surveyed, or necessarily re-surveyed, in closing those surveys.

Approved, February 15, 1848.

No. 135.-An Act authorizing persons to whom reservations of land have been made under certain Indian treaties, to alienate the same in fee.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all the reservations to or for any person or persons named in the treaty of the twentieth day of October, eighteen hundred and thirty-two, made at Camp Tippecanoe, in the State of Indiana, between the United States by their commissioners, Jennings, Davis, and Crume, and the chiefs and headmen of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians of the Prairie and Kankakee, shall be so construed and held to convey to and vest in said reservees, their heirs and assigns, forever, an estate in fee simple in and to the reservations so made, by said treaty, to or for said reservees respectively.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That said reservees, or their heirs, may sell and convey all or any part of his, her, or their respective reserves; and such sale and conveyance shall vest in the purchaser, his or her heirs and assigns, such title as is described in such deed of conveyance, to such lands so sold and conveyed: Provided, That all deeds of conveyance made before the passage of this act shall stand upon the same footing as those made after passage of this act, and the rights of the parties shall be the same in one case as in the other: Provided, That such deed of conveyance for any of said lands made before or after the passage of this act, shall not be valid for such purpose until the same shall have been approved by the President of the United States.

the

Approved, March 9, 1848.

No. 136.-An Act in addition to an act therein mentioned.

Whereas, by a certain act approved March second, eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, there was granted to the State of Indiana, to aid in constructing the Wabash and Erie canal, a quantity of land equal to one-half of five sections wide on each side of said canal;" and whereas, by an act approved February twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and forty-one, there was confirmed to said State the lands selected under said grant for that part of said canal between the mouth of Tippecanoe river and Terre Haute,

and license was given to said State to select other lands subject to private entry, or such part of said selection as was holden against the State by the legal incumbrance or title of others; which last selections have never been made and completed:* Therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Indiana be, and is hereby, authorized to select out of any of the public land in said State subject to private entry, a quantity of land which, together with the land already received and holden by said State for the construction of the said Wabash and Erie canal, will make the full amount equal to one-half of five sections in width on each side of said canal: Provided nevertheless, That no selection shall be made of any land but such as was subject to private entry, on the first day of April, anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.

Approved, May 9, 1848.

No. 137.-An Act to require the holders of military land warrants to compensate the land officers of the United States for services in relation to the location of those warrants.†

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the services which may be rendered after the passage of this act by the registers and receivers of the several land offices of the United States in carrying out the provisions of the ninth section of the act of eleventh February, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, entitled "An act to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force, and for other purposes," they shall each be entitled to require from the holders of warrants issued under that act, for one hundred and sixty acres, the sum of fifty cents for each; and from the holders of warrants, issued under the same law, for forty acres, the sum of twentyfive cents for each, as full compensation for those services: Provided, That in all cases where the warrant is located by, and for the use of, the volunteer or soldier to whom such warrant may have issued, for services rendered under the act aforesaid, no compensation shall be charged, either by the register or receiver, for making such location. Approved, May 17, 1848.

No. 138.-An Act explanatory of the act entitled "An act to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force, and for other purposes," approved eleventh February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the term "relatives," as used in the ninth section of the act entitled "An act to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force, and for other purposes," approved eleventh February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, shall be considered as extending to the brothers and sisters of those persons whose services,

*See Nos. 45 and 247.

+ See No. 190.

See No. 126.

under that act, may have entitled them to the land therein provided: the order or priority of right, however, shall remain as declared in that act; and those failing, the right shall accrue, fourthly, to the brother or sister, or in equal proportions to the brothers and sisters of the deceased, as the case may be.*

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the benefits of the said act of eleventh February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, shall not be construed as forfeited by the privates and non-commissioned officers who have been, or may be, promoted to the grade of commissioned officer during their service in Mexico, and who shall have subsequently fulfilled the condition of their engagements: Provided, Such promotion shall have been. made subsequent to the original organization of the company, corps, or regiment to which such privates and non-commissioned officers may have belonged.

Approved, May 27, 1848.

No. 139.-An Act for the admission of the State of Wisconsin into the Union.

Whereas the people of the Territory of Wisconsin did, on the first day of February, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, by a convention of delegates called and assembled for that purpose, form for themselves a constitution and State government, which said constitution is republican, and said convention having asked the admission of said Territory into the Union as a State, on an equal footing with the original States:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Wisconsin be, and is hereby, admitted to be one of the United States of America, and is hereby admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, with the boundaries prescribed by the act of Congress, approved August sixth, eighteen hundred and forty-six, entitled "An act to enable the people of Wisconsin Territory to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union."

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the assent of Congress is hereby given to the first, second, fourth, and fifth resolutions adopted by said convention, and appended to said constitution and the acts of Congress referred to in the said resolutions are hereby amended, so that the lands granted by the provisions of the several acts referred to in the said first and fourth resolutions, and the proceeds of said lands, and the five per centum of the net proceeds of the public lands therein mentioned, shall be held and disposed of by said State, in the manner and for the purposes recommended by said convention; and so that, also, the lands reserved to the United States by the provisions of the act entitled "An act to grant a quantity of land to aid in the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and to connect the same by a canal in the Territory of Wisconsin ;" and, also, the even numbered sections reserved by the provisions of the act entitled "An act to grant a quantity of land to the Territory of Wisconsin, for the purpose of aiding in opening a canal to connect the waters of lake Michigan with those of Rock river," shall be offered for sale at the same minimum price, and subject to the same rights of pre-emption, as

* See No. 282, and other numbers there given.

other public lands of the United States: Provided however, That no person shall be entitled to a pre-emption by reason of the settlement and cultivation of any quarter section or other sub-division of said even numbered sections, which tract, before the commencement of such settlement, shall have been claimed by any other person cultivating and improving the same in good faith, and which shall have continued to be claimed, cultivated, and improved in like good faith by such person, his representatives or assigns, until the sale of said tract, and of which said prior claim, cultivation, and improvement, the person so claiming pre-emption shall have had notice at the time of his entry and settlement; neither shall any preemption be allowed to any tract, to the injury of any person, or of the representatives or assigns of any person, claiming and occupying the same or any part thereof in good faith, in his or her right, at the passage of this act, and owning valuable cultivation or improvements thereon, which cultivation or improvements shall have been assigned by the person so claiming pre-emption, or, if commenced subsequently to the entry and settlement of such person, shall have been made with his consent or acquiescence. And provided further, That the liabilities incurred by the territorial government of Wisconsin, under the act entitled "An Act to grant a quantity of land to the Territory of Wisconsin, for the purpose of aiding in opening a canal to connect the waters of Lake Michigan with those of Rock River," hereinbefore referred to, shall be paid and discharged by the State of Wisconsin.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the purchasers of any tract of the said even numbered sections mentioned in the preceding section, and sold since the reservation thereof at the minimum price of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, shall be entitled to receive from the Commissioner of the General Land Office a certificate of the quantity of land so purchased; and of the amount of the excess paid therefor over and above the value of said land, at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; which certificate, to the amount of such excess, shall be receivable from the holder thereof, or his assigns, in like manner as so much money, in payment of the public lands of the United States. That, in the event of the death of any such purchaser before the issuing of such certificate, the same shall be issued in favor of the lawful representatives of such purchaser.

No. 140.-An Act in explanation of an act entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the public lands, and to grant pre-emption rights."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the fifth section of the act entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, and to grant pre-emption rights," approved on the fourth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and forty one, shall be so construed as to suspend only such portions of said act as precede said fifth section, (relative to the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands,) that being hereby declared to be the true intent and meaning of said fifth section of the act aforesaid.*

Approved, June 13, 1848.

See No. 48.

No. 141.-An Act to amend the act entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, and to grant pre-emption rights," &c., approved September fourth, eighteen hundred and forty-one.*

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the sixteenth section of said act be so amended as to give the consent of Congress, and the same is hereby given, to the application of the two per cent. fund heretofore relinquished by said act to the State of Mississippi, to be faithfully applied to the construction of a railroad leading from Brandon, in the State of Mississippi, to the eastern boundary of said State, in such manner as to authorize the construction of a railroad, commencing at Jackson, in said State, and extending to the eastern boundary of said State of Mississippi, via Brandon, in the direction, as near as may be, of the towns of Selma, Cahawba, and Montgomery, in the State of Alabama. Approved, June 16, 1848.

No. 142.-An Act to attach a portion of the northwestern land district of Louisiana to the district north of Red river, Louisiana.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, from and after the first day of October, anno Domini eighteen hundred and forty-eight, townships fourteen north to twenty-three north, inclusive, in ranges four and five west, shall be detached from the northwestern land district, Louisiana; and the same shall, from and after the date aforesaid, be attached to, and form a part of, the district north of Red river, Louisiana; and it shall be, and is hereby, made the duty of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to cause the land office in the district north of Red river to be furnished with the plats and other papers, or transcripts thereof, relating to the townships aforesaid, and to have this act carried into full effect. Approved, June 16, 1848.

No. 143.-An Act giving further time for satisfying claims for bounty lands, and for other purposes.†

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act of the second session of the twenty-ninth [twenty-seventh] Congress, chapter sixty-nine, entitled "An act to provide for satisfying claims for bounty lands for military services in the late war with Great Britain, and for other purposes," approved July twenty-seven, eighteen hundred and forty-two, and also the two acts approved January twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and thirty-five, therein and thereby revived, shall be, and the same are hereby revived, and continued in force for five years, to be computed from and after the passage of this act.

Approved, June 26, 1848.

*See No. 48.

† See Nos. 55, 230.