tion, showing the respective amounts of acres and purchase money from auction sale, from pre-emption entries, and from ordinary private entries. At the close of a public sale, you are required to transmit to this Office a joint letter representing the fact of your having concluded the sale, indicating the number of days which it necessarily occupied, and any important particulars connected therewith, and especially designating any land which, from any cause, may not have been offered pursuant to the proclamation, and distinctly setting forth the reason why it was not offered. In making out your charge for superintending a public sale, you are also requested to certify that the days charged for (if more than one) were fully occupied in offering the lands and perfecting sales, and you will charge accordingly, at the rate of five dollars for each day so engaged. This latter evidence will be forwarded from this Office to the Comptroller, on adjustment of the Receiver's quarterly account. Annexed is a specimen of a blotter containing minutes of sale, (to be varied, of course, according to circumstances,) which should always be used by you at a public sale, and carefully preserved at your office.* I remain, very respectfully, gentlemen, your obedient servant, THO. H. BLAKE, Commissioner. P. S.-Where tracts are bounded by a river, the Register is directed invariably to designate them in reference to the bank of the river on which they lie; thus, on the right or left bank of the river, descending; without referring to the cardinal points in such designation. In the manuscript circular in relation to school lands, bearing date May 17th, 1844, an error in the month is made, in the reference to a former circular issued from this Office in the year 1832, on the same subject. The circular therein alluded to is dated August 30th, 1832. Commenced the sale this day, at o'clock, and during the day offered the following lands, in the mode prescribed by law. *The twenty-sixth clause of the Circular of May 25th, 1831, which is still in force, is as follows: "26. Public sales are to be so conducted as to admit of offering at sale, agreeably to law, the whole quantity of land proclaimed. The utmost limit to which a sale is kept open is two weeks, of six working days each; Sabbath days of course excluded. The mode of conducting a public sale is a matter to be arranged by the Register and Receiver. The hours of commencement and termination of a sale on each day, and the quantity of land or number of tracts to be offered on each day, are not prescribed by law, and must necessarily depend on contingent circumstances. As a general rule, I would recommend that a public sale commence about sunrise and end about sunset, in all cases where bidders attend. Two or more short intervals, for necessary relaxation and refreshment, to be observed during each day of sale. I would also recommend, as a general rule, that in offering tracts, you should not dwell longer than one minute for a bid. "The law provides that the Register and Receiver shall each receive five dollars a day for superintending public sales, but provides no allowance for either crier or clerk. It has, however, been the practice at the Treasury, to allow a reasonable per diem for the services of a crier in all cases, and also to allow a per diem for the services of a clerk to the superintendents, (to aid them in taking minutes of sale and making out receipts for purchasers,) in cases where, from the nature and magnitude of the sales, there appeared to be a propriety and necessity for such allowance. Of these circumstances, however, the accounting officers have always reserved to themselves the exclusive right of determining, whenever a charge is made." Section 1 No bids. No bids, except for E. 4 4 N. W. 4, sold to John Jones, at $1 27. W. 1 S. E. 1, Wm. Abbot, at $1 26. Reserved the N. W. 1, on account of the unconfirmed claim of Thomas Hill; all the rest offered, and no bids, except for W. 1 S. E. 1, sold to Thomas Lewis for $1 40; as he did not pay for the land to-day, it will be re-offered to-morrow. Reserved for seminary lands, per letter of G. L. O., of 14th Jan., 1842. 5 E. 4 located by State, under 8th section of Act of Sept. 4, 1841. No bids on the residue. 6 N. W. Thomas Brown's pre-emption-Act of 1841. N. E. James Evans, E. S. W. do. do. sold to Thomas Green, at, $1 26. or, if the labor at the public sale be found so great as to render it impracticable to enter into so minute an exhibit as the above, you may modify it thus, Section 1 Offered. Offered. 1 N. W. reserved. See Tract Book for particulars. The rest offered. Reserved. See Tract Book. 1 E. reserved. See Tract Book for particulars. The rest offered. "6 Offered. No. 398. Circular. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Gentlemen-Enquiries having been made at this Office relative to receiving Treasury Notes for lands, and restoring to the purchaser, in specie, the difference between the amount of payment to be made and the amount of the note tendered, the following rule has been established in relation thereto by the Secretary of the Treasury, and will be observed by you, to wit: A Treasury Note of the denomination next above the amount of payment to be made, may be taken, and the difference paid to the purchaser in specie, provided the difference, or change, does not amount to fifty dollars. As, for instance, in payment for lands of a sum less than fifty dollars, a Treasury Note of fifty dollars may be taken, and the change paid to the purchaser in specie; in payment of more than fifty dollars, and less than one hundred dollars, a Treasury Note of the denomination of a hundred dollars may be taken, and the difference paid to the purchaser in specie; and so on, in other cases: but in no case can a Treasury Note be taken, and the difference paid to the purchaser in specie, where that difference, or change, amounts to fifty dollars-the lowest denomination of Treasury Notes issued. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Acting Commissioner. No. 399. Circular. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Gentlemen-Hereafter, the following rules will be observed by you, in bringing isolated tracts of land into market, under the 5th section of the Act of August 3d, 1846. (No. 110.) 1st. Care must be taken that your books, plats and files do not interpose any obstacle to the offering of such lands as may be reported to you by this Office for sale under said law. 2d. When instructions are received from this Office ordering such tracts to be exposed at public sale, you will cause an advertisement to be inserted once a week for the space of thirty days in one newspaper of the most general circulation in your district, using the following form of notice: "Public Land Sale.-Notice is hereby given that in pursuance of instructions from the Commisioner of the General Land Office, under authority vested in him by the 5th section of the Act of Congress approved 3d Aug., 1846, we shall proceed to offer at public sale on the next at this Office, the following tracts of public land, to wit, day of "All persons having pre-emption rights to any portion of the above lands are advised to make proof thereof and payment before the day above designated for the commencement of said sale, otherwise their rights will be forfeited. "A. B., Register, "C. D., Receiver." (Date.) The day of sale to be thirty days after the date of the notice. 3d. The sale must close immediately after offering the lands thus advertised; but should any of the lands thus offered not be purchased at the public sale, they must subsequently be regarded and treated as subject to private entry, as if offered by a Proclamation of the President. 4th. Immediately after each sale, you will send to this Office a joint report showing the lands offered, indicating the sales, the Nos. of the certificates, &c., with a copy of the advertisement under which the offering was made. 5th. When the publisher presents his account to you for advertising the sale, you will require his affidavit that the charges are correct and not exceeding the usual rates.* Upon this being furnished, accompanied with a receipt for the money, the Receiver is authorized to pay the same, and he will forward the account properly receipted, with the publisher's affidavit and your joint certificates as to the correctness of the whole, with his quarterly returns, as Disbursing Agent, and he will receive a credit for the amount thus expended, in the settlement of his accounts here. Register and Receiver. Respectfully, J. BUTTERFIELD, Commissioner. * The General Land Office now fixes the rate of compensation allowed for advertising. DECISIONS. No. 400. Holders of Certificates of Entry, may assign them in the manner specified. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIor, August 30, 1855. In reply to your letter of the 28th inst., you are advised that holders of certificates of entry of land can assign the same, and patents will be issued to such assignees, upon the filling up of the assignments in the General Land Office, prior to the issue of the patent to the original purchaser. This does not, however, extend to entries made under the Pre-emption or Graduation Laws. In such cases, patents can be issued only to the original purchasers. The assignment may be made before the Register or Receiver of a land office, or before any officers in the State authorized to take acknowledgments of deeds. R. H. Folger. Respectfully, R. M'CLELLAND, Secretary. No. 401. Lands selected and abandoned, must be advertised before they become subject to private entry. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, A letter has been received at the Department, from Robert L. Winslow, appealing from your decision against his and A. B. Bowen's right to enter, in preference to any one else, certain lands in T. 27, R. 26, Menasha District, Wisconsin, selected as swamp land, but subsequently abandoned by the Governor of the State upon evidence satisfactory to him that the tracts in question were not swamp. As these tracts were not only selected but approved to the State, their subsequent abandonment, and upon testimony procured by the above named persons, does not place them in a different condition than if set aside by the Department in the ordinary manner, upon satisfactory evidence. His appeal was from your order, by virtue of which it would seem that on the 5th prox. the said tracts are advertised for sale, and he has this day been advised, that the appeal cannot be entertained, and that the proposed offering cannot be interfered with by any action of the Department. Commissioner of the General Land Office. R. M'CLELLAND, Secretary. No. 402. A party who was prevented by the Register from complying with the law, under given circumstances allowed a preference right. Conflicting claims of A. H. M'Dowell and G. A. Williams, the former by pre-emption, the latter by entry at private sale. The Department, though compelled to decide against the right of preemption as claimed by Mr. M'Dowell, (thus affirming your action on that point,) not only for the reason assigned, to wit: the want of personal residence of Mr. M'Dowell on the land to constitute him a pre-emptor, but also because the proof filed by him was not filed in due time, viz. twelve months after settlement; yet as the entry of Williams was made during the existence of the said twelve months, and as an entry under the graduation law of 1854, and when M'Dowell had made substantial and extensive improvements on the land, I think that M'Dowell should be permitted to enter the land, particularly as in addition to the above causes, it would appear he sought to enter the land at private sale, and was prevented by an act of the then Register, by whose advice he filed the declaration under the pre-emption law, and which the latter not only neglected to report in proper time to your office, but failed to regard its existence when Williams' entry was allowed. R. M'CLELLAND, Secretary. Commissioner of the General Land Office. No. 403. Land simultaneously applied for, cannot subsequently be located by warrant issued under Act of 1855. GENERAL LAND Office, Sir: In reply to your letter of the 19th ult., referred to this Office by the Secretary of the Interior, I have to state that lands put up at public sale between two or more persons who made simultaneous application to enter or locate the same tract, are, by the act of thus offering them at public sale, withdrawn from entry at private sale, and that, consequently, a military bounty land warrant, located on such tract in part satisfaction of the purchase-money which the successful bidder agreed to pay for the tract, is located in violation of the 5th section of the Bounty Land Act of March 3, 1855, (No. 282,) which provides "that no warrant issued under the provisions of this act, shall be located on any public lands except such as shall at the time be subject to sale at either the minimum or lower graduated prices. This Office has, however, at the urgent request of many persons who have unadvisedly made such illegal locations, consented to suspend action in all such cases until after the meeting of the next session of Congress, in order to afford an opportunity for such persons to apply to that body for relief. Very respectfully, W. S. Jones, Esq., Your obedient servant, No. 404. Private entries may be permitted of Land claimed by a pre-emptor, subject, however, to the claim of the latter. With reference to the action of the Register and Receiver, (at Stevens Point, Wisconsin,) in permitting the private entries Nos. 7373 and 8362, |