of lands subject to sale at the land office at, containing in satisfaction of the attached warrant numbered Witness my hand this Register. day of A. D. 18-. acres, LAND OFFICE 18-. We hereby certify that the above location is correct, being in accordance with law and instructions. Receiver. And you will then make permanent entries on your books, to show how the lands have been disposed of. 5th. At the close of each month, succeeding the consummation of one or more locations, you will make a return to the general land office of the warrant certificates, with the accompanying evidence of such location. The law allows no commissions on this business, and as it has no connection whatever with the sales, you will transmit with the located warrant certificates, a separate monthly return, according to the form (B) herewith. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Commissioner. NOTE. The Secretary of the Treasury has decided that a soldier may use his own warrant in payment for land to which he claims a pre-emption in his own rightbut such a warrant cannot be used by an assignee for such a purpose. No. 605. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Gentlemen :-In view of recent inquiries at this Office, the following is added to the Circular of 3d June, 1847, in regard to locating military warrants under the Act of 11th February, 1847: (No. 126.) 5th. A tract of a greater area than the quantity in the warrant, may be located, if the excess is paid for. In such cases, the Receiver will issue his receipt for ter of section dollars, in full for -, range acres of the quar, being an excess in said tract over the area located in virtue of military land warrant No. -, in favor of The receipt must be numbered and accounted for as usual, but no certificate of purchase of a corresponding number must be issued by the Register for the excess. The endorsement on the warrant, as required under the 4th section of the original Circular, should be adapted to this class of cases, as follows: I, A. B., of ——————, hereby locate the acres in satisfaction of the warrant herein mentioned, having paid for the excess as per Receiver's receipt, No. dated , containing (Signed) Very respectfully, A. B., with date. Your obedient servant, Commissioner. To the United States Register and Receiver. No. 606. Circular to the Registers and Receivers of the United States Land Offices. April 1, 1848. Gentlemen :-The location of bounty land warrants issued under the 9th section of the Act of 11th February, 1847, (No. 126,) has become the subject of so many inquiries from the officers of the local land offices, and from private individuals, that to obviate the necessity of further correspondence, it is deemed advisable to issue the annexed additional circular of instruction in reference to the several points of inquiry : 1st. The warrant certificates issued under the 9th section of the Act of 11th February, 1847, by the decision of the Secretary of the Treasury, may be located by the soldiers themselves upon any tracts of land which they may be entitled to enter at the land offices under the general pre-emption law, whether the same has or has not been offered at public sale. This decision does not embrace any of the public lands which have been reserved for any special purpose, or any which are subject to pre-emption under special laws, or any the price of which exceeds the minimum of $1 25 per acre. You will, therefore, upon the establishing of a pre-emption, under the Act of 4th September, 1841, by the soldier or warrantee, permit the location of the warrant upon the tract. If the area of the tract so located be greater than the amount of the warrant, the excess is to be paid for, and a receipt issued by the Receiver, agreeably to the instructions contained in the Circular of 1st October, 1847. 2d. An assignee of a warrant can make his location only upon land which is "subject to private entry." The provision of the law is, that no warrant shall be located upon land to which "there shall be a pre-emption right, or upon which there shall be an actual settlement and cultivation." The construction given by this Office to this provision is, that its intent. was to prevent interference with the rights of a third person, and that it was not intended to apply to an individual holding a warrant as assignee who might have a pre-emption right, or a settlement and cultivation which would entitle him to a pre-emption, upon a tract of land "subject to private entry." You will, therefore, when an assignee of a warrant makes application to locate the same upon a tract of land "subject to private entry," to which he has a pre-emption, for which he has filed a declaratory statement, or upon which he has a settlement and cultivation, permit him to do so. If the tract contains an excess over the warrant, the Circular of 1st October, 1847, gives you instructions. 3d. When the holder of a warrant shall insist upon making a location upon a tract for which a declaration has been filed by another person, you will permit him to do so. The affidavit filed by such applicant is of more weight than the bare statement of the alleged pre-emptor, and no evil can possibly result from this course. If the declaration should prove to be that of a bona fide pre-emptor, notwithstanding said affidavit, the pre-emptor will, upon duly establishing his claim, obtain his entry, and the location by the warrant must yield. In such cases the papers may be retained in your office until the expiration of the year allowed the pre-emptor to prove up, and the case noted on the abstract. 4th. Any legal subdivisions may be located by a warrant either in one or different sections and townships, provided the several tracts are "in one body;" that is, contiguous, or separated by a line. 5th. The affidavit required of the locator of a warrant showing that the land is vacant, may be made either by the party himself or by any disinterested credible witness who can make it for him to the satisfaction of the Register and Receiver; and the affidavit, when made by a party who has a pre-emption right, or a settlement and cultivation in his own right, may be modified to show the fact. 6th. The date of location entered on the abstracts should agree with that of the location made by the party. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Register and Receiver at No. 607. Circular in relation to the location of Military Land Warrants. Gentlemen :-In pursuance of the provisions contained in the annexed act, (No. 155,) you will permit the location of any bounty land warrant issued by the United States in the name of the warrantee, upon one legal subdivision of any of the public lands subject to private entry and held at a price exceeding the usual minimum of $1 25 per acre, "reckoning the warrant at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for the number of acres contained therein," the party paying the balance, if any, in money. The provisions of the following act apply to land warrants issued for services performed in the revolutionary war, the late war with Great Britain, and the war with Mexico; and when the location is desired to be made upon a tract of land, the price of which exceeds the usual minimum-say a quarter section containing one hundred and sixty acres, held at $2 50 per acre-the warrant, being for one hundred and sixty acres, is to be received as of the value of $200, and $200 to be paid in money. An eighth of a section of eighty acres, or less, can be located in full satisfaction of a hundred and sixty acre warrant. By an eighth is understood the east or west half of a quarter-section. The north or south half of a quarter is not one legal subdivision, but two, each being a quarter-quarter or sixteenth, unless it shall be actually so designated upon the plat by the SurveyorGeneral. The bounty land warrants granted for services performed in the late war with Great Britain are for the quantity of one hundred and sixty or three hundred and twenty acres; those for services in the war with Mexico, for forty or one hundred and sixty acres; and those granted to non-commissioned officers or privates in the revolutionary war, for one hundred acres. Should any of this last class of warrants be presented for location, the party can take but one legal subdivision in satisfaction thereof. Where an excess is to be paid for, you will please follow the instructions contained in the Circular of October 1, 1847; and where the warrant, reckoning at $1 25 per acre, would amount to more than sufficient to pay for the land located, no claim exists against the Government for the excess. The locations under this law are intended to apply more particularly to such lands as the Wyandot Reserves in Ohio and Michigan, and the Miami Reservations in Indiana; the former of which are limited at $2 50 and the latter at $2 per acre, also to alternate sections upon rivers, canals, railroads, &c., where such lands are limited at a price above the usual minimum of $1 25 per acre, and where such lands may have become subject to "private entry.' Respectfully, &c., RICHARD M. YOUNG, Commissioner. Register and Receiver, Land Office at No. 608. Military Bounty Land.-Circular to Registers and Receivers. GENERAL LAND Office, March 31, 1851. Gentlemen :-By the Act 28th September, 1850, (No. 183,) granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States, the warrantees, or their heirs at law, are authorized to locate the land to which they are entitled, at any Land Office of the United States, in one body, and in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, upon any of the public lands in such district subject to private entry on the 3d of March, 1851. It is also provided, that no land warrant issued under the provision of this Act shall be laid upon any land of the United States to which there shall be a pre-emption right, or upon which there shall be an actual settlement and cultivation, except with the consent of such settler, to be satisfactorily proven to the proper land officer. Further, it is made the duty of the Commissioner of this Office, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, to cause to be located, free of expense, any warrant which the holder may transmit to this Office for that purpose, in such State and land district as the holder or warrantee may designate, and upon good farming land, so far as the same can be ascertained from the maps, plats, and field notes of the surveyor, or from any other information in the possession of the local office. Under this law the warrantees or their heirs at law can locate the quantity to which they are entitled, in conformity to the legal subdivisions, including forty-acre tracts, on any land which was subject to entry at private sale on the 3d of March, 1851. They cannot take tracts cornering on each other, nor can they be permitted to select a series of small fractions on a water-course, Indian boundary, &c., as the law requires that the location shall be in one body—that is, in a compact form. When application is made to locate these warrants by the warrantee, the applicant should make oath that he is the person specified in the warrant before the location is permitted. When such application is made by an attorney of a warrantee, the power of attorney, duly authenticated, must be filed with the application; and when by guardian of the minors, who are warrantees, the letters of guardianship, authenticated by the proper court, must in like manner be filed. When the warrantee has died after the issuing of the warrant, and before it is located, proof of that fact must be adduced; and if he died intestate, proof of heirship should be required, which proof must consist of the cer tificate of a court having probate jurisdiction, issued under the seal of said court, stating the time of the death of the warrantee, and the name of each and every of his heirs at law, designating which of said heirs are minors or feme coverts. Where a will is left, a duly certified copied of it, with letters of probate, must be presented, and in either case full authority should be given by the heirs or devisees, if adults, or by their guardians, if minors, to the proposed location. The same rules will be observed by persons making application to this or your office by letter for locations. In order that the liberal views of congress in passing this law may be carried out, and every expense to the warrantees be avoided in obtaining the benefit granted by the gratitude of their country for faithful and patriotic service, and at the same time to secure to the hardy and enterprising settlers on the public lands the fruits of their industry and privations, the Secretary of the Interior has directed: That all settlers on public lands, subject to entry at private sale, be requested by public notice to come forward and file their declaratory statements, within thirty days after making their settlements and improvements, as required by the Pre-emption Act of the 4th September, 1841, so as to secure their pre-emption rights, and prevent interference by the location of these warrants And that all warrants may be located upon the land applied for when subject to private entry without an affidavit as to whether said land is improved, and after having been so located said warrants shall remain in the hands of the land officers at least forty days If at the end of that time there is no interference by those locations with pre-emption claims the warrants should be returned to this Office for patenting You will therefore endorse on each warrant the date when, and the tracts on which application is made to locate it, and make a similar note on the plat and in your tract-book in pencil If there is no interference within the time above mentioned you will make those notes in ink, but if there is, you will make a new location of the warrant as hereafter directed. When warrantees apply to locate the improvements of others they must produce the written assent of the owners of such improvements, and evidence satisfactory to you that such owner is the party thus assenting. Warrantees can locate their own improvements, and where such warrantees are entitled to pre-emption they can locate their warrants on their own pre-emption rights, after proving up their pre-emptions to the satisfaction of the land officers where the land has been proclaimed and offered at public sale, prior to the 3d March, 1851. In such cases where the minimum price is more than $1 25 per acre, the warrantee can pay up in cash the difference between the cost of the land and the amount covered by the warrant, estimating the warrant at $1 25 per acre. When the tracts applied for contain more than the quantity expressed in the warrant, the warrantee can pay for the excess at the minimum price under the instructions heretofore issued in relation to Mexican warrants in such cases. When the tract or tracts applied for contain a less number of acres than is specified in the warrant, they must be taken in full satisfaction of the warrant. At the end of each month you will prepare an abstract of all locations which have remained on hand as above directed, according to the accompanying form, and transmit it with the warrants and accompanying papers to this Office. In all cases where application is made to this Office to locate these warrants they will be transmitted to you, and you will locate them on good farming land as shown by the descriptive notes, and in every thing conform to the foregoing instructions. Herewith you will receive the form of a notice, which you will cause to be published once a week for six weeks, in two of the newspapers of most extensive circulation in your district. Each of these papers will be allowed $ for this publication for the period mentioned. When the service is completed they should send their accounts therefor to this Office, with the first and last numbers of the paper containing the |