TREASURY DEPARTMENT, November 30, 1838. SIR: I here with transmit to you the report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, under the resolution of the Senate of the 28th of February, 1837. The documents required to be furnished to the Senate under that resolution have been collected under the direction of the Commissioner. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury. A. DICKINS, Esq., Secretary of the Senate of the United States. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 17, 1837. SIR: I enclose, herewith, a copy of a resolution of the Senate passed on the 28th of February last, in relation to the instructions issued by the Secretary of the Treasury or Commissioner of the General Land Office on questions arising under the land laws, and to the opinions of the Attorney General on the same subject; and have to request that the duties required by the resolution may be performed at the Land Office. I am, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury. COMMISSIONER of the General Land Office. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, SIR: In compliance with the request in your letter of the 17th of March last, enclosing a resolution of the Senate of the 28th February previous, in the words following, to wit: "Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury cause to be prepared a collection of the instructions which have been issued from time to time either by the Secretary of the Treasury or the Commissioner of the Land Office, excepting only such as refer exclu sively, both in principle and application, to particular or individual cases; together with the official opinions of the Attorney General, excepting such as are applicable only to particular cases, on questions arising under the land laws," I have the honor to submit, herewith, the enclosed communication from the Solicitor of this office, with the documents therein referred to, as furnishing the information desired. With great respect, I have the honor to be your obedient servant, The Hon. LEVI WOODBURY, Secretary of the Treasury. Commissioner. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, SIR In compliance with your instructions, I have prepared for transmission to the Secretary of the Senate, for publication, agreeably to the resolution of the Senate, all the official opinions of the Attorneys General on file in this office, numbered from 1 to 152, inclusive; also, a collection of the instructions which have been issued from time to time, which I have arranged under four general heads, viz : In the old records of this office the signatures to letters were not recorded. To supply the information which this omission rendered necessary, lists of the Commissioners and Acting Commissioners have been prepared, showing the precise time each discharged the duties of the office. Diagrams and a list of the several district land offices became necessary to a correct understanding of many of the instructions, and they have therefore been prepared. I have frequently omitted those parts of letters which did not appear to come within the spirit of the Senate's resolution, noting by asterisks the place of such omission, and at the same time giving the volume and page of the record on which the entire letter is recorded. Instructions which have no such reference to the volume or page of a record have been transcribed from the unbound files of this office. * From No. 89 to No. 152, inclusive, were transcripts of the official records in the Attorney General's office. See Solicitor's letter, p. 141. |