The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred bill [S. 92,] "to lay off the town of Council Bluffs, in Iowa," report:

That the bill as originally introduced, was substantially if not literally a copy of the several laws for laying off the town of Fort Madison, and five other towns in Iowa and Wisconsin, passed in 1836 and 1837, except as to the prices of lots; where these were to be inserted a blank space was left to be filled by the committee. Its provisions, in brief, were these: Three commissioners, to be appointed by the President, were to lay off 640 acres of the public domain into town-lots, streets, avenues, and lots for public use, &c., called public squares; and into out-lots, having regard to improvements already made, in such manner and of such dimensions as the commissioners might think for the public good, and the equitable rights of the settlers and occupants of said towns, as in the case of the towns referred to; it was made the duty of the commissioners to class the lots already occupied in Council Bluffs city into three classes, according to the relative value thereof, on account of situation and eligibility for business, without regard however to the improvements made thereon; and it was provided that all settlers and occupants who had, by building or enclosure, actually improved any lot or lots in the town of Council Bluffs, or within the tracts of land which the bill authorized the committee to lay off into lots, should be permitted to purchase such lot or lots, by paying for them in cash; if of the first class, at the rate of dollars per acre; if of the second, at the rate of dollars per acre; and if within the third class, at the rate of dollars per acre. In the laws for laying off the six towns before mentioned, the prices were fixed at $40 for the first class; $25 for the second class; and $10 for the third. No one settler or occupant to be permitted to purchase, by the provisions of the bill, more than one acre of ground, to embrace improvements already made. The bill further provided that, after paying the commissioners six dollars each per day, for their services for every day they were necessarily employed, and all other expenses incident to the survey and sale of the lots, the receiver of the land offices, should pay over the residue of the money arising from the sale of lots by pre-emption, as well as at

public auction, into the hands of the constituted authorities of the town of Council Bluffs, to be expended by them in the erection of public buildings, and improvement of its streets, &c.

The committee (with one exception) are of the opinion that, in consequence of the public lands adjacent to the town site in question, having some time since been brought into market, and many of them sold, there are no benefits which could result to the United States, which would justify them in making a donation, to a particular town, of a section of land, the proceeds of which to be applied exclusively to its own use and benefit. The committee thought that if it were done for one town, it should be done for all such as were similarly situated. The committee do not think that the reasons which probably induced Congress to lay off and dispose of the six towns, before mentioned in this report, have any application to the one under consideration. Those town sites were settled upon at a very early day, in the history of the upper Mississippi, and at a time when Michigan covered all the vast region which now constitutes Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, long anterior to the public surveys of the country, and when great inducements were held out by the government for the exploration and settlement of its remote domain, and the developement of its hidden mineral resources. These considerations, and the further important one that, without such laying off and disposition of those town sites by the United States, the occupants could get no title— these towns being, as before stated, settled upon and occupied many years prior to the survey of the adjacent public lands, thus rendering their purchase absolutely impossible.

The committee are the more inclined to think that this view of the subject is the correct one, from the fact that Congress in 1844 adopted an entire change of policy in its legislation touching town sites, so called, upon the public domain, by the enactment of a general law, approved May 23, 1844, entitled "An act for the relief of the citizens of towns upon the lands of the United States, under certain circumstances." This law provides that whenever any portion of the surveyed public lands have been or shall be settled upon and occupied as a town site, and not therefore subject to entry under the pre-emption laws, it shall be lawful, in case such town or place shall be incorporated, for the judges of the county court in which such town may be situated, to enter at the minimun price, the land so settled and occupied in trust for the several use and benefit of the occupants thereof, according to their respective interests; the execution of which trust, as to the disposal of the lots in such town, and the proceeds of the sales thereof, to be conducted under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the legislative authority of the State and Territory in which the same is situated; with a proviso that the entry be made prior to the commencement of the public sale of the body of land in which it is included; that the entry shall only embrace such land as is actually occupied by the town; shall be made in legal subdivisions, and not exceed, in the whole, 320

acres.

The town of Council Bluffs is situated on the Missouri river, in latitude 41 15, longitude 95 50, west from Greenwich; is the seat of justice of Pottawattomie county; and is represented to the committee

to be a rapidly growing, prosperous, and important town, whose population has already attained to several thousand in number, with every prospect of a vast augmentation during the present year. It is surrounded by a country possessing very great natural advantages; a salubrious climate, and a soil rich as the delta of Egypt. It is the termination on the east bank of the Missouri river of the celebrated "Mormon trace," or road, one of the largest and best known thoroughfares leading west through Iowa to Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and California-a road upon which twenty or thirty thousand people travelled westward during the past season, and over which a much larger number will probably pass during the present year. Notwithstanding the frontier location and brief time since the first settlement of this town by the extraordinary enterprise and public spirit of its inhabitants, it is represented that an effective steam-ferry has already been established opposite Council Bluffs city to convey emigrants and others across the Missouri river at that point-thus adding greatly to its importance as a town site. Among the railroads contemplated by the State of Iowa, two, if not more, have their termini at Council Bluffs city.

From the facts and circumstances hereinbefore stated, the committee deem it advisable to extend the provisions of the act of 1844, before recited, so as to allow the county judge of Pottawattomie county, as such judge, to enter, in trust for the benefit of the inhabitants of said town, at the proper land office, 640 acres of land in legal subdivisions, by paying therefor one dollar and a quarter per acre, and accordingly report back the bill with an amendment in the form of a substitute. Appended hereto is a copy of an act of the legislative assembly of Iowa, entitled "An act regulating the disposal of lands purchased in trust for town sites," approved January 22, 1852, and passed by said general assemby with special reference to the town of Council Bluffs, [then known as Kanesville] in Iowa, which the committee make a part of this report.

AN ACT regulating the disposal of lands purchased in trust for town sites.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of the State of Iowa, That whenever any portion of the surveyed public lands of the United States within any organized county in the State of Iowa, has been, or shall be settled upon and occupied as a town site, and therefore not subject to entry under existing pre-emption laws, it may be lawful and shall be the duty (if required by the occupants of such land) of the corporate authorities of said town, if incorporated, and if not, of the county judge of the county in which the said town is situated, if furnished by said occupants with money sufficient, to enter at the proper land office, the land so settled and occupied in trust for the several use and benefit of the occupants thereof, according to their respective interests.

SEC. 2. After purchasing as above prescribed such land, it shall be the duty of said corporate authorities, or county judge, as the case may be, to make out, execute, and deliver to each person, who as an occupant may be entitled to the same, a deed in fee simple for such part or parcels, lot or lots of said land, as he or they may lawfully be entitled to, on the payment by said occupant of his proper and due proportion

of the purchase money of said land, together with his proportion of such sum as may be necessary to pay for so much of said land as may be occupied as streets, alleys, and public grounds; and also his proportion of the expense incurred in laying off said town, together with the sum of one dollar for each deed, which last named sum shall be the only compensation of said corporate authorities or county judge for their or his services in performing the duties herein prescribed.

SEC. 3. Should any portion of the lands purchased in pursuance of this act, not be claimed or laid off by actual bona fide occupants or claimants, it shall be the duty of said corporate authorities, or county judge, as the case may be, to lay off into lots such lands, making such streets, alleys, and public grounds as may be required for said town; such unclaimed lots to be, by said authorities or county judge, sold to the highest bidder at a public sale, after giving four weeks public notice thereof, and the proceeds of the sale of said lots to be appropriated to building school-houses in such town.

SEC. 4. This act to be in force from and after its publication in the Iowa Capitol Reporter, and the Iowa Republican: Provided, That said publication be made without expense to the State.

Approved January 22, 1852:1

I hereby certify that the foregoing act was published in the Iowa Capitol Reporter, of February 9, and in the Iowa Republican, of February 2, 1853.

GEO. W. MCCLEARY,

Secretary of State.

1st Session,

No. 80.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

FEBRUARY 6, 1854.-Ordered to be printed.

MR. JOHNSON made the following

REPORT.

[To accompany Bill S. 184.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the petition of Mrs. Elizabeth C. Smith, asking for payment for her military services in the Mexican war, having had the same under consideration, report:

The facts set forth in her memorial are these. Her maiden name was Elizabeth C. Newcom; under the assumed name of "Bill Newcom," and in male attire, she enlisted as a private in CaptainHoleshiders company "D," in the regiment commanded by Colonel Gilpin, of Missouri, infantry volunteers, on the 16th day of September, 1847; was mustered into service on the 18th day of September, 1847, to serve in and during the war with Mexico; that she continued in said service, under the assumed name aforesaid, and faithfully performed all the duties of a soldier, for the space of eight months, at the expiration of which time, to wit, on the 14th day of May, 1848, at Santa Fe, near Mexico, her sex was discovered, and she was immediately thereafter sent to Fort Leavenworth, where she was informally discharged from the service, by Lieutenant Colonel Wharton, of the United States army, being about ten months after the date of her enlistment.

Her statement is fully sustained by the affidavit of George W. Graham, who swears "that Mrs. Elizabeth C. Smith is the identical person who served in said company, under the assumed name of “Bill Newcom."

There seems to be no doubt that the service was rendered as charged, and that she is entitled to her pay for the same, as the law makes no distinction with regard to sex; and as her ser vices were as useful to the government as if she had been a man, and regularly enlisted as such.

The committee, considering her fully entitled to regular pay for her services, as well as three months' extra pay, under the fifth section of the act approved 19th July, 1848, and to bounty land, under the ninth section of the act approved February 11, 1847, beg leave to report a bill for her relief.