shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause to be reserved from sale or entry, under the provisions of this or any other law of the United States, any tract or tracts of land reserved to any Choctaw, under the provisions of the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, of one thousand eight hundred and thirty, and also to reserve from sale or entry, a sufficient quantity of the lands acquired by said treaty, upon which no such settlement or improvement has been made, as would entitle the settler or improver to a right of pre-emption under this act, to satisfy the claims of such Indians as may have been entitled to reservations under the said treaty, and whose lands may have been sold by the United States, on account of any default, neglect, or omission of duty on the part of any officer of the United States; such reservation from sale to continue until the claims to reservations under said treaty, shall be investigated by the board of commissioners appointed for that purpose, and their report finally acted on by Congress.(1)

4. The officers and soldiers of the Virginia line on continental establishment, their heirs or assigns, entitled to bounty lands within the tract reserved by Virginia, between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, northwest of the river Ohio, for satisfying the legal bounties to her officers and soldiers upon continental establishment, shall be allowed until the tenth day of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty, to complete their locations and surveys, and return their surveys and warrants, or certified copies thereof, to the General Land Office; and all entries and surveys which may have heretofore been made within the said reservation, in satisfaction of any such warrants, on lands not previously entered or surveyed, or on lands not prohibited from entry and survey, shall be held to be good and valid, any omission heretofore to extend the time for the making of such entries and surveys to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, That no locations as aforesaid, within the above-mentioned tract, shall, after the passage of this act, be made on tracts of land which may have been previously patented, or which may have been surveyed in satisfaction of warrants granted for the legal bounties of said officers and soldiers: And provided, also, That no locations as aforesaid, shall be made on any lands lying upon the west side of Ludlow's line; and any patent which may nevertheless be obtained for land located contrary to the provisions of this act, shall be held and considered as null and void.(2)

No patent shall be issued by virtue of the preceding section, for a greater quantity of land than the rank or term of service of the officer or soldier to whom, or to whose heirs or assigns, such warrant has been granted, would have entitled him under the laws of Virginia and of the United States regulating the issuing of such warrants; and whenever it appears to the Secretary of War, that the survey made by any of the aforesaid warrants, is for a greater quantity of land than the officer or soldier is entitled to for his services, the Secretary of War shall certify on each survey, the amount of such surplus quantity, and the officer or soldier, his heirs or assigns, shall have leave to withdraw his survey from the office of the Secretary of War, and re-survey his location, excluding such surplus quantity, in one body, from any part of his re-survey, and a patent shall issue upon such re-survey, as in other cases: Provided, however, That no patent shall be obtained on any warrant under this act, unless there be produced to the Secretary of War, satisfactory evidence that such warrant was granted for services which, by the laws of Virginia passed prior to the cession of the Northwestern Territory, would have entitled such officer or soldier, his heirs or

(1) Act June 22d, 1838.

Ꭰ

(2) Act July 7th, 1838, sec. 1.

assigns, to bounty lands; and, also, a certificate of the register of the land office of Virginia, that no other warrant has issued from the said land office, for the same services.(1)

5. For the disposal of that portion of the lands belonging to the United States in the state of Louisiana, within the following boundaries, to wit: beginning at the point on the Sabine river, where the base line or thirty-first degree of north latitude strikes the same; thence up said river to the point where the boundary line between the United States of Mexico and the aforesaid state of Louisiana shall leave the same, thence with said boundary, when the same shall be finally fixed, to the northern boundary of the state; thence east with said northern boundary to the dividing line between the ranges three and four west; thence with said dividing line, south to the base line or thirty-first degree of north latitude, thence with said line to the beginning a land office shall be established and kept in the town of Natchitoches, to be known as the office for the Northwestern land district in the state of Louisiana.(2)

A register and receiver of public moneys shall be appointed for the said land district, in the manner required by law, who shall reside in the town of Natchitoches; they shall give bond and security in the same manner and in the same sums, as other registers and receivers in said state; and their salaries, emoluments, duties and authority shall in every respect be the same, in relation to the lands in the aforesaid district, as are now given or granted to the registers and receivers in the other land offices in said state.(3)

During the continuance of the act entitled "An act to grant pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands," approved June twenty-second, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, the register and receiver of the aforesaid land district shall attend at least once in two months, if necessary, at Shreeveport, in said district, for the purpose of receiving proof of, and acting on such claims for pre-emption rights, as may be presented to them under said act, and remain at said place, as long as may be necessary, not exceeding two weeks at a time, and said register and receiver shall give public notice for at least two weeks, of the time they will attend at said place.(4)

The Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby invested with authority to direct in what manner and on what conditions the said land office shall be supplied with plats and copies of plats and surveys, from the offices now established at Monroe and Opelousas, and the office of the Surveyor General of Louisiana.(5)

All that portion of the present Fayetteville district which lies south of the line between townships eleven and twelve, north of the principal base line, shall form a separate land district, and be called the Western land district, and the land office for said district shall be established at the county seat of Johnson county, or such other place as the President of the United States shall designate.(6)

There shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, under the existing laws, a register and receiver in and for said district, whose compensation shall be the same as provided for other registers and receivers ; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, as soon as it can be done, to cause the necessary tract books, plats, maps and surveys of the public lands, in said district, to be filed in said of

(1) Act July 7th, 1838, sec. 2. (2) Act July 7th, 1838, sec. 1. (3) Ibid. sec. 2.

(4) Ibid. sec. 3.
(5) Ibid. sec. 4.

(6) Ibid. sec. 5.

fice; and all applications for entries in said district, shall be made as heretofore prescribed by law at the land offices now established, until the first day of June next.(1)

LAWS.

Secretary of State not to record laws, &c.

. 1

ART. 1. So much of the act entitled "An act to provide for the safe keeping of the acts, records, and seal of the United States, and for other purposes," approved fifteenth of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, as directs the Secretary of State to cause to be recorded in his office, the acts and resolutions of Congress, is hereby repealed.(2)

NAVY.

President to employ vessels on coast in the severe season

. 1

ART. 1. The President is hereby authorized to cause any suitable number of public vessels, adapted to the purpose, to cruise upon the coast, in the severe portion of the season, when the public service will allow it, and to afford such aid to distressed navigators, as their circumstances aud necessities may require; and such public vessels shall go to sea prepared fully to render such assistance. (3)

ART. 1. All money which has been, or may hereafter be, transmitted to the agents for paying pensions, which may have remained, or may hereafter remain, in the hands of said agents, unclaimed by any pensioner or pensioners, for the term of eight months after the same may have or may become due and payable, shall be transferred to the Treasury of the United

(1) Act July 7th, 1838, sec. 6. (2) Act July 7th, 1838.

(3) Act Dec. 22d, 1837.

States; and all pensions unclaimed as aforesaid, shall be thereafter payable only at the Treasury of the United States, and out of any money not otherwise appropriated.(1)

The transfer directed by the first section of this act, shall be made by the draft of the Commissioner of Pensions upon the agents for paying pensions, and in favour of the Treasurer of the United States; and the form of said draft shall be prescribed by the Secretary of War.(2)

2. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized, if in his opinion necessasary, to remove and establish the Pension agency in the town of Decatur, Alabama, to the town of Huntsville, Alabama: and, in the event of said re. moval, the pensioners described in the act of 27th June, 1834, (see arti cle 2539, cl. 6,) shall be paid in Huntsville.(3)

3. If any person who served in the war of the Revolution, in the manner specified in the act passed the 7th day of June, 1832, entitled "An act supplementary to the act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution," have died, leaving a widow, whose marriage took place after the expiration of the last period of his service, and before the 1st day of January, 1794, such widow shall be entitled to receive, for and during the term of five years, from the 4th day of March, 1836, the annuity or pension which might have been allowed to her husband in virtue of said act, if living at the time it was passed: Provided, That in the event of the mar riage of such widow, said annuity or pension shall be discontinued.(4)

No pledge, mortgage, sale, assignment, or transfer of any right, claim, or interest, in any annuity, half pay, or pension, granted by this act, shall be valid, nor shall the half pay, annuity, or pension, granted by this act, or any former act of Congress, be liable to attachment, levy, or seizure, by any process in law, or equity, but shall enure wholly to the personal benefit of the pensioner or annuitant entitled to the same; and that before a warrant shall be delivered to any person acting for or in behalf of any one entitled to money under this act, such person shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, to be administered by the proper accounting officer, and put on file, that he has no interest in said money, by any pledge, mortgage, transfer, agreement, understanding, or arrangement, and that he does not know or believe that the same has been so disposed of to any other person.(5)

The Secretary of War shall adopt such regulations and forms of evidence, in relation to applications and payments under this act, as the President of the United States may prescribe.(6)

4. The benefits of the third section of an act entitled "An act granting half pay to widows or orphans where their husbands and fathers have died of wounds received in the military service of the United States in certain cases, and for other purposes," approved the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, shall not be withheld from any widow whose husband has died since the passage of the said act, or who shall hereafter die, if said widow shall otherwise be entitled to the same.(7) (See article 2544.)

(1) Act April 6th, 1838, sec. 1.
(2) Ibid. sec. 2.

(3) Act July 5th, 1838.

Act July 7th, 1838, sec. 1.

(5) Ibid. sec. 2.

(6) Ibid. sec. 3.

(7) Resolution July 7th, 1838.

POST OFFICE.

Postage on letters by express mail to be paid in advance

President and Postmaster General 1 authorized to transfer appropriations

2

ART. 1. The Postmaster General is hereby directed to cause postage on all letters sent by the Express Mail of the United States to be paid in advance, at the time of depositing them for transportation by said mail.(1)

2. There shall exist in the President and in the Postmaster General, the same power to transfer funds from one to another head of appropriation, between the appropriations above made for the service of the General Post Office, as exists in the President and any other head of an executive department to transfer funds appropriated under one head to the service of another, in any other branch of the public service.(2)

ART. 1. The President is hereby authorized to appoint three persons, one of whom at least shall be a man of experience and practical knowledge in the construction and use of the steam engine, and the others, by reason of their attainments in science, shall be competent judges of the usefulness of any invention designed to detect the causes of explosion in the boilers; which said persons shall jointly examine any inventions made for the purpose of detecting the cause, and preventing the explosion of boilers, that shall be presented for their consideration; and, if any one or more of such inventions or discoveries justify, in their judgment, the experiment, and the inventor desires that his invention shall be subjected to the test, then the said persons may proceed and order such preparations to be made, and such experiments to be tried, as, in their judgment, may be necessary to determine the character and usefulness of any such invention.(3)

2. The said boord shall give notice of the time and place of their meeting to examine such inventions, and shall direct the preparations to be made,

(1) Resolution, Oct. 12th, 1837.

(2) Act April 6th, 1838, sec. 1.

(3) Act June 28th, 1838, sec. 1.