these surveys, where the curve of the watercourse is concave thereto, exhibits these lots of two acres fronting on the water, as running back, forty acres deep, to a cluster of points, which, for a considerable space, must render those attenuations of land converging to a common point, of little or no value, whilst they also reduce the average much below eighty acres to each lot: and the very reverse of these circumstances or results, is exhibited by the radiating or diverging lines, when the curve of the watercourse is convex to the watercourse. It appears however that, under the discretion vested in the President, this law is executed only in the lower section of the original Louisiana territory, where the Spanish and French settlers had introduced such a plan of locating their grants or settlements on the watercourses, to conform to which ancient usage this law was passed. Under the head of "private land claims," in the immediate sequel of this preliminary summary, the embarrassment to the whole system of surveying and disposing of the public lands, resulting and liable to result from innovations on the original plan of survey, will be further elucidated.

It is perceived by the foregoing particulars, that the largest division of land surveyed, is called a TOWNSHIP, consisting of 23,040 acres. The township is thirty-six English or American square miles; and is subdivided into thirty-six equal divisions or square miles, by lines crossing each other at right angles, which divisions are called sections. The SECTION Contains 640 acres, and is sub-divided into four parts, called quarter sections, each of which is required to contain 160 acres; but circumstances incident to the surveys may frequently give them more or less than 160 acres. The QUARTER SECTION is sub-divided into two equal parts, containing 80 acres each, called half-quarter sections, or eighths of sections, which last is the smallest regular sub-division. The sectional divisions, and the quarter sectional divisions are both designated by appropriate marks in the field, each of which being peculiar, they can always be distinguished from one another. The half-quarter sections aro not marked in the field, but are designated on the plot of the survey by the Surveyor General marking the distance on one of the ascertained lines, in order to get the quantity of such half-quarter section as exhibited by his plot of survey. The FRACTIONAL SECTIONS Containing less than 160 acres, are not (or rather were not) liable to be sub-divided, (previous to the act of the 5th April, 1832, sec. 1.) But those fractional sections which contain 160 acres or upwards, were, alone, anterior to the said act of April, 1832, liable to be sub-divided, in such manner as to preserve the most compact and convenient forms. The sub-divisional lines of fractional sections are not run in the field, but, as in the case of half-quarter sections, the Surveyor General designates, in the plot of survey, the distance necessary to be run, on one of the ascertained lines, in order to cut off the quantity required. Those lines, if run at all, must be laid off at the expense of the purchaser.

It is also perceived that a RANGE is any series of contiguous townships laid off from north to south. The ranges are numbered north and south from the base or standard line running due east and west; and they are counted from the standard meridian, east and west. The 16th section is always appropriated for school purposes-being one thirty-sixth part of the public lands. Though great complication necessarily takes place in the details of the surveys of minor divisions, attended with the multiplication of fractions of land, and compromises in forming the plots thereof, on watercourses, according to the act of 24th May, 1824, yet it is proper to observe here, that no derangement of townships and ranges is permitted to occur.

It is the duty of the Surveyors General to superintend the execution of the public surveys in their respective districts. The surveys are made by deputy surveyors, acting under the authority of their respective Surveyors General. Whenever the public interest requires that a certain portion of territory be brought into market, for the accommodation of individuals, settlers, and others, who may wish to become purchasers, the Executive issues instructions to the Surveyor General, through the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to have such portion of territory surveyed. Whereupon the Surveyor General gives public notice, for the information of those who may be disposed to contract for the execution of such surveys; and a contract for the execution of the same, is entered into between the Surveyor General and the person or persons whose proposals are accepted as deputy surveyors. Of course the contract is, or should be, given to such lowest bidder whose capability to fulfil his contract at the price stipulated, is satisfactory to the Surveyor General. The maximum price established by law for executing the public surveys, is three dollars per mile, in the upland and prairie countries. But in the southern section of the United States, where the surveyors are more or less frequently interrupted by bayous, lakes, and swamps, the maximum is established at four dollars per mile. The deputy surveyor is bound by his contract to make a REPORT to the Surveyor General, of the field notes of the survey of each TOWNSHIP, accompanied with a plot of such township. From such field notes the Surveyor General is enabled to test the accuracy of the plot returned to him by his deputy; and, also, to check his calculations of the quantity of each section, fractional section, or other legal sub-division thereof, in each township. From this evidence, three plots are caused to be prepared by the Surveyor General; one of which is for his own office, another for the use of the register of the proper land office, to enable him to sell the land, and the third copy is transmitted to the Commissioner of the Land Office. The Surveyor General is also a disbursing officer, for the payment of his deputies. For this purpose he makes requisitions on the Secretary of the Treasury, from time to time, through the Commissioner of the Land Office, for such advances of money as are necessary to meet his engagements; and he renders an account current thereof, with the proper vouchers, quarterly, to the commissioner, who transmits them to the First Auditor for adjustment, after they have undergone the scrutiny of the General Land Office

respecting the execution of the surveys charged in the deputy surveyors' vouchers; and after their adjustment by the First Auditor, he transmits them, with a report thereon, to the First Comptroller for revision; which being done, the Comptroller transmits them to the Register of the Treasury, to be registered and filed in his office. (Such was the practice formerly; for the recent modification of it, see Tables of Details, (B) returns, I. 3 and 4, and notes.)

(Of Private Land Claims.)

In executing the public surveys, as set forth in general terms above, there are still other duties in greater detail required of deputy surveyors, by the commissioner's instructions of the 28th July, 1831, among which is that of discriminating or designating on their plots the various private land claims therein contained. These claims, which are of great number and variety, though located and interspersed among the public lands, are, in a strict sense, recognized as the property of individuals. They consist chiefly of that host of claims-of irregular shapes and sizes-which originate in the provisions of the various treaties and conventions of cession by foreign governments to the United States, in favor of outstanding grants to individuals by those governments, or other titles acquired to lands anterior to such treaties, and recognized by them. These private claims have ever been fruitful sources of embarrassment to the legislature and the judiciary, as well as the executive branch of the government. And as these claims are almost every where interspersed among the public lands-in all shapes and quantities they present to the eye a striking anomaly to the plain republican system of surveying instituted by our own government, the original policy of which was to deal out the public domain, by sale or otherwise, to all alike, in limited portions, and in squares or parallelograms; whereas, the opposite system adopted by foreign goveraments anterior to ceding the lands to the United States, authorized a favored few to locate their grants on select spots of the most valuable soil, without regard to shape or form.

From the original institutions of the land system, these claims have been the continual theme of legislation year after year; and various have been the Boards of Commissioners constituted at different times, to determine on their validity. The aid of courts of the United States of inferior jurisdiction has been called into requisition, pursuant to acts of Congress, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, for the settlement of certain classes of these claims by final decree; and the surveying of the public domain has been much interfered with, by the delay which has been found incident to the final adjustment of those claims. Sometimes, after the survey has been made of a large portion of territory, bodies of land here and there,. conforming to the lines of the public surveys, would have to be kept out of market, and held in abeyance, for a series of years, awaiting the final action of Congress on certain classes of such lands as were not confirmed by the appropriate Board of Commissioners, in distinction from other classes of claims which had been decided by the commissioners, and whose decisions had been confirmed by Congress.

In addition to the changes or anomalies engrafted on the original plan of surveying by the claims that have arisen under treaties of cession by foreign governments, are also to be considered those irregularities introduced by the host of claims arising under treaties with Indian tribes.

Indeed, the labors of the General Land Office in reference to private land claims of all descriptions, connected with the carrying the same into grant, after the whole of the surveying operation is completed, and returns thereof duly made and approved according to all the formalities of law, constitute one of the peculiar features in the functions of said office. Those claims which are of irregular forms, have the effect to create every where fractions of land in their immediate vicinity. And, from the immense number of such existing fractions, there ever has been found to result more or less embarrassment in the practical operations at the offices of the Surveyors General, at the local land offices, and at the General Land Office-an embarrassment which has been greatly increased by the sub-divisions which those fractional portions have become subject to by the operation of the act of the 5th of April, 1832. The legislation of Congress, in admitting grants, pre-emptions, &c., rarely takes special cognizance of these minutia, and hence difficulties frequently arise in applying the legislation-which has express reference to sections and legal sub-divisions of sections, and to the fractions subdivided under the aforesaid act. Some relief, however, has resulted from a subsequent act, which abrogates the restrictions, specific purposes, and uses mentioned in the former act, for which purposes and uses said former act authorized such sub-divisions into sixteenths of sections, or forty acre lots.

To afford a further conception of the perplexities that continually arise in the Land Office, out of occasional aberrations from the original system of surveying by squares, or right angles, it may be well to quote a few passages from the opinions of an eminent Attorney General on this subject. The following is from the opinion. of Mr. Wirt to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated 15th December, 1819:

"Sir: By the sixth section of an act in addition to an act entitled an act regulating the grants of land ap'propriated for military services,' &c., passed on the 1st of March, 1800, it was made the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to divide the fifty quarter townships, &c., &c. * **"The system of [ surveying] which has 'been adopted for the arrangement and appropriation of these lands is beautiful and perfect as it stands. No 'ministerial officer should be permitted to touch, or alter it in any of its parts. If we begin to dispense with any requisite of the law, under the notion that it is superfluous, and that the object of specific description can be 'answered as well without as with it, we may dispense with any other by the same process of reasoning, and 'thus the whole system will come to be unhinged," &c., &c.

The following is from the opinion of Mr. Wirt, to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated the 11th of May, 1820: "Sir: I have examined the letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with its enclosures,

' referred to me yesterday; and after an attentive consideration of the act of Congress of the 17th February, 1815, ' for the relief of the inhabitants of the late county of New Madrid, in the Missouri territory, who suffered by the 'earthquakes, I am of opinion, [1.] That the patent must, under the provisions of this act, issue to the person 'who was the owner at the date of the act; or, in case of his death, to his heirs or devisees, &c., ***

"2. I am of opinion that it was not the intention of Congress in authorizing the sufferers to locate the like quantity of land on any of the public lands of said territory, the sale of which is authorized by law,' to change or affect in any manner, that ADMIRABLE SYSTEM of location by squares, which had been so studiously 'adopted in relation to all their territories. This is manifest from the consideration that they have made the 'avowed object of the act yield to this arrangement. The avowed object of the act was, to give the sufferer the 'same quantity of land which he had lost by the earthquakes; yet it is provided, that if he had lost less than one hundred and sixty acres of land (the [then] smallest sub-division of a section) he was still to have a patent 'for one hundred and sixty acres: If he had lost more than six hundred and forty acres (the exact quantity of a 'section) he was still to have but six hundred and forty acres; so that, in the first instance, he is to receive more 'than he has lost, and in the last, less-for no other conceivable reason, than the desire of Congress to preserve 'the uniformity and simplicity of the system which had been previously adopted for the location and settlement of all those territories," &c., &c.

(Of the Sules of Public Lands.)

The public lands are, from time to time, laid off into land districts. For each of these there are two officers appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate: one of whom is styled the "Register of the Land Office," and the other the "Receiver of Public Moneys."

The government has generally found it expedient to authorize and direct the surveying of forty townships of land, annually, in each district, so as to admit of two sales at public auction in each year, of twenty townships in each district, there being no limit, by law, to the quantity that may be brought into market, annually, by the President.

The labors of the Surveying Department being completed, and the Surveyors General having transmitted to the registers and receivers the PLOTS of the surveys, showing, among other particulars, the private land claims embraced therein, with the names of the confirmees, &c., according to the statements transmitted to them by the Commissioners appointed to investigate those claims-then comes into operation the great practical design of land legislation, which is, the disposition of the public lands, having reference both to revenue and the satisfaction of claims to lands without equivalent in money. In view of the former, the lands thus prepared for market, are, according to law, advertised for sale by the proclamation of the President, at the suggestion and through the instrumentality of the General Land Office, and become subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the register and receiver of the proper district land office, acting under the instructions, general and special, of the Commissioner of the General Land Office and the Secretary of the Treasury, to each of whom they render suitable returns of all their proceedings.

Formerly the public lands were sold on credit, according to the act of the 19th May, 1796, and subsequent acts amendatory thereto; and all of the operations connected therewith, were technically designated as the "CREDIT SYSTEM." Subsequently to the 1st July, 1820, all sales have been made for cash, according to the act of the 24th April of that year, under which the new regulations are designated as the " CASH SYSTEM." Under this system some of the fundamental principles or regulations are, that all public lands shall (after the 1st July, 1820) be first offered for sale at PUBLIC AUCTION-on which occasion a minimum price is fixed at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; and that all public lands which shall have remained unsold at the close of such public sales shall be subject to be sold at PRIVATE SALE, by entry at the district land office, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to be paid at the time of making the entry. That the "application," (77) according to the prescribed form, of any person to effect a private purchase is, first, to be presented to the register, who is required to endorse on said "application" a certificate in due form; which is to be taken by the applicant to the receiver of public moneys, to whom he shall make payment for the land proposed to be entered in his name; for which payment the receiver issues duplicate receipts also in due form-one of which he gives to the purchaser as his evidence of right until he receives a patent for the land-at which time it is surrendered to the register, to whom the patent is transmitted from the General Land Office for delivery; and the other receipt is forthwith handed by the receiver to the register, who then enters the sale in due form in all his books-from which he returns monthly abstracts of sales: The like ceremonies are of course performed by the registers and receivers on the occasions of public sales. These monthly abstracts of the sales of public lands returned to the Commissioner of the General Land Office by the register, are accompanied by the receipts and certificates of purchase, on which the patents are issued at the General Land Office and transmitted to the register for delivery to the respective purchasers upon the surrender of their duplicate receipts. The register's sales books, otherwise called "tract books," are prepared in advance at the General Land Office, and transmitted to him, comprising a series

(77) The application and paymont were afterwards authorized by law to be made to the Treasurer; but these proceedings were inconsistent with the land system, and abandoned. See note (79) post.

of columns to express or show the following particulars, viz:-1. the date of sale-2. the name of the purchaser3. the designation of tracts sold by sections, townships, and ranges-4. the number of acres-5. the rates of purchase-6. the amount of purchase money-7. the No. of the certificate of purchase-8. the date of the patent9. all reservations of land, with the authority and purpose for which such reservations are made, &c. Duplicates of these tract books are opened in the General Land Office (as will be seen in the Tables of Details) for the purpose of keeping a corresponding account of the lands that shall be sold or reserved from sale in each land district-that is to say, as the monthly returns of the sales are received, such sales are entered, each in its appropriate place in the appropriate tract book for such district, noting at the same time the reservations of land, with the authority and purpose for which such reservations were made-whereby these duplicate tract books kept in the land office become complete checks upon the sales and accounts thereof, at the district offices. For his services the register receives a compensation or salary of five hundred dollars per annum, and a commission of one per cent. on the amount of sales.

The receiver, on receiving the purchase money on sales made, issues duplicate receipts for the same, as above stated, and accounts therefor to the Treasury, including his disbursements therefrom, and the deposites he makes, agreeably to the directions of the Secretary of the Treasury, or the drafts of the Treasurer; and he makes aggregate monthly statements or returns to the Secretary, and to the Treasurer, of the funds in hand, that they may regulate the disposition of the same, by ordering deposites, or making drafts thereon. The receiver also transmits to the General Land Office a monthly return of payments made to him by purchasers, which is intended to correspond with, and be checked by the monthly abstracts of sales returned by the register, as above stated. The receiver also renders a quarterly account current, (which is a transcript from the general accounts kept in his office ledger,) in which he charges himself with each sum of money received for purchases, showing, 1. the date when received; 2. the number of the receipt issued thereon to the party; 3. the name of the party; 4. the designation of the tracts sold; 5. the quantity sold; 6. the rate of price per acre; 7. the amount of purchase money. Per contra, he credits himself with all sums deposited to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States; 2. with all sums paid on the drafts or orders of the Treasurer, showing the authority, and the vouchers for such payments; 3. moneys refunded to purchasers, for lands erroneously sold to them, which refunding is made, under various provisions of law, and in pursuance of special directions of the General Land Office, on the evidence of erroneous entry having been satisfactorily investigated in each case; 4. the salaries and commissions of the register and receiver; 5. the contingent expenses of the register's and receiver's offices. These quarterly accounts current are audited by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, through his corps of accountants, and a report of them, on their adjustment, is made to the First Comptroller for revision; which being done, and the receivers informed of their settlement by the Comptroller, the accounts and vouchers are transmitted to the Register of the Treasury to be registered and filed in his office. By these transcripts of receivers' accounts, returned quarterly in the form of an account current, the correctness of the receiver's ledger is easily ascertained. The receivers of public moneys have an annual salary of $500, and a further compensation of one per cent. on all the moneys accounted for by them. They are also allowed by the Secretary of the Treasury, a small additional per centum on deposites made at a distance, to cover the expense and risk of transportation, &c.

It is perceived from the foregoing, that the register and receiver at every district land office act as checks on each other; and that the duplicate receipts placed in the hands of purchasers, are further checks on them both; for, as the purchaser cannot receive a patent for his land until the evidence of payment appears on the books of the General Land Office, on the authority of the returns of sales, no attempt at collusion between those officers could fail to be detected by means of this duplicate evidence in the hands of the purchaser, closing their transactions with him.

The registers' and receivers' offices are, nevertheless, visited annually, by some agent sent by the Secretary of the Treasury for their inspection.

In fine, the registers and receivers are the legally constituted tribunals for adjudicating all claims to preemption; which claims are always to be presented and determined before the sales of the townships of land in which such claims are situated, of which the claimants are notified in due time, and that their failure to present their claims for adjudication in the time required, will work a forfeiture thereof, only to be relieved by provisions of law applicable to such cases.

(Of the Judicial Questions generally involved in administering the Land System.)

Under the several foregoing heads, as well as on other topics coming within the supervision of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, innumerable questions of very diverse character arise in the course of interpreting, and executing or administering the voluminous code of statutes connected with the land system, which the Commissioner, in his judicial capacity, (with the aid of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General, in cases referred to them for opinion and instruction,) must determine, as they arise, prior to the consummation of the ordinary official or ministerial action of the office in each accruing case. A comprehensive account of these questions will of course be found in the instructions to land officers by the Commissioner and

the Secretary of the Treasury, and in the opinions of Attorneys General, compiled with the land laws, by order of the Senate. But it will greatly contribute to facilitate the purpose of affording a comprehensive survey of the multifarious and complicated operations of the General Land Office, here to enumerate the general topics in connection with which these prolific questions arise. And, in connection herewith, I may add that, as part of the same purpose, the subjoined "Tables of Details" will commence with a few of the fundamental principles decided by the instructions of the Commissioner and the Secretary of the Treasury, and the opinions of Attorneys General, growing out of those questions here adverted to. I therefore give the following enumeration, derived from one of the official documents to whose use I have made mention of my great indebtedness under the foregoing head of "General Remarks:"

1. Questions frequently arise as to the proper execution of the laws regulating the survey of the publis domain, and the application of former instructions in relation thereto.

2. Innumerable questions arise out of private land claims originating under British, French, and Spanish grants, and under the various acts of Congress confirmatory of such grants, and grants of the like character settled by decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and commissioners appointed for that purposerequiring a close scrutiny of the original title papers in each case, in reference to frauds, errors of law or fact, or both; and, also, as to the rightful location of such claims, and their conflicts with each other, after all other points have been adjusted.

3. A great many questions arise under treaties with the Indian tribes, the consideration of which is a source of considerable embarrassment and confusion, in consequence of the want of uniformity in the fundamental principles on which those treaties of cession of Indian territory are constructed-involving in doubt the rights of reservees, and pre-emption claimants, &c., as well as the rights of transferees under transfers of any such doubtful claims, which frequently require confirmatory acts of Congress, after every effort to bring them within the principles of law and order, and to harmonize with the general rules of official action, is exhausted in vain.

4. Notwithstanding the exclusive jurisdiction of Registers and Receivers in the initiatory decision of preemption claims generally, yet by reason of the supervisory power of the department, a vast number of cases are sent up from the district offices for instruction and revision, which involve a great variety of intricate questions for the adjudication of the Commissioner.

5. Questions involving the appropriate execution of the laws making grants for canals, county seats, schools, and various other purposes, frequently arise, and sometimes require confirmatory acts of Congress.

6. Assignments or conveyances of inchoate titles, subject to the local statues of States or territories, present a class of cases of daily occurrence-connected with which arise questions relative to the transmission of inchoate titles by devise, under order of probate courts, decrees of chancery, and acts of corporations and partnerships; as well as a multiplicity of questions incident to the changes of ownership, depending on the local laws for adjustment-in all which cases, the examination of the papers, even when found authentic and legal, is a laborious and delicate trust.

7. The claims to military bounty lands, through all the diverse stages by which they are liable to take their meandering course, from their inchoate title to their consummation of a patent, frequently involve questions of original right; questions of assignment; questions of heirship, or devise; questions attendant on the issue, acquirement, and disposition of scrip as evidence of established claim, its uses and cancellation, &c., &c.

8. Questions often arise, as to the regularity of the sales of public lands by the officers of the government, in consequence of the claims of individuals conflicting therewith, and adverse to such sales and their general legality; and also on various other accounts, when they infringe reservations and other appropriations of lands by law, &c., &c.

These questions are liable, of course, to arrest the issue of patents until they are decided, and may (in cases where the right to issue patents is indeed concerned) result in defeating the issue of the patents. But when such questions as involve the right to a patent, are not raised until after the patent has been issued, the decision of such question is liable to annul or rescind the patent. These questions, in the course of the correspondence of the office in the ordinary routine of business, arise from every section of the Union in which there are lands held by the United States. A vast number of them are referred to the office, by committees of Congress, for legal examination. And the general supervisory power conferred on the Secretary of the Treasury, as the last and highest executive resort, embraces in its scope the decision of a great number of questions arising in the administration of the land laws, or the discretionary reference of the same to the General Land Office, or to the Attorney General for his opinion thereon, when the result finally comes to this office for promulgation, and execution, as the case may require.

In making the examinations and decisions of questions under the foregoing heads, and on all other matters having reference to the public domain, the rule of action is sought out-1st. from the laws of the United States, and the laws of the States in which the public lands are situated-2d. from the decisions of the State courts, and of the Supreme court of the United States-3d. from the treaties of cession made with foreign nations, and with Indian tribes-4th. from the deeds of cession by the States-and 5th. from the opinions of Attorneys General of the United States in relation to land questions as occasion may render necessary.