No. 144.—An Act respecting certain surveys in the State of Florida.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby authorized and directed to cause to be surveyed, as soon as practicable, the islands and keys, and other lands in South Florida, interspersed with water, which cannot conveniently be connected with the regular public surveys; and also the private claims or grants which have been duly confirmed situate in said State; and that such surveys of said islands, keys, and lands interspersed with water as aforesaid may be made by such persons on such terms, and in such mode and manner, as said Commissioner may deem most expedient and proper, without connexion thereof with the other public surveys, by township lines; but the expense thereof shall not exceed the maximum price per mile heretofore allowed for surveys by the United States in other States or Territories; and the surveys of said private claims or grants may be made by such persons, and on such terms, as said Commissioner may deem most expedient and proper; but the expense thereof shall not in any case exceed twentyfive per centum on the said price heretofore allowed in addition to such price: Provided however, that it shall be the duty of the President at some convenient time, and before offering any of said islands for sale, to have an examination made by, and a report from, a board of engineers, to ascertain whether any of said islands or parts of them, and if so, which of them, should be reserved from sale for the use of the United States; and that all islands or parts of islands recommended by such board to be reserved for public use shall be reserved from sale. Approved, June 28, 1848.

No. 145.-An Act for the relief of the bona fide settlers under the acts for the armed occupation and settlement of a part of the Territory of Florida.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases in which proof shall be made to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office that any person who obtained a permit under the act entitled “ An act to provide for the armed occupation and settlement of the unsettled part of the peninsula of Florida," approved August fourth, eighteen hundred and forty-two,* and who was an occupant under that act, and the act amendatory thereof, approved June fifteenth, eighteen hundred and fortyfour, and who actually occupied or settled under said acts, and did not voluntarily relinquish and abandon the same, but continued to reside on said frontier south of said line specified in said act of eighteen hundred and forty-two, thereby aiding to effect the object of said acts, and who has not received the lands provided by said acts, such settler shall be entitled to a grant and patent for the land so occupied or settled by him, the same as if all the conditions and stipulations of said acts and requirements of the General Land Office in relation thereto had been fully and strictly fulfilled and complied with.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That in all cases where the lands settled

*See Nos. 56, 87.

or occupied by such settler, or any part thereof, were or are not legally subject to donation under the said acts on any account whatever, then such settler may locate his right, or the part so interfered with, on any vacant public lands in the same, or any adjacent township.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That this act shall extend to, and be construed and executed for, the benefit of the widow and heirs of any settler, according to the principles of the fifth section of said first aboverecited act.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That immediately after the passage of this act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall appoint an agent to proceed forthwith to the different county seats of the counties of the State of Florida, where said lands lie, who shall attend at least ten successive days at each county seat, if so long time be necessary, to take and receive proof by depositions before him, or in such manner as he may prescribe in relation to such settlement or occupation, and of settlers being entitled under this act to a grant or donation of land as aforesaid; and said agent shall also attend at such other places in said settlements as the convenience of such settlers in furnishing their proofs may demand, under the instructions of the General Land Office; and said agent shall, within five months after he shall commence his duties in said State, transmit all the proofs he may take, and make report of his opinion as to each case to said Commissioner of the General Land Office, who shall proceed forthwith to examine and decide said cases: Provided, That if any settler does not submit his proof to such agent within four months after reasonable notice, by advertisement of the times and places of his attendance to receive such proof, said settler shall not have the benefit of this act; and all the cases reported as aforesaid shall be definitively decided by the Commissioner of the General Land Office within two months after the report thereof is received at his office; and said agent shall be allowed the same compensation as is allowed by law to examining agents of the Treasury Department. Approved, July 1, 1848.

No. 146.-An Act further to extend the time for locating Virginia military land warrants, and returning surveys thereon to the General Land Office.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act entitled "An act further to extend the time for locating Virginia military land warrants, and returning surveys thereon to the General Land Office," approved August nineteen, eighteen hundred and forty-one, and as to all warrants issued prior to the tenth day of August, eighteen hundred and forty, and no others, be, and the same is hereby, revived and continued in force until the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty.*

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the same right and privilege is hereby also extended for the same time to all such warrants as have issued subsequent to said tenth day of August, A. D. eighteen hundred and forty: Provided, That before the location thereof it shall be shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury that such warrant was issued justly and legally, and that the person who received said warrant was legally entitled to the same.

Approved, July 5, 1848.

*See Nos. 47, 172.

No. 147.-An Act to extend the provisions of existing pension laws to enlisted men of the ordnance corps of the United States army.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the acts of Congress granting pensions to soldiers disabled by wounds or otherwise while in the line of their duty in public service, shall be construed to apply to the enlisted men of the ordnance department who have been or may be disabled, in the same manner as to non-commissioned officers, artificers, musicians, and privates of other corps of the army, subject to the limitation that in no such case shall the pension exceed the rate of eight dollars per month.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That those enlisted men of the ordnance department who have served or may serve in Mexico during the war with that country, shall be entitled to, and shall receive, the same bounty in land as is or may be allowed by law to other regular troops in the service of the United States, and under like limitations and restrictions. Approved, July 10, 1848.

No. 148.-An Act to extend an act entitled "An act providing for the adjustment of all suspended pre-emption land claims in the several States and Territories," approved third August, eighteen hundred and forty-six.*

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the power and jurisdiction given to the Commissioner of the General Land Office by the act of the third of August, eighteen hundred and forty-six, entitled "An act providing for the adjustment of all suspended pre-emption land claims in the several States and Territories," shall continue and remain in force until the third day of August, one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine. Approved, July 17, 1848.

No. 149.-An Act to amend an act approved the twenty-fourth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-four, entitled "An act supplementary to an act approved on the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, entitled 'An act providing for the correction of errors in making entries of land at the land offices.'"t

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That so much of the act to which this act is amendatory as provides that the application for the correction of an error of entry shall be made within six months after the date of such erroneous entry, be, and the same is hereby, repealed.

Approved, July 17, 1848.

See No. 110.

† See Nos. 11, 14, 17, 19, 110, 225.

No. 150.-An Act to revive an act authorizing certain soldiers in the late war [with Great Britain] to surrender the bounty lands drawn by them, and to locate others in lieu thereof.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for any soldier in the late war with Great Britain, to whom bounty land has been allotted and patented in the State of Arkansas, which was and is unfit for cultivation, to surrender said patent, and to receive in lieu thereof the same quantity of any of the public land subject to private entry as he may select: Provided, That before receiving such new land, it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, that the land so allotted and patented to said soldier is unfit for cultivation, and that said soldier has never disposed of his interest in said land by any sale of his own, and that the same has not been taken or disposed of for his debts due to any individual, and that he shall release all his interest in the same to the United States, in such way as said Commissioner shall prescribe; and such surrender and location shall be made within five years from the passing of this act.

Approved, July 25, 1848.

No. 151.-An Act supplemental to an act to confirm the survey and location of claims for lands in the State of Mississippi, east of the Pearl river and south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, approved March three, eighteen hundred and forty-five.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all confirmed claims and settlement rights for lands situate in the State of Mississippi, east of the Pearl river and south of thirty-first degree of north latitude, which had not been actually surveyed on the ground, and for which no plats of actual survey had been returned to the surveyor general's office south of Tennessee, on or before the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, shall be, and are hereby confirmed, according to actual surveys hereafter to be made as herein provided for, in the same manner that said claims actually surveyed on the ground, and returned to the surveyor general's office at the time aforesaid, are confirmed by the act to which this is a supplement; and the surveyor general is hereby authorized and directed, on request of any party interested, to cause the survey of said claims, without delay, and at any time between the passage of this act and the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty, to be made and returned to his office, and he shall certify the return and plats of such actual surveys, so made to his office, to the register and receiver for lands in the Augusta district for said State. And the surveyor general, and the said register and receiver, shall regard these claims and plats of actual survey, in all respects, upon the same footing with the claims confirmed as actually surveyed upon the ground, by said act to which this is a supplement, and subject to, and entitled to, the benefits of all the provisions of said act: Provided, That if it shall appear to the surveyor general, from the plats of actual survey already returned to his office, that any of said claims cannot now be actually surveyed on the ground, owing to their conflict with other claims already confirmed as actually surveyed on the ground, by the act to

which this is a supplement, then it shall be lawful for him to grant to the claimant, so deprived of his location, a warrant, as provided by the fourth section of said act, without causing the survey to be made.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all warrants which have been heretofore issued, or which shall hereafter be issued, by the surveyor general south of Tennessee, under the provisions of the original act to which this is a supplement, and under the provisions of this act, be, and they are hereby, authorized to be located upon any lands subject to sale at private entry in the State of Mississippi, in any of the land districts in said State, in the same manner that said warrants are now authorized to be located in the Augusta land district.

Approved, August 5, 1848.

No. 152.-An Act for the relief of those pre-emption claimants upon the Miami lands in Indiana, who, by their services in the Mexican war, are entitled to bounty land.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That those persons who are entitled to bounty land warrants for one hundred and sixty acres in virtue of their own services during the present war with Mexico, and who may likewise be entitled to the right of pre-emption upon the Miami lands in Indiana, under the act of the third of August, eighteen hundred and fortysix, shall have the privilege of applying their warrants in payment or part payment for the tract to which they may establish their right of pre-emption; said warrant to be estimated, when received as aforesaid, at the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents for each acre therein contained: Provided, That in no case shall the Government be required to refund any excess of the estimated amount of said warrants, over and above the price of the tract claimed to be entered; and should the tract claimed to be entered as aforesaid exceed, at the rate fixed by law, the said sum, then and in such case the balance of the purchase money of said tract shall be paid in cash.

Approved, August 7, 1848.

No. 153.-An Act to authorize the State of Alabama to apply certain lands heretofore granted to that State for internal improvements, for the use of schools in the valueless sixteenth sections in said State.*

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, the lands granted to the State of Alabama for purposes of internal improvement, by the eighth section of the act entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, and to grant pre-emption rights," approved September fourth, eighteen hundred and forty-one, may be, and the same are hereby, placed at the disposal of the legislature of said State, at such price as said legislature may direct, to be applied for the use of schools in such townships of said State as in which the sixteenth or school sections are com

* See No. 48.