(ACT of May 6th, 1812.)

whole, six millions of acres; two millions to be surveyed in the territory of Michigan, two millions in the Illinois territory, north of the Illinois river, and two millions in the territory of Louisiana, between the river St. Francis and the river Arkansas; the said lands to be divided into townships, and subdivided into sections and quarter sections, (each quarter section to contain, as near as possible, one hundred and sixty acres,) in the manner prescribed by law for surveying and subdividing the other public lands of the United States, the same price to be allowed for surveying as is fixed for surveying the other public lands in the same territory. And the lands thus surveyed, with the exception of the salt springs and lead mines therein, and of the quantities of land adjacent thereto, as may be reserved for the use of the same by the president of the United States, and the section number sixteen in every township, to be granted to the inhabitants of such township for the use of public schools, shall be set apart and reserved for the purpose of satisfying the bounties of one hundred and sixty acres, promised to the noncommissioned officers and soldiers of the United States, their heirs and legal representatives, by the act, entitled "An act for completing the existing military establishment," approved the twenty-fourth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, and by the act, entitled "An act to raise an additional military force," approved the eleventh day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twelve. [Infra, 43.]

36. SEC. 11. The secretary for the department of war, for the time being, shall, from time to time, issue warrants for the military land bounties to the persons entitled thereto by the two last mentioned acts, or either of them: Provided always, That such warrants shall be issued only in the names of the persons thus entitled, and be, by them or their representatives, applied for within five years after the same persons shall have become entitled thereto; and the said warrants shall not be assignable or transferable in any manner whatever.

37. SEC. II. Every person in whose favour such warrants shall have been issued, shall, on delivery of the same at the office of the secretary of the treasury, or of such other officer as may at the time have, by law, the superintendence of the general land office of the United States at the seat of government, be entitled to draw, by lot, in such manner as the officer at the head of the land office, under the direction of the president of the United States, may prescribe, one of the quarter sections surveyed by virtue of the first section of this act, in either of the said territories which the person in whose favour such warrant has issued may designate. And a patent shall thereupon be granted to such person, for such quarter section, without requiring any fee therefor.

38. SEC. IV. No claim for the military land bounties aforesaid shall be assignable or transferable in any manner whatever, until after a patent shall have been granted in the manner aforesaid. ΑΠ

(ACT of April 27th, 1816.)

sales, mortgages, contracts, or agreements, of any nature whatever, made prior thereto, for the purpose, or with intent, of aliena ting, pledging, or mortgaging, any such claim, are hereby declared, and shall be held, null and void; nor shall any tract of land, granted as aforesaid, be liable to be taken in execution or sold on account of any such sale, mortgage, contract, or agreement, or on account of any debt contracted prior to the date of the patent, either by the person originally entitled to the land, or by his heirs or legal representatives, or by virtue of any process, or suit at law, or judgment of court, against a person entitled to receive his patent as aforesaid.

ACT of April 16, 1816. Pamphlet edit. 52.

An act further extending the time for issuing and locating military land warrants, and for other purposes.

39. SEc. t. [Time for issuing warrants further extended to March first, eighteen hundred and eighteen, to be located before October first, eighteen hundred and eighteen.]

40. SEC. 11. At the expiration of the term limited by this act, for the location of the military land warrants aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the commissioner of the general land office, to transmit to the surveyor general a list of all the lots of land within the fifty quarter townships and fractional quarter townships, which shall at that time remain unlocated; and the surveyor general shall prepare and transmit to the registers of the land office at Chillicothe and Zanesville, respectively, general plats of the aforesaid unlocated lots, which lots shall, after the first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, be offered for sale at the land offices in the districts in which they are situated, in the same manner, on the same terms and conditions, in every respect, as other public lands are offered at private sale, in the same districts.

ACT of April 27, 1816. Pamphlet edit. 110.

An act providing for cases of lost military land warrants, and discharges for faithful services.

41. SEC. 1. When any soldier of the regular army having obtained a military land warrant, shall have lost, or shall hereafter lose the same, or the said warrant shall have been or may be by accident destroyed, every such soldier shall, upon proof thereof, to the satisfaction of the secretary of war, be entitled to a patent in like manner as if the said warrant was produced.

42. SEC. II. In all cases of discharges from the military service of the United States of any soldier of the regular army, when it shall appear to the satisfaction of the secretary of war, that a certificate of faithful services has been omitted by the neglect of the discharging officer, by misconstruction of the law, or by any other neglect or casualty, such omission shall not prevent the is

(ACT of April 29th, 1816.)

And when it

suing of the warrant and patent as in other cases. shall be proven as aforesaid, that any soldier of the regular army has lost his discharge and certificate of faithful service, the secretary of war shall cause such papers to be furnished such soldier of the regular army as will entitle him to his land warrant and patent: Provided, such measure be justified by the time of his enlistment, the period of service, and the report of some officer of the corps to which he was attached.

ACT of April 29, 1816. Pamphlet edit. 134.

43. SEC. 1. So much of the "Act to provide for designating, surveying, and granting the military bounty lands," approved the sixth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, as authorises the president of the United States to cause to be survey. ed two millions of acres of the lands of the United States, in the territory of Michigan, for the purpose of satisfying the bounties of land promised to the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the United States, is hereby repealed; and in lieu of the said two millions of acres of land, the president of the United States is hereby authorised to cause to be surveyed, of the lands of the United States fit for cultivation, not otherwise appropriated, and to which the Indian title is extinguished, one million five hundred thousand acres, in the Illinois territory, and five hundred thousand acres, in the Missouri territory, north of the river Missouri; and the said lands shall be divided into townships, and subdivided into sections and quarter sections, (each quarter section to contain, as near as possible, one hundred and sixty acres,) in the manner prescribed by law for surveying and subdividing the other lands of the United States; and the lands thus surveyed with the exception of the salt springs and lead mines therein, and of the quantities of land adjacent thereto as may be reserved for the use of the same, by the president of the United States, and the section number sixteen in every township, to be granted to the inhabitants of such township for the use of public schools shall, according to the provisions of the above recited act, be set apart for the purpose of satisfying the bounties of land promised to the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the late army of the United States, their heirs and legal representatives, by the act entitled "An act for completing the existing military establishment, approved the twenty-fourth day of December eighteen hundred and eleven, and by the act entitled an act to raise an additional military force," approved the eleventh day of January eighteen hundred and twelve.

SEC. n. Every person in whose favour any warrant for military bounty lands is issued, shall be authorised to draw by lot one of the quarter sections surveyed by virtue of this act, and shall obtain a patent therefor in the same manner in every respect as is or shall be provided by law for patents to issue for other military

(ACT of April 11th, 1818.)

land bounties, or as is provided by the act first above recited for patents to issue for such lands.

ACT of March 9, 1818. Pamphlet edit. 31.

An act supplementary to the act, entitled "An act further extending the time for issuing and locating military land warrants, and for other purposes."

[Time limited for issuing warrants further extended to March first, eighteen hundred and nineteen, to be located before October eighteen hundred and nineteen, see Infra, 48.]

ACT of April 11, 1818. Pamphlet edit. 74.

An act to extend the time for locating Virginia military land warrants, &c. 44. SEC. I. The officers and soldiers of the Virginia line, on continental establishment, their heirs, and assigns, entitled to bounty lands, within the Virginia military tract, between the Little Miami and the Sciota rivers, shall be allowed a further term of two years, from the ratification of any treaty, extinguishing the Indian title to lands within the said boundaries not heretofore extinguished, to obtain warrants and complete their locations, and a further term of three years, from the ratificatiom of any treaty extinguishing the Indian title to lands within the said boundaries not heretofore extinguished, as aforesaid, to return their surveys and warrants, or certified copies of warrants, to the general land office; any thing in any former act to the contrary notwithstanding.

45. SEC. ti. [Act of March 3, 1807. Supra 33, revived and continued.] Provided, That no locations, in virtue of this, or the preceding section of this act, shall be made, on tracts of lands for which patents had previously been issued, or which had been previously surveyed; and any patent which may, nevertheless, be obtained for land located contrary to the provisions of this act, shall be considered null and void: Provided also, That no locations or surveys shall be made within that part of the said military tract to which the Indian title remained heretofore unextinguished, until after six months shall have elapsed from the date of the proclamation of the president of the United States, declaring a treaty or treaties to have been concluded and ratified, providing for the extinguishment of the Indian title to such lands, nor shall any patent be granted for any location, survey or entry, that has been, or shall be, made prior to the expiration of six months from and after the ratification of such treaty.

46. SEC. I. From the source of the Little Miami river, to the Indian boundary line established by the treaty of Grenville, in one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, the line designated as the westerly boundary line of the Virginia tract, by an act of congress, passed on the twenty-third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and four, entitled "An act to ascertain the boundary of the

(ACT of February 24th, 1819.)

lands reserved by the state of Virginia, northwest of the river Ohio, for the satisfaction of her officers and soldiers on continental establishment, and to limit the period for locating the said lands," shall be considered and held to be such, until otherwise directed by law: and from the aforesaid Indian boundary line to the source of the Sciota river, the line run by Charles Roberts, in one thousand eight hundred and twelve, in pursuance of instructions from the commissioners appointed on the part of the United States, to establish the western boundary of the said military tract, shall be considered, and held to be the westerly boundary line thereof; and that no patent shall be granted on any location and survey that has, or may be, made west of the aforesaid respective lines.

ACT of March 27, 1818. Pamphlet edit. 39.

An act extending the time for obtaining military land warrants in certain cases.

47. SEC. I. The provision of the second section of the act entitled "An act to provide for designating, surveying, and granting the military bounty lands," passed on the sixth day of May, eighteen hundred and twelve, which limits the time within which persons entitled to military bounty lands shall make their application for a land warrant, to five years, from and after such person shall become entitled thereto, shall not be construed to apply to, affect or bar any application for a military land warrant, which may be made by the heirs and representatives of a deceased person, who was entitled thereto by services performed in the late war, on application by the heirs and representatives of any non-commissioned officer or soldier killed in action, or who died in the actual service of the United States, and entitled by existing laws to a bounty in lands; but the heirs and representatives of such persons shall be allowed to make their applications therefor at any time before the first day of May eighteen hundred and twenty.

ACT of February 24, 1819. Pamphlet edit. 31.

An act allowing further time to complete the issuing and locating of military land warrants.

48. SEC. 1. The authority granted to the secretary for the department of war, by the second section of the act to provide for designating, surveying, and granting, the military bounty lands, approved the sixth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and by the fourth section of the act making further provision for filling the ranks of the army of the United States, approved December tenth, one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, to issue warrants for the military land bounties to persons entitled thereto, shall be revived, and continued in force for the term of five years from and after the fourth day of March next. [Supra, 36.] 49. SEC. II. The time limited by the act supplementary to the