(ACT of April 24th, 1820.)

public lands of the United States, the sale of which is, or may be, authorized by law, shall, when offered at public sale, to the highest bidder, be offered in half quarter sections: and, when offered at private sale, may be purchased, at the option of the purchaser, either in entire sections, half sections, quarter sections, or half quarter sections; and in every case of the division of a quarter section, the line for the division thereof shall run north and south, and the corners and contents of half quarter sections, which may thereafter be sold, shall be ascertained in the manner, and on the principles, directed and prescribed by the second section of an act, entitled " An act concerning the mode of surveying the public lands of the United States," [Supra] passed on the eleventh day of February, eighteen hundred and five; and fractional sections, containing one hundred and sixty acres, or upwards, shall in like manner, as nearly as practicable, be subdivided into half quarter sections, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the secretary of the treasury; but fractional sections, containing less than one hundred and sixty acres, shall not be divided, but shall be sold entire: Provided, That this section shall not be construed to alter any special provision made by law for the sale of land in town lots.

20. SEC. 11. Credit shall not be allowed for the purchase money on the sale of any of the public lands which shall be sold after the first day of July next, but every purchaser of land sold at public sale thereafter, shall, on the day of purchase, make complete payment therefor; and the purchaser at private sale shall produce to the register of the land office, a receipt from the treasurer of the United States, or from the receiver of public moneys of the district, for the amount of the purchase money on any tract, before he shall enter the same at the land office; and if any person, being the highest bidder, at public sale, for a tract of land, shall fail to make payment therefor, on the day on which the same was purchased, the tract shall be again offered at public sale, on the next day of sale, and such person shall not be capable of becoming the purchaser of that or any other tract offered at such public sales.

21. SEC. 111. From and after the first day of July next, the price at which the public lands shall be offered for sale, shall be one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre; and at every public sale, the highest bidder, who shall make payment as aforesaid, shall be the purchaser; but no lands shall be sold, either at public or private sale, for a less price than one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, and all the public lands which shall have been offered at public sale before the first day of July next, and which shall then remain unsold, as well as the lands that shall thereafter be offered at public sale, according to law, and remain unsold, at the close of such public sale shall be subject to be sold at private sale, by entry at the land office, at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, to be

(ACT of April 24th, 1820.)

paid at the time of making such entry as aforesaid, with the exception, however, of the lands which may have reverted to the United States, for failure in payment, and of the heretofore reserved sections for the future disposal of congress, in the states of Ohio and Indiana, which shall be offered at public sale, as hereinafter directed.

22. SEC. IV. No lands which have reverted, or which shall hereafter revert and become forfeited to the United States, for failure in any manner to make payment, shall, after the first day of July next, be subject to entry at private sale, nor until the same shall have been first offered to the highest bidder at public sale, and all such lands which shall have reverted before the said first day of July next, and which shall then belong to the United States, together with the sections, and parts of sections, heretofore reserved for the future disposal of congress, which shall, at the time aforesaid, remain unsold, shail be offered at public sale to the highest bidder, who shall make payment therefor, in half quarter sections, at the land office for the respective districts, on such day or days as shall by proclamation of the president of the United States, be designated for that purpose; and all lands which shall revert and become forfeited for failure of payment after the first day of July next, shall be offered, in like manner, at public sale, at such time or times as the president shall, by his proclamation, designate for the purpose: Provided, that no such lands shall be sold at any public sales hereby authorized, for a less price than one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, nor on any other terms that that of cash payment; and all the lands offered at such public sales, and which shall remain unsold at the close thereof, shall be subject to entry at private sale, in the same manner, and at the same price, with the other lands sold at private sale at the respective land offices.

23. SEC. v. The several public sales authorized by this act, shall, respectively, be kept open for two weeks, and no longer; and the registers of the land office, and the receivers of public money, shall each, respectively, be entitled to five dollars for each days'

attendance thereon.

24. SEC. VI. In every case hereafter, where two or more persons shall apply for the purchase, at private sale, of the same tract, at the same time, the register shall determine the preference, by forthwith offering the tract to the highest bidder.

ACT of April 24, 1880. Pamphlet edit. 57. An act in addition to the several acts for the establishment, &c. of the treasury, war, and navy department.

25. SEC. VII. No land shall be purchased on account of the United States except under a law authorizing such purchase.

ACT of May 11, 1820. Pamphlet edit. 80. An act extending the time allowed for the redemption of land sold for direct taxes in certain cases.

26. SEC. 1. The time allowed for the redemption of lands which have been or may be sold for the payment of taxes, under the act passed the ninth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, so far as the same regards the direct tax of six millions of dollars, laid in that year; or under the act passed the fifth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, so far as the same regards the direct tax of three millions of dollars, laid in that year, and purchased on behalf of the United States, be extended three years beyond the time heretofore allowed: Provided, That such extension of time shall not be beyond the first of June, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, and that on such redemption, interest be paid at the rate of twenty per centum per annum, on the taxes aforesaid, and additions of twenty per centum chargeable thereon; and the right to redeem shall ensure as well to persons holding an equitable or reversionary interest in lands so purchased on behalf of the United States, as to the original owners thereof.

27. SEC. II. Where any person or persons, who has or have purchased lands or tenements, sold for the non-payment of the direct tax, shall be entitled to have a deed for the same, but, from the death or removal of the collector, or from any other cause, there is no officer who, by the existing laws, is authorized to make a deed, it shall be lawful for such person or persons to apply, by petition, to the district judge of the district in which such lands or tenements are situate, setting forth the circumstances of the case, and, upon due proof being made, to the satisfaction of such judge, that such person or persons, is or are a purchaser or purchasers as aforesaid, and has or have fully complied with all conditions of sale, and is or are entitled to have a deed, and that there is no officer who, by the existing laws, is authorized to make such deed, it shall be lawful for such judge, and he is hereby authorized and required, to order and direct the marshal of the district to make a deed to the purchaser or purchasers, which deed, being acknowledged in open court, and entered of record, shall have the same effect as if it had been made by the collector or other officer authorized by the laws heretofore or now in force.

ACT of March 3, 1791. 2 Bioren, 230.

An act for granting lands to the inhabitants and settlers at Vincennes, and the Illinois country, in the territory northwest of the Ohio, and for confirming them in their possessions.

1. SEC. 1. Four hundred acres of land shall be given to each of those persons, who, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eightythree, were heads of families at Vincennes, or in the Illinois country, on the Mississippi, and who, since that time, have removed from one of the said places to the other. And the governor of the territory northwest of the Ohio is hereby directed to cause the same to be laid out for them, at their own expense, either at Vincennes or in the Illinois country, as they shall severally elect.

2. SEC. II. The heads of families at Vincennes, or in the Illinois country, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, who afterwards removed without the limits of the said territory, are, notwithstanding, entitled to the donation of four hundred acres of land, made by the resolve of congress, of the twenty-ninth of August, one thousand seven hundred and eightyeight; and the governor of the said territory, upon application to him for that purpose, is hereby directed to cause the same to be laid out for such heads of families, or their heirs; and shall also cause to be laid off and confirmed to such persons, the several tracts of land which they may have possessed, and which, before the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, may have been allotted to them according to the laws and usages of the government under which they had respectively settled: Provided nevertheless, That if such persons, or their heirs, do not return and occupy the said lands within five years, such lands shall be considered as forfeited to the United States.

3. SEC. II. One hundred and fifty acres of land, heretofore in possession of the Piankeshaw Indians, and now under actual improvement, and constituting a part of the village of Vincennes, shall be given to the persons who are severally in possession of the said land.

(ACT of April 21st, 1792.)

4. SEC. IV. Where lands have been actually improved and cultivated at Vincennes, or in the Illinois country, under a supposed grant of the same, by any commandant or court claiming authority to make such grant, the governor of the said territory is empowered to confirm to the persons who made such improvements, their heirs or assigns, the lands supposed to have been granted as aforesaid, or such parts thereof as he, in his discretion, may judge reasonable, not exceeding to any one person, four hundred acres.

5. Sec. v. A tract of land, containing about five thousand four hundred acres, which, for many years, has been fenced and used by the inhabitants of Vincennes as a common, also a tract of land including the villages of Cohos and Prairie du Pont, and heretofore used by the inhabitants of the said village as a common, are hereby appropriated to the use of the inhabitants of Vincennes, and of the said village, respectively, to be used by them as a common, until otherwise disposed of by law.

6. SEC. VI. The governor of the said territory is authorized to make a grant of land, not exceeding one hundred acres, to each person who hath not obtained any donation of land from the United States, and who, on the first day of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, was enrolled in the militia at Vincennes, or in the Illinois country, and has done militia duty, the said land to be laid out at the expense of the grantees, and in such form and place as the said governor shall direct. Provided, nevertheless, That no claim founded upon purchase or otherwise, shall be admitted within a tract of land heretofore occupied by the Kaskaskia nation of Indians, and including their village, which is hereby appropriated to the use of the said Indians.

ACT of April 21, 1792. 2 Bioren, 276.

7. SEC. 1. A certain contract expressed in an indenture executed on the twenty-seventh day of October, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, between the then board of treasury for the United States of America, of the one part, and Manasseh Cutler, and Winthrop Sergeant, as agents for the directors of the Ohio company of associates, of the other part, so far as the same respects the following described tract of land; that is to say; "beginning at a station where the western boundary line of the seventh range of townships, laid out by the authority of the United States in congress assembled, intersects the river Ohio; thence extending along that river south westerly to a place where the western boundary line of the fifteenth range of townships, when laid out agreeably to the land ordinance passed the twentieth day of May, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, would touch the said river; thence running northerly on the said western bounds of the said fifteenth range of townships, till a line drawn