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516 a.

§ 516 b.

§ 516 c.

CHAPTER XXIX.

PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS.

Patents to Issue for Claims heretofore Confirmed.
Price of Surveys, how Fixed.

Certificates of Location or Scrip to Issue in Satisfaction of Confirmed
Private Land Claims which can not be Located.

§ 516 d. Issuance and Location of Judicial Scrip in Lieu of Confirmed Private Land Claims.

§ 516 a. Patents to Issue for Claims heretofore Confirmed.In case of any claim to land in any state or territory which has heretofore been confirmed by law, and in which no provision is made by the confirmatory statute for the issue of a patent, it may be lawful, where surveys for the land have been or may hereafter be made, to issue patents for the claims so confirmed, upon the presentation to the commissioner of the general land office of plats of survey thereof, duly approved by the surveyor general of any state or territory, if the same be found correct by the commissioner. But such patents shall only operate as a relinquishment of title on the part of the United States, and shall in no manner interfere with any valid adverse right to the same land, nor be construed to preclude a legal investigation and decision by the proper judicial tribunal between adverse claimants to the same land.

10 Stat. 599; R. S. 2447.

§ 516 b. Price of Surveys, how Fixed.-The commissioner of the general land office has power, and it shall be his duty, to fix the prices per mile for public surveys, which shall in no case exceed the maximum established by law; and under instructions to be prepared by the commissioner, an accurate account shall be kept by each surveyor general of the cost of surveying and platting private land claims, to be reported to the general land office, with the map of such claim, and patents shall not issue for any such private claim until the cost of survey and platting has been paid into the treasury by the claimant.

12 Stat. 409; 18 Id. 304; R. S. 2400.

516 c. Certificates of Location or Scrip to Issue in Satisfaction of Confirmed Private Land Claims Which can not be Located.Where any private land claim was confirmed by congress prior

to June 2, 1858, and the same, in whole or in part, has not been located or satisfied, either for want of a specific location prior to such confirmation, or for any reason whatsoever, other than a discovery of fraud in such claim subsequent to such confirmation, it shall be the duty of the surveyor general of the district in which such claim was situated, upon satisfactory proof that such claim has been so confirmed, and that the same, in whole or in part, remains unsatisfied, to issue to the claimant or his legal representatives, certificates of location for a quantity of land equal to that so confirmed and unsatisfied, which certificates of location or scrip shall be subdivided according to the request of the confirmee or confirmees, and as nearly as practicable in conformity with the legal divisions and subdivisions of the public lands of the United States, and shall be assignable by deed or instrument of writing, according to the form and pursuant to regulations prescribed by the commissioner of the general land office, so as to vest the assignee with all the rights of the original owners of the scrip, including the right to locate. the same in his own name upon any of the public lands of the United States subject to sale at private entry, at a price not exceeding $1.25 per acre, and shall be received from actual settlers only in payment of pre-emption claims or in commutation of homestead claims, in the same manner and to the same extent as is now authorized by law in the case of military bountyland warrants.

11 Stat. 294, 295; 20 Id. 274, 275.

§ 516 d. Issuance and Location of Judicial Scrip in Lieu of Confirmed Private Land Claims.- Whenever, in cases prosecuted under the acts of congress of June 22, 1860, March 2, 1867, and the first section of the act of June 10, 1872, providing for the adjustment of private land claims in the states of Florida, Louisiana, and Missouri, the validity of the claim has been, or shall be hereafter, recognized by the supreme court of the United States, and the court has decreed that the plaintiff or plaintiffs is or are entitled to enter a certain number of acres upon the public lands of the United States, subject to private entry at $1.25 per acre, or to receive certificate of location for as much of the land, the title to which has been established, as has been disposed of by the United States, certificate of location shall be issued by the commissioner of the general land office, attested by the seal of said office, to be located as provided for in the sixth section of the aforesaid act of congress of June 22, 1860, or applied according to the provisions of this section; and said

certificate of location or scrip shall be subdivided according to the request of the confirmee or confirmees, and as nearly as practicable in conformity with the legal divisions and subdivisions of the public lands of the United States, and shall be, and are hereby declared to be, assignable by deed or instrument of writing, according to the form and pursuant to regulations prescribed by the commissioner of the general land office, so as to vest the assignee with all the rights of the original owners of the scrip, including the right to locate the scrip in his own name; such scrip shall be received from actual settlers only in payment of pre-emption claims or in commutation of homestead claims, in the same manner and to the same extent as is now authorized by law in the case of military bounty-land warrants.

12 Stat. 85, 86; 20 Id. 274, 275.

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§ 521.

Grant to Northern Pacific, Atlantic and Pacific, and Southern Pacific
Railroads.

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§ 534. Settlers' Rights on These Grants.

§ 535. Grants in præsenti; Certification to Railroad Corporations; Effects of Mortgage.

517.

Grant Prior to 1862.-September 20, 1850, congress granted to the state of Illinois, to aid in the construction of a railroad, alternate sections of land for six sections width on either side of the road. This was the first railroad act of real importance, and initiated the system of grants of land for railroads by congress, which prevailed until after July 1, 1862. The legislative history of this act, as given by the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, who was its chief supporter, is very interesting, and characteristic of that distinguished man. It may be found on page 262 of congressional book entitled "The Public Domain."

Prior to July 1, 1862, there had been constant agitation of the question of a railroad to the Pacific, beginning about the time of the settlement of the northern boundary by the Ashburton treaty of 1842.

In 1845 Senator Douglas proposed a grant of alternate sections of land to the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, to aid in the construction of a railroad from Lake Erie via Chicago and Rock Island to the Missouri river, and prepared a bill (upon which he issued an address to his constituency) to organize the territory of Nebraska, extending from the Missouri river westward, etc., as well as a bill to organize the territory of Oregon, from the summit of the Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean, and to reserve to each of said territories the alternate sec

tions of land for forty miles on each side of a line of railroad from a point on the Missouri river where the Lake Erie road should cross the same, and thence to the navigable waters of the Pacific, in the territory of Oregon, or on the bay of San Francisco, in the event that California should be annexed in time.

After 1850 Eli Whitney petitioned congress for a grant of 100 000,000 acres of land, to enable him to construct a railroad to the Pacific ocean. This application was vigorously pushed, but, like all previous efforts of the kind, failed.

Soon afterwards, the government of the United States, under the war department, organized and executed a series of transcontinental surveys and explorations from the Mississippi river westward to the Pacific ocean, for ascertaining the most practicable and economical railroad route to the Pacific. The report reviewed the resources and prospects of the following routes: The extreme northern route (Stevens'), between the fortyseventh and forty-ninth parallels of north latitude; the route of the forty-first parallel (Mormon route); the route of the thirtyeighth parallel (Benton's great central route); the route of the thirty-fifth parallel (Rusk's route); and the route of the thirtysecond parallel (El Paso and Gila to the Pacific), through the Gadsden purchase.

On the first day of July, 1862, the Union Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated by a direct act of the congress of the United States. They were to build a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean. The land grant was direct to the corporation, thus avoiding the established rule of using a state as a trustee and agent of transfer. This was a complete change in the system of land bounties to aid in the building of railroads. The system thus inaugurated has resulted in four transcontinental lines with land grants, all of which are either completed or approaching completion.

§ 518. Grants to States for Railroads.-The initial act, so to speak, of the present railroad grant system is that of September 20, 1850 (9 Stat. 466), granting lands to the states of Illinois, Mississippi, and Alabama. This act provides, first, that a copy of the survey of said road and branches, made under the direction of the legislature, shall be forwarded to the proper local land offices, respectively, and to the general land office at Washington city, within ninety days after the completion of the

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same."

Section 2 of the act contains the granting clause, and its provisions are in words of present grant: "That there be and is

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