Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

^30^1th CONGRESS,

^1^st2^ Session. H.R. 560.

December 21, 1846.

Read twice, and referred to the Committee on Public Lands.

Mr. Sawyer, on leave, introduced the following bill:

A BILL

To reduce and graduate the price of the public lands to actual settlers, and for other purposes.

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10 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That
all of the lands of the United States which have been in mar-
ket ten years or more on the first day of January, eighteen hun-
dred and forty-six êight^, and still ramaining unsold, shall be subject
to sale at the price of one dollar per acre. And all the before-
decribed lands remaining unsold shall be subject to sale at
seventy-five cents per acre for another term of five years. And
all such lands unsold at the end of the last-mentioned term of
time may be entered at fifty cents per acre.

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6 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all puplic lands
which, after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and
forty-six êight^, shall have been offered for sale ten years or more on
the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-one ^three^, shall
then be subject to graduation and entry in the same manner and at
like periods of five years; and that all public lands which shall

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10 have been offered for sale ten years or more at the next succeed-
ing period, or any subsequent one, shall be subject, in like man-
ner, to graduation and entry at like periods of five years as they
consecutively occur.

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16 Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That, upon every re-
duction in the price of said lands which shall take place by the
graduating process of this act, the occupants or settlers upon
any of the said lands shall have the right of pre-emption at such
graduated or reduced prices, which right shall extend to a pe-
riod of six months from and after the dates at which the respec-
tive graduations shall take place; and any lands not entered by
the respective occupants or settlers within that period shall be
liable to be entered or purchased by any other person until the
next graduation or reduction in price shall take place, when it
shall, if not previously purchased, be again subject to the right
of pre-emption for six months, as before; and so on, from time to
time, as said reduction shall take place: Provided, That nothing
in this act contained shall be construed to interfere with any
right which has accrued or may accrue by virtue of any act
granting pre-emptions to actual settlers upon the public lands.

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6 Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That every person
applying to enter any of the aforesaid lands of the United States,
under the provisions of this act, shall be required first to make
affidavit before the register or receiver of the proper land office
that he or she enters the same for his or her own use, for the
purposes of actual settlement and cultivation, by and for him or

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20 herself, or for the use of an adjacent farm or plantation owned
and occupied by him or herself; and that, together with said
entry, he or he has not acquired from the United States, under
the provisions of this act, more than three ône^ hundred and twenty ^sixty^
acres of land, according to the public surveys thereof; and if any
person taking such oath, by affidavit, shall swear falsely in the
premises, he or she shall be subject to all the pains and penalties
of perjury: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be
construed to prevent any person from entering or purchasing
the lands of the United States at the price of one dollar and
twenty-five cents per acre, as now authorized and provided by
law: And provided, also, That the quantity of land which the
President of the United States shall hereafter proclaim and offer
for sale, in any one year, shall not exceed five millions of acres.

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12 Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That from and after the
first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one,
any white male or female, being a citizen of the United States
and the head of a family, and of good moral character, who shall
establish the fact, to the satisfaction of the register of any land
office of the United States, that they are poor and unable to pur-
chase and pay for one hundred and sixty acres of any of the lands
graduated by virtue of this act, shall be permitted to enter, free
of charge, one hundred and sixty acres of the aforesaid lands;
and the said register, or his successor in office, shall, at the ex-
piration of five years after such entry and continued occupation,
make out and deliver to such occupant a certificate therefor.

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4 Sec. ^6^3. And be it further enacted, That all acts and parts
of acts which provide for an exemption from the imposition of
taxes upon land sold by the United States for five years from and
after the day of sale, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

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[ docketing ]
H R 149

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January 31, 1848
M^r Sawyer, on leave introduced the following bill, which was read twice, and referred to the committee on public lands

[ docketing ]
June 23, 1848.
M^r Collamer from s^d Committee made adverse report therein & the said bill laid upon the table

[ docketing ]
A Bill
(See title within)

[ docketing ]
Nô 149

[ docketing ]
A Bill to reduce and graduate the price of the public Lands to actual setlers & for other purposes

[ docketing ]
Sawyer 58
R, Pub. Lands

[ docketing ]
Refered to com^t on public Lands

[ docketing ]
M^r Sawyer

1“29” changed to “30”

2“2d” changed to 1^st

3“4” changed to “6”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all of the lands of the United States which have been in mar- ket ten years or more on the first day of January, eighteen hun- dred and forty-six ^eight^, and still ramaining unsold, shall be subject to sale at the price of one dollar per acre. And all the before- decribed lands remaining unsold shall be subject to sale at seventy-five cents per acre for another term of five years. And all such lands unsold at the end of the last-mentioned term of time may be entered at fifty cents per acre.
1 2 3 4 5 6	Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all puplic lands which, after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and forty-six ^eight^, shall have been offered for sale ten years or more on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty-one ^three^, shall then be subject to graduation and entry in the same manner and at like periods of five years; and that all public lands which shall
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7 8 9 10	have been offered for sale ten years or more at the next succeed- ing period, or any subsequent one, shall be subject, in like man- ner, to graduation and entry at like periods of five years as they consecutively occur.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16	Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That, upon every re- duction in the price of said lands which shall take place by the graduating process of this act, the occupants or settlers upon any of the said lands shall have the right of pre-emption at such graduated or reduced prices, which right shall extend to a pe- riod of six months from and after the dates at which the respec- tive graduations shall take place; and any lands not entered by the respective occupants or settlers within that period shall be liable to be entered or purchased by any other person until the next graduation or reduction in price shall take place, when it shall, if not previously purchased, be again subject to the right of pre-emption for six months, as before; and so on, from time to time, as said reduction shall take place: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to interfere with any right which has accrued or may accrue by virtue of any act granting pre-emptions to actual settlers upon the public lands.
1 2 3 4 5 6	Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That every person applying to enter any of the aforesaid lands of the United States, under the provisions of this act, shall be required first to make affidavit before the register or receiver of the proper land office that he or she enters the same for his or her own use, for the purposes of actual settlement and cultivation, by and for him or
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7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	herself, or for the use of an adjacent farm or plantation owned and occupied by him or herself; and that, together with said entry, he or he has not acquired from the United States, under the provisions of this act, more than three ^one^ hundred and twenty ^sixty^ acres of land, according to the public surveys thereof; and if any person taking such oath, by affidavit, shall swear falsely in the premises, he or she shall be subject to all the pains and penalties of perjury: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent any person from entering or purchasing the lands of the United States at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, as now authorized and provided by law: And provided, also, That the quantity of land which the President of the United States shall hereafter proclaim and offer for sale, in any one year, shall not exceed five millions of acres.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12	Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That from and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, any white male or female, being a citizen of the United States and the head of a family, and of good moral character, who shall establish the fact, to the satisfaction of the register of any land office of the United States, that they are poor and unable to pur- chase and pay for one hundred and sixty acres of any of the lands graduated by virtue of this act, shall be permitted to enter, free of charge, one hundred and sixty acres of the aforesaid lands; and the said register, or his successor in office, shall, at the ex- piration of five years after such entry and continued occupation, make out and deliver to such occupant a certificate therefor.
1 2 3 4	Sec. ^6^3. And be it further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts which provide for an exemption from the imposition of taxes upon land sold by the United States for five years from and after the day of sale, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.