Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

THIRTIETH CONGRESS—FIRST SESSION.
H. R. 573.
(No Report.)
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
June 23, 1848.
Read twice, and committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
state of the Union.
Mr. Collamer, from the Committee on Public Lands, reported
the following bill:
A BILL
Supplemental to the act entitled “An act to appropriate the proceeds
of the sales of the public lands, and to grant pre-emption
rights,” approved fourth September, eighteen hundred
and forty-one.

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11 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That every head of a family, widow, or single
man over the age of twenty-one years, who may have
settled since the first day of June, eighteen hundred and
forty, or who shall hereafter settle on unsurveyed land, to
which the Indian title has been, or shall have been ex-
tinguished at the time of settlement, and who shall inhabit
and improve the same, and who has, or shall erect a dwel-
ling-house thereon, shall be entitled to a pre-emption in the
purchase of any number of acres by legal sub-divisions,

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6 not to exceed one hundred and sixty, or a quarter section,
to include the residence of such claimant.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That when two
or more persons shall have settled, or shall hereafter settle,
on the same quarter section, fractional quarter section, or
fractional section less than one hundred and sixty acres,
of such unsurveyed land, then such tract shall be jointly en-
tered by all the persons who shall have settled thereon,
prior to the survey of such land, and who prefer any claim
under this act, and the said joint settlers shall, in addition
to the tract so jointly occupied by them, be allowed to en-
ter jointly other contiguous vacant land, by legal sub-di-
visions, so as not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres
in all to each of said settlers: Provided, That the rights
of others shall not be interfered with by either this or the
preceding section: And provided, further, That the whole
of the land entered by the joint claimants aforesaid shall
be embraced in one entry.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the settler
or settlers, provided for by this act, shall within three
months after the receipt in the proper register’s office of
the official plat of survey, embracing the land settled on,
file the “notice in writing” required under the law to which
this is a supplement, of settlers on surveyed land, and a

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19 failure to do so, shall, as in other cases, work a forfeiture
of the claim of the person so neglecting to file said notice.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That in all cases
of settlement referred to in the fifteenth section of the act
to which this is a supplement, the person making such set-
tlement shall, in lieu of the “notice in writing” required by
said section, within thirty days, and the filing of the proof
within twelve months after settlement, be required to file
in the proper land office the requisite proof of such claim-
ant’s right within said thirty days, which will entitled the
claimant, upon the taking the affidavit required by the
thirteenth section of said act, and the payment of the pur-
chase money, within twelve months after settlement, to the
entry of the land to which such claimant shall be entitled:
Provided, he shall not have removed from the land so
claimed, between the filing of said proof and the making of
the entry of the land under it, which last fact may be estab-
lished by the oath of the claimant, under the same pains
and penalties for false swearing therein as is prescribed in
the thirteenth section of the act to which this is a supple-
ment, for a false swearing in the affidavit therein prescribed

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every head of a family, widow, or single man over the age of twenty-one years, who may have settled since the first day of June, eighteen hundred and forty, or who shall hereafter settle on unsurveyed land, to which the Indian title has been, or shall have been ex- tinguished at the time of settlement, and who shall inhabit and improve the same, and who has, or shall erect a dwel- ling-house thereon, shall be entitled to a pre-emption in the purchase of any number of acres by legal sub-divisions,
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12 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1 2 3 4 5 6	not to exceed one hundred and sixty, or a quarter section, to include the residence of such claimant. Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That when two or more persons shall have settled, or shall hereafter settle, on the same quarter section, fractional quarter section, or fractional section less than one hundred and sixty acres, of such unsurveyed land, then such tract shall be jointly en- tered by all the persons who shall have settled thereon, prior to the survey of such land, and who prefer any claim under this act, and the said joint settlers shall, in addition to the tract so jointly occupied by them, be allowed to en- ter jointly other contiguous vacant land, by legal sub-di- visions, so as not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres in all to each of said settlers: Provided, That the rights of others shall not be interfered with by either this or the preceding section: And provided, further, That the whole of the land entered by the joint claimants aforesaid shall be embraced in one entry. Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the settler or settlers, provided for by this act, shall within three months after the receipt in the proper register’s office of the official plat of survey, embracing the land settled on, file the “notice in writing” required under the law to which this is a supplement, of settlers on surveyed land, and a
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7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19	failure to do so, shall, as in other cases, work a forfeiture of the claim of the person so neglecting to file said notice. Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That in all cases of settlement referred to in the fifteenth section of the act to which this is a supplement, the person making such set- tlement shall, in lieu of the “notice in writing” required by said section, within thirty days, and the filing of the proof within twelve months after settlement, be required to file in the proper land office the requisite proof of such claim- ant’s right within said thirty days, which will entitled the claimant, upon the taking the affidavit required by the thirteenth section of said act, and the payment of the pur- chase money, within twelve months after settlement, to the entry of the land to which such claimant shall be entitled: Provided, he shall not have removed from the land so claimed, between the filing of said proof and the making of the entry of the land under it, which last fact may be estab- lished by the oath of the claimant, under the same pains and penalties for false swearing therein as is prescribed in the thirteenth section of the act to which this is a supple- ment, for a false swearing in the affidavit therein prescribed