CHAP. XIX.- An Act to make Land Warrants assignable, and for other Purposes.
| Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all warrants for military bounty lands which have been or may hereafter be issued under any law of the United States, and all valid locations of the same which have been or may hereafter be made, are hereby declared to be assignable, by deed or instrument of writing made and executed after the taking effect of this act according to such form, and pursuant to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land-Office, so as to vest the assignee with all the rights of the original owner of the warrant or location: Provided, That any person entitled to preemption right to any land shall be entitled to use any such land warrant in payment for the same at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, for the quantity of land therein specified: Provided, That the warrants which have been, or may hereafter be issued in pursuance of said laws or of this act may be located according to the legal subdivisions of the public lands in one body upon any lands of the United States, subject to private entry at the time of such location, at the minimum price. Provided, further, That when said warrant shall be located on lands which are subject to entry at a greater minimum than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the locator of said warrants shall pay to the United States in cash the difference between the value of such warrants at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre and the tract of land located on.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the registers and receivers of the land-offices shall hereafter be severally authorized to charge and receive for their services in locating all military bounty land warrants issued since the eleventh day of February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, the same compensation or percentage to which they are entitled by law for sales of the public lands for cash, at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the said compensation to be hereafter paid by the assignees or holders of such warrants. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That registers and receivers, whether in or out of office at the passage of this act, or their legal representatives in case of death, shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the United States, for services heretofore performed in locating military bounty land warrants, the same rate of compensation provided in the preceding section for services hereafter to be performed, after deducting the amount already received by such officers under the act entitled “An act to require the holders of military land warrants to compensate the land-officers of the United States for services in relation to the location of those warrants,” approved May seventeenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight: Provided, That no register or receiver shall receive any compensation out of the treasury for past services, who has charged and received illegal fees for the location of such warrants And provided further, That no register or receiver shall receive for his services during any year a greater compensation than the maximum now allowed by law. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That in all cases where the militia or volunteers, or State troops of any State or Territory were called into military service, and whose services have been paid by the United States subsequent to the eighteenth June, eighteen hundred and twelve, the officers and soldiers of such militia, volunteers or troops shall be entitled to all the benefits of the act entitled “An act granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States,” approved September twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and fifty, and shall receive lands for their services according to the provisions of said act, upon proof of length of service as therein required, and that the last proviso of the ninth section of the act of the eleventh of February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, be, and the same is hereby repealed: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall authorize bounty land to those who have heretofore received or become entitled to the same. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That where any company, battalion or regiment, in an organized form, marched more than twenty miles to the place where they were mustered into the service of the United States, or were discharged more than twenty miles from the place where such company, battalion or regiment was organized; in all such cases, in computing the length of service of the officers and soldiers of any such company, battalion or regiment, with a view to determine the quantity of land any officer or soldier is entitled to under said act, approved twenty-eighth September, eighteen hundred and fifty, there shall be allowed one day for every twenty miles from the place where the company, battalion or regiment was organized, to the place where the same was mustered into the service of the United States; and also one day for every twenty miles from the place where such company, battalion or regiment was discharged, to the place where it was organized, and from whence it marched to enter the service. APPROVED, March 22, 1852. |