An Act authorizing certain soldiers in the late war to surrender the bounty lands drawn by them, and to locate others in lieu thereof.
| Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for any soldiers in the late war, or their heirs, to whom bounty lands have been patented, or may hereafter be patented, in the territory of Arkansas, and which land is unfit for cultivation, and who have removed, or shall hereafter remove, to the said territory, with a view to actual settlement on the lands by them drawn-in all such cases, where it shall be made to appear, in such manner as the commissioner of the general land office shall direct, to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the proper district, that the land patented to them is unfit for cultivation, and on the surrender of the patent to them granted, accompanied with such a release of their interest as the commissioner of the general land office shall prescribe, such soldier, or his heirs, may locate and enter with the register of the land office, for the proper district, in the territory of Arkansas, according to the sectional and divisional lines, the like quantity on any of the unappropriated public lands in the military district in said territory; and upon such entry and location being made, it shall be the duty of the register to issue to the person so locating, a certificate specifying the quarter or half section of land so located and entered; and it shall be the duty of the commissioner of the general land office, if he is satisfied such certificate was fairly obtained, to issue a patent for the lands so located, whenever the certificate aforesaid shall be presented to him for that purpose. Provided, That before such certificate of location shall be granted, the applicant shall satisfy the register and receiver that his interest in the land originally patented to him, has not been divested, either by his own acts, or by the operation of law, for taxes, or otherwise. And provided, also, That such surrender and re-location shall be made on or before the first day of January, eighteen. hundred and thirty. But, if said interest shall have been divested in either mode above mentioned, no title shall be acquired to the land subsequently patented.
APPROVED, May 22, 1826. |