CHAP. CLXIV.- An Act to authorize the survey of two millions of acres of the public lands, in lieu of that quantity heretofore authorized to be surveyed, in the territory of Michigan, as military bounty lands.
| Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That so much of the “Act to provide for designating, surveying, and granting the military bounty land,” approved the sixth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, as authorizes the President of the United States to cause to be surveyed two millions of acres of the lands of the United States, in the territory of Michigan, for the purpose of satisfying the bounties of land promised to the non-commissioned offices and soldiers of the United States, be, and the same is hereby repealed; and in lieu of the said two millions of acres of land, the President of the United States be, and he is hereby authorized to cause to be surveyed, of the lands of the United States fit for cultivation, not otherwise appropriated, and to which the Indian title is extinguished, one million five hundred thousand acres in the Illinois territory, and five hundred thousand acres in the Missouri territory, north of the river Missouri; the said lands shall be divided into townships, and subdivided into sections and quarter sections, (each quarter section to contain, as near as possible, one hundred and sixty acres,) and in the manner prescribed by law for surveying and subdividing the other lands of the United States; and the lands thus surveyed, with the exception of the salt springs and lead mines, therein, and of the quantities of land adjacent thereto as may be reserved for the use of the same by the President of the United States, and the section number sixteen in every township, to be granted to the inhabitants of such township for the use of public schools, shall, according to the provisions of the above-recited act, be set apart for the purpose of satisfying the bounties of land promised to the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the late army of the United States, their heirs and legal representatives, by the act entitled “An act for completing the existing military establishment,” approved the twenty-fourth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, and by the act, entitled “An act to raise additional military force,” approved the eleventh day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twelve.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That every person in whose favour any warrant for military land bounty is issued, shall be, and is hereby authorized, to draw by lot one of the quarter sections surveyed by virtue of this act, and shall obtain a patent therefore, in the same manner, in every respect, as is or shall be provided by law for patents to issue for other military land bounties, or as is provided by the act first above-recited for patents to issue for such lands. APPROVED. April 29, 1816. |