NINETEENTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 62,77,78. 1827. 239
For a violation of this provision, the person offending shall suffer a penaltyof fifty dollars.
Approved, March 2, 1827.
Chap. LXII. — An Act to increase the salary of the Postmaster General. March 2,1827.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the UnitedStates of America, in Congress assembled, That, from the first day ofthe present year, there shall be paid, annually, to the Postmaster General,two thousand dollars, in addition to his present salary.
Approved, March 2, 1827.
2,000 dollarsto be paid him,annually, in ad-dition to hispresent pay.
Chap. LXXVII. — An Ad for altering the times of holding the district court of March 3, 1827.the United States for the eastern district of Virginia , holden at the city of "
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the UnitedStates of America, in Congress assembled, That the terms of the districtcourt of the United States for the eastern district of Virginia , now directedto be holden in the city of Richmond , on the second day of April, andthe fifteenth day of October, in every year, shall, in future, be held in thesaid city on the fifteenth day of May, and on the fifteenth day of Novem-ber, annually; and that all suits, actions, and proceedings of whateverkind, now depending in, or returnable to, said court, shall be taken to becontinued or returnable to the terms herein established.
Approved, March 3, 1827.
Terms of thedistrict courtfor the easterndistrict, chang-ed.
Chap. LXXVIII. — An Act supplementary to the several acts providing for the March 3 , 1827 .
adjustment of land claims in the state of Alabama , (/>) -—■
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the UnitedStates of America, in Congress assembled, That the claimants of lands,town lots, or out-lots, within that part of the limits of the former landdistrict, of Jackson Courthouse, which is embraced in the state of Ala-bama , whose claims have been presented to the commissioners appointedto receive and examine claims and titles to lands, in said district of Jack-son Courthouse, or to the register and receiver of the land office at Jack-son Courthouse, acting as commissioners under the provisions of the act
Course to bepursued byclaimants oflands, &c.within a certainpart of the for-mer land dis-trict of JacksonCourthouse.
(а) See notes to the act of Feb. 4, 1819, ch. 12, for a list of the acts relating to the district courts inVirginia .
(б) A concession of lands made by the Spanish authorities at Mobile in the year 1806, cannot begiven in evidence in support of an ejectment in the courts of the United States , the same not havingbeen recorded or passed upon by the board of commissioners or register of the land office establishedby the acts of Congress relating to land titles in that country. De La Croix v. Chamberlain, 12 Wheat.599, 6 Cond. Rep. 659.
It is the settled doctrine of the judicial department of the government, that the treaty of 1819, withSpain, ceded to the United States no territory west of the Perdido. It had already been acquired by theLouisiana treaty. Pollard et al. v. Files, 2 Howard, 591.
In the interval between the Louisiana treaty and the time when the United States took possession ofthe country west of the Perdido, the Spanish government had the right to grant permits to settle andimprove by cultivation or to authorize the erection of establishments for mercantile purposes. Ibid.
These incipient concessions are not disregarded by Congress , but are recognised in the acts of 1804,1812,1S19, and as claims are within the act of 1824. Ibid.
The act of 1824 gives a title to the owners of old water lots in Mobile , only where an improvement wasmade east of Water street, and made by the proprietor of the lot on the west side of that street, suchperson could not claim as riparian proprietor, or where his lot had a definite limit on the east. Ibid.
See the case of Foster and Elam v. Neilson, 2 Peters, 253.
See notes to the act of May 26, 1824, ch. 185, <( An act granting certain lots of ground to the corpo-ration of the city of Mobile , and to certain individuals of said city.”