TWENTY-FtFTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 119. 1838.

251

Chap. CXIX .—An Act to grant pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of theUnited States of America in Congress assembled, That every actualsettler of the public lands, being the head of a family, or over twenty-one years of age, who was in possession and a housekeeper, by personalresidence thereon, at the time of the passage of this act, and for fourmonths next preceding, shall be entitled to all the benefits and privi-leges of an act entitled “An act to grant pre-emption rights to settlerson the public lands,” approved May twenty-ninth eighteen hundred andthirty, and the said act is hereby revived and continued in force twoyears: Provided, That where more than one person may have settledupon and cultivated any one quarter section of land, each one of themshall have an equal share or interest in the said quarter section, butshall have no claim, by virtue of this act, to any other land : And pro-vided, always, That this act shall not be so construed as to give a rightof pre-emption to any person or persons, in consequence of any settle-ment or improvement made before the extinguishment of the Indiantitle to the land on which such settlement or improvement was made, orto the lands lately acquired by treaty with the Miami tribe of Indians,in the State of Indiana , of which proclamation was made by the Presi-dent of the United States , on the twenty-second day of December,eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, or to any sections, or fractions ofsections, of land included within the location of any incorporated town,or to the alternate sections to other alternate sections granted to the useof any canal, railroad, or other public improvement on the route of suchcanal, railroad, or other public improvement, or to any portions of pub-lic lands, surveyed or otherwise, which have been actually selected assites for cities or towns, lotted into smaller quantities than eighty acres,and settled upon and occupied for the purposes of trade, and not ofagricultural cultivation and improvement, or to any land specially occu-pied or reserved for town lots, or other purposes, by authority of theUnited States : And provided further, That nothing herein containedshall be construed to affect any of the selections of public lands for thepurposes of education, the use of salt-springs, or for any other purposewhich may have been or may be made by any State, under existing lawsof the United States : but this act shall not be so construed as to deprivethose of the benefits of this act, who have inhabited, according to itsprovisions, certain fractions of the public lands within the land districtof Palmyra, in the State of Missouri , which were reserved from sale inconsequence of the surveys of Spanish and French grants, but arefound to be without the lines of said grants. That before any personclaiming the benefit of this law shall have a patent for the land whichhe may claim by having complied with its provisions, he shall makeoath before some person authorized by law to administer the same,which oath with the certificate of the person administering it, shall befiled with the register of the proper land office when the land is appliedfor, and by said register sent to the office of the commissioner of publiclands, that he entered upon the land which he claims, in his own right,and exclusively for his own use and benefit, and that he has not, directlyor indirectly, made any agreement or contract, in any way or manner,with any person or persons whatever, by which thd title which he mightacquire from the Government of the United States should inure to theuse or benefit of any one except himself, or to convey or transfer thesaid land, or the title which he may acquire to the same, to any otherperson or persons whatever, at any subsequent time; and if such per-

Statcte II.June 22, 183S.

Act of May 29,1830, ch. 208.

Qualificationsnecessary to en-title settlers tothe benefits ofact of 29th May1830.

Act of 29thMay 1830, ch.208,revived andcontinued fortwo years.

Proviso.

Proviso.

Proviso.

(a) See notes to the act of May 23, 1830, chap. 208, for the acts which have been passed relating topre-emption rights.