Chapter CCXLIV. to Graduate and Reduce the Price of the Public Lands to actual Settlers and Cultivators
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Chap. CCXLIV.— An Act to Graduate and Reduce the Price of the Public Lands to actual Settlers and Cultivators.Aug. 4, 1854.1855, ch. 166.*Post,* p. 649. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* That all of the public lands Graduation of price of public lands. of the United States which shall have been in market for ten years or upwards, prior to the time of application to enter the same under the provisions of this act, and still remaining unsold, shall be subject to sale at the price of one dollar per acre; and all of the lands of the United States that shall have been in market for fifteen years or upwards, as aforesaid, and still remaining unsold, shall be subject to sale at seventy-five cents per acre; and all of the lands of the United States that shall have been in market for twenty years or upwards, as aforesaid, and still remaining unsold, shall be subject to sale at fifty cents per acre; and all of the lands of the United States that shall have been in market for twenty-five years and upwards, as aforesaid, and still remaining unsold, shall be subject to sale at twenty-five cents per acre; and all lands of the United States that shall have been in market for thirty years or more, shall be How far this section is to apply. subject to sale at twelve-and-a-half cents per acre; *Provided,* This section shall not be so construed as to extend to lands reserved to the United States, in acts granting land to States for railroad or other internal improvements, or to mineral lands held at over one dollars and twenty-five cents per acre.
Sec. 2. *And be it further enacted,* That upon every reduction in Preëmption rights in lands affected by this act. price under the provisions of this act, the occupant and settler upon the lands shall have the right of pre-emption at such graduated price, upon the same terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations, upon which the public lands of the United States are now subject to the right of pre-emption, until within thirty days preceding the next graduation or reduction that shall take place; and if not so purchased, shall again be subject to right of pre-emption for eleven months as before, and so on from time to time, as reductions take place: *Provided,* That nothing in this act shall Proviso. be so construed as to interfere with any right which has or may accrue by virtue of any act granting pre-emption to actual settlers upon public lands.
Sec. 3. *And be it further enacted,* That any person applying to enter How entry is to be made. any of the aforesaid lands shall be required to make affidavit before the register or receiver of the proper land-office, that he or she enters the 1855, ch. 209. same for his or her own use, and for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, or for the use of an adjoining farm or plantation, owned or occupied by him or herself, and together with said entry, he or she has not acquired from the United States, under the provisions of this act, Penalty for perjury. more than three hundred and twenty acres, according to the established surveys; and if any person or persons taking such oath or affidavit shall swear falsely in the premises, he or she shall be subject to all the pains and penalties of perjury.
Approved, August 4, 1854.