Chapter CXLV. to provide for the Survey of the Public lands in California, the granting of Preemption Rights therein, and for other purposes
3,102 words·~14 min read·
/statutes-at-large/vol-10/chapter-cxlv-998690·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Chap. CXLV.— An Act to provide for the Survey of the Public lands in California, the granting of Preemption Rights therein, and for other purposes. March 3, 1853. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, Place of office of Surveyor-General for California. That the Surveyor-General for the District or State of California, who is now or may hereafter be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall keep his office at such place as the President, in view of Oath of office.the public convenience, shall from time to time direct; and the Surveyor-General, if he has not already done so, and his successors in office, before entering upon duty, shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, be-THIRTY-SECOND CONGRESS.
Sess. II. Ch. 145. 1853.245fore a judge of a United States Court, or other competent officer, to support the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully discharge the duties of his office, and give bond in the same amount as other Surveyors-General,Bond. the penalty thereof to be increased whenever the Secretary of the Interior shall deem proper. He shall be entitled to receive a salary at the rate of four thousand five hundred dollars per annum, payableSalary. quarter-yearly, to commence from the time of entering into bond.
Sec. 2. *And be it further enacted*, That there shall be allowed forHis clerks. clerk hire in the office of the Surveyor-General the sum of eleven thousand dollars per annum, or so much thereof as may be necessary: *Provided*,Proviso. That the salary of no clerk shall exceed the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars per annum; and for office rent, fuel, and other incidental expenses of his office, such sums as shall be found necessary by the Secretary of the Interior, not exceeding the sum of ten thousand dollars.
And the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to cause an officialHis official seal. seal to be prepared for the office of the said Surveyor-General; and any copy of or extracts from the plats, field notes, and other records andHis attested copies made evidence. documents on file in his office, when attested as such, by the said seal, and the signature of the Surveyor-General, shall, in all judicial matters, have the same force and effect as the originals. Sec. 3. *And be it further enacted*, That the said Surveyor-GeneralHis power and duties. shall have the same power and authority, and perform the same duties respecting the public lands and private claims in the State of California, as by law appertain to and are required of the Surveyor-General in Louisiana, except so far as the same may be modified by this act.
He shall engage a sufficient number of skilful surveyors as his deputies, whom he shall cause to survey, measure, and mark base and meridian lines through such points, and perpetuated by such monuments, and such other correction parallels and meridians as may be prescribed, and also to survey and establish the other lines of the public lands. He shall also cause all private claims to be surveyed after they have been confirmed,Deputies. so far as may be necessary to complete the surveys of the public lands; and in the location and survey of them he shall have the same power and authority as are conferred on the land officers of Louisiana by the sixth section of the act of third March, eighteen hundred and thirty-one,1831, ch. 116. creating the office of the Surveyor-General for that State; and for surveying the base and meridian lines, and private claims, and meandering navigable waters, the deputy surveyor shall be allowed not exceedingPay per mile of survey. sixteen dollars per mile; and for surveying the other lines of the public lands there shall be paid not exceeding an average of twelve dollars per mile: *Provided*, That none other than township lines shall be surveyedProviso. when the lands are mineral or arc deemed unfit for cultivation; and no allowance shall be made for such lines as are not actually run and marked in the field, and were actually necessary to be run.
Sec. 4. *And be it further enacted*, That if, in the opinion of theGeodetic method may be adopted. Secretary of the Interior it shall be advisable, he is hereby authorized to direct such surveys after what is known as the geodetic method. And whenever, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior, a departure from the rectangular mode of surveying and subdividing the public landsRectangular mode of survey may be departed from. would promote the public interests, he may direct such change to be made in the mode of surveying and designating the said lands as he may deem proper, with reference to the existence of mountains, mineral deposits, and the advantages derived from timber and water privileges: *Provided*,Proviso.
That such lands shall not be surveyed into less than one hundred and sixty acres, or subdivided into less than forty acres. Sec. 5. *And be it further enacted*, That there shall be appointed byRegister and receiver for California to be appointed. the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a register of the land office and receiver of public moneys for the State of California, at such time as, in his judgment, the public interest may246 demand, with a salary each of three thousand dollars per annum, payable Location of land office.quarter-yearly; and the land office shall be located at such place as the President, in view of the public convenience, shall from time to time direct; and, previously to entering on the duties of their offices, they each shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, before one of the Judges of the United States Courts, or other competent officer, to support the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully to discharge the duties of their respective offices, and shall give bond in the same amount as other registers and receivers of the public land offices; and their general duties and responsibilities shall be the same as other officers of like character:
California may be divided into land districts and officers be appointed.*Provided, however*, That at such time or times as in his judgment the public interest may so imperatively require, and in the absence of any further and special legislation of Congress on the subject, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to divide the State of California into two or three separate and distinct land districts, as circumstances shall determine to be necessary, embracing respectively the upper and lower, or the upper, middle, and lower portions of the State; and he shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or during the recess of Congress when necessary, a register of the land office and receiver of public moneys for each of such land districts; and the land offices for the same respectively shall be located at, and be removed from time to time to such places as the President shall deem most suitable for public convenience.
Sec. 6. Public lands in California, except school and mineral lands claimed. &c., to be subject to preemption under act of 1841, ch. 16.*And be it further enacted*, That all the public lands in the State of California, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, with the exception of sections sixteen and thirty-six, which shall be and hereby are granted to the State for the purposes of public schools in each township, and with the exception of lands appropriated under the authority of this act, or reserved by competent authority, and excepting also the lands claimed under any foreign grant or title and the mineral lands, shall be subject to the preemption laws of fourth September, eighteen hundred and forty-one, with all the exceptions, conditions, and limitations therein, except as is herein otherwise provided; and shall, after the plats thereof are Sale thereof.returned to the office of the register, be offered for sale, after six months’ public notice in the State of the time and place of sale, under the laws, rules, and regulations now governing such sales, or such as may be here-Notice of claim of preemption.after prescribed: *Provided*, That where unsurveyed lands are claimed by preemption, the usual notice of such claim shall be filed within three months after the return of the plats of surveys to the land offices, and proof and payment shall be made prior to the day appointed by the President’s proclamation for the commencement of the sale, including such lands; the entry of such claims to be made by legal subdivisions, according to the United States’ survey, and in the most compact form:
Who may be preëmptioners.*And provided further*, That the fact of persons having heretofore had the benefit of said act of the fourth of September, eighteen hundred and forty-one, shall interpose no bar to their obtaining the benefits of this act; and all of said lands that shall remain unsold after having been Private entry.proclaimed and offered, shall be subject to entry at private sale as other public land, at the same minimum price per acre; and the register and receiver shall not be entitled to any per centage or fees, except for deciding preemption cases, when each of them shall be allowed the same fees as are paid to other like officers; but the receiver shall be entitled to his actual necessary expenses, going and returning, in making his deposits:
Provisos.1854. ch. 17.*Provided*, That nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize any settlement to be made on any public lands not surveyed, unless the same be made within one year from the passage of this act; nor shall any right of such settlers be recognized by virtue of any settlement or improvement made of such unsurveyed lands subsequent to that day: *And provided further*, That this act shall not be construed to authorize any 247 settlement to be made on any tract of land in the occupation or possession of any Indian tribe, or to grant any preemption right to the same.
Sec. 7. *And be it further enacted*, That where any settlement, by theLocation of other school lands in lien of sections 16 and 86. erection of a dwelling-house or the cultivation of any portion of the land, shall be made upon the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, before the same shall be surveyed, or where such sections may be reserved for public uses or taken by private claims, other land shall be selected by the proper authorities of the State in lieu thereof, agreeably to the provisions of the act of Congress approved on the twentieth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-six, entitled “An act to appropriate lands for the1826, ch. 83. support of schools in certain townships and fractional townships, not before provided for,” and which shall be subject to approval by the Secretary of the Interior.
And no person shall make a settlement or locationSettlements within one mile of military posts forbidden. upon any tract or parcel of land selected for a military post, or within one mile of such post, or on any other lands reserved by competent authority; nor shall any person obtain the benefits of this act by a settlement or location on mineral lands. Sec. 8. *And be it further enacted*, That die public lands, not beingTown or village lots. mineral lands, occupied as towns or villages, shall not be subdivided, or subject to sale, or to be appropriated by settlers, under the provisions of this act; but the whole of such lands, whether settled upon before or after the survey of the same, shall be subject to the provisions of the act entitled “An act for the relief of the citizens of towns upon the lands of1844, ch. 17. the United States, under certain circumstances,” approved May twenty-third, eighteen hundred and forty-four, except such towns as are located on or near mineral lands, the inhabitants of which shall have the right of occupation and cultivation only until such time as Congress shall dispose of the same; nor shall any lands specially reserved for public uses be appropriated under the provisions of this act.
Sec. 9. *And be it further enacted*, That whenever the public surveys,Compensation for surveying by the day.1850, ch. 76. or any portion of them authorized by this act, or by the act approved September twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and fifty, entitled “An act to create the office of Surveyor-General of the Public Lands in Oregon, and to provide for the survey and to make donations to settlers of the said public lands,” are so required to be made, as to render it expedient to make compensation for the surveying thereof by the day, instead of by the mile, it shall be lawful for the Commissioner of the General Land Office, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to make such fair and reasonable allowance as, in his judgment, shall be necessary to insure the accurate and faithful execution of the work.
Sec. 10. *And be it further enacted*, That, except where the PresidentOfficers, how long to hold office. of the United States shall see cause otherwise to determine, each officer to be appointed in virtue of this act, and also every other like officer of the United States, may continue in the uninterrupted discharge of his regular official duties, and is hereby authorized accordingly so to act, after the day of expiration of his official commission, and until a new commission shall be issued to him for the same office, or otherwise, until the day when a successor shall enter upon the duties of such office; and the existing official bond of any such officer so acting shall be deemed and held to be good and sufficient, and in force until the date of the approval of a new bond to be given by him if recommissioned, or otherwise, for the additional time wherein he may so continue officially to act, pursuant to authority hereof.
And the provision as to bonds to be givenDeputy-Surveyors’ bonds. by Deputy-Surveyors for the faithful execution of their duties, in a penalty of double the estimated amount of money accruing to them under their surveying contracts, as required by the act of March third, eighteen1831, ch. 116. hundred and thirty-one, entitled “An act to create the office of Surveyor-General of the public lands for the State of Louisiana,” referred to in the third section of this act, shall be and the same is hereby made248 applicable to the public surveys in the State of California; and the sufficiency of the sureties to all such bonds shall be approved and certified by the proper Surveyor-General; and the same provision is hereby extended to all other branches of the public surveying service elsewhere; and all such bonds heretofore required of Deputy-Surveyors, according to usage in the surveying service, shall be deemed and held to be of the Surveyor-General to inspect surveying operations.same validity as if the same had been required by law.
And it is hereby made the duty of each of the respective Surveyors-General of the public lands of the United States, so far as is compatible with the desk duties of his office, occasionally to inspect the surveying operations while in progress in the field, sufficiently to satisfy himself, from actual inspection, of the fidelity of the execution of the work according to contract, and the actual and necessary expenses incurred by him while so engaged shall May appoint a confidential agent.be allowed; and where it is incompatible with his other duties for a Surveyor-General to devote the time necessary to make a personal inspection of the work in progress, then he shall be and hereby is authorized to depute a confidential agent to make such examination; and the actual and necessary expenses of such person shall be allowed and paid for that service, and five dollars per day during the examination in the field:
Proviso.*Provided*, That such examination shall not be protracted beyond thirty days, and in no case longer than is actually necessary; and when a Surveyor-General, or any person employed in his office at a regular salary, shall be engaged in such special service, he or they shall only receive his necessary expenses in addition to his regular salary. Sec. 11. Surveyor-General of Oregon to have a seal.*And be it further enacted*, That the Secretary of the Interior be and he is hereby authorized and required to cause to be provided for the office of the Surveyor-General of Oregon, a seal, with such device as His attested copies shall be evidence.shall be deemed suitable, and copies of any papers on file in his office which may be authenticated by him under said seal shall be evidence in all cases in which the originals would be evidence, and from and after His salary.the passage of this act the salary of said Surveyor shall be three thousand five hundred dollars per annum.
Sec. 12. Grant to California for a University.*And be it further enacted*, That the quantity of two entire townships, or seventy-two sections, shall be and the same is hereby granted to the State of California for the use of a seminary of learning, said lands to be selected by the Governor of the State, or any person he may designate for that purpose, in legal subdivisions of not less than a quarter-section of any of the unsold, unoccupied, and unappropriated public lands therein, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, Proviso.and to be disposed of as the Legislature shall direct: *Provided, however*, That no mineral lands, or lands reserved for any public purpose whatever, or lands to which any settler may be entitled under the provisions of this act, shall be subject to such selection.
Sec. 13. Grant to California for public buildings.*And be it further enacted*, That there shall be and is hereby granted to the State of California the quantity of ten entire sections of land, for the purpose of erecting the public buildings of that State, said lands to be selected by the Governor, or any persons he may designate, in legal subdivisions of not less than a quarter-section of any of the unsold, unoccupied, and unappropriated public lands in that State, and subject Proviso.to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior: *Provided, however*, That none of said selections shall be made of mineral lands or lands reserved for any public purpose whatever, or lands to which any settler may be entitled under the provisions of this act.
Approved, March 3, 1853.