Chapter 27.
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/statutes-at-large/vol-23/chapter-27-50837·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 27.— An act to increase the endowment of the University of Alabama from the public lands in said State.April 23, 1884. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,University of Alabama. That forty-six thousand and eighty acres of the public lands in Alabama are hereby granted to the Increase of endowment from public lands, etc.State of Alabama, in addition to the lands reserved to said State by the acts approved April twentieth, eighteen hundred and eighteen, and March second, eighteen hundred and nineteen, for the benefit of the University of Alabama, to be applied, as far as may be necessary, 6 Stat., 350. 6 Stat., 383.to the erection of suitable buildings for said university and to the restoration of the library and scientific apparatus heretofore destroyed by tire, such application to be made in such manner as the legislature of said State may direct or may empower the trustees of said university *Proviso*.to direct: *Provided*, That the State of Alabama shall pay the expenses of agents appointed by the governor thereof to select such lands, to be reimbursed out of the proceeds of the sales thereof.
Sec. 2. Agents to select lands, &c. That the governor of Alabama may appoint one or more agents to select the lands granted in this aid from any public lands within said State not included in some subsisting grant made by the United States; and such agent shall make report of such selections to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior. Sec. 3. Homestead entries, etc., a prior claim. That the provisions of this act shall not apply to any legal subdivision of land to which the right of homestead entry or preemption shall have attached in favor of any person who is entitled to such homestead and pre-emption entries and who is occupying and claiming such subdivision of the public lands in Alabama at the time when such selections are approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
And in cases where it is found that such claims are superior to the rights of the State Stare to select other lands.of Alabama herein granted, the said State may select other lands in lieu thereof, and in like quantity, elsewhere in the said State, from the public lands of the United States, so as to make up, as nearly as may be, the total number of acres of land granted in this act to said State. Sec. 4. Title to vest in State, when, for benefit of University of Alabama. That when the selection of said lands are so made, and are approved by the Secretary of the Interior, the title to the same shall vest in t he State of Alabama, to and for the use and benefit of said University of Alabama, to be applied first to the uses and purposes declared in the first section of this act and then to the endowment of said university, and to no other purpose whatever; and patents shall issue to said State for the lands so selected and approved.
And the State of Alabama shall by law direct the sale of such lands, and the money arising from such sales shall be paid into the treasury of the State of Alabama; but no expenses that may he incurred in making such sales, after the selections of lands made under this act are confirmed by the Secretary of the Interior and are entered on the township maps of the proper land-offices, shall be paid by the United States. Sec. 5. Secretary of Interior to carry provisions of act into effect.
That the Secretary of the Interior is empowered to make all needful and proper regulations and rules for carrying this act into effect, and for the decision of all questions that may arise as to tire right of the State of Alabama to any lands that may be claimed under the provisions of this act. Approved, April 23, 1884.