Chapter 1513. For the relief of the Mission of Saint James, in the State of Washington
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CHAP. 1513.— An Act For the relief of the Mission of Saint James, in the State of Washington. March 3, 1905.[[H. R. 1520](/us/bill/58/hr/1520).][[Private, No. 1275](/us/pvtl/58/1275).] Whereas Congress, in the Act entitled “An act to establish the Preamble.Territorial government of Oregon,” approved on the fourteenth of August, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, provided “that the title to Vol. 9, p. 323.the land, not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, now occupied as missionary stations among the Indian tribes in said Territory, together with the improvements thereon, be confirmed and established in the several religious societies to which said missionary societies, respectively, belong,” and by the Act entitled “An Act to establish the Vol. 10, p. 173.Territorial government of Washington,” approved on the second of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, provided “that the title to the land, not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, now occupied as missionary stations among the Indian tribes in said Territory, or that may have been so occupied as missionary stations prior to the passage of the Act establishing the Territorial government of Oregon, together with the improvements thereon, be, and is hereby, confirmed and established to the several religious societies to which said missionary societies, respectively, belong;” and Whereas the Secretary of the Interior, under date of January twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, after reviewing the testimony adduced and the law in the case, acknowledged the existence of a Catholic mission, known as the Mission of Saint James, at Vancouver, Territory of Washington, at the date of the passage of the Act of August fourteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, within the meaning and provision of the aforesaid Acts; and Whereas by order of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, dated September twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, there was made a survey of the said claim, and a plat thereof, dated December , eighteen hundred and sixty-one, approved by the surveyor-general of Washington Territory, was forwarded and is now on file in the General Land Office, such survey placing the mission improvements as near the center of the claim as possible, and interfering with no prior legal rights; and 2007 Whereas the Government of the United States having occupied a large portion of the said land for the purpose of a military post, and having expended a large amount of public money to establish and maintain a military reservation thereon, notwithstanding the fact that the Mission of Saint James claimed the title thereto, under the pro-visions of the Acts of Congress of August fourteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, and March second, eighteen hundred and fifty-three:
Therefore *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That there shall be paid, outMission of Saint James, Wash.Payment to. of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the Right Reverend Bishop of Nesqually, in the State of Washington, as trustee of the said Mission of Saint James, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars upon filing in the proper Department a release to the United States, to be approved by the Attorney-General, of all claim to the land embraced within the limits of the military reservation at Vancouver, in the State of Washington, and of all claim for damages for destruction of property on or near the said land by the United States troops or volunteers or Indians at any time anterior to the date of said release.
Approved, March 3, 1905.