US Government Legislation and Statutes

Follow

• 

  1820, April 24, 03 Stat. 566, Act Making Further Provision for Sale of Public Land

  An act of the Sixteenth United States Congress, First Session, providing for the sale of public lands (public or private) in entire, half, quarter or half quarter sections (less than 160 acres) after July 1, 1820.

• 

  1841, September 4 - 5 Stat. 453 - Preemption Act of 1841

  The Preemption Act of 1841 provided that certain states were to be paid 10 percent on net proceeds of sales of public lands while establishing the requirements and procedures for obtaining 160 acres of public lands. Limitations and exceptions: No person was entitled to more than one pre-emptive right, no person who owned 320 acres in any State or Territory, and no person who quit or abandon his residence on his own land to reside on public land in the same State or Territory could acquire any right of pre-emption under the Act.

• 

  1842, July 27 - 05 Stat. 497, Bounty Land Claims for Military Service in war with Great Britain

  An Act to provide for satisfying claims for bounty lands for military service in the War of 1812. The terms prescribed for the warrants by the Secretary of the Department of war in "an act to allow further time to complete the issue and locating of military land warrants during the late war, " and "an act to extend the time of issuing military land warrants to officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary army, both approved January 27, 1835, were renewed and continued in force for five years; patent would issue in the name of personal originally entitled to the bounty land or his heirs or legal representatives.

• 

  1847, February 11 - 09 Stat. 123, Sec. 9, Act to raise for Limited Time Additional Military, Certificates of Warrant 160 Acres

  An act passed on February 11, 1847, by the Twenty-ninth U.S. Congress, Session II, which authorized the military of the United States under the direction of the President to raise and organize additional military forces during the war with Mexico. Further provided for the issuance of certificate or warrant from the war department for the quantity of one hundred and sixty acres to public lands. Option to receive a treasury script for $100 in lieu of certificate or warrant.

• 

  1850, September 28 - 09 Stat. 519 - Swamp Lands

  An act that enabled states to construct the necessary levees and drains to reclaim the swamp and overflowed lands unfit for cultivation. Lands were to be listed, plats made, and transmitted to the governor who could request that a patent to be issued to the State. Proceeds of from the sale or by direct appropriation were to be applied exclusively to the purpose of reclaiming said lands by means of levees and drains.

• 

  1850, September 28 - 09 Stat. 520 - Bounty Land

  The September 28, 1850 act granted Bounty Land to certain classes of persons in the military service of the United States during the War of 1812, the war with Mexico, or Indian wars; or their widows or minor children entitled to lands in proportion to certain periods of service. Those entitled to land under this act would receive a certificate from the Department of the Interior for land which was located at any land office of the United States.

• 

  1850, September 28 - 09 Stat. 521, Act Extending US Laws and Judicial System to California

  This act provided that all the laws of the United States that were not locally in applicable would have the same force and effect within the said State of California as elsewhere in the United States and that the State would have a northern and southern district. The act provided for the appointment, duties and compensation of various court officers.

• 

  1851, March 3 - 09 Stat. 631, Act to Settle Private Land Claims in California

  This Act enacted to ascertain and settle private land claims for land in the newly formed State of California, which land had been acquired by means of Spanish-Mexican land grants. The Act established a land commission consisting of three commissioners and an agent appointed by the President of the United States. The act set for procedures for claimants to present their claims. Patents were to be issued for lands when claims were confirmed. All claims confirmed were to be accurately surveyed. All lands for which claims were not established were to be taken as public lands. The commissioners were to report to the Secretary of Interior the tenure by which mission lands were held and those held by civilized Indians, and those who were engaged in agriculture or labor of any kind, and those that were occupied and cultivated by Pueblos or Rancheros Indians.

• 

  1852, March 22 - 10 Stat. 3, Act to Make Warrants Assignable

  An Act declaring that all warrants for military bounty lands were assignable so as to vest the assignee with all rights of the original owner of the warrant or location and were to be received for preemption payments. Any assignee entitled to preemption right to any land was entitled to use the land warrant. Extended the military bounty land act of September 28, 1850.

• 

  1853, March 3 - 10 Stat. 244, Act to Extend Preemption Rights to Public Land

  An Act that extended the preemption laws to alternate reserved sections of public lands along the lines of the railroads. No one person could have the right of preemption to more than 160 acres. Any person who settled on lands that had been reserved on account of claims under French, Spanish or other grants that had been declared by the Supreme Court of the United States to be invalid was entitled to all the rights of preemption after the lands were released from reservation.

• 

  1855, March 3 - 10 Stat. 701, Bounty Lands for Officers and Soldiers

  An Act that provided for additional grant of bounty lands to soldiers, sailors, etc. who had served in any wars the country had been engaged in since 1790 and that they were entitled to a certificate of warrant for 160 acres of land so long as they had not deserted or been dishonorably discharged. The widow and/or minor child or children were entitled to receive a certificate or warrant that the deceased person who have been entitled to receive. Certificates or warrants could be assigned or transferred. Sec. 7. All bounty land laws passed by Congress extended to Indians in the same manner and extent as if Indians had been white men.

• 

  1862, July 2 - 12 Stat. 503, Act Donating Public Land For Colleges

  An act donating Public Lands to provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and mechanic arts, an amount to be apportioned to each State a quantity equal to thirty-thousand acres for each senator and representative in under the census of 1860. No mineral lands were to be selected or purchase under this act. Moneys from sales of land to be invested, to constitute a perpetual fund, interest to be applied to support one college for agriculture and the mechanic arts. Set forth the conditions under which the grant of land and land scrip could be made.

• 

  1862, May 20 - 12 Stat. 392, Homestead Act

  Act provided that certain qualifying persons could be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands upon filing a preemption claim. Any person owning and residing on land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying contiguous to his or her land which shall not, with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate of 160 acres. Sets forth requirements to be met in order to receive certificates and patents. No individual could acquire title to more than one quarter section under the provisions of this act; existing preemption rights were not impaired.

• 

  1866, July 26 - 14 Stat. 251, Act Granting Right of Way to Ditch and Canal Owners over Public Land

  The Act declared that mineral lands were open to occupation by all United States citizens or those declaring intention to become citizens, subject to U.S. regulations and local customs or rules of miners in mining districts. Set forth procedures and process for obtaining patent. Sec. 10 provided that owners had vested and accrued rights to use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing or other purposes and that those rights would be maintained and protected and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for those purposes was acknowledged and confirmed.

• 

  1866, July 27 - 14 Stat. 292, Railroad and Telegraph Line Lands Act

  The Act authorized the creation of a corporation, Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, empowered to lay out, locate, and construct a continuous railroad and telegraph lines from Missouri and Arkansas to the Pacific Coast. The right of way through public lands was granted to the corporation for the construction of a railroad and telegraph with the right, power and authority to take from the public lands adjacent to the road, earth, stone and timber for construction. Indian title to lands falling under this act would be extinguished only by their voluntary cession. Public lands, not mineral designated, were granted to the corporation to aid in the construction of the railroad and telegraph. Provisions of pre-emption and homestead acts were extended to lands on line of road. Company could take any land necessary for working of road. Set forth payment and procedures for taking land.

• 

  1870, July 9 - 16 Stat. 217, Act to Amend "An Act Granting the Right of Way to Ditch and Canal Owners Over the Public Lands"

  This Act amending Statute at Large, 14 Stat. 251, July 26, 1866, granting right of way to ditch and canal owners over public land, set forth the law pertaining to placer claims and reconfirming the rights conferred under sections five, eight and nine of the 1866 act. Also extended the act to all public lands affected by the act, all patents granted, or pre-emption or homesteads noting they were subject to any vested or accrued water rights as had been acquired under or recognized by the ninth section of the 1866 act.

• 

  1872, April 4 - 17 Stat. 49, Act to enable Soldiers-Sailors and Heirs to Acquire Homesteads on Public Lands

  The 1872 Act provided that every private soldier and officer who served in the army, seaman, marine and officer who served in the navy or marine corps during the rebellion for ninety days or more and was honorably discharged and remained loyal to the government was entitled to enter upon and receive patents for public lands (not mineral) not exceeding 160 acres or one quarter-section. Widows and orphan children of those entitled to a homestead under the act could enjoy its benefits. Actual service in army or navy was deemed equivalent to a residence for the same time upon the tract entered as a homestead.

• 

  1873, March 3 - 17 Stat. 605 - Amend Homestead Act to Allow Less than 160 Acres

  The Act amended section two of the June 8, 1872 Homestead Act to provide that persons entitled to a homestead, who had previously entered under the homestead laws a quantity less than 160 acres, would be permitted to make up the difference not to exceed 160 acres.

• 

  1875 - Revised Statutes of the United States Relating to Mineral Lands and Mining Resources, Walter A. Skidmore

  The book consists of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to mineral lands and mining resources including circular instructions of the General Land Office, a Digest of Decisions of the Department of Interior and the Opinions of the Attorneys-Generals, along with an appendix of Special Statutes relating to mining, chapters on Water Rights in California and Mineral lands on schools sections in California. The Sutro Tunnel Act and Extracts from Railroad Act make up the final chapters.

  The chapter on Water Rights from the Civil Code of California, was inserted with the belief that it was the best expression of the custom or common law of the Pacific Coast as to the appropriation of water.

• 

  1877, March 3 - 19 Stat. 377, Act for Sale of Desert Lands

  The Act provided that desert land could be purchased for $.25 per acre upon the filing of a declaration indicating that the purchaser intended to reclaim a tract of desert land not exceeding one section by conducting water upon the same within a period of three years. The right to the use of water on or to any tract of desert land of six hundred and forty acres depended on a bona fide prior appropriation. Such right could not exceed the amount of water actually appropriated and necessarily used for the purpose of irrigation and reclamation. All surplus water over and above actual appropriation and use, together with water of all lakes, rivers and other sources of water supply upon the public lands and not navigable, were to remain and be held free for the appropriation and use of the public for irrigation, mining and manufacturing purposes subject to existing rights. No person permitted to enter more than one tract of land not to exceed 640 acres in compact form.

• 

  1880, Laws of the United States of Local or Temporary in Character, Volume I

  This December 1, 1880, Volume I, publication prepared by the Codification Committee of the Public Land Commission contains in chronological order, in each State and Territory connected at any time with the public land system, the entire legislation of Congress of a local or temporary character, and upon which the land titles of such State or Territory depended. It contains a digest of all Indian Treaties affecting the titles to public lands; a list of all existing military reservations, with the authority therefor and the boundaries thereof. It contains a Table of Judicial and Executive Decisions affecting the various subjects arising under the public land system.

• 

  1880, Laws of the United States of Local or Temporary in Character, Volume II

  This December 1, 1880, Volume II, publication prepared by the Codification Committee of the Public Land Commission contains in chronological order, in each State and Territory connected at any time with the public land system, the entire legislation of Congress of a local or temporary character, and upon which the land titles of such State or Territory depended. It contains a digest of all Indian Treaties affecting the titles to public lands; a list of all existing military reservations, with the authority therefor and the boundaries thereof. It contains a Table of Judicial and Executive Decisions affecting the various subjects arising under the public land system.

• 

  1880, The Existing Laws of the United States relating to the Survey and Disposition of the Public Domain

  This December 1, 1880, publication sets forth each general subject of legislation in separate chapters with complete references given to the antecedent legislation upon the same subject. Each chapter contains copious citations of all decisions regarding decisions by the Federal courts, the supreme courts of several public-land States and Territories, the Department of Justice, the Secretary of Interior ,and the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

• 

  1880, The Public Domain, Its History with Statistics

  Prepared by Thomas Donaldson, member of the Public Land Commission's Committee on Codification, this publication containing 33 chapters, gives the origin, growth and disposition of the lands in the public domain, tracing several systems from their origin, and providing full statistics of operations under and the results of several acts for the sale and disposition of public lands up to June 30, 1880.

• 

  1883 - Public Land Laws Passed by Congress from March 4,1875, to April 1, 1882, with the Important Decisions of the Secretary of the Interior, and Commissioner of the General Land Office, the Land Opinions of the Attorney General, and the Circular Instructions Issued

  An 1883 publication designed to show the development of the public land system from 1875 to 1882, presenting a repository of the important decisions of the General Land Office as well as opinions of the U.S. Attorney General and instructions to the surveyors general, registers and receivers.