SALES OF PUBLIC LANDS Cross references: See "Abandoned Military Reservations," p. 1; "Color of Title and Preference Right Claims," p. 87; "Isolated Tracts," p. 297; “Timber and Stone Lands," p. 707; "Town Sites," p. 725; "Withdrawals and Restorations," p. 773. NOTE.-Sections 2353-2356, 2358-2360, 2364-2365, Revised Statutes, are obsolete as to all practical intent and purposes, and have been omitted from this compilation. See United States Code, Supplement III, title 43, sections 672-674, 676–677, 683–685, 687. See also H. R. 10198, Seventy-first Congress, second session, entitled "An Act to repeal obsolete statutes, and to improve the United States Code."-EDITOR. $1.25 per acre. SEC. 2357, R. S. The price at which the public lands Price of lands are offered for sale shall be one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre; and at every public sale, the highest bidder who makes payment as provided in the preceding section shall be the purchaser; but no land shall be sold, either at public or private sale, for a less price than one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre; and all the public lands which are hereafter offered at public sale according to law, and remain unsold at the close of such public sales, shall be subject to be sold at private sale,' by entry at the land office, at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, to be paid at the time of making such entry: Provided, That the price to be paid for alternate reserved lands along the line of railroads within the limits granted by any Act of Congress shall be two dollars and fifty cents per acre.2 (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 678.) * * * * * SEC. 2361, R. S. Where two or more persons have become purchasers of a section or fractional section, the register of the land office of the district in which the lands lie shall, on application of the parties, and a surrender of the original certificate, issue separate certificates, of the same date with the original, to each of the purchasers, or their assignees, in conformity with the division agreed on by them; but in no case shall the fractions so purchased be divided by other than north and south, or east and west, lines; nor shall any certificate issue for less than eighty acres. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 688.) * * * * SEC. 2369, R. S. In every case of a purchaser of public lands, at private sale, having entered at the land office, 1 See sec. 1 of the act of Mar. 2, 1889 (25 Stat. 854), p. 633, which declares that after the passage of that act "no public lands of the United States, except those in the State of Missouri, shall be subject to private entry. Public sales, with certain exceptions, were discontinued by sec. 9 of the act of Mar. 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1095. 1099). See p. 634. 2 See sec. 3 of the act of June 15, 1880 (21 Stat. 237), p. 633. Several certificates issued to two or more purchasers of same section. Mistakes in entry of lands, provisions for. Mistakes in patent lands. Mistakes in loça a tract different from that he intended to purchase, and being desirous of having the error in his entry corrected. he shall make his application for that purpose to the register of the land office; and if it appears from testimony satisfactory to the register and receiver, that an error in the entry has been made, and that the same was occasioned by original incorrect marks made by the surveyor, or by the obliteration or change of the original marks and numbers at corners of the tract of land; or that it has in any otherwise arisen from mistake or error of the surveyor, or officers of the land office, the register and receiver shall report the case, with the testimony, and their opinion thereon, to the Secretary of the Interior, who is authorized to direct that the purchaser is at liberty to withdraw the entry so erroneously made, and that the moneys which have been paid shall be applied in the purchase of other lands in the same district, or credited in the payment for other lands which have been purchased at the same office. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 693.) SEC. 2370, R. S. The provisions of the preceding section are declared to extend to all cases where patents have issued or may hereafter issue; upon condition, however, that the party concerned surrenders his patent to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with a relinquishment of title thereon, executed in a form to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 694.) SEC. 2371, R. S. The provisions of the two preceding tion of warrants. sections are made applicable in all respects to errors in the location of land warrants. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 695.) Agreement and prevent bids; penalty. SEC. 2373, R. S. Every person who, before or at the acts intended to time of the public sale of any of the lands of the United States, bargains, contracts, or agrees, or attempts to bargain, contract, or agree with any other person, that the last-named person shall not bid upon or purchase the land so offered for sale, or any parcel thereof, or who by intimidation, combination, or unfair management, hinders, or prevents, or attempts to hinder or prevent, any person from bidding upon or purchasing any tract of land so offered for sale, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. (U. S. C., title 18, sec. 113.) Agreements to pay premiums public sales. SEC. 2374, R. S. If any person before, or at the time to purchasers at of the public sale of any of the lands of the United States, enters into any contract, bargain, agreement, or secret understanding with any other person, proposing to purchase such land, to pay or give to such purchasers for such land a sum of money or other article of property, over and above the price at which the land is bid off by such purchasers. every such contract, bargain, agree ment, or secret understanding, and every bond, obligation, or writing of any kind whatsoever, founded upon or growing out of the same, shall be utterly null and void. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 696.) premiums paid SEC. 2375, R. S. Every person being a party to such Recovery of contract, bargain, agreement, or secret understanding, chasers at who pays to such purchaser any sum of money or other public sales. article of value, over and above the purchase money of such land, may sue for and recover such excess from such purchaser in any court having jurisdiction of the same. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 698.) pay premium SEC. 2376, R. S. If the party aggrieved have no legal Discovery of evidence of such contract, bargain, agreement, or secret agreements to understanding, or of the payment of the excess, he may, by bill in equity. by bill in equity, compel such purchaser to make discovery thereof; and if in such case the complainant shall ask for relief, the court in which the bill is pending may proceed to final decree between the parties to the same; but every such suit either in law or equity shall be commenced within six years next after the sale of such land by the United States. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 699.) An Act Relating to the public lands of the United States alternate sections. duced to $1.25 SEC. 3. That the price of lands now subject to entry Price of lands in which were raised to two dollars and fifty cents per acre, granted railroad and put in market prior to January, eighteen hundred companies reand sixty-one, by reason of the grant of alternate sec- per acre. tions for railroad purposes, is hereby reduced to one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 679.) provisions of act. SEC. 4. This Act shall not apply to any of the mineral Mineral lands lands of the United States; and no person who shall be excepted from prosecuted for or proceeded against on account of any trespass committed or material taken from any of the public lands after March first, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, shall be entitled to the benefit thereof. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 680.) Approved, June 15, 1880 (21 Stat. 237). An Act To withdraw certain public lands from private entry, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this Act no withdrawal of public lands of the United States, except those in the lands from priState of Missouri, shall be subject to private entry. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 700.) vate entry. railroad lands. SEC. 4. That the price of all sections and parts of sec- Price of forfeited tions of the public lands within the limits of the portions of the several grants of lands to aid in the construction Public lands not to be sold at public sale. Indian agreements not changed. Distinction be tween offered and unoffered lands abolished. of railroads which have been heretofore and which may hereafter be forfeited, which were by the Act making such grants or have since been increased to the double minimum price, and, also, of all lands within the limits of any such railroad grant, but not embraced in such grant lying adjacent to and coterminous with the portions of the line of any such railroad which shall not be completed at the date of this Act, is hereby fixed at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. (U. S. C., title 43, sec. 681.) An Act To repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes SEC. 9. That hereafter no public lands of the United States, except abandoned military or other reservations, isolated and disconnected fractional tracts authorized to be sold by section twenty-four hundred and fifty-five of the Revised Statutes, and mineral and other lands the sale of which at public auction has been authorized by Acts of Congress of a special nature having local application, shall be sold at public sale. (U. S. C., title 43. sec. 671.) SEC. 10. That nothing in this Act shall change, repeal, or modify any agreements or treaties made with any Indian tribes for the disposal of their lands, or of land ceded to the United States to be disposed of for the benefit of such tribes, and the proceeds thereof to be placed in the Treasury of the United States; and the disposition of such lands shall continue in accordance with the provisions of such treaties or agreements, except as provided in section 5 of this Act. (U. S. C., title 25, sec. 426.) Approved, March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1095, 1099). An Act To abolish the distinction between offered and unoffered lands, and for other purposes 3 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in cases arising from and after the passage of this Act the distinction now obtaining in the statutes between offered and unoffered lands shall no longer be made in passing upon subsisting preemption claims, in disposing of the public lands under the homestead laws, and under the timber and stone law of June third, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, as extended by the act of August fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, but in all such cases hereafter arising the See title "Preemptions," p. 391 (footnote). |