Summary and Classification of Functions.

It has already been remarked above, that in arranging this abstract of the operations of the General Land Office under the appropriate heads of the official organization partly adopted by the act of the 4th July, 1836, and partly by the special distribution of certain details by the Commissioner, there has occurred an unavoidable display of repetitions both in words and in substance. As an apology for those repetitions recurring to a considerable extent in this summary and classification of functions, made in pursuance of the legal and official designations combined, it is proper further to remark, that were the details of those functions brought together and grouped in this recital according to their affinities only, it would amount to the suggestion of an organization in many respects variant from that which already exists by the said authority of law and official designation. Where no classification exists, it has been deemed a fair license of arrangement to suggest one, by a corresponding disposition of the functions detailed. But where any classification, however incongruous in some respects, and superfluous or redundant in others, actually exists, there is no adequate license of arrangement to justify a departure from it, except it be by way of showing the alternative and more harmonious classification of which the details are susceptible. Under this explanation, I had contemplated to present in its proper place below, such a classification as has suggested itself to my mind whilst compiling this chapter; but, upon further reflection, finding it more consonant with a "Review of the Organization of all the Executive Departments," I have reserved it for a place there, where it will serve to show, (among other obvious suggestions,) that the intrinsic attributes of the General Land Office fairly claim to constitute it a distinct department, and entitle it to be styled the "Department of Public Domain," and take due rank among the other great departments of the government. These inherent attributes, as herein presently recited under the respective bureaus and sub-divisions of the office, will, for the present, render it sufficiently manifest, that there is a far greater complication of provinces or classes of functions to be performed in this office, than there is in several of the great departments. And though recent legislation (the act of the 12th June, 1844) has deprived the office of one of the bureaus established by the reorganization act of 1836, by abolishing the office of Solicitor, yet the important judicial functions that were assigned to that officer by the latter act, have still to be performed, incidentally, by participation among several other bureaus-though perhaps not exactly as was contemplated by the act abolishing the Solicitor's office. By contrasting the judicial functions that were assigned to the Solicitor by the 3d section of the act of 1836, with the judicial portions of duties now performed by several other bureaus as herein presently recited, it will be perceived that although the act of the 12th June, 1844, abolishing the Solicitor's office, directed that all the duties heretofore by law required to be performed by the said Solictor, shall hereafter be performed by the Recorder, or by such other person or persons employed in the General Land Office, as the Commissioner may from time to time direct, yet the said duties are distributed or dispensed among the said other bureaus, and that no portion of such jurisdiction is assigned to or discharged by the Recorder. Thus, whilst the Recorder receives a much higher salary than a principal clerk of either of the other bureaus, and has little or nothing to do but countersign patents, which gives him no more discretion than is given to the signer of patents in the name of the President, the very onerous and responsible judicial discretion is devolved on these other bureaus, in addition to the ministerial details of their proper branches of duty.

Under the act of 4th July, 1836, re-organizing the General Land Office, besides the Commissioner himself and the Recorder-the chief clerk or the "principal clerk of public lands," the "principal clerk of surveys," and the "principal clerk of private land claims," are commissioned officers, appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The principal clerks in charge of other divisions and sub-divisions of the General Land Office are not commissioned officers; but, though not recognized by law as principal clerks, being putatively included in the bureaus of the principal clerk of public lands-yet the high responsibility of the judicial functions they are called on to discharge, constitutes their office of a high grade, and therefore, as well as for the sake of uniformity, they are necessarily so designated and characterized, in the descriptions presently given of the duties they perform. The respective functions of the aforesaid officers, and the duties performed under their respective supervisions, may be classified and described as follows, viz:

1. BUREAU OF PRINCIPAL CLERK OF PUBLIC LANDS. The principal clerk of public lands (formerly called the chief clerk of General Land Office) is charged with duties more or less of a general and of a special character. Those of a general character relate to, or have connection with the multifarious duties and functions of the whole office, in all its various branches; and in case of the temporary absence, or the death of the commissioner, it is his duty to act as commissioner ad interim. His duties of a more specific character may be described, as follows, viz: 1st. He superintends the correspondence with the registers. and receivers of the several land offices, in relation to their bonds, the transmission of their commissions, the getting into operation all new land offices, and the winding up of old ones, and the technical preliminaries of bringing new lands into market, and the furnishing of registers and receivers with the necessary books and blanks for the operations of their respective districts. 2d. He distributes the monthly and quarterly returns of registers and receivers amongst the different sub-divisions of the bureau of accounting, and superintends the progress of the examination and adjustment of the same by the account

ants and book-keepers, including the correspondence connected therewith. 3d. He also superintends that portion of the correspondence with Surveyors General, with individuals, and with the Executive Departments, which is not properly referable to any of the other bureaus or specific branches of the office. 4th. He superintends all matters connected with the reservation of live oak lands for naval purposes, with the Tombeck bee association lands, with the selection of school lands under special provisions of law, and all proceedings under the joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress in relation to vacant lands in the District of Columbia. 5th. He superintends the preparation of reports on various subjects connected with the public lands under special calls of the two Houses of Congress, and their committees, or of the Executive, and makes drafts of bills in relation to public lands by request of committees. 6th. He superintends the preparation of circular letters of instruction to registers and receivers. 7th. He superintends all printing done for the office, together with the due arrangement of the archives of the office in relation to public lands, and attends to the police of the establishment generally. 8th. All letters received in the General Land Office are registered and distributed, and letters sent out are recorded and properly indexed in his superintendency. For practical illustration, see the subjoined “Tables of Details," (A) Instructions, I. 1 to 11, in part; (C) Reports, II. 4; (D) Books, I. 1 to 13.

2. Bureau of PRINCIPAL CLERK OF SURVEYS. The principal clerk of surveys is charged with duties (as his style of office implies) specially confined to matters connected with the survey of public landsincluding, nevertheless, such other duties as the commissioner may assign to him, not referable to other bureaus. 1st. He superintends the preparation and issue of all letters and instructions to Surveyors General for making new surveys, and for correcting old surveys and plots. 2d. He has charge, jointly with the principal clerk of public lands, of all questions in relation to the change of boundaries of land districts, and the formation of new districts. 3d. He superintends the functions of the draughtsmen engaged in the office in constructing maps and plots, &c. 4th. He prepares the estimates for the appropriations for surveys, and the requisitions issued by the commissioner on the Secretary of the Treasury for the advances of sumns appropriated for those surveys. 5th. He superintends the adjustment of the surveying accounts of deputy surveyors, by comparing them with the contract, entered into by Surveyors General with the deputies of their district, correcting over charges and other errors, and reports the settlements quarterly to the First Comptroller for revision. 6th. He regulates, from time to time, the employment of clerks, draughtsmen, and deputy surveyors and their chain carriers and markers, as connected with the offices of Surveyors General in preparing new lands for market, and regulates the expenditures of appropriations for those objects. 7th. He receives and makes informal or administrative examination of the salary accounts of Surveyors General and their clerks, with the contingent expenses of their office, before transmitting them to the First Auditor for settlement, with proper information to enable him to report to the First Comptroller, as to the appropriation out of which the respective amounts should be paid. 8th. He prepares reports for the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the President of the United States respecting surveys. 9th. He prepares letters and reports for the commissioner to the Secretary of the Treasury, to the Secretary of War, to members and committees of both Houses of Congress, relative to surveys, (including the draught of bills by request)—many of which letters and reports involve titles acquired or supposed to have been acquired by entire communities under the surveying and other existing laws, while some relate to new points raised for the first time, the decisions of which have an important bearing upon the whole public domain. 9th. In addition to these duties, (under that clause of the act which says the principal clerk of surveys shall perform such other duties as shall be assigned to him by the commissioner,) various other duties, such as the mineral explorations, the laying off towns in Iowa, and other matters of equal importance, are assigned to him. For practical illustration, see the subjoined " Tables of Details," (A) Instructions, 1. 1 to 11, in part: (B) Returns, 1. 1 to 5: (C) Reports, I. 7: (D) Books, 11. 1 to 8.

3. BUREAU OF PRINCIPAL CLERK OF PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS. The principal clerk of private land claims is charged with not only the investigation of all private land claims, (as those are usually termed by way of pre-eminence, which arise out of foreign treaties,) and the execution of the laws connected therewith; but, also, with the examination of questions connected with Indian reservations, and exchanges of lands, under various Indian treaties; and sundry official proceedings arising out of special grants of land by Congress: 1st. He investigates the validity of all private land claims which are derived, either from the French, Spanish, British, or American governments; and ascertains whether they are confirmed or not by the various confirmatory laws; and, upon due examination and research in regard to all conflicting interests that may occur between any such claims under the numerous laws relating thereto, he reports the result to the commissioner. 2d. He prepares orders for the survey of the lands involved in the claims allowed, if necessary-though the surveys are generally made in the due course of public surveys. 3d. He examines these surveys, and determines whether the surveys and locations are made in conformity to the original concession, or other evidences of title. 4th. He prepares the forms of the patents to be

issued for such claims, describing, in most instances, the courses and lengths of the lines of the different surveys, and superintends the engrossing, recording, and transmission of said patents. 5th. He superintends the preparation of the patents for all the reservations of lands under the various Indian treaties which require patents to be issued, after he has made preparatory examination respecting the location, and the approval (by the President) of such reserves before issuing the patents. 6th. He also has charge of the preparation of the patents for all grants made by special legislative enactments, to bodies corporate, to States and territories, and to individuals in consideration of meritorious services, &c. 7th. He superintends all the correspondence arising in relation to the three aforesaid classes of private claims, Indian reserves, and special grants of Congress; and likewise in reference to unconfirmed claims. 8th. It is his duty, under the direction of the commissioner, to prepare REPORTS in answer to calls from Congress, or the committees of either House in relation to these claims; and when the opinion of the commissioner is required to be submitted to Congress touching the validity of any of those claims, as in the cases under the 2d section of the act of the 6th of February, 1835, "for the final adjustment of claims to lands in the State of Louisiana," it is the duty of the principal clerk of this bureau to examine all the papers in support of such clairns, (in many of which cases the papers are in the original French and Spanish languages,) and report thereon to the commissioner. 9th. By virtue of the act of 1836, reorganizing the General Land Office, the principal clerk of private land claims, is, in the absence of the recorder, constituted the acting recorder, or recorder ad interim, to countersign patents, and perform all the other duties of the recorder for the time being. Superadded to these complicated duties, the chief clerk of private land claims is charged with the immediate superintendence of the whole Chickasaw business relating to the disposition of their lands under the treaties of 1832 and 1834-in discharge of which he takes it from the first inception of official action thereon under those treaties, and conducts it through all the intermediate stages to its consummation in accounts of sales and the issuing of patents therefor, and for the reservations, executing the same somewhat in the following order: 1st. His attention is first directed to the conduct and completion of Chickasaw surveys. 2d. He opens the Chickasaw ledger or tract book, and enters therein the quantities of lands surveyed, with their proper sub-divisions-noting at the same time the dates of proclamations of sales, and when offered for sale, as also the various reservations from sale, which may be reported from the War Department, as approved by the President. 3d. He receives the returns of the register and receiver, and posts all the sales in the tract book, examines and tests their correctness, and registers the certificates of purchase. 4th. He adjusts the accounts of the receiver, and makes a report on them to the First Comptroller for his revision. 5th. He prepares, engrosses, and records the patents for all sales and reservations of the said lands, and hands them over to the recorder's division, for countersigning and affixing the seal of office, after having received the signature of the Secretary for signing patents in behalf of the President, and then transmits the patents for delivery. 6th. He also conducts the correspondence in relation to Chickasaw business, and prepares statements thereof for the commissioner to communicate to the Secretary of the Treasury, in connection with his annual or occasional reports to Congress. For practical illustration, see the subjoined "Tables of Details," (A) Instructions, II. 1 to 17: (B) Returns 1. 1. 2. (so far as they relate to Chickasaw land surveys,) 11. 1. 2. (so far as they relate to Chickasaw land sales): (C) Reports, I. 6: (D) Books, III. 1 to 21. 4. BUREAU OF MILITARY BOUNTY LANDS. The clerk who superintends the business of the General Land Office growing out of the reservation and disposition of military bounty lands, is not a commissioned officer, as the foregoing are, though his duties are arduous and highly responsible, as will be seen in the sequel. The original reservations of the United States military bounty lands, and the Virginia military bounty lands were located in Ohio. The Virginia military bounty lands, in conformity with the deed of cession from Virginia to the United States, of the 1st of March, 1784, were located between the Little Miami, and the Scioto rivers in Ohio. The stipulations made by the United States under the deed of cession from Virginia are yet in process of fulfilment, through the medium of the General Land Office, to whose agency these matters were committed by the act for its organization in the Treasury Department in 1812; and pursuant to those stipulations referred to, the government is still called on to grant patents to the officers and soldiers of the Virginia troops on the old continental establishment, or to their heirs, devisees, assigns, or other legal representatives, based on surveys made in virtue of warrants issued by Virginia, of lands lying between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers. A great amount of such warrants issued by Virginia to her officers and soldiers, sailors and marines, of the State line, as well as a large portion of warrants issued for services of her continental line troops have, pursuant to legal provisions of modern date, been commuted into, and satisfied by scrip;" which scrip was made receivable in payment for public lands subject to sale by private entry at the various land offices in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with certain restrictions. All the examinations of TITLE, and the correspondence connected with the preparation of the papers whereon such "scrip" was deemed to be issueable by the head of the Treasury Department, were duties which devolved exclusively on the General Land Office from the date of its organization, and have been confided to this division or bureau. Those proceedings involved neces

sarily a vast amount of labor, in the details of their execution, which may be described in the following order and first of the Virginia military bounty lands, viz: Ist. The clerk in charge of this bureau superintends the investigation of the title papers, and the various evidences of title to the surveys returned to the General Land Office for patents for Virginia bounty lands; and, when the evidence of title is well perfected, he makes out a regular abstract and connected chain of titles from the original claimant or warrantee, down to the patentee-which in many instances are very intricate and perplexing, involving almost every principle of ordinary occurrence of the common law, as well as the statutes of Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, the acts of Congress, and the resolutions and ordinances of the Continental Congress, in relation to those bounty land claims-such as the law of evidence, the law of descent in the different States where claimants reside, and laws relating to the powers and duties of administrators, executors, guardians, and agents; also, the decisions of the courts of those States, and of the United States, where any important principle has been settled in regard to these bounty clains; but where the evidence of title is found imperfect, another important duty arises, which is, to prepare letters advisory thereof to the claimants, pointing out the nature of their defects, and the manner of perfecting them, if they can be perfected. 2d. The clerk in charge of this bureau prepares the forms for the Virginia military land patents, (except those which are entered and purchased by scrip, which are patented as other lands purchased)-there being no blank forms for them on account of the great diversity in regard to their length, some requiring three times the number of words that others do, in consequence of the fact that many of the surveys are founded on several different warrants, and the patentee deriving his title from each original claimant or warrantee by a long chain of titles, each of which has to be carefully traced and inserted in the patent; and, moreover, some surveys are much longer than others, having from twenty to fifty calls, distances, and angles, whilst others have only from three to ten, which occurs from the circumstance that the locator or claimant is supposed to have the right to make his location in whatever shape and form he may think proper, which he accordingly makes in every diversified manner for the purpose of securing the best lands. 3d. The clerk in charge of this bureau also superintends the engrossing and the recording of the Virginia bounty land patents, and hands them over to receive the official seal preparatory to their transmission for delivery. 4th. He also superintends the duties connected with applications for scrip, keeps a fac-simile record of scrip issued, and notes thereon the dates of their cancellation. In regard to the United States military bounty lands for revolutionary services, his duties may be described, as follows: 1st. He prepares answers to calls for information by parties interested. 2. He prepares exemplifications of title papers, and of records of patents for such lands. 3d. He superintends the preparation of scrip for issue in satisfaction of such United States bounty land warrants as have not been located and patented in the United States military reservation, in consequence of that reservation having been totally exhausted, so far as these warrants are concerned, by the act of the 3d July, 1832, having made the unappropriated lands in this reservation, subject to entry and sale as other public lands. 4th. He preserves the records and title papers connected with those bounty land claims. 5th. He has charge of the duties relating to the grants of land appropriated for refugees from Canada and Nova Scotia, commonly called the refugee tract or reservation. 6th. He also prepares answers to calls from Congress for abstracts of scrip issued to satisfy Virginia and United States bounty land warrants, showing the names of assignees, &c. 7th. He furthermore superintends the arranging and endorsing scrip papers, which, in the pressure of business, has been omitted, or but imperfectly done. For practical illustration, see the subjoined "Tables of Details," (A) Instructions, III. 1 to 18, (rightfully, but takes no part): (D) Books, IV. 1 to 17; also, see remarks in the "Addenda" at the end of this chapter.

5. BUREAU OF LAND SALES, COMMONLY CALLED THE BUREAU OF ACCOUNTING and Book-KEEPING. In this bureau (of which there are several sub-divisions, each under the general supervision of the principal clerk of public lands) is transacted all the preliminary business of the General Land Office relating to the sales of public lands in all the States and territories having public lands within their limits. Being the depository of all the returns of sales and other transactions of the local or district land offices, together with accounts, monthly and quarterly, of receivers, it is the basis or source of all the business transacted in most of the other divisions, in relation to which, the returns from the registers and receivers pass first under the inspection of this division, as presently shown. The duties performed by each accountant in reference to the returns of the registers and receivers of the land districts whose accounts are assigned to his charge, may be thus enumerated and described: 1st. He opens the ledger or register of sales, commonly call the "tract book," and makes entries therein of the quantities of land surveyed in their minutest sub-divisions, enters the dates of the proclamations of their sale, and when offered for sale in the district to which the said tract book appertains, noting at the same time the private land claims, the reservations under various Indian treaties, the lands appropriate for school purposes, and any other reservations made prior to the commencement of sales, with many other particulars which are more exactly enumerated in the description of the "tract book" given under its appropriate head in the subjoined Tables of Details. 2d. On receiving the monthly returns of the registers and receivers of the lands sold in their respective

districts, the accountant proceeds to examine them, together with their accompanying documents, to ascertain if they are complete-consisting of certificates of purchase, receipts of the receiver, abstract of lands sold, register of receipts issued, and monthly account current, military bounty land script, and Choctaw scrip, with abstracts thereof, and abstracts of declaratory statements filed with the register by persons intending to present pre-emption claims. 3d. After a critical examination of the certificates of purchase, and the receipts therefor, with the certificates or scrip surrendered in payment for land, each of which he registers in the tract book, in its proper place, according to its description, the accountant hands over all those certificates of purchase which he finds to be regular and in a proper state for patenting, and suspends those in which clerical or other errors are detected, which he returns to the register of the district for correction, and conducts the correspondence in relation thereto-and he in like manner hands over the scrip surrendered for Virginia and United States revolutionary bounty lands; also late war bounty land certificates surrendered for land, and the scrip for Choctaw lands, with the certificates of location of the same to the proper bureaus for patenting. 4th. He receives the quarterly ACCOUNT CURRENT of receivers and late receivers of public moneys, examines and adjusts the same, and prepares reports on said accounts to the First Comptroller for revision, (including reports for suit against defaulting receivers when occasion requires,) together with statements of differences when they occur between the accounts as rendered by the receivers and the reports thereon, showing the items in which the differences exist-and he keeps a record of the said reports and statements of differences, and conducts the correspondence of the office in reference to the accounts of receivers and late receivers. 5th. He closes the accounts of old districts when abolished, and prepares for opening new districts with the proper books and forms, and transfers the list of lands unsold in the former, for sale in the latter. 6th. He makes statements for the commissioner to answer calls for information by Congress or committees of either house in relation to land sales, and the settlement of the accounts thereof under his charge; and he furnishes statements for the annual report of the commissioner to the Secretary of the Treasury to communicate to Congress respecting the yearly transactions of this, in common with those of the other divisions or bureaus of the General Land Office. 7th. He, also, (in common with the principal clerk of the miscellaneous bureau,) in the course of discharging certain portions of the duties abovementioned, devotes much of his attention to making examination of plots of surveys, circular instructions of the department, opinions of attorneys general, the laws of the United States, and of the several States where public lands are situated, together with the evidence of titles in certain cases. 8th. He finally transmits, after posting the returns of sales, to the pre-emption bureau for adjudication, all pre-emption cases, which, on mature investigation and approval, are returned to the respective divisions of this bureau to be registered and handed over through the hands of the miscellaneous bureau to the recorder's division for patenting.For practical illustration, see the subjoined "Tables of Details" (A) Instructions V. 1 to 23: (B) Returns, I. 1. 2; II. 1. 2; III. 1.; IV. 1.: (C) Reports, 1. 1 to 4; II. 2. 3: (D) Books, Vl. í to 18 (setts.)

6. BUREAU OF PRE-EMPTION CLAIMS. A very considerable portion of the business of the General Land Office grows out of its duties connected with the execution of the various laws granting "pre-emption rights or privileges to settlers on the public lands," the superintendence of which is assigned to the principal clerk of the pre-emption bureau. The existing pre-emption laws of more universal operation than others, are those bearing date of the 22d June, 1828, 1st June, 1840, and 4th September, 1841. The others, from the force of circumstances, are yet operative to greater or less extent. But, as a general rule, the final operation of all these laws in granting pre-emptions within any particular portion of the public domain, is determined by the proclamation and offering for sale at public auction, the townships of land in which such settlements or pre-emption claims are respectively situated-anterior to which sales, said claims must be presented and established to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the district-except, however, where hard cases occur, in consequence of being cut off by offering the townships for sale before the establishment of any particular pre-emption claims therein, relief is frequently afforded by special acts of Congress. The duties of the principal clerk in charge of this bureau may be described as follows: Ist. He receives direct from the several subdivisions of the bureau of sales, all certificates of pre-emption sales, (as likewise the declaratory statements of persons intending to prefer pre-emption claims transmitted from the different land offices,) and registers them: 2d. He also receives from the chief clerk or principal clerk of public lands, all letters addressed to the General Land Office on preemption business, and registers the same. 3d. He makes a critical examination of the said certificates of sale, with a view to ascertain their regularity and correctness according to the different provisions of law applicable to each pre-emption case, and returns to the proper sub-division of the bureau of sales, all those found to be regular and prepared for patenting, whilst he suspends those involved in doubt for further adjudication. 4th. He prepares all correspondence connected in any manner with pre-emption claims, whether with the claimants themselves, with the registers and receivers, or with the Secretary of