D.

VOL V.-16

31,983,736

1,537,317

9,786,594

20,609,825

40,241,436

1,212,426

5.870,023

33,158,987

These quantities include private claims in the unsurveyed portion, which could not be estimated for want of the proper data. + Add for Indian titles, since extinguished, 200,080 acres. See letter annexed.

Since sold, to January 1, 1840.

Wisconsin,

WAR DEPARTMENT, Office of Indian Affairs, April 27th, 1840.

DEAR SIR,-In reply to your note of this date, I have the honor to state that, since September, 1838, and prior to January 1st, 1840, the Indian title to 200,080 acres of land was extinguished, viz. 177,000 acres in Indiana, by the treaty of November, 1838, with the Miamies; 40 acres in Michigan, by the treaty of February, 1839, with the Saginaw tribe of Chippewas; and 23,040 acres in Wisconsin: to which a fee-simple title was given to the Brothertown Indians by the act of the 3d of March, 1839.

Respectfully and truly yours,

T. HARTLEY CRAWFORD.

Hon. JOHN NORVELL, Senate of the United States.

MR. CALHOUN'S LAND BILL.

A Bill to cede the public lands within the limits of the new States, on certain conditions therein mentioned.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all the public lands within the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, with the exceptions of the sites of fortifications, navy and dock yards, arsenals, magazines, and all other public buildings, shall, after the thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and forty-two, be ceded to the States within the limits of which they are respectively situated, they having previously complied with the following conditions:

First. That the said States shall severally pass acts, to be irrevocable, that they will annually pay to the United

States [fifty] per cent. on the gross amount of the sales of such lands, including under sales, grants, and donations by the States, estimating the lands at the selling price at the time of the grant or donation, on or before the first day of February of each succeeding year.

Secondly. That the minimum price, as now fixed by law, shall remain unchanged until the thirtieth day of June, aforesaid; but after that period the price may be reduced by the States respectively, according to the following scale: all lands theretofore offered at public sale, and then remaining unsold ten years or upward, preceding the thirtieth day of June, aforesaid, may be reduced by said States to a price not less than one dollar per acre; and all lands that may have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold fifteen years or upward, preceding the said thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and forty-two, may thereafter be reduced by said States to a price not less than seventy-five cents per acre; and all lands that may have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold twenty years or upward, preceding the said thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and forty-two, may then be reduced by said States to a price not less than fifty cents per acre; and all lands that may have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold twenty-five years or upward, preceding the said thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and forty-two, may thereafter be reduced by said States to a price not less than twenty-five cents per acre; and all lands that may have been offered at public sale, and remaining unsold thirty years or upward, preceding the said thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and forty-two, shall be ceded immediately to the States in which said lands are situate: Provided, That all lands which shall remain unsold after having been offered at public sale for ten years, and which do not come under the above provisions, shall be subject to the provisions of graduation and cession aforesaid, at the respective periods of ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and thirty

years, after said sale, commencing from the expiration of ten years after the same had been offered at public sale.

Thirdly. That the lands shall be subject to the same legal subdivisions in the sale and survey as is now provided by law, reserving for each township the sixteenth section, or the substitute, as heretofore provided by law; and the land not yet offered for sale shall be first offered by the State at public auction, and be sold for cash only, in the manner now provided by law. And any land now or hereafter remaining unsold after the same shall have been offered for sale at public auction, shall be subject to entry for cash only, according to the graduation which may be fixed by the States respectively, under the provisions of this act; and that the acts of Congress which may be in force at the time of assenting to this act shall remain unchanged, except as modified by this act, unless with the assent of Congress.

Fourth. This cession, together with the portion of the sales to be retained by the States respectively, under the provisions of this act, shall be in full of the five per cent. fund. or any part thereof, not already accrued to any State; and the said States shall be exclusively liable for all charges that may hereafter arise from the surveys, sales, and management of the public lands, and extinguishment of Indian title, within the limits of said States respectively.

Fifth. That, on a failure to comply with any of the above conditions, or a violation of the same, on the part of any of the said States, the cession herein made to the State failing to comply with or violating said conditions, shall be thereby rendered null and void; and all grants or titles thereafter made by said State, for any portion of the public lands within the limits of the same, ceded by this act, shall be, and are hereby declared to be, null and void, and of no effect whatever.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, upon every reduction in the prices of said lands which shall take place by

the graduating process of this bill, the Legislatures of the several States in which the lands are situated shall, at their discretion, have power to grant to the respective occupants. or settlers upon any of said lands rights of pre-emption at such graduated or reduced prices; which rights shall extend to a period of ninety days from and after the dates at which the respective graduations shall take place; and any lands not taken up by the respective occupants or settlers within that period, shall be liable to be entered or purchased by any other person until the next graduation or reduction in price shall take place, when it shall, if not previously purchased, be again subject to the right of pre-emption for ninety days as before, and so on from time to time as said reductions shall take place.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That whenever the President of the United States shall be officially notified that any of the States aforesaid has passed an act in compliance with the above conditions, it shall be his duty, after the thirtieth day of June aforesaid, or forthwith after the passage of said act, if passed subsequent to that period, to adopt such measures as he shall think proper to close the land offices, including the surveying department, within the limits of said State; and that the commissions of all officers connected therewith shall expire on a day to be fixed by him, but which day shall not be beyond six months after the thirtieth day of June aforesaid, or, if subsequent thereto, from the day he received the official notification of the passage of said act.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That on such notification being made, the said State shall be relieved from all compacts, acts, or ordinances imposing restrictions on the right of said State to tax any lands by her authority subsequent to the sale thereof, ceded by this act; and all maps, titles, records, books, documents, and papers, in the General Land Office at Washington, relative to said lands, shall be