missioners to the state of Georgia, in part payment of the one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, stipulated to be paid by the articles of agreement and cession between the United States and the state of Georgia.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That if any person or persons, in pursuance of the act of the state of Georgia, of the thirteenth of February, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, or of any subsequent act, shall have taken, received, or withdrawn from the treasury of the state of Georgia, any sum or sums of money which had been paid or deposited as the consideration of the purchase of any of the aforesaid lands, which person or persons at the time of receiving or withdrawing said sum or sums of money as aforesaid, were not the bona fide claimants of the lands for the purchase of which said money had been paid or deposited: or if such person or persons had not, at the time the legal title vested in them, supposing the title of Georgia to have been valid, every such person or persons who shall have taken, received or withdrawn the money as aforesaid, shall be deemed and adjudged to have had and received the same to and for the use of the United States, and shall be and hereby are declared to be holden and liable to refund and pay to the United States, or to the treasury of the state of Georgia for the use of the United States, all such sum or sums of money so had and received as aforesaid, with legal interest from the time she or they so received the same. And the aforesaid commissioners shall be and they are hereby further authorized and directed to examine into and investigate all cases coming within the purview of this section, and to claim such sum or sums of money to be paid to the United States as to them shall appear just and reasonable, and in case of refusal to pay the same, to direct suits to be commenced for the recovery of the same, in such form and manner as shall be thought most advisable, making plaintiff or complainant, as they shall think best, either the United States, the claimants who shall have transferred to the United States their right of action against the aforesaid persons, or the state of Georgia as bailee of the money so taken, received, and withdrawn from the treasury of the said state: Provided, That if it should be thought advisable to institute the suits for the recovery of the moneys aforesaid in the name of the state of Georgia, or of its proper officers, the consent thereto from the proper authority of the state of Georgia shall be first had and obtained: And provided also, That the said suits shall be conducted at the proper expense of the United States.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is authorized to apply to the Governor of the State of Georgia, for all such vouchers and testimony within archives or treasury of the said state as may be necessary for carrying into effect the provisions of this act.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That whenever the legal estate in any of the said lands (supposing the said act of the Legislature of the State of Georgia of the seventh of January, seventeen hundred and ninety-five, had been valid and effectual) shall be vested in any person or persons who, at the time of the passing of this act, shall be under the age of twenty-one years, it shall be lawful for the guardian or guardians of such person or persons, appointed in pursuance of the laws of the respective states in which such person or persons shall reside, to execute for and in behalf of such person or persons, and deposit in the office of the Secretary of State of the United States the release, assignment, and power mentioned in the first section of this act; which said release, assignment, and power, so executed and deposited as aforesaid, are hereby declared to be good and effectual to all intents and purposes, and that in case of femes-covert claiming lands under the act, or pretended act of the state of Georgia aforesaid, passed the seventh of January, seventeen hundred

Proviso.

claim.

re

and ninety-five, it shall be lawful for the husband and wife to join in the execution of the release, assignment, and transfer mentioned in the first section of this act, and that such release, assignment, and transfer shall be good and effectual as to the interest of such wife: Provided, That the release, assignment, and transfer, executed as aforesaid, shall be acknowledged before a judge or justice of a court of record, and shall have the attestation of such judge or justice, certifying that, on the separate examination of the wife, she had acknowledged that she had freely and voluntarily executed the same.

Persons SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That if any person or persons fusing to comclaiming lands under the aforesaid act, or pretended act, of the state of promise to be barred from any Georgia, passed January seventh, seventeen hundred and ninety-five, shall neglect or refuse to compromise and make settlement of all such claim or claims, in conformity with the provisions of this act, the United States shall be, and hereby are declared to be, exonerated and discharged from all such claim or claims, and the same shall be forever barred; and no evidence of any such claim or claims shall be admitted to be pleaded or allowed to be given in evidence in any court whatever against any grant derived from the United States.

STATUTE II.

April 9, 1814.

STATUTE II. April 9, 1814. 1815, ch. 94. 1826, ch. 38. 1833, ch. 15. 1837, ch. 32.

Two districts formed; the first to be called the southern.

The second,

the northern district.

Terms of the

said court, where and

when holden.

Judge Tall

for the northern

APPROVED, March 31, 1814.

CHAP. XLVII.-An Act making Elizabeth city the port of entry and delivery for the district of Camden, in the State of North Carolina.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That from and after the first day of June next, the port of entry and delivery established by law at Plankbridge, on Sawyer's creek, for the district of Camden, in the state of North Carolina, shall be abolished, and the town of Elizabeth city, on Pasquotank river, shall be the port of entry and delivery for the said district; and the collector for the said district shall, from the said first day of June, keep his office at the town of Elizabeth city aforesaid. APPROVED, April 9, 1814.

CHAP. XLIX.-An Act for the better organization of the courts of the United
States within the State of New York.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, for the more convenient transaction of business in the courts of the United States within the state of New York, the said state shall be and the same is hereby divided into two districts, in manner following, to wit: the counties of Renssellaer, Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie and Delaware, together with all that part of the said state lying south of the said above mentioned counties, shall compose one district, to be called the southern district of New York; and all the remaining part of the said state shall compose another district, to be called the northern district of New York; and that the terms of the district court in the said southern district shall be held in the city of New York, at the several times at which they are now by law directed to be held in the said city; and that the terms of the said court in the said northern district shall be held at the several times and places at which they are now by law directed to be held in that part of the state of New York included in the said northern district, except that the term of the said court now holden at Geneva, shall hereafter be held at the village of Canandaigua.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That Matthias B. Tallmadge, one of madge assigned the district judges of the district of New York, be, and he is hereby assigned as the judge to hold the said district court in the said northern district of New York, and to do and perform all the duties appertaining to his office

and Judge Van Ness for the

southern district.

within the said northern district; and that William P. Van Ness, the remaining district judge of the district of New York, be, and he is hereby assigned as the judge to hold the said court in the said southern district of New York, and to do and perform all the duties appertaining to his said office within the said southern district. And it is hereby also made the Judge Van duty of the judge of the said southern district to hold the several district the court for courts hereinbefore directed to be holden in the said northern district, the northern district, in cerin case of the inability, on account of sickness or absence, of the said tain cases. Matthias B. Tallmadge to hold the same.

Noss to hold

Circuit court

the southern

Jurisdiction

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the circuit court of the United States shall be held in and for the said southern district of New York, to be held for at the city of New York, at the times and in the manner now directed district in New by law to be held in and for the district of New York; and that the dis- York. trict court in the said northern district of New York shall, besides the of northern disordinary jurisdiction of a district court, have jurisdiction of all causes, trict court. except of appeals and writs of error cognizable by law in a circuit court, and shall proceed therein in the same manner as a circuit court; and writs of error shall lie from decisions therein to the circuit court in the said southern district of New York, in the same manner as from other district courts to their respective circuit courts. APPROVED, April 9, 1814.

STATUTE II.

CHAP. LII.—An Act for the final adjustment of land titles in the State of Louis- April 12, 1814. iana and territory of Missouri.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person or persons, or the legal representatives of any person or persons claiming lands in the state of Louisiana, or the territory of Missouri, by virtue of any incomplete French or Spanish grant or concession, or any warrant or order of survey, which was granted prior to the twentieth of December, one thousand eight hundred and three, for lands lying within that part of the state of Louisiana which composed the late territory of Orleans, or which was granted for lands lying within the territory of Missouri, before the tenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and four, and where the claimant, or the person under whom he claims, were resident in the province of Louisiana at the respective times aforesaid, or at the time the said concession, warrant, or order of survey was granted, and whose claims have been filed with the proper register or recorder of land titles according to law, and are embraced in the report of the commissioners, or register, or recorder, for the district within which the lands claimed do lie, in every case where it shall appear by the said report of the commissioners, register, or recorder, that the concession, warrant, or order of survey, under which the claim is made, contains a special location, or had been actually located or surveyed within the late territory of Orleans before the twentieth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and three, or actually located or surveyed within the territory of Missouri, before the tenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and four, by a surveyor duly authorized by the government making such grant, such persons shall be, and they are hereby, confirmed in their claims: Provided, That no claim shall be confirmed by this section which shall have been adjudged by either of the boards of commissioners, or a register or receiver of public moneys, or a recorder acting as such, to be antedated or otherwise fraudulent: nor any one to claim a greater quantity of land than the number of acres contained in one league square; nor the claim of any person, in his own right, who has received, in his own right, a donation grant from the United States, in said state or territory: And provided also, That no confirmation made by this section shall affect the rights of any person claiming the VOL. III.-16 L

Act of April 29, 1816,

ch.

159.

Certain claimconfirmed

ants

in their titles or

claims.

Proviso.

Proviso.

Certain other claims confirmed.

Proviso.

The proper

registers of land corders of land titles to give the

offices and re

necessary certificates.

Made the duty

same lands or any part thereof, whose claim has been confirmed by a board of commissioners for ascertaining and adjusting claims to land in said state or territory, nor preclude a judicial decision between private claimants in such interfering claims.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That every person or persons claiming lands in the said state or territory, by right of donation under any former laws, whose claims are contained in the report of any of the boards of commissioners, or the report of the register and receiver of public moneys, or of the recorder of land titles, made or hereafter to be made under existing laws, and which claims shall appear by the said reports not to have been confirmed, merely because the tracts claimed were not inhabited on the twentieth of December, one thousand eight hundred and three, such person or persons shall be and they are hereby confirmed in their respective claims: Provided, That in every other respect such claims shall be embraced by the provisions, and conform to the limitations and restrictions, prescribed by former laws for granting the right of donations in the said state and territory.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the several registers of the land offices, and of the recorder of land titles in the state or territory aforesaid, with whom the claims in their respective districts have been entered, which are confirmed by this act, in all cases where the land has not been surveyed according to law, to make out, for the principal deputy surveyor of the district in which the land lies, an order of survey for each tract of land confirmed under this act, with a proper description of the tracts to be surveyed, wherein the quantity, locality, boundaries, and connexion, when practicable, with each other, and the tracts which have been heretofore confirmed, shall be stated; and on the return of the plat of survey, or where an order of survey is not necessary, the said register or recorder of land titles shall, on application for that purpose, make out for each claimant, entitled thereto by the provisions of this act, a certificate of confirmation, directed to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and if [it] shall appear to the satisfaction of said commissioner, that such certificate shall have been fairly obtained according to the true intent and meaning of this act, then and in that case patents shall be granted in like manner as is provided by law for the other lands of the United States. And the said register or recorder shall be entitled to receive from the person applying therefor, where he shall have previously issued an order of survey, for such order of survey and certificate, the sum of one dollar and fifty cents, and for each certificate without an order of survey, the sum of one dollar.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the of the principal principal deputy surveyor, on receiving an order of survey from the deputy surveyor to survey the register or recorder of land titles, and the surveying fees from the claimlands designated ant, which shall not exceed three dollars for every mile to be surveyed by the orders of and marked, to survey or cause to be surveyed, under the direction of survey. the surveyor general, or surveyor of the lands south of the state of Tennessee, the several tracts of land confirmed by this act; and the said principal deputy surveyor shall make return of the surveys in separate plats to the register or recorder of the district within which the land lies, and also transmit to the surveyor general, or surveyor of the lands south of the state of Tennessee, as the case may be, a plat or plats of the surveys directed to be made by this section, who shall respectively transmit copies thereof to the commissioner of the General Land Office.

Actual settlers entitled to pre-emption.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That every person, and the legal the representatives of every person, who has actually inhabited and cultivated a tract of land lying in that part of the state of Louisiana which composed the late territory of Orleans, or in the territory of Missouri, which tract is not rightfully claimed by any other person, and who shall not

have removed from said state or territory, shall be entitled to the right of pre-emption in the purchase thereof, under the same restrictions, conditions, provisions and regulations, in every respect as is directed by the act, entitled "An act giving the right of pre-emption in the purchase of lands, to certain settlers in the Illinois territory," passed February fifth, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen.

APPROVED, April 12, 1814.

Act of Feb. 5,

1813, ch. 20.

STATUTE II.

CHAP. LVI.-An Act to repeal an act, entitled "An act laying an embargo on all April 14, 1814. ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of the United States," and so much of any act or acts as prohibit the importation of goods, wares and merchandise of the growth, produce, or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, or of any of the colonies or dependencies thereof, or of any place or country in the actual possession of Great Britain.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act, entitled "An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of the United States," passed on the seventeenth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, be, and the same is hereby repealed: Provided, That all penalties and forfeitures which have been incurred under the said act, shall be recovered and distributed, and may be mitigated or remitted, in like manner as if the said act had continued in full force and virtue.

Repealing clause.

Act of Dec.

17, 1813, ch. 1.

Proviso.

Proviso.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That so much of any act or acts as Repeal of non. prohibits the importation of goods, wares or merchandise, of the growth, importation acts. produce, or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, or of any of the colonies or dependencies thereof, or of any place or country in the actual possession of Great Britain, and so much of any act or acts as prohibits importation into the United States or the territories thereof, in neutral ships or vessels, from any port or place situated in Great Britain or Ireland, or in any of the colonies or dependencies of Great Britain, be, and the same is hereby repealed: Provided, That all fines, penalties and forfeitures incurred by virtue of the said act or acts shall be recovered and distributed, and may be mitigated or remitted, in like manner as if the same had continued in full force and virtue: And provided also That nothing herein contained shall be construed to authorize or permit the importation of goods, wares or merchandise, or of any article, the property of, or belonging at the time of such importation, to the enemy or enemies of the United States. APPROVED, April 14, 1814.

STATUTE II.

CHAP. LVII.—An Act declaring the assent of Congress to an act of the General April 14, 1814. Assembly of the State of Tennessee, therein mentioned.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the assent of Congress is hereby given and declared to an act of the general assembly of the state of Tennessee, entitled " An act to provide for the more equal and equitable apportionment of the direct tax, laid upon the state of Tennessee by an act of the Congress of the United States at the last session, among the counties in this state:" Provided, That if all the principal assessors shall not have been appointed prior to the first day of February last past, that then, and in that case, the principal assessors, in the respective assessment districts, shall suspend the delivery of the tax lists to the respective collectors for one month after the time allowed for the last appointed assessor to complete the assessments and make out his tax lists, to be delivered to the collector; during which time of one month, it shall be the duty of the several principal assessors to comply with the provisions of the above described act of the general assembly of the state of Tennessee.

Assent of Congress given.

Proviso.