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ant may redeem the same. [Sess. Laws 1844, 22, Sec. 11.] Idiots, femmes covert, and insane persons owning lands sold for taxes, may redeem the same within five years after the sale thereof, in the manner provided in other cases. [Id., Sec. 24.] And whenever the land of minors shall be sold for taxes, the same may be redeemed within one year after said minor attains majority. [Id., Sec. 25.]

In counties where the Collector shall sell land for delinquent taxes, the method provided for redemptions is, to pay to the purchaser or purchasers, his or their heirs or assigns, or to the Clerk of the Board of County Commissioners, for the use of such purchaser or purchasers, or his or their heirs or assigns, the amount of the bid and the interest thereon, at the rate of twenty-five per centum per annum, together with such other taxes, costs, and charges thereon, as may have accrued subsequent to the sale. When the sale shall be made by the County Treasurer, the owner or claimant may redeem within three years, by paying the amount of the bid and interest, at the rate of twenty-five per centum per annum, to the purchaser or purchasers his or their heirs or assigns, or to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors for his or their benefit.

XIII. LIMITATION OF REAL ACTIONS IN WISCONSIN.

The statutes of Wisconsin provide that all suits for the recovery of lands shall be brought within twenty years after seizure and possession, unless the person or persons entitled to bring the action labor under some legal disability, such as imprisonment for crime for a term less than for life, infancy, insanity, or the like; and where any such legal disability exists at the time of the accruing of the right, or where it shall happen during said twenty years, the right of action survives for the period of ten years after the removal of such disability.

But this provision does not extend to land sold for taxes.

Claimants in such cases have but three years in which to bring suit for the recovery of such lands. Yet, if such claimant be a lunatic, infant, imprisoned for a term less than for life, or a femme covert, within said three years, the statute does not run during the existence of such disability.

All actions for dower are required to be brought within twenty years after the accruing of the right.*

XIV. REAL ESTATE EXEMPTIONS IN WISCONSIN.

The statutes of Wisconsin do not protect from levy and sale on execution, any real estate, or property of the nature. of real estate, of a debtor, except a pew in a church, or place of public worship, and grounds used and occupied as burial places and tombs.t

All actions upon contract not under seal, and all actions upon judgments, in a court not of record, are required to be brought within three years after the same shall have accrued; all actions upon other contracts and judgments are required to be brought within twenty years. [Stat. Wis. T., 261.]

The Constitution adopted in Convention in December, 1846, exempted the property of married women, and the homestead, to the extent of forty acres of land, from levy and sale on execution. But as the same remains unratified by the people, those provisions have been omitted.

The following property of a debtor is exempt from levy and sale on execution, viz: All spinning wheels, weaving looms, stoves in use in any dwelling; the family library, not exceeding in value one hundred dollars; the family bible, pictures, school books, a seat or pew in a church; ten sheep, with their fleeces; the cloth and yarn manufactured from the same; one cow, five swine, and necessary food for them; all pork, beef, fish, flour and vegetables, actually provided for family use, and necessary for six months support; fuel for one year, all wearing apparel; beds, bedsteads and bedding for the family; necessary cooking utensils, one table, six chairs, six knives and six forks; the same number each of plates, tea-cups, saucers and spoons; one sugar dish, milk.pot and tea-pot; one crane and appendages, one pair andirons, shovel and tongs; other household furniture, necessary for the debtor and family, not to exceed in value fifty dollars; the tools of any mechanic, not to exceed in value one hundred dollars; all utensils for carrying on a farm, where the debtor is a farmer, not exceeding in value ➖➖➖➖➖➖ dollars; one horse, worth not over forty dollars, or one yoke of oxen, worth not more than sixty dollars; the mili tary uniform of any militia man, and his arms and accoutrements; all rights of burial and tombs, used as repositories of the dead; the libraries of lawyers, phy sicians, and clergymen, and surgical instruments, not exceeding in value two hundred dollars. [Statement furnished by G. W. F., Esq., of Port Washington.]

XV. THE INTEREST OF MONEY AND USURY IN WISCONSIN.

The statutes of Wisconsin provide that the rate of interest upon the loan or forbearance of any money, goods, or things in action, for one year, shall not exceed twelve per centum per annum. Yet, not exceeding seven per cent will be allowed, unless a greater rate, not exceeding twelve per cent, shall be agreed upon by the parties, at the time of the making of the loan. In all cases where the rate shall not be agreed upon, it shall be reckoned at seven per cent.

Banking houses and corporations are not allowed to receive over seven per cent, nor may a rate exceeding seven per cent be charged upon any simple contract debt, or account, where no agreement, as to the interest, exists.

Wherever a greater rate of interest shall, in any contract, agreement, bond, note, or other obligation, be reserved or taken, than is allowed by law, the usurious contract, agreement, hond, note, or other obligation, is not thereby void, except for the usury. Yet the usurer thereby forfeits to the person paying the usury, three times the amount of the usury paid. A suit for the recovery thereof, however, is required to be brought within one year after such payment. [Stat. Wis., 56.]

The Constitution adopted in Convention in December, 1846, has been rejected by the people, leaving Wisconsin in a "transition state," in respect to her organization. She was, at the head of this chapter, termed a State; yet, whilst without a Constitution, she remains for all practical purposes, a territory. It is believed, however, that the people will call another Convention, which will follow the public sentiment, as the same has been expressed, in framing an organic law that will enable Wisconsin to perfect its State organization.

THE STATE OF IOWA.

As a documentary history of land titles in this State would swell the size and aug. ment the cost of this volume beyond the limits designed, it has been reserved for another volume.

lowa is a portion of the Louisiana purchase, and was embraced within the cession of St. Ildefonso. In 1756, the French were in the undisputed possession of Louisiana, lying on both sides of the Mississippi, about its mouth, and embracing an immense region on the western branch of its upper waters. At that time Spain was in the possession of Florida, the two provinces being separated by the Perdido river.

On the 10th of February, 1763, France ceded to Great Britain the river and port of Mobile, and all her possessions on the left side of the Mississippi, except the town of New-Orleans, and to Spain the residue shortly after. On the first of October, 1801, a secret treaty was concluded between France and Spain, at St. Ildefonso, the third article of which is in these words: "His Catholic Majesty promises and engages on his part to retrocede to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations relative to his Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and the other States."

On the 30th of April, 1803, the United States acquired Louisiana from France. The treaty, after reciting the above third article of that of St. Ildefonso, proceeds to state "that the first Consul of the French Republic doth hereby cede to the United States, in the name of the French Republic, forever, and in full sovereignty, the said Territory, with all its rights and appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner as they have been acquired by the French Republic, in virtue of the above mentioned treaty, concluded with his Catholic Majesty." The fourth article stipulates "that there shall be sent by the government of France, a Commissary to Louisiana, to the end that he may do every act necessary, as well to receive from the officers of his Catholic Majesty, the said country and its dependencies, in the name of

the French Republic, if it has not been already done, so as to transmit it in the name of the French Republic, to the Commissary or Agent of the United States."

On the 30th of November, 1903, the powers given to the Commissioner of the French Republic were by him presented to Don Manuel Salcedo, the Governor of Louisiana, and to the Marquis De Casa Calvo, the Spanish Commissioner, who had powers for the surrender, dated October 15, 1802, at Barcelona: whereupon the surrender was made in the words following: "Don Manuel Salcedo, and the Marquis De Casa, Calvo, &c., put from this moment the said French Commissioner, the citizen Lausatt, in possession of the Colony of Louisiana and its dependencies, as also of the town and island of New-Orleans, in the same extent which they now have, and which they had in the hands of France, when she ceded them to the royal crown of Spain, and such as they should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between the States of his Catholic Majesty and those of other powers." On the 21st of October, 1803, Congress passed an act, enabling the President of the United States to take possession of the Territory of Louisiana, as ceded by France; in pursuance of which the President appointed Commissioners, to whom Mons. Lausatt, for his Republic, on the 20th of December, 1803, surrendered the aforesaid Territory, in general terms. [Ch. J. Marshall; 3 Peters, 302.]

It will be seen, therefore, that the United States became vested with a title to the lands embraced in the treaty aforesaid, subject to the Indian right of occupancy. For a long time, that part of Louisiana comprehended within the limits of Iowa, remained in the possession of the natives; yet upon the establishment of the terri torial government of Wisconsin, its ægis was extended over this domain, and the same was gathered in, as a portion of Wisconsin. [U. S. Stat., by Peters, vol. 5, 10.]

But in 1838, its settlers, on the western shores of the Mississippi, demanded a government of their own, independently of their eastern neighbors: whereupon an act was passed, dividing the Territory of Wisconsin, and establishing the territorial government of Iowa.

On the 3d of March, 1845, Congress passed an act for the admission of Iowa into the Union, with a Constitution, which may be found in the Appendix.

The statutes of Iowa in general were framed after those of Michigan, to which, with Wisconsin she was formerly attached. In respect to the estates in or conveyances of land in Iowa, the statutes in Michigan may be safely followed, although two attesting witnesses are not now required. They are required to be recorded in the office of Recorders, who are obliged to keep an office at the county seat of their respective counties, and to record all conveyances at length.

Wills require three attesting witnesses, and cannot legally suspend alienation beyond two lives. A Probate Court, having ample jurisdiction over testamentary and intestate estates, exists in every county.

Taxes are levied by County Commissioners, and warrants for their collection are issued to Collectors, who make the amount from personal estate, if possible, and in

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