# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 3/16th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 86

Chap. LXXXVI.—An Act for the relief of certain settlers in the state of Illinois who reside within the Vincennes land district.
Persons who would have been entitled to right of pre-emption, to be entitled to certificate for the excess paid above 2 dollars per acre, &c. Act of Feb. 5, 1813, ch. 20. Certificate receivable in payment of debt to United States for land. Proviso.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person, who would have been entitled to the right of pre-emption, according to the provisions of 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 the fifth, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, provided said act had been so construed as to embrace those who were living within the limits of the Vincennes land district, and who became the purchaser, at public sale, of the said land, to which the right of pre-emption would have so attached, at more than two dollars per acre, shall be entitled to a certificate for the amount, so paid or to be paid, exceeding two dollars per acre, from the register of the land office at Vincennes; which certificate shall be receivable in payment of any debt due to the United States on account of the sale of public land: Provided, however, That it shall be the duty of every person claiming the benefit of this act, to prove, to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the land office at Vincennes, that they are entitled thereto, according to its true intent and meaning.
Persons who would have been entitled, &c. who were not purchasers, allowed till 1st Sept., 1820, to prove, &c. Register, on satisfaction, to grant a certificate, &c.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That every person who would have been entitled to the right of pre-emption in the said Vincennes district, according to the provisions of the said recited act, passed the fifth day of February, eighteen hundred and thirteen, had it been so construed as to embrace them, and who did not become the purchaser of any tract of land to which such right of pre-emption would have attached, shall be allowed till the first day of September next, to prove, to the satisfaction of the register and receiver at Vincennes, that they would have been so entitled; and it shall be the duty of the register, when the satisfaction aforesaid shall be made, to grant a certificate to every such person, or their legal representatives, stating therein that such person would have been entitled to such right of pre-emption, and that he did not become the purchaser thereof, neither at public or private sale.Every person, upon certificate allowed to enter a quarter section, at minimum price, &c. And every such person, or his legal representatives, shall, upon producing such certificate to the register of any land office in the state of Illinois, be allowed to enter one quarter section of land, each, at the minimum price fixed by the United States, of any land which may be surveyed previous to the first day of September next, whether the same shall have been offered at public sale or not.
Approved, May 11, 1820.