# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 3/13th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 52

Chap. LII.—An Act for the final adjustment of land titles in the State of Louisiana and territory of Missouri.
Act of April 29, 1816, ch. 159.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 of 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 the part of the state of Louisiana which composed the late territory of Orleans,Certain claimants confirmed in their titles or claims. or which has been 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,Proviso. 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 of territory: And provided also,Proviso. That no confirmation made by this section shall affect the rights of any person claiming the ​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.
Certain other claims confirmed.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,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 donation in the said state and territory.
The proper registers of land offices and recorders of land titles to give the necessary certificates.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 states; 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.
Made the duty of the principal deputy surveyor to survey the lands designated by the orders of the survey.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the principal deputy surveyor, on receiving an order of survey from the register or recorder of land titles, and the surveying fees from the claimant, which shall not eceed three dollars for every mile to be surveyed and marked, to sruvey or cause to be surveyed, under the direction of 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 entitles to the pre-emption.Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That every person, and the legal 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, entitledAct of Feb. 5, 1813, ch. 20. “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.