Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/461

Act of Aug. 10, 1790, ch. 40.
Act of June 9, 1794, ch. 62.
Act of June 26, 1812, ch. 109.
A further time allowed for completing locations.of the Virginia line on continental establishment, their heirs or assigns, entitled to bounty lands within the tract reserved by Virginia, between the little Miami and Scioto rivers, for satisfying the legal bounties to her officers and soldiers upon the continental establishment, shall be allowed a further time of three years, from the twenty-third of March next, to complete their locations, and a further time of five years from the said twenty-third of March next, to return their surveys and warrants, or certified copies of warrants, to the office of the Secretary of the War department, any thing in the act intituled1804, ch. 33. “An act to ascertain the boundary of the lands reserved by the state of Virginia, northwest of the river Ohio, for the satisfaction of her officers and soldiers on continental establishment, and to limit the period for locating the said lands,” to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided,Proviso. that no locations, as aforesaid, within the above mentioned tract, shall, after the passing of this act, be made on tracts of land for which patents had previously been issued, or which had been previously surveyed, and any patent which may nevertheless be obtained for land located contrary to the provisions of this section, shall be considered as null and void.

Secretary of the Treasury to cause a general and connected plat to be made.
Copies thereof, how to be disposed of.
Expense—how defrayed.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized to obtain copies of all the locations and surveys, which have been, or may be made within the above mentioned tract, and to cause to be run or surveyed, as many straight lines across the same, as he may deem necessary, not exceeding three: and from these and such other documents as may be obtained, to cause to be made a general connected plat of all the lands located and surveyed within the same; a copy of which shall be deposited in the war department, and another copy shall be laid before Congress, together with an estimate of the surplus which may remain, after satisfying the bounties above mentioned. And the expenses incurred in surveying the lines, and obtaining the copies aforesaid, and in preparing the general plat above mentioned, shall be defrayed out of the monies appropriated for completing the surveys of the public lands northwest of the river Ohio.

A portion of the “Virginia military reservation,” to be vested in the state of Ohio, for the use of schools.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That eighteen quarter townships and three sections, to be selected by the Secretary of the Treasury, by lot, in that tract of land in the state of Ohio, lately purchased from the Indians, and lying between the tract commonly called the United States military tract, and the tract commonly called the Connecticut reserve, be, and the same are hereby appropriated for the use of schools, in that tract of land in the state aforesaid, commonly called “Virginia military reservation,”Limitation. which by a former act had been appropriated and vested as aforesaid, for the use of schools within the same: Provided however, that no quarter townships, including the section number sixteen of such township, shall be selected as aforesaid for the purpose above mentioned. And provided also, and it is hereby understood and declared, that the said eighteen quarter town-

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those which were defective, and which might be avoided for irregularity. If this effect be denied to the proviso it becomes itself a nullity.

Lands surveyed are as completely withdrawn from the common mass, as lands patented. It cannot be said that the prohibition that “no location shall be made on tracts of land for which patents have previously been issued, or which had been previously surveyed,” was intended only for valid and regular surveys. They did not require legislative aid. The clause was introduced for the protection of defective entries and surveys, which might be made in quiet times. Ibid.
Under the peculiar system of the Virginia land law, as it has been settled in Kentucky and the military district in Ohio, by usages adapted to the circumstances of the country, many principles are established, which are unknown to the common law. A long course of adjudication has fixed these principles, and they are considered as the settled rules by which these military titles are to be governed. Galt v. Galloway, 4 Peters, 343.