Sec. CHAPTER ONE. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 1. Supervisory authority of Secretary. 3. Exemplifications of papers. 4. Authority to take bonds of surveyorsgeneral. 5. Shall require public land surveys to 6. Power to discontinue land offices. 8. Repayment of purchase money, &c. 10. Correction of erroneous land entries. 12. Authority to survey and plat a city or town. 13. Authority to vary subdivisional surveys in Nevada. 14. Geodetic surveys in Oregon and California. To designate and set apart agricultural from mineral lands. 29. 15. Departure from rectangular surveys in California. 30. Shall prescribe regulations for subdivision of fractional sections. Designation of newspapers for publication of proclamations of sales of lands. 16. May pay surveyors by the day in Oregon and California. SECTION 1. The Secretary of the Interior is charged with Supervisory authe supervision of public business relating to the following thority of Secresubjects: Second. The public lands, including mines. 2 Stat. 716; 5 id. 107; 9 id. 395; R. S. 441. Wilcox v. Jackson, 13 Pet. 498; Maguire v. Tyler, 1 Black, 195; Suyder v. Sickles, 8 Otto, 203; Wolsey v. Chapman, S. C., Oct. T., 1879, in manuscript; Patterson v. Tatum, 3 Saw. C. C. 164. 3 Op. Att. Gen. 137; 12 id. 250. 2 Laws, Instructions and Opinions, 104; 1 Lester, 681. Hesters v. Brennan, 50 Cal. 211. SEC. 2. He shall grant warrants to parties entitled to land heretofore or hereafter given by the United States for military services. 2 Stat. 717; R. S. 456. tary. Power to grant military bounty land warrants. tions. SEC. 3. Copies of papers filed in the Interior Department, Exemplificaand remaining therein shall be authenticated under the hand of the Secretary and the seal of the General Land Office. 3 Stat. 721; 5 id. 111; R. S. 460. Authority to SEC. 4. The bonds of surveyors-general shall be executed take bonds from and delivered to the Secretary of the Interior. surveyors-gen eral. Shall complete public land surveys. Power to dis fices. 3 Stat. 697; R. S. 2215. U. S. v. Tingey, 5 Pet. 115; U. S. v. Stephenson, 1 McLean, C. C. 462; Farrar v. U. S., 5 Pet. 373. SEC. 5. He shall take the necessary measures for the completion of the public-land surveys. 5 Stat. 384; 19 id. 121; R. S. 2218. SEC. 6. He shall discontinue the land office in any district continue land of wherein the public lands are reduced to less than one hundred thousand acres, and shall give notice at what convenient existing land office such residue shall be subject to sale. 5 Stat. 455; R. S. 2249; Mathews v. Zane's Lessee, 5 Cranch, 95; same case, 7 Wheat. 164. Allowances to local offices. Repayment of SEC. 7. He shall make a reasonable allowance for office rent for consolidated land offices, and may approve the employment of clerks by the register. 12 Stat. 131; R. S. 2255. SEC. 8. He is authorized to repay the purchase money, purchase money fees, commissions, and excess payments in cases where the lands have been erroneously sold and the title cannot be confirmed. Remedial authority under treaty of 1854. Correction of erroneous entries. Appraisement and sale of townsite reservations. Authority to survey and plat city or town. 4 Stat. 80; 11 id. 387; act June 16, 1880; R. S. 2362. 4 Op. Att. Gen. 277. Decisions Sec. Int., Aug. 17, 1849; July 23, 1864; April 15, 1878; Aug. 5, 1878; May 7, 1879; Nov. 20, 1878; July 1, 1879; July 29, 1879; Aug. 12, 1878; Jan. 8, 1880. SEC. 9. He is authorized to permit innocent parties who purchased and located claims arising under the treaty of September thirty, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, to perfect their entries with cash or military bounty-land warrants. 17 Stat. 340; R. S. 2368. Decisions Sec. Int., July 6, 1876; July 19, 1879; May 6, 1880. SEC. 10. He is authorized to allow erroneous entries of lands sold at private sale and warrant locations to be corrected; and this authority extends to patented cases upon surrender of the patent with satisfactory relinquishment of title indorsed thereon. 3 Stat. 526: 4 id. 301; 10 id. 257; R. S. 2369, 2370, 2371. SEC. 11. When, in the opinion of the President, the public interests require it, he shall cause town-site reservations to be surveyed into lots; shall fix their cash value by ap praisement of disinterested persons; and, after offering same at public entry to the highest bidder, shall prescribe regulations for sale of the residue at private entry at not less than the appraised values. All such sales shall be conducted by the register and receiver of the proper land district. 12 Stat. 754; R. S. 2381. U. S. v. Hare, 4 Saw. C. C. 653. SEC. 12. He may cause a survey and plat to be made of a a city or town, if within twelve months from its establishment on the public domain the parties interested do not file in the General Land Office the showing required by law; and thereafter the minimum price of lots included therein shall be increased fifty per centum. 1 LO 13 Stat. 344; R. S. 2384. 1 SEC. 13. He may vary the subdivisional surveys in the Authority to State of Nevada from a rectangular form to suit the circum-vary subdivis ional surveys in stances of the country. Nevada. 14 Stat. 83; R. S. 2408. Heydenfeldt v. Mining Co., 3 Otto, 634. SEC. 14. He may authorize the geodetic method of survey in Oregon and California. Geodetic sur veys in Oregon and California. 9 Stat. 496; 10 id. 245; R. S. 2409. SEC. 15. He may direct a departure from the rectangular Departure from mode of survey in the State of California. 10 Stat. 245; R. S. 2410. SEC. 16. He may direct compensation by the day for surveys in Oregon and California. 10 Stat. 247; R. S. 2411. rectangular surveys in Califor nia. Pay for surveys by day in Oregon and California. SEC. 17. He may prescribe regulations for the location Location of and patenting, free of expense, of any military bounty-land warrants free of warrant transmitted for that purpose to the General Land Office. 9 Stat. 521; R. S. 2437. Decision Sec. Int., March 1, 1876. expense. SEC. 18. He may authorize issue of patents in cases of Patents to issue lost military bounty-land warrants. 3 Stat. 317; R. S. 2439. on lost land warrants. land warrants in SEC. 19. He shall cause new bounty-land warrants to be May issue new issued in lieu of lost or destroyed warrants, and shall pre-lieu of those lost. scribe regulations for the prevention of frauds. 12 Stat. 90; 18 id. 111; R. S. 2441, 2442. SEC. 20. He shall issue patents to the heirs of persons entitled to bounty lands. 5 Stat. 650; R. S. 2443. Patents to heirs of warrantees. dication. SEC. 21. Conjointly with the Attorney-General and the Board of adjuCommissioner of the General Land Office, he shall prescribe regulations for the equitable decision of suspended entries of public lands and of suspended pre-emption claims, and adjudicate in what cases patents shall issue upon the same. 9 Stat. 51; 10 id. 258; 11 id. 22; 18 id. 50; 19 id. 244; R. S. 2450, 2451. SEC. 22. He shall have exclusive control of the Yellow- Yellowstone stone Park, with authority to lease portions thereof. 17 Stat. 33; R. S. 2475. Park. SEC. 23. He shall make accurate lists and plats of the Swamp and swamp and overflowed lands granted to the several States overflowed lands. and transmit same to the governors thereof; and at the request of the governor of any State in which such lands are situate, he shall cause patents to be issued conveying to said State the fee-simple of said lands. 95¿ 9 Stat. 519; R. S. 2479, 2480. Railroad Co. v. Smith, 9 Wall. 95; Indemnity for swamp lands. Notice of com monson v. Corn, 62 Ind. 17; Gratham v. Atkins, 62 Ills. 359; Smith". Goodell, 66 id. 450; Compton v. Prince, 67 id. 281; Gaston v. Scott, 5 Oreg. 48. SEC. 24. Indemnity for swamp lands sold by the United States shall not be allowed until approved by the Secretary of the Interior. 10 Stat. 634, 635; R. S. 2482. SEC. 25. He shall notify the governors of the States of pleted surveys in Minnesota and Oregon when public land surveys have Minnesota and Oregon. been completed and confirmed in said States. 12 Stat. 3; R. S. 2490. Gaston v. Scott, 5 Oreg. 48. Decisions Sec. Int., Oct. 13, 1876; Jan. 7, 1879; April 15, 1880. Requisitions for SEC. 26. He shall sign all requisitions for the advance or moneys upon payment of money out of the Treasury, on estimates or accounts approved or certified by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, subject to the control of the proper accounting officers of the Treasury. Treasury. To prescribe 9 Stat. 395; R. S. 444. 1 Lester, 314. SEC. 27. He shall prescribe the duties of the Assistant duties of Assist-Secretary of the Interior, who shall act as the Secretary of the Interior in the absence of that officer. ant Secretary. Designation of 12 Stat. 369; R. S. 439. SEC. 28. Upon the survey of lands designated as mineral, agricultural from the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of the same as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to pre emption and sale as other public lands and be subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same. 14 Stat. 253; R. S. 2342. Subdivision of SEC. 29. He shall prescribe regulations for the subdivision fractional sec- of fractional sections. tions. Designation of 3 Stat. 566; 4 id. 503; R. S. 2397. Gazzam v. Phillips' Lessee et al., 20 How. 372. 3 Op. Att. Gen. 281. Decision Com. G. L. O., May 17, 1875. SEC. 30. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Innewspaper to terior to designate one newspaper in each State or Terripublish procla mations for sale tory, where public lands are situated, for the publication of all Executive proclamations relating to the sale of public lands. of lands. 19 Stat. 221. |
