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disposition of the public domain under grants, settlement laws, or sales, public or private; may prevent trespass, and in all methods retain the entire control over it until sold or otherwise disposed of. "Congress has the absolute right to prescribe the times, the conditions, and the mode of transferring the public domain, or any part of it, and to designate the persons to whom the transfer shall be made."·

For further authorities upon this subject, see the following decisions: Gibson v. Chouteau, 13 Wall. 92; Irvine v. Marshall, 20 How. 558; United States v. Railroad Bridge Co., 6 McLean, 517; United States v. Gratiot, 14 Pet. 526; Russell v. Lovatte, 21 Minn. 167; Gill v. Halleck, 33 Wis. 523; Rose v. Buckland, 17 Ill. 309; Miller v. Little, 47 Cal. 348; Dyke v. McVey, 16 Ill. 41; Bagnell v. Broderick, 13 Pet. 436; Pollard v. Hagan, 3 How. 212.

Change in political condition, as in a territory becoming a state, or change of boundary of a territory or state, in no wise affects the absolute and complete proprietary power of the national government over the public domain. It remains until the last acre is disposed of.

"No state formed out of the territory of the United States has a right to the public lands within its limits or can exercise any power whatever over them."

Turner v. Missionary Union, 5 McLean, 344; see also, United States v. Gratiot, 14 Pet. 526; Bump's Notes of Constitutional Decisions, title, Territories; State v. Batchelder, 5 Minn. 223.

The United States have surveyed to June 30, 1880, in the land states and territories, 752,557,195 acres of the public domain. There are remaining yet unsurveyed (estimated) 1,069,143,727

acres.

The surveyed lands yet undisposed of are estimated at 204,802,711.12 acres, which with the unsurveyed make a grand total of 1,273,946,438.12 acres of land still the property of the United States and subject to disposition. Deducting (estimated) 110,000,000 acres yet required to fill railroad grants, if roads as chartered and granted are completed, the actual area, still the property of the nation, is 1,163,946,438.12 acres. This includes the area of private land claims, patented and unpatented, estimated at 80,000,000 acres. This also includes the area of military and Indian reservations, estimated at 157,356,952.68 acres, of which probably more than 100,000,000 acres will revert to the public domain for future sale and disposition. It can be estimated that the total public domain to be disposed of will not

vary much from 1,163,946,438.12 acres, equal to 7,274,665.24 homesteads of 160 acres each.

§ 10. Surveyed and Unsold Lands.-The surveyed and unsold lands lie in the following land states and territories (estimated): In Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, practically none.

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This estimate is probably within twenty per cent. of the exact amount. Official causes prevent a closer estimate.

A large amount of the above-estimated vacant surveyed public lands may be at present occupied by settlers, or persons holding under the effect of the doctrine announced by the supreme court of the United States in Atherton v. Fowler, 6 Otto, 513; and Hosmer v. Wallace, 7 Id. 575. Neither the United States nor the local land officers have any official knowledge of the amount so occupied.

See chapters iv. and v., Public Sales and Private Entries.

In addition to the foregoing, there are vacant surveyed public lands in southern states, as follows:

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Deducting lands that by reason of discrepancies
in records of local offices and general land office
are not actually known to be vacant, estimated
at not less than....

Leaving a total of.....

... 1,500,000.00

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Add total of other states and territories, as above. 189,622,455.12

Total surveyed and still to be disposed of...204,802,711.12 In the southern states, lands are all open to private entry, at the United States district land offices in the respective states, at $1.25 per acre, except the "mineral tracts" lying in the Huntsville and Tuscaloosa districts in Alabama, under authority of an act of congress, July 4, 1876.

The total amount of land owned by the United States in the five southern states, surveyed and including 1,148,892 acres in Louisiana, and 7,756,493 acres in Florida, unsurveyed, is 25,585,641 acres.

§ 11. Unsurveyed Lands.-The unsurveyed lands lie and are in the following states and territories:

Minnesota..

Nebraska..

California...

Nevada..

Oregon..

Washington...

Colorado..

Acres. 13,510,423

7,052,207

48,643,592

58,436,598

37,908,340

28,836,985

40,657,67

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§ 12. Receipts from and Cost of the Public Domain to June 30, 1880. The public lands of the United States, by sales for cash, fees, and commissions, have realized to the national govern

ment, since the passage of the ordinance of May 20, 1785, to June 30, 1880, a total net sum of $200,702,849.11.

The public domain has cost in all a grand total of cash:
For purchases and cessions.. . . . .

For surveying and disposition (part estimated).
For Indian occupancy, title, etc.....

Total....

$88,157,389.98

46,563,302.07 187,328,903.91

.$322,049,595.96

From the origin of the public domain to the
thirtieth of June, 1880, the net cash receipts
therefrom have been.......
From the origin of the public domain to the
thirtieth of June, 1880, the cash expenditures
on account of the same have been...

Deduct receipts from cost...

.$200,702,849.11

322,049,595.96

$121,346,746.85

To June 30, 1880, the public domain has cost in cash $121,346,746.85 more than it has realized.

§ 13. Receipts from Public Domain.-About two hundred million acres of the public domain have been granted to railroad companies since 1850, enough to make several large states. These grants have been made principally for the purpose of developing the resources of the country, and facilitating communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They have already contributed much, and will in the future contribute more, toward the advancement of these desirable objects. The policy of making these extensive grants may be somewhat doubtful, and it seems clear that no more concessions of this character should be made, and that what remains of the public domain should be kept for the use of actual settlers thereon. In the past (with exception perhaps of these too extensive railroad grants), the public lands have been carefully and ably guarded by the officers of the government and by committees in the congress of the United States. While but little understood by the mass of the people, the wise men who have been at the head of affairs in our government since the acquisition of the public domain have looked upon it as one of the chief sources of national wealth and permanent empire, and have administered its affairs, not with the narrow view of realizing an immediate revenue, but with the comprehensive plan of providing homes for citizens to cultivate and improve; thus laying more broad and deep the foundations of a stable government, and an ever-increasing revenue.

CHAPTER II.

THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

§14. Importance and Functions of General Land Office.

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§ 14. Importance and Functions of General Land Office.-The commissioner of the general land office is attached to the department of the interior, and acts under the direction and supervision of the head of that department in all matters respecting the public lands of the United States. The act of April 25, 1812 (2 Stat. 716), establishing the general land office, put the office in the department of the treasury and placed the commissioner under the direction of the head of that department. The act of July 4, 1846 (5 Stat. 107), reorganizing the office, provided that the executive duties prescribed by law respecting the public lands should be subject to the supervision and control of the commissioner, under the direction of the president. But the office still continued a part of the department of the treasury; and as the president acts in matters belonging to the departments through their respective heads, the immediate supervision over and direction of the commissioner remained with the secretary after as previous to the reorganization. Such was the understanding and practice of the treasury department until the department of the interior was established, in 1819, when the land office was transferred to that department and its secretory was required to "perform all the duties of supervision and appeal" in relation to that

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