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lease the same from year to year; and the money arising from the rest of said lands shall be appropriated to the use of schools, and the erection of a seminary of learning, in such manner as they may direct; and they shall have power to pass laws for the preservation of said lands from intrusion and trespass until Florida shall be admitted into the Union as a state.

Location of the grant to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Kentucky.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the incorporated Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Kentucky shall have the power, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, of locating so much of the township of land granted to the said institution, as has been taken by the claims of those who are entitled to the right of pre-emption in the territory of Florida, under the provisions of the act aforesaid; which shall be located in sections upon any unappropriated and unreserved lands in either of the territories of Florida or Arkansas; which said tracts, when so located, shall be disposed of by the corporation of said Deaf and Dumb Asylum, agreeably to the provisions of an act passed the fifth of April, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, entitled “An act for the benefit of the incorporated Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Kentucky.

Approved, January 29, 1827.

Statute ⅠⅠ.



Feb. 8, 1827.
Chap. IX.—An Act to provide for the confirmation and settlement of private land claims in East Florida, and for other purposes.[1]

Decisions made by the commissioners appointed to ascertain claims, &c., to land in East Florida, contained in their reports, &c., transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury, confirmed.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all the decisions made by the commissioners appointed to ascertain claims and titles to land in the district of East Florida, and those recommended for confirmation, under the quantity of three thousand five hundred acres, in favour of claimants to lands and lots, contained in the reports, abstracts, and opinions, of said commissioners, which have been transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury, according to law, and referred by him to Congress, on the twenty-first of February, eighteen hundred and twenty-five, be, and the twenty-first of February, eighteen hundred and twenty-six, be, and the same are hereby, confirmed.

Certain conflicting Spanish claims confirmed.
Act of May 8, 1822, ch. 129, sec. 4.
Proviso.
Proviso.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all the conflicting Spanish claims, reported in obedience to the fourth section of an act of Congress, approved May the eighth, eighteen hundred and twenty-two, entitled “An act for ascertaining claims and titles to lands in the territory of Florida,” be, and the same are hereby confirmed: Provided, That this confirmation shall only operate as a relinquishment of the title of the United States: Provided further, That nothing in the foregoing sections shall be construed to prevent or bar the judicial decision between persons claiming titles to the lands confirmed.

Commons in the city of St. Augustine confirmed to the corporation.
Parochial church, &c., confirmed, &c.
Old Episcopal church lot relinquished.
Proviso.
Duty of the secretary of the late commissioners.
Duty of the register and receiver.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the commons in the city of St. Augustine be, and the same are hereby, confirmed to the corporation of said city, to the same extent that they were used, claimed and enjoyed under the Spanish government. And the parochial church and burying ground in possession of the Roman Catholic congregation are confirmed to them: and the old Episcopal Church lot is, hereby, relinquished and confirmed to the Incorporated Episcopal church of St. Augustine: Provided always, That the grants in this section specified shall forever inure to the purposes for which they are confirmed, and shall not be alienated without the consent of Congress.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the secretary of the late board of commissioners to deliver over to the receiver and register, to be appointed for the district of East Florida, all

  1. See notes of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on Florida land claims, act of May 8, 1822, ch. 129.