United States Statutes at Large/Volume 4/19th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 78

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United States Statutes at Large, Volume 4
United States Congress

Public Acts of the Nineteenth Congress, 2nd Session, Chapter 78

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2821861United States Statutes at Large, Volume 4 — Public Acts of the Nineteenth Congress, 2nd Session, Chapter 78United States Congress

March 3, 1827.

Chap. LXXVIII.—An Act supplementary to the several acts providing for the adjustment of land claims in the state of Alabama.^[1]

Course to be pursued by claimants of lands, &c. within a certain part of the former land district of Jackson Courthouse.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the claimants of lands, town lots, or out-lots, within that part of the limits of the former land district, of Jackson Courthouse, which is embraced in the state of Alabama, whose claims have been presented to the commissioners appointed to receive and examine claims and titles to lands, in said district of Jackson Courthouse, or to the register and receiver of the land office at Jackson Courthouse, acting as commissioners under the provisions of the act of the third of March, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, entitledAct of March 3, 1819, ch. 99. “An act for adjusting the claims to lands, and establishing land offices, in the district east of the Island of New Orleans,” and which have not been reported to Congress, or whose claims have not heretofore been presented to the said commissioners, or to the register and receiver, acting as commissioners, or whose claims have been acted upon, but additional evidence adduced, be allowed until the first day of September, eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, to present their titles and claims, and the evidence in support of the same to the register and receiver of the land office at St. Stephen’s, in the state of Alabama, whose powers and duties, in relation to the same, shall, in all respects, be governed by the provisions of the acts before recited, and of the act of the eighth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-two, entitledAct of May 8, 1822, ch. 128. “An act supplementary to the several acts for adjusting the claims to land, and establishing land offices, in the district east of the Island of New Orleans.”

Power given to the register and receiver.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said register and receiver shall have power to receive and examine such titles and claims, and, for that purpose, shall hold their sessions at the city of Mobile; they shall give suitable notice of the time and place of their sessions, but may adjourn from time to time, and meet at such other places as may be necessary, or may best suit the convenience of the claimants, on giving proper notice of the time of their adjournments. And the said register and receiver shall have power to appoint a clerk, who shall be a person capable of translating the French and Spanish languages, and who shall perform the duty of translator, and such other duty as may be required by the said register and receiver, and the said register and receiver shall each be allowed, as a compensation for their services, in relation to said claims, and for the services to be performed under the provisions of the several acts to which this is a supplement, at the rate of one thousand dollars per annum; and the clerk at the rate of one thousand dollars per annum; which several sums of money shall be paid out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated:Proviso. Provided, That no more than one year’s compensation shall be thus allowed to either the register or receiver, or clerk; and the payment of the whole of the aforesaid compensation shall be withheld by the Secretary of the Treasury, until a report, to be approved by him, shall have been made to him, of the performance of the services for which the same is allowed.

Duty of the register and receiver of the land office at Augusta, in Mississippi.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the register and receiver of the land office at Augusta, in the state of Mississippi, be, and they are hereby, required to separate, so far as practicable, from the titles to lands in Mississippi, all such papers or claims, or evidence of claims, for any tract of land or town lot, lying in the state of Alabama, and certify the same generally to the register of the land office at St. Stephen’s, in the state of Alabama; and, on proper application, to deliver them over to the said register, whose duty it shall be to receive the same, and preserve them among the records of his office.

Approved, March 3, 1827.

↑ A concession of lands made by the Spanish authorities at Mobile in the year 1806, cannot be given in evidence in support of an ejectment in the courts of the United States, the same not having been recorded or passed upon by the board of commissioners or register of the land office established by the acts of Congress relating to land titles in that country. De La Croix v. Chamberlain, 12 Wheat. 599, 6 Cond. Rep. 659.
It is settled doctrine of the judicial department of the government, that the treaty of 1819, with Spain, ceded to the United States no territory west of the Perdido. It had already been acquired by the Louisiana treaty. Pollard et al. v. Files, 2 Howard, 591.
In the interval between the Louisiana treaty and the time when the United States took possession of the country west of the Perdido, the Spanish government had the right to grant permits to settle and improve by cultivation or to authorize the erection of establishments for mercantile purposes. Ibid.
These incipient concessions are not disregarded by Congress, but are recognised in the acts of 1804, 1812, 1819, and as claims are within the act of 1824. Ibid.
The act of 1821 gives a title to the owners of old water lots in Mobile, only where an improvement was made east of Water street, and made by the proprietor of the lot on the west side of that street, such person could not claim as riparian proprietor, or where his lot had a definite limit on the east. Ibid.
See the case of Foster and Elam v. Neilson, 2 Peters, 253.
See notes to the act of May 26, 1824, ch. 185, “An act granting certain lots of ground to the corporation of the city of Mobile, and to certain individuals of said city.”

[1] A concession of lands made by the Spanish authorities at Mobile in the year 1806, cannot be given in evidence in support of an ejectment in the courts of the United States, the same not having been recorded or passed upon by the board of commissioners or register of the land office established by the acts of Congress relating to land titles in that country. De La Croix v. Chamberlain, 12 Wheat. 599, 6 Cond. Rep. 659.
It is settled doctrine of the judicial department of the government, that the treaty of 1819, with Spain, ceded to the United States no territory west of the Perdido. It had already been acquired by the Louisiana treaty. Pollard et al. v. Files, 2 Howard, 591.
In the interval between the Louisiana treaty and the time when the United States took possession of the country west of the Perdido, the Spanish government had the right to grant permits to settle and improve by cultivation or to authorize the erection of establishments for mercantile purposes. Ibid.
These incipient concessions are not disregarded by Congress, but are recognised in the acts of 1804, 1812, 1819, and as claims are within the act of 1824. Ibid.
The act of 1821 gives a title to the owners of old water lots in Mobile, only where an improvement was made east of Water street, and made by the proprietor of the lot on the west side of that street, such person could not claim as riparian proprietor, or where his lot had a definite limit on the east. Ibid.
See the case of Foster and Elam v. Neilson, 2 Peters, 253.
See notes to the act of May 26, 1824, ch. 185, “An act granting certain lots of ground to the corporation of the city of Mobile, and to certain individuals of said city.”

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