United States Statutes at Large/Volume 4/23rd Congress/1st Session/Chapter 54

United States Statutes at Large, Volume 4
United States Congress
Public Acts of the Twenty-Third Congress, First Session, Chapter 54
3252521United States Statutes at Large, Volume 4 — Public Acts of the Twenty-Third Congress, First Session, Chapter 54United States Congress


June 19, 1834.

Chap. LIV.An Act to revive the act entitled “An act to grant pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands,” approved May twenty-nine, one thousand eight hundred and thirty.[1]

Act of May 29, 1830, ch. 208, revived, and extended to those who settled and cultivated land in 1833.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every settler or occupant of the public lands, prior to the passage of this act, who is now in possession, and cultivated any part thereof, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, shall be entitled to all the benefits and privileges provided by the act entitled “An act to grant pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands,” approved May twenty-nine, one thousand eight hundred and thirty; and the said act is hereby revived and shall continue in force two years from the passage of this act and no longer.

Choice of quarter sections allowed.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That where a person inhabits one quarter section and cultivates another, he shall be permitted to enter the one or the other at his discretion: Provided, Such occupant shall designate, within six months from the passage of this act, the quarter section of which he claims the pre-emption under the same.

Settlers on the public lands before 1829 may enter a quarter section at the minimum price.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all persons residing on the public lands, and cultivating the same, prior to the year eighteen hundred and twenty-nine, and who were deprived of the advantages of the law passed on the twenty-ninth May, eighteen hundred and thirty, by the constructions placed on said law by the Secretary of the Treasury, be, and they are hereby authorized to enter, at the minimum price of the government, one quarter section of the public lands, within said land district.

Approved, June 19, 1834.


  1. See notes of the acts relating to pre-emption of public lands, vol. iv. p. 420.