United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/27th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 258
Chap. CCLVIII.—An Act in relation to lands sold in the Greensburgh, late St. Helena, land district, in the State of Louisiana, and authorizing the resurvey of certain lands in said district.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,In cases where the U. S. cannot issue patents, the certificates of purchase may be surrendered to be cancelled. That in all cases where lands shall have been entered at the land office in the Greensburgh, late St. Helena, land district, in the State of Louisiana, where the United States cannot issue patents therefor, owing to the errors and imperfections of the public surveys, or to conflicting claims, it shall be lawful for the person having made such entries, or his or her heirs or legal representatives, or grantees, or their heirs or legal representatives, who may [be] legally and equitably entitled to the same, after a demand for the patent, and a refusal to issue the same, to surrender his or her certificate of purchase to the Secretary of the Treasury to be cancelled; and, upon such surrender, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to refund, without interest, the purchase-money for said lands to the person entitled to receive the same, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
President may cause a resurvey of the unsold lands, &c.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, if he shall deem it expedient, to cause a resurvey of all or any part of the lands lying in said district remaining unsold, or the certificates for which may be surrendered in virtue of this or any other act of Congress, thereby correcting the surveys, and designating the lands covered by private claims under Spanish or French grants; and so soon as said resurveys shall have been returned and confirmed by the Secretary of the Treasury, the unreserved public lands therein specified shall be subject to the laws for the disposal of the public lands, and patents therefor shall issue as in other cases: Provided,Proviso. That purchasers aforesaid may retain their certificates of purchase, and the surveys of said tracts shall be corrected, and when said surveys are corrected, may receive their patents from the United States for the land so purchased by them.
Approved, August 29, 1842.