These rights their lines of telegraph may be located as may be necessary for their stations, not exceeding forty acres for each station; but such stations shall not be within fifteen miles of each other. 14 Stat. 221; R. S. 5264. SEC. 456. The rights and privileges granted under the not transferable. provisions of the act of July twenty-four, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, entitled "An act to aid in the construction of telegraph lines, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes," or under sections four hundred and fifty-four to four hundred and sixty, inclusive, shall not be transferred by any company acting thereunder to any other corporation, association, or person. Government to transmission of messages. 14 Stat. 221; R. S. 5265. SEC. 457. Telegrams between the several Departments of have priority in the Government and their officers and agents, in their transmission over the lines of any telegraph company to which has been given the right of way, timber, or station lands from the public domain shall have priority over all other business, at such rates as the Postmaster-General shall annually fix. And no part of any appropriation for the several Departments of the Government shall be paid to any company which neglects or refuses to transmit such telegrams in accordance with the provisions of this section. Government en lines. 14 Stat. 221; 17 id. 287, 366, 367; R. S. 5266. SEC. 458. The United States may, for postal, military, or titled to purchase other purposes, purchase all the telegraph lines, property, and effects of any or all companies acting under the provis ions of the act of July twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and and sixty-six, entitled "An act to aid in the construction of telegraph lines, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes," or under sections four hundred and fifty-four to four hundred and sixty, inclusive, at an appraised value, to be ascertained by five competent, disinterested persons, two of whom shall be selected by the Postmaster-General of the United States, two by the company interested, and one by the four so pre. viously selected. Penalty for re dispatches. 14 Stat. 221; 18 id. 250; R. S. 5267. SEC. 459. Before any telegraph company shall exercise any of the powers or privileges conferred by law such company shall file their written acceptance with the Postmaster-General of the restrictions and obligations required by law. 14 Stat. 222; R. S. 5268. SEC. 460. Whenever any telegraph company, after having fusal to transmit filed its written acceptance with the Postmaster-General of the restrictions and obligations required by the act approved July twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, entitled "An act to aid in the construction of telegraph lines, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes," or by sections four hundred and fifty four to four hundred and sixty, inclusive, shall, by its agents or employés, refuse or neglect to transmit any such telegraphic communications as are provided for by the aforesaid act, or by said sections, or by the provisions of section two hundred and twenty-one of the Revised Statutes, authorizing the Secretary of War to provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations and other points of the interior of the continent, and for giving notice on the northern lakes and sea-board of the approach and force of storms, such telegraph company shall be liable to a penalty of not less than one hundred dollars and not more than one thousand dollars for each such refusal or neglect, to be recovered by an action or actions at law in any district court of the United States. 17 Stat. 356, 367; 19 id. 232, 252; R. S. 5269. way and water. SEC. 461. All patents for lands within the States of Cali- Timber lands to be patented fornia, Oregon, and Nevada and in Washington Territory, subject to ac valuable chiefly for timber, but unfit for cultivation, which crued right of may be granted under the provisions of the act of Congress rights. approved June third, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, shall not be held to abrogate the right of way of ditch and canal owners acquired under the provisions of the act of July twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and all such patents shall be subject to any vested and accrued water-rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water-rights, as may have been acquired under and by the provisions of said act; and such rights shall be expressly reserved in any patent issued under this act. 20 Stat. 89. (For authorities, see section 423.) Sec. CHAPTER TWENTY. PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS. 462. Patents to issue for claims heretofore 463. Price of surveys, how fixed. Patents to issue for claims hereto Sec. vate land claims which cannot be located. 465. Issuance and location of judicial scrip in lieu of confirmed private land claims. SEC. 462. In case of any claim to land in any State or fore confirmed. Territory which has heretofore been confirmed by law, and in which no provision is made by the confirmatory statute for the issue of a patent, it may be lawful, where surveys for the land have been or may hereafter be made, to issue patents for the claims so confirmed, upon the presentation to the Commissioner of the General Land Office of plats of survey thereof, duly approved by the surveyor-general of any State or Territory, if the same be found correct by the Commissioner. But such patents shall only operate as a relinquishment of title on the part of the United States, and shall in no manner interfere with any valid adverse right to the same land, nor be construed to preclude a legal investigation and decision by the proper judicial tribunal between adverse claimants to the same land. 10 Stat. 599; R. S. 2447. Villalobos v. U. S., 10 How. 541; Stanford v. Taylor, 18 id. 409; Ledoux v. Black et al., 18 id. 473; U. S. v. Fossat, 20 id. 413; U. S. v. Fossat, 21 id. 445; Castro v. Hendricks, 23 id. 438; Ballance v. Forsyth, 24 id. 183; Greer v. Mezes, 24 id. 268; Carondelet v. St. Louis, 1 Black, 179; Maguire v. Tyler et al., 1 id. 195; U. S. v. Covilland, 1 id. 339; U. S. v. Sepulveda, 1 Wall. 104; U. S. v. Halleck, 1 id. 439; U. S. v. Vallejo, 1 id. 658; U. S. v. Estudillo, 1 id. 710; U. S. v. Billings, 2 id. 444; Sutter's case, 2 id. 562; U. S. v. Pacheco, 2 id. 587; Fossat case, 2 id. 649; Dehon v. Bernal, 3 id. 774; U. S. v. Armijo, 5 id. 444; Higueras v. U. S., 5 id. 827; Alviso v. U. S., 8 id. 337; Maguire v. Tyler, 8 id. 650; Lynch v. Bernal, 9 id. 315; Henshaw v. Bissell, 18 id. 255; Shepley et al. v. Cowan et al., 1 Otto, 330; Miller et al. v. Dale et al., 2 id. 473; Tameling v. U. S. F. & E. Co., 3 id. 644; Van Reynegan v. Bolton, 5 id. 33; U. S. v. Throckmorton, 8 id. 61; Snyder v. Sickles, 8 id. 203. U. S. v. Garcia, 1 Saw. C. C. 383; Leroy v. Jamison, 3 id. 369; U. S. v. Flint, 4 id. 42; U. S. v. Castro, 5 id. 625. 9 Op. Att. Gen. 397; 12 id. 116, 250; 14 id. 74, 624. Whitney v. Nelson, 33 Wis. 365; Board of Com'rs v. Central &c. Co., 2 Colo. 628; Waterman v. Smith, 13 Cal. 373; Moore v. Wilkerson, 13 id. 478; Boggs v. Merced Mg. Co., 14 id. 279; Yount v. Howell, 14 id. 465; Mott v. Smith, 16 id. 534; Johnson v. Van Dyke, 20 id, 225; Mahoney v. Van Winkle, 21 id. 552; Thornton v. Mahoney. 24 id. 569; McGarrahan v. Maxwell, 27 id. 75; Treadway v. Semple, 28 id. 652; Seal v. Ford, 29 id. 104; Mahoney v. Van Winkle, 33 id. 448; Morrill v. Chapman, 35 id. 85; Bernal v. Lynch, 36 id. 135; Piper v. True, 36 id. 606; San José v. Uridias, 37 id. 339; Moore v. Massini, 37 id. 432; Yates v. Smith, 38 id. 60; Sabichi v. Aguilar, 43 id. 285; Miller v. Dale, 44 id. 562; Chipley v. Farns, 45 id. 527; San Diego v. Allison, 46 id. 163; Cassidy v. Carr, 48 id. 339; Morris v. De Celis, 51 id. 55; Cabunne v. Lindell, 12 Mo. 184; McGill v. Somers, 15 id. 80; St. Louis 174 v. Tonly 21 id. 243; Schultz v. Lindell, 24 id. 567; Maguire SEC. 463. The Commissioner of the General Land Office has power, and it shall be his duty, to fix the prices per mile for public surveys, which shall in no case exceed the maximum established by law; and, under instructions to be prepared by the Commissioner, an accurate account shall be kept by each surveyor-general of the cost of surveying and platting private land claims, to be reported to the General Land Office, with the map of such claim, and patents shall not issue for any such private claim until the cost of survey and platting has been paid into the Treasury by the claimant. Price of surveys, how fixed. location or scrip cannot be lo 12 Stat. 409; 18 id. 304; R. S. 2400. (For authorities see Sec. 112.) SEC. 464. Where any private land claim was confirmed, Certificates of by Congress prior to June second, eighteen hundred and to issue in satis fifty-eight, and the same, in whole or in part, has not been faction of confirmed private located or satisfied, either for want of a specific location land claims which prior to such confirmation, or for any reason whatsoever, cand. other than a discovery of fraud in such claim subsequent to such confirmation, it shall be the duty of the surveyor-general of the district in which such claim was situated, upon satisfactory proof that such claim has been so confirmed, and that the same, in whole or in part, remains unsatisfied, to issue to the claimant, or his legal representatives, certificates of location for a quantity of land equal to that so confirmed and unsatisfied, which certificates of location or scrip shall be subdivided according to the request of the confirmee or confirmees, and, as nearly as practicable, in conformity with the legal divisions and subdivisions of the public lands of the United States, and shall be assignable by deed or instrument of writing, according to the form and pursuant to regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, so as to vest the asignee with all the rights of Issuance and location of judi vate land claims. the original owners of the scrip, including the right to locate the same in his own name upon any of the public lands of the United States subject to sale at private entry, at a price not exceeding one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and shall be received from actual settlers only in payment of pre-emption claims or in commutation of homestead claims, in the same manner and to the same extent as is now authorized by law in the case of military bounty-land warrants. 11 Stat. 294, 295; 20 id. 274, 275. (For authorities see Sec. 341.) SEC. 465. Whenever, in cases prosecuted under the acts cial scrip in lieu of Congress of June twenty second, eighteen hundred and of confirmed pri- sixty, March second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and the first section of the act of June tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, providing for the adjustment of private land claims in the States of Florida, Louisiana and Missouri, the validity of the claim has been, or shall be hereafter, recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the court has decreed that the plaintiff or plaintiff's is or are entitled to enter a certain number of acres upon the public lands of the United States, subject to private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, or to receive certificate of location for as much of the land, the title to which has been established as has been disposed of by the United States, certificate of location shall be issued by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, attested by the seal of said office, to be located as provided for in the sixth section of the aforesaid act of Congress of June twentysecond, eighteen hundred and sixty, or applied according to the provisions of this section; and said certificate of location or scrip shall be subdivided according to the request of the confirmee or confirmees, and, as nearly as practicable, in conformity with the legal divisions and subdivisions of the public lands of the United States, and shall be, and are hereby declared to be, assignable by deed or instrument of writing, according to the form and pursuant to regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, so as to vest the assignee with all the rights of the original owners of the scrip, including the right to locate the scrip in his own name; such scrip shall be received from actual settlers only in payment of pre-emption claims or in commutation of homestead claims, in the same manner and to the same extent as is now authorized by law in the case of military bounty-land warrants. 12 Stat. 85, 86; 20 id. 274, 275. (For authorities see Sec. 342.) NOTE. For acts providing for the adjustment of private land claims in the different States and Territories, see "Local and Temporary Laws," under the caption of each State and Territory. |