for the confinement of such offenders; and they shall be sentenced to confinement in the house of refuge nearest the place of conviction so designated by the Attorney-General. [R. S.] Act of March 3, 1865, ch. 121, 13 Stat. L. 538; Act of March 5, 1872, ch. 30, 17 Stat. L. 35. An act to prohibit any officer, agent, or servant of the Government of the United States of America to hire or contract out the labor of prisoners incarcerated for violating the laws of the Government of the United States of America. [Act of Feb. 23, 1887, ch. 213, 24 Stat. L. 411.] [SEC. 1.] [U. S. convicts not to be hired out to labor.] That it shall not be lawful for any officer, agent, or servant of the Government of the United States to contract with any person or corporation, or permit any warden, agent, or official of any State prison, penitentiary, jail, or house of correction where criminals of the United States may be incarcerated to hire or contract out the labor of said criminals, or any part of them, who may hereafter be confined in any prison, jail, or other place of incarceration for violation of any laws of the Government of the United States of America. [24 Stat. L. 411.] SEC. 2. [Penalty for violation of act.] That any person who shall offend against the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned for a term not less than one year nor more than three years, at the discretion of the court, or shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars for each offense. [24 Stat. L. 411.] SEC. 3. [Repeal.] That all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed; and this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. [24 Stat. L. 411.] * * * That hereafter no pay [SEC. 1.] [Keeping of Indian convicts.] ment shall be made to any State or Territory for maintenance and keeping in prison of Indian convicts convicted in any State or Territorial court for violation of the provisions of said section nine of the said Act approved March third, eighteen hundred and eighty-five. * [28 Stat. L. 441.] * This is from the Deficiency Appropriation Act of Aug. 23, 1894, ch. 307. PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS, COURT OF. Act of March 3, 1891, ch. 539, 48. 3. Notice of Organization of Court to Be Published, 50. 4. Records of General Land Office and Surveyors-General to Be Produced in Court, 51. 5. Testimony of Persons Now Dead, When to Be Admitted, 51. 6. Claimants under Unconfirmed Grants - Petitions—Furisdiction and Procedure Notice Decree on Default, 51. 7. Proceedings After Petition - Hearing and Determination - Decree, 53. 8. Claimants under Completed Title Hearing and Determination. firmation and Effect, 54. Con 9. Appeal to Supreme Court - Hearing and Decree Notice to AttorneyGeneral, 55. 10. Final Decree of Confirmation to Be Certified to Commissioner of General Land Office - Survey and Patent, 56. 11. Claim of City, Town, or Village, 57. 12. Limitation of Time Powers of Fudges in Vacation to Order, Papers, Witnesses, Contempts, 57. Powers of Court as 13. Rules of Decision Claims Allowed-Limit of Amount - Effect of Allowance or Confirmation, 58. 14. Money Fudgment Against United States Where Lands Decreed to Claimant Have Been Granted by United States, 62. 15. Investigation by Surveyor-General Repealed, 62. 16. Recognition in Future Township Surveys of Adverse Possession of Limited Tracts Review and Issue of Patents by Commissioner of General Land - Office, 63. 17. Entry of Lands by Adverse Possessors in Surveyed Townships — Surveys, 63. 18. Time for Filing Claims, 64. 19. Functions of Court, When to Cease, 64. Act of Fune 6, 1900, ch. 791, 65. Sec. I. Publication of Notice of Survey, 65. An act to establish a court of private land claims, and to provide for the settlement of private land claims in certain States and Territories. [Act of March 3, 1891, ch. 539, 26 Stat. L. 854.] [SEC. 1.] [Court of private land claims established — justices — appointment salaries jurisdiction and procedure officers of court-sessions.] That there shall be, and hereby is, established a court to be called the court of private land claims, to consist of a chief justice and four associate justices, who shall be, when appointed, citizens and residents of some of the States of the United States, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice Transfer of powers to commissioner of general land office. By the Sundry Civil Appropriation Act of April 28, 1904, ch. 1762, 33 Stat. L. 485, all the powers of this court, in the approval of surveys executed under its decrees of confirmation, are conferred upon the commissioner of the general land office from and after June 30, 1904. See Appendix. and consent of the Senate, to hold their offices for the term expiring on the thirty-first day of December, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-five; any three of whom shall constitute a quorum. Said court shall have and exercise jurisdiction in the hearing and decision of private land claims according to the provisions of this act. The chief justice and associate justices shall each receive a compensation of five thousand dollars per year, payable monthly, and their necessary traveling and personal expenses while engaged in the performance of their duties. The said court shall appoint a clerk, at a salary of two thousand dollars a year, who shall attend all the sessions of the court, and a deputy clerk, where regular terms of the court are held, at a salary of eight hundred dollars a year. The court shall also appoint a stenographer, at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year, who shall attend all the sessions of the court, and perform the duties required of him by the court. The said court shall have power to adopt all necessary rules and regulations for the transaction of its business and to carry out the provisions of this act; to issue any process necessary to the transaction of the business of said court, and to issue commissions to take depositions as provided in chapter seventeen of title thirteen of the Revised Statutes of the United States. Each of said justices shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations. It shall be the duty of the United States marshal for any district or Territory in which the court is held to serve any process of the said court placed in his hands for that purpose, and to attend the court in person or by deputy when so directed by the court. The court shall hold such sessions in the States and Territories mentioned in this act as shall be needful for the purposes thereof, and shall give notice of the times and places of the holding of such sessions by publication in both the English and Spanish languages, in one newspaper published at the capital of such State or Territory, once a week for two successive weeks, the last of which publications shall be not less than thirty days next preceding the times of the holding of such sessions, but such sessions may be adjourned from time to time without such publication. [26 Stat. L. 854.] "By the treaties with Mexico of Feb. 2, 1848, art. 8, the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (9 Stat. L., p. 115, of treaties), and of Dec. 30, 1853, art. 5 (10 Stat. L. 1035), the private property of Mexicans resident in the territory ceded thereby to the United States was guaranteed protection. The private titles to land rested upon Spanish and Mexican grants. By 1854, July 22, ch. 103, sec. 8 (10 Stat. L. 309), a method was provided for the investigation of such grants, looking to the confirmation of bona fide grants by Act of Congress. Less than a hundred grants were finally settled under that law in nearly thirty-seven years, and this Act (sec. 15) now repeals it." Compiler's Note, 1 Supp. R. S. 519. * * Constitutionality. "While claimants under grants made by Mexico or the Spanish authorities prior to the cession had no right to a judicial determination of their claims, Congress nevertheless might provide therefor if it chose to do so. And it was for this purpose that the Act of March 3, 1891, was passed, establishing the Court of Private Land Claims for the settlement of claims against the United States to lands ' derived by the United States from the Republic of Mexico.'” U. S. v. Coe, (1894) 155 U. S. 76. It is clearly within the authority of Congress to establish a court for determination of a claim against the United States to lands situated in a territory. U. S. v. Coe, (1894). 155 U. S. 76. "The Power of political department. duty of protecting imperfect rights of property under treaties, such as those by which territory was ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848 and 1853, in existence at the time of such cessions, rests upon the political and not the judicial department of the government. To the extent only that Congress has vested them with authority to determine and protect such rights can courts exercise jurisdiction. When, therefore, a tribunal of limited jurisdiction is created by Congress to determine such rights of property, a party seeking relief must present for adjudication a case clearly within the act, or relief cannot be given." U. S. v. Santa Fé, (1897) 165 U. S. 675; U. S. v. Sandoval, (1897) 167 U. S. 278. Undoubtedly private rights of property within the ceded territory were not affected by the change of sovereignty and jurisdiction, and were entitled to protection whether the party had the full and absolute ownership of the land or merely an equitable interest therein which required some further act of government to vest in him a perfect title. But the duty of providing the mode of securing these rights, and of fulfilling the obligations imposed upon the United States by the treaties, belonged to the political department of the government; and Congress might either itself discharge that duty or delegate it to the judicial department.' Rio Arriba Land, etc., Co. v. U. S., (1897) 167 U. S. 298. Determination of claims prior to this Act. "In respect of the adjustment and confirmation of claims under grants from the Mexican government in New Mexico and Arizona, Congress reserved to itself, prior to the passage of the Act of March 3, 1891, creating the Court of Private Land Claims, the determination of such claims. Astiazaran v. Santa Rita Land, etc., Co., (1893) 148 U. S. 80; Ainsa v. U. S., (1896) 161 U. S. 208." U. S. v. Sandoval, (1897) 167 U. S. 278. Purpose of Act." The Court of Private Land Claims was specially organized by the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. L. 854), ch. 539, for the purpose of hearing and determining claims of a particular character specially pointed out and described in the body of that Act. It has no other jurisdiction than that granted by Congress, being confined entirely to claims of the character mentioned in the Act." Las Animas Land Grant Co. v. U. S., (1900) 179 U. S. 205. Determination of question of public or private property.—“The main object of the Court of Private Land Claims is to ascertain and determine whether the land claimed as private property under the treaty is in fact private property, or, on the contrary, is public property. In the latter case, of course, a confirmation is refused; in the former case a confirmation is made if the claimant appears to have, as between himself and the United States, the right to it, but subject to the rights of others who are at liberty to assert their superior title in the local courts." U. S. v. Conway, (1899) 175 U. S. 60. United States ownership. But the United States, in dealing with the claimant under Mexican grants which had come into the political control of our government by the treaty of Mexico, never made pretense that it was the owner of the lands so granted by Mexico. When, therefore, guided by the action of the tribunals which the government had established to pass upon the validity of these alleged grants, it issued a patent to the claimant, it was in the nature of a quitclaim, an admission that the rightful ownership had never been in the United States, but at the time of the cession it had passed to the claimant or to those under whom he claimed. Beard v. Federy, (1865) 3 Wall. (U. S.) 478; Henshaw v. Bissell, (1873) 18 Wall. (U. S.) 268; Miller v. Dale, (1875) 92 U. S. 478; U. S. v. Conway, (1899) 175 U. S. 60; Adam v. Norris, (1880) 103 U. S. 591. "It was Litigation over private titles. not the object of the Act to permit private titles to be litigated in the Court of Private Land Claims (although perhaps this may be done incidentally), but merely to determine if and to whom the United States ought to release its rights as sovereign proprietor of the soil." U. S. v. Conway, (1899) 175 U. S. 60. Right of expatriated citizen to arbitration. - A citizen of the United States in 1889 who expatriated himself in that year and became a citizen of Mexico cannot invoke article XXI. of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo for an arbitration as against an act of this government done while he was a citizen thereof. His claim to certain lands in the territory of New Mexico, and his remedy if he has any, are under the Act of March 3, 1891.) (1891) 20 Op. Atty.-Gen. 118. SEC. 2. [United States attorney — interpreter.] That there shall also be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a competent attorney, learned in the law, who shall when appointed be a resident and citizen of some State of the United States, to represent the United States in said court. Such attorney shall receive a compensation of three thousand five hundred dollars per year, payable monthly, and his necessary traveling and personal expenses while engaged in the discharge of his duties. And there shall be appointed by the said court a person who shall be when appointed a citizen and resident of some State of the United States, skilled in the Spanish and English languages, to act as interpreter and translator in said court, to attend all the sessions thereof, and to perform such other service as may be required of him by the court. Such person shall be entitled to a compensation of one thousand five hundred dollars per year, payable monthly, and his necessary traveling and personal expenses while engaged in the discharge of his duties. [26 Stat. L. 855.] SEC. 3. [Notice of organization of court to be published.] That immediately upon the organization of said court the clerk shall cause notices thereof, and of the time and place of the first session thereof, to be published for a period of ninety days in one newspaper at the city of Washington and in one published at the capital of the State of Colorado and of the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico. Such notices shall be published in both the Spanish and English languages, and shall contain the substance of this act. [26 Stat. L. 855.] SEC. 4. [Records of General Land Office and surveyors-general to be produced in court.] That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the General Land Office of the United States, the surveyors-general of such Territories and States, or the keeper of any public records who may have possession of any records and papers relating to any land grants or claims for lands within said States and Territories in relation to which any petition shall be brought under this act, on the application of any person interested, or by the attorney of the United States, to safely transmit such records and papers to said court or to attend in. person or by deputy any session thereof when required by said court, and produce such records and papers. [26 Stat. L. 856.] SEC. 5. [Testimony of persons now dead, when to be admitted.] That the testimony which has been heretofore lawfully and regularly received by the surveyor-general of the proper Territory or State or by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, upon any claims presented to them, respectively, shall be admitted in evidence in all trials under this act when the person testifying is dead, so far as the subject matter thereof is competent evidence; and the court shall give it such weight as, in its judgment, under all the circumstances, it ought to have. [26 Stat. L. 856.] The purpose of this section in permitting the use, subject to the restrictions and qualifications found in the Act, of the proceedings had before the surveyor-general was to allow all the proof then existing to be received, and to be given such weight as it was entitled to have. U. S. v. Ortiz, (1900) 176 U. S. 422. Supplementary proceedings. - Under the provisions of this section supplementary proceedings which had been had before the surveyor-general may be introduced in evidence. The power of the surveyor-general is not ex hausted by the original investigation and report, and a succeeding incumbent of the office may take any additional testimony as to the genuineness or validity of the grant. The function of the surveyor-general, under the Act of 1854, ch. 103, was merely advisory, and until action by Congress had supervened it was not only the right but the duty of that official to hear additional evidence and transmit it for the consideration of Congress in a claim pending for confirmation. U. S. v. Ortiz, (1900) 176 U. S. 422. SEC. 6. [Claimants under unconfirmed grants — petitions — jurisdiction. and procedure-notice - decree on default.] That it shall and may be lawful for any person or persons or corporation, or their legal representatives, claiming lands within the limits of the territory derived by the United States from the Republic of Mexico and now embraced within the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, or Utah, or within the States of Nevada, Colorado, or Wyoming by virtue of any such Spanish or Mexican grant, concession, war rant, or survey as the United States are bound to recognize and confirm by virtue of the treaties of cession of said country by Mexico to the United States which at the date of the passage of this act have not been confirmed by act of Congress, or otherwise finally decided upon by lawful authority, and which are not already complete and perfect, in every such case to present a petition, in writing, to the said court in the State or Territory where said land is situated and where the said court holds its sessions, but cases arising in the States and Territories in which the court does not hold regular sessions may be instituted at such place as may be designated by the rules of the court. The petition shall set forth fully the nature of their claims to the lands, and particularly state the date and form of the grant, concession, warrant, or order of survey under which they claim, by whom made, the name or names of any person or persons in possession of or claiming the same, or any part |