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COLLECTED AND ARRANGED

PURSUANT TO AN ACT OF CONGRESS,
PASSED APRIL 27, 1810.

WASHINGTON CITY:

PUBLISHED BY ROGER C. WEIGHTMAN.

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AN ACT

Providing for the printing and distributing of such laws of the United States as respect the Public Lands.

BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be and he is hereby authorised to cause to be collected into one volume, and arranged, the several laws of the United States, resolutions of the Congress under the confederation, treaties and proclamations that have operation and respect to the public lands; and to cause twelve hundred copies to be printed, one of which shall be transmitted to each of the existing land boards of commissioners for settling land claims, and a copy to each of the registers and receivers of public monies of the several land offices of the United States; and the residue of the said copies shall be preserved for the future disposition of Congress.

J. B. VARNUM,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

JOHN GAILLARD,

President of the Senate, pro tempore.

APRIL 27, 1810-APPROVED,

JAMES MADISON.

INTRODUCTION.

This collection is divided into two parts: the first embraces such public acts as relate to the Title of the United States to the Public Lands:The second consists of the resolutions and acts of Congress respecting the Disposal of the lands.

Under the first head, are included,-1. Treaties with foreign nations so far as they relate to the acquisition of territory, or to the boundaries of the United States.

2. Cessions of territory to the United States by indivi dual states, members of the Union; and acts of Congress relative thereto.

3. Treaties with Indian tribes, so far as they relate to the extinguishment of the Indian title to the public lands.

The treaties with foreign nations by which territory has been acquired, or which relate to boundaries, are those of 1783 and 1794 with Great Britain, of 1795 with Spain, and of 1803 with France.

The treaty of peace (of 1783) with Great Britain, which designated the boundaries of the U. States, left however some unsettled points. The question relative to the true river St. Croix, the eastern boundary of the United States, has been determined in pursuance of the treaty of 1794. That respecting the rights of the two nations over certain islands at or near the mouth of that river, has not yet been adjusted. But as the disputed territory in both cases belongs to the state of Massachusetts, neither of those questions affects the public lands of the U. States. The same observation applies to certain islands in the river St. Lawrence which continue to be claimed by Great Britain; and which are presumed to belong to the

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