(DOWNLOAD) "John D. Clements, Appellant v. Jonathan R. Warner" by United States Supreme Court # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: John D. Clements, Appellant v. Jonathan R. Warner
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 01, 1860
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 65 KB
Description
The appellee filed this bill in chancery in the Circuit Court to quiet his title to a portion of section thirty-three, in township seventeen north, of range eight east, of the third principal meridian, in the county of Champaigne, Illinois. By the act of Congress of the 20th September, 1850, for granting the right of way and making a grant of land to the States of Illinois, Mississippi, and Alabama, in aid of the construction of a railroad from Chicago to Mobile, (9 Statutes at Large, 466,) there was granted to the State of Illinois, for the purpose of making the railroad described in the title of the act, every alternate section of land designated by even numbers, for six sections in width on each side of the road; and in case any of these sections had been sold, or were subject to a pre-emption claim, then the State was authorized to select from the lands of the United States, contiguous to the tier of sections before mentioned, so much land in sections and parts of sections as should make up the full complement of land included in the concessions in the act. The act further provided, that the sections and parts of sections of lands which, by the grant, might remain to the United States within six miles on each side of the road, should not be sold for less than double the minimum price of the public lands, when sold. To comply with the requirements of this act, the Commissioner of the General Land Office withdrew from entry, or sale the land on either side of the track of the road, until the State of Illinois could make the selections that were authorized by it. These were completed in 1852, and during that year the President of the United States by a proclamation directed the sale of those sections and parts of sections along the line of the road that had remained to the United States, after the satisfaction of the grant to Illinois. Such of the sections as were not sold became subject to private entry. The section of land described in the plaintiff's bill, a portion of which forms the subject of this suit, was one of these, and was purchased at private sale at the land office, in November, 1855, by a person under whom the plaintiff derives his claim, and who has the usual receipt given by the receiver of the land office. The conflicting claim against which the appellee seeks relief originates in an entry by the appellant in November, 1856, as having a pre-emption right under a settlement began in October, 1855, before the date of the entry on which the title of the appellee is founded. A patent issued to the appellant as having the superior claim. The object of the bill is to reverse the decision of the officers of the land office, and to obtain a relinquishment of the legal title evinced by this patent, and the only question presented is, whether the land was the subject of a pre-emption right in November, 1855.