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appeared for the Bureau, and it was clearly shown that the land belonged at the time of the surrender to the late so called Confed. States, & the question was made before His Honor that the land, by virtue of the act of Congress passed over the President's vetoe on the [[strikethrough]] on the [[/strikethrough]] 16 July 1866, should be turned over to the Bureau under the 12th Section of said act, (which see [[pamph?]] acts page 176 for 1865-1866-) We sent his Honor your letter to Mobile, also a formal claim and a written agreement showing as we then & still think that after the passage of the act above named the court had no power to order a sale of said land. This brief &c was prepared & enclosed on the 21st December 1866 to his Honor at Mobile, and on the 28th of Decr 1866, he pronounced a decree in writing ordering the land be surveyed into lots and sold. As this order interfered materially with the interests of the Bureau which had taken possession of the lots and made improvements thereon by the erection of tennements which were occupied under its supervision, as you informed us, we prepared a petition on the 18 or 19th January last and submitted it to his Honor praying that the order of sale might be revoked & the land turned over to the Bureau to be disposed of according to said statute. His Honor on the 19 Jany 67 declined to grant this,

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One [[?]] remains.