Viewing page 12 of 36

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[stamp]] THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES I4 [[/stamp]]

Department of the Interior
Washington D. C. Dec 19th 1865

Sir:
I have received your letter of the 18th instant. 

A citizen of the United States possessing the prescribed qualifications, such as being of age or the head of a family &c, is authorized, upon certain conditions and limitations, to secure by pre-emption, at the minimum price, 160 acres of public land upon which he has actually settled. The homestead law confers on the persons described, after five years continuous residence thereon, and the payment of the fees of the officers and ten dollars, a title to a limited quantity of public land subject to entry at private sale. The provisions of the preemption and homestead acts apply to "freedmen" equally with other citizens of the United States.

I am not aware that any officer of the Government has authority to reserve public lands "for the purpose of freedmen's settlement," to the exclusion of the claims of other persons where rights of pre-emption or homestead settlement are recognized by existing laws.

You allude to what you term "the enclosed law" but no paper or other document was transmitted 
(over)