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Homestead Act
December 2, 1861
Thirty- Seventh Congress of the United States
At the second session BEGUN AND HELD AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON in the
District of Columbia
Monday the second day of December one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one
AN ACT to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the
public domain.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled.
That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the
age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who
shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required
by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne
arms against the United States government or given aid and comfort to
its enemies, shall from and after the first January, eighteen hundred
and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity
of unappropriated public lands, upon which said person may have filed
a pre-emption claim or which may, at the time the application is made,
be subject to pre-emption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less,
per acre; or eighty acres or less of such unappropriated lands, at two
dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity
to the legal subdivision of the public lands, and after the same shall
have been surveyed: Provided, That any person owning and residing on land
may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying contiguous
to his or her said land, which shall not with the land so already owned
and occupied, exceed in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the person applying for
the benefit of this act shall, upon application to the reg- ister of the
land office in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit
before the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a family,
or is twenty-one years, or more of age, or shall have performed service
in the Army or Navy of the United States, and that he has never borne
arms against the government of the United States or given aid and comfort
to its enemies, and that such application is made for his or her exclusive
use and benefit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual
settlement and cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for
the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever; and upon
filing the said affidavit with the register or receiver and on payment
of ten dollars he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity
of land specified: Provided, however, That no certificate shall be given
or patent issued therefor until the expiration of five years from the
date of such entry; and if, at the expiration of such time or at any time
within two years thereafter; the person making such entry or, if he be
dead, his widow, or in case of her death, his heirs or devises, as in
case of a widow making such entry, her heirs or devises, in case of her
death - shall prove by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have
resided upon or cultivated the same for the term of five years im- mediately
succeeding the time of filing the affidavit aforesaid and shall make affidavit
that no part of said land has been alienated and that he has borne true
allegiance to the government of the United States; then, in such case,
he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen of the United States shall
be entitled to a patent as in other cases provided for by law: And provided
further, That in case of the death of both father and mother, leaving
an infant child, or children, under twenty-one years of age, the right
and fee shall enure to the benefit of said infant child or children; and
the executor, administrator, or guardian may, at any time within two years
after death of the surviving parent, and in accordance with the laws of
the State in which such children for the time being have their domicil,
sell said land for the benefit of said infants, but for no other purpose;
and the purchaser shall acquire the absolute title by the purchase, and
be entitled to a patent from the United States, on payment of the office
fees and sum of money herein specified.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the register of the land
office shall note all such applications on the tractbooks and plats of
his office, and keep a register of all such entries and make return thereof
to the General Land Office, together with the proof upon which they have
been founded.
Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That no lands acquired under
the provisions of this act shall in any event become liable to the satisfaction
of any debt, or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the patent therefor.
Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That if at any time after
the filing of the affidavit, as required in the second section of this
act, and before the expiration of the five years aforesaid, it shall be
proven, after due notice to the settler, to the satisfaction of the register
of the land office, that the person having filed such affidavit shall
have actually changed his or her residence, or abandoned the said land
for more than six months at any time, then and in that event the land
so entered shall revert to the government.
Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That no individual shall be
permitted to acquire title to more than one quarter section under the
provisions of this act; and that the Commissioner of the General Land
Office is hereby required to prepare and issue such rules and regulations,
consistent with this act, as shall be necessary and proper to carry its
provisions into effect; and that the registers and receivers of the several
land offices shall be entitled to receive the same compensation for any
lands entered under the provision of this act that they are now entitled
to receive when the same quantity of land is entered with money, one half
to be paid by the person making the application at the time of so doing,
and the other half on the issue of the certificate by the person to whom
it may be issued; but this shall not be construed to enlarge the maximum
of compensation now prescribed by law for any register or receiver; Provided
that nothing contained in this act shall be so construed as to impair
or interfere in any manner whatever with existing pre-emption rights.
And Provided, further, That all persons who may have filed their applications
for a pre-emption right prior to the passage of this act shall be entitled
to all privileges of this act: Provided, further, That no person who has
served, or may hereafter serve, for a period of not less than fourteen
days in the army or navy of the United States, either regular or volunteer,
under the laws thereof, during the existence of an actual war, domestic
or foreign, shall be deprived of the benefits of this act on account of
not having attained the age of twenty-one years.
Sec.7. And be it further enacted, that the fifth section of the
act entitled "An act in addition to an act more effectually to provide
for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States and for
other purposes," approved the third of March, in the year eighteen
hundred and fifty-seven, shall extend to all oaths, affirmations, and
affidavits, required or authorized by this act.
Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act shall
be so construed as to prevent any person who has availed him or herself
of the benefits of the first section of this act, from paying the minimum
price, or the price to which the same may have graduated, for the quantity
of land so entered at any time before the expiration of the five years,
and obtaining a patent therefor from the government, as in other cases
provided by law, on making proof of settlement and cultivation as provided
by existing laws granting pre-emption rights.
Galusha A. Grow, Speaker of the House of Representatives
Solomon Foot, President of the Senate pro tempore
Abraham Lincoln
Approved, May 20, 1862
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