United States General Land Office

“ June 12, 1840 35 Chapter XXXV. An Act to authorize registers and receivers to administer oaths required to be taken by purchasers of public land. June 12, 1840 36 Chapter XXXVI. An Act for the discontinuance of the office of Surveyor General in the several districts, so soon as the surveys therein can be completed, for abolishing land offices under certain circumstances and for other purposes. ”

“ It is well known that the General Land Office has encountered great difficulties in making correct selections of the lands which the bounty of Congress has bestowed on the States to aid in works of internal improvement. ”

“ And for that reason, Section 103 (c) ’s third sentence provides a kind of escape hatch—for times when the Park Service believes regulation of the inholdings is needed. In that event, “the Secretary may acquire such lands” from “the State, a Native Corporation, or other owner.” §3103 (c) . (As noted earlier, facilitating those acquisitions was one reason Congress put non-federal lands inside park boundaries in the first instance. See supra, at 7.) When the Secretary makes such a purchase, the newly federal land “become [s] part of the [system] unit.” ”

“ The land laws need complete revision to secure proper conservation on the one hand of land that ought to be kept in public use and, on the other hand, prompt disposition of those lands which ought to be disposed in private ownership or turned over to private use by properly guarded leases. In addition to this there are not enough officials in our Land Department with legal knowledge sufficient promptly to make the decisions which are called for. ”

“ Disposal of Remaining Federal Land- (1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary may, by sale or exchange, dispose of all, or a portion of, the parcel of National Forest System land comprising approximately 220 acres, as generally depicted on the map that remains after the conveyance of the Federal land authorized under subsection (b) , if the Secretary determines, in accordance with paragraph (2) , that the land or portion of the land is in excess of the needs of the National Forest System. ”

“ For under metropolitan conditions fee ownership, either of land or of its development rights, seems to give the only certainty of control over land's use. Obviously its potential employment by government is limited in a free economy, and such things as zoning and subdivision controls—strengthened and made rational—are going to have to continue as main tools, together with devices like scenic easements, which usually, however, again involve a form of purchase. ”

“ Under the stimulus of State and Federal encouragement, mainly quite recent and to some extent tied in with this Potomac effort, most counties in the Basin have arrived at some awareness of the need for land-use planning. In many farming communities, the seeds of this awareness were planted long since by the Soil Conservation Service. But rural folk often lack a sense of the urgency of the need, an understanding of dangers and aims under urban or semi-urban conditions, money with which to operate, and the detachment that is requisite for making right decisions. ”

“ There shall be allotted to each citizen one hundred and sixty acres of land boundaries to conform to the government survey-which may be selected by him so as to include improvements which belong to him.' While citizens were thus permitted to make their selections for the purpose of retaining improvements, it seems clear that in case any citizen failed to avail himself of this right, it was permissible for the Commission to make the allotment. ”

“ Let our government instead take over all private, state, or federal unproductive lands, whether it is fertile, arid or marsh. Statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Agriculture Economics on federal rural lands, on page 7, shows that the federal lands, swamps and marshes are 3,000,000 acres, barren and brush land 40,000,000 acres, non-forested range land 234,000,000 acres, crop land 4,000,000 acres ”

“ This is the first state to be formed out of the public domain, known at this time as the "Northwest Territory." The land ordinance bill of 1785 and the homestead act of 1862 {332} relate to the development and settlement of the public domain, the first being a plan of survey applied to all public lands owned by the United States government; the other being a law by which the possession of these lands was made possible to settlers. ”

“ As there were no authentic records in the Land Office to show the exact situation, the newly-appointed Land Agent made a complete abstract exhibiting the status of affairs, from which it was ascertained that the State was still entitled to about 8,000 acres of indemnity from the United States. This base was worth $5 an acre in the open market, but instead of disposing of it in that manner, West used it, so far as it went, in amending the basis of those selections where it was demonstrated the applicants had acted in good faith. ”

“ But questions of fact upon which its jurisdiction rests are never so regarded. Thus, whether a tract of public land be swamp, mineral, or agricultural, may be finally determined by the Department; but whether a tract is public land is not so determined, and in all the multitude of cases that have been presented to this court it has never even been suggested that a ruling of the Department that a tract was public land was conclusive unless it appeared that the Land Department was guilty of some abuse of its discretion or powers. ”

“ It is equally plain that no public lands belonging to the United States were granted to be used for that purpose. Express authority is given to the governor and board of public works to make arrangements to secure land fronting on Pennsylvania and Louisiana avenues, between Seventh and Ninth streets, if they deem it advisable, for that purpose. ”

“ A common field lot, as intended by said act of Congress, is a piece of land of larger or smaller dimensions, as the case may be, according to ancient cultivation, lying alongside of, and parallel to, other similar pieces of land, and claimed or cultivated under the protection of a common fence by those who inhabited said towns or villages prior to the 20th December, 1803; and said pieces of land might not have been conceded or surveyed by any French or Spanish authority, or surveyed officially by the United States as a common field lot. ”