Monday, February 24.
Western Lands.
The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the report made the 18th instant, by the committee appointed to inquire whether any, and, if any, what, alterations are necessary in the laws providing for the sale of the lands of the United States north-west of the Ohio; and, after some time spent therein, the committee rose and reported several resolutions thereupon; which were severally twice read, and agreed to by the House, as follows:
Resolved, That all the townships directed to be sold, either in quarter townships or in tracts of one mile square, by the act "providing for the sale of the lands of the United States, in the Territory north-west of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of Kentucky River," shall be subdivided into half sections, containing, as nearly as may be, three hundred and twenty acres each: the additional expense of surveying to be paid by the purchaser, at the rate of three dollars per tract.
Resolved, That all the said lands shall be offered for sale at public sale, in tracts of three hundred and twenty acres as above directed: Provided, That the same shall not be sold under the price of two dollars per acre, and that the sale shall be at the following places, to wit:
All the lands contained in the seven first ranges of townships, and north of the same, shall be offered for sale at Pittsburg.
All the lands contained in the eight next ranges of townships, shall be offered for sale at Marietta.
All the lands lying west of the fifteen first ranges of townships, and east of the Sciota River, shall be offered for sale at Chillicothe.
All the lands lying below the Great Miami shall be offered for sale at Cincinnati.
Resolved, That one or more land offices shall be opened in the North-western Territory, and that every person be permitted to locate and purchase, at the rate of two dollars per acre, one or more of the half sections that shall not have been sold at public sale.