Departments. That all persons that can be said to hold an office under the Government about to be established under the Constitution were intended to be included within one or the other of these modes of appointment there can be but little doubt. This Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and no act of Congress is of any validity which does not rest on authority conferred by that instrument." Notaries public in and for the District of Columbia are appointed by the President under the act of Congress approved June 7, 1878 (20 Stat. L., 101); they are therefore of the inferior class of officers of the United States for whose appointment Congress has made provision under the authority conferred in the last clause of the second paragraph of section 2, article 2, of the Constitution. Applicants for admission to practice before the Department and its Bureaus, under the regulations prescribed pursuant to act of Congress approved July 4, 1884, who have held commissions from the President as notaries public, have uniformly been refused recognition for the reason that they were inferior officers of the United States and therefore within the inhibition of section 5498 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. As indicating the practice of the courts in the matter of admission of officers of the United States thereto in the prosecution of claims against the United States, attention is directed to In re Tyler (18 Court of Claims, 25), wherein it was held that a retired army officer is an officer of the United States within the meaning of section 5498 of the Revised Statutes, and that it was not the duty of the court to permit a violation of the statute in its presence by admitting the officers to appear as attorneys for clients in that court. The rule laid down in the Tyler case is reiterated in the Winthrop case, reported in 31 Court of Claims, 35. It will thus be observed that the objection of the Department to the recognition of notaries public in the District of Columbia, as attorneys for clients, is a statutory one. However, I have to state that the Department has no objections to interpose to the passage of the proposed legislation, or to the recognition of notaries public as attorneys for clients, if the statutory prohibition is avoided. Very respectfully, The ATTORNEY-GENERAL. RESURVEY OF LAND IN COLORADO. APRIL 13, 1906.—Ordered to be printed. Mr. HANSBROUGH, from the Committee on Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. 1178.] The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1178) providing for the resurvey of a township of land in Colorado, having had the same under consideration, report it back with an amendment and recommend that as amended the bill do pass. The suggested amendment is as follows: At the end of the bill add the following: Provided further, That before any survey is ordered it shall be made to appear to the Secretary of the Interior that the former official survey of said lands is so inaccurate or obliterated as to make it necessary to survey the land, and only such parts of the land where the survey is so inaccurate or obliterated shall be surveyed. The bill as amended meets with the approval of the Interior Department, as will appear from the following letters of the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the General Land Office: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, SIR: I have received, by reference from your committee, a copy of S. 1178, entitled "A bill providing for the resurvey of a township of land in Colorado," with a request for the views of the Department thereon. The letter was referred to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and for your information I inclose a copy of his report thereon under date of the 31st ultimo. The Commissioner has stated therein that he is unable to report as to the necessity for the resurvey, and he has recommended that the defects of the original survey be first ascertained by an examiner of surveys, and he has incorporated in his report a proviso which will effect that end if added to the bill. I concur in the report of the Commissioner. Very respectfully, E. A. HITCHCOCK, Secretary. Senate. The CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS, 8 R-59-1--Vol 2- -22 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, SIR: I am in receipt, by your reference dated January 26, 1906, for report in duplicate, with recommendation and return of papers, of Senate bill 1178, providing for the resurvey of a township of land in Colorado, which was referred to the Committee on Public Lands and by that committee referred to the Department with request for its views thereon. The text of the bill is as follows: "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, author. ized to cause to be made a resurvey of the lands in township numbered sixteen south of range numbered seventy-one west of the sixth principal meridian, in Fremont County, in the State of Colorado; and all rules and regulations of the Interior Department requiring petitions from all settlers of said township asking for resurvey and agreement to abide by the result of same, so far as these lands are concerned, are hereby abrogated: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to impair the present bona fide claim of any actual occupant of any of said lands so occupied." I have the honor to report that the survey of this township was executed in 1880, prior to the field examinations now required, by deputy William Murray. It appears from the records of this office that only about one-tenth of the land in this township has been entered for agricultural purposes, this portion being in the north and west. The greater part of the lands appear to be mountainous. I am unable to report as to necessity for the resurvey, as the office has on file no recent complaints of defective or fraudulent surveys in this township. I recommend, therefore, that the defects in the original survey be first ascertained by an examiner of surveys. In Nebraska certain surveys were authorized at the last session of Congress, the act for which contained the following proviso: "That before any survey is ordered it shall be made to appear to the Secretary of the Interior that the former official survey of said lands is so inaccurate or obliterated as to make it necessary to survey the land, and only such parts of the land where the survey is so inaccurate or obliterated shall be surveyed." The adoption of a similar proviso in connection with bill No. 1178 would secure the examination recommended by this office. Very respectfully, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. W. A. RICHARDS, Commissioner. T = LANDS IN TINCUP, COLO., FOR CEMETERY PURPOSES. APRIL 13, 1906.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. HANSBROUGH, from the Committee on Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. 1476.] The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1476) granting certain lands to the town of Tincup, Colo., for cemetery purposes, having had the same under consideration report it back with an admendment and as amended recommend that the bill do pass. Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the following: That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to cause a patent to be issued to the town of Tincup, Colorado, from and out of the Leadville Forest Reserve, for the west half of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section seven, township fifteen south, range eighty-one west, of sixth principal meridian, for cemetery purposes, such patent to issue only after the filing of due proof with the land department of the incorporation of said town, and said patent to contain a clause that in case the land, or any portion thereof, shall be devoted to other than cemetery uses the land shall thereupon revert to the United States. The report of the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the General Land Office upon the proposed legislation is as follows: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, SIR: I am in receipt, by reference from your committee, requesting facts and information touching the subject-matter of the proposed legislation, of S. 1476, entitled "A bill granting certain lands to the town of Tincup, Colorado, for cemetery purposes.' Said bill was referred to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and on the 7th instant he submitted a report thereon, a copy of which I have the honor to inclose for your full information in the premises. The Commissioner urges no objection to the passage of the bill when amended as suggested in his report, and calls attention to the fact that the lands described therein, being within a forest reserve, are now under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture in so far as they are affected by the administration of the forestry laws. I concur in the Commissioner's report. Very respectfully, Secretary. E. A. HITCHCOCK, United States Senate. The CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS, |