Executive order passed, which remain undisposed of. Where the entire purchase money had not been paid, the power, as well as the propriety of the law declaring them forfeited, was regarded as less questionable; but upon a careful examination of the provisions of the act, it was believed the expense the State would incur in causing the sale to take place, would absorb the receipts, or so nearly so, as to render it desirable to postpone all action, and refer the subject to the present Legislature, with the view of having such amendatory legislation as would diminish the expense of selling, and secure with greater certainty a fair equivalent for the lands when sold.
It is my duty to bring to your notice the situation of a large number of fraction owners, whose lands were forfeited by the act "to authorize the Governor to appoint fit and proper persons to sell the undrawn lots in the land lotteries heretofore had in this State, and to limit the time for fraction purchasers to pay for and take out grants," passed at the last session of the Legislature.
The Surveyor General furnished this Department with the number of undrawn lots and fractional lots ungranted on the 1st of November 1848; but before the sales were ordered, as required by the act, it was made known to me that many of the undrawn lots had been sold under authority of law, and the purchase money paid, and that quite a number of the ungranted fractional lots had been fully paid for by the original or subsequent purchasers long anterior to the period fixed as a limitation to issuing grants. In most instances also proof was adduced showing that the certificate of purchase had been transferred from the original to subsequent purchasers bona fide, and that the present owners were ignorant that the grants had not issued from the State. Becoming satisfied that a large number of worthy land holders were likely to lose, in many instances, their most valuable real estate, from ignorance of the law rather than a desire to delay or evade the just claim of the State to the grant fee, it was believed to be in strict conformity with the liberal policy and high sense of justice exercised by the State towards her citizens, to direct the sale in all such cases to be suspended upon the deposite of the grant fee with the Treasurer, or agent appointed for that purpose, and the production of satisfactory proof of ownership or interest in the party making the deposite.
The sum of $698 50 is now in the hands of the Treasurer, on deposite, being the grant fees for two hundred and twenty-three undrawn and fractional lots, for which no grants have yet issued, or will issue until directed by the Legislature.
It is therefore recommended that the sum of money in the hands of the Treasurer, be directed to be transferred to the
