Speech #500033330

Speaker. as this case can be more easily and briefly explained orally than by reading the report. I will. with the permission of the House. make a brief statement. By the laws of the Republic of Texas the headright certificates for 640 acres of land were authorized to be issued to immigrants who had resided in the Territory a certain length of time. and those rights were confirmed by the State of Texas after it was admitted into the Union. All of these claims within the boundaries of the State have been confirmed as to their title. so far as to enter a patent and make the title perfect. In the case in question a certificate of the kind I have described was issued and the land located within the boundaries of the Republic of Texas. but after the State came into the Union. its boundaries extending to the Rio Grande. the United States purchased a large additional tract of land. for which it paid about $10.000.000. and it happened that this 640 acres was included in the tract purchased by the United States.