NATIONAL CONTROL AND DISPOSITION. The constitution of the United States (article 4, sec. 3, par. 2) provides that : "The congress shall have the power to dispose of and to make all needful rules and regulations re specting the territory or other property be longing to the United States," the word "property" in the above quotation meaning lands ; U. S. v. Bridge Co., 6 McLean 517, Fed. Cas. No. 16,114. Under the authority thus conferred upon it, the congress has pro vided a complete system for the regulation and disposal of the public domain. In the early stages of the history of the government the public domain was put within the juris diction and control of the secretary of the treasury, but on March 3, 1849, congress cre ated the home, now the interior department, and by section 3 of that law provided that "the secretary of the interior shall perform all the duties in relation to the general land office of supervision and appeal now dis charged by the secretary of the treasury." Thereafter the general land office became and still continues to be a bureau in the interior department. The secretary of the
interior is now charged with the supervi sion of the public business relating to the public lands, including mines and pension and bounty lands. R. S. chaps. 2 and 3, title 11. See LAND OFFICE.
Under the supreme control which bas been vested in it by the constitution, the congress has divided the public domain in to various land districts, and has provided for the appointment of a surveyor general for the states and territories, and of certain deputy surveyors; U. 5, R. S. §§ 2207-2233. It has also provided for the appointment of various registers and receivers, and the crea tion of what is known as local land offices in the various land districts. The duties of these officers is to receive applications to I enter the public lands under the various land laws, and to hear contests concerning the same, with rights of appeal to the general land office and from thence to the secretary of the interior. See U. S. R. S. §§ 2234-2247. For the various land districts and their crea tion, see U. S. R. S. § 2248.