{"character_count": 1805, "word_count": 311, "ccnet_language_score": [0.9503999948501587], "ccnet_perplexity": [1321.800048828125], "fasttext_language": ["en"]}
ask the State to select the lands to which they have thus relinquished all claims. Upon such state of facts, 1t seems to me, that the State clearly has the right to make the selec- tions. The statute gives the States the right to make thelr locations "on any public land, except such as is, or may be reserved from sale by any law of Congress, or proclama- tion of the President of the United States 5 Aiter.the relinquishment of all claims of pre- emption right, is not the land in question public land, within the meaning of the act :? If the pre-emptors have claims, they certain y can, and are competent to relinquish them Pre-emptlon claims are recognized as bene- fits conferred upon the claimants. The gov ernment has no correlative claim or right: 1t can Institute no process, nor use other means to compel pre-emptors toperfect their claims, nor can it prohibit their relinquishment and abandonment. Nor, after the expiration of the time limited for the perfection of such claims, can the government claim damages for any failure, nor can 1t then prevent or prohibit the State from selecting the lands so previously claimed. As the pre-emptors de- sign the State of Michigan shall have the lands in question, what could the Govem- ment gain, by refusal to recognize the relin- quishments now rendered, when, after the ex- piration of the time limited in the statute, it could then no longer interpose objection to the selection by the State

 Permit me to conclude, by expressing the hope, that you will give orders, withoutd delay, to tbe Registers at Kalamazoo, and Ionia, to recognize selections by the State, of pre-emp- ton claims, on filing in their respective off, ces, relinquishment of the same, by the pre-emptors.

 l have the honor to be,

 your ob't servant,

 (Signed) JNO. S. BARRY