To James Madison from Albert Gallatin, 15 January 1806 (Abstract)
From Albert Gallatin, 15 January 1806 (Abstract)
§ From Albert Gallatin. 15 January 1806, Treasury Department. “I have the honor to enclose the copy of a letter of the Register of the Treasury stating certain inconveniencies which arise from the delays in obtaining Patents for lands.1 Complaints of a similar nature have been made by individuals; and it is necessary that you should be informed that the number of applications for Patents daily increases, and will probably be much greater during this year than it has heretofore been. Should it appear to you, on an investigation of the subject, that this increase of business which may be considered as permanent, cannot be met without an additional clerk, I will thank you to communicate the same to me, in order that the item may be included in the estimate of additional appropriations for the present year.”
RC and enclosure (DLC: Gallatin Papers). RC 1 p.; docketed by Wagner, with his note: “delay in issuing Land patents.” For enclosure, see n. 1.
1. The enclosure (2 pp.; docketed by Wagner) is a copy of Joseph Nourse to Gallatin, 14 Jan. 1806, reporting that the receiver of the Steubenville, Ohio, land office had complained of a delay in sales to second purchasers where a “precise period is fixed” based on the time that might be supposed to elapse between the issuance of the final certificate at the land office and the issuance of the patent at Washington because the patent had not been sent out in a timely fashion. Investigation showed that either from the number of the proofs forwarded from the Treasury Department to the State Department or from some other reason the patents had not been issued and sent to Nourse’s office for transmittal to the land office. He suggested that some arrangement could be made between the two departments to eliminate the inconvenience.