General Land Office 16th January 1856
Sir
Your letter of 23d Nov last, to A. J. McCalla Esq of this City, having been referred by him to this Office – I herewith transmit – in compliance with the request therein contained – copies of Circulars issued under the preemption laws – and have to advise you, that by the 12th section of the Act of 22d July 1854, Chap. 103 – “all lands to which the Indian title has been or shall be extinguished within the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas,” are made “subject to the operation of the preemption Act of 4th Sept. 1841: - this provision of law, not extending however, to the lands ceded by the Delawares (with the exception of the “Outlet”) Ioway’s and Weas; in as much as the Indians have a reserved interest in the lands thus ceded by them, and, under the Treaty, they are to be sold by the United States, on account and for the benefit of said Indians.- Under the aforesaid Act of 1841, a party claiming its benefits, must be an inhabitant of the tract sought to be entered, upon

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which, in person, he has made settlement and erected a dwelling house etc
Respectfully Your Obt. Srvnt Thos. A. Hendricks Commissioner John H. Halderman Esq Leavenworth City Kansas Tr.