Amador weekly ledger., 1858-04-10
The Pico Claim.

"" "ehate Vi tue people OF this
county therefore they ought to be posted up
on it, Some may say that am officious in
TINS matter; well, they are at liberty to say
Just what they please about it. am resolv-
ed to continue talking and writing about this
nefarlous iniquity. 1t is with exceeding
pleasure that | undertake to refute the vari-
GUS false!positons assumed by the defenders of
snd-robbing. And, now will direct my at
tention to proposition advanced by some
sophists They contend that Glands claimed
under any foreign grant or title" are not La
BILE to pre-emption. Undoubtedly that is the
language OF the 9th section of the law of
Congress which provides for pre-emptions in
this State, and it was also the language of
the 9th section of the pre-emption law in
Louisiana. Then the proper construction of
the one is the proper construction of the
other. What was the construction OF the
Louisiana law? Why, that it did not refer
TO floating grantsy 1t could not apply to
any claim not segregated from the public do
main and located by metes and bounds. at
can only REFER" says the Supreme Court of
the United States, ito specific tracts of land
that are claimed the tract claimed must be
certain Certainly mere floating claim
founded on concession that was ordered to
be located by survey and where no survey
or location has been made, was not protected
by the 9th section" Is this authority not in
point in constituting the prc-emption law of
this Slater 1t seems to me so. 1t appears
to Inc to be conclusive when | observe the
whole current of adjudicated cases tending to
the same result and conclusion. And be-
sides, when l consider the peculiar wording
OF the law. Congress uses significant Ian
guage. They say "lands claimed" shall be
exempt from the operation of the pre-emp-
ton law. They do not say "all lands to be
claimed" They use the past aud not the fu-
ture tense. If they meant the words Gland
claimed, y to include land to be claimed sub
Sequently, why did they not say so? Were
they not sufficiently acquainted with their
vernacular language to express their actual
meaning? If they intended these words to
comprehend land not claimed at the time of
the passage of the law, they Notwithstanding
failed to express it, and we can only CLEAN
their intention from their language and for
mer construction of similar acts existing at
the time. Then, if it only protects those
claims whose locality was reduced to a GER
tainty aud claimed at the time the law was
made, can it affect the settler who is located
upon lands sand claims by virtue of pre-emption
right, and which land is covered by the Pico
claimy think not. At the time this law
was made and at the time the people Of this
county settled on the land now occupied by
them, the Pico fraud had not been heard of;
and no one supposes that he or any one else
had any right or pretended right to any land
in this region of country for years after it
had all been settled upon and cultivated. 1t
would be an outrage upon every principle Of
law, equity, common right aud good sense to
allow so base an imposition to be perpetra-
ted on the poor toing agriculturalists as this
nefarious Pico would impose. cannot see
how he can be permitted to commit so vile an
iniquity.
1t is thought by some that you have no
right to avail yourselves Of the benefit of the
pre-emption laws until the land is surveyed.
| will correct that mistake. The law itself
says that all lands whether surveyed or un-
surveyed" should be liable to be pre-empted,
excepting the mineral lands, &c. This, then
puts quietus to that question. There are
many reasons why the people of Amador
county can protect themselves against the
Pico claim if they will go to work right
But there is one thing sure, and that is that
if they do not do something the time will
come when it will be too late to do anything
There should be we'll organized opposition
to this claim. See the success Of the people
OF San Francisco against Limantour. They
have him just about defeated, and he will
have to look ont pretty sharp if he does not
have to expiate his vlainy in the State Pris-
on. The people are after him; but had they
slept in their dull apathy the cause would
have gone by default, and the citizens been
elected from their homes, and Limantour been