Weekly national intelligencer., 1860-05-12
GREAT LAND CASE DECIDED.

During the session of the Supreme Court Of the United
States which adjourned on Friday last to the first Mon
day in December next about seventy California land
were adndcated of which thirty where there est
on the ground of fraud One Of the thus decdedwas
of title decided in favor of the General GoyeHne
that known the Santian case = involving the tit
parcel Of land which is built large portion of
| of San Francisco and estimated to be worth ten
| millions of dollars. The original claimant Jos
DENTAL Santan, but the claim is now held by the
Francisco Land Association, having Office in PhiA1
pha, and the stock being principally owned by ctzeasf
that place The Philadelphia Inquirer says that the pur
chase originally made by the company with capital
of fifteen hundred shares of stock which afterwards
subdyded into twenty shares each the present number
being thirty thousand The price within four years past
has varied from maximum exceeding four thousand dol
lars per SHARE to the minimum which touched Sat
urday under the pressure of the adverse opinion of the Su
preme Court foryfve dollars The stock has never had
place the books of the Brokers' Board and ransac
tons therefore familiar to the street TIE
great of holders however have been always gentle
of the highest character and who took part in it in
good faith.
The came before the Supreme Court of the United
States appeal from the California courts The Board of
Land Commissioners of that State decided in favor of
the legality of the grant and both the Circuit and Dis
trict Judges of the United States had coneurred in
affirming the decision of the Board. The Supreme Court
has reversed all these decisions of the inferior courts and
held: First that there legal tte any record ey
dence in the archives, of the genuneness of the grant
second that for want of consideration there equity
any evidence to show that it genuine instrumek
third, that it appeared from the evidence that the
not made at the time bears date but was fabricated
after the acquisition of California by the United States
probably about the year $780, and false and fraudulent
The Philadelphia Press gives brief history of the grant,
as follows:
The grant purports to be made by Governor Pho Pico
the 10th of February 1886 to Padre Sanan, admin
istator of the Mission Dolores at San Francisco for two
square leagues of mission lands covering ten thousand
of the city, and valued altogether at about fifteen millions
of dollars Sanan secular priest in poor and
circumstances and part Indian. The claim first heard
of in 1850 and in the decision of the court suggested
to have been fabricated about that time and aneate6
The present Catholic Bishop of California testified before
the court that he knew of grant of this kind and
that 1t unheard of and unusual The claim pre-
sented to the Land Commission at San Francisco in 1852
by James H. Bolton, partner OF the firm of Bolton,
Barron q Co.. who profess to have purchased iroEl
Santian for some unnamed Santilan immediately al
ter left California and is resident of Mexico and
has been out OF the way since his alleged sale to Boz
ton. Subsequently to the filing of the claim by Bolton in
the Land Commission he sold the grant to Palmer Cook d
Co., bankers of San Francisco, for 200000 They form
ed 0ltstock company, and disposed OF onehaf of the
shares Phladepha for about what the whole cost them
Subsequently, the failure of that house put the balance Of
the stock into the hands of Phadephans who had ad
yanced heavily to that 1t s therefore, amosta
Philadelphia
g From the developments in the Court at WashmgtoH
the case was made and perecty itFcepaF
ed that nothing appeared upon the record mpeaclf th
validity of the grant. 1t calculated to misl man
of our best lawyers who examined it and to whom it
submitted The question is, who perpetrated this
fraud? While deeply regret that the decision should
fall heavily upon many of best citizens, justice to
Attorney General BLACK demands that should say that
much of the credit of unraveng the tangled web of this
mysterious affair should be given to him. He has abored
with unwearied industry and ability IN this well in