Arizona citizen., 1875-10-09
LAND TITLES IN ARIZONA.
Valuable Official Documents Re- iRting Thereto.

NaAuNDte OAAGlNA ADOch.nehts AAc-
 iating Thereto.
 For the bench, of our readers gener- erally, we today give considerable space to the subject of Spanish or Mexican land grants in Arizona. Sep. tcmber IS, the following article ap- peared in Thc Alta:
 An Arizona journal says there is need in that Territory of all Act to set tie land titles, similar 10 the statute passed for California AS this State has had little experience in that line, We venture To give some advice to our southern neighbor, and it is to devise some other plan to plunder the land owners and enrich the lawyers. That law 10 settle land titles was one of the greatest wrongs and misfortunes that ever afflicted q civilized community Nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since its passage, and we are not yet rid of its perniciOus effects. It declared every land title invalid, order ed every land owner to sue the United States, and imposed upon him the burden of proof and the expense of collecting the evidence Families who had occupied their ranches for three generations, under grants, the genuine ness of which was above all doubt, were put on a level with fellows who had never seen the land which they claimed under grants dated in lS45 or 1S46, or had even the forged papers. Let no such foul injustice be repeated in Arizona, or elsewhere.
 The Act to settle titles in Arizona should declare that occupation as d homestead, with a lot of specified size, or of a farm of not less then l60 acres on a certain date-which might be either the day when Arizona was brought under the American Flag, or better yet, January 1st, lS77-shall be regarded as equivalent t0 fee simple title, the occupation to be proved wiJh aS little ceremony and expense as possible. All claims for larger tracts should be classified and treated accord ing to their classes. Thus. all that were occupied at the date of the Gads- den Treaty and held under Mexican | = questioned, should be examined by processes more simple than those re- quired in reference Co tracts that were never occupied, and claimed under titles of which there is no public re ord. Every claimant should be per mitted to file q copy of the survey, showing the boundary of his land, and if that Joe approved by the Court, the matter may bs settled at once; and fl a government official must make the survey, provision should be made for a prOmp, and final settlement without appeals 10 distant and costly tribunals
 The Alta speaks kindly and evident ly with virgCou- intentions, and pre- sents & few hints of probable value; bus il need u5; be worried owe. families who have occupied ,heir ranches for " three generations '" under genuine or any other grants, Niihin the bounia- ries of Arizona, for We believe 1t safe to say that not one has done any such thing since the acquisition oi this Ter rito-g-, nor dc we believe one purchas- CT O. a genuine or fraudulent grant, is now actually living on it. And further, it is somewhat doubtful if grant now exist il Aiizona, which the Mexican government would have been obliged by law or other legal requirements to confirm lo the claimant, had she re tained possession of Arizona; in proof of which assertion, we submit the fol- lowing official documents, extracts from which have been heretofore pub lished in TIE CITIZEN, but now give them entire, and invite careful attcn- ton to their contents and high official character:
 Message from the President of the
 United States, communicating, in
 answer to a Senate resolution of Feb
 ruary 8. 1S13, information in relation
 to the condition of the records and r documents of Mexico relating 10 the land now embraced within the Ter
 ritories of Arizona and New Mexico; {;
 also to their place of custody and
 deposit. and to the method of pro
 curing authentic transcripts of such
 records and documents.
 December 10, 1S74-Read, ordered to lie on the table and be printed. To the Senate of the United States :; ] In answer to the resolution of the Sen ate of the Sd of February, 1873, l transmit herewith a report from the { Secretary of State, together with the papers which accompanied 1t.
 U. $. GRANT WASHINGTON, December $, 1874.