The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-07

missioner OF the General Land ONCE, Mr..
Sparks. is a voluminous document, and treats
very fully all matters connected with that
bureau. From the report it is learned that.
during the last fiscal year, the sales, entries, and
selections of public land, under various acts of
Congress relating thereto, embrace 20, liz, 663.37
acres, and of Indian lands 8S1. $500 acres,
making a total of 20, 995, 513. So acres, being a
decrease, as compared with the year 1884. OF
1856, CSC. Al acres. and an increase over the year
1883 of 1865, 4S0. IS acres.
The receipts from the disposals of public
lands are 81, CSC. ia. so; from sales of Indian
lands, 1898, 483 SO; a total of $8, GIG, 598 80, being
a decrease, as compared with the year 1884, OF
$4, 159, 532. Oh, and with 1883 of So, 086, 167. SO, to
which is to be added So, 82l. Sc for certified
copies of records furnished by the General Land
Office, making the total receipts for the year.
from all sources, So, 628, 400. 18.
In reference to the Maxwell grant the report
says:
'In July last 1 submitted to you the result of
my investigation of the proceedings of this office
by which the notorious Maxwell or Beaubin
and Miranda grant in New Mexico and Colorado
was patented in 1879 for upward of LOO. 900
acres, when, if the grant had possessed any
oilStud Ndilulty, III qudutlty iSRdliy CldlIudDI6
under it could not have exceeded 96. 900 acres,
and this quantity only was patentable by the
effect of congressional confirmation. 1t was so
found by Mr.. Secretary Cox in 1869, and his
judgment had not been reversed when, upon a
forced assumption OF the applicability of a Judi
cial decision in another case, and a tortuous con-
struction of a general letter of advice from a
succeeding Secretary, this office resurrected the
extinguished claim for excessive quantity, and
passed it to patent without written decision.
and withnrIf nnpnrf1nitu haipn a fnr2al oI,,apcn
parties or protestants to appeal to tine Secretary,
or invoke his supervisory Judgment and this in
the face OF a large number of letters, complaints,
petitions, protests, and charges which had been
transmitted to this Office and department from
citizens of New Mexico, alleging fraud in the
location and boundaries of this claim, its extern
sion far beyond any original claim or possession
by the grantees, the invasion of settlement
and mining rights, and of the rights of native
inhabitants and Indian occupants
1.-THE files of this Office groan with the pitifui
appeals OF settlers to be protected against fraud
ulent surveys of private land claims, which ap-
pear generally to have received no more atten-
ton than to be buried in the tomb of official
archives. Recent memorialists, PRAYING legal
Intervention to save their homes and property
from seizure under a patent issued in 1881 for
nearly 1000. 900 acres to the claimants of the
Sangre de Cristo grant in Colorado, which, if ex-
lstent and valid, was restricted by the laws of
Mexico to one-tenth of the quantity conveyed by
eAAS NAANOS "a bPOh % CCAth " lEduuS III
juries alleged that against these wrongs, petit
tons time and again have been filed directed to
the Honorable Secretary of The Interior, all of
which might AS well have been directed or con-
signed to a fiery furnace
I'm 1870. upon application of the heirs of Ger
vacio Nolan for the confirmation of two grants
alleged to have been made to their ancestor I'M
der the colonization laws of Mexico, aggregat-
ing as alleged. upward of 500, 900 acres, Con-
gress made confirmation of one to the extent of
p1ovan oOunp O loo p,1ao CIV fnlt Sat,,foo 80 Sc Ill
further claims and demands against the United
States This conditional confirm alton was based
upon the report of the proper that
Mexican laws limited the amount of public lands
of the nation that could be granted to one indi-
vldual to eleven square leagues 49, 900 acres),
and this settlement of all claims was virtually
acquiesced in by counsel for claimants before
the committee and by claimants themselves
IN their selection and Acceptance of patent for the
quantity so confirmed.
but this Office, upon private request, as ap-
pears from the records, reopened the claim in
1880 that had been settled by Congress in 1870,
by authorizing the surveyor-general of New
Mexico to cause a preliminary survey to be
made of the unconfrmed private land claim of
Gervacio Nolan and a survey of the claim so
attempted to be reviviied was subsequently, ex-
ecuted and plats filed in this Office and the local
office. No other reason was assigned for order
ing the survey than that claimants were willing
to pay the cost of it. The survey as made and
returned embraces upward of SIS, 900 acres, or
twelve times the legal quantity if the grant had
not been satisfied. This case was fully re-
ported to you by me May 80 last. l am now in
receipt of information that settlers OF the lands
are being threatened with eviction upon the plea
that the survey thus executed fixes the locus of
the grant and creates a presumptive title in
the grant claimants. n
IA common usage in Spanish countries, fol-
lowed in Mexico, was to make small individual
grants of cultivable lands and to put the grantee
into possession of a larger quantity of common
land. which he could use until granted to an.
other; but the power of the government to dispose
of the title was always maintained for the public
benefit and to serve the uses of increasing popu-
latlon. The fee did not pass with this posses
sion. Yet in the practice of this government it
appears to have been believed of late that the
possession controlled the grant, and the volume
of private land claims in New Mexico. Colorado
and Arizona has been predicated upon alleged
possession. Colonization and settlement grants
were conditioned upon occupation and improve
ment. The time when complete title could be OBJ
tanned was far In the future. Meanwhile the
right of announcement and resumption remained
in the government. In succeeding to the ohliga-
tions of Spain and Mexico this governments sue
ceeded to the rights of the former authority. It
has not been shown to me that forfeitures have
ever been considered a limitation upon the obi
cations of the United States.
Valid property rights there are and have
been which have failed of protection. The grant
to the inhabitants of the town of Anton Chico,
reported by the surveyor general as a com
munity grant and confirmed by Congress as re-
ported, and upon which the descendants of the
original grantees were living, as did their
fathers before them, was patented by depart
mental order in 1883 to a single individual hav-
ing no more or greater right than any one other
of the inhabitants whose collective possessions
in 3S3, S56. 81 acres of land, including their homes
and improvements, were bestowed upon the
patentee against petitions and protests repre-
senting 3, 900 people.
''Prescriptive rights were acquired by in
habitancy under Spanish and Mexican laws.
The native populations of New Mexico and
Arizona, relying upon these a~cknowledg ed rights
and their long possessions, and ignorant of
American laws, customs, and language, have
rested in fancled security that, as citizens pro-
tected by the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo,
their property rights were safe from invasion
under the laws of the United States. They now
find that, Notwithstanding their equitable claims
and legal rights, the homes and possessions of
&hrsy -aastnr nf fhoppcnlyac on1 &c %bo,.