Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-05-24
THE PERALTA GRANT
THE ACTION OF COMMISSIONER
 GROFF IN THE MATTER.
The Claim Ignored by the General Land Office and Ordered Stricken From
 the Records of the Surveyor General of Arizona.
Commissioner Groff to Royal A. John.


 General of Arizona. Commissioner Grof to Royal A. John
 son, Surveyor-General, Tucson, Ari-
 zona, Feb. 20, 1890.
 I have recently examined, with care, the papers and correspondence before this office ill the matter of the claim set up by James A. Reavis and wife, to body of land in your district, which claim is predicated upon an alleged grant to one Don Miguel de Peralta, by Spanish authority in the l 18th century; the treaty between this government and Mexico signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, l 1843, and whatever laws and regula- tions Congress has since provided for making operative the terms of said treaty, respecting private rights of property in lands within the ceded territory.
 Considerable correspondence has been had, in the past few years, upon certain phases of this case; which again demands attention under the following circumstances, namely:
 On September 24th last, the Acting Commissioner of this office addressed a letter 10 you in relation to papers, etc, in your office, connected with the "Reavis claim" copies of which parties might wish to obtain; and you were instructed "that whatever copies, or papers, or records of any kind, are made out in regard to the matter must be transmitted through this office, and not sent or delivered to the parties direct"
 Incidentally you were requested to | report "the exact condition of said grant as shown by papers and records in your office, and all the information you can obtained in regard to it." This call for information was not intended as direction to you to i'm media.ely make up the record, com plete or incomplete, from the evidence before you, with view to the sub- mission of the same to Congress neither was it intended that any step whatever should be taken which would clothe the case with any addi- tional dignity, or cause alarm to the inhabitants of Arizona Territory whose interests might seem to be menaced
 Were this a case, which prima facie, involved some legal or equitable rights, and ought therefore to be laid before Congress for its action, the considera- tion of it in your office should have been exhaustive; and the record con- pared in as complete manner as posi- ble, after full investigation, before your report and recommendation were submitted; but the correspondence had in this matter shows that there is no fund available for more thorough ly investigating and exposing this alleged claim.
 You have, it is represented, no means of obtaining and perpetuating additional evidence of the visionary character of this so-called grant, and | you state that "the triplicate copies | of the papers on file here to accom- pany the report is tremendous un- dertaking and will be next to impossi- ble within reasonable time !" < | "that you require Spanish copyist for Spanish documents" more clerks, etc.
 It is evident from the foregoing that the matter is not in 8 condition | to be laid before Congress, even if the ! law were mandatory upon the Land | Department to pursue that course when fictitious claims are presented | to surveyors-general; which I do not believe to be either the meaning or intent of the law upon the subject.
 If it IS susceptible of such interpre- tation the entire Territory of Arizona might possibly be placed: in reserva- tion at the will of few persons who might choose to assert dubious or entirely unfounded claims to the soil, | under grants from former govern ments; ia result repugnant to public policy and destructive of public and private rights" as was set forth by former Commissioner of this office.
 You report this as an attempt at | gigantic fraud upon the government, nothing more, and i'll the connection | 1 call attention to office letter address ed to you on the same subject May ,, 1885, in which the Commissioner used the following language: "The essen tial foundation of a recognizable.claim under the laws of Spain and the treat ies and laws of the United States, does not appear Tn this case. It Is my opinion that the futile work in which you have been engaged for year and a half in the direction of investigating an alleged claim which, from your own statements of it's uncorroborated character, has not been placed before you in condition to be entitled to consideration, should forthwith be dis continued.
 "The only effect of your action and proceedings has been to needlessly alarm citizens in lawful and peaceful possession of homes and property up on the soil, to threaten with insecuri- ty private titles in towns and cities. to imperil valuable mining interests and to intimidate settlements upon pub lie land"
 Since that time claimants have sought ill many ways to strengthen their case before the surveyor-general for Arizona; nevertheless, by the let ter from which the above extract is made, further proceedings in your of flee touching this so-calied "Peralta grant" were practically inhibited, and this interdiction has never been of ficially removed SO far as shown by the | records here.
 A full discussion of the various points raised by you, leading to the conclusion that here is no valid claim which this government is forced to | respect, is deemed unnecessary, unless required of me in the future by high CT authority.
 Three principal questions present | themselves for consideration.
 lst. Was there ever grant to one | "Peralta," in the manner, and for the | lands, as alleged?
 2d. If there was such grant, can the lines of the concession be laid down on the earth's surface with such certainty as to avoid interference with the legal rights of others?