Las Vegas free press. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1891-1???, 1892-07-22
the Las Vegas grant complications,
1 am Very Respectfully Yours,
(Signed) o. d. BARRETT.
THE LAS VEGAS GRANT.

The surveyor general, in his report
of December Is, 1858, to the com
missioner of the general land Office,
states, in effect, that the lands en-
braced in the Las Vegas grant were
first granted to Luis Maria Baca, and
that "the grant was an absolute one"
to which "no condition was at
tached."
The committee of the senate to
which the matter was referred report
ed that "this (the Baca) grant was in
fee and is a genuine and valid title"
This grant was made to Baca in
1921, was confirmed in 1926, and the
grantee was soon after placed in
possession.
The subsequent attempted grant of
this same land to another party was
made in 1885.
The conclusion of the surveyor
general, as to the validity of these
two grants, is "that in the absence of
the one the other would be a good
and valid grant"
This is legal conclusion that the
first grant is good and valid abso-
lutte, and that the second is absolute
ly void; for it is as absolutely impos-
sible that two valid grants of the
same identical land can exist at one
and the same time to two separate
parties, as it is that two particles of
matter can at the same time occupy
the same identical space.
The surveyor general, after show
ing in his said report that the grant
to Baca was absolutely valid, and
that the attempted grant to the sec
ond part, whether that was to Juan
de Diose Maese and others, or to the
town of Las Vegas, or to all men
wanting land, was absolutely void,
concludes his report as follows:
"The case is hereby respectfully
referred to congress through the
proper channel, for it's action in the
premises"
The report having reached con-
gress, and those two claims having
been treated as one claim, and known
as No. 20, it enacUed as follows:
"Section 3. And be it further en-
acted, that the private land claims in
the territory of New Mexico, as rec
commended for confirmation by SAID
surveyor general in his reports and
abstract marked Exhibit A, as COM
municated to congress by the secre-
tary of the interior in his letter dat
ed the Sd of February, 1860, and
numbered from 20 to SO, both inclu-
sive, be and the same are hereby con-
firmed.'
Act of June 81, A. d. 1860, U. s..
Stats. at Large, Vol. 10, p. II.
AT the time this so-called second
grant was made no power existed to
make or to authorize it to be made,
inasmuch as the land in question had
been previously granted to another in
fee absolute, in which grantee the
title in fee remained.
Now, as a valid grant can be con-
firmed, and as a grant in form, made
at a time when there existed no
power anywhere either to make 1t
or authorize its making, can not be
confirmed either by a sovereign or
by any other party, it follows that said
act confirmed the Baca grant and
left the other grant as void as it had
been before. BY SAID confirmation
congress recognized the title to the
land in question as having been in
Baca and his heirs and as continuing
in them.
Then congress proceeded deliber-
ately to buy out the BaGa heirs, of,
fering them an equal amount of gov
eminent land in New Mexico, and
giving them three years in which 10
accept the offer.
See Sec. of the act above referred
TO.
Until the acceptance of this offer
there can be no possible doubt that
the title 10 the land in ouestion re-