The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-06-24
Popular Talks on Law.
NO. l.

10 obtain an adequate idea OF the
the law of any country, one mus
travel to its sources and follow it,
growth from its very beginning. Lei
usipursue this method in few studies
on'the growth of our law. Inethe first
:, plGceItheseeds Of American jurisprud.
snoe swere trAnsplanted from the old
world. THE navigators, explorers,
missionaries, reformers, gold seekers,
81 Of the very earliest days, brought to
our shores along with their intense
desire for conquest, for individual
gain, for the glory of their soyereigns,
and forreligious freedom, the customs
and laws Of the homes they left and
, adopted them in the new world so far
as they were fitted to their circum-
sstanees ard their environment. The
English brought with them the price
less heritage of the common law of
England. and the French and Spanish
brougAt the principles and codes built
hupon the foundations Of the civil law
rthe lawqof Rome.
Of the early explorers succeeding
Columbus, there was Juan Ponce de
Leon, who landed in 1918, near st.
A igustine, iRFloldia, in'search of the
Fountain of Youth; in 1920, Spanish
ships touched the coast Of Carolina; in
1921 the territory now known as Texas,
New Mexico and California became q
part Of q great province attached to
Spain by the conquest of her great ex-
lplorer, Cortez. De Soto, another
: Spaniard, led party from Florida
across the country to the Mississippi
in 1912. In 1584-5, Sir Walter Raleigh
sent two expeditions to North Caro-
Sllna. A Spanish settlement was made
at st. Augustine 1865. jamestown,
Va, became the first Englishment set
element in 1907. New York New
Netherlands, in 1913, was settled by
by the Dutch, and Plymouth, Mass,
10y the English in 1920. La Sale ex-
plored the great lakes and the Miss
issippi in 1852 the French establishing
settlements at. Kaskaskia and Arkansas |
Post in 1885, and Mobile and Vim
'cennes In 1902. Thus, England. Spain
and France divided among themselves
the great continent of North America.
Spain got the southern, England the
central, and France the northern por-
ton.
The discoveries thus made vested
the new lands In the sovereign. His
title was that by discovery grounded
upon the three following ideas: The
christian nation that discovers
heather land owns it to the exclusion
of all other christian nations. This
nation to complete its title must
within reasonable time, occupy and
use this land. The native inhabitants
are only the occupants of the land and
not its owners.
For over one hundred years from
the discovery BY Columbus no settle-
ment deservingoof more than passing
mention was made in the new wOl Id
by the English. Many and feeble at
temps were made. fearful hardships
endured, heroic efforts put forth, but
in vain. Raleigh's and brakes efforts
were unsuccessful. The Spanish set
dement's were more successful, and
for clearreason. Spain looked upon
her explorations as means toward ex-
tending her dominion, Che looked
forward to another great Roman En-
pire. Her explorations were in
sense, official, and once a post was
planted, high officers of state with
large salaries were annexed to it, thus
patronage, wealth and pop
ulation. 1t was otherwise with the
English. In nearly ev9ry case coloni-
cation and exploration was private ell
Cerprise; If unsuccessful drawing in its
wake individual suffering and loss, but
II successful, resulting in little indeed
to the individual but everything to the
crown. Left thus to their own re-
sources, English colonies in America
had precarous existence for the first
one hundred and fifty to two hundred
years leading one writer to say of the
British colonists rs late as the end of
the seventeenth century, "they were
robbers and pirates on q large scale.