St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-26
The MAXWELL LAND GRANT
SECRETARY R0KE SMITH SHEDS LIGHT
ON THE QUESTION:.
NO CAUSE FOR ACTION


Patents Having Been Issued, the
Government Has4-No Further
Claim on the Lands, and to
Reopen Them for Entry Would
Only Mislead Innocent Parties
Into Making Entries.
DENVER. Col, Dec. 25.-Gov. Waite
today received from Hoke Smith, sec
rotary of the interior, the following
letter. In reply to one in which the gov
ernor characterized the Maxwell land
grant as "honey-combed with fraud:"
Washington, ID. c., Dec. %, 1893
Hon. Davis Ii. Waite, governor of COL
orado: This department is in receipt,
by reference of the commissioner of the
general land office, of your letter to hun
dated the 9th ultimo, inclosing a
petition by o. P. McMaius relative to
that part of the Beaubien and Miranda,
or Maxwell land grant, situated within
the state of Colorado. Mr.. McMains
requests that the plats of the public
survey OF the Colorado portion of the
alleged Maxwell grant be restored to
L
filings and entry, and for the enforce
ment upon which their 0he settlers
rights depend. lie says that these are
honey-combed with fraud, and that the
petition of the settlers be given careful
attention. and that the remedy which
practice demands be applied.
Congress, OH June 81, 1860. confirmed
the Maxwell grant" to the fullest ey-
tent OF the boundaries as described In
the petition of the claimants. In &C.
cordance with said act of congress. pat
ent was issued for said land on May 10,
1879. Suit was brought in the circuit
court of the United States, for the Dis
trist of Colorado, on Aug. %, 1882, to
have said patent vacated and set aside,
and the survey declared void in SO far
as it included land in Colorado. The
court dismissed the suit. Appeal was
taken to the supreme court of the
United States, which, on April IS, 1887.
rendered q decision sustaining the court
below in refusing to interfere with the
patent. This department has
NO JURISDICTION
over land after the issue of patent. It's
power over the land is ended when the
patent is issued and placed OIL the
records or the department. In this case,
not only had patents been issued, but
their validity has been sustained by the
highest tribunal of the nation. Mr..
McMains in his communication, how
ever, contends that the act of June 81.
1860, requires the Colorado portion of
the alleged Maxwell grant to be treated
as public land, because located within
the boundaries of the Virgil and St.
Vrain grant! The said commissioners
(rererring to Commissioners Carter and
Stone), wherefore, having simply re-
fused in the interest of public land
thieves, to enforce law that is binding
upon the land department" This con-
tentlon of Mr.. McMains is sufficiently
answered by the supreme court in it's
decision in the Maxwell grant case.
If, therefore, the great surplus which
it is claimed Was conveyed by the pat
ent TO Beaubien and Meranda, was the
property of the United States, and
congress. acting in its sovereign capac-
lty upon the question of the validity of
the grant. chose to treat as valid for the
boundaries given it by the Mexican
government, it is not for the judicial
department of this government to con-
trovert the power to do so. The same
question again arose in the Interstate
Land company VS.. Maxwell Il Co., in
which the supreme court said: 1--WE
concluded, therefore, the questions af-
fecting the grant-that Is, as to the au-
thority of the Mexican government to
make it $3.50
ARE NO LONGER OPEN.
1.-THE action of congress in confirming
it, and the subsequent proceedings in
the land department, together with the
proceedings IN the court to set aside the
patent, certainly settled those questions
forever. The confirmation and patent
ing of the grant to Beaubien and Miriam
da operated to divest the United States
their rights to the land embraced in
the grant which the country acquired
from Mexico by the treaty OF Guadalupe
Hidalgo. And the only way that that
grant can be defeated is to show that
the land embraced in it had been previ-
ouSly granted by the Mexican govern
ment to some other person."
The language quoted refers, as will
be more clearly seen by the reference to
the context, TO the very land located
within the outboundaries of the Virgil
and st. Vrain grant," which Mr.. Nc
Mains contends should have been re-
stored to settlement and entry. If this
department were to disregard the con-
tirmatOry act of congress and the re-
peat ed decisions of the United States
supr eme court, and restore to the local
Office the plats of public surveys of the
grant for filings and entry, the only re-
suit would be to mislead innocent par
ties into making entries of lands to
which the department would BIS wholly
powerless to convey any title.
HOKE SMITH.