Arizona republican., 1894-04-01

were admitted by the contestants, the United States attorney and the settlers to be genuine documents, but they dis puted the authority of the officers to execute them as matter of law. Hence the issue before the court and the questions which the court was called upon to decide in those cases i were matters of law and the books con- tanning those laws upon which the cases were decided were all accessible to the lawyers, whereas in the Peralta case the question of fact, whether the papars presented are genuine will have to De determined by evidence concern ing an alleged transaction occurring nearly 150 years ago in a foreign country and is therefore attended with great difficulty, especially in the Peralta case in which the claimant has already pre- sented to the surveyor general of the territory two sets of papers which he claimed constituted evidence that the grant was made-some of which papers were certified by officers both of Spain and Mexico; and it should be remem- bered in this connection that the fact that these papers were spurious was only disclosed and determined by the closest analysis of their contents and some latent circumstances which were discovered by General Johnson.
 ''I was informed by Hon. Matt G. Reynolds, United States attorney of the court of private land claims, whose duty it is in behalf of the United States government to contest all claims he believes to be unjust, that in the to aoo nnt Iv Cf Y1cy y1n have been filed in the office of the clerk of the court atSanta Fe, among which is a certificate that juridical possession was given to the grantee and that these papers seemed to he authenticated in due form as required by law and that upon their face there seemed to be @ prima facie case in favor of the claim ant and that 10 meet his case 1t will be- come necessary for those who desire to defeat the claim to furnish and intro duce before the court evidence which will show in some way that these papers are not genuine"
 "What sort of evidence will it be necessary to introduce for this pur- pose?"
 ''I have not yet seen the papers filed in the court of private land claims in the Peralta case because they are at Santa Fe and it is difficult to say in ad- vance what would be the best mode of attack; that would have to be deter mined after a careful study and examin- ation of the case and papers as now presented. It is quite probable that it will be necessary to send some person to Spain and also to Mexico in order to trace the history of this new product in the course of development by the pro- cess of evolution in the manufacture of evidence to support this claim which 1 believe to be entirely groundless and fraudulent, but which seems now to have the semblance of just demand"
 What would be the result suppose the claim is confirmed, with reference to the people who have purchased parts of the lands covered by the claim ?''
 ''The act of congress creating the court ofprivate land claims in measure undertakes to protect the rights of all such persons but believe that the ef- feet of the confirmation of this enorm- ous claim would be to cast cloud over the title and lands of the settlers residing in this whole country covered by the alleged grant and that it would retard the development and growth of the country for many years to come. It would probably involve every farm owner. ranch owner and every lot owner in an expensive litigation out of which he would probably come victorious if he were persistent. I do not think that Tn any event the claimants of this grant could, if this claim is confirmed. recover the lands held by settlers under United States patent provided set tiers should consistently defend their rights in the courts. But the true course for the settlers now to pursue is to join together and by cooperative action employ counsel, experts agents and detectives to ferret out, expose and defeat this claim in the court where it is now pending. By that means they can defeat it finally and forever so 1t will not raise it's head again to menace their homes and possessions. An adjudication by this court will result in a final determina- | tion of the case. This is the last CD portunity which the settlers will have to defend their rights.
 II do not wish to be understood as casting any reflection upon the honora. ble attorney, Mir. Reynolds, who repre-. sents the government in defending against this class of claims. From my observation and from all the informa- tion 1 can gather in the subject, he is entirely competent, able and willing to do all that he can to defeat any claim which comes with suspicion as this claim does, but we should not overlook the fact that he IS loaded with a vast number of these claims, all coming on rapidly to be heard, there being some