The San Francisco call., 1896-01-02
MEXICAN LAND GRANTS,
How the Spanish Law Affects
" Some of the Big Lit.
:, cation.
A Bret Harte Fiction Learned to Be
H. H.. p Only the Record of
+; -, =. Truth.

|: Bret Harte, in one of his typical Cali
fornia novels, furnishes graphic PEN.
picture of the delegation which went to
Washington, D. c., in the early fifties to
lobby the passage of bill through Con-
*gress operative on the head OF the Mex
ican treaty and lard grants. The story
has often been recalled since then.
Lawyers who have had occasion to in
terest themselves in litigations anent the
grants held under the treaty with Mexico
have discovered that what the literary
world has regarded as fiction, or facts
focussed for fction's purposes, are legal
matters of record. In their turn the Span
ish- Mexican dons have learned that the
delegation of 1850 succeeded in securing
the passage of laws that transferred the
titleship of much valuable land from their
hands to the newcomers from Eastern
cimes.
The erudite of the legal profession are
acquainted with the story. Many have
profited by their knowledge, but the early
Spanish settlers have lost. Their knowl-
edge came too late.
The recent land-title suits, involving
millions of dollars, have revived the pub
lie interest in Spanish law and the pro-
visions OF the treaty following the Mexican
war in 1S47.
Very few persons are familiar with the
| provisions OF that important treaty, or the
| Spanish law that is back of it," said a
prominent attorney yesterday.
''When the Mexican citizens came to
| the Territory of California and settled
upon lands granted to them by the Gov
| ernment they felt perfectly safe in making
| whatever improvements they thought fit,
for they had good grounds for believing
the title by which they held their ranches
| TO be absolutely perfect. When the MeXi-
| can war came they were, of course, uneasy
and did not know how long they would
! hold their property.
| when, however, in 1S47, the treaty of
Guadaloupe Hidalgo was ratified, they
again were reassured and diligently set to
| work to improve the holdings and till the
soil. Why did they feel so reassured?
! Because that treaty guaranteed to tn EN-
the full and complete enjoyment of the
| property granted TO them by the Mexican
| Government.
| ''Wasit by chance that this article was
| incorporated in the treaty, or was it by
/ design? Ii by design it must have been
| suggested to the Mexican Government by
] some person or persons familiar with the
condition of affairs existing in this State
| at the time The treaty was proposed. 1t
was clearly the intention on the part of the
| Mexican Government to ask, and on the
| part of the United States to grant, full
complete and unqualified protection to the
holders of land by Mexican grant and
| give them an absolute title thereto.
| 'The Mexican settlers were chiefly of an
| uneducated class, many being unable to
| either read or write. Their magnificent
| holdings, instead of being q comfort and
! pleasure to them were menace to their
| happiness, for among the thousands who
came from the States in the late forties
were many unscrupulous men with slip
perry tongues and well-tilled purses, who
| played upon their credulity and unsophisti-
| Gated honesty. Not satisfied with private
robbery, or robbery of one Mexican at a
| time, these landsharks conceived the great
| and patriotic idea that these vast tracts of
| land should be taken away from the Mexi-
can settlers and given to the first person
| who could secure a patent for it from the
United States Government.
cit would not do, of course, to effect q
public and wholesale robbery without at
least an apparent sanction OF law, so to ac-
complish their purposes they sought to
make and succeeded in making the United
| States Government, or rather the members
A.! OF Congress, party to the crime. How
did they do it? They organized what
should properly be called an nti-Mexican
movement, and selected the most un-
scrupulous and cold-blooded of their mem
bers as a committee to go to Washington
and lobby through a bill declaring the
lands held by Mexican grant to be public
domain and subject to settlement and
patent.
This, however, was rather bold step
to take, and Congressman did not have
the courage to provoke another war with
Mexico by enacting such law. They en-
deavored, however, to accomplish the
same ends by attempting to cover up their
real intention, which resulted in the leg