The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-06-01

some quality which they did not there
|tofore possess.
Among ptner erroneous assumptions
Mr.. Cooley assumes 4hat had no lie
gal authority to attach the seal to
those twenty three deeds. This as
sumption is based upon the further
assumption that Mr.. Keen, the then
Commissioner Of Public Lands, had
such authority. Unless l was authori-
zed to do SO by virtue of the general
executive power conferred by the or
ganic act, there was no official of the
Territory authorized to attach the
seals to these deeds. If it be true
shat there was no official authorized
20 attach the seals. which had been
Inadvertently omitted at the time
the deeds were executed by Gov
eraor Otero and Mr.. Keen, then
a court of equity would decree
the deeds to be as valid as if
4 seal by a person not authorized by
Jaw to attach it, is an entirely vain
hing, and adds nothing whatever ITO
tie quality of the Instrument to which
it is attached. I call special atten-
ton to the fact that the Commission
er of Public Lands was never designat-
ed by law as the custodian of this
seal, nor did the law designate any of
icial to attach the seal.
Mr.. Keen the Commissioner of Pub
lie Lands under the act of 1905, was
not the in office of the Com
missioner of Public lands appointed
under the act of 1899. His office was
a new n different one. An CHROME
ous assumption to the contrary leads
you to say as to the sealing and sur
render of the deeds, that: lit was the
business of the Commissioner of Pub
lie Lands and not yours" (mine), and
to quote from Mr.. Cooley's report to
you a statement to the effect tina my
action was a usurping of the duties
of the Commissioner of Public Lands.
IN his absence, Mr.. Keen, as Com
missioner of public lands under the
act of 1905, had nothing whatever
o do VITA these deeds, except to hold
hem as collateral security for the
payment of the note of the Pen1sylva-
MIA Development Company.
l beg to suggest to you an idea,
which mas entirely escaped the atten-
ton of Mr.. Cooley, viz, that the Gov
ernor of the Territory of New Mexico
possesses power n authority not de-
rived from the legislative assembly of
the Territory. but from Congress and
that THAI executive power so granted
all that l did.
The seal of the Commissioner of
Public Lands with which, by the act
of 1905, he is authorized to authenti-
cate official papers. is a different seal
from h seal of the Board of Public
Lands which ! attached to the TWEEN
ty-tnree deeds. The Board of Public
Lands has ceased to exist and no sue
entirely new system of handling the
public lands was adopted. You Ger
tainly cannot be aware of the fact
that in 1905 the Legislative assembly
of the Territory of New Mexico, when
it changed the system, ratified, so far
as it had power, this transaction be-
tween the Board of Public Lands and
the Pennsylvania Development Com
pany, which you so positively declare
to nave cen fraudulent on it's face.
Congress, with full power to do so,
has never disapproved that ratification
l am unwilling to believe that you
would, with knowledge of this legis-
lation, so characterize this transaction
and thus stigmatize the whole legis-
lative assembly of 1905.
1t is elementary that | could not
bind h Territory of New Mexico by
any act which I had not the authority
to perform, and it is also elementary
that the Territory of New Mexico can
not be sued without its consent. The
practical effect of all that | did was
to deliver to Mr.. Hopewel deeds
which were held as collateral securi-
ty, and to receive from him more than
eleven thousand dollars ($11,000 .O0),
which remains in the Territorial treas
ury, and for the recovery of which
no action can be maintained by the
Pennsylvania Development Company.
1T is obvious that did not assist in
defrauding the Territory by putting
money into its treasury. 1t is equal
ly obvious that common honesty re-
quired that l should do whatever l
lawfully could to make effectITaI the
official acts of my predecessor, with
out questioning their wisdom, and
also hat it was my duty, so far as
| lawfully could, to protect the insti-
tutions of the Territory from any dam
age which they might suffer by reaso
of the attempt on the part of my pre-
decessor to make contracts which
might be beyond his power Timber
of great value mad been cut from these
lands. If it was lawfully cut, the
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