Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/168/604/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 09:04:29+00:00

Document:
that a different rule would obtain if the grant to the state had been of a later date than that to the Northern Pacific Company.
As to place lands, it is settled that in case of conflict, the title depends on the dates of the grants, and not on the times of the filing of the maps of definite location.
It is not intended hereby to question the rule that the title to indemnity lands dates from selection, and not from the grant, but all here decided is that when a withdrawal of lands within indemnity limits is made in aid of an earlier land grant, and made prior to the filing of the map of definite location by a company having a later grant -- the latter having such words of exception and limitation as are found in the grant to the plaintiff -- it operates to except the withdrawn lands from the scope of such later grant.
of the land grant, the railway company's title failed, and thereafter the grantee of the railway company purchased them pursuant to the Act of March 3, 1887, c. 376, 24 Stat. 556.
"Every alternate section of public land . . . to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile, on each side of said railroad line, as said company may adopt, through the territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections of land per mile, on each side of said railroad whenever it passes through any state, and whenever, on the line thereof, the United States have full title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwise appropriated, and free from preemption, or other claims or rights at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed, and a plat thereof filed in the office of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and whenever, prior to said time, any of said sections or parts of sections shall have been granted, sold, reserved, occupied by homestead settlers, or preempted, or otherwise disposed of, other lands shall be selected by said company in lieu thereof."
entered dismissing the bill. On appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, this decree was affirmed, 68 F. 993, and thereupon the plaintiff brought the case to this Court for review.
MR. JUSTICE BREWER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered he opinion of the court.
The withdrawal by the secretary in aid of the grant to the State of Wisconsin was valid, and operated to withdraw the odd-numbered sections within its limits from disposal by the land officers of the government under the general land laws. The act of the secretary was, in effect, a reservation. Wolcott v. Des Moines Co., 5 Wall. 681; Wolsey v. Chapman, 101 U. S. 755, and cases cited in the opinion; Hamblin v. Western Land Company, 147 U. S. 531, and cases cited in the opinion. It has also been held that such a withdrawal is effective against claims arising under subsequent railroad land grants. St. Paul & Pacific Railroad v. Northern Pacific Railroad, 139 U. S. 1, 139 U. S. 17-18; Wisconsin Central Railroad v. Forsythe, 159 U. S. 46, 159 U. S. 54; Spencer v. McDougal, 159 U. S. 62.
While it is true that the intent of Congress in respect to a land grant is to be determined by a consideration of all the provisions of the statute, and that the word "reserved" may not always be held to include lands withdrawn for the purpose of supplying possible deficiencies in some prior land grant, yet, as that is the ordinary scope of the word, if any narrower or different meaning is to be attributed to it in this grant, the reasons therefor must be clear. The use of a word which has generally received a certain construction raises a presumption that Congress used it in this grant with that meaning, and it devolves on the one claiming any other construction to show sufficient reasons for ascribing to Congress an intent to use it in such sense. It is said that the phraseology of the various congressional grants is different, and therefore each one must be considered by itself. This, in a general way, may be admitted, but at the same time, the frequent use of a certain word in a particular sense is, to say the least, very persuasive that it was used in a like sense in this grant.
right? But the language is not simply "free from rights," but "free from claims," and surely the defendant railway company had an existing claim. No one can read this entire description without being impressed with the fact that Congress meant that only such lands should pass to the Northern Pacific as were public lands, in the fullest sense of the term, and free from all reservations and appropriations and all rights or claims in behalf of any individual or corporation at the time of the definite location of its road. Northern Pacific Railroad v. Sanders, 166 U. S. 620. And such is the general rule in respect to railroad land grants.
"That any and all lands heretofore reserved to the United States, by any act of Congress, or in any other manner by competent authority, for the purpose of aiding in any object of internal improvement, or for any other purpose whatsoever be, and the same are hereby, reserved to the United States from the operation of this act."
"Congress cannot be supposed to have thereby intended to include land previously appropriated to another purpose, unless there be an express declaration to that effect. A special exception of it was not necessary, because the policy which dictated them confined them to land which Congress could rightfully bestow, without disturbing existing relations and producing vexatious conflicts. . . . Every tract set apart for special uses is reserved to the government to enable it to enforce them. There is no difference in this respect whether it be appropriated for Indian or for other purposes."
"shall not defeat or impair any preemption, homestead, swamp land, or other lawful claim, nor include any government reservation or mineral lands, or the improvements of any bona fide settler,"
"Indeed, the intent of Congress in all railroad land grants, as has been understood and declared by this Court again and again, is that such grant shall operate at a fixed time, and shall take only such lands as at that time are public lands."
There is no force in the contention that this construction might operate to defeat the entire grant to the plaintiff. At the time of the passage of the act of 1864, only in the vicinity of the proposed eastern and western termini were there any settlements. The great bulk of the territory through which the road was to pass was almost entirely unoccupied. Congress, fixing the time for commencing and for finishing the work within two and twelve years, respectively (sec. 8), contemplated promptness in the construction of the road, intending thereby to open this large unoccupied territory to settlement. In view of the road's traversing a comparative wilderness, it made a grant of enormous extent. Within the unoccupied territory thus to be traversed there were few settlers, and few, if any, land grants. It knew, therefore, that if the company proceeded promptly, as required, it would find within its place limits nearly the full amount of its grant. It must be presumed that Congress acted and would act in good faith, and of course there could be no intent to deplete this grant to plaintiff by subsequent legislation in respect to land grants. On the other hand, it must be noticed that the grant to the State of Wisconsin to aid in the construction of the road of the defendant railway company was prior to that to the plaintiff, and also that prior thereto, the defendant had filed its map of definite location. In passing the Act of July 2, 1864, it is therefore reasonable to suppose that Congress had in mind its earlier grant, and did not intend that it should be diminished in any manner thereby, but meant that the defendant railway company should receive either within its place or indemnity limits the full amount of its lands. This doubtless was one of the considerations which made the grant to the Northern Pacific of so large an extent.
It may be well, in concluding this opinion, to again note the fact, already mentioned, that the withdrawal here considered was one in favor of an earlier grant. It may be that a different rule would obtain in case it was in favor of a later grant. As to place lands, it is settled that in case of conflict, the title depends on the dates of the grants, and not on the times of the filing of the maps of definite location. In other words, the earlier grant has the higher right. No scramble as to the matter of location avails either road, and it may be that the same thought would operate to uphold the title to the place lands of an earlier as against a withdrawal in favor of a later grant. Neither is it intended to question the rule that the title to indemnity lands dates from selection, and not from the grant. All that we here hold is that when a withdrawal of lands within indemnity limits is made in aid of an earlier land grant, and made prior to the filing of the map of definite location by a company having a later grant -- the latter having such words of exception and limitation as are found in the grant to the plaintiff -- it operates to except the withdrawn lands from the scope of such later grant.

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