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Show 58 THESPANISH ARCHIVES THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OF NEW MEXICO OF NEW MEXICO and this question would arise and have to be litigated afresh, every time such a patent was introduced in evidence. We would have the same old controversy with the government as to where the grant ends and the public lands begin. This could only be determined by a government survey, locating that line by scientific methods as the other lines are located. And when after another five years have been consumed in proceedings to that end, we succeed in securing another survey and another patent, some other attorney-general, having other and different theories upon these questions, may bring a bill to set aside that patent, on the ground that the land officers have been again mistaken. In fact, the relative provinces of these two great co-ordinate branches of the government would be reduced to this—if I may be pardoned a homely illustration — that the land department drives the stakes, and the courts follow after and pull them up. “What is to be the end of all this? And what is to be the redress of these people whose property is for all practical purposes thus confiscated under the guise of e det Re ete pad ot, he Pet pca ee ca at ae f é (sin c ? —— Pa Po we we et “le Ftd ee a o- #. pe a ee ld ins Oe Ol i APRPe Phd ho ee RE i “ a hee ed ee # nd at te Oe oy ee (ore Cee eeP ee eSrePee ee a) ro teed Pe * ° 2 o-2@ a Cte jadi Pee. a ad ta eeee Pat ated ia ee te caes es ay Sad Sa raheg De3tied eeeteloe ad ns ee ee Ge 2 he ¥SS as ¥ a) Ag at Pr Sel «Oo G-t aa ef Pt Pe ee ee a th Ps ¥2 #@ pe ee) St Pe) Ped o.- 34 ee Ya ee Ed equitable proceedings? Such a result would be revolting to every proper sentiment of public honor. It is un- worthy of a great nation like this; and yet it is a picture not overdrawn, but is a legitimate deduction from the principles contended for by the government counsel in this case. “Tt is a fact well known, both as a matter of public history, and from the record of cases that have come be- fore this court, that the validity of these Mexican grants a been persistently denied by the American settlers > 0 went a into that si that country way. after the Squatters tide of emigration overran them in Fates ep out the choicest spots without giving : ves the least concern about their titles. I venture 2 say me the inroads of these enterprising bands have bl - € grantees and their successors far more trouble Tog 4 depredations of the savage tribes with which a. : originally to contend. They have fought these nacie be ali way, and in every place where contest was fh ; iN court and out; before the land tribunals, and the executive departments. Every st : d- ings looking to: the e fi final establishment Sti glrge ce Ge reg ae of the title, and oe en the boundaries by the United States auTheir pair at marked by controversies of some sort. S have generally found powerful aid from 59 the land department, which has always been jealous of Mexican grants, and has never lost an opportunity to defeat or curtail them by application of the most strict and As a general rule, the hisnarrow rules of construction. tory of any of these grants has been that of one long contest between the owners, seeking recognition of their rights, on the one side, and the land officers of the United States, aided by trespassing settlers, on the other; in the course of which every weak spot in the title has been In the very tested by numerous and vigilant adversaries. nature of the case there could be no such thing as hasty or inadvertant action. ‘“In this case, forty years have elapsed since the Territory passed under the dominion of the United States; and more than a quarter of a century has been consumed in controversies and proceedings such as I have described. It would seem obvious, according to the plainest dictates of public policy, and in furtherance of that repose of titles which the peace and order of society demand, that when, after such protracted controversies, action is had by the government purporting to be final, it should be so in fact; and that not only the claimants, but also the public, There should have the right to rely upon it as such. it when title, a of history the in time, some be to ought time, some be to ought There it. with deal to safe will be the during the life of a generation, in which a title, for the due acknowledgement of which the sacred honor of nation is pledged, shall become settled, so far as the action of the government is concerned. ‘“There are some considerations higher than the merits There are some or the equities of any particular case. itself and the to owes government the which obligations than the public, which are of far greater importance thousand possession of a few thousand, or a few hundred The faith and credit which are due to its acres of land. And when public acts ought not to be lightly impugned. by the highso solemn an instrument as a patent, signed the great est officer of the nation, bearing upon its face out given regularly and duly is States, United the seal of by the ement acknowledg the and title, of as the evidence property ensupreme authority of the right of private to be as titled to recognition by its treaties,— it ought any quarter, high sacred, and as safe from attack, from or low, as the flag under which we live. The impeach- the destrucment of the good name of the government, gives, and the it which titles the in confidence tion of |