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Show SPANISH California was in the senate, AND MEXICAN admitted of that LAND to the Union. state, were GRANTS 457 The representatives 277 influential enough to induce the president of the United States, in 1850-51, in a message to congress, to urge action upon the claims in that state arising under the terms of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and, pursuant to the provisions contained in the eighth article of the treaty, congress passed an act, approved land March claims 3, 1851, in the State entitled ‘‘An Act to settle the private of California.’’? This act made provision for the appointment of a commission composed of three commissioners, to continue for three years, with a secretary qualified to act as interpreter, and necessary clerks, and sent the United States. Numerous continued this commission in force. New Mexico, however, with an attorney subsequent to repre- acts extended and a voteless delegate in congress, could secure no such tribunal as was given to the state of California. The congress, on July 22, 1854, passed an act creating the office of surveyor general, by the terms of the eighth section of which it was made the duty of this officer, under instructions to be given by the secretary of the interior, to ascertain the origin, nature, character, the United States, in the Tameling Case, 93 U. 8. Reps., in enunciating its views upon Mexican land titles, declared that ‘‘We have repeatedly held that individual rights of property in the territory acquired by the United States from Mexico, were not affected by the change of sovereignty and jurisdiction. They were entitled to protection, whether the party had the full and absolute Ownership of the land, or merely an equitable interest therein, which required Some further act of the government to vest in him a perfect title.’’ 377 The Californians left no stone unturned in securing an early adjudication of the titles to lands arising under the Spanish and Mexican grants. The Surveyor general for that state, Samuel D. King, as early as September 30, 1851, in a fieport to the secretary of the interior, said: ‘‘It must be Temembered that until within a very few years, and as long as the country Temained under the Spanish and Mexican jurisdiction, the lands in this extreme and very sparsely settled portion of their territory were considered as being of very little, if any, value, except as open ranges for numerous large herds of horses, or for cattle raised solely upon account of their hides and tallow, and their almost only articles of export. A : : _ ‘Hence the lands were freely granted away to those desirous of esta blishing ranches for this purpose, and in large sized tracts. But very few, indeed, if any, of these grants were ever actually surveyed under the former government. The grants generally, after specifying the length and breadth of the tract, or its area, as being at a particularly designated place, describe it by Some general and vague reference to other grants, water-courses, or mountain Tanges, or refer to a rough figurative plat tion or grant as defining the boundaries. or sketch accompanying the applica’’ . Under the various acts of congress the United States has confirmed in alifornia 938 claims, having a total acreage of 8,332,431.24, the smallest being for 1,770 and the largest 133,440.78 acres. |