“ The certificate in question is exactly that kind of evidence, which is taken to establish the prima facie right of the party to a warrant, platt, and certificate, and patent as heir, or representative, and ought to be sufficient to satisfy those, who profess only that they know nothing, and therefore call for proof. ”

“ By a law of Congress, patents can be had upon lost papers, by taking a copy of the warrant from the Register, or a copy of the platt and certificate from the surveyor, and satisfying the officer of the loss of the papers by his own oath, or otherwise. Massie made affidavit on the copy of the platt and certificate, that the original, of which that was a copy, had been filed in the War Office, and that it had been lost or destroyed. The omission to state that the warrant and assignment accompanied the plat, and were destroyed with it. He got them all in order to procure a patent. ”

“ In every case, the person claiming as assignee, must establish his right by proof. If the endorsee of a promissory note, bill of exchange, or other writing made assignable at law, sue in his own name upon such note, bill, or writing, he cannot recover without making proof of the assignment. The person who claims to be the assignee of a warrant or platt and certificate of survey, until after a patent is issued to him, cannot assert in his own name, against third persons, a right arising under such warrant or survey without proving his purchase. ”

“ The money had not been paid; the land had been sold; possession had gone with the condemnation, and a mill had been built. The statute period of limitation had not elapsed, yet the Court presume the fact of payment: the very fact which devests one man and invests another with the inheritance. ”

“ It is also said, that as the legal title was invested in Massie's heirs by the patent to them, that title enures to the benefit of those to whom Massie had previously conveyed without title, and that therefore the defendants are invested with a legal title. This proposition cannot be sustained. It is true, that in certain cases, where a person conveys without title, and the same person afterwards obtains title, as between such person, and the person to whom a conveyance was made, the after acquired title cannot be set up to prejudice the purchaser. ”

“ The warrant, or platt and certificate of survey, is the subject that is to be transferred by the act of assignment, and it seems indispensable that there should be some direct connection between an act and the subject upon which it operates. Hence we insist, that an assignment can only be made as before suggested. ”

“ The purpose for which a certified duplicate from the land office of Virginia was required in the case of a lost warrant, undoubtedly was to protect the United States from fraudulent claims on warrants alleged to be lost, but which never existed; not to settle controversies between the original holder and those claiming under him by assignment. The land office of the United States being in possession of an official copy of that warrant, on which a patent had been issued, no motive existed for requiring a duplicate from the land office of Virginia. ”

“ The contract is for a grant of land, hereafter to be made, and the warrant is evidence of that contract. The act did not mean to give authority to transfer the land when granted: but the evidence of right before a grant was made. The power to assign and transfer is, therefore, not a power to make a sale of the subject; and it is apprehended that a deed of indenture was never used at the common law to transfer to a purchaser a legal right in any written evidence of an executory contract. ”

“ His testimony is incorrect, is studiously calculated to establish an untruth, and his official conduct fraudulent, if he had no sufficient knowledge of the verity of the assignment. That his testimony is less explicit than it ought to have been; that it omits the express averment of a fact, implied by all he says, and which is necessary to its fairness and its truth, will not, we think, justify a presumption against that fact. We understand Colonel Anderson's testimony as implying a knowledge of the handwriting of Mr. Jouitte, and of the verity of the assignment. ”

“ The appellants cannot rely on any supposed difference between an imperfect legal title and equitable one, as to the question of either presumption or abandonment. If a warrant creates nothing but an equitable interest, and an entry upon it an imperfect legal one, then Jouitte never had more than an equity. He never had an entry unless the testimony of Anderson be sufficient to establish an agency. Give but credit to that testimony, and both agency and assignment are established. ”

“ The surveyor's certificate that the warrant was assigned, has been received in the land office, as evidence of such assignment, and when the commissioner has acted upon it, and issued the grant, the defendant's counsel has strongly urged, that he who claims against it, must disprove it. We ask no more in the case of the certificate of the County Court. There is no act of Congress directing such certificate to be received for any purpose. ”

“ If any mischief results from the doctrine asserted, it can only fall upon those, who have possessed themselves of the rights of others, without taking proper precaution to be certain, that they were not aiding to do injustice.
It is also insisted for the defendants, that, although an assignment in fact may not be proved, yet from the circumstances, the Court will presume an assignment to support the possession. ”

“ Proof of the execution would be required: in a great majority of cases, it could not be produced. These papers passed from hand to hand like coin; they were owned by all classes of people; as well by the poor and illiterate, as by men of business.
Warrants, in many cases, were left with the principal surveyors, for safe keeping, and a letter addressed to him from the owner, to let another have so many acres of warrant, was received as sufficient authority to make an entry for the assignee. ”