David Josiah Brewer

“ Congress had fulfilled all obligations to him growing out of the treaty with Mexico, and when, by his own act, he had forfeited his legal claims to the land, it was a mere act of grace by which was given to him the right to select an equal amount of land elsewhere. If congress had thought that it was necessary, in order to do justice, that he should be permitted to select an equal quantity of land of like character, it was easy to have expressed that intention. ”

“ Reliance is also placed on article 17, § 2, of the constitution of the state of Washington, which reads: 'The state of Washington disclaims all title in and claim to all tide, swamp, and overflowed lands patented by the United States; provided, the same is not impeached for fraud.' In respect to this it is enough to say that these lands were not patented. It is doubtless true, as said by this court in Stark v. Starrs, 6 Wall. 402, 418, that 'the right to a patent once vested is treated by the government when dealing with the public lands as equivalent to a patent. ”

“ Ct. 548, after a careful review of the authorities, it was held that the denial in those opinions of the power of congress to make such a grant was not strictly correct; but it was also held that, although congress could, it had never undertaken by general laws to dispose of such lands, and in the summing up at the close of the opinion it was stated: 'The United States, while they hold the country as a territory, having all the powers both of national and of municipal government, may grant, for appropriate purposes, titles or rights in the soil below high-water mark of tide waters. ”