Edward Douglass White

“ Its power 'cannot be exercised so as to deprive any person of land lawfully entered and paid for. By such entry and payment the purchaser secures a vested interest in the property and a right to a patent therefor, and can no more be deprived of it by order of the Commissioner, than he can be deprived by such order of any other lawfully acquired property. Any attempted deprivation in that way will be corrected whenever the matter is presented so that the judiciary can act upon it.' Cornelius v. ”

“ These views do no injury to the railroad company, for if the homesteader is adjudged to have the better right, the company can, under the direction of the Secretary, go into the whole body of indemnity lands and pick out other lands to supply any loss in place limits; whereas, if the homesteader loses the land he has settled upon and occupied, he will lose the benefit of his improvements, and must abandon the place he had fixed upon as his home. ”

“ The Land Department had jurisdiction to accept the application of Jones and to sell the land to him, or to approve the selection of the company and to award the land to it. It exercised this jurisdiction, accepted the application of Jones, permitted him to enter the land, to prove up his claim to it, sold it to him, took his $100 in payment for it, and issued to him his receiver's receipt, and it did all this before the selection of the company was approved, and before the company could acquire any right to the land. ”

“ It recognizes their superior equity to become the purchasers of a limited extent of land comprehending their improvements, over that of any other person. By the act of 1841 (5 Stat. at L. 453, chap. 16) , the pre-emption privilege in favor of actual settlers was extended over all the public lands of the United States that were fitted for agricultural purposes and prepared for market. ”

“ The general object of the suit was to have it adjudged that the present defendants, Weyerhaeuser and Humbird, now appellants, should hold the legal title to certain lands in Minnesota in trust for the plaintiff, and be enjoined, during the pendency of the cause, from selling, disposing of, or removing, or from attempting to create any charge upon the timber standing or lying upon the premises in question.
Many questions have been discussed by counsel. But there is one which seems to require special examination. ”

“ This court, referring, however, to the facts and to certain acts of Congress, held that the state could not legally select the lands in dispute as part of those granted by act of 1841, because they were 'legally reserved from sale,' consequently nothing could be claimed under the selection of McPherson. This view was sufficient to dispose of that case. Nevertheless, the court proceeds to consider another view which was held to be fatal to the claim made under the patent issued to McPherson. ”

“ Rep. 566, which involved rights under the act of July 2d, 1864, granting lands to a railroad company (13 Stat. at L. 365, chap. 217) , the court, speaking by Mr. Justice Miller, said: 'The reasonable purpose of the government undoubtedly is that which it expressed; namely, while we are giving liberally to the railroad company, we do not give any lands we have already sold, or to which, according to our laws, we have permitted a pre-emption or homestead right to attach. No right to such land passes by this grant. ”

“ That case arose under the act of Congress of September 4th, 1841, granting lands to certain states, including Missouri, for purposes of internal improvement, saving such as were or might be reserved from sale by any act of Congress or the proclamation of the President. ”

“ It is unfit for cultivation, is valuable chiefly for its timber, has no valuable deposit of gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or coal upon it, was at the time mentioned in the record uninhabited, and contained no mining or other improvements. ”