Edward Terry Sanford

“ This is emphasized by the fact that the general Act of 1841, [5] which gave pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands, merely excepted lands 'on which are situated any known salines or mines.' Section 10. And while the Act of September 27, 1850, [6] providing for the disposal of public lands in the Territory of Oregon to settlers, expressly excepted 'mineral lands,' it is manifest that this one local Act, approved the day before the Swamp Land Act of 1850, was insufficient to establish a settled public policy in reference to the reservation of mineral lands prior to the latter Act. ”

“ It is not claimed that the Land Department construed them as excluding mineral lands or considered the question of the mineral character of swamp lands until quite recently. As late as October 1, 1903, the Secretary instructed the Commissioner that all pending selections under the swamp land grants to the State of Louisiana would be approved or patented to the State under the grants of 1849 or 1850, in all cases where the lands were shown by the field notes of survey or by affidavits filed at the time of selection, to have been swamp lands at the date of the grant. ”

“ In the Sweet Case it was held that the provision of the Utah Enabling Act of 1894, [10] granting to the State certain sections of the public lands for the support of common schools, with no mention of mineral lands, was not intended to embrace land known to be valuable for coal. The grounds of this decision were that long prior to the Act there had been established a settled policy in respect to mineral lands, evidenced by the mining laws and other statutes, by which they were withheld from disposal save under laws especially including them ”