Henry Baldwin

“ When this most solemn and mutual compact, this engagement of the old Congress, embodied in the Constitution itself, shall be finally held to be dependent on an act of the new Congress to give it efficiency, there can be no security for property. It must be remembered, too, that in this compact the new states are placed under concomitant obligations to the United States, to purchasers from them, to non-resident proprietors of lands, and the citizens of the United States, which are worthy of consideration. ”

“ The United States, an illustrious instance is found of the action of the Courts of the United States, asserting the supremacy of a treaty, in protecting private property against a series of acts of Congress for nearly thirty years. ”

“ So boundary was held in Foster and Elam, 2 Peters, 309, to be political. Yet in the same case the Court declared: 'Out Constitution declares a treaty to be the law of the land. It is, consequently, to be regarded in Courts of justice, as equivalent to an act of the legislature, whenver it operates of itself without the aid of any legislative provisions.' Ibid. ”

“ Thus, if the disputed territory and its inhabitants and proprietors, 'are excepted places' and 'persons;' then there has been no cession to the United States by the king, and no confirmation of his grants stipulated for by the treaty; both nations stand towards each other on their original right, and the rights of individuals to property remain as if no treaty had been made, and negotiation still continued; whereas, if the territory west of the Perdido, is ceded by the treaty, every clause has full effect. ”

“ The United States have since obtained the Floridas by purchase and cession from Spain, without having previously settled the controverted boundary between the Floridas as claimed by Spain, and Louisiana as claimed by the United States. A question of disputed boundary between two sovereign, independent nations, is, indeed, much more properly a subject of diplomatic discussion and of treaty, than of judicial investigation. ”

“ There is another view in which the treaty of 1819 must be considered, in order to give it its constitutional and intended effect, by operating directly on all the subjects to which it relates, where no future act is stipulated to be done by either party, or the thing stipulated is in its nature to be performed in future, as the incorporation of the territory and its inhabitants into the Union, which is necessarily a prospective act. ”

“ The United States, 'that the perfect inviolability of property among these rights, all will assert and maintain.'
'The right of property then is protected and secure by this treaty; and no principle is better settled in this country, than that an inchoate title to lands is property.' 9 Peters, 133.
'Independent of treaty stipulation, this right would be held sacred.'
'The language of the treaty excludes every idea of interfering with private property; of transferring lands which had been severed from the royal domain. The people change their sovereign. ”

“ If, then, the case of Foster and Elam is yet to be considered as a leading or authoritative one, it can be only as to the boundary of Louisiana, which is a concessum; on every other principle of that case, which is not now admitted to be overruled, and to stand overruled, I rely as supporting the plaintiff's title; and by now infusing into it the universally received and admitted construction of the treaty, consider it as decisive of this case, without the aid of the acts of 1824 or 1836. ”

“ Whatever the acquisition of the Floridas may have cost, in dollars or acres, it was, as this Court justly remarked, in 3 Peters, 463, richly repaid by its beneficial consequences, 'in addition to vacant lands,' of which the United States already possessed some hundreds of millions of acres. Nothing can tend so much to their interest, to preserve their high position at home and abroad, as for the United States to consider this treaty to have consummated all the great objects which it was intended to effect ”

“ It is what it purports, an amicable settlement of all past differences, without exception of persons or places, by a cession by one party of its rights to sovereignty, and the vacant land in the whole territory east of the Sabine river, which is not private property; what is private property is excepted from the cession by the terms of the second and third articles; and one of the conditions of the cession is, the confirmation and ratification of all grants made before ascertain time for lands in the ceded territories, excepting three. Compensation is made for mutual claims ”

“ If, as we think must be admitted, the security of private property was intended by the parties; if this security would have been complete without the article, the United States could have no motive for insisting on the interposition of government, in order to give validity to titles, which, according to the usages of the civilized world were already valid.' Ibid. ”

“ As it has been my assigned duty on several occasions to examine the subject of claims and titles to land, in the various territories which the United States acquired by cession from Georgia, France, and Spain; a broad and varied field of investigation has been opened, on a part of which there has been no opinion of this Court as yet delivered. ”

“ Art. 2. His Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States, 'all the territories which belong to him east of the Mississippi, known by the name of East and West Florida,' &c.; 'and all vacant lands which are not private property.' Art. 3. The first clause fixes the west boundary of Louisiana at the Sabine, &c. By the second clause, his Catholic Majesty 'cedes to the United States all his rights, claims, and pretensions to any territory east of said line;' and forever renounced them. ”

“ An inspection of the treaty from its title to the ratification, affords more conclusive evidence of its intention and effect than human ingenuity or reasoning can elicit by a commentary, or any effort to illustrate its provisions. ”

“ The same principles were adopted in the United States vs. Percheman, and in language most emphatic and unequivocal, throughout the opinion delivered by the Chief Justice. After reciting the first clause of the second article, which ceded the territory in general terms, the Court observe: 'A cession of territory is never understood to be a cession of the property of the inhabitants.' 7 Peters, 87. ”

“ Every person in the list of actual settlers, who has no written evidence of title, and on the 12th April, 1814, had inhabited or cultivated a tract of land, 'shall be entitled to a preference on becoming a purchaser.' Time for filing claims is extended, and provision is made for a revision of claims which had not been recommended for confirmation. Under the provisions of the act of 1819, the commissioners reported numerous other claims for confirmation, comprising all classes; (vide 3 State Papers, Pub. Lands, 436, 442, 447-451;) including lots in the town of Mobile ”

“ Canter, in which the opinion of the Court is too important to be referred to otherwise than in their words: 'The course which the argument has taken will require that in deciding this question the Court should take into view the relation in which Florida stands to the United States.' 1 Peters, 542.
'The Constitution confers absolutely on the government of the Union the powers of making war and of making treaties; consequently that government possesses the power of acquiring territory, either by conquest or by treaty. ”