John Catron

“ Its intervention may, in various ways, be necessary to direct, or speed the action of the ministerial officers of the United States.
Neither the enrolment of the decree in this court, nor of the mandate in the court below, can conclude the cause, and fix a period from which the time for filing a petition for a rehearing, or bill of revivor, is to run.
The case remains open, always liable to be acted on by the court below, until the mandate is executed.
No time is prescribed by the act, within which the duties of the surveyor-general are to be performed. The nature of these duties forbade it. ”

“ From the decree made in 1830, an appeal was prosecuted by the United States to this court; the claimants rested content, and prosecuted no cross appeal. 10 Pet., 308. On a hearing, the decree below was affirmed for the specific land, and the cause remanded for further proceedings, to the end that a patent might issue, pursuant to the 6th section of the act of 1824, which declares it shall be for the land 'specified in the decree;' and prohibits a survey for any other land, unless that decreed has been disposed of, when a change is authorized by the 11th section ”

“ Besides, in this case, a mandate had been sent down from the Supreme Court to the Superior Court of Florida; and after a mandate, no rehearing will be granted. Sibbald v. The United States, 12 Pet., 492.
It is a mistake to suppose, that the object of this petition was to operate upon a ministerial officer, the surveyor-general, in the execution of the decree of the court; its purpose was to reform the decree itself, and to assert, substantially, a new claim. This, it is respectfully insisted, it is not competent for the appellants to do in the form they have adopted. ”