John Catron

Name: Fremont v. United States — Dissent
Author: John Catron

Summary

“Fremont v. United States — Dissent”, is a work by John Catron. It explores elements such as the United States, Alvarado and concession.

Quotes from Fremont v. United States — Dissent (John Catron)

John Catron, Fremont v. United States — Dissent

“ To hold that the Mexican government designed to leave in force for an indefinite length of time large undefined concessions, that might be surveyed at the election of the claimant at any time and at any place, to the hindrance of colonization and to the destruction of other interests, is an idea too extravagant to be seriously entertained; so far from it, the Mexican colonization laws contained more positive provisions, to the end of granting distinct and known tracts of land to colonists, than did any Spanish laws that have at any time been brought to the consideration of this court. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Catron, Fremont v. United States — Dissent

“ Much of labor and money has been expended on the faith that a preference-right was a safe title, and exempt from floating Mexican concessions, such as that made to Alvarado, and now in litigation here. And this was most natural. Incipient Mexican claims had no standing in an ordinary court of justice, and congress created special courts to try them, and prescribed the laws and rules by which these courts should be governed in their adjudications; and among other rules it was provided, that the decrees of the supreme court of the United States should govern where they applied. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Catron, Fremont v. United States — Dissent

“ We are here called on to award a patent for a floating claim of fifty thousand arpens of land in the gold region of California, to an assignee whose vendor claimed under the colonization laws of Mexico, but who never was a colonist, who never did a single act under his contract to colonize, and who, it is admitted, could not have obtained a definite title from the political department of the territory of California, to wit, from the departmental assembly, whose province it was to pass on and confirm grants to colonists. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Catron, Fremont v. United States — Dissent

“ The country in California is filled up with inhabitants cultivating the valleys and best lands, and where they rely almost as confidently on their government titles, founded on acts of congress, as if they had a patent for the land. No other American title is known in the State of California, except such as are founded on the pre emption laws.
These agricultural people are quite as much contractors with the United States as the Mexican grantees were contractors with their government. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Catron, Fremont v. United States — Dissent

“ It is proper to remark that, by the Mexican laws, an assignee could not be put into possession of land by force of the first decree or concession. Alvarado alone could apply for judicial possession. By the 11th rule, a possession could be transferred when it was duly proved and recorded; but the alcalde could not recognize an assignee as a colonist, because by the 3d rule the governor was bound to judge of the fitness of the candidate, and, having decided as to his fitness, the alcalde was held to an execution of that decision, and could not recognize an assignee. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Catron, Fremont v. United States — Dissent

“ At law, this claim has no standing; it cannot be set up in an ordinary judicial tribunal. It addresses itself to us as founded on an equity incident to it by mere force of the contract, no part of which was ever performed. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Catron, Fremont v. United States — Dissent

“ He shall enjoy the same freely, without hindrance, destining it to such use or cultivation as may best suit him; but he shall build a house within a year, and it shall be inhabited.'
3. 'He shall solicit from the proper magistrate the judicial possession of the same, by virtue of this grant, by whom the boundaries shall be marked out, on the limits of which he (the grantee) shall place the proper landmarks.'
4. 'The tract of land granted is ten sitios de ganado mayor, (ten square leagues,) as before mentioned. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Catron, Fremont v. United States — Dissent

“ The United States.
If this claim is maintained, all others must likewise be, if the first step of making the concession is proved to have been performed by the acting governor; as no balder case than the one before us can exist in California, where the grant is not infected with fraud or forgery. ”

John Catron

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