John Catron

“ If, upon the facts, the register and receiver ought to decide in favor of one, and the President ought to issue a patent accordingly, if the case is still in that condition which admits of doing justice through the action of the executive officers themselves, even undoing all that may have been improperly done, surely the court will not hesitate to leave the naked possession with that party which has the superior equity, and is entitled to remain on the land. ”

“ Congress, no more than the settler, could know, in advance of the public surveys, on what tract his improvement would fall; and, taking the acts of the same session in pari materia, the reservation act must be construed to prohibit any future location or entry, but not to impair a right already vested, or to take the land of one man, and reserve or grant it to another. Unless the pre-emption vested on the 29th May, 1830, the grant was illusory ”

“ A contest for the ownership of the Hot Springs, in Arkansas, has been pending for some years before the General Land Office, and in the courts of that State. One party derive their title through a pre-emption claim, as an occupant under the acts of Congress of 1830 and 1832, and the other by the location of a New Madrid warrant on the same land. ”

“ In Gear's case, from a series of laws in pari materia, and not necessarily repugnant, a presumption is attempted to be raised against the uniform well-settled policy of the laws, merely because the general terms of the last law do not exclude that presumption ”

“ None of the subsequent New Madrid acts affect this case, so as to cure a defective location where none had been made, or where, if made, it would have been void.
In 1838, on application to the surveyor general of Arkansas, a survey was made, and returned to the recorder of land titles in Missouri, who issued a patent certificate to Langlois. These proceedings were void, because those officers had no power over the subject. Arkansas was then a State, and no such location could be made. By the act of 26th April, 1822, the time for making locations had absolutely expired. ”

“ The land office, having uniformly maintained the existing validity of the act of 1832, the parties to this record were never in a condition to make proof of their right to the satisfaction of the register and receiver. In 1851, the Secretary of the Interior authorized an investigation, and it was then that he allowed the heirs of Belding to make their entry, as stated above, although he still insisted that the land was reserved from sale or entry by the law of 1832. ”

“ Here, however, the decision was in favor of the defendant's entry, and sustained the authority exercised by the department of public lands, in allowing Belding's heirs to purchase. Moreover, the plaintiff in error is not in a condition to draw in question the validity of Belding's entry. He relies on an outstanding title in the United States to defeat the action. Being a trespasser, without title in himself, he cannot be heard to set up such title. 'To give jurisdiction to this court, the party must claim for himself, and not for a third person, in whose title he has no interest.' Henderson v. ”

“ In December, 1851, the heirs of Belding were allowed to enter the quarter section, including the springs. This entry was held to be valid by the State courts, and to clothe them with a sufficient legal title to sustain an action of ejectment, according to the laws of Arkansas. ”