John Catron

“ The act of March 3, 1807, § 4, was the first that gave a board of commissioners power to adjudicate claims against the United States, and conclude the government as to the question of right in the claimant. The judgments of the board on all claims for less than a league square were to a large degree judicial, but as their powers and duties depended on the acts of 1805, 1806, and more especially on that of 1807, when they confirmed Brazeau's claim, we must ascertain from these laws whether more was to be done to conclude the United States as to any definite and distinct tract of land. ”

“ Often, however, and probably in most instances, no survey had in fact been made when the United States acquired the country, in 1803; and of this unsurveyed class was the concession to Joseph Brazeau. As these unlocated claims were usually surrounded in part by public lands, and in other part by the vague and unlocated claims of others, it became necessary that definite boundaries should be established by legal surveys, so that the limits of the public domain might be known, and private adjoining owners be exempt from disturbance and litigation. ”

“ We are of opinion that the United States reserved the power to locate, by survey, the land confirmed to Brazeau, and by such survey to separate it from the public lands, and from the lands claimed by others, and to issue a patent therefor, as was done in this instance; that this reserved power was vested in the executive department, whose acts in this instance bound Brazeau, and those claiming under him; nor can they extend their claim and recover land beyond the boundaries described in the patent to Brazeau or his legal representatives. ”