Joseph McKenna

“ That although the claim was so confirmed by act of Congress, no patent was issued for the land by the United States government until July 1900.'
In other words, the land claimed by Poiret was identified by his possession. It contained a definite quantity. Fractions of acres were even regarded, and almost necessarily. The right of a claimant depended upon possession, and naturally its extent was marked by definite boundaries. How else could a claim have any strength at all,-any right to confirmation at all? ”

“ The subsequent clause of the act providing for the issue of a patent to the claimants when their claim was located and surveyed took nothing from the force of the confirmation.
'In the legislation of Congress a patent has a double operation. It is a conveyance by the government when the government has any interest to convey, but where it is issued upon the confirmation of a claim of a previously existing title it is documentary evidence, having the dignity of a record, of the existence of that title, or of such equities respecting the claim as justify its recognition and confirmation. ”

“ It was provided by the act of Congress that a person to whom land is confirmed, whenever his claim shall have been located and surveyed; shall be entitled to the certificate from the register and receiver, which certificate shall entitle him to a patent. The tract in dispute was surveyed in 1820, but a patent was not issued until 1872. The defendant's claim of title rested on an adverse possession of thirty years. ”