Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar

“ True, those proceedings do not estop a party claiming the same land under a prior grant from the Mexican government. But, to succeed in his claim, he must recover on the strength of his own title. In other words, he must establish the validity of his own grant in order to defeat a subsequent grant which has been adjudged valid in proper legal proceedings. The confirmation and patenting of the grant to Beaubien and Miranda operated to divest the United States of all their rights to the land embraced in the grant which this country acquired from Mexico by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. ”

“ Contracts made by the contractors or undertakers, empresarios, with families brought at their expense, are guarantied by this law, so far as they are conformable with its provisions. Art. 10. In the distribution of lands, a preference shall be given to the military entitled to them, by the diplomas issued by the supreme executive power, and the Mexican citizens who are not military, among whom there shall be no other distinction than that founded on their individual merit or services performed for the country, or, in equal circumstances, a residence in the place where the land may be situated. ”

“ This is a suit in equity, brought by the Interstate Land Company, a Colorado corporation, against the Maxwell Land Grant Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the kingdom of the Netherlands, and doing business in Colorado, pursuant to the laws of that state, to establish its title to a large tract of land in Las Animas county, Colo., for which the defendant has a United States patent, and to restrain the defendant from prosecuting certain suits in ejectment against various parties who are tenants of the plaintiff. ”

“ This last article shows a clear intent that no party should obtain title to more than eleven square leagues, no matter what services in colonization he may render to the state. Articles 14, 15, and 16 provide what the individual settlers are to receive, and sections from 12 to 16, inclusive, explain fully the meaning of article five of the grant, which declares that the state retains title to all the surplus land within the grant after laying off that which belongs to the empresarios and their settlers. ”

“ Article 10 of the original draft of the treaty, as agreed upon between the commissioners representing this government and Mexico, was as follows: 'Art 10. All grants of land made by the Mexican government, or by the competent authorities, in territories previously appertaining to Mexico, and remaining for the future within the limits of the United States, shall be respected as valid to the same extent that the same grants would be valid if the said territories had remained within the limits of Mexico. ”

“ The claim of the plaintiff here rests upon an alleged empresario grant to John Charles Beales and Jos e Manuel Royuela, in 1832, by the government of Coahuila and Texas, then two Mexican states under one provincial administration. Whatever rights to the lands in dispute were acquired by the original empresarios, or colonizing contractors, have passsed to the plaintiff under various mesne conveyances. ”

“ This articel makes plain the meaning of article three of the grant, and shows that that means simply that, in consideration of the setting apart of this large tract of land, the petitioners agree to introduce and settle on that land two hundred foreign families. Articles 12 and 13 together provide what shall be given to the empresario who introduces eight hundred families, and receives more than eleven square leagues of land. ”

“ The projects for new settlements, in which one or more persons offer to bring at their expense one hundred or more families, shall be presented to the government, and if found conformable with this law they will be admitted ”

“ If, therefore, the great surplus which it is claimed was conveyed by its patent to Beaubien and Miranda was the property of the United States, and congress, acting in its sovereign capacity upon the question of the validity of the grant, chose to treat it as valid for the boundaries given to it by the Mexican governor, it is not for the judicial department of this government to controvert their power to do so;' citing Tameling v. ”

“ It shall be obligatory on the empresarios not to introduce or suffer to remain in the colony men guilty of atrocious crimes or of bad conduct; as also to endeavor that no person whatsoever shall carry on traffic in arms and ammunition with the barbarous tribes of Indians in exchange for horses and mules. Art. 8. Whenever there shall be a sufficient number of men, the national militia shall be duly organized and regulated according to the laws of the state in that respect provided. ”

“ The mere fact that the word 'grant' is used many timesin them, sometimes apparently in its general and unrestricted sense of a conveyance of the title, ought not to be permitted to outweigh other parts of the instruments which clearly negative that idea. ”

“ Art. 14. To each family comprehended in a contract whose sole occupation is cultivation of land one labor shall be given; should he also be a stock-raiser, grazing land shall be added to complete a sitio; and should his only occupation be raising of stock, he shall only receive a superficie of grazing land equal to twenty-four million square varas.'
The following articles of the 'instructions to the commissioners appointed by the legislature of the state' for the partition of the lands among the colonists, under the act of March 24, 1825, found in Rockwell's Spanish and Mexican Law, p. ”

“ Wherefore we pray your excellency to be pleased to grant this respectful petition, which we shall consider as a favor conferred on us. Dated at Saltillo, the thirteenth of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-tow. ”