Mahlon Pitney

“ It is commonly recognized that this double relaxation of the ordinary safeguards must very greatly multiply the probabilities of error, and that hearsay evidence is an unsafe reliance in a court of justice. ”

“ The confession of Joe Dick, since deceased, that he committed the murder for which the plaintiff in error was tried, coupled with circumstances pointing to its truth, would have a very strong tendency to make anyone outside of a court of justice believe that Donnelly did not commit the crime. ”

“ Upon the question of government ownership, it is a matter of history that the entire territory in question was a part of the public domain that was transferred by Mexico to the United States in the year 1848 by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. ”

“ There is no decision by this court against the admissibility of such a confession; the English cases since the separation of the two countries do not bind us; the exception to the hearsay rule in the case of declarations against interest is well known; no other statement is so much against interest as a confession of murder; it is far more calculated to convince than dying declarations, which would be let in to hang a man (Mattox v. United States, 146 U.S. 140, 36 L. ed. 917, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 50) ; and when we surround the accused with so many safeguards, some of which seem to me excessive ”

“ As a matter of history it plainly appears that the Klamath Indians established themselves along the river in order to gain a subsistence by fishing. The reports of the local Indian agents and superintendents to the Commissioners of Indian Affairs abound in references to fishing as their principal subsistence, and the river is described as running in a narrow canyon through a broken country, the Indians as dwelling in small villages close to its banks. ”

“ Whether, as rules of property, it would now be safe to change these doctrines where they have been applied, as before remarked, is for the several states themselves to determine. If they choose to resign to the riparian proprietor rights which properly belong to them in their sovereign capacity, it is not for others to raise objections. ”

“ That there shall be set apart by the President, and at his discretion, not exceeding four tracts of land, within the limits of said state, to be retained by the United States for the purposes of Indian Reservations, which shall be of suitable extent for the accommodation of the Indians of said state, and shall be located as remote from white settlements as may be found practicable, having due regard to their adaptation to the purposes for which they are intended ”

“ It intrinsic weakness, its incompetency to satisfy the mind of the existence of the fact, and the frauds which might be practised under its cover, combine to support the rule that hearsay evidence is totally inaddmissible. ”

“ One of the exceptions to the rule excluding it is that which permits the reception, under certain circumstances and for limited purposes, of declarations of third parties, made contrary to their own interest; but it is almost universally held that this must be an interest of a pecuniary character; and the fact that the declaration alleged to have been thus extrajudicially made would probably subject the declarant to a criminal liability is held not to be sufficient to constitute it an exception to the rule against hearsay evidence. ”

“ By § 2332, where such persons or associations have held and worked their claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims by the local law, evidence of such possession and working shall establish a right to a patent, in the absence of adverse claim. ”

“ This same reason applies-perhaps a fortiori-with respect to crimes committed by white men against the persons or property of the Indian tribes while occupying reservations set apart for the very purpose of segregating them from the whites and others not of Indian blood. ”

“ The chief requirements are,-the discovery of a valuable mineral deposit within the limits of the claim (§§ 2318-2320) ; the claimants must be citizens of the United States, or must have declared their intention to become such (§§ 2319, 2321) ; 'the location must be distinctly marked on the ground, so that its boundaries can be readily traced' (§ 2324) ”

“ Ord. Ind. Reserv. 1912, pp. 43, 55, 61, etc. It will be seen that Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, and Harrison, successively, acted with respect to one or more of these reservations upon the theory that the act of 1864 conferred a continuing discretion upon the Executive; orders were made for altering and enlarging the bounds of the reservations, restoring portions of their territory to the public domain, and abolishing reservations once made, and establishing others in their stead; and in numerous instances Congress in effect ratified such action. ”

“ Ct. Rep. 560, 15 Mor. Min. Rep. 472; Black v. Elkhorn Min. Co. 163 U.S. 445, 450, 41 L. ed. 221, 223, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1101, 18 Mor. Min. Rep. 375; Chrisman v. Miller, 197 U.S. 313, 321, 49 L. ed. 770, 773, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 468.
The history of the legislation of Congress upon the subject, and the effect thereof, are referred to in numerous decisions of this court, among them: Belk v. Meagher, 104 U.S. 279, 284, 26 L. ed. 735, 737, 1 Mor. Min. Rep. 510; St. Louis Smelting & Ref. Co. v. Kemp, 104 U.S. 636, 649, 26 L. ed. 875, 879, 11 Mor. Min. Rep. 673 ”