Melville Fuller

“ If the conflict of a state law with the constitution, and the decision by the state court in favor of its validity, are relied on, this must appear on the face of the record, before the decision can be re-examined in this court; and this is equally true where the denial of a title, right, privilege, or immunity under the constitution and laws of the United States, or the validity of an authority exercised under the United States, is urged as the ground of jurisdiction. ”

“ It was evidently drawn by counsel, as was, indeed, admitted at the bar, and states that a federal question was duly raised; but the chief justice declined to say that it was decided, except as such decision might be involved in the affirmance of the whole of the decree of the superior court, or by the statement of the court, in the opinion, that 'the color of title necessary to support a claim of adverse possession' depended on the deed of Betsy Jones executed by her husband by virtue of the power of attorney. ”

“ Eldridge did not occupy the position of a stranger to the title, not connected therewith by transfer from the original holder. If the Jones deed was sufficient to sustain claim or color of title if the patent had issued March 28, 1862, its sufficiency for that purpose could not be rendered any the less by the issue of the patent at a subsequent time; and, in any view of the alleged infirmities of the deed, the patent would take effect by relation, rather than operate extrinsically to the destruction of the claim under the original owners. ”