Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It was a discovery that the state of Texas never had had a title to the land known as Greer county. The United States found itself at liberty to do what it chose with that land. It could have done nothing. It could have subdivided it at will. It could have made it part of some existing county. The land and its inhabitants retained no legal personality, least of all that personality with which Texas had purported to endow them. The United States, it is true, very properly did what it could to preserve the former condition of things. ”

“ It would be curious to consider whether the mutual mistake in a matter which, on the face of the transaction, obviously went to the root of the gift, was of such a nature as to warrant an avoidance when the mistake was discovered, including the question whether the mistake was one of law or fact. ”

“ But succession to land is governed wholly by the law of the place where the land lies. De Vaughn v. Hutchinson, 165 U.S. 566, 570, 41 L. ed. 827, 829, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 461. The land in controversy was no part of Greer county, but lies in Texas; and Texas, so far from having assented to the succession of the defendant, has assumed to deal with the land as its own, by legislation, and has directed this suit to be brought to recover it. ”