Roger B. Taney

“ The court then cited the acts of Congress showing that the United States had, before the ratification of the treaty for the cession of the Floridas, distinctly declared that the boundary of Louisiana, as acquired under the treaties of San Ildefonso, of 1800, and of Paris of 1803, extended east as far as to the river Perdido-had taken actual possession of territory according to such declaration of the boundary of Louisiana as acquired by the treaties of San Ildefonso, of 1800, and of Paris, of 1803-and had annexed a part of the disputed territory to the State of Louisiana. ”

“ By the Constitution of the United States, the President has the power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties provided two thirds of the Senators present concur. And he is authorized to appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and to receive them from foreign nations; and is thereby enabled to obtain accurate information of the political condition of the nation with which he treats; who exercises over it the powers of sovereignty, and under what limitations ”

“ V. It cannot be said that the annulment may be justified upon imputable fraud of Spain, assuming even that the grant was made after, instead, as is the fact, of being made before, (and of pending before the king more than six months) the period of proposing the cession; more than a year elapsing further before the treaty was concluded. Under the theory of that imputation, the king's special ratification would be a concession of the fraud, and a decree not only against the grant, but against the honor of the crown. Fraud is not ascribable to a sovereign State, in her compacts with other powers ”

“ The proprietary rights of the United States took date from the date of the treaty, and, on the consummate ratification, related to that period. No control of Spain is to be deemed to have rested in her after the treaty's date over the territories of Florida as a domain, or for any purpose of legislation, or of administration, referable to her interest, or within her polity, municipal or foreign. ”

“ With this grant, then, no condition having been violated and no default to inflict forfeiture having occurred, it follows that the claim of Mr. Hackley could not have become void within the actual meaning of the parties to the treaty, even giving to the king's declaratory ratification the extreme office of a decree of annulment, and supposing that his prerogative gave him power for such action. ”

“ The fact that this grant had been made came to the knowledge of the secretary, pending the negotiation; and he also learned that two other grants-one to the Count of Pu nonrostro, and the other to Don Pedro de Vargas, each containing some millions of acres, had also been made under like circumstances. These three grants covered all or nearly all of the public domain in the territory proposed to be ceded. ”