Roger B. Taney

“ It is said that no fraud was alleged in the court below. That is very true. But it would have been odd, if the United States, when instituting a proceeding similar to an ejectment, had gone on in their declaration to say that the title of the defendant was fraudulent.
It is also said that we have no right to supervise the action of the Spanish authorities. This is true, if they are bona fide, but not if they are fraudulent. Congress has always provided, in its laws, for cases of fraud. The fraud was concocted in 1802, after Carondelet had gone away. ”

“ The fraud here is charged upon high functionaries of a foreign government forty-eight years ago. Fraud, for what purpose? There was no motive for it. Carondelet might have made the grant if he chose; he had the power to do it. Both these papers were before Congress in 1820, and the defendant met the accusations which were then brought against them. The United States have never attempted to rescind this patent for twenty years. If they were a private person, they would be bound by their acts. ”

“ The defendant claims under a grant from the Spanish government. The treaty gave the public domain to the United States. There is no contest about their title, if the land had not previously been granted by Spain. We concede freely that the United States only succeeded to the rights of Spain, and that all grants, perfect or imperfect, are binding. If the rights were imperfect, the United States are bound in equity to carry them out ”

“ Your perseverance, in the opinion you have formed of the excellence of the lands you inhabit, and which you are going to make flourish for the happiness of this province, as well as for those in its neighborhood which ought to partake of these advantages, ought to animate you to make the greatest efforts to effect its early accomplishment. ”

“ The expenses of transportation of their baggage and implements of labor which shall come by sea to this capital shall be paid on account of the royal domains, and they shall be taken on the same account from this place to the Washita: provided, that the weight shall not exceed three thousand pounds for each family.
'4. There shall be granted to every family containing two white persons fit for agriculture ten arpens of land, extending back forty arpens, and increasing in the same proportion to those which shall contain a greater number of white cultivators. ”

“ Lastly, it shall be permitted to the families to bring or to cause to come with them European servants, who shall bind themselves to their service for six or more years, under the express condition that, if they have families, they shall have a right, after their term of service is expired, to receive grants of land, proportioned in the same manner to their numbers. ”

“ Nelson, (attorney-general) for the United States.
Coxe, for the defendants.
Nelson, after referring to and explaining the papers above cited, laid down four propositions which he proposed to maintain.
1. That the paper relied upon by the defendants is not a grant.
2. That assuming it to be so, it was to take effect upon conditions which were not complied with.
3. That the paper purporting to be a survey by Trudeau is a forgery, and covers land not covered by the grant.
4. That the grant is void from indefiniteness, and cannot be located. ”

“ In 1 Laws U.S., Brown's endition, 549, this title is set out just as it is in the present record.
In 2 Land Laws, (American State Papers,) 771, 774, there is a copy of the very plat which we have.
It is objected that no one ever saw Trudeau's certificate of survey until 1803. At the foot of the grant, in Spanish, which is in the record, are these words: 'Anotado en el libro A, No. 1, vergo 38, y copia sicada.'
What became of the book A. we do not know. ”