Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ We cannot hold that, when the power was given under the laws of Mexico to the governor to make grants of lands, he in any manner exercised that power or performed an act equivalent to its exercise, by presiding ex officio at a meeting of the territorial deputation which made a grant of lands in conformity to a petition solely addressed to it, and by authenticating as president the action of the deputation in deciding that the grant should be made. ”

“ In those cases it was not denied that the governor had authority in some circumstances to make grants, and it was therefore held that a grant made by him was prima facie evidence that he had not exceeded his power in making it, and that he who denied it took upon himself the burden of showing that the officer by making the grant had transcended the power reposed in him. There is in the case before us no evidence that the territorial deputation had the power in any event to make grants other than the fact that in some instances it assumed to make them. ”

“ In Vigil's Case there was a petition to the departmental assembly, through the governor of New Mexico, asking for a grant of land which in fact amounted to over 2,000,000 acres, the grantees binding themselves, if the grant were made, to construct two wells for the relief and aid of travelers, and to establish two factories for the use of the state, and to protect them from hostile invasion. ”