Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ Justice Stone dissented from the decree rejecting the claim, and was of opinion that the making of the grant in question was within the competency of the supreme Executive, and that Governor Armijo was his appropriate ministerial agent in its execution.
In reviewing questions arising out of Mexican laws relating to land titles we recognize what an exceedingly difficult matter it is to determine with anything like certainty what laws were in force in Mexico at any particular time prior to the occupation of the country by the American forces in 1846-1848. ”

“ Unless we should regard this possibility as a sufficient excuse in every case of a land grant in New Mexico for the failure to show any archive title or record of title of such grant, it cannot be admitted in this particular case. That it is not a sufficient excuse has been decided by this court. ”

“ It appears that 11 square leagues would embrace about 50,000 acres of land, and hence a grant of 415,000 acres would, under the law and regulations, be far beyond the power of the officials to make to any one person. ”

“ Treating Armijo as the alter ego in New Mexico of the supreme Executive of Mexico, and claiming for the latter full and absolute power to dispose of the public lands in accordance with the views held by that officer, counsel ask that the same presumption of the validity of grants made by Governor Armijo should be indulged which was accorded to the grants of certain officials in the Louisiana and Florida cases, herein referred to. ”

“ Their existence is denied by counsel for the appellants, and it is upon the assumption of their nonexistence that his argument rests. Assuming, however, that the law and regulations were not in force, we still cannot base a presumption that the governor was authorized by the supreme Executive to make the grant simply because the governor exercised the power. ”

“ Justice Fuller, said that the case was to be decided under the Mexican colonization law of August 18, 1824, and the regulations of November 21, 1828, which in his judgment had not been totally repealed by the law of April 4, 1837, and the grant, being subject to the first-named law and to the regulations above mentioned, could not be valid for a greater quantity than 11 square leagues, nor become a perfect title until the grant had been approved by the departmental assembly. ”