Samuel Freeman Miller

“ The statute, in express language, gives the holder of the invalid state selection the same right as a pre-emption settler on unsurveyed lands, and no more. Here Bangs had asserted his right as soon as the land was released from the Mexican claim, and a few days before the congressional survey became fixed. The least that can be said of Bangs' claim is that it was of equal force when the maps of these surveys were filed, and, by his superior diligence in a lawful manner, he obtained the patent, and plaintiff has no superior equity which should take it form him. ”

“ Indeed the land in that case, as in this, was a part of the Mexican claim Las Pocitas, and the principles announced in that case are decisive of this. It appears from the history there detailed that the land department of the United States, refusing to recognize the surveys made by state authority, and the selection made by the state and sold and certified to its purchasers, congress, on July 23, 1866, (14 St. 218,) passed an act for the relief of such persons and to remedy the evils of this unauthorized action on the part of the state of California, as far as possible. ”

“ This section says that the selection so made shall have, when the lands are afterwards surveyed, the same force and effect as the pre-emption rights of a settler on the unsurveyed, public lands, and the claimant shall be allowed the same time after the surveys have been made to prove up his purchase as is allowed under the pre-emption laws. ”