Samuel Freeman Miller

“ United States (supra) , a much more limited and well-defined class of claims might, at the option of the claimants, be prosecuted in the District Court of the United States, whose territorial jurisdiction included the locus in quo of the lands. Over a suit thus brought, Congress retained no further control, and the judgment, subject to an appeal here, was made conclusive. The claimants in the present case have invoked this alternative, and they must fail on this appeal, if their case does not come within the class of which that court has jurisdiction, as defined by Congress. ”

“ In liberality, however, towards these dilatory or unfortunate claimants, that act provided that, whenever a claim was established under it to lands so sold by the United States, the successful claimant might select an equal quantity from any public lands subject to private sale. ”

“ The treatment of these claimants has been governed by patience in hearing and rehearing, by extension of time for presenting claims, by affording repeated opportunities to establish them, and by that careful regard for every equitable consideration favorable to claimants, which merits the name of generosity rather than strict justice. It was in this spirit that, after all jurisdiction over the subject-matter had ceased to exist in any other tribunal, Congress passed the act of 1860, and renewed it for a short period in 1872. ”