Samuel Freeman Miller

“ The whole matter is very imperfectly stated, but it would seem that Martinez, in his petition asking for this order, asserted that the grant to Mr. Charles Bent, which was prior in time to that to Beaubien and Miranda, included the land which he and his associates desired to use, and which he had purchased of Bent. It will be readily seen by any one, even through the bad translation of the language of Beaubien, that he is endeavoring to show that the grant to Bent could not include any of the land within his own grant. ”

“ This fact, concurring with the grammatical construction of the language used, the meaning of which can be plainly perceived through what is, perhaps, a very imperfect translation, leaves no doubt now in our minds, after a thorough examination, that the statement of the opinion was correct. ”

“ The error, however, is in the assumption in the petition that the decision of the court turned upon that point. It is true that the assistant attorney general, in his argument on behalf of the United States, rested the case almost exclusively, so far as he was concenred, on the proposition that the validity of the grant was governed by the limitation of the decree of the Mexican congress of 1824 to 11 square leagues for each grantee, in ordinary grants ”