Samuel Nelson

“ We can give very little weight to a possession so limited as to duration and in extent, when offered in support of a grant of ninety or one hundred thousand acres of land. If the grant cannot be maintained by its own force and effect, this possession will scarcely uphold it. Coming then to the grants, we may as well lay aside the first one, the colonization grant, at once, as entirely defective within the law of 1824 and the regulations of 1828. The only document in evidence is the naked grant itself. ”

“ There are many other stringent provisions and conditions imposed which it is not important to refer to specially; it is sufficient to say, that the system thus established by the sovereign power of the nation for the grant and distribution of the public lands, exhibits a deliberation and care over the subject that is in striking contrast with the system of granting the public lands under our Government, and furnishes the highest evidence of the extreme interes the Mexican Government took in guarding against impositions and frauds, by or upon the political chiefs in the execution of the law. ”

“ The act then prohibits the colonization of any lands within twenty leagues bordering on any foreign nation, or within ten leagues of the sea-coast, without the consent of the supreme government; and further, that in the distribution of the lands preference is to be given to Mexican citizens; that no person shall be allowed to obtain a grant of more than eleven leagues; and that no person who may obtain a grant under the law shall retain it if he resides out of the limits of the republic. ”