[Download] "United States v. Vigil" by United States Supreme Court * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: United States v. Vigil
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 01, 1871
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 54 KB
Description
Mr. J. A. Wills and Mr. B. H. Bristow, Solicitor-General, for the United States; Mr. J. S. Watts and T. Ewing, contra. It has been repeatedly decided by this court, that the only laws in force in the Territories of Mexico for the disposition of the public lands, with the exception of those relating to missions and towns, are the act of the Mexican Congress of 1824, and the regulations of 1828. The avowed purpose of the Congress in enacting this law, and of the supreme government in carrying it into effect, was to colonize the public domain; to preserve it for settlement or cultivation. The favor of the legislature has, doubtless, been often abused by unworthy ministers in charge of the remote Territories, but this consideration in no wise detracts from the wisdom of the policy on this subject. This policy recognized the obligation resting on the government to hold the public lands as a public trust, to be administered for the benefit of those who would settle upon them or cultivate them. They could not be sold for money, nor granted away in consideration of past public services, nor on condition of making public improvements, of use to the travelling community, or of general benefit to the state. The power to cede them depended entirely on the uses to which they were to be put, and these, as we have seen, were cultivation or settlement. The legal right to dispose of them for other objects, was withdrawn from the local authorities, and rested alone with the supreme government.