Interstate Land Co. v. Maxwell Land Grant Co.
| Decision Date | 20 December 1889 |
| Citation | 41 F. 275 |
| Parties | INTERSTATE LAND CO. v. MAXWELL LAND GRANT CO. MAXWELL LAND GRANT CO. v. PRETECA et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Colorado |
John L Jerome, for complainant.
C. E Gast and J. M. John, for defendants.
The single question in these two cases arises upon what is known as the 'Beales Grant,'-- a grant made in the year 1832 by the governor of the state of Coahuila and Texas. The petition and grants are as follows.
'Petition and grants to Jose Manuel Royuela and John Charles Beales for the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two and thirty-three. To His Excellency, the Governor of the State of Coahuila & Texas-- Sir. The citizen Jose Manuel Royuela, a native of Saltillo, and there married, and John Charles Beales, a native of England, settled in Mexico, and there married to a Mexican subject, having children, with all due respect represent to your excellency: That being very desirous of augmenting the population, wealth, and power of the Mexican nation, and at the same time of affording to a certain number of virtuous and industrious families the means of acquiring an honorable subsistence, by cultivating a tract of land in the ancient province of Texas, and being moreover, acquainted in full with the law of colonization passed by the honorable legislature of this state on the twenty-fourth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, by which 'empresarios' or colonizing contractors are allowed to undertake to colonize under the conditions and stipulations by said law prescribed, and being anxious to form an establishment that may be useful to a new colony, and at the same time beneficial to the state, on account of the advantages to accrue thereout: We pray your excellency to accept us as such empresarios or colonizing contractors, and to permit us to introduce into this state, within the time that may be stipulated, two hundred Catholic families, of moral and industrious habits, and for the object your excellency will be pleased to grant us the tract of land included within the following limits, vix.: Beginning at a land-mark set upon a spot whereat the thirty-second degree of north latitude is crossed by the meridian of the hundred and second degree of longitude west from London, said spot being at the south-west corner of the grant petitioned by Col. Reuben Ross; from thence, proceeding west along the parallel of the thirty-second degree of latitude, as far as the eastern boundary of New Mexico; from thence, running north on the boundary line between the provinces of Coahuila & Texas and New Mexico, as far as twenty leagues of the river Arkansas; from thence east, to the meridian of the hundred and second degree of longitude, which is the western boundary of the grant petitioned for by the said Col. Reuben Ross; and from thence proceeding south as far as the place of beginning. Your petitioners, as empresarios, pray for this grant on the said conditions that it was formerly given to the late Stephen Julian Wilson, whose term of six years is about to expire, on the twenty-sixth day of May in this year, without the conditions of the grant having been fulfilled. Besides the conditions which are required by the colonization law of the state, the empresarios and their settlers agree to observe the constitution of the Mexican nation, and the private constitution of this state, as well as the general and local laws that have been or shall be hereafter promulgated. They further bind themselves to comply with the conditions on which this petition is granted, and to take up arms in defense of the rights of the nation against the savage Indians, or any other enemies that may attack the country, or in any manner attempt to alter its form of government, or to disturb the public tranquility; and, finally, to prevent the inhabitants of the United States of North America from trading with the said Indians, and providing them with arms and ammunition in exchange for horses and mules. Wherefore we pray your excellency to be pleased to grant this respectful petition, which we shall consider as a favor conferred on us. Dated at Saltillo the thirteenth of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.
(Signed) 'JOSE MANUEL ROYUELA.
'JOHN CHARLES BEALES.
'CONDITIONS OF THE GRANT.
'Terms on which the supreme government of the state accept the proposal of the citizens Jose Manuel Royuela and John Charles Beales, for colonizing certain land with two hundred foreign families such as are not excepted by the law of the sixth of April, one thousand eight-hundred and thirty.
'Article 1. The government accepts the proposal made in the foregoing petition, as far as it is conformable with the laws of colonization passed by the honorable congress of the state on the twenty-fourth of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, and consequently assigns to the petitioners the tract of land included within the following limits, that they may establish thereon the proposed colony: It shall begin at a land-mark which shall be set up on the spot where the parallel of the thirty-second degree of north latitude crosses the meridian of the hundred and second degree of longitude west from London, said spot being at the south-west corner of the grant petitioned for by Col. Reuben Ross; from thence it shall proceed along the parallel of the thirty-second degree of latitude, as far as the eastern limit of New Mexico; from thence it shall ascend north, on the boundary line between the provinces of Coahuila & Texas and New Mexico, as far as twenty leagues of the river Arkansas; from thence it shall run east to the meridian of the hundred and second degree of longitude, which is the western boundary of the grant petitioned for by the said Col. Reuben Ross; and from thence it shall proceed south as far as the place of beginning.
'Art. 2. Though the boundaries of the tract set forth in the preceding clause are those assigned to Stephen Julian Wilson, in a grant passed by this government on the twenty-seventh of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, yet this circumstance has not been considered an impediment to the entering into the present contract, inasmuch as the time allotted to the said Wilson for the completion of said enterprise will (expire) in the month of May of this present year, without his having to this day performed the same, or any part whatsoever. But if, however, in the short time that has to elapse, any number of the families of that empresarios should present themselves, then, and in that case, the present grant shall, with due respect to the part or parts performed by the first grantee thereof, be null and void to all intents and purposes.
'Art. 3. In consideration of the grant hereinbefore specified, the empresarios, or contracting parties, agree to introduce and settle, on their own account, two hundred foreign families, conforming themselves as well to the general law of the republic as to the laws of the state in this behalf provided.
'Art. 4. All lands whatsoever held under legal titles, that may be included within the limits designated in article first, shall be respected by the colonists who shall hold under this contract, and it shall be obligatory on the part of the empresarios to see to the observance of this clause.
'Art. 5. The state retains to itself the right of property over all the surplus lands which shall remain of this grant, after laying off those which belong to the empresarios and their settlers, according to the laws in that behalf provided.
'Art. 6. In conformity with article 8 of the law of colonization hereinbefore referred to, the empresarios are bound to introduce the stipulated number of two hundred families within the term of six years, which shall be computed from the date hereof, under the penalty of being debarred from all the privileges and advantages afforded by the said law.
'Art. 7. It shall be obligatory on the empresarios not to introduce or suffer to remain in the colony men guilty of atrocious crimes, or of bad conduct; as also to endeavor that no person whatsoever shall carry on traffic in arms and ammunition with the barbarous tribes of Indians, in exchange for horses and mules.
'Art. 8. Whenever there shall be a sufficient number of men, the national militia shall be duly organized and regulated, according to the laws of the state in that respect provided.
'Art. 9. The colony shall be regulated by the person whom this government shall appoint to allot the respective settlements or possessions, and he shall duly observe the laws on colonization in force throughout the state, the general law of the eighteenth of August, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four, and likewise the instructions to commissioners which have been appointed by the honorable congress, taking care to afford protection within the limits of the colony to such persons only as shall be approved of by the empresarios.
'Art. 10. All official communications, instruments, and other public documents emanating from the colony must be written in the Spanish language.
'Art. 11. In reference to all matters not provided for or expressed in these articles, the empresarios, or the new settlers holding under them, shall abide and be governed by the federal constitution and the laws of this state.
'And his excellency, the governor of the state, as also the citizens Jose Manuel Royuela and John Charles Beales, having agreed in the articles of this contract to grant, and bound respectively, to the observance and performance thereof, afterwards signed the same before me, the undersigned secretary of this government. And having been directed to give the empresarios this certified copy of all the documents relating to the grant, that they may...
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