Adam Ham, Plaintiff In Error v. the State of Missouri

• Citation: 15 L.Ed. 334,18 How. 126,59 U.S. 126
• Parties: ADAM HAM, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR, v. THE STATE OF MISSOURI
• Decision Date: 01 December 1855
• Court: United States Supreme Court

59 U.S. 126

18 How. 126

15 L.Ed. 334

ADAM HAM, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR, v. THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

December Term, 1855

THIS case was brought up from the supreme court of the State of Missouri, by a writ of error issued under the 25th section of the judiciary act.

It is fully stated in the opinion of the court.

It was argued by Mr. Geyer, for the plaintiff in error, no counsel appearing for the defendant.

Mr. Geyer made the following points:——

1. The reservation by the act of March 3, 1811, is something more than 'a direction' to the officers to refrain from selling the land claimed. It severed the land embraced by the claim from the public domain, and appropriated it to the satisfaction of the claim in the event of confirmation; being so set apart and appropriated, it was 'disposed of,' and therefore not granted nor promised to be granted by the act of March 6, 1820.

2. The State did not acquire a complete title to the 16th section by force of the compact, even where the land had not been sold, reserved, appropriated, or otherwise disposed of; in such case it was reserved and appropriated to the use of schools; 'but the title to the land being still in the United States, could be passed by the government to any person for any consideration,' and in this case was passed by the confirmatory act of May 24, 1828, and the patent deed of the United States of March 25, 1839.

The propositions offered to the convention having been accepted, became obligatory upon the United States; 'the compact was complete between the sovereignties,' and the United States became bound to grant and convey the lands embraced by the first proposition, but there is no present conveyance, no word of present grant, and, therefore, no complete title vested by the terms of the compact.

The engagement on the part of the United States is executory, precisely as is the obligation to perfect inchoate titles, or to make a final decision thereon, and hold the lands reserved by law to abide the decision. No time is appointed for the fulfilment of the engagement in either case, and in both the title remains in the United States, subject to the legislative power of congress.

3. The second proviso in the confirmatory act, (repeated in the patent,) to which some importance was attached by the supreme court of Missouri in this case, has no effect whatever upon the title of either party. The act and patent, if they have any effect whatever, pass all the title which the United States had or could convey at the date, and no form of conveyance could accomplish more. Neither the confirmatory act nor the patent would prejudice the rights of third persons, nor any title theretofore derived from the United States, by purchase or donation, if the proviso had been omitted; but while the rights and titles of others are not prejudiced or impaired, they are not enlarged or improved. The executory engagement of the 6th of March, 1820, is not executed or converted into a complete title of that date by the saving, in the confirmatory act and patent. If the legal title was not vested in the State by the compact, it remained in the United States until it was vested in the claimants by the confirmatory act and patent, and the grantees are not liable to be indicted and punished for entering upon the land granted, by reason of the proviso.

Mr. Justice DANIEL delivered the opinion of the court.

Upon a writ of error to the supreme court of the State, under the authority of the 25th section of the judiciary act.

The proceedings now under review were founded upon an indictment in the circuit court of the county of St. Francis, against the plaintiff in error, for having committed waste and trespass on the sixteenth section of lands situated in congressional township number thirty-four, range seven east, as being school lands belonging to the inhabitants of the township aforesaid.

Upon this indictment the plaintiff was convicted, and condemned to pay a fine assessed by the jury, of four hundred dollars, together with the costs of the prosecution. From the judgment of the circuit court, the plaintiff in error having taken an appeal to the supreme court of Missouri, by the latter tribunal that judgment was in all things affirmed; the same plaintiff now seeks its reversal here, in virtue of several acts of congress alleged to be applicable to this case.

Upon the trial in the circuit court, the following facts were either established in proof or admitted by the parties:——

1. A joint petition on the part of Jean Batiste Vall e, and the heirs of Fran ois Vall e, Jean Batiste Pratte, and St. Geunne Beauvais, presented on the 15th of October, 1800, to Delassus, the lieutenant-governor of upper Louisiana, praying for a grant of two leagues square of land on the River St. Fran ois, including the mine, known by the name of Mine a la Motte, and the lands adjacent.

2. An acknowledgment by the lieutenant-governor, dated January 22, 1801, of his want of power to grant a concession of the extent prayed for, and the fact of his having transmitted the petition to the intendant-general, with the expression of an opinion favorable to the grant, and to the character of the applicants.

3. An order by the intendant-general, that the documents presented in behalf of the petitioners should be translated into the Castilian language, and then be laid before the fiscal agent.

4. A plat and survey for 28,224 arpens, or 24,142 acres of land, situated on the River St. Francis, certified by Nathaniel Cook, as deputy surveyor of the district of St. Genevieve, said by him to have been made by virtue of a concession by Delassus to J. B. and Fran ois Vall e, Beauvais, and Pratte, on the 22d of January, 1801.

5. The proceedings of the board of commissioners for the examination of land titles, on the 27th of December, 1811, setting forth the claim of Jean Batiste and Fran ois Vall e, Jean Batiste Pratte, and St. Geunne Beauvais, for two leagues of land, including the La Motte Mine, founded on the recommendation from Lieutenant-Governor Delassus for a concession, bearing date on the 22d of January, 1801, and the order of the intendant-general already mentioned, and the rejection of the claim by the commissioners.

6. The first section of an act of congress, approved May 24, 1828, confirming to Fran ois Vall e, Jean Batiste Vall e, Jean Batiste Pratte, and St. Geunne Beauvais, their heirs or legal representatives, a tract of land not exceeding two leagues square, situated in the county of Madison in the State of Missouri, commonly known by the name of the Mine la Motte, according to a field-plat and survey made by Nathaniel Cook, deputy surveyor of St. Genevieve, on the 22d day of February, 1806, with a proviso in the said first section, that the confirmation thus granted shall extend only to a relinquishment of title on the part of the United States, nor prejudice the rights of third persons, nor any title heretofore derived from the United States, either by purchase or donation.

7. A plat and survey made by Jenifer Sprigg, deputy-surveyor, in the months of March, 1829, and August, 1830, of the La Motte Mine tract of land, stated to contain 23,728.02 acres of land, confirmed to Francois Vall e, Jean Batiste Vall e, Jean Batiste Pratte, by an act of congress approved on the 24th of December, 1828.

8. A patent from the President of the United States, bearing date on the 25th of March, 1839, granted under the authority of the act of congress last mentioned, (and in virtue of a title derived from the confirmees,) to Lewis F. Linn and Evariste Pratte, for the La Motte Mine, and the land surrounding the same, containing 23,728.02 acres of land, in conformity with the survey of Sprigg, as certified from the general land-office; this patent, containing literally the proviso in the act of congress limiting the grant to the patentees, to a relinquishment of the title of the United States at the date of the act of congress of 1828.

9. An admission on the part of the State, that all the right, title, and claim of the original proprietors of the Mine la Motte tract of land had regularly passed to and was vested in Thomas Fleming, as fully as those proprietors had or could have had the same.

10. A lease from Thomas Fleming, of the 9th of April, 1849, to Ham, the plaintiff in error, for a portion of the Mine la Motte land.

11. An admission further on the part of the State, that the sixteenth section claimed as school lands, was within the lines of the original survey of the tract made by Nathaniel Cook, and of the other surveys given in evidence.

Upon the trial of the indictment, the circuit court, at the instance of the counsel for the State, instructed the jury, 'that the act of the 6th of March, 1820, entitled 'An act to authorize the people of Missouri Territory to form a constitution and state government, &c.,' taken in connection with an ordinance declaring the assent thereto by the people of Missouri, by their representatives assembled in convention on the 19th of July, 1820, operated as a grant by congress to the State of Missouri for the use of schools, of the 16th section in controversy, unless such 16th section had been previously disposed of by government.

'That, although the land claimed by the proprietors of Mine la Motte was, by the several acts of congress, reserved from sale, and that the survey of said claim includes the 16th section in controversy, yet such...