United States v. Vigil

• Decision Date: 01 December 1871
• Citation: 80 U.S. 449,13 Wall. 449,20 L.Ed. 602
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. VIGIL
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

80 U.S. 449

20 L.Ed. 602

13 Wall. 449

UNITED STATES v. VIGIL.

December Term, 1871

APPEAL from the Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico; the case being thus:

On the 28th of December, 1845, one Vigil and certain other persons addressed a petition to the Most Excellent Departmental Assembly, through Armijo, governor of New Mexico, asking for a grant of a tract of land called the Jornada del Muerto, binding themselves, if the grant were made, to construct two wells for the relief and aid of travellers, and establish two factories for the use of the State, and to protect them from hostile invasion. The governor transmitted the petition to the Assembly, but declined to recommend that favorable action should be taken upon it, on account of the novel character of the application. Notwithstanding the refusal of the governor to recommend favorable action, the Assembly, on the 10th of January, 1846, granted the tract to the petitioners for the purpose of constructing wells and cultivating the lands, so far as their means would permit, without being entitled to an exclusive right to the pasture. The tract disposed of in this way, embraced an area of over two millions of acres. Soon after this, as is known, war broke out between the United States and Mexico; and the whole region where the land lay passed by conquest and treaty to the government of our own country. Hereupon Vigil and the other parties, asserting title under the grant, presented their claim to the surveyor general of New Mexico for confirmation. He, however, rejected it. The claimants then applied to Congress for relief, and a law was passed for their benefit, which authorized them to institute a suit in the Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico against the United States; the law declaring further that the same principles should be applied to the determination of the controversy, which Congress had prescribed for the decision of similar land claims in California, derived under the authority of the Mexican government. Suit was accordingly brought in the court mentioned—the court below—and that court confirmed the claim. From the decree of confirmation the case was now here on appeal by the United States.

The case was ably and elaborately argued, and a wide range taken in the discussion of questions presented by the record, but collateral to the history already given, which it is not necessary to notice in view of the grounds hereinafter set forth, on which the decision of this court is rested.

Mr. J. A. Wills and Mr. B. H. Bristow, Solicitor-General, for the United States; Mr. J. S. Watts and T. Ewing, contra.

Mr. Justice DAVIS delivered the opinion of the court.

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...