Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/744

 MAKNING V. SAN JACINTO TIN 00. 729 �patent and subsequent conveyances to defendant be decreed to be void, and the defendant required to oonvey said several tin mines to complainant. �The patent described in the bill was issued upon a Mexican grant made in 1846, after confirmation by the board of land commissioners, affirmed by the United States courts on appeal, in pursuance of the act of congress of March 3, 1851, "to settle private land claims in the state of California." 9 St. 631. The effect of a patent issued upon such confirmation of a Mexican grant of the kind bas been settled by the supreme court of the United States as well as by numerous de- cisions of the supreme court of California. In Beard v. Federy, 3 Wall. 491, the supreme court of the United States statea the effeci of such a patent in the following language: �"In the flrst place, the patent is a deed of the United States. As a deed, its operation is that of a quitclaim, or rather of a conveyance of such interest as the United States possessed in the land, and it takes eflfect by relation at the time when proceedings were instituted by the filing of the petition before the board of land commissioners. In the second place, the patent is a record of the action of the governmeut upon the title of the claimanta» itexisted upon the acquisition of the country. Such acquisition did not afEect the rights of the inhabitants to their property. ihey retained all such rights, and were entitled by the law of nations to protection in them to the same extent as under the former government. The treaty of cession also stipulated for such protection, ihe obligation to which the United States thus succeeded was, of course, political in its character, and to be discharged in such manner and on such terms as they might judge expedient. By the aet of March 3, 1851, they have declared the manner and the terms on which they will discharge this obligation. They have there established a special tribunal, before which all claims to land are to be investigated ; required evidence to be pre- sented respecting the claims ; appointed law officers to appear and contest them on behalf of the government; authorized appeals from the decisions of the tribunal, first to the district and then to the supreme court ; and designated officers to survey and measure of£ the land, when the validity of the claims is flnally determined. When inforraed by the action of its tribunals and officers that a claim asserted is valid, and entitled to recognition, the government acts and issues its patent to the claimant. This instrument is, therefore, record evidence of the action of the government upon the title of the claimant. By it the government declares that the claim asserted was valid under the laws of Mexico ; that it was entitled to recognition and protection by the stipulationa of the treaty, and might have been located under the former government, and is correctly located now, so as to embraee the premises as they are surveyed and desGiibed. As against the government this record, so long as it remains un- vacated, is conclusive. And it is equally conclusive against parties claiming under the government by title subsequent. It is in this effect of the patent as a record of the government that its security and protection chiefly lie. Ef ��� �