Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 8.djvu/265

 TRATADO DE AMISTAD, ARREGLO DE DIFERENCIAS Y LIMITES, Entre S. M Ca. y los Estados Umdos do America. Daszauno S. M. Catolrca y los Estados Unidos de America consolidar, de un modo permanente, la buena correspondencia y amistad que felizmente reyna entre ambas partes, han resuclto transigir y terminar todas SUS dlf€l'€HC13S y pI'GT,€I1Sl01'1€S POI' m€di.O de DH Tf8.t3.d0, qllé EXC, COD p1'€C1Sl0I1, IOS hl1I1I8S dc SHS IBSPECUVOS y COHUDBJIKGS t€1’!ll.0l'lOS CD Ia America Septentrional. but this dominion is never supposed to divest the vested rights of individuals to property. The language of the treaty ceding _Loutstana, excludes anyltdea of inter ering with private property. Ibid. After the acquisition of Flonda by the nited States, in virtue of the treaty with Spain, of 22d of February, 1819,var1ous acts of congress were passed for the adjustment of private lend claims, within the ceded territory. The tribunals authorized to decide on them, were not authorized to settle any which exeeededa 1e:»ue square; 0n_those exceeding that quantity, they were directed to report, especially, their opinion, or the future action of congress. The lands embraced in the larger claims were defined by_surveys, and plats retained · these were reserved from sale and remained unsettled until some resolution should be adopted for adnal adjudication of them, which was done by the passe e of the law of the 22d_May, 1828. By the sixth section, it was provided, "that all claim to land wiinin the territory of Florida, embraced by the treaty, which shall not be finally decided and settled under the provisions of the same law, containing a greater uantity of land than the commissioners were authorized to decide, and above the amount confirmed by the act, and which have not been re rted as antedated, or fo ed, shall be received and ad'udicated by the jud es of the superior court ofpfhe district in which therfand lies, upon the petition of the claimant, according to the forms, rules and regulations, conditions, restrictions and regulations prescribed to the district judge, and to the claimants, by the act of 26th May, 1824." By a proviso, all claims annulled by the treaty, and all claims not presented to the commissiongf}? &.c., according to the acts of congress, were excluded. United States 1:. Arredondo etal. 6Peters, _The validiiy of concessions of land, by the authorities of Spain, in East Florida, is expressly recognised m the lortda treaty, and in the several acts of congress. Ibid. The eighth article allows the owners of land the same time for fulfilling the conditions of their grants from the date of the treaty, as is allowed in the grant from the date of the instrument. And the act of the 8th of May, 1822, requires every person claiming title to lands under any patent, grant, concession, or order of survey dated previous to the 24th of January, 1818, to file his claim before the commissioners appointed in pursuance of that act. All the subsequent acts on the subject observe the same language; and the titles under these concessions have been uniformly confirmed, when the tract did not exceed a league square. Ibid. _ _ _ A claim to lands in East Florida, the title to which was derived from grants by the Creek and Sennnole Indinns, ratified by the local authorities of Spain, before the wssron of Florida by Spam to the United States was confirmed. It was objected to the title claimed in this case, which had een presented to the su erior court of Middle Florida, under the provisions of the acts of Congress for the settlement of land claims in Florida, that the grantees did not acquire, under the _Indran grants, a legal title to the land, Held, that the acts of congress submit these claims to the adjudication of this court as a court of equity; and those acts, as often and uniformly construed in IIS repeated decisions, confer the same gurusdiction over imperfect, inchoate, and inceptive titles, as legal and perfect ones, and require the court to decide bg the same rules on all claims submitted to it, whether legal or equitable. Mitchell et al. v. The United tates, 9 Peters, 711. _ _ _ Under the Florida treaty, grants of land made before the 24th I anuary, 1818, by his Catholic Ma]est¤ or by his lawful authorities, stand ratified and confirmed to the same extent that the same_ grants wou be valid, if Florida had remained under the dominion of S{pam_; and the owners of conditional grantsé who have been prevented from fulnllinglall the conditions o their grants, have time by the treaty extends to them to complete such conditions. hat time, as was declare by the supreme court in Arredondo s case, 6 Peters, 478, be an to run in regard. to individuabrights from the ratification of the treaty; and the treaty declares, if the conditions are not complied with, within the terms limited in the grant, that the rants shall be null and void. United States v. Kingsley, 12_Peters, 476._ The treaty with Spain, by which Florida was ceded to the United_ States, rs_the luvrof the land, and admits the inhabitants of Florida to the enjoyment of the prtvilegles, rights, and immunities of the citizens of the United States. They do not, however, participate in po_tttcal power; they do not share nt the government, until Florida shall become a state. In the_ mean ttme,_F ortda continues to be a territory of the United States, governed by virtue of that clause in the constitution, which empowers _ congress to make all needful rules and re ulations resppeting the territory, or other property, belonging to) the United States." American Ins. Ec. v. Three undred and Filtywt Bales o Cotton, l Peters, 54.t. (253)