By acts of congress passed in 1803 and 1805, General Lafayette
was authorized to locate land warrants upon any lands which were
the property of the United States, to have surveys executed, and to
obtain a certificate from the register of the land office that the
land surveyed was not rightfully claimed by any other person.
The location was made upon land in the vicinity of New Orleans,
and included land which was vacant, and also land which was claimed
by individuals. But the entry contained no exterior boundaries.
It was not until 1825 that the location was surveyed, and then
there were marked upon the plat such lands as were vacant, and such
as were claimed by individuals. The register certified that the
lands contained in the survey were vacant, with the exception of
the parts designated as private claims, and a patent was issued for
such vacancies, having the survey attached to it.
These claims of individuals, having been confirmed by operation
of acts of congress, are excepted from the grant of the patent.
Apart from the documents which establish the titles of these
individual claimants, the patent shows that nothing was granted
except the lands which were marked as vacant.
MR. JUSTICE CATRON delivered the opinion of the Court.
By an act of 1803, Congress authorized the Secretary of War to
issue to Major General Lafayette land warrants amounting in all to
11,520 acres. By the Act of March 2, 1805, he was authorized to
locate his warrants on any lands, "the property of the United
States," within the Orleans Territory, the locations to be made
with the register of a land office established there and the
surveys were to be executed under the authority of the surveyor of
the public lands south of Tennessee. Patents were directed to be
issued, when surveys of the respective tracts were presented to the
Secretary of the Treasury, "together with a certificate of the
proper register, in each case, stating that the land surveyed was
not rightfully claimed by any other person." And the act further
provided that no location should include any improved lands or
lots.
By an act passed in 1806, entries were authorized for any
quantity of land not less than five hundred acres.
Page 59 U. S. 198
On the 26th day of November, 1807, General Lafayette by his
agent located 503 acres, calling for
"vacant land situated beyond the line of six hundred yards
lately abandoned by Congress to the corporation of the said city
round the fortifications of the same."
Owing to the unsettled state of private land claims near the
City of New Orleans, the location was not surveyed until March,
1825, when the principal surveyor certified to the register that he
had surveyed for General Lafayette
"a tract of land situate in the Parish of Orleans beyond the
line of six hundred yards abandoned by Congress to the corporation
of the City of New Orleans, having such courses, distances,
boundaries, and contents as are represented in the annexed plat of
survey."
Pursuant to the Act of March 2, 1805, the register certified
that "the lands contained in the survey returned to his office were
vacant, with the exception of the parts designated as private
claims."
On the 4th day of July, 1825, a patent issued which, by its
recitals, describes the outboundaries of the 503 acres, and then
the granting clause declares that there is
"granted to said General Lafayette, and to his heirs, all such
PARTS or PARCELS of the tract of land above described as are 'not
legally claimed' by any other person or persons whomsoever."
From the recitals in the patent it might be inferred that
General Lafayette's entry had the same boundaries as described in
the patent; the fact, however, is that the description contained in
the patent is the first description, in words, of the land claimed
under the entry, the patent being in fact founded on the figurative
plan, which is attached to and forms an essential part of the
patent, and to this plan we are forced to look for a certificate of
the register, "stating that the land is not rightfully claimed by
any other person."
Until the certificate was made, the Secretary was not authorized
to issue the patent, and, to enable the register to make the proper
certificate, he was compelled to delay till Congress, either
directly or indirectly, through commissioners, ascertained the
rightful claims of others lying within the limits supposed to be
covered by General Lafayette's location, and as the location, in
the form it was surveyed and no doubt as claimed to exist when it
was made, notoriously interfered with claims of different private
individuals and covered possessions protected by the Act of March
3, 1807, no reason could be urged on behalf of the locator why a
survey and certificate should be made and returned to the Secretary
of the Treasury before the private claims were duly ascertained, it
being the obvious object of the locator to obtain "the parts or
parcels of land," within his outboundaries,
Page 59 U. S. 199
that should chance to be found vacant, after the private claims
had been acted on and confirmed, or rejected.
As respected these private rights and pretensions, Congress
reserved to itself the power to deal with them by such means as
were deemed appropriate, and by the course of action it prescribed
General Lafayette was compelled to abide. The case of
West v.
Cochran, 17 How. 403, lays down the governing rule
on the subject.
The courts of justice have no power to revise what Congress, or
commissioners acting by its authority, have done in their
confirmations of the titles here assailed. Against the United
States, these confirmations are conclusive, and they are equally so
against General Lafayette, this being a condition imposed on his
location by the act of 1805, above quoted, and which is affirmed in
his patent. Titles covering the lands sought to be recovered by the
petitioners below were confirmed to others before the patent to
General Lafayette was issued, which appears by documents found in
the record. But if these documents were wanting, we are of opinion
that the patent and the figurative plan, with the designations on
it, where the private confirmed titles and the vacant lands are
laid down on the plot, and noted as private property or as vacant,
furnish evidence that nothing passed by the grant but the lands
noted as being vacant.
It is therefore ordered that the judgment in the circuit
court be affirmed in the respective cases cited in the
caption.