Report of the Governor of New Mexico, 1890
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University of Oklahoma College of Law University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons American Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in the Congressional Serial Set: 1817-1899 9-15-1890 Report of the Governor of New Mexico, 1890 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/indianserialset Part of the Indian and Aboriginal Law Commons Recommended Citation H.R. Exec. Doc. No. 1, 51st Cong., 2nd Sess. (1890) This House Executive Document is brought to you for free and open access by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Indian and Alaskan Native Documents in the Congressional Serial Set: 1817-1899 by an authorized administrator of University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO. SEPTEMBER 15, 1'S90. LAND TITLES. Until the titles to the Spanish and Mexican laud grants in the Terri tory are :finally settled, the subject must continue to be of paramount importance and the :first to be considered in any statement of the con dition or needs of New Mexico. More than forty years have passed since this Territory was acquired by the United States; for thirty-six years the plan of adjudication con templated by the act of July 22, 1854, has been in operation, and yet but little, comparatively, has been accomplished toward the settlement of these titles. Down to July 1, 1890, 213 grants have been presented to the surveyor-general for action; in 162 cases he has taken testimony and made r@ports to the Interior-Department. Previous to 1870 Con gress acted on 44 of these cases, during the next decade it acted on only 1, and since 1879 it has not attempted to consider any cases what ever. , No reasonable man expects that Congress will ever again find time to pass upon the remaining 117 grants, reports upon which have been laid before it during the last twenty-five years, and far less on the unknown number that have never yet been presented to the sur veyor-general, and so the preposterous plan of having the National Legislature of sixty millions of people, sitting over 2,000 miles away and overwhelmed with other business, adjudicate questions of title involving a knowledge of foreign law, the examination of scores of manuscript documents, and the careful weighing and comparing of evidence, has so signally failed to accomplish its objects that all must now admit that its day of usefulness is over. Indeed, so fully is this understood in the Territory that during the last year but one new case was :filed with the surveyor-general, and that came from an Indian . Pueblo. As long ago as May 29, 1858, the House Committee on Private Land Claims, in reporting in favor of "the confirmation of f~nuteen grants, frankly admitted the utter impracticability of doing justice under the existing law, and based its recommendation on the ground that imme diate confirmation, even without proper investigation, was the least of two evils. The report says: (Report No. 457, :first session, Thirty-fifth Congress.) It appears that a number of these claims were before the C_ommittee on Public Lands of the last Congress, but, from some cause, no action was taken thereon by 587 588 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. the committee nor by Congress. Those claims, with others sinee forwarded by the surveyor-general of the Territory, have received the most careful attention youl" committee could give them; but, in justice to the committee, I must say this exami nation bas been confined entirely to what seemed to be the principal papers in each case, having no time to scrutinize tbA evidence and the application as made by the surveyor-general of the Spani~:>h and Mexican laws and usages to each of them in detail. Nor will it ever be in the power, hereafter, of any committee of this House to make such an examination as will be entirely satisfactory, should these claims be allowed to accumulate before Congress. .,. * * But for the gross injustice to the people of New Mexico of delaying for an indefi nite period action upon their claims, and the certainty that under exjsting arrange ments Congress can never consider them under more favorable. circumstances than at this time, your committee wonlrl not have been willing to report upon any of these individual claims, for the reason first stated-want of time to examine fully, and the unknown quantity of land claimed by most of the parties. Soon after the printing of this report, Congress, on December 22, 1858, passed its first confirmatory act by which it confirmed the titles to five grants (Nos. 2, 5, 7, 11, and 13). The next action was taken June 21, 1860, when thirty-one grants were 0oufirmed at once (Nos. l, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, and 38). The subsequeut confirmations were as follows: March 1, 1861, one (No. 43); June 12, 1866, one (No. 40); .March 3, 1869, five (Nos. 41, 42, 44,_ 46, and 47); July 1, 1870, one (No. 48); January 28, 1879, one (No. 64). So that only eight hnxe been acted on in thirty years, and but one in the last twenty years. Through all this long period the people of New Mexico have begged for a tribunal which coul(l quickly and justly adjudicate as to these grants. It is not the fault of the Territory or its people that uncer tainty of title exists here. If the matter harl been left to be settled in the local courts, as similar questions would be adjusted in the older States, no great difficulty would have ensued and titles would have been determined a quarter of a century ago. But the United States chose to claim that all titles were invalid, though they might have ex isted without dispute for over a hundred years, until they should be submitted to the action of Congress, based on a report to be made by the surveyor-general. Since the utter inadequacy of this plan has become apparent, it has been generally conceded that another must be devised; but differences of opinion between the two Houses of Congress as to methods of pro cedure have prevented the adoption of any practical ~ystem. The House of Representatives has several times passed a bill for the crea tion of a commission somewhat similar to that which existed in Cali fornia, to settle these titles, only to be met by the objections of the Senate, which insists that they should be adjudicated by the existing courts. The people of the Territory, while possessing strong opinions as to the best way of meeting the difficulty, have been so exceedingly desirous of practical relief that they preferred the adoption of any sys tem, however imperfect, to the existeuce of none at all. During the past year encouraging progress has been made toward the attainment of the desired result, and the adoJ>tion of a method of adjudication generally satisfactory to the people. In this regard we feel under special obligation to the present ad ministration, as the first which has seemed to comprehend the necessi ties of the situation, and certainly the first which bas taken practical steps to meet them. The President, in the annual message to Congress of December 1, TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO. ·589 1889, formally drew the attention of that body to the subject in the following words : The unsettlecl state of .the title to large bodies of lands in the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, has greatly retarded the develoJ•ment of these Territories. Pro vision should be made by law for the prompt trial and final adjustment, before a judicial tribunal or commission, of all claims based upon Mexican grants. It is not just t.o an intelligent and enterprising people that their peace ~:~hould be disturbed and their prosperity retarded by these old contentions. I express the hope that the differences of opinion as to the methods may yield to the urgency of the case. While this recommendation was necessarily brief, it was emphatic and comprehensive; and particularly valuable, as it pointedly alluded to the real cause of the long delay by asking that mere '"difference of opinion as to methods may yield to the urgency of the case." The more extended discussion of this subject in the Heport of the Secretary of the Interior, the clearness with which the injustice of the failure of the Government to provide adequate means for adjudication was set forth, and the forcible argument in favor of early action therein contained, could not fail to produce an effP-ct. The whole matter could not be more concisely summed up than in the sentence: The preHent system being ineffective and inadequate in my opinion, the object of this communication is to respectfully suggest, if you approve, that you call the at tention of Congress specially to the subject, and urge upon it the necessity of further legislation, so th:Lt these grants may be disposed of within a reasonable time. The meeting of Congress was quickly followed by the introduction of bills for the purpose of establishing a land court, by Eon. Antonio Joseph~ the Delegate from New Mexico, Hon. James B. McCreary, of Kentucky (H. R.. 376, December 18, 1889), and Eon. Charles P. Wick bam, of Ohio (H.