| Show MEXICAN LAND GRANTS A decision of the united states court of private land claims made at tucson arizona on friday afternoon march 80 30 to is of great interest to those connected with mexican land grants grams and especially to a large number of settlers in southern aou thern arizona who have settled on the lands in question there was an area of about acres in dispute between the settlers and the claimants under grants from the state of sonora and the spanish officials of the mexican republic three of the grants in question were of the first class named they are the san ban rafael del valle made in 1833 acres made in 1832 acres and the nogales de ellas elias made in 1844 acres the claimants under these grants relied on the treaty of guadaloupe hidalgo which confirmed all previous grants by the government of mexico therefore the court dealt with the validity i of the claim under mexican law in 1854 santa ana wb was dictator in mexico from 1853 to go 1865 1855 declared that all grants made by the states or provinces of mexico ani and not specially confirmed by the general government were void the claimants claimant tm ft to these lands under the sonora grants grante insisted that the treaty referred to was wa a confirmation and recognized the validity of the grants the court however held otherwise and decided that while santa anas decree was waa eight years subsequent to the treaty it affected the grants previously made by sonora bonora and in declaring claring ae them void vacated the claim of the grantees granlees gran tees another grant is known as the bonita made in 1821 for acres acrea it was issued may 16 15 1825 by juan miguel riesgo Riest fo commissary general of the treasury of public credit and war of the republic of mexico for the state of the west the proceedings to secure this grant were instituted may 29 1821 and completed november 12 1821 when the purchase money was said to be paid this latter date would be the time ot perfecting the tit title leif if it had been done the claimants urged that as mexican caya independence ue was not established until 1824 the grant of the spanish officials under which the title was issued by riesgo was valid the court however held differently the declaration of independence was waa adopted march 1 1821 and under the revolution which followed the city of mexico was evacuated and the provis provia ional government composed of a regency of five and a legislative body was established lu iii the capital city september 27 1821 As the mexican re republic public succeeded this and the spaniards never regained control the court holds that the spanish officials were ousted in march and therefore any title based on their sovereignty in may to november following was void although the contest was continued and did not result in the ejection of the spanish officials until a subsequent date the settlers on the disputed lands are highly slated elated over the turn in affairs and at the logic by which the court reaches its conclusions it is the general opinion that any appeal to tho the united states supreme court must result in favor of the settlers as in the first three grants the decision of the claims court upholds the general government of mexico in interpreting its ito own procedures procedure and in the other the rule always maintained by tho the united states in its own history that the declaration of independence and not nol the date of success through the revolution was the inception af the exercise of governmental power by the republic |
