It was not
for the Supreme Court of California to question the wisdom or policy
of Mexico in making grants of such large portions of her domain, or
of the United States in stipulating for their protection. I felt the
force of what Judge Grier had expressed in his opinion in the case
of The United States vs. Sutherland, in the 19th of Howard, that
the rhetoric which denounced the grants as enormous monopolies and
princedoms might have a just influence when urged to those who had a
right to give or refuse; but as the United States had bound themselves
by a treaty to acknowledge and protect all _bona fide_ titles granted
by the previous government, the court had no discretion to enlarge or
contract such grants to suit its own sense of propriety or to defeat
just claims, however extensive, by stringent technical rules of
construction to which they were not originally subjected. Since then,
while sitting on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United States,
I have heard this obligation of our government to protect the rights
of Mexican grantees stated in the brilliant and powerful language of
Judge Black. In the Fossat case, referring to the land claimed by one
Justo Larios, a Mexican grantee, he said: "The land we are claiming
never belonged to this government. It was private property under
a grant made long before our war with Mexico.
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