They asserted that the land was part of the public property
of the United States. Many holding these views gave evidence of the
earnestness of their convictions by immediately appropriating to
themselves as much vacant land in the city as they could conveniently
occupy. Disputes followed, as a matter of course, between claimants
under the alcalde grants and those holding as settlers, which often
gave rise to long and bitter litigation. The whole community was in
fact divided between those who asserted the existence of a _pueblo_
having a right to the lands mentioned, and the power of the alcaldes
to make grants of them; and those who insisted that the land belonged
to the United States.
Early in 1850, after the State government was organized, the
Legislature incorporated the City of San Francisco; and, as is usual
with municipal bodies not restrained by the most stringent provisions,
it contracted more debts than its means warranted, and did not
always make provision for their payment at maturity. Numerous suits,
therefore, were instituted and judgments were recovered against the
city. Executions followed, which were levied upon the lands claimed by
her as successor of the _pueblo_. Where the occupants denied the
title of the city, they were generally indifferent to the sales by
the sheriff. Property of immense value, in some cases many acres in
extent, was, in consequence, often struck off to bidders at a merely
nominal price.
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