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TEXAS STATE LIBRA.RY fore passed upon, and which may be passed upon hereafter by a jury, I is confirmed bevond the reach of redress. I cannot beli"eve that it was the intention of Congress to place the claims beyond the reach of the Supreme court, as only a few days have elapsed since that Honorable body, by a joint resolution, 46 express a very different opinion, by directing the Executive to employ counsel to aid the Attorney General withe argument of some of the very cases before the Supreme Court; But that the eighth (8) section of this bill will have that effect, if it become a law, is to my mind unquestion- able; and it does appear to me if there were no other objection to this bill, this single section would work greater injury to the Republic than would be compensated by any benefits which could result from its other provisions; for it would not only confirm one species of suspcted fraud, in all probability as great as that which it is intended to defeat, but it would also present the strange anomaly in legislation, of passing at the same session of Congress, and in a short time of each other, two laws-· a Resolution and an Act-the one to employ additional counsel on the· part of the Government to oppose, in the Supreme Court, the very de- scription of claims whic~ the other establishes beyond appeal. There is, however, an other objection to this bill, which my oath of office renders insuperable. It is found in the sixth (6) section which requires the Commissioners of the General Land Office in all instances of a head-right claim, to make out the Patent in the name of the 1 original claimant, and which declares that a patent made out in the name of any other person shall be void. That the certificates issued: 1 by the board of Land Commissioners are not assignable, I have always been of the opinion, and I am satisfied that it is entirely competent for Congress to prohibit the issuing· of a patent to any person, other than the one to whom the certificate was issued, except in cases of 1 heirs, after the death of their ancestors: but as the land law 47 of the 14th. of Dec'r. 1837, expressly recognised the validity of assignments of head-right claims, previous to issuing the certificates, and as rights may have been required under that law by the assignees, I do not think it competent for Congress to divest those rights; and an act which would have that effect is, to my mind, clearly unconstitutional. . For these and other reasons I return this bill without my approval to the Honorable Honse of Representatives, in which it originated, with the assurance that it would have given me great satisfaction could I, consistently with a sense of official obligation, have united with them in carrying out the great objects which were evidently contemplated by it, by giving it my sanction, as the accomplishment of those objects has iny most hearty asent. Mirabeau B. Lamar. No. 1700 1840 Jan. 27, JOHN R. REID, HOUSTON, [TEXAS], TO MIRA- BEAU B[UONAPARTEJ LAMAR, AUSTIN, [TEXAS] The reorganization of the judicial districts_; the impossibility of his ' "Approved Jan. 16, 1840. Printed in Gammel, H. P. N., Laws of II, 372. "Printed in Gammel, H. P. N., Laws of Texas, I, 1404.
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