ced. This treaty
had stipulated for the protection of all rights of property of the
citizens of the ceded country; and that stipulation embraced inchoate
and equitable rights, as well as those which were perfect. 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. When the treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo came to be ratified--at the very moment when Mexico
was feeling the sorest pressure that could be applied to her by the
force of our armies, and the diplomacy of our statesmen--she utterly
refused to cede her public property in California unless upon the
express condition that all private titles should be faithfully
protected. We made the promise. The gentleman sits on this bench who
was then our Minister there.[1] With his own right hand he pledged the
sacred honor of this nation that the United States would stand over
the grantees of Mexico and keep them safe in the enjoyment of their
property. The pledge was not only that the government itself would
abstain from all disturbance of them, but that every blow aimed at
their rights, come from what quarter it might, should be caught upon
the broad shield of our blessed Constitution and our equal la