Vallieré v. United States

"Done in New Orleans, 22d December, 1793.

(Signed)

"EL BARON DE CARONDELET."

Don Joseph Vallieré died in 1799. Whether he ever took possession of the land, or any part of it, or made any settlement thereon, does not appear; but as it was in the heart of the Indian country, and they hostile, it is probable no settlement of any consequenee was made under the grant. No claim of title was presented by his heirs to the commissioners appointed by the act of congress of March 2, 1805, or the subsequent laws on the subject of French and Spanish grants in the province of Louisiana; nor is the grant mentioned in any of the reports made by any of these commissioners to the treasury department; nor does it appear to have been set up or brought to the notice of any tribunal, or to the notice of the government in any way until now. The first time it appears to have been brought to notice in any form was, that in 1844 a pamphlet was published in New York by "Jared W. Bell, printer, corner of Ann and Nassau streets," containing copies of what purported to be the original title papers and translations, as above set forth, and legal opinions by Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, A. P. Upshur, David B. Ogde, Thomas Addis Emmett, James ​Kent, J. Blunt, John Sergeant, and B. F. Butler, pronouncing the claim valid and the title complete.

But the fact that a claim of such magnitude, and thus apparently formal and regular as to muniments of title, should be allowed to sleep more than half a century, is a strong circumstance against its validity, and, on the familiar principle of lapse of time, ought to be almost conclusive against it.

The United States, by S. H. Hempstead, district attorney, answered the petition, denying its allegations and the validity of the claim, and demanded strict proof thereof.

On the 22d of June, 1847, the petition was dismissed for want of prosecution, and a motion to reinstate it, made subsequently, was overruled.

Daniel Ringo and F. W. Trapnall, for petitioners.

S. H. Hempstead, district attorney, for the United States.

HISTORY OF THE CLAIM, by James H. Piper, acting Commissioner of the general land-office.—This was a French claim for four leagues square of land, Paris measure, lying on the Arkansas River, in the present State of Arkansas.

The petitioner represents himself as a subject of the king of the French, resident in the city of Paris, France, and as grandson and heir of John Law, "formerly director-general of the Company of the Indies, and controller-general of the finances of the king of France;" that in A.D. 1718, the Company of the Indies, "to whom the former colony of Louisiana, including that which is now the State of Arkansas, belonged, in full property conceded and granted, to the ancestor of the petitioner, the aforesaid John Law, a tract of land of four leagues square, Paris measure, lying on the river Arkansas, in the now State of Arkansas," &c.; that it was granted allodially, "upon certain ​terms and conditions therein expressed, the whole of which terms and conditions," the petitioner avers were performed by said Law, "in good faith; and if any part of the same were not by him so performed and observed," which is not admitted by petitioner, he avers that the said Law "was prevented from performing the same by the acts, orders, and interference of the king of France, or regent of the said kingdom, or his or their officers or agents;" and relieved, etc., "from any further performance of the same;" that from various accidents, &c., "many of the records and documents of the said company of the Indies have been lost and destroyed, so that the original of the grant or concession aforeimid cannot now be found or produced;" that the papers of Law "have also been dispersed and destroyed;" that "petitioner has caused diligent search to be made for the record of the said grant or concession to the said John Law, in various places, namely, in the archives of the Marine, in France, where the records of the colony of Louisiana were kept, and in the land-offices of the States and of the United States, at New Orleans, and in divers other places where it was natural to expect the same might possibly be found, but without success."

The petitioner further avers that, "there was such a grant or concession, that the same was duly and lawfully made," &c., and that be will "prove the nature, contents, and effect of the same, whereof mention is made in the histories of Charlevoix" and others; that Law, in 1719 and 1720, "took possession of the said tract of land by his agents, and settled thereon, fifteen hundred settlers, or other large number, and sent out from France and Germany numbers of others, who died on their passage, and was preparing to send out from L'Orient or some other port or ports in France, a large number of German families, when the same were countermanded and sent back, by order of the Regent of France or his officers and agents acting under his authority."

The petitioner further avers that the claim, right, and title to which he has succeeded, "is protected and secured by the treaty between the United States and the French Republic for the cession of Louisiana; and might have been perfected, and