73 Cal. 385 | Cal. | 1887
— The patent to plaintiff’s grantor was issued under the provisions of section 2306, Revised Statutes of the United States. This section was a part of the act of Congress passed April 4, 1872, and is entirely independent of other sections of chapter 5, among which it is placed. (U. S. R. S., sec. 5596.) Unlike our codes, the Revised Statutes of the United States are not to be read as one act, it being expressly provided that “ the arrangement and classification of the several sections of the revision have been made for the purpose of a more convenient and orderly arrangement of the same, and therefore no inference or presumption of a legislative construction is to be drawn by reason of the title under which any particular section is placed.” (U. S. R. S., sec. 5600.) Under the act referred to as amended in June, 1872, the additional entry allowed to honorably discharged soldiers and sailors was confined to lands contiguous to the tract embraced in the first entry. (17 Stats, at Large, 333.) A year later this restriction was removed, and the section as originally passed was restored. The natural and logical conclusion to be drawn from these acts is, that occupancy on the part of the claimant is not required. The government certainly did not intend that the beneficiary should abandon his original homestead, which he has cultivated and improved, in order to secure the additional number of acres which he is authorized by the statute to locate at another place. The provisions of other sections of chapter 5, respecting residence upon the land entered are, therefore, inapplicable to the additional homestead entries under section 2306. (Knight v. Leary, 54 Wis. 459.) Assuming the irrevocable power of attorney from Gano and wife to Talbot to be, as claimed by appellant, an assignment of the applicant’s right to the land, and of Gano’s right to his additional homestead, still we find nothing in the statutes referred to which will authorize us in holding such power of
The commissioner of the general land-office has authority to make such regulations respecting the disposal of the public lands as he may deem proper, and such regulations, when not repugnant to the acts of Congress, have the force and effect of laws. (Poppe v. Athern, 42 Cal. 607.) The right of claimants to enter additional lands under section 2306, through attorneys and assignees, has been the subject of much discussion among the officers of the land department of the government. In a letter to the secretary of the interior, dated February 17, 1877, the commissioner called attention to the injustice and hardship of rules which had been formulated and adopted by the department regulating entries under section 2306. Acting upon the suggestions therein contained, Secretary Chandler directed a modi
We have considered this case upon its merits, disregarding the question of the sufficiency of appellant’s assignments of error, or his right to attack the validity of the patent without showing that his claim is connected with the paramount source of title.
The judgment and order are affirmed.