25 La. Ann. 188 | La. | 1873
This is a petitory action for a tract of land situated in the parish of Pointe Coupée. The plaintiff claims under a patent from the State of Louisiana, dated on the twenty-first of February, 1861.
The defendant claims under an entry made under the pre-emption laws of 1841, on the thirty-first day of December, 1844. The defendant has been in quiet possession of the property since his settlement in 1844 until 1866.
It appears that in an ex parte proceeding the commissioner of the general land office ordered the cancellation of Lallande’s entry on the fourteenth of November, 1860, on the ground that he was a free negrot
The agreed statement of facts in this record shows that Charles Lallande was born of free parents, in this State, and he is of mixed blood. His grandfather was a white man, a Spaniard; his grandmother was ■an Indian. Their issue was the father of the defendant, the defend-■am,’s mother was a mulattress. All were born free and were inhabitants of Louisiana. The other facts agreed to show that Lallande ■complied with the requirements of the laws of the United States to ■entitle him to enter the land by pre-emption; was a free colored person, who was born in Louisiana, who had always lived there, and whose ancestors for two generations before him had been free and had lived in Louisiana, a citizen of Louisiana? A citizen in its largest sense is any native born or naturalized person who is entitled to full protection in the exercise and enjoyment of the so called private rights.
By the laws of Louisiana native born free persons of color were in ■the full enjoyment of those rights in 1844. All free native born inhabitants of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina, though descended from African slaves, were not only citizens of those States, but such of them as had the ■other necessary qualifications possessed the franchise of electors, on •equal terms with other citizens. Opinion of Justice Curtis in Dred Scott.
By the treaty whereby Louisiana was acquired, the free colored inhabitants of Louisiana were admitted to citizenship of the United ■States.
In the case of the State v. Manuel (4 Dev. and Bat. 20), Judge Gas-ton, as the organ of the court, said: “According to the laws of this State, all human beings within it, who are not slaves, fall within one ■of two classes. Whatever distinctions may have existed in the Roman daws between citizens and free inhabitants, they are unknown to our •institutions. Before our revolution, all free persons born within the ■dominions of the king of Great Britain, whatever their color or com
The reásoning in that case is a projoos in this.
The judge a quo referred to the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case. That case is inapplicable. In that case the opinion, announced was that "a negro of African descent, whose ancestors were of pure African blood, and were brought into this country and-sold as negro slaves, was not a citizen.” At any rate, it is but a single case and does not settle the question. We think the facts of this case justify us in saying that Lallande was a citizen of Louisiana at the-time he acquired the laud in question; that he had the capacity to acquire it, and he has the better right to the land.
It is therefore ordered and adjudged that the judgment of the lower? court be avoided and reversed, and that there be judgment in favor of the defendant, decreeing him to be the owner of the lands in dispute, and rejecting the plaintiff’s demand with costs of both courts.