Supreme court of the United States. No. 135. The United States, appellants, vs. John A. Sutter. Appeal from the District court U.S. for the Northern district of California.

The United States vs. Sutter. 117
of August, 1824, the whole subject of colonization in the territories
of the republic was committed to the supreme government. The
regulation of the 21st of November, 1828, was made for the purpose
of carrying out that provision of the law, and constitutes the source
from which the Mexican authorities in California derive their power
to make grants of land. The grant under consideration was clearly
made by virtue of this authority, and in order to ascertain its true
nature and intent, it will be necessary to examine it with reference
to the provisions contained in the regulation.
In making this examination, we are met at the very threshold by
a marked distinction between this regulation and the laws of Coahuila and Texas before referred to. By these laws it will be recollected that the empresario received no title to any lands until
148 the terms of his contract had been complied with, and then
only to that portion which he was to receive as a compensation
for introducing the colonists, and the settlers themselves received
the title for their respective parcels directly from the government
through the agency of a commissioner appointed for that purpose.
On the other hand, the regulation of 1828 contemplates the issuing
of the grant in the first instance directly to the empresario. Its
language is, that of the political chiefs of the territories are authorized to grant vacant lands in their respective territories to empresarios, families, or individuals, making no distinction either in
character of the grants br the several classes of persons to which
they might be made. The 2d, 3d, and 4th articles, prescribing the
preliminary steps and modes of proceeding, both on the part of the
petitioner and the governor, apply equally to the several classes referred to in the first. The 5th and 7th make a distinction between
grants to individuals and families and those made to empresarios.
The 5th provides that grants made to individuals and families shall
not be definitively valid without the previous consent of the territorial deputation; and the 7th, that grants made to empresarios for
them to colonize with many families shall not be held definitively
valid until the approval of the supreme government be obtained.
The language of this last article indicates clearly the person in whom
the title to lands granted for colonization was to vest, as well as the
conditions on which the grant was made. The 10th article prescribes
the minimum number of families for the settlement of which a colonization grant could issue. The 11th requires the governor to designate to the lnew colonists a proportionate time within which he
shall be bound to cultivate and occupy the land, on the terms, and
with the number of persons or families which he may have contracted for, and imposes a penalty-of a forfeiture or avoidance of the
grant for a failure on the part of the grantee to comply with its
terms, reserving, nevertheless, the power in the governor to revalid:"te it in proportion to which the party may have fulfilled.
149 The 12th article directs the new colonists, after having cultivated or occupied the land agreeably to his contract, (capitulacion,) to prove the same before the municipal authority, in order
that he may consolidate and secure his right of ownership, so that