Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/405

FUSSELL V. HTJGHBS. 391 �exclusive benefit of her soldiers who served in the continental estab- lishment, but of only so much of it as might be necessary to make good any deficiency that might exist of good lands set apart for them on the south-east aide of the Ohio river. The residue of the lands ■were ceded to the United States for the benefit of the said states — �"To be considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become or shall become merabers of the confederation or federal alliance of the said states, Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and shall befaithfully and bonafide disposedof for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatever." �The chief justice then adds : �"Although, then, the militaiy rights constituted the primary clalm on the trust, that claim was, according to the intention of the parties, so to be sat- isfied as still to keep in view that other object, which was also of vital inter- est. This was to be effected only by prescribing the time within which the lands to be appropriated by these claimants should be separated from the general mass, so as to enable the government to apply the residue, which it was then supposed wonld be considerable, to the other purposes of the trust, ihe time ought certainly to be liberal ; but unless some time might be pre- scribed the other purposes of the trust would be totally defeated, and the surplus land remain a wildemess." �Indeed, it is upon the basis of this right in cougress and its eflfect that the chief justice, in that case, establishes the right in congress to make the provision in respect to new locatpns, the violation of which it is claimed by the complainant in this case. On the part of Wallace and Gregg, renders void their patents. In commenting on that pro- vision, as contained in the act of March 2, 1807, in which it first appeared, and from which it was taken in the several successive acts in which it is found, the chief justice said: �" If the right existed to prescribe a time within which military warrants should be located, the right to annex conditions to its extension follows as a necessary consequence. The condition annexed by congress bas been calcu- lated for the sole purpose of preserving the peace and quiet of the inhabitants by securing titles previously acquired." �The act of 1804 was followed by that of March 2, 1807, which pro- vided that the officers and soldiers of the Virginia line on continental establishment, entitled to bounty lands, etc., "shall be allowed a further time of three years from the twenty-third of March next to complete their locations, and a further time of five years from the said twenty-third of March next to return their surveys and warrants, or certified copies of warrants, to the office of secretary of the war department." ��� �