166 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



should occupy exclusively a territory sufficient to sustain ten 

 millions of people. 



These lands are then in the state in which all lands are 

 orio-inallv, and the title to them is to be acquired in the same 

 w^ay in which all titles are at first acquired, by occupancy ; 

 which is as good as title by deed, and better, as an original is 

 better than a derivative title, which all titles by deed are, and 

 which must be resolved ultimately to an original title by oc- 

 cupancy. The settler, then, has a good title to these lands, 

 against all the world, but the government, absolute — and 

 against the government upon the condition of paying the lien 

 for expenses, which has been fixed at $1.25 per acre. The 

 goverimient neither has, nor can it acquire, by any principle 

 known to the law, a fee simple in the lands. The only w^ay 

 in which it can be acquired is by the settler, by occupancy. 



Title by occupancy is not only a legal and valid title, but 

 it is the onhj title by which lands are or can he originally 

 held, except where the English doctrine holds, which gives 

 them to the king. In this country they are held by the law 

 of nature until relinquished by tlie bands of red men, who 

 have resided on them, and then, not belonging to the govern- 

 ment as by the English law they belong to the crown, are 

 open to the first occupier 



Occupancy is the true ground and foundation of property, 

 or of holding those things in severalty, which, by the law of 

 nature, unqualified by that of society, were common to all 

 mankind. — Black. Com., v. 2, p. 158 ; ib., p. 8. 



This is not depending on the authority of Blackstone 

 alone, but it is also the doctrine of Grotius, Pullendorf, 

 Locke, Rutherforth, Vattel, Montesquieu, Burlemaqui, 

 Smith, and others, who have treated of natural and political 



laws. 



The writers upon natural law say that originally all things 



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