4393. LAND, Sovereignty.—
That the
lands within the limits assumed by a nation
belong to the nation as a body, has probably
been the law of every people on earth at some
period of their history. A right of property in
movable things is admitted before the establishment
of government. A separate property
in lands not till after that establishment. The
right to movables is acknowledged by all the
hordes of Indians surrounding us. Yet by no
one of them has a separate property in lands
been yielded to individuals. He who plants a
field keeps possession till he has gathered the
produce, after which one has as good a right
as another to occupy it. Government must be
established and laws provided, before lands can
be separately appropriated, and their owner protected
in his possession. Till then the property
is in the body of the nation, and they, or their
chief as trustee, must grant them to individuals,
and determine the conditions of the grant.—
Batture Case. Washington ed. viii, 539.
(1812)
