Conlan

In a contest before the land department of the United States as to the rights of plaintiff and defendant respectively to pre-empt the land in controversy, the Secretary of the Interior, on appeal, awarded the land to the plaintiff, who subsequently paid the purchase-price to the receiver of the proper district, and obtained his duplicate receipt therefor. The action is ejectment; and at the trial the only evidence offered by the plaintiff in support of his right to recover was, first, the written opinion and decision of the Secretary of the Interior; second, the duplicate receipt of the receiver for the purchase-price; third, evidence tending to prove that for many years before the commencement of the action the plaintiff had cultivated and occupied a portion of the land. The defendant offered evidence to prove that when the plaintiff originally entered upon the land in controversy, a large portion of it was, and has ever since been, in the actual adverse possession of the defendant or his grantors. On the objection of the plaintiff, this evidence was excluded by the court, and a verdict and judgment were rendered for the plaintiff for the whole tract sued for.

It is well settled…