much more favorable than those first proposed. They included headchiefs, subchiefs and warriors, 16 in all. Several had represented these Chippewas in making earlier treaties, and afterwards came to represent them in making others.

But, while the earnestness of counsel has induced us to examine the basis of the argument advanced, there is another reason why the effort to overcome the cession must fail. Under the Constitution the treaty-making power resides in the President and Senate, and when through their action a treaty is made and proclaimed it becomes a law of the United States, and the courts can no more go behind it for the purpose of annulling it in whole or in part than they can go behind an act of Congress. Among the cases applying and enforcing this rule some are particularly in point here. In United States v. Brooks, 10 How. 442, where a grant made to certain individuals by the Caddo Indians in a treaty between them and the United States was assailed by the United States as induced by fraud practiced on the Indians, the Court held that "the influences which were used to secure" the grant could not be made the subject of judicial inquiry for the purpose of overthrowing the treaty provision making it. In Doe v. Braden, 16 How. 635, a provision in the treaty whereby Spain ceded Florida to the United States which annulled a prior grant to the Duke of Alagon was assailed as invalid on the ground that the King, who made the treaty, was without power under the Spanish constitution to annul the grant. But the Court refused to go behind the treaty and inquire into the authority of the King under the law of Spain-and this because, as was explained in the decision, it was for the President and Senate to determine who should be recognized as empowered to represent and speak for Spain in the negotiation and execution of the treaty, and as they had recognized the King as possessing that power it was

not within the province of the courts to inquire whether they had erred in that regard. And in Fellows v. Blacksmith, 19 How. 366, 372, where a treaty with the New York Indians was asserted to be invalid on the ground that the Tonawanda band of Senecas was not represented in the negotiation and signing of the treaty, the Court disposed of that assertion by saying: "But the answer to this is, that the treaty, after executed and ratified by the proper authorities of the Government, becomes the supreme law of the land, and the courts can no more go behind it for the purpose of annulling its effect and operation than they can go behind an act of Congress." The propriety of this rule and the need for adhering to it are well illustrated in the present case, where the assault on the treaty cession is made seventy years after the treaty and forty years after the last instalment of the stipulated compensation of approximately $1,200,000 was paid to the Indians.

By the act of September 28, 1850, Congress granted to the several States the whole of the swamp lands therein then remaining unsold, c. 84, 9 Stat. 519. The first section was in the usual terms of a grant in praesenti, its words being that the lands described "shall be, and the same are hereby, granted." The second section charged the Secretary of the Interior with the duty of making out and transmitting to the governor of the State accurate lists and plats of the lands described, and of causing patents to issue at the governor's request; and it then declared that on the issue of the patent the fee simple to the lands should vest in the State. The third section directed that, in mak.g out the lists and plats, all legal subdivi-· sions the greater part of which was wet and unfit for cultivation should be included, but where the greater part was not of that character the whole should be excluded. The question soon arose whether, in view of the terms of the first and second sections, the grant was in praesenti

and took effect on the date of the Act, or rested in promise until the issue of the patent and took effect then. The then Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Stuart, concluded that the grant was in praesenti in the sense that the State became immediately invested with an inchoate title which would become perfect, as of the date of the Act, when the land was identified and the patent issued, 1 Lester's Land Laws, 549. That conclusion was accepted by his successors, was approved by the Attorney General, 9 Op. 253, was adopted by the courts of last resort in the States affected, and was sustained by this Court in many cases. French v. Fyan, 93 U. S. 169, 170; Wright v. Roseberry, 121 U. S. 488, 500, et seq.; Rogers Locomotive Works v. Emigrant Co., 164 U. S. 559, 570; Work v. Louisiana, 269 U. S. 250. A case of special interest here is Rice v. Sioux City & St. Paul R. R. Co., 110 U. S. 695. The question there was whether the Act of 1850 operated, when Minnesota became a State in 1858, to grant to her the swamp lands therein. The Court answered in the negative, saying that the Act of 1850 " operated as a grant in praesenti to the States then in existence," that it " was to operate upon existing things, and with reference to an existing state of facts," that it "was to take effect at once, between an existing grantor and several separate existing grantees," and that as Minnesota was not then a State the Act made no grant to her.

By the Act of March 12, 1860, c. 5, 12 Stat. 3, Congress extended the Act of 1850 to the new States of Minnesota and Oregon, the material terms of the extending act being as follows:

"That the provisions of the act [of 1850] be, and the same are hereby, extended to the States of Minnesota and Oregon: Provided, That the grant hereby made shall not include any lands which the government of the United States may have reserved, sold, or disposed of (in pursuance of any law heretofore enacted) prior to the con

firmation of title to be made under the authority of the said act.

"Sec. 2. That the selection to be made from lands already surveyed in each of the States including Minnesota and Oregon, under the authority of the act aforesaid, shall be made within two years from the adjournment of the legislature of each State at its next session after the date of this act; and, as to all lands hereafter to be surveyed, within two years from such adjournment, at the next session, after notice by the Secretary of the Interior to the governor of the State, that the surveys have been completed and confirmed."

The words "be, and the same hereby are, extended in the principal provision and the words "the grant hereby made" in the proviso signify an immediate extension to these new States of the grant in praesenti made to other States in 1850. Other parts of the proviso signify an exclusion of particular lands from the grant as extended, but not a change in its nature. Indeed, if the grant as extended were regarded as taking effect only on the issue of the patent, the proviso would be practically an idle provision; while if the grant be regarded as in praesenti, like the original, the proviso serves a real purpose. Of course, the principal provision and the proviso are to be read together and taken according to their natural import, if that be reasonably possible—and we think it is. Thus understood, they show that Congress, while willing and intending to extend to these new States the grant in praesenti made to other States in 1850, was solicitous that the reservation, sale and disposal of lands (pursuant to laws in existence at the date of the extension) should not be interrupted or affected pending the identification and patenting of lands under the grant, and that the proviso was adopted for the purpose of excluding from the grant as extended all lands which might be reserved, sold or disposed of (in pursuance of any law

theretofore enacted) prior to the confirmation of title under the grant-the confirmation being the issue of patent. Many acts of that period granting lands in words importing a present grant-where the lands were to be afterwards identified under prescribed directions-contained provisions excluding lands that might be disposed of in specified ways before the identification was effected. But those provisions never were regarded as doing more than excepting particular lands from the grants; and, unless there were other provisions restraining the words of present grant, the grants uniformly were held to be in praesenti, in the sense that the title, although imperfect before the identification of the lands, became perfect when the identification was effected and by relation took effect as of the date of the granting act, except as to the tracts falling within the excluding provision. St. Paul & Pacific R. R. Co. v. Northern Pacific R. R., 139 U. S. 1, 5; Missouri, Kansas and Texas Ry. Co. v. Kansas Pacific Py. Co., 97 U. S. 491, 497; Schulenberg v. Harriman, 21 Wall. 44, 60-62.

The Act of 1860 was construed as we here construe it by Secretary Delano in 1874, 1 Copp's P. L. L. 475, and by Secretary Schurz in 1877, 2 id. 1081; and their construction was adopted and applied by their successors up to the time of this suit,* and was approved by the Attorney General in 1906, 25 Op. 626. So, even if there were some uncertainty in the Act, we should regard this longcontinued and uniform practice of the officers charged with the duty of administering it as persuasively determinative of its construction. United States v. Burlington and Missouri River R. R. Co., 98 U. S. 334, 341; Schell's Executors v. Fauche, 138 U. S. 562, 572; Louisiana v. Garfield, 211 U. S. 70, 76; United States v. Hammers, 221 U. S. 220, 228; Logan v. Davis, 233 U. S. 613, 627.

* 3 L. D. 474, 476; 22 id. 388; 27 id. 418; 32 id. 65, 328; 37 id. 397.