the lands within the charter limits of 1851 to the city and its
successors, in trust for the benefit of possessors under the Van Ness
Ordinance, among other things provided for certain reservations
to be subsequently made by the President, within one year after an
approved plat showing the exterior limits of the city had been filed
in the land office. No such map was filed nor were any reservations
made. The case on appeal in the meantime was not reached in
the Supreme Court, and was not likely to be for a long period.
Ascertaining from General Halleck that the Secretary of War would
not recommend any further reservations to be made from the municipal
lands, and that probably none would be made, I drew a bill to quiet
the title of the city to all the lands embraced within the decree
of confirmation, and gave it to Senator Conness, who being ready, as
usual, to act for the interests of the city, immediately took charge
of it and secured its passage in the Senate. In the House Mr. McRuer,
Member of Congress from California, took charge of it, and with the
assistance of the rest of the delegation from the State, procured its
passage there. It was signed by the President and became a law on the
8th of March, 1866. By it all the right and title of the United
States to the land covered by the decree of the Circuit Court were
relinquished and granted to the city, and the claim to the land was
confirmed, subject, however, to certain reservations and exceptions;
and upon trust that all the land not previously granted to the city,
should be disposed of and conveyed by the city to the parties in the
bona fide actual possession thereof, by themselves or tenants, on the
passage of the act, in such quantities, and upon such terms and
conditions, as the Legislature of the State of California might
prescribe, except such parcels thereof as might be reserved and set
apart by ordinance of the city for public uses.