Opinion of the Court. 78. Sometimes a certification of a list of lands to the grantee is declared to be operative to transfer such title, Rev. Stat. § 2449; Frasher v. O'Connor, 115 U. S. 102; but wherever the granting act specifically provides for the issue of a patent, then the rule is that the legal title remains in the Government until the issue of the patent, Bagnell v. Broderick, 13 Pet. 436, 450; and while so remaining the grant is in process of administration, and the jurisdiction of the land department is not lost. It is, of course, not pretended that when an equitable title has passed the land department has power to arbitrarily destroy that equitable title. It has jurisdiction, however, after proper notice to the. party claiming such equitable title, and upon a hearing, to determine the question whether or not such title has passed. Cornelius v. Kessel, 128 U. S. 456; Orchard v. Alexander, 157 U. S. 372, 383; Parsons v. Venzke, 164 U. S. 89. In other words, the power of the department to inquire into the extent and validity of the rights claimed against the Government does not cease until the legal title has passed. "A warrant and survey authorize the proprietor of them to demand the legal title, but do not, in themselves, constitute a legal title. Until the consummation of the title by a grant, the person who acquires an equity holds a right subject to examination." Miller v. Kerr, 7 Wheat. 1, 6. After the issue of the patent the matter becomes subject to inquiry only in the courts and by judicial proceedings. United States v. Stone, 2 Wall. 525, 535; Moore v. Robbins, 96 U. S. 530; United States v. Schurz, 102 U. S. 378, 396; Bicknell v. Comstock, 113 U. S. 149, 151; Iron Silver Mining Co. v. Campbell, 135 U. S. 286; Williams v. United States, 138 U. S. 514. This jurisdiction of the department has been maintained in cases of preemption where the entire purchase money has been paid and a receiver's final certificate issued. Orchard v. Alexander, 157 U. S. 372, and cases cited in the opinion; Parsons v. Venzke, 164 U. S. 89. In Knight v. United States Land Association, 142 U. S. 161, is a full discussion by Mr. Justice Lamar of the power of the Secretary of the Interior over proceedings in respect to the VOL. CLXVIII-38 Opinion of the Court. disposition of public lands, and on page 178 it is said, as illustrative of the scope of that power: "For example, if, when a patent is about to issue, the Secretary should discover a fatal defect in the proceedings, or that by reason of some newly ascertained fact the patent, if issued, would have to be annulled, and that it would be his duty to ask the Attorney General to institute proceedings for its annulment, it would hardly be seriously contended that the Secretary might not interfere and prevent the execution of the patent. He could not be obliged to sit quietly and allow a proceeding to be consummated, which it would be immediately his duty to ask the Attorney General to take measures to annul." And, again, on page 181 is this language: "The Secretary is the guardian of the people of the United States over the public lands. The obligations of his oath of office oblige him to see that the law is carried out, and that none of the public domain is wasted or is disposed of to a party not entitled to it. He represents the Government, which is a party in interest in every case involving the surveying and disposal of the public lands." See also Orchard v. Alexander, 157 U. S. 372, 381, 382; Warner Valley Stock Company v. Smith, 165 U. S. 28, 34. This jurisdiction extends to the ordering of new surveys whenever in the judgment of the department there has been error or fraud in those already made. Cragin v. Powell, 128 U. S. 691. In Tubbs v. Wilhoit, 138 U. S. 134, 143, the court quoted with approval this passage from a letter of the Secretary of the Interior: "There can be no doubt but that under the act of July 4, 1836, reorganizing the general land office, the Commissioner has general supervision over all surveys, and that authority is exercised whenever error or fraud is alleged on the part of the surveyor general." And in New Orleans v. Paine, 147 U. S. 261, the question was presented as to the power of the department to order a new survey, and on page 266 the rule was thus stated: "If the department was not satisfied with this survey, there was no rule of law standing in the way of its ordering another. Until the matter is closed by final action, the proceedings of an officer of a department are as much open to review or reversal by himself, Opinion of the Court. or his successor, as are the interlocutory decrees of a court open to review upon the final hearing." So, notwithstanding that a survey had been made and that such survey indicated that the land in controversy was swamp land, and, therefore, passing under the act of 1850 to the State of Michigan, it was within the power of the land department, at any time prior to the issue of a patent, of its own motion, to order a resurvey, and correct by that any mistakes in the prior survey. But in this case it is not necessary to rely alone on the general power vested in the land department, for as early as 1842 the attention of the legislature of Michigan was called to the fact that there had been errors in the surveys of public lands within the State, and a resolution was passed by it in these words: "Whereas, it has been satisfactorily made to appear to this legislature that large districts of lands lying within the limits of the State of Michigan have been returned by some of the deputy United States surveyors to the general land office as surveyed, where no surveys whatever have been made, or where the surveys have been so imperfectly done as to be utterly valueless; and whereas, the United States surveyor general of this land district has caused the lands so represented as surveyed to be offered for sale, to the very great injury of the State of Michigan and the citizens thereof; therefore, "Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan, That the President of the United States be requested to cause the subdivisions of the following townships of land, situate within the State of Michigan, and which have been represented to have been surveyed, but which have either not been surveyed or have been so imperfectly surveyed that said work is valueless, to be surveyed at as early a day as may be consistent, viz. : * * * * * "Resolved, That the governor be requested to transmit the foregoing preamble and resolution to the President of the United States." Laws Mich. 1842, No. 8. A letter, enclosing a copy of this resolution, was forwarded. to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and by him Opinion of the Court. referred to the President, who endorsed it as follows: "Let the matter be referred to the surveyor general, with instructions as indicated, and let the Governor of Michigan be informed of the measures to be adopted." Thereupon proceedings for new surveys were taken by the land department, of which fact the Governor of the State was duly informed. It is true that in the resolutions of the Michigan legislature 81 townships were specifically named, and that the land in controversy was not included within those townships, but it appears that on the strength of the information thus furnished the land department proceeded to make new surveys of other lands than those specifically mentioned by the legislature, and the attention of Congress having been called to the matter, it from 1845 to 1856 inclusive made appropriations for correcting surveys in the State of Michigan. Act of March 3, 1845, c. 71, 5 Stat. 752, 762; Act of August 10, 1846, c. 175, 9 Stat. 85, 95; Act of March 3, 1849, c. 100, 9 Stat. 354, 365; Act of September 30, 1850, c. 90, 9 Stat. 523, 530; Act of March 3, 1851, c. 32, 9 Stat. 598, 611, 612; Act of March 3, 1853, c. 97, 10 Stat. 189, 204; Act of August 4, 1854, c. 242, 10 Stat. 546, 565; Act of March 3, 1855, c. 175, 10 Stat. 643, 660; Act of August 18, 1856, c. 129, 11 Stat. 81, 86. The last three appropriations were made after the sending of the approved list for the Ionia land district to the Governor on January 13, 1854. It may be noticed here, in passing, that in the adjustment of the swamp land grant for the State of Michigan the land department did not include in one list all the swamp lands within the State, but made out several lists, apparently one at least for each land district. Not only was there general knowledge on the part of the authorities of the State, as of those at Washington, of the existence of errors and mistakes in the original surveys of public lands in the State of Michigan, but also was there particular information as to supposed errors in the surveys of the land in controversy. After the passage of the act of 1850 the Commissioner of the general land office instructed the surveyor general of the State of Michigan to examine the Opinion of the Court. field notes of the surveys on file in his office and report therefrom a list of the lands which were swamp or overflowed. From time to time the surveyor general forwarded to the land department lists in accordance with these instructions. On March 29, 1852, he forwarded a list containing the land in question, and in the letter accompanying is found this language: "The districts reported by Judge Burt and Hiram Burnham to be fraudulent are embraced in this list and marked "F"," and in that list the district containing the land in controversy is marked with the letter "F," so that upon the records of the general land office was to be found information that the survey of this particular land was reported to be erroneous, and as such was likely to be included in resurveys then pending. The report of the commissioner of the state land office to the legislature of the State, for the year ending November 30, 1856, contains this statement: "Patents are now received for all these lands in the State except those situate in the Ionia land district, comprising about 1,200,000 acres, and for these we are assured the patents will soon be forwarded, the making of which have been delayed in consequence of extensive resurveys by the General Government, which, in some instances, changes the amount and character of the land." And again, after speaking of the application for the purchase of particular tracts, he says they have been denied, because "no valid sale could be made until after a compliance with the law requiring advertisement of a public offering to be published in each county of the State; and such public sale or offering has not been deemed advisable until after the title. of the State to the grant should be wholly confirmed by the issue of the patents, and the numerous corrections and restatements of the lists necessary to be previously made by the department at Washington." And still again: "It is well known that many tracts, and sometimes almost entire sections, are now considered as among the best of farming lands, or extensively covered with pine and other valuable timber." Upon the resurveys the land in controversy was shown not to be swamp and overflowed land, and lists conforming to these new surveys were duly approved and certified by the |