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chains and ten links north of Thompson's line at the basis meridian of the Chickasaw surveys, and terminating at a point on the east bank of the Mississippi river (opposite Cow Island) sixteen chains north of Thompson's line.

By joint resolutions approved January 26, 1909,48 Congress authorized the States of Mississippi and Louisiana and Mississippi and Arkansas to fix the river boundary lines between them and to cede the one to the other any tracts of land that had been separated from the main body of either State by changes in the channel of Mississippi River.49

In the Mississippi State code the river boundary is described as "the Mississippi River (meaning thereby the center of said river or thread of stream)."

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LOUISIANA

The original territory of Louisiana was acquired from France. (See pp. 27-34 and fig. 2.) In 1804 a portion of this territory comprising part of the present State of Louisiana and the area south of latitude 31° eastward to the Perdido, claimed by the United States as a part of the Louisiana Purchase, was organized into a Territory under the name of Orleans, and the rest of the Louisiana Purchase was named the district of Louisiana.50 This name was changed to the Territory of Louisiana by act of March 3, 1805.51 By act of Congress of April 8, 1812,52 effective April 30, the Territory of Orleans, except the area north and east of Lake Pontchartrain, which was added by a later act, was admitted as a State under the name of Louisiana, and by the act of June 4, 1812, the name of the Territory of Louisiana was changed to Missouri Territory. (See fig. 18.) In the same year the limits of the State were enlarged on the southeast to their present extent.53 The United States claim to the area between the Sabine and the Mississippi was not recognized by Spain until 1819. (See p. 36.)

The act approved March 26, 1804,5* defines the Territory of Orleans as

all that portion of country, ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies south of the Mississippi territory, and of an east and west line to commence on the Mississippi river, at the thirtythird degree of north latitude, and to extend west to the western boundary of the said cession, shall constitute a Territory of the United States, under the name of the territory of Orleans.

48 35 Stat. L. 1160, 1161.

10 Similar authority was granted to Missouri and Kansas and to Oregon and Washington in 1910 (36 Stat. L. 881). See also 211 U. S. 127 and 214 U. S. 217.

50 2 Stat. L. 283.

61 2 Stat. L. 331.

62 2 Stat. L. 702. 53 2 Stat. L. 708. 542 Stat. L. 283.

The following clause from the act admitting Louisiana as a State defines its original boundaries:

beginning at the mouth of the river Sabine; thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of said river, including all islands, to the thiry-second degree of latitude; thence due north, to the northernmost part of the thirty-third degree of north latitude; thence along the said parallel of latitude to the river Mississippi; thence down the said river to the river Iberville, and from thence along the middle of the said river and lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the Gulf of Mexico; thence, bounded by the said gulf, to the place of beginning, including all islands within three leagues of the coast.

The Iberville River is now known as Bayou Manchac. (See p. 28.) An act approved April 14, 1812,55 made the following addition to the State of Louisiana:

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Beginning at the junction of the Iberville with the river Mississippi, thence along the middle of the Iberville, the river Amite, and of the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the eastern mouth of the Pearl River; thence up the eastern branch of Pearl River to the thirty-first degree of north latitude; thence along the said degree of latitude to the river Mississippi; thence down the said river to the place of beginning, shall become and form a part of the State of Louisiana.

This change in the boundary, whereby an area of more than 5,000 square miles was added to the State, required acceptance by the legislature before it became effective. (See fig. 13.)

The question has often been asked why the State boundary as fixed by the act of April 8, 1812, was not made to include the area

55 2 Stat. L. 708.

added a few days later. When the enabling act of February 20, 1811, was under consideration, it was proposed to include in the new State all or part of West Florida as described in the treaty of 1763 between Spain and Great Britain, but because of numerous objections this area was purposely omitted. The matter was brought up in the constitutional convention of January, 1812, when it was again proposed to include the West Florida area east to the Perdido River, but the proposition was voted down, presumably because the enlarged area would include too many Anglo-American inhabitants, the objectors being largely among the Creoles of Louisiana.

A few days later, however, the convention sent a memorial to Congress asking that the West Florida area, west of the Pearl River, be at once made a part of the proposed State. This request was refused, as it was deemed best to provide for the change in a separate bill. The principal reasons for this action were that it gave the people of the new State an opportunity for accepting or refusing the addition as they saw fit, and although the United States was in actual possession of the area, the title was in dispute and according to the presidential proclamation of October 27, 1810, was subject to "amicable negotiation." 57

The water boundary between Mississippi and Louisiana south of the Pearl River is thus described: 58

the deep water channel sailing line emerging from the most eastern mouth of Pearl River into Lake Borgne and extending through the northeast corner of Lake Borgne, north of Half Moon or Grand Island, thence east and south through Mississippi Sound, through South Pass between Cat Island and Isle a Pitre, to the Gulf of Mexico, *

*

The north boundary of the Territory of Orleans (now the State of Louisiana) was surveyed in 1806, presumably along the 33d parallel, from the west bank of the Mississippi River to the east bank of the Red River, a reported distance of 147 miles 49 chains. Most of the marks were blazed trees. This location of the line was accepted in 1841 as the State boundary. From mile 101 to the Red River this line was resurveyed and re-marked in 1841. Other parts of the line have been resurveyed as part of the regular work of the General Land Office. West of the Red River the line was surveyed in 1839. The western 6 miles was resurveyed in 1895, and a stone post 48 inches long and 10 inches square was placed on the Texas line to mark the northwest corner of the State.

5 See Cox, I. J., The West Florida controversy, 1798-1813, p. 604, Baltimore, 1918. See also pp. 548, 599, and 601.

57 For references to Congressional debates on this subject see Annals of Congress, 11th Cong., 3d sess., p. 486, 1853; 12th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 1, pp. 186-194, 1159; vol. 2, pp. 1185-1216, 1853.

53 202 U. S. 58. See also 202 U. S. 1.

The Geological Survey has located points on this line as follows: Near east end of line, latitude 33° 00′ 16.5", longitude 91° 13′ 21.2′′; near Arkana, latitude 33° 01′ 11.0", longitude 93° 40′ 24.7"; 1% miles east of the northwest corner of the State, latitude 33° 01′ 09.7", longitude 94° 01′ 18.6". For reference to the survey of the west boundary, see Texas, below.

TEXAS

Texas declared its independence of Mexico in 1835. In 1836 the Congress of the Republic of Texas defined the boundaries as extending south and west to the Rio Grande and northward from the source of that river to the 42d parallel, the eastern and northern limits coinciding with the western boundary of the United States as laid down in the treaty with Spain in 1819. This area comprised all of the former Mexican States of Coahuila and Texas. The boundary as fixed by the treaty of 1819 was reaffirmed by treaty with Mexico concluded January 12, 1828, Mexico having in the meantime gained its independence from Spain. These boundaries were formally recognized by the United States act of September 9, 1850.59 (See p. 67 and fig. 14.)

Article 3 of the Mexican treaty of 1828 provided for the appointment of commissioners to survey and mark the land part of the boundary from the mouth of the Sabine River to the Arkansas River, to determine the latitude and longitude of the source of the Arkansas, and to mark the line of the 42d parallel to the South Sea, but no commission was appointed under that treaty, and the line was not marked north of the Red River.

The accession of Texas restored to United States jurisdiction an area of about 96,000 square miles formerly a part of the Louisiana Purchase but transferred to Spain by the treaty of 1819. The eastern boundary of the Republic of Texas, which followed the west bank of the Sabine River, was surveyed in 1840 by a joint commission representing the United States and Texas from the Gulf to Logans Ferry, the observed latitude of which was found to be 31° 58′ 24′′ and the longitude 94° 00' 02.4". The initial mark of this survey was a mound of earth 50 feet in diameter and about 7 feet high on the shore of the Gulf, the position of which was reported as latitude 29° 41′ 27.5", longitude 93° 50′ 14.2''.60

In the following year another commission ran the line northward along the Sabine River to the 32d parallel as determined from astronomic observations, thence along a true north line to the south

599 Stat. L. 447. See Spillman, W. J., Adjustment of the Texas boundary of 1850: Texas Hist. Assoc. Quart., October, 1902, and January, 1904.

For other data relating to this line see Marshall, T. M., A history of the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase, ch. 12, Berkeley, Univ. California Press, 1914.

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bank of the Red River. Mounds were erected at 1-mile intervals on the meridian boundary, the measured length of which was found to be a little less than 1061⁄2 miles. The original plats of this survey are on file in the United States State Department, and the General

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Land Office has copies. The field notes were probably filed in the War Department.61 The approximate longitude of the meridian line at latitude 33° 06′ 30′′ is 94° 02' 35.1".

61 The Journal of the commission and some excellent maps of the survey were published in S. Doc. 199, 27th Cong., 2d sess., 1842.

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