"the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and other carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the confederacy, without tax, impost, or duty therefor." (1 vol. Laws U. S., 479.) It is plain that ordinance was intended to embrace the Ohio. It has always been so understood. Men of tender consciences, and having constitutional scruples, have in these latter days voted appropriations to clear out and improve the navigation of the Ohio, on the express ground that this compact had imposed a duty on Congress, and given it a power over the river which it does not possess over rivers not embraced by the ordinance. Indeed, it is the principal river included within the terms "the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi." If the Ohio does, in fact, belong exclusively to Virginia, then it is plain this compact, so far as that great river is concerned, is as much a nullity as though the ordinance had undertaken to regulate the navigation of the James, or any other river within the admitted territory of Virginia. Considering the very great importance of this regulation, and the care with which it is inserted into the ordinance, not as an ordinary act of legislation merely, but put, on account of its weight and consequence, above all future repeal or alteration by Congress alone, it is not a little remarkable, if Virginia owned the river, that this ordinance was reported by a member from Virginia, and came from a committee of five, of whom two were from that State, that, on its passage, the name of every member from Virginia is found recorded in favor of it, and, indeed, of the whole Congress, with one solitary dissenting vote from the State of New York. If, at that early day, it had been understood Virginia owned the whole river, that ordinance could not have passed with such extraordinary unanimity, much less with the entire vote of Virginia for it. I now leave the case, with a firm conviction that the claim now set up in behalf of Virginia cannot be maintained; that it is not for her interest it should be; that it would be of no benefit to her, and of much injury to Ohio, and with a like firm persuasion that this enlightened court will render a decision according to the law of the land, and such as shall best promote the peace, harmony, convenience and common welfare of the people of both communities. BOUNDARY LINE BETWEEN OHIO AND INDIANA, AND BETWEEN OHIO AND MICHIGAN. SPECIAL REPORTS OF T. C. Mendenhall, SUPERINTENDENT OF UNITED STATES COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY, AND A. A. GRAHAM, SECRETARY OF THE OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. The Sixty-ninth General Assembly of Ohio authorized the Governor to cause an examination of the boundary lines between Ohio and Indiana and Ohio and Michigan to be made. It has for some time been known that these lines, as now existing, are incorrect, and that steps should be taken to have them definitely and accurately marked. In 1881 the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania, through a joint commission, caused their common boundary to be re-surveyed and marked by stone posts set at intervals of one mile, beginning at a large stone monument near the Lake Erie shore. The line is thus permanently and accurately fixed, and, hence, every division boundary of farm or village lots accurately located. This should be done with the western and northern boundaries of Ohio. The annexed reports show in detail the laws relative to them; what has been done and what the investigation developed : To His Excellency, JAMES E. CAMPBELL, Governor of Ohio: SIR: Pursuant to your letter of authority and instructions under date of August 27, 1891, to “examine into the boundary line question now pending between the States of Ohio and Indiana and Ohio and Michigan, and to gather such material as may be found in relation to that matter, making it your especial object to obtain copies of original surveys, maps, plats, field-notes, etc.," I have to report as follows: That it has been the intention of the Ohio Historical Society, of which I am Secretary, to publish a volume on not only the western and northern boundaries of Ohio, but also upon the southern boundary; one fraught with interest of a historical nature and which students of history and political economy desire to see in compact form. This being our intention, we had gathered all material that could be found, much of which is not needed in this connection, but which will be necessary in case the Society can carry out its intentions. This report confines itself to the western and northern boundaries. A. A. GRAHAM. THE WESTERN BOUNDARY. The earliest mention of the division of the territory northwest of the Ohio River appears in a resolution of the Continental Congress under date of October 10, 1780, which states: "That the unappropriated lands that may be ceded to the United States, shall be formed into States, * * * * that each State shall contain a suitable extent of territory, not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square, or as near to as circumstances will admit." **** On March 1, 1784, Virginia ceded to the United States her right to the territory northwest of the Ohio River, with the special condition that the territory so ceded should be laid out and formed into States of the extent mentioned in the resolution of Congress of October 10, 1780. On April 23, 1784, Congress passed a resolution declaring that— "So much of the territory ceded by the individual States to the United States, as then had been, or should thereafter be purchased from the Indian inhabitants * *** should be divided into distinct States as nearly as the cessions would admit of in the following manner: That is to say, by parallels of latitude, so that each State should comprehend from north to south, two degrees of latitude, beginning to count from the completion of the forty-fifth degree north of the equator, and meridians of longitude, one of which should pass through the lowest part of the rapids of the Ohio, and the other through the western cape of the mouth of the Great Kanawha; but the territory eastward of the last meridian, between the Ohio, Lake Erie and Pennsylvania, should be one State, whatever may be its comprehension of latitude-that which may be beyond the completion of the forty-fifth degree between the said meridians, shall make part of the State joining it on the south, and that of the Ohio which is between same meridians coinciding nearly with the parallel of thirty-nine degrees, shall be substituted so far in lieu of that parallel as a boundary line." By September, 1786, all the States claiming territory northwest of the Ohio River, had ceded their claims to the United States. The division of the territory into States came again |