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Along 49th parallel

Gulf of Georgia to Pacific Ocean opposite Cape

Flattery

26.6

93.3

545.5

310.0

545.6 44.7

285.5

142.0

427.5

3,987.1

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In this paper, the phrase "territory of the United States" includes areas under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the United States. These areas extend over a large part of the earth; from Barrow, Alaska, on the north to American Samoa on the south, and from the Palau Islands in the western Pacific to the Virgin Islands in the Atlantic. In places, for statistical purposes it is desirable to refer to the 48 States and the District of Columbia, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. The words. "conterminous United States" are used in these places.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE

The entire basin of the Mississippi and its tributaries, and much of the coast region of the Gulf of Mexico which were subsequently known as the Territory of Louisiana, were originally claimed by La Salle 32 in 1682 for France by virtue of discovery and occupation.

The area claimed on the Gulf extended west and south to the mouth of the "Rio de las Palmas," which was probably the stream now known as the Rio Grande.

In 1712, France made a grant to Antoine de Crozat of the exclusive right to the trade of this region. Because this grant gives the limits of the vast region as they were understood by France, a part of it is here quoted:

We have by these presents signed with our hand, authorized, and do authorize the said Sieur Crozat to carry on exclusively the trade in all the territories by us possessed, and bounded by New Mexico and by those of the English in Carolina, all the establishments, ports, harbors, rivers, and especially the port and harbor of Dauphin Island,

Mowry (1902, chap. 2-11) gives an excellent presentation of this subject, with many references.

32 For a translation of La Salle's proclamation, see Sparks (1847, v. 11, p. 201, 202). For reference to the location of the Rio de las Palmas, see Bandelier (1922, p. 42).

ADDITIONS TO THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES

formerly called Massacre Island, the river St. Louis, formerly called the Mississippi, from the seashore to the Illinois, together with the river St. Philip, formerly called the Missouries River, and the St. Jerome formerly called the Wabash [the Ohio], with all the countries, territories, lakes in the land, and the rivers emptying directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. All the said territories, countries, rivers, streams, and islands we will to be and remain comprised under the name of the government of Louisiana, which shall be dependent on the General Government of New France and remain subordinate to it, and we will, moreover, that all the territories which we possess on this side of the Illinois be united, as far as need be, to the General Government of New France and form a part thereof, reserving to ourself, nevertheless, to increase, if we judge proper, the extent of the government of the said country of Louisiana.

This document indicates that France regarded Louisiana as comprising the drainage basin of the Mississippi at least as far north as the mouth of the Illinois and those branches of the Mississippi that enter it below this point, including the Missouri, but excluding land in the Southwest claimed by Spain. It is, moreover, certain that the area now comprised in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho was not included. Crozat surrendered this grant in 1717.

On November 3, 1762, France by a secret treaty ceded this region to Spain, defining it only as "the country known by the name of Louisiana," but Spain. did not take possession until several years later. By the treaty of peace of 1763 between Great Britain France, and Spain, the western boundary of the British possessions in the New World was placed in the center of the Mississippi River, thus reducing the area of Louisiana by the part east of the river. By these two treaties France disposed of her possessions in North America, dividing them between Great Britain and Spain. The limit set between the British and Spanish possessions was given as the Mississippi, the Iberville, and Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. (See fig. 24, p. 106.) The Iberville River is now called Bayou Manchac. In the early days there was a connected waterway (now closed) through this river between the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. The Island thus formed was called the island of New Orleans.

Great Britain then subdivided her newly acquired province, Florida. The area south of lat 31° N. (changed in 1764 to a parallel through the mouth of the Yazoo River, approximately 32°28′ N.) and west of the Apalachicola River was called West Florida; the region east thereof and south of the present north boundary of Florida received the name of East Florida. For the next 16 years these boundaries and names remained

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BOUNDARIES OF THE

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undisturbed. In 1783, by the treaty of peace with the United States at the end of the Revolution, Great Britain reduced the area of West Florida by the cession of that portion north of the 31st parallel to the United States. In the same year she gave East Florida and what remained of West Florida to Spain, and in Spain's possession they remained for several years; but after 1803 the United States also claimed the area west of the Perdido River as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The treaty of 1819 put an end to the disputes (Malloy, 1910, v. 2, p. 1651; Cox, 1918).

Meantime, in 1800, by the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain promised to return Louisiana to France. In the language of the treaty, she pledged herself to return to France "the colony and province of Louisiana, in the same extent it now has under the dominion of Spain and of other States." 33

34

Immediately after this transfer became known (November 1802), measures were instituted by President Jefferson for obtaining free access to the sea by way of the Mississippi River. Circumstances favored this negotiation. Bonaparte was at that time in almost daily expectation of a declaration of war by Great Britain, the first act of which would be to seize the mouth of the Mississippi and with it the Province of Louisiana. Under these circumstances Bonaparte offered to sell the Province to the United States, and the offer was promptly accepted. The consideration named was 60 million francs and the assumption by the United States of the "French spoilation claims," which were estimated to amount to $3,750,000. Article 3 of the treaty of cession, dated April 30, 1803, fixed the rate of exchange at 5.3333 francs to $1. The total payments made by the United States on account of this purchase, including interest, amount to $23,213,567.73. Opponents of this purchase strongly urged that it was contrary to the Constitution of the United States (Brown, 1920; Baldwin, 1894, p. 369-389).

The treaty of cession (Malloy, 1910, v. 1, p. 508) describes the territory only as being the same as that ceded by Spain to France by the treaty of San Ildefonso, from which the description was quoted. The territory sold thus apparently comprised that part of

U.S. 25th Cong., 1838, 2d sess., H. Rept. 818, p. 27; see p. 23 for the cession of 1762 from France to Spain.

34 For copies of correspondence between the United States and various foreign officials, for dates from 1803 to 1807, relating to this purchase, its boundaries, and terms, see Robertson (1911, v. 2). See also U.S. Cong. (1903) and T. M. Marshall (1914, v. 2, p. 46-85). Marshall's book contains a bibliography (p. 242-251) of publications relating to the Louisiana Purchase.

the drainage basin of the Mississippi which lies west of the course of the river. (See fig. 3.) The claim of the United States to the area now comprised in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho in the negotiations with Great Britain regarding the northwestern boundary was ostensibly based not only upon prior occupation and upon purchase from Spain but also upon the alleged fact that this area formed part of the Louisiana Purchase. That this claim was baseless is shown not only by what has been already detailed regarding the limits of the purchase but also by the direct testimony of the French plenipotentiary, M. Barbe-Marbois. Some 20 years after the purchase he published a book on Louisiana (BarbeMarbois, 1830), in which he described at some length the negotiations that preceded the purchase and, referring to this question, said: "The shores of the western ocean were certainly not comprised in the cession, but already the United States are established there."

There is also in Barbe-Marbois's book a map (dated 1829) of the country between the Mississippi and the Pacific, on which the western extent of Louisiana is indicated as the 110th meridian, which is not far from the western limit of the drainage basin of the Mississippi in Wyoming and Montana. On this map, that part of the country now comprised in Oregon. Washington, and Idaho, which, it has been claimed, formed part of the purchase, bears the following legend: "Territories and countries occupied by the United States, following the treaty of cession of Louisiana."

Obviously, therefore, the United States did not purchase Oregon as a part of Louisiana; however, it is no less certain that that great area west of the Rocky Mountains fell into its hands as a direct consequence of the Louisiana Purchase (Mowry, 1902, p. 131-157).

The claim made by the United States to the territory between the Mississippi and the Rio Grande as part of the Louisiana Purchase was based principally on the settlement made by La Salle at San Bernardo (now Matagorda) Bay, Tex., in 1685, and on many maps that indicated the area as part of the French possessions, but this claim was not recognized by Spain and the boundary west of the Mississippi River was undetermined until it was fixed at the Sabine River by the treaty of 1819 (Bancroft, 1889, v. 16, p. 46).

The treaty of 1783 with Great Britain describes the northern boundary of the United States in part as follows: From the northwesternmost point of the Lake of the Woods "on a due west course to the River Mississippi." The fact that such a line could not intersect the Mississippi proper at any point (see fig. 27) gave rise to many and serious disputes, which were not settled until after the date of the Louisiana Purchase. This clause of the treaty was understood by some geographers as placing the boundary line on the Lake of the Woods parallel for some 400 miles west from the lake

to the point where it intersects the Missouri-Mississippi drainage basin, which in 1783 belonged to Spain, thus including the southern part of the basin of the Red River as United States territory. Other geographers who had given the subject careful study believed that the possessions of the United States in the northwest as defined by the treaty of 1783 were limited by the Mississippi River and a line extending north from its source (Lake Itasca 35) to an intersection with the Lake of the Woods parallel (see below; Baker, 1887; Brower, 1893).

Still others considered the Red River basin south of the 49th parallel to be a part of the Louisiana Purchase. The Red River basin was not a part of La Salle's original claim, but it appears to have been occupied by the French earlier than 1762. The Verendrye brothers, French Canadians, were the first white men of record to explore the country from the site of Winnipeg westward to the Rocky Mountains (1738-1743). A map in Laut (1906) shows the Verendrye route as extending only as far south as northeastern Wyoming.

The treaty of 1763 between Great Britain, France, and Spain limited Great Britain's jurisdiction on the northwest by the Mississippi River, as will be seen from the following quotation from Article VII:

In order to re-establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove forever all subject of dispute with regard to the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America; it is agreed, that, for the future, the confines between the dominions of his Britannic Majesty, and those of his most Christian Majesty, in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi, from its source to the River Iberville.

When this treaty was made, Great Britain apparently knew nothing of the secret treaty of the preceding year whereby France had ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain. It is evident, however, that Great Britain intended to relinquish all claim to jurisdiction over the area west of the Mississippi. In 1763 and for many years thereafter, the Mississippi was believed to rise considerably north of its actual known source. On the Mitchell map the source was said to be at about the "50th degree of lattitude." Even if the area assigned to France did not extend as far north as lat 50° N., it apparently included all that part of the Red River drainage basin west of the actual source of the Mississippi.

The British act of 1774 extended the Province of Quebec to include the area west of Pennsylvania north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi. The boundaries were more definitely described in the commission issued to the governor in December of the same year, in part as follows:

35 Lake Itasca is generally referred to as the source of the Mississippi, but a creek about 4 miles in length that empties into the southern part of the lake has a source more than 100 feet above the lake. Lake Itasca is about 3/2 miles in length. The name Itasca was coined by Schoolcraft in 1832 from parts of two Latin words, veritas (truth) and caput (head), three letters from each word being omitted.

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ADDITIONS TO THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES

along the bank of the said river [Ohio] westward to the banks of the Mississippi, and northward along the eastern bank of the said river to the southern boundary of the territory granted to the Merchant Adventurers of England trading to Hudson's Bay.

The Canadian General Government and the Province of Ontario have made extensive researches concerning the western boundary of Ontario, and the reports give an excellent historical review of the French, Spanish, and English claims to the country about the Lake of the Woods, including the Red River and Mississippi River drainage basins, from the first exploration down to 1818 and later. The reports fill several large volumes, and among them may be mentioned "Report of the select committee on the boundaries between the Province of Ontario and the unorganized territories of the Dominion," Ottawa, 1880, and "Correspondence, papers, and documents relating to the northerly and westerly boundaries of Ontario," Toronto, 1882. A careful examination of these and other official documents fails to disclose any statement of claims by Great Britain to the area west of the Mississippi, east of the Rocky Mountains, and south of the Lake of the Woods parallel.

The commissioner for Ontario, in reporting to the lieutenant governor of that Province with reference to the boundary of Ontario, stated (p. 340 of the 1880 report) that

In framing the treaty of Paris a few years later [1782] the Imperial Government recognized the Mississippi as an existing territorial boundary. All the country east of that river and south of a line drawn through the middle of the Great Lakes to the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods was surrendered to the United States. All the country west of the Mississippi, extending south to 31° of north latitude and east to the Atlantic Ocean, was left to its former owners [Spain].

On the Faden map of 1783 36 a heavy green line is drawn from the head of the Mississippi River to the Lake of the Woods. The boundary of the Hudson Bay territory, as fixed by the treaty of Utrecht, is indicated by a red line running east and west from the Lake of the Woods. West of the green line, west of the Mississippi River, and south of the red line, the area is marked "Louisiana," and in its northern part a river running northward is marked "Mississippi or Red River." If the evidence of this map may be accepted, the Red River area south of the Lake of the Woods parallel was considered as part of Louisiana.

36 The United States of North America, with British and Spanish territories according to the treaty; engraved by William Faden, 1783. Faden was, in June 1783, appointed geographer to the King.

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In the printed "Observations" that accompany this map are the following:

The River Mississippi is known about 60 miles above the Falls of St. Anthony but is not navigable; its source is supposed by all travellers to be in about 46° N., therefore the line to be drawn W. from the Lake of the Woods till it strikes Mississippi will probably run on a parallel 3 degrees or 180 miles above its source.

But this boundary line, otherwise insignificant, seems to have been extended to the Lake of the Woods in 49° N. to approximate the United States to the boundary of the Hudson's Bay Company, in 49° N. A south line should have been drawn from the Lake of the Woods to strike the Mississippi, as the west line beginning at 180 miles distance, if extended, would increase its distance from that river. The map illustrating the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-6, "from the original drawing by Wm. Clark," shows the boundary of Louisiana as including the drainage basin of the Missouri River north of the 49th parallel, and near the north end of the Lake of the Woods there is this note: "Northern boundary of the United States, lat. 49°37°' N."

It seems probable that Congress considered the Red River basin (see fig. 27) as far north as the Lake of the Woods to be a part of the Louisiana Purchase, but no specific reference was made to it in any statute prior to 1834.

There were many who believed that the Louisiana Purchase extended even farther north than the 49th parallel and included the entire drainage basin of Missouri River. This uncertainty was settled by the treatly of 1818. James White (1914b, p. 842), after an extended review of this question, states: "The true northern boundary of Louisiana was the watershed of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers." The approximate area of this "watershed" north of the 49th parallel is 12,300 square miles.

The Melish map, referred to in the treaty with Spain of 1819 (see p. 27), but printed before the convention with Great Britain of 1818 (see p. 14) was signed, shows the boundary line of the United States as extending due west from the northwesternmost point of the Lake of the Woods to the Red River, thence up that river to the Assiniboine, up that river, and by an irregular line westward so as to include the Missouri River drainage basin north of the 49th parallel.

This question is now a matter of historical interest only, for the boundary line was definitely fixed by the British treaty of 1818.

It has often been said that by the treaty of Utrecht 37

37 There are several printed copies of the treaty of Utrecht in the Library of Congress.

(Freschot, 1715) of 1713 the 49th parallel was made the boundary line between Great Britain and the French Province of Louisiana, but a careful reading of the treaty fails to disclose any ground for this statement. It is doubtless true that during the negotiations which followed the signing of the treaty the British commission endeavored to have the 49th parallel fixed as the boundary and that the French commission contended for a boundary a degree or more farther north, but the commissioners failed to agree, and no latitude was mentioned in the treaty. Article X of this treaty provided for the appointment of "commissaries" to fix a boundary line between the Hudson Bay territory and the Louisiana territory. The "commissaries" were probably appointed, but no final decision resulted from their labors (Hermann, 1900, p. 55-59; Bond, 1912).

The western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase is the western boundary of the Mississippi drainage basin as claimed by La Salle. Whatever the northern and northeastern boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase may be considered, there is no doubt that they included the drainage basin of the Missouri south of the 49th parallel and the western drainage basin of the Mississippi from its source to the Gulf of Mexico.

FLORIDA PURCHASE

38

The second addition to the territory of the United States consisted of the Floridas, ceded by Spain in 1819 in exchange for large areas west of the Mississippi River relinquished by the United States to Spain and the assumption by the United States of all claims of its citizens against Spain for damages received, to an amount not exceeding $5 million, Spain likewise assuming responsibility for claims of its citizens against the United States.

From the date of the Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, the territory known as West Florida and bounded by the Mississippi River on the west, the Perdido on the east, the parallel of 31° on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, had been in dispute between the two countries. During at least part of this time it had been practically in the possession of the United States. The clause from the treaty of San Ildefonso quoted on page 24 was interpreted by Jefferson and others in this country to mean the inclusion of West Florida. Their reasoning was this: In 1800 Spain owned West Florida; West Florida was once a part of Louisiana; in 1800 Spain receded Louisiana to France; she therefore receded West Florida with it.

Spain, however, held that this was merely a treaty of recession, by which she gave back to France what France had given to her in 1762. As in 1762 she did

38 For a historical sketch of the Florida Purchase and of events leading to its acquisition, see Hinsdale (1893, p. 330-366) and Mowry (1902, chap. 4).

not own West Florida, she could not have receded it to France. Barbe-Marbois, the French plenipotentiary, was very positive in stating that West Florida formed no part of the Louisiana Purchase, and that the southeastern boundary of that purchase consisted of the Iberville River and Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. (See fig. 24.)

Immediately after the Louisiana Purchase was acquired, the claim was made by the United States that it included most of West Florida and part of the Texas coast, but this claim was not entertained by Spain. In 1810 a revolution was effected in that part of West Florida lying west of the Pearl River, and application was made by the inhabitants for annexation to the United States. The governor of Louisiana, under instructions from Washington, at once took possession. Immediately a counter revolution was organized against him, but it was put down by force of arms, and in 1812 this part of West Florida was included in the State of Louisiana (2 Stat. L. 708). In the meantime the insurrection spread eastward and, although put down by the Spanish authorities, the movement received the sympathy of the United States, and Congress passed an act, approved January 15, 1811 (3 Stat. L. 471), authorizing the President, under certain specified contingencies, to use force in taking possession of East Florida and appropriating $100,000 for carrying the act into effect.39 In 1812 that part of West Florida lying between the Perdido and Pearl Rivers was annexed to the Territory of Mississippi. (See p. 105.)

The treaty of February 22, 1819, with Spain settled these conflicting claims (Cox, 1918; Paxson, 1924, chap. 16) by the following clause:

ARTICLE II. His Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States in full property and sovereignty, all the territories which belong to him, situated to the eastward of the Mississippi, known by the name of East and West Florida. The adjacent islands dependent on said province are included in this article. [Malloy, 1910, v. 2, p. 1652; see also T. M. Marshall, 1914, p. 46-85.]

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The third article in this treaty defines the boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions in the Southwest as follows:

ARTICLE III. The boundary line between the two countries, west of the Mississippi, shall begin on the Gulph of Mexico, at the mouth of the river Sabine, in the sea, continuing north, along the western bank of that river, to the 32nd degree of latitude; thence, by a line due north to the degree of latitude where it strikes the Rio Roxo of Nachitoches, or Red River; then following the course of the Rio Roxo westward, to the degree of longitude 100 west from London," and

39 The publication of this act before the end of the following session of Congress was forbidden by act of Mar. 3, 1811 (3 Stat. L. 472).

40 The zero point of the London meridian is the cross on St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which is 0°05'48.356" (4.17 miles) west of Greenwich (Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, letter of Sept. 6, 1927). For reference to the establishment of the meridians of London and Greenwich, see The Mariner's Mirror, v. 13, no. 2, London, Cambridge Press, April, 1927. Longitudes on the Mitchell map of 1755 (see p. 2) are referred to the London meridian. The Melish map of 1818 has the degrees west of London indicated along the lower edge, and the degrees west of Washington near the upper edge; the 0° of the Washington meridian coincides with 77°

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23 from Washington; then, crossing the said Red River and running thence, by a line due north, to the river Arkansas; thence, following the course of the southern bank of the Arkansas, to its source in latitude 42 north; and thence, by that parallel of latitude to the South Sea. The whole being as laid down in Melish's map of the United States, published at Philadelphia, improved to the 1st of January, 1818. But if the source of the Arkansas River shall be found to fall north or south of latitude 42, then the line shall run from the said source due south or north, as the case may be, till it meets the said parallel of latitude 42, and thence, along the said parallel, to the South Sea: All the islands in the Sabine, and the said Red and Arkansas Rivers, throughout the course thus described, to belong to the United States; but the use of the waters, and the navigation of the Sabine to the sea, and of the said rivers Roxo and Arkansas, throughout the extent of the said boundary, on their respective banks, shall be common to the respective inhabitants of both nations.

This treaty was ratified promptly by the U.S. Senate, but Spain did not ratify it until October 20, 1820, which was after the time allowed for ratification had expired. The U.S. Senate again ratified it February 19, 1821, and it was proclaimed by the President February 22, 1821.

The western boundary of the United States south of lat 42° N. as fixed by this treaty was confirmed by Mexico by treaty concluded January 12, 1828, Mexico having in the meantime gained her independence from Spain. (Malloy, 1910, v. 1, p. 1082.)

TEXAS ACCESSION

The next acquisition of territory was that of the Republic of Texas, which was admitted as a State by joint resolution of December 29, 1845.41 The area which Texas brought into the Union was limited as follows, as defined by the Republic of Texas, December 19, 1836 (see fig. 29 and Laws of the Republic of Texas, 1838, Houston, v. 1, p. 133).

Beginning at the mouth of the Sabine River and running west along the Gulf of Mexico three leagues from land to the mouth of the Rio Grande, thence up the principal stream of said river to its source, thence due north to the forty-second degree of north latitude, thence along the boundary line as defined in the treaty between Spain and the United States to the beginning.

The claim by Texas to land north to the 42d parallel and west and south to the Rio Grande was based in

west of London. In 1804 a line through the center of the White House was run out and marked for the zero of the Washington meridian. This line is 76°56'25" west of London. It will be seen from these statements that the location of this boundary was somewhat uncertain, but the position was recognized as the 100th degree west of Greenwich in acts of Sept. 9, 1850, and June 5, 1858.

41 9 Stat. L. 108. For reference to efforts made by the United States to acquire Texas between 1829 and 1835 by purchase or otherwise, see T. M. Marshall (1914, v. 2, p. 86-112).

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