Volume 12 , Issue 20

Greer County Beginnings

U.S. Supreme Court
U S v. Texas, 162 U.S. 1 (1896)
162 U.S. 1
United States v. State of Texas
No. 3, Original. March 16, 1896
[162 U.S. 1,3] Attorney General Harmon, Col. Gen. Conrad, and Edgar Allan, for complainant.
George Clark, M. M. Crane, and A. H. Garland, for defendant.
[162 U.S. 1, 20]
Mr. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the court.
By the act of congress of May 2, 1890, C. 182, establishing a temporary government for the territory of Oklahoma, and enlarging the jurisdiction of the United States court in the Indian Territory, it was declared that that act should not apply to Greer county until the title to the same had been adjudicated and determined to be in the United States. And, that there might be a speedy judicial determination of that question, the attorney general of the United States was directed to institute in this court a suit in equity against the state of Texas, setting forth the title and claim of the United States 'to the tract of land lying between the North and South Forks of the Red river where the Indian Territory and the state of Texas adjoin, east of the one hundredth degree of longitude, and claimed by the state of Texas as within its boundary and a part of its land, and designated on [162 U.S. 1,21] its map as Greer county'; the court, on the trial of the case, in its discretion, and so far as the ends of justice would warrant, to consider any evidence taken and received by the joint boundary commission under the act of congress approved January 31, 1885 (26 Stat. 81, 92, 25).

In order that the precise locality of this land may be indicated, and for convenience, we insert immediately after this page an extract from a map of Texas and of the Indian Territory, published in 1892. The territory in dispute is marked on that map with the words 'Unassigned Land.' It contains about 1,511,576.17 acres, lies east of the 100th meridian of longitude, and west and south of the river marked on that map as the 'North Fork of Red River,' and with the words 'Boundary Claimed by U. S. ' The river on the south side is now commonly known as 'Prairie Dog Town Fork of Red River' (the Indian name of which is 'Ke-che-ah-que-ho-no'), which has its source in the western part of Texas, and is the same river as the South Fork of Red river, mentioned in the act of 1890.

The present suit was instituted pursuant to that act. The state appeared, and demurred to the bill upon the following grounds: (1) The question of boundary raised by the suit was political in its character, and not susceptible of judicial determination by this court in the exercise of any jurisdiction conferred by the constitution and laws of the United States. (2) Under the constitution it was not competent for the United States to sue, in its own courts, one of the states composing the Union. (3) This court, sitting as a court of equity, could not hear and determine the present controversy; the right asserted by the United States being in its nature legal, and not equitable.

Upon full consideration these several grounds of demurrer were overruled. U. ,. V. Texas, 143 U.S. 621, 12 Sup. Ct. 488. The reasons given for that conclusion need not be here repeated.

The state answered the bill, controverting the claim of the United States, and asserting that the lands within the boundary mentioned in the above act constitute a part of its territory. The United States filed a replication, and, proofs having been taken, the case is now before the court upon its merits. [162 U.S. 1, 22]

Both parties assert title under certain articles of the treaty between the United States and Spain made February 22, 1819, and ratified February 19, 1821. 8 Stat. 252, 254, 256.

Before examining those articles, it will be useful to refer to the diplomatic correspondence that preceded the making of the treaty. That correspondence commenced during the administration of President Madison, and was concluded under that of President Monroe. It appears that the negotiations upon the subject of the boundaries between the respective possessions of the two countries was more than once suspended because certain demands on the part of Spain were regarded by the United States as wholly inadmissible. 4 Am.St.P. 'Foreign Relations,' pp. 425, 430, 438, 439, 452, 464-466, 474. Finally, on the 24th day of October, 1818, the Spanish minister, 'to avoid all cause of dispute in future,' proposed to Mr. Adams, secretary of state, that the limits of the possessions of the two governments west of the Mississippi should be designated by a line beginning 'on the Gulf of Mexico, between the rivers mermento and Calcasia, following the Arroyo Hondo, between the Adaes and Natchitoches, crossing the Rio or Red river at the thirty-second degree of latitude, and ninety-third of longitude from London, according to Melish's map, and thence running directly north, crossing the Arkansas, the White, and the Osage rivers, till it strikes the Missouri, and then following the middle of that river to its source, so that the territory on the right bank of the said river will belong to Spain, and that on the left bank to the United States. The navigation, as well of the Missouri as of the Mississippi and Mermento, shall remain free to the subjects of both parties. 'He also proposed that in order to' to fix this line with more precision, and to place the landmarks which shall designate exactly the limits of both nations, 'each of the contracting parties should appoint a commissioner and surveyor, who should run and mark the line, and make out plans, and keep journals of [162 U.S. 1, 24] their proceedings; the result agreed upon by them to be considered part of the treaty, and have the same effect as if inserted in it. Ann. Cong. (15th Cong., 2d. Sess., 1819) p. 1900.
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