Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1860-06-07


put it in my power to pay an equally cordial
and emphatic tribute to some worthy candidate
for the Vice-Presdency, but feeling it duty to
give the desired proof of sympathy with their
patriotic efforts to restore the happy days of
brotherly concord between the different sections
Of our beloved country, | remain, dear sir, sin
cerely yours, EDWARD EVERETT.
From the St. Mary's Beacon.
THE OYSTER ISSUE.
Since the publication of our last paper, the
excitement upon this question has extended to
every hearth-stone in our county, and has now
assumed a character which leavesttle room to
doubt that further attempt to consumate the
surveys will be resisted by force. In some sec
tions, the people have already taken the law in
their own hands, and have pulled up the posts
set out in the water to mark the dominion of
the company. An agent of the people, we learn,
has gone to Annapolis with view to obtain
copy of the warrant under which the surveys
are being made, and to obtain. a record of such
of the legislation Of the late session of our Gen
eral Assembly as may have direct or collater-
al bearing upon the subject matter in dispute
We append the call, which has been extensively
circulated throughout our county in hand-bill
form, for public meetinng in Leonardtown
to-day.
PUBLIC MEETING-The citizens of Saint
Mary's County, or such as are interested in the
proceedings of certain parties, who are taking
up the oyster bars and other water privileges in
Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent and Potomac
Rivers and their tributaries, will meet at the
Court House in Eeonardtown on Thursday next,
at II o'clock, A. NJ, for the purpose of taking
the matter into consideration and to determine
hot fboro rfnt how toy fo
perversion of right, heretofore enjoyed in COM
mon by all, to individual uses.
Since the above was written, we have receiv-
ed communication from Messrs. Long and
Company, to be found below, to which we di-
rect the attention of our readers.
TO THE PUBLIC.
The public mind was drawn year or upwards
past, to the. probability that the lands covered
by the navgabe waters Of this State were pub
lie domain and might be entered, and title Sc
cured thereto, by individuals, from the fact that
many citizens of the lower part of this county
had received warrants from the Land Office and
did in fact obtain patents for the same.
This fact of obtaining warrants and patents
from the Land Office, led to an inquiry at the
Office of the right to acquire title to lands cover
ed by tide-water, to which assurances were given,
that it had been the custom Of the Land Office,
and it was now its practice; and that this prac-
tice was sustained by the decisions of the Court
of Appeals, in the case of Brown VS.. Kennedy, :
IN. .5th Harris and johnson, p. 1856, in the.year1
1921; was confirmed and acted on by the Judge
The a4a Office 1881 as may he seen in ara
McKim, p. 45s, an absequentIy sustained by
the Court of Appeals, in 1s43, in the case Of
Casey VS.. Insloes, in 1st Gill Report, p. 435.-
Looking to these cases, We found the Court to
say, on p. 512, in the case of Casey VS. Insloes
that :'The grant Of Bold Venture, (the property
then in question:, though for the most part co.,
cred aoiM aoater, still passes to the grantee all
the soil under the water, included within its
lines, with all the rights of property incident
thereto, subject only to the rights of the public
as to fishing and navigation" The Court fur
ther said, that eff it (he soil uader the aoater)
had been encroached on by any person, as by
driving piles and erecting wharf, an action Of
trespass could have been maintained by the
patentee." In the case of Baltimore VS.. McKim
p. 453, Of Bland's Chancery Reports, we found
Judge Bland. Chancellor in the Land Office
and before whom the case was tried) to say, on
p. 468, that ''upon a more careful consideration
of the whole subject it has been finally settled
that the bed Of any of the navigable waters Of
the State may be granted, and will pass, if dis
tinctly comprehended by the terms of an ordi-
nary patent issuing from the Land Office. y
Under these DECISIONS which are the law of the
land until reversed, and under the law and Gus
toms Of the Land Office, the Commissioner is
sued to, and in, the names of the undersigned
warrants on most of the oyster rivers of the
State.
Under these laws, we felt, and now feel, that
we have the right to enter and take up the soil
covered by tide water. We not only felt iusti-
fed by the force of law to enter this public do
main, but we thought we were also justified by
public sentiment, as there was no serious oppo-
sition expressed to the entries made by great
many of our citizens, and to a large extent, in
the lower section Of the county. If there was
opposition in the public mind to entering OF
water lands, it was right that the opposition
should have spoken then, and not by its silence
seem to acquiesce, not only in the right, but in
the propriety, and thereby justify others in ap-
propriating the same kind of lands, which now
seems to be so violently resisted. If was right
for those gentleman to enter, it is equally right
that we should-if wrong in us, it was not right
in them. We hold that in taking up this pub
lie domain, we would not be injuring, but in
fact, benefting the people, by bringing a larger
amount of property into use, which is now to-
tally useless, from which large sums of money
would be paid both into the State and County
Treasury, and by which means both State and
County taxes would be greatly diminished, and
still the usual water privileges would have been
preserved, for it was not our design to have en-
tered creeks and shores, but to have confined
ourselves to the bars and beds of the rivers.
This movement, however hostile it may be
regarded by the people, has no comparison to
the bill adopted by the House of Delegates at
the last session of the Legislature, known as the
Riparian Bill and which we understand, is high
| ly approved by those who are most bitterly op-
posed to the execution of the warrants we hold
Under this bill, the proprietors of lands border
/ ing the creeks and rivers, were made sole own
ers of the said creeks and rivers, to the exclusion
not only Of the citizens of the tide-water coun.
ties, but of the whole State, thus appropriating
the whole public domain of the State covered by
water to a few individuals, and that too without
paying single dollar to the people or the State
Finding the sense of the community very
hostile to the exercise of the right, which we
claim under the law, we have determined not
exercise any further right, and decline to exc
cute the warrants which we have received from
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