The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-08-05
GREER COUNTY.
EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF
THE COMMISSION.

The report of the Greer county COM
1t is very lengthy. After lengthy argu-
ment, Texas Commissioners G. R. Free
man, j. T. Breckenridge and w. H. Bur-
CESS announce the following conclusion:
We submit to the candid judgment of
the commission on the part of the United
States, that no rational mind, after read
ing the correspondence which we have
cited, in the light of the facts we have
now adduced, can doubt that both Mr..
Adams and Mr.. De Onis understood the
line of the "100th degree of longitude &C
cording to Melish's map" offered by De
Onis, and afterwards adopted, was line
situated to the eastward of the line
through the South Bend of the Arkansas
proposed by Mr.. Adams, and intersected
the Arkansas in the vicinity of the Great
Bend. If this is so, it follows as an inev
liable conclusion that this line as offered
and understood and afterwards adopted
by the treaty makers lies far to the east of
where the true Tooth meridian west longI
tn lie is claimed to be by the United States,
since line drawn south from any point
| in the viciaity of the Great Bend will
pass eastward of the junction of the
mott tn and south forks of Red river, and
W IL touch nei ther of these streams, and
our proposition is maintained. We fur
tier submit that the conclusion is ire
sistible, that the Tooth meridian as laid
down on Melish's map, is definitely fixed
to a certain locality, and may be run and
marked by the natural landmarks
delineated on Melish's map
| without the aid of astro-
nomi:al observatlons) to close approx
nation of correctness, sufficiently close to
enable boundary commission to run and
mark its position exactly on the ground,
as these great landmarks fix sufficiently
close to avoid any great violence to the
intention and expectation of the treaty
makers, such as would result if the boun-
Diary we're removed from the neighborhood
of its original position, cutting the Great
Bend of the Arkansas and the eastern ex-
tremity of the Wichita mountains, to the
position westward of those mountains and
near 120 miles from where it was under
stood to be by the men who framed the
reaty-thereby depriving the state of
Texas of nearly 14,f00 square miles of ter
ritory which the treaty makers evidently
conceded to the Spanish government as a
part of Texas. g. r. FREEMAN,
j. T. BRACKENRIDGE.
l concur in the foregoing to this ex-
tent: / believe that the treaty meant the
meridian as laid down on the map of Ne
lish. whether the true 1OOth meridian or
not. W. II. BURGESS.
More briefly. the conclusion Of these
three commissioners is rs follows
'ine boundary is the Tooth meridian as
aid down on Melish's map, whether the
true Tooth meridian or not and lies east
of the junction of the north and south
forks of Red river.
Commissioner Herndon filed protest
against the above opinion, which is
|, lengthy and begins as follows:
: 1 solemnly Protest once more, before
the final vote is taken, to the issue of a
false Tooth meridian and the arguments
made thereon. which, as l have hereto
fore pointed out and here repeat that the
, treaty will not bear such an interpreta-
ton, the several acts of congress and the
legislature forbid such a view, and both
Texas and the United States are alike es-
topped from such view now-the true
Tooth degree of west longitude between
Red river and the Arkansas river as de-
Scrlbed IN the treaty was established some
thirty years age. and has been accepted
by both governments ever since, so far as
adopted, as the true and real boundary
line of the treaty of ODD February, 1873
The introduction of such question into
the subject of boundary, which the COM
mission is authorized to consider, is
highly injurious, because it tends to con-
found the issues properly made, and is
really contradictory of them. For if the
true meridian is dropped, and the I'M
truthful one laid down on Melish's map is
to be taken, and which on that man
crossed Red river east of and below the
forks of Red river, then the whole subject
OF the north and south forks of Red
river and the marking the true Tooth de-
gree of west longitude, crossing one of
said streams that are meant by the treaty
becomes absurd and a piece of folly,
Both positions are in open conflict and