Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-09-23
VICTORY!
POGO moke and Tangier Cases Won BY
the State Of Virginia.

POGO moke and Tangier Cases Won by
the State Of Virginia.
Every Claim OF Virginia I'm tho Con.
tention Held TO BIO good.
All the points in the controversy
between citizens OF Maryland and
Virginia over the catching of oysters
in Pocomoke and Tangier sounds
and involving the construction OF
the compact OF 1885 between the two
States were decided against Mary
land in an opinion filed Yesterday by
United States Judges Golf and
Hughes.
The cases involved were those OF
Robert L. Wharton and Severn II.
Nelson, convicted Of unlawfully tax,
ing oysters in Pocomoke sound, and
of VIM. w. Marsh, convicted of the
same offense in Tangier sound. All
three are citizens Of Maryland and
their cases were heard on habeas cor
pus at Richmond.
The opinion was delivered in Balti-
more to suit the convenience OF coun-
sci, and was read by Judge Hughes.
1t deals principally with the cases OF
Wharton and Nelson, who were con-
victed at Drummondtown, Va. on
the 25th of April, and were sentenced
to pay fine of $500. Their defense
was that being citizens of Maryland
they had the right to take oysters in
the sound under the compact of 1885,
as the Virginia oyster law had not
been ratified by Maryland.
The opinion states that q great
mass of documentary evidence and
historical literature was filed by
counsel on both sides, and it describes
at length the oyster properties OF
Pocomoke sound and the laws enact
ed by Virginia for the protection OF
the oyster interests Of that State.
The conclusion reached by the
Judges is that the oysters in POGO
moke sound will soon be destroyed
unless laws for their protection are
passed and stringently enforced, and
that in order to preserve and increase
the supply it is necessary to allow
private ownership in the oyster
plants, subject at the pleasure OF
Virginia to such taxation as entails
upon the State the duty of protect
ing the taxed oyster properties by
police and penal laws.
The defense set up is declared to
be technical only, and it is also de-
clared that for 1OS years Virginia and
Maryland, by their non-action, have
given practical refutation to the con-
tention Of counsel for the petitioners
that any grant of q common right OF
fishing in the Pocomoke river was in
tended in sections 7 and s Of the com.
pact. The opinion then quotes an
opinion adverse to the claims of Ma
ryland, given, by the late I. hewitt
Steele, upholds the Virginia law and
declares that the claim of identity
between Pocomoke river and sound
is untenable.
The defense in the case Of Marsh
was that the boundary line near
Hurley's Rock, where the oysters
were taken, is doubtful, and that he
should have been tried in Maryland,
under the tenth section Of the com,
pact. The opinion says that the
commission appointed by the two
States in 1877 removed all doubts
from this part of the line, as well as
others and the defense is inadmis-
sible.
Wharton, Nelson and Marsh are
remanded to the custody Of the sher'
if of Accomac county, Va. Their
cases will probably be appealed to
the Supreme Court of the United
States for the purpose of having the
dispute finally settled, in accordance
with an act of the Legislature of Ma,
ryland.- Baltimor Sun, 10Th.