Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-01
THE POTOMAC FLATS
Progress Today Of the. Argument on
the Title.
Mr.. TAGGART'S ABLE EFFORT
Application Of the Wharfage and
Police Laws.
QUESTIONS OF OVERFLOW

" u Il = L IL N . Ob Wv ERfLOW
Assistant District Attorney Taggart had
not concluded his argument in answer to
the contentious of those claiming under
the so-called Kidwell patent when the
Court in General Term adjourned yester-
day, and this morning he resumed his ar
gument, arguing that the state of Mary
land and subsequently the United States
held the soils and beds of navigable water
In trust for their common use and Of COM
mon right. as an incident to their sover-
eighty. end could. therefore, only dispose of
the same for the avowed purpose Of con-
serving the rights of the public under the
trust.
Such. explained Mr.. Taggart. was the
doctrine announced by the United States
Supreme Court in the well-known Chicago
lake front cases Q46 U. s., 452), the court
declaring that the title to such lands is
state in lands intended for sale. Congress,
said Mr.. Taggart. in 1889. by the act Great
ing the late corporation of the city of
Washington, recognized the public charac-
ter of the Potomac river, and conferred
large powers upon the municipality in the
interest of navigation and commerce, pow
ers with the exercise of which such grants
as that made to DR.. Kidwell were wholly
inconsistent. But even earlier than 1899.
stated Mr.. Taggart, Congress, by the act
of May Is. 1920. provided that the city
should have power to preserve the naviga-
ton of the Potomac and AnacoStia rivers
adjoining the city. Hence, 1t Is clearly evil
dent, he said. that the lands mentioned in
the kidwell patent were not lands subject
to such disposition. but were lands coded
to and acquired by the United States for
public purposes; and. as was said by the
United States Supreme Court in Mann vs..
Tacoma Land Company, 1873 U. s.. 2S4, sit
Is settled that the general legislation of
Congress in respect to public lands does
not extend to tide lands"
The ktdweIl Patent a NuIlity.
For such reason. remarked Mr.. Taggart,
it is clear that the Kidwel patent is an
absolute nullity, and although he might.
therefore, we'll rest his argument against
its validity, the patent is also void for
two other reasons, viz: That the land
granted was within the limits Of the city
of Washington, therefore being expressly
excepted, and because the patent was OBJ
tanned by fraud. The limits of the city,
explained Mr.. Taggart have never been
specifically defined by any act of Congress.
and Thomas Jefferson, in 1890, at that time
Secretary of State. observed that ut seems
essential that the District should compre-
bend the water adjoining the establish
ment and eligible that it should compre-
herd the opposite Shore"
Mr.. Taggart then, at great length. de-
"
stating that the plan of Major Ellicott, who
succeeded Major L'Enfant in 1892 became
the authentic plan of the city. The Ellicott
plan, explained Mr.. Taggart. was deficient
in one feature-in the failure to show the
reservations of land in the city for public
USE hence, in 1875. Surveyor Dermott was
directed by the city commissioners to pre-
pare plat of the city with every public
appropriation plainly and distinctly de-
liz Gated. Such a plat was duly prepared
by Dermott and in 1903 Surveyor Nicholas
King prepared another. and both plats,
said Mr.. Taggart, show that some squares
were laid out partially and others wholly
in the waters of the Potomac and Eastern
branch, the King plat having always been
regarded as the standard one.
TO the Navigable Center.
1t has been established beyond the pos
sibility Of serious controversy, said Mr..
Taggart, that in laying out the city its
founders, who had full powers in the prem
ises, intended that its limits should include
the rivers to their navigable channels, and
that Congress, by the powers 1t conferred
upon the city corporation when created,
recognized that fact The Wharfing Regu-
lations issued July 20. 1875. formulated a
clear and complete scheme for the making
of streets by the reclamation of land be-
tween the fast land adjoining the shores,
ard an assertion was made that all of such
| lands out to the navigable channels were
appropriated to the uses of the city, and
hence included within its limits.
In 1882 the matter was judicially de-
termined in the case of the city against
Job Corson. Corson was charged with rum
ming his steamboat at greater speed than
eight miles an hour in the harbor of the
city, and. upon his appeal after convic-
ton. the District Circuit Court. in affirm
Ing the judgment below, held that the cor
poratc limits of the city extended to the
| and the violated city ordinance was Lot
regulation of commerce, but d proper po-
lice regulation within the granted powers
of the corporation.
Not nm Island.
Mr. Taggart next addressed himself to
the claim that the land conveyed was a
well-defined island. 1t was claimed, he
said, that a wide channel Of flowing water
separated the land included in the patent
from the mainland. but he insisted that the
so-called channel was nothing more than a
shallow DRAIN in which. at high tide, there
was from foot to a foot and a half more
water than over the flats. 1t was not a
navigable channel, and the testimony was
read from several persons. long residents
of the vicinity, to the effect that within
the whole period of their recollection, and
down to the time when the work of re-
claiming the flats began, the land was sub
ject to overflow by every tide, and was at
no time entirely bare of water, except
when there had been a general lowering of
the water by reason of long-continued high
| winds.
And those witnesses, stated Mr.. Taggart,
also declared that there had not been dur
ing their recollection channel along the
canal towpath They stated that the water
along the towpath was slightly deeper
existence of drain caused by the action
OF the tides, and that near the site of the
old glass house there was an elevation in
the drain which caused the tides when
| recedlng to flow, as to one part, in the d.
recton Of Easby's Point. and as to the
| other in the directi Of 18th street.
Mr.. Taggart reviewed at length the his
| tory of the Kidwell patent. He was still
speaking when The Stars report closed.