Opinion ID: 8938355
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Pabticular Claims of Mississippi.

Text: Mississippi’s claim to a three-league seaward boundary must fail largely for the same reasons that have led us to reject the similar claim of Louisiana.  The territory which now comprises the part of Mississippi lying south of the 31st parallel was originally ceded by Franee to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris of February 10, 1763. 128 Great Britain designated this territory part of West Florida, and by proclamation of October 7, 1763, King George III described West Florida as bounded to the southward by the gulf of Mexico, including all islands within six leagues of the coast, from the river Apalachicola to Lake Pontchartrain . . . .” 129 On September 3, 1783, Great Britain and Spain signed a treaty by which Great Britain ceded this area to Spain as part of a cession embracing all of western and eastern Florida. 130 By the Treaty of San Ildefonso,- signed October 1,1800, Spain ceded to France “the colony and province of Louisiana.” See p. 72, ante. Iir the Treaty of Paris of April 30, 1803, France ceded Louisiana to the United States to the same extent as France had acquired it by virtue of the Treaty of San Ildefonso. See p. 74, ante. A dispute arose between the United States and Spain as to whether, by the Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain had conveyed to France any land east of the Mississippi River (including any part of West Florida), and therefore whether France could have subsequently passed that territory to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. On October 27, 1810, President Madison claimed the right to possession of the area, 131 and on May 14,1812, Congress  made it part of the Mississippi Territory. 132 On March 1, 1817, Congress authorized the creation of the State of Mississippi, specifically setting out its boundaries, in part as follows: “thence due south to the Gulf of Mexico, thence west-wardly, including nil the islands within six leagues of the shore, to the most eastern junction of Pearl river with Lake Borgne . . . .” 133 (Emphasis added.) The Mississippi Constitution, approved by the Act admitting the State to the Union on December 10,1817, 134 contained an identical provision. Finally, by the Treaty of February 22, 1819, Spain purported to cede East and West Florida to the United States. 8 Stat. 254. It was determined, however, in Foster v. Neilson, 2 Pet. 253, that the portion of the State of Mississippi south of the 31st parallel passed to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase under the Treaty of Paris in 1803, and not as part of West Florida under the Spanish Treaty of 1819. We have already held with respect to Louisiana’s claim to a three-league maritime boundary that an Act of Admission which refers to all islands within a certain distance of the shore does not appear on its face to mean to establish a boundary line that distance from the shore, including all waters and submerged lands as well as all islands. There is nothing in Mississippi’s history, just as there is nothing in Louisiana’s, to cause us to depart from that conclusion in this instance. Indeed, Mississippi relies almost entirely on the fact that the very language which defeats its contention was repeatedly used, in the 1763 Proclamation by King George III, in the Congressional Enabling Act, and in the State Constitution, and was implicitly incorporated in mesne conveyances.  Mississippi also urges that the draftsmen of the provision must have intended to include all waters and submerged lands within six leagues from shore because the waters are very shallow and the islands are constantly shifting. This argument, however, appears only to strengthen the conclusion that it was islands upon which the provision focused, and not waters where there were no islands. We must hold that Mississippi is not entitled to rights in submerged lands lying beyond three geographical miles from its coast. 135