Adam Snyder
Virginia v. Maryland Litigation Team
Confidential Attorney Work Product
An "x" in the column headed by the indicates that the
document has been reviewed by someone on the litigation team. An "x" in
the column headed by the © indicates that the document has been copied
and/or uploaded onto the MDAGNET being set up by the Maryland State Archives
STATUTES: Maryland | © | ||
1745 Md. Laws Ch. 9 | Allowing riparian owners in Baltimore to build piers and other structures; states "[t]hat all Improvements of what Kind soever, either Wharfs, Houses, or other Buildings, that have, or shall be made out of the Water, or where it usually flows, shall as an Encouragement to such Improvers, be fore ever deemed the Right, Title and Inheritance of such Improver or Improvers, their Heirs and Assigns for ever." 50 Op. Atty. Gen. 452 states that the Baltimore Harbor cases are sui generis in that it was "clearly intended by its own terms to encourage the growth and commercial development of that harbor, and has been consistently so construed (e.g., B.&O. R.R. Co. v. Chase, 43 Md. 23, 36 [1875])." It was intended to develop the Baltimore Harbor into an international seaport capable of accommodating "vessels of the deepest draft." | ||
1768 Md. Laws Ch. 5 | x | The Act is entitled "An Act to prevent any obstruction of the navigation in the river Patowmack." In the whereas clause, it states that it is a response to concern that "water carriage is greatly obstructed by erecting fish-dams above the falls in the river Patowmack, and also in Monocacy river." The law applies to the stretch of the Potomac between Great Falls and Wills's Creek, and prohibits the building of fish dams or "any heap of stones, or other erection whatsoever," allowing specifically for the cosntruction of bridges across the Monocacy, provided that there is sufficient provision for "boats and other vessels of burthen" to make it through. Potentially harmful insofar as it suggests that the Potomac was considered navigable as of 1768. [although the river may be navigable in places above the falls, the river was not considered navigable as a whole above tidewater. ecp] | |
1777 Md. Laws | Act passed on December 21, 1777 appointing Commissioners to meet with Virginia re: jurisdictional and navigational issues; responding to Nov. 22, 1777 recommendation from Congress that Md., Va., and N.C. meet to discuss price regulation | ||
1783 Md. Laws Ch. 33 | x | Entitled "An ACT for making the river Susquehana navigable from the line of this stat to tide water," this act incorporates a group of individuals who had invested money in improving the Susquehana and gives them condmenation powers, the "full power of erecting grist mills, and other waterworks thereon." The corporation is granted "full power and authority to use the waters of the said river for the purpose of supplying the said canal, and the waterworks aforesaid erected thereon, with water" but "shall have no right to the waters of the said river for any other purpose or purposes whatsoever." Note also that the owners of land through which the canal will be cut have the right to become subscribers to the corporation. | |
1784 Md. Laws Ch. 15 | x | Entitled "An ACT to prevent the obstruction of navigation of the eastern and north-west branches of the river Patowmack." Concern is which the "great numbers of wears and hedges . . . erected in and upon the eastern and north-west branches of Patowmack river, near the town of Bladensburg, to the great injury of the navigation of the said river and of the trade of the said town." Declares them nuisances. | |
1784 Md. Laws Ch. 33 | x | Entitled "An ACT for establishing a company for opening and extending the navigation of the river Patowmack." Designed to make it navigable from "tide water to the highest place practicable on the north branch." Act notes that it will be necessary to "erect locks and other works on both sides of the river, and the legislatures of Virginia and Maryland, impressed with the importance of the object, are desirous of encouraging so useful an undertaking." In Article IV, the Act refers again to making the river navigable from "tide water to the highest part of the north branch to which navigation can be extended." Canals exempt from taxation; can charge tolls. Article X declares that "the said river, and the works to be erected thereon in virtue of this act, when completed, shall for ever tereafter be esteemed and taken to be navigabel as a public highway" subject only to the tolls established in the Act. No other tax or tolls "for the use of the water of the said river, and the works thereon erected, shall at any time be imposed by both or either of the said states," subject to concurrent regulation re: toll evasion or prohibited goods. Condemnation power. Article XIII states that "it is the intention of this act not to interfere with private property, but for the purpose of improving and perfecting the saide navigation" and that the "water, or any part thereof, conveyed through any canal or cut . . . shall not be used for any purpose but navigation, unless the cosent of the proprietors of the land through which the same shall be led be first had." The Company is directed to do their best to accommodate other, private uses of the water. Act not effective until Virginia does the same. | |
1784 Md. Laws | GA passed acts relating to the Potomac Co. on Nove. 1, Nov. 26, Dec. 22 | ||
1791 Md. Laws Ch. 45, § 12 | Maryland's conferral onto D.C. of the power to regulate wharves | ||
1818 Md. Laws Ch. 206 | x | Maryland offers to appoint commissioners to settle the border dispute with Virginia; nothing much else. | |
1824 Md. Laws Ch. 79 | x | Settling up the C&O Canal Co. | |
1825 Md. Laws Ch. 195 | x | Repeals 1818 appoitnment of commissioners | |
1831 Md. Laws Reso. 126 | x | Sets up a committee to look at boundary issue and to determine whether Virginia has ever recognized Maryland's charter rights; committee asked to prepare a report detailing the history of the boundary dispute and the efforts to resolve it. | |
1831 Md. Laws Reso. 128 | x | Committee's Report; details the history of the border dispute, going back to the original charters; says that Virginia's recognition of Maryland's charter rights in the Virginia Constitution was "fit and proper" but that "her reservation in regard to the use of the rivers Potomac and Pocomoke, were wholly gratuitous; and the two states afterwards, by compact, on the twenty-eight day of March, in the year of our lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty five regulated and settled the jurisdiction and navigation of those rivers, and that part of Chesapeake bay within the territory of Virginia." Further the report says that "if [Virginia] had any possible imaginary right to any territory within the limits of our charter, it was all absolutely ceded and relaeased by her constitution to Maryland, although becoming subject to the compact made afterwards in seventeen hundred and eighty-five." And further still: "The compact of [1785], between the two states was made to regulate and settle the jurisdiction and navigation of the Potomac, leaving the single question of the first founation of that river open, to be settled by some other negotiation. It is indeed, matter of great surprise to your committee, that the Maryland commissioners, at the time of that compact, did not make the decision of that signle question preliminary to every other arrangement." Report indicates that there was a correspondence between Maryland and Virginia commissioners in 1818 or so. Would this correspondence discuss the Compact? Can we locate it? | |
1833 Md. Laws Reso. 80 | x | Authorizes AG to initiate original jurisdiction action against Virginia over the boundary issue; decrying Virginia's refusal to submit the matter to binding arbitration; makes it clear that Maryland agreed that the boundary was not set until 1877. | |
1834 Md. Laws Reso. 99 | x | A response to a Virginia Act passed on March 5, 1833, reagrding the southern and western boundaries of Maryland. Maryland asserts here that Virginia recognized Maryland's Charter rights but that the two States disagree on the interpretation of that Charter. Letter from Governor of Virginia indicates that Maryland's complaint about the 1833 law is a misunderstanding. Can we get this letter, from Governor Tazewell to Virginia Legislature? Also mentions Maryland Act of 1831, December session re: same subject, and authorizing Supreme Court suit, and Reso. 80 1833 session. Authorizes the filing of a Complaint against Virginia in the Supreme Court, filed October 20, 1834, eventually voluntarily dismissed on January 25, 1836 | |
1852 Md. Laws Ch. 275 | x | Requesting Governor to open correspondence with VA governor toward appointing commissioners to resolve western boundary | |
1874 Md. Laws Ch. 247 | x | Appointing Black Jenkins commissioners; in Section 1, Maryland pledges to abide by outcome "provided, however, that neither of the States, nor the citizens thereof, shall, by the decision of the said arbitrators, be deprived of any of the rights and privleges enumerated and set forth in the compact between them entered into in the year seventeen hundred and eighty-five, but that the same shall remain to and be enjoyed by the said States and the citizens thereof, forever." | |
1888 Md. Laws Ch. 362 | x | Re: sand & gravel in Potomac; bars dredging of it; relevant to Bostick | |
1900 Md. Laws Ch. 577 | x | Riparian owners gain right to sand & gravel in Potomac; relevant to Bostick | |
1906 Md. Laws Ch. 426 | Right to mine sand & gravel extended from Potomac to all state waters | ||
1933 Md. Law Ch. 526 | Establishes both waterway construction and water appropriation statutes; check legislative history | ||
1939 Md. Laws Ch. 320 | x | Sets up ICPRB; relates to pollution of tributaries to Potomac | |
1945 Md. Laws Reso. 11 | x | Opposing Congressional funding of Potomac River reservoirs on the basis that they would not provide any more flood control that soil conservation measures and would remove lots of land from the Maryland tax rolls. Could this be used against us as an example of Maryland not taking the long view with respect to Potomac River management? | |
1945 Md. Laws Reso. 17 | x | Senate Joint Resolution to study the 1785 Compact; states that fishing rights were common under Compact (in a way that suggests that improvement rights were not); focuses on tidewaters; mentions festivities surrounding the 160 year anniversary of the Compact | |
1949 Md. Laws Ch. 484 | x | Proposing 15 new articles for the Compact of 1785 re: fisheries, oysters and a tidewater commission, much like the 1958 Compact | |
1957 Md. Laws Ch. 757 | x | Enacted April 15, 1957; establishes § 5-504; check H.B. 83 and its legislative history to see why was it enacted when these same activities would have been regulated under 1933 statute? Codified originally as Section 722 of Article 66C (1957), and then moved to Section 13 to Article 96A (1964 Replacement Vol) | |
1957 Md. Laws Ch. 766 | x | Relevant to 1957 abrogation Repeals 1785 Compact; includes a long explanation about why Maryland is abrogating the Compact, most of it to do with Virginia's failure to enforce the concurrent laws with respect to oystering. | |
1957 Md. Laws Ch. 767 | Repeals 1949 act proposing 15 new articles to the Compact of 1785, which Virginia refused to agree to. | ||
1957 Md. Laws Ch. 770 | Revises concurrent law on fisheries to vest full jurisdiction in Maryland, provided that Virginians have the same rights as Marylanders | ||
1958 Md. Laws Ch. 18 | Law re: gaming devices on Virginia piers; March 6, 1958. | ||
Maryland GA action re: boundary in 1795, 1801, 1810 | |||
STATUTES: Virginia | |||
1771 Acts? | Hening, "The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of
All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature in
the Year 1619 (Richmond: George Cochran, 1823), vol.8, p. 571. By this
law, "Virginia authorized those who might undertake clearing the Potomac
to build 'such canals, and erect such locks, or other works as they shall
think necessary.'" Maryland Gov. Eden refused to enact a similar piece
of legislation in Maryland for fear that it would compromise Maryland's
Charter rights in the Potomac. Littlefield at 22.
Have to go through all of Hening to see what laws Virginia enacted prior to 1785 (and after) that relate specifically to the Potomac River. Littlefield at 134, note 13 has some citations that refer generally to river improvements. |
||
1775 Acts | Washington and Mason introduce a new bill to open the Potomac to navigation which "they hoped might be more attractive to Maryland." Littlefield at 23. | ||
1778 Acts | JHD, 1827 ed., 10 Dec. 1777. Appointing Commissioners for original conference that never took place because of Britain's naval blockade. | ||
1779 Acts | Hening, X, 520; JHD, 1827 ed., 4, 24 June 1779. Other resolutions apparently relating to the Potomac negotiations. | ||
1785 Acts | JHD, 1828 ed., 26, 29, 30 Dec. 1785. Ratifying the Compact. | ||
1793 Acts | Virginia enacts law "to regulate boats on the Potomac." In Samuel Shepard, ed., The Statutes at Large of Virginia from October Session 1792, to December Session 1806, Inclusive in Three Volumes, (New Series) Being a Continuation of Hening (Richmond: 1835, reprint ed., NY: AMS Press, Inc., 1970), vol. 1, pp. 239-253. | ||
1874 Va. Acts Ch. 135 | Virginia instructions to Black-Jenkins commissioners | ||
U.S.A.G. OPINIONS | |||
January 7, 1799 | Lee opinion re: regulation of wharves referenced in Potomac Steamboat case | ||
April 5, 1806 | Breckenridge opinion re: regulation of wharves referenced in Potomac Steamboat case | ||
July 8, 1818 | Wirt opinion re: regulation of wharves referenced in Potomac Steamboat case | ||
SECONDARY SOURCES | |||
Everstine, C.N., Maryland in Law and History (1964) | May have relevant material re: Compact | ||
Louis Welton dissertion on file at Hopkins | |||
Julius Gobel, "The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton" | Discusses the 1786 Hartford Compact in some detail | ||
Willie Paul Adams, "First American Constitutions"
Gordon Wood, "Creation of the Republic" |
General reading in the area | ||
F. MacDonald, "E Pluribus Unum" at 89-99 (1965) | Material relevant to Chase | ||
Scharff, Vol. I, 262-63, 265 | Re: Potomac | ||
Corra Bacon-Foster, "Patomac Route to the West:, F187 P8 B13 1971 (at UB library, not law) | Has letters re: Potomac Co. and context. | ||
Judge Delaplaine, "Life of Thomas Johnson" | May include relevant material; mentioned in McWilliams speech | ||
20 M.L.E., State Government, Section 2 | History of border disputes between Maryland and Virginia | ||
Thomas F. Duffy, "The Decline of the Port of Alexandria, Virginia, 1800-1861" (Master's Thesis, Georgetown, 1965) | Cited in Littlefield thesis, could be helpful in construing Compact's effect on Alexandria | ||
Mary Jane Dowd, "The State in the Maryland Economy 1776-1807," Maryland Historical Magazine 57 (June, 1962), at 121 | May have useful information re: jurisdiction over the Potomac | ||
Grace L. Nute, ed., "Washington and the Potomac: Manuscripts of the Minnesota Historical Society (1754) 1769-1796," AHR 28 (1923): 497-519, 702-722 | A good repository of Washington papers re: Potomac, relied on heavily in Littlefield | ||
Drew R. McCoy, "The Virginia Port Bill of 1784," VMHB 83 (1975) | We need to put Jefferson's concerns about the Constitutional cession in context by looking at what he meant by "port regulations" | ||
Robert B. Bittner, "Economic Independence and the Virginia Port Bill of 1784," in Virginia in the American Revolution, ed. Richard A. Rutyna and Peter C. Stewart (Norfolk, 1977) | Ditto | ||
PRIMARY SOURCES | |||
Correspondence among Marylanders who took part in 1st Maryland Constitutional Convention | Should indicate that Marylanders felt strongly about their ownership and control of the Potomac | ||
Records from Virginia Constitutional Convention | Hoffman's research assistants will have to get this. | ||
Smallwood Papers | As Maryland governor 1785-88, could have useful material | ||
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer Papers | |||
Samual Chase Papers | See, e.g., "Chase Papers" at Md. Historical Society, Balto. | ||
Thomas Stone Papers | |||
Paca Papers | Governor of Maryland 1782-85 | ||
Maryland letter to Delaware (1786?) | Encloses the Compact and suggests that the two states develop consistent regulations for the bay. | ||
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, (New York: H.W. Derby, 1861, reprint ed. NY: Harper and Row Publishers, 1964) | |||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 3890 | "Lydia" sails up the Potomac | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 26743 | March 28, 1784 letter from Compact Comissioners to Pa. Governor re: duties on goods sailing up Potomac | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 26853 | re: French port privileges | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 27244 | Letter to Dan Jenifer re: wharf | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 27288 | GA to Commissioners re: navigation of Potomac | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 27290 | D.C. | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 27386 | HD to Commissioners re: jurisdiction in rivers, bay | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 27516 | Dispute over possession of mill | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 27816 | Letter to Va. Commissioners' office re: depreciation | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 27979 | Dan Jenifer order to pay re: Potomac Co. | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 28450 | Nov. 20, 1785 resolutions re: water transportation | ||
Maryland State Archives doc No.: 28508 | Governor MD to Gov. Va re: Potomac Co. | ||
Potomac Co. Report to Governors of Maryland and Virginia (Dec. 27, 1784) | Makes reference to fact that Virginia out to repeal her law for opening the Potomac; what law is this? | ||
Sun Articles | Article prior to June 19, 1959 entitled "Don't Give Away the Potomac to Virginia;" Article dated March 28, 1959 re: same | ||
Maryland Gazette | April 21, 1785, May 26, 1785 | ||
Alexandria Gazette | February 10, 1785 | ||
Negotiations re: 1958 Compact | Check with 17th floor AG's office and with papers of then current AG | ||
1957 confidential/unofficial AG opinion re: Compact | McWilliams claims it was provided to GA; Barbara Bond was able to locate an April 9, 1957 letter from the AG to Governor McKeldin in which the AG refers to a February 21, 1957 letter to Lloyd L. Simpkins, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Delegates -- Check with Maryland State Law Library | ||
Other Virginia Compacts | See if they have an analog to Article VII, if so, look at case law again re: relations between the relevant states; if not, why not? Compacts are at the LoC Law Library | ||
Maryland Commissioner's dissent from 1912 boundary (?) | Ed believes this document is very relevant, especially to the tidal/nontidal argument | ||
Potomac Co. and C&O records | At the National Archives; could contain language re: both Compact and Maryland regulation | ||
George Washington Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society | Cited by Littlefield and others, could contain language re: both Compact and Maryland regulation | ||
Records of the States of the United States | At the Library of Congress on microfilm; cited by Littlefield re: 1768 Act for removing obstructions to the Potomac. | ||
Washington papers in 1775 | re: bill introduced in Virginia legislature for opening up the Potomac which he and Mason felt would be more attractive to Maryland | ||
Mason papers in 1775 | re: bill introduced in Virginia legislature for opening up the Potomac which he and Washington felt would be more attractive to Maryland | ||
"Proceedings of the Board of President and Directors of the Patowmack Company, 1785-1807," Records of the National Park Service, Item 159, 160, National Archives | May have useful information | ||
House Rept. 111, 17th Congress, 1st Session, 1822, pp. 1-9 | "Report of the Committee of the District of Columbia, to whom were referred Sundry Memorials from the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, Praying the Aid of the Federal Government towards the Improvement of the Navigation of the River Potomac" | ||
Letter from the Governor and Council of Maryland Transmitting a Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Survey the River Potomac | Washington, D.C.: Gales and Seaton, 1823. | ||
Tobias Lear, "Observations on the River Potomack, the Country Adjacent, and the City of Washington" | 1793; Could have relevant material re: effect of Compact on jurisdiction over river improvements | ||
CASES | |||
Ringgold's Lessee v. Malott, 1 H&J 299 (1802) | Case saying that Maryland, as State, got whatever the Colony had | ||
Howard v. Moale, 2 H&J 249 (????) | Case saying that Maryland, as State, got whatever the Colony had | ||
10 G&J 443 | Case saying that Maryland, as State, got whatever the Colony had | ||
Cassell v. Carroll, 11 Wheaton 134, 170 | Case involving Maryland Charter | ||
Baltimore v. McKim, 3 Bland Ch. Rep. 455-56 | Case involving Maryland Charter | ||
Cunningham v. Browning, 1 Bland Ch. Rep. 305 | Case involving Maryland Charter | ||
COURT RECORDS | |||
Court Records in Mears v. Colonial Beach, 166 Va. 278, 184 S.E. 175 (Mar. 12, 1936) | Case involved defense that alleged illegal activity occurred on a pier out from the Virginia shore across LWM and, therefore, not subject to Virginia law; case dismissed on ripeness grounds without reaching jurisdicitonal issue; check briefs and records at Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and the Westmoreland County Circuit Court | ||
1958 Supreme Court documentation | Not at Supreme Court; check National Archives (202) 501-5395; Check with 17th floor AG's office and with papers of then current AG; C.Man says he will send to us. | ||
C&O Canal's Answer to B&O Complaint (1829) | Contains a history of waterway projects in the Potomac as of 1829; referred to at 19 Md. L. Rev. at 12 | ||
Briefs in Greathouse case | Supreme Court library; D.C. Cir. library? C.Man says he will send to us. | ||
West Virginia's Answer in Maryland v. West Virginia | States that the "greater part of the provisions of this [the 1785] compact had special reference to that part of the Potomac which is navigable and which lies below the limits of the State of West Virginia but some of them applied to that river throughout its whole length." Does not say which ones were intended to apply throughout the whole length. | ||
Briefs in Wharton v. Wise | Includes Virginia AG brief re: Court should ignore dicta in earlier Va. Supreme Court case re: Compact; C. Man says he will send to us. | ||
West Virginia's Answer in Maryland v. West Virginia | States that the "greater part of the provisions of this [the 1785] compact had special reference to that part of the Potomac which is navigable and which lies below the limits of the State of West Virginia but some of them applied to that river throughout its whole length." Does not say which ones were intended to apply throughout the whole length. | ||
TREATISES | |||
Dept. of Interior, Chesapeake Bay in Legal Perspective (1969?) | Has useful overviews of a number of topics related Maryland and Virginia's regulation of the Chesapeake and the Potomac | ||
24 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. | Article re: interbasin transfers of surface waters; concludes that Purcellville and Gordonsville cases are good law as of 1983; had not been changed by legislature | ||
Clark, Water and Water Rights (3d. ed.) | Describes riparian rights in general | ||
Alvin T. Embrey, "Waters of the State" | Mentioned in Butler/Livingston book | ||
Lynda Lee Butler & Margit Livingston, "Virginia Tidal and Coastal Law" (Michie, 1988) | At LOC law library, at 564-65 "The common law right to build a wharf or pier out to the navigable channel of a waterway is one of the basic attributes of riparian ownership . . . The right is subject at all times to state regulation and must be exercised so as not to interfere with the public's navigational easement in navigable waters." Lots re: ferried, mills, riparian rights | ||
"Gould on Waters" | |||
Farnham | |||
INTERVIEWS | |||
People suggested by Rick Collins as having experience applying and enforcing Maryland health codes against Virginia restaurants. | |||
Jim Coulter | Now at MES, Mr. Coulter wrote a memo in which he states that he has checked with the Authority and the other water users on the Potomac and that they do not believe that there is anything in the LFAA that calls into question Maryland's jurisdiction over the Potomac. | ||
Thomas Andrews | Now in Atlanta, Ga, Mr. Andrews was involved in the LFAA. | ||
Colonel Peck | Ex-Aqueduct (now with MES), Mr. Peck should be able to give us some information about the Corps' view of the jurisdiction issue; perhaps help us craft a FOIA request. Also speak with Cathy Piper-Stevenson and Bob Miller, both with MES. | ||
OTHER POSSIBLE RESEARCH AVENUES | |||
FOIA Corps Aqueduct division to see if they have any documents relating to the states' relative rights in the Potomac? | |||
Investigate reference by Va. AG in Shepherd's Town bridge case to the fact that Virginia has long exercised jurisdiction over the river by regulating ferry traffic (between pages 13 and 18) | |||
ICPRB files? | |||
1804 Debate re: damming the Potomac? Papenfuse mentioned this earlier. | |||
Investigate Conservation Commission's papers; Archives inherited DNR's library | |||
Maryland Historical Society library | |||