16 	The Compact of 1785

the river as navigable and as a common highway. Binney's
aim, of course, was to show that the dam would interfere
with such navigation.

	Chancellor Bland refuted both arguments. First, he said,
	the Potomac, far from being naturally navigable, is

a torrent; collecting its waters far west, from the rude
mountain and high plashy glades; and swelling occa
sionally from fifteen to thirty feet, comes tumbling
down through rocks abrupt, in a manner throughout,
and at all seasons with a speed, and in some places
with a headlong pitch, that holds in utter defiance
everything like navigation; except it may be in a few
calm spaces.

	Next, said the Court, the general scope and object of
	the Compact was not to give a legal character to any
	natural subject, but only to regulate the manner in which
	the natural navigation of the river is to be conducted.
	"The first nine articles cannot possibly be applied in any
	other way." The tenth concerns piracies, crimes and of
	fenses, but as piracy is a matter for admiralty jurisdiction,
	the whole tenth article is confined to acts done on tide
	water, or abroad. The eleventh mentions ports of the Poto
	mac, which also must have meant tidewater. The twelfth
	article relates to the transportation of domestic produce
	across the river, but the Court argued that "it could not
	be necessary to extend this provision higher than the tide;
	because a similar stipulation had been previously embodied
	in the Act incorporating the Potomac Company" (ch. 33
	of 1784), which company had originally been empowered
	to construct the Canal.

	Accordingly, it was ruled that "there is, therefore, noth
	ing in this Compact, which relates in any manner what
	ever to the River Potomac above tidewater." Binney's
	claim that the Compact declared the Potomac to be naviga
	ble therefore was not followed, and the construction of
	the dam was not enjoined because there was no "naviga
	tion" with which it could interfere.