| in receiving, in Article I of the Compact, Virginia's pledge to disclaim the right to impose tolls or
charges on vessels sailing to or from Maryland through the Capes of Chesapeake Bay.'°°
Article VII, of central relevance in this case, provided:
[T]he citizens of each State, respectively, shall have full property
in the shores of Potowmack River adjoining their lands, with all
emoluments and advantages thereunto belonging, and the privilege
of making and carrying out wharves and other improvements, so as
not to obstruct or injure the navigation of the river; but the right of
fishing in the river shall be common to and equally enjoyed by the
citizens of both States; provided, that such common right be not
exercised by the citizens of the one State to the hindrance or
disturbance of the fisheries on the shores of the other State; and
that the citizens of neither State shall have a right to fish with nets
or seines on the shores of the other.'°'
Article VI provided:
The river Potowmack shall be considered as a common highway,
for the purpose of navigation and commerce to the citizens of
Virginia, and Maryland, and of the United States, and to all other
persons in amity with the said states, trading to or from Virginia or
Maryland. `°'-
Article VIII provided:
All laws and regulations which may be necessary for the
preservation of fish, or for the performance of quarantine, in the
river Potowmack, or for preserving and keeping open the channel
and navigation thereof, or of the river Pocomoke, within the limits
of Virginia, by preventing the throwing out ballast, or giving any
goo Compact of 1785, art. I, 1785-86 Md. Acts c. 1, 1785-86 Va. Acts c. XVII, reprinted in
12 Hening's Statutes at Large 50 (1823).
'°' This was the language quoted by the Supreme Court, Wharton, 153 U.S. at 164. There
were minor formatting, punctuation and capitalization differences between the versions of the
Compact adopted by Maryland and Virginia. Compare 1785-86 Md. Acts c. I with 1785-86 Va.
Acts c. XVII, reprinted in 12 Hening's Statutes at Large 50 (1823). None of those differences is
material here.
'°' Compact of 1785, art. VI, 1785-86 Md. Acts c. 1, 1785-86 Va. Acts c. XVII, reprinted
in 12 Hening's Statutes at Large 50 (1823).
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