Twelfth Census of the United States.
CENSUS BULLETIN.
No. 74. WASHINGTON, D. C. July 20, 1901.
REPORT ON BOUNDARIES OF TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS ..
Hon. WILLIAM R. MERRIAM, have no official standing, but are entitled only to sucl1 Director of the Census. weight as is carried by the names of the individuals Sm: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for pub signing the report. Even so, there is no doubt that its lication as a census bulletin, the "Report of a Conference results have materially decreased the conflicts of official upon the Boundaries of the Successive Acquisitions of Ter authority in this field. The main conclusions of the con._ ritory by the United States." The conference was con ference, as detailed in the following pages, may be sum stituted of representatives of the Department of State, the marized as follows : Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Geological Survey, the 1. The region between the Mississippi "River and lakes Census Office, and the Ubrary of Congress. It was ap Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the west, and the Perdido pointed at the req nest of the Census Office, and as an River to the east, should not be assigned either to the advisory committee to that office on certain controverted Louisiana Purchase or to the Florida Purchase, but subjects. marked with a legend indicating that title to it between In the '' Statistical Atlas of the United States, Based 1803 and 1819 was in dispute. upon Results of the Eleventh Census," is a map (Plate I) 2. The line between the Mississippi River and the Lake giving the boundaries of the successive acquisitions of ter of the Woods, separating the territory of the United ritory by the United States, exclusive of Alaska. The States prior to 1803 from the Louisiana Purchase, should Twelfth Census will probably publish a similar map. be drawn from the most northwestern point of the Lake Another Government office issues a ma1J giving the same of the Woods to the nea:-est point on the Mississippi information. In nearly all essentials the two agree, but, River, in Lake Bemidji. .naturally, in certain minor points, differences between them 3. The western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase may be found. Some of the differences relate to a matter between 49° and 42° north followed the watershed of the -namely, the true boundary of the I.Jouisiana Purchase Rocky Mountains; thence it ran east along the parallel of which is of timely interest, now that the 9entennial anni 42° north to a point due north of the source of the versary of that purchase is approaching. Arkansas River, and thence south to that source. Thinking that in such a matter even minor discrepancies 4. ':Phe northwestern boundary of Texas as annexed between coordinate branches of the Government should, e;tended up the principal stream of the Rio Grande to its if possible, be harmonized, and seeking the friendly criti source and thence due north Jo the parallel of 4:2 ° north. cism of disinterested experts upon the conclusions of the 5. The southern boundar~ of the Mexican Cession of Census Office, the Acting Director addressed identical 1848 should be drawn from a point on the Rio Grande letters to the Secretary of State, the Superintendent of the eight miles north of Paso, instead of from one about Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Director of the Geological thirty miles further north, as is the usual practice at Survey, and the Commissioner of the Land Office, asking present, west three degrees, and thence nort.b. to the :first each to appoint a representative. ':I.1he representatives branch of the Gila River. appointed held :five meetings, and on every point voted The cordial thanks of the Census Office are due to the upon, with one exception, reached unanimous conclusions. other branches of the Gover.nment service which have These conclusions in some cases sustained the position of aided our work generously and without stint. the Census Office, in some cases sustained the position of Yours, respectfully, the Land Office, and in some cases departed from both. ~~~ It should be carefully observed that the conference was Chief Statistiaianfor Methods and Results. simply one to advise the Census Office, and that its :findings CP lSM REPORT
OF
A CONFERENCE UPON THE BOUNDARIES
OF
The Successive Acquisitions of Territory by the United States, November, r899, to January, 1900.
The undersigned representatives of the Department of Darby, Stoddard, and others; the treaties involved; State, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Geological letters of Monroe, Jefferson, an cl Talleyrand ; certain Survey, the Census.,Office, and the Library of Congress, maps; the text of the grant to Crozat by Louis XIV, in constituting a conference upon the boundaries of the suc 1 712 ; the presentation of the case by the Commissioner cessive acquisitions of territory by the United States, so of the General Land Office in his volume entitled ''The far as discrepancies respecting them have been found to Louisiana Purchase;" etc. This examination failed, how exist, and called together by a circular letter of the Acting ever, to enable the conference to determine the dispute Director of the Census, dated November 16, 1899, beg about the territory between the Mississippi and Perdiclo leave to report as follows : rivers, claimed alike by Spain and France, and nfterwards On November 20, 1899, the conference held its first by the United States, and :finally released by Spain in the meeting in the Pavilion of the Seals, Library of Congress, treaty of 1819, in language assigning no limits to West that room having been kindly prbvided for the purpose by Jnorida. The conference concluded that the boundary the Librarian of Congress. There were present, Mr. line of this territory at the Mississippi H.iver, as claimed Andrew H. Allen, representing the Department of State; by Spain, should be so defined by a legend on the map, Mr. 0. H. Tittmann, representing the Coast and Geodetic and that the boundary line at the Perdido River, as claimed Survey ; Mr. Harry King, from the General Land Office; by the United States, should be similarly indicated. This Mr. Henry Gannett, representing the Geological Survey; conclusion was reached with an understanding or admis and Mr. Walter F. Willcox, representing the Census Office. sion of the following facts touching the territory between Mr. P. Lee Phillips, Chief of the Division of Maps and the two rivers claimed by Spain as a part of West Florida: Charts in the Library of Congress, also attended the meeting That the territory of Louisiana, as described by France to render such assistance as might be desired in the way of and granted to Crozat by Louis XIV, extended on the east advice touching maps, etc., and their accessibility. Mr. to the river Mobile, which, with the port, was ceded King, of the General Land Office, announced that he specifically by France to England by the treaty of Paris in attended merely as an auditor, without the intention of 1763, Spain at the same time ceding the Floridas to Great participating in the action of the conference, but with Britain, with St. Augustine and the bay of Pensacola. the purpose of l'eporting the contemplated scope of its thus, inferentially at least, determining the respective work to the Commissioner of the General Land Office. boundaries of Louisiana and West morida; that the first The conference then proceeded to organize by the election occupation of the interior of the territory between the of Mr. Willcox as chairman and lVlr. Allen as secretary. rivers Mississippi and Perdido by the Spaniards, was dur Mr. Phillips was invited by the conference to take part in ing the war of the American Revolution, when it belonged its business as a member, and very kindly consented to do SQ. to Great Britain; that Great Britain retroeeded. the The territorial acquisitions, concerning the boundaries Floridas to Spain in 1783, at which time the Louisiana of which discrepancies had been noted, were taken up in territory belonged to Spain by the French cession in the chronological order. The subject of the preliminaries of peace of 1762 (confirmed in 1763), where by ''all the country known under the name of Louisiana" LOUISIANA PURCHASE was transferred; that Spain in 1800 retroceded Louisiana was thus first considered, and the situation discovered was, to France as it was received from France in 1763; that briefly, that the territory came into the possession of the France in 1803 ceded the territory of Louisiana to the United States through the treaty of 1803 with France, United States, as discovered and held by France, ceded to having the same extent as when ceded by France to Spain Spain, and retrocedecl to France; and, finally, th.at in 1819 in 1763, and as when retroceded to France by S1)ain by Spain ceded to the United States all the territory held or the treaty of San Ildefonso, of October 1, 1800. To claimed by His Catholic Majesty under the names of East ascertain the extent of this territory eastward, the confer- and West Florida. In addition to the grounds of dis ence examined the several well-known authorities upon the pute between France and Spain, and the United States early history of Louisiana--Marbois, Ellicott, Gayarre, and Spain, here shown, there was a conflicting claim con- (2)
3
cerning the extent of West Florida, born of the conten THE FIRST MEXIOA N C:ESSTO:-.r. tion between ]'rench and Spanish discoverers and settlers The southern boundary of the Fnited St:tt<~Ei W(•flt of the in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and there was Rio Grande, J 848~ was detcrmi11t~<1111 tlH' s:tll~<' m:m rw1: h11.t also the claim of the French, by right of La Salle's descent with a different result, the line adopt.Pd lwmg that tndl" • ' of the Mississippi in 1682, to "all the country drained by cated on the Disturnell nmp, according to t 1to cn11 f t'l'l'IH't~ B that river." interpretation of t' '1.t chart. rrJ1c faetH :U'<' :ttll'l{llH.{(•ly 7 V\ ith reference to the Louisiana boundary, there re stated by Major Emory at page 1 G of hi1-1 H<'p 111:L im tlw mained but one point. of difference between the maps United States and Mexican J?ouncfary 8m·vt>y, \· ol. l, :rn under consideration. Article II of the definitive treaty follows: of peace of 1783, between the United States and Great "It is proper for me, howeV(W, closing- this clrnptm+, tn Britain, aftm: defining the northern boundaty to the Lake bnfot'(~ refer to a publication issuocl by Ml'. J. It. Bar•LlCIUr. nrw of t.lw ll~tl' of the '\Voods, continues as follows: " * * * 'Thence commissioners on the p~Lrt of t.llCI U1tit.ed StiL~es, whiell profpssPs to through the said lake to the most northwestern point give an accurate account of the ail':Lirs ol' t.ho <~om r.nissio11. It is thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river not my purpose to review t.lrnt work, ancl nX)H>i-;n its orrors. hut, Mississippi." Such a line as that described being obviously simply to'correct some statements all'ect.ing- mysolf. "Mr. Bartlett's principal ~Lchiovement, on t.ho bonmlrtry WU!' tlw impossible, the Mississippi l~iver being south not west agreement wit.h General Condo, t.lw l\[c>xie:m Uommissiorwr, fl:d11.i.: of the Lake of the Woods, the line drawn by the the initial point on the Rio Bravo Li. o. H.io <:h:uuloJ, in t.hn parnl 1111 conference was a line from the most northwestern point of 32° 22', instead of a. point ~ts lu.icl down on t.ho t.rmLt.y rna.p, 1thnnr, of that lake to the nearest point on the Mississippi. This eight miles above Fil Paso, which would ha VB brou~,dtl, if, t.1 • tlrn 1 line the conference rc~garded as justified by rules of inter parallel of 31° 52 • Thn.t a.greement, is no lPss r1\m1Lrk1d1l11 tJuui the adroitness and with which Mr. Bnr!.lf•tt. cunviw•rn{ f.lrn national Ia-w and practice respecting vaguely described succc~ss the authorities at \Vashington of its co1•r11t~tness. boundaries in such topographical circumstances. "The question has been so thorcmghly tlisenssrnl t.lmt. IL r1•pr11· duction of it is not called for. It is sullicio111, to say hr