Ohio History Journal

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BOUNDARY AND JURISDICTIONAL PROBLEMS

BOUNDARY AND JURISDICTIONAL PROBLEMS

OF THE KENTUCKY-OHIO BORDER

 

 

BY EUGENE O. PORTER

 

The Ohio River forms parts of the boundaries of five states

and in so doing advances two problems: first, that of the actual

boundary of each state on the river; and second; that of the juris-

diction- which each state may exercise on the river. In other words,

Virginia, in her deed of cession of the Old Northwest to the Gov-

ernment of the Confederacy in 1784 and in her enabling act for

Kentucky in 1789. chose, at the time, to divide her jurisdiction

over the river between herself and Kentucky, on the one hand, and

the proposed states north of the river, on the other, but she did

not choose to divide the dominion over the soil of the river bed.

But both Kentucky and Ohio have steadfastly refused to recognize

the two-fold aspect of the problem. As a matter of fact, both

states have confused the problem of the boundary with that of

jurisdiction.

The problem of the boundary goes back to the deed of cession

when Virginia ceded "all right, title, and claims as well as soil as

jurisdiction, which the said commonweath hath to the territory

within the limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying, and being

to the northwest of the Ohio river."1 This clause, however,

proved to be confusing and the United States Supreme Court was

called upon to interpret it. The need for an interpretation was

brought about by an act of the Kentucky Legislature. A jut of

land extended from the Indiana shore above and near Evansville.

At low-water mark this strip of land formed a peninsula but when

the river was swollen the projection was completely surrounded

by water and 'therefore had the appearance of an island. The

Federal Government had granted patents for this land.  Then

Kentucky evolved the theory that her boundary extended to the

opposite shore at high-water mark and likewise granted patents

 

 

1 United States Statutes at Large, I, 474.

155