Missouri v. Iowa. 7 H.

In March, 1818, the petition was referred to a select committee; and on March 6, 1820, an act of congress was passed, pursuant to the petition, authorizing the people of Missouri Territory to form a constitution and state government within the limits designated by the act; that is to say: "Beginning in the middle of the Mississippi River, on the parallel of thirty-six degrees of north latitude; thence west along the said parallel of latitude to the St. François River; thence up and following the course of that river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the parallel of latitude of thirty-six degrees and *thirty minutes; thence west along [*670 ] the same to a point where the said parallel is intersected by a meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas River, where the same empties into the Missouri River; thence, from the point aforesaid, north along the said meridian line, to the intersection of the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the River Des Moines, making said line correspond with the Indian boundary line; thence east from the point of intersection last aforesaid, along the said parallel of latitude, to the middle. of the channel of the main fork of the said River Des Moines; thence down along the middle of the main channel of the said River Des Moines to the mouth of the same, where it empties into the Mississippi River; thence due east to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi River; thence down and following the course of the Mississippi River, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the place of beginning."

According to this law, the people of the territory, in 1820, proceeded to form a constitution, by which the boundary prescribed by the act of congress was adopted; and by resolution of March 2, 1821, the State was admitted to enter the Union on certain conditions, to which she assented in June, 1821. On the north and west, as already stated, the new State bordered on Indian territory, over which the general government exercised that modified jurisdiction which existing Indian rights would allow, and had the exclusive power to extinguish the Indian title. The boundaries were therefore common to the two governments, and the acts of either, when exercising jurisdiction with respect to the common boundary, become proper subjects of consideration in the present controversy, as either government might bind itself to a practical line, although not a precisely true one, within the foregoing description. And in pursuing this branch of the subject, our first inquiry will be, how far the general government has committed itself to the old Indian boundary. Its action has been, first, through the Indian department;

13 Stats. at Large, 545.

Missouri v. Iowa. 7 H.

secondly, through the surveyor's department; and thirdly, by the exercise of civil jurisdiction in the territorial form of government on the north of Sullivan's line, embracing the territory now in controversy.

And, first, as to Indian treaties. The earliest one materially bearing on the question was that of August 4, 1824,1 with the Sac and Fox tribes. They ceded to the United States all the title and claim that they had to any lands within the limits of the State of Missouri, "which are situated, lying, and being between the [*671] Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and a line running from

the Missouri, at the entrance of the Kansas River, north one hundred miles to the northwest corner of the State of Missouri, and from thence east to the Mississippi; reserving to the half-breeds of said tribes the small tract in the fork between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers, and south of the said line." The Indian tribes admitted that the land east and south of the given lines belonged to the United States, and that none of their people should be permitted to settle or hunt on it. Although the Osages had, in part, ceded the same country in 1808, still, the Sacs and Foxes set up a claim to part of it, and the treaty of 1824 was made to quiet their claim.

2

June 3, 1825, the Kansas tribe also ceded to the United States. all claim they had to any lands in the State of Missouri, and further ceded and relinquished all other lands which they then occupied, or to which they had title or claim, "lying west of the said State of Missouri, and within the following boundaries: beginning at the entrance of the Kansas into the Missouri River; from thence north to the northwest corner of the State of Missouri," thence north and west. Of course, the northwest corner here referred to was the one made by Sullivan in 1816, as none other was then claimed by Missouri herself, nor known to the United States or to the Indians.

In February, 1831, the State of Missouri, by a memorial from the legislature to congress, petitioned the United States for an addition of the country west of the line running from the mouth of the Kansas north, and between said line and the Missouri River, alleging that it was a small slip of land that had been acquired, by the treaty of June 3, 1825, from the Kansas Indians. The petition declared, that the line from the mouth of the Kansas north was about one hundred miles long; that the country was settled, and rapidly settling, to its utmost verge; and that, as the Missouri River was the only great highway of this region, and could not be reached through

17 Stats. at Large, 229.

2 Ib. 244.

Missouri v. Iowa. 7 H.

a country inhabited by Indians, and being without roads, a cession of it to that State was necessary and proper.

June 7, 1836,1 congress acceded to the request of Missouri, and granted to that State all jurisdiction over the lands lying between its then western line and the Missouri River, making the river the western boundary. But the accession was not to take effect until the Indian title to the country was extinguished.

By the treaty of July 15, 1830,2 ten confederated tribes conjointly ceded a large tract of country to the United States, the boundary of which began near the head of the Des Moines River, and passed westwardly to the north of the principal rivers falling into the Missouri, and down Calumet River to the Missouri, and down the same to the Missouri state line at the mouth of the [*672 ] Kansas; thence along said state line to the northwest corner of the State; and then northwardly and eastwardly various courses to the place of beginning. And within this boundary the tribes were to be located and superintended by the United States, pursuant to a policy now generally prevailing, and by which the Indians east of the Mississippi River have been removed west of it. By this treaty, the neck of land between the Missouri River and the then western line of Missouri was appropriated for the benefit of these tribes. To remove this impediment, and gratify the request of the State to have her limits enlarged, a treaty was made on the 17th of September, 1836,3 with the Iowas, Sacs, and Foxes, reciting the facts, so far as the Indians were interested, and also that it was desirable and necessary that the country should be attached to the State of Missouri; and thereupon these Indian tribes (being part of the ten) did cede and relinquish to the United States all their right and interest to the lands lying between the State of Missouri and the Missouri River; and the United States were exonerated from the guarantee imposed on them by the treaty of 1830, known as the Treaty of Prairie du Chien. And on the 27th of September, 1836,4 another band of the Sac and Fox tribes made a similiar cession. And on the 15th of October, 1836,5 various bands of the Sioux, by another treaty, also assented to the cession, but in more definite. terms; they gave a quitclaim to the United States of their interest in the lands "lying between the State of Missouri and the Missouri River, and south of a line running due west from the northwest corner of the State to the Missouri River." The country having been disencumbered of the Indian title, the President, by proclamation of March 28, 1837, declared that the act of congress of June 7,

15 Stats. at Large, 34. 27 Ib. 328. Ib. 511. 4 Ib. 516. 5 Ib. 524.

Missouri v. Iowa. 7 H.

1836, should take effect; and thereby the ceded territory became a part of the State of Missouri.

There are, in all, fifteen Indian treaties referring to the Osage boundary of 1816, as run by Sullivan, each of which recognizes that boundary as the Missouri state line; and all of which treaties were made after Missouri was admitted into the Union, and before Iowa became a State. And as the treaties were drawn by authority of the United States, they must be taken as recognitions, on the part of the general government, that the Missouri boundary and the old Indian boundary are identical.

In the second place, it is proper to inquire how far the general government has recognized the Indian boundary line of 1816, in its land department. By the act of February 17, 1818,1 the Howard

*

district was established. This extended west to the old [*673] Indian boundary, and ran with it from the mouth of the Kansas north, through its whole length, and thence east with Sullivan's line to where it intersected the range line ten west from the principal meridian; extending on the east line about four fifths of its length.

In 1823 this district was divided,2 and a western one established fronting on the two lines.

To the eastern part of Sullivan's line, next to the Des Moines River, the St. Louis district extended until 1824,3 when the Salt River district was established, running west to the range line between ranges 13 and 14; thence north to the northern boundary line of the State of Missouri; thence east with the state line to the River Des Moines, and down the same with the state line.

By the act of August 29, 1842, the western land district was divided, and that part of it lying north of the Missouri River had attached to it the Platte country; that is to say, the country annexed to Missouri by the act of congress of 1836, lying west of the old Indian boundary, and next to the Missouri River.

When acting through the surveyor's department of public lands, on the Missouri side, the general government has never recognized on the north, nor, until the Platte country was attached, on the west, any boundary as belonging to that State other than the two Indian lines run by Sullivan in 1816, so far as they extended.

The country north of the State of Missouri was for a time attached to the territory of Michigan, and then to the territory of Wisconsin. By the act of June 12, 1838, c. 96,5 it was formed into a separate territorial government, by the name of Iowa. And by another act of

13 Stats. at Large, 406. 23 Ib. 785. 34 lb. 50.

4 5 Ib. 538.

5 Ib. 235.

Missouri v. Iowa. 7 H.

the same date, c. 100,' the territory was formed into two land districts, the southern one embracing the country in dispute.

And on the Iowa side, the public surveys were executed, and lands were sold, up to Sullivan's northern line. Nor had the surveyorgeneral of Illinois and Missouri any jurisdiction to go beyond it north; nor the surveyor's department of Iowa, to cross it by surveys to the south. From the time that Missouri became a State to this day, Sullivan's line has been recognized by the United States as the true northern boundary of Missouri, so far as it could be done through the department of public lands.

And thirdly, congress, as early as 1834,2 organized a territorial government bounded by said line; laid off counties bounded by it on the south, as early as 1836; and governed the territory for ten years up to that line, all the time recognizing it as the proper northern boundary of Missouri.

* From these facts it is too manifest for argument to [* 674 ] make it more so, that the United States were committed to this line when Iowa came into the Union. And, as already stated, Iowa must abide by the condition of her predecessor, and cannot now be heard to disavow the old Indian line as her true southern boundary.

The State of Iowa, by her cross-bill, alleges that Missouri also treated the old Indian boundary as her true northern line, until about the year 1836; and that said line, at its western extremity, is about six miles north of the parallel of latitude which is the proper dividing line between the two States, and that, at its eastern extremity, it is about ten miles north of the same; that the parallel of latitude on which the line should run is found at a point opposite the middle of the rapids in the Mississippi River known as "the Des Moines Rapids." This rapid begins about three miles above the mouth of the Des Moines River, and extends up the Mississippi about fourteen miles. It is a highly notorious geographical object, and a very proper one to govern a national boundary; but the name called for in the act of congress of 1820, and in the constitution of Missouri, is "the rapids of the River Des Moines." Then, and ever since, the great rapid in the Mississippi River has been known by a different name. It is therefore left uncertain whether the rapid in the Mississippi was the one referred to; and the obscurity is greatly increased by a most embarrassing disagreement among the witnesses testifying on this head.

The name given in the act of congress, taken in connection with

15 Stats. at Large, 243.

24 Ib. 701.