of that part of the South Carolina cession east of the present western boundary of Georgia.

A long controversy ensued between Georgia and North Carolina, with no results, however, until in 1810 Georgia empowered her governor to employ Mr. Andrew Ellicott to ascertain the true location of the thirtyfifth degree of latitude. Ellicott did so, and the point fixed by him was acquiesced in. (Vide Cobb's Georgia Digest, p. 150.)

The boundary between Georgia and Tennessee was established in 1818, and is as follows, viz: The thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude, beginning and ending as follows:

Beginning at a point in the true parallel of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, as found by James Cormack, mathematician on the part of the State of Georgia, and James S. Gaines, mathematician on the part of the State of Tennessee, on a rock about two feet high, four inches thick, and fifteen inches broad, engraved on the north side thus: "June 1st, 1818; var. 64 east," and on the south side thus: "Geo. 35 North; J. Cormack," which rock stands one mile and twenty-eight poles from the south bank of the Tennessee River, due south from near the center of the old Indian town of Nickajack, and near the top of the Nickajack Mountain, at the supposed corner of the State of Georgia and Alabama; thence running due east, leaving old D. Ross two miles and eighteen yards in the State of Tennessee, and leaving the house of John Ross about two hundred yards in the State of Georgia, and the house of David McNair one mile and one-fourth of a mile in the State of Tennessee, with blazed and mile-marked trees, lessening the variation of the compass by degrees, closing it at the termination of the line on the top of the Unicoi Mountain at five and one-half degrees. (Vide C. Stat. of Tenn., pp. 243–244.)

The boundary between Georgia and Florida was fixed by the treaty of 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, substantially as at present, viz: Commencing in the middle of the Apalachicola or Catahouche River, on the thirty-first degree of north latitude; thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint River; thence straight to the head of Saint Mary's River, and thence down along the middle of Saint Mary's River to the Atlantic ocean (vide Treaty of 1783). This boundary was affirmed by the treaty of 1795 between the United States and Spain, and commissioners were appointed to run the entire line between the United States and the Spanish territory. (Vide Treaty of 1795.)

In 1819 Spain ceded the Floridas to the United States. In 1822 Florida was made a Territory and in 1825 was admitted into the Union as an independent State.

In 1826 Congress took action as indicated below:

UNITED STATES STATUTES AT LARGE, NINETEENTH CONGRESS, SESSION I, 1826. AN ACT to authorize the President of the United States to run and mark a line dividing the Territory of Florida from the State of Georgia.

The line shall be run straight from the junction of said rivers Chatahoochie and Flint, to the point designated as the head of Saint Mary's River.

This boundary line was long unsettled, a controversy arising concerning the true point to be considered to be the head of the Saint Mary's

River, as Georgia contended that the point fixed upon by the Spanish and American commissioners under the treaty of 1795 was incorrect. This line was run in 1825 by the General Land Office.

In 1859 commissioners were appointed by Georgia and Florida to rerun the line. Florida ratified their report in 1861, and Georgia in 1866. The detailed report of the commissioners is not at hand, but the line is declared in the statutes of Georgia as follows, viz:

From a point on the western bank of the Chattahochee River in the 31st degree of north latitude; thence along the line or limit of high-water mark to its junction with the Flint River; thence along a certain line of survey made by Gustavus J. Orr, a surveyor on the part of Georgia, and W. Whitner, a surveyor on the part of Florida, beginning at a four-and-aft tree, about four chains below the present junction; thence along this line east, to a point designated thirty-seven links north of Ellicott's Mound on the St. Mary's River; thence along the middle of said river to the Atlantic Ocean. (Vide Code of Ga., 1873, p. 7.)

This line is also given in the code of Florida, and differs in one respect, viz, from the thirty-first degree of north latitude down the middle of said river to its confluence with the Flint River, etc. (Vide Code of Florida, 1872.)

The line between Georgia and Alabama was fixed by the act of cession of Georgia to the United States in 1802.

In 1822-25, Georgia desiring to have the line run from the Chattahoochee to where it strikes the Tennessee line, appointed commissioners for that purpose, and requested the co-operation of Alabama and the United States, both, however, failing to take action. The Georgia commissioners ran the line from Nickajack, on the Tennessee line, to Miller's Bend, on the Chattahoochee. (For a history of the controversy concerning this line, vide laws of Georgia, 1822-24–25–’26.)

Alabama protested against the above line and made repeated efforts to reopen negotiations concerning it, to all of which Georgia sturdily refused to accede, until finally, January 24, 1840, the legislature of Alabama passed the following joint resolution, viz:

Resolved, That the State of Alabama will, and do, hereby accept, as the true dividing line between this State and that of Georgia, the line which was run and marked out by the commissioners of Georgia in 1826, beginning at what is called Miller's Bend, on the Chattahoochee River; thence along said marked line to Nickajack.

The line is given in the code of Alabama in the following words, viz: The boundary line between Alabama and Georgia commences on the west side of the Chattahoochee River at the point where it enters the State of Florida; from thence up the river, along the western bank thereof, to the point on Miller's Bend next above the place where the Uchee Creek empties into such river; thence in a direct line to Nickajack. (See code of Alabama, 1876, p. 189.)

In James's Hand-book of Georgia, 1876, p. 121, is the following description of the western boundary of Georgia, viz:

From Nickajack the line between Georgia and Alabama runs south 9° 30′st to Miller's Bend, on the Chattahoochee River, about 146 miles; thence down the western bank of the river at high-water mark to its junction with Flint River, at a point now four chains below the actual junction, latitude 30° 42′ 42′′, longitude 80o 53′ 15 '.

FLORIDA

Florida was originally settled by the Spaniards, and was held as a Spanish province nearly two hundred years. In 1762 it was ceded by Spain to Great Britain, who divided it into the two provinces of East and West Florida, separated by the Apalachicola River, with a northern boundary substantially as at present. (Vide Fairbanks' History of Florida.)

In 1783 Great Britain retroceded Florida to Spain, and the northern boundary was fixed by the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain signed in the same year. Spain, however, claimed the territory as far north as the parallel of latitude of the mouth of the Yazoo River.

Previous to this, in 1763, France had ceded Louisiana to Spain, which Spain retroceded to France in 1800, and in 1803 France ceded the same to the United States, who claimed that the eastern boundary of the said province of Louisiana, so often ceded, was the Perdido River, while Spain claimed it to be the Iberville River and Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. The controversy arising from the difference of interpretation of these various treaties and cessions was terminated by the treaty of Washington in 1819, whereby Spain ceded to the United States the provinces of East and West Florida.

On March 30, 1822, by an act of Congress, the territory ceded to the United States by Spain was made the "Territory of Florida," embracing the same extent as does the present State.

On March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted into the Union as an independent State.

(For a history of the northern boundary of Florida vide Georgia, p. 105.) In 1831 Congress passed an act relating to the boundary between Florida and Alabama, of which the following is an extract:

AN ACT to ascertain and mark the line between the State of Alabama and the Territory of Florida, and the northern boundary of the State of Illinois, and for other purposes.

That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause to be run and marked the boundary line between the State of Alabama and the Territory of Florida, by the surveyors-general of Alabama and Florida, on the thirtyfirst degree of north latitude.

(Vide U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. IV, p. 479.)

In 1847 the agreement of commissioners previously appointed by Florida and Alabama was ratified, and the line is described as follows, viz:

Commencing on the Chattahoochee River near a place known as "Irwin's Mills" and running west to the Perdido, marked throughout by blazes on the trees, and also by mounds of earth thrown up on the line at distances of one mile, more or less, from each other, and commonly known as "Ellicott's Line," or the "Mound Line." (Vide Florida Code, 1873, p. 100.)

This line was run in 1799-1800 by A. Ellicott. remeasured. and marked in 1853-54.

The line was retraced,

The line between the two States is given in general terms in the Florida Code as follows, viz:

Commencing at the mouth of the Perdido River, from thence up the middle of said river to where it intersects the south boundary line of the State of Alabama and the thirty-first degree of north latitude; then due east to the Chattahoochee River.

ALABAMA.

In 1798 the United States formed the Territory of Mississippi, includ ing

All that tract of country bounded on the west by the Mississippi, on the north by a line to be drawn due east from the mouth of the Yasous to the Chattahouchee River, on the east by the Chattahouchee River, and on the south by the thirty-first degree of north latitude. (Vide U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. I, p. 549.)

In this act was a clause reserving the right of Georgia and of individuals to the jurisdiction of the soil thereof.

South Carolina and Georgia having ceded to the United States their claim to territory west of their present limits, the General Government, in 1804, by an act of Congress, annexed the tract of country lying north of Mississippi Territory and south of the State of Tennessee, and bounded on the east by Georgia and west by Louisiana, to the Territory of Mississippi. (Vide U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. II, p. 305.) Also in 1812 the United States added to Mississippi Territory all the lands lying east of Pearl River, west of the Perdido and south of the thirtyfirst degree of latitude. (Vide U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. II, p. 734.)

By these additions the Territory of Mississippi was made to comprise what is now included in the two States of Alabama and Mississippi. On March 8, 1817, by an act of Congress the Territory of Alabama was formed from the eastern portion of the Territory of Mississippi, with the following boundaries, viz:

Beginning at the point where the line of the thirty-first degree of north latitude intersects the Perdido River; thence east to the western boundary line of the State of Georgia; thence along said line to the southern boundary line of the State of Tennessee; thence west along said boundary line to the Tennessee River; thence up the same to the mouth of Bear Creek; thence by a direct line to the northwest corner of Washington County; thence due south to the Gulf of Mexico; thence, eastwardly, including all the islands within 6 leagues of the shore, to the Perdido River; and thence up the same to the beginning. (Vide U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. III, p. 371.)

On December 14, 1819, Alabama was admitted as an independent State, with the above boundaries. It was, however, made the duty of the surveyor of the public lands south of Tennessee and the surveyor of lands in Alabama Territory to run and cut out the line of demarcation between the two States of Alabama and Mississippi, and if it should appear to said surveyors that so much of the line designated as

running due south from the northwest corner of Washington County to the Gulf of Mexico should encroach on the counties of Wayne, Greene, and Jackson, in the State of Mississippi, then the same should be altered so as to run in a direct line from the northwest corner of Washington County to a point on the Gulf of Mexico 10 miles east of the mouth of the River Pascagoula. (Vide U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. III, p. 490.) This line was run and marked in 1820.

(For the history of the boundaries between Alabama and Georgia vide Georgia, p. 106. For the history of the boundaries between Alabama and Florida vide Florida, p. 107.)

The boundary between Alabama and Tennessee is the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude (vide North Carolina, p. 101); from Nickajack . (vide Georgia, p. 104) west across the Tennessee River, and on to the second intersection of said river by said parallel. (Vide Alabama Code, 1876, p. 189.)

The boundary between Alabama and Mississippi was to be run by surveyors, under the act of admission of Alabama. The report of said surveyors is not at hand, but the line as laid down in the Mississippi Code is as follows, viz:

Beginning at a point on the west bank of the Tennessee River, six four-pole chains south of, and above, the mouth of Yellow Creek; thence up the said river to the mouth of Bear Creek; thence by a direct line to what was formerly the northwest corner of Washington County, Alabama; thence in a direct line to a point ten miles east of the Pascagoula River, on the Gulf of Mexico. (Vide Mississippi Code, pp. 48, 49).

MISSISSIPPI.

(For the early history of the extent of Mississippi Territory vide Alabama, p. 108.)

On December 10, 1817, the western part of the Mississippi Territory was made a State and admitted into the Union, with the following boundaries, viz:

Beginning on the river Mississippi at the point where the southern boundary of the State of Tennessee strikes the same; thence east along the said boundary line to the Tennessee River; thence up the same to the mouth of Bear Creek; thence by a direct line to the northwest corner of the county of Washington; thence due south to the Gulf of Mexico; thence westwardly, including all the islands within six leagues of the shore, to the most eastern junction of Pearl River with Lake Borgne; thence up said river to the thirty-first degree of north latitude; thence west along said degree of latitude to the Mississippi River; thence up the same to the beginning. (Vide U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. III, p. 348.)

(For further information concerning eastern boundary, vide Alabama, p. 108.)

In 1819 the line between Mississippi and Tennessee was run by commissioners. Their report is not at hand. In 1833 the legislature of