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''Morris v. United States,'' 174 U.S. 196 (1899), is a 5-to-2 ruling by the United States Supreme Court which held that the bed under the Potomac River between the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia belonged to the United States government rather than nearby private landowners on the District of Columbia side. ==Background== On June 20, 1632, Charles I, King of England, made a land grant in North America to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore which became the Province of Maryland (later the state of Maryland).〔Brugger, Robert J. ''Maryland, a Middle Temperament, 1634-1980.'' Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, p. 4-5.〕 This grant set the boundary of Maryland at the low-water mark of the southern bank of the Potomac River.〔Scott, James Brown. ''Judicial Settlement of Controversies Between States of the American Union.'' Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1919, p. 473; Risjord, Norman K. ''Jefferson's America, 1760-1815.'' Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, p. 217.〕 On September 27, 1688, King James II made a land grant in North American to Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper which became the Colony of Virginia (later the state of Virginia).〔Harrison, Fairfax. ''Virginia Land Grants: A Study of Conveyancing in Relation to Colonial Politics.'' Westminster, Md.: Willow Bend Books, 1998, p. 75.〕 This grant designated "the Potomac River" as the boundary of Virginia.〔Whyte, W. Pinkney and Jones, Isaac D. ''Boundary Line Between the States of Maryland and Virginia. Before the Honorable Jeremiah S. Black, Honorable William A. Graham, and Honorable Charles J. Jenkins, Arbitrators Upon the Boundary Line Between the States of Virginia and Maryland.'' Baltimore, Md.: 1874, p. 75.〕 The conflicting grants led to a long-running border dispute between Maryland and Virginia.〔Cutright, W.B.; Maxwell, Hu; Sayre, R.H.; and Brooks, Earle Amos. ''The History of Upshur County, West Virginia: From Its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time.'' Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1996, p. 59.〕 The two states settled navigational and riparian water rights in a compact in 1785, but the boundary dispute continued.〔Scott, James Brown. ''Judicial Settlement of Controversies Between States of the American Union.'' Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1919, p. 484.〕〔Zimmerman, Joseph F. ''Interstate Disputes: The Supreme Court's Original Jurisdiction.'' Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York, 2006, p. 131-132.〕〔The success of the compact led directly to calls for hold a series of meetings to improve the Articles of Confederation, then the constitutional document of the United States. This meeting turned into the Philadelphia Convention, which subsequently drafted the United States Constitution. See: Dellapenna, Joseph W. "Transboundary Water Allocation in the Twenty-First Century: Colloquiam Article: Interstate Struggles Over Rivers: The Southeastern States and the Struggle Over 'Hooch." ''New York University Environmental Law Journal.'' 12:828 (2005), p. 867, n.216.〕 In 1788, the United States Constitution was ratified. The Constitution established an independent zone known as the District of Columbia for the seat of the new government. The Residence Act of 1790 provided for the new capital to be located on the Potomac River, and President George Washington was authorized by the United States Congress to determine the exact location (which he did a year later).〔Furer, Howard B. ''Washington, A Chronological and Documentary History, 1790-1970.'' Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications, 1975, p. 62.〕 The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 formally established Congressional jurisdiction over the new District.〔diGiacomantonio, William C. "'To Make Hay While the Sun Shines': D.C. Governance As An Episode in the Revolution of 1800." In ''Establishing Congress: The Removal to Washington, D.C., and the Election of 1800.'' Kenneth R. Bowling and Donald R. Kennon, eds. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2005, p. 39-56.〕 The Virginia retrocession of 1846-1847 returned that portion of the District of Columbia on the Virginia site of the Potomac River to the state of Virginia.〔(Tindall, William. ''Origin and Government of the District of Columbia.'' Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1908, p. 102-108. )〕 This left in doubt the exact position of the District's border with Virginia (just as Maryland's southern border remained in doubt). Shortly after the creation of the District of Columbia, the United States government sold certain plots of land to James M. Marshall; his brother, John Marshall (later Chief Justice of the United States); John L. Kidwell; the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company; and several others.〔Gutheim, Frederick A. and Lee, Antoinette J. ''Worthy of the Nation: Washington, D.C., From L'Enfant to the National Capital Planning Commission.'' Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, p. 95-96.〕 Maryland and Virginia agreed to arbitrate their dispute, and in 1877 the Black-Jenkins Award (as the decision of the arbitration panel is known) placed Virginia's boundary with Maryland at the low-water mark on the Virginia side of the Potomac River.〔 In 1882, Congress passed legislation providing for the dredging of the Potomac River, and for the dredged material to be used to fill in various tidal basins, marshes, and shores.〔 This created extensive new land along the northern shore of the Potomac River—land which adjoined that of the heirs of James Marshall, John Marshall, and John Kidwell, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. Congress passed legislation in August 1886 directing the Attorney General of the United States to protect the interests of the United States to the new land, and giving the courts jurisdiction over these claims.〔 The heirs and other claimants sued to win title to the lands. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Morris v. United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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