John Catron

“ At New Orleans, and at most other places fronting rivers where the tide ebbs and flows, as well as on the ocean and great lakes, navigation is facilitated by similar means; without their employment few city fronts could be formed, at all accommodated to navigation and trade. To this end private ownership is indispensable and universal; and some one must make title. If the United States have no power to do so, who has? I repeat, can Alabama grant the soil? She disavowed all claim and title to and in it, as a condition on which Congress admitted her into the union. ”

“ If the state where the land lies was the owner the same course would have to be pursued. The states and the United States are not in hostility; the people of the one are also the people of the other; justice and donation is alike due from each.
Connecticut was once a large proprietor in the North-West Territory, (now Ohio.) She owned the shores of a great lake and the banks of navigable rivers: Can it be assumed that the admission of Ohio defeated the title of Connecticut, and that she could not grant? ”

“ It follows, if the United States cannot grant these lands, neither can Alabama; and no individual title to them can ever exist. And to this conclusion, as I understand the reasoning of the principal opinion, the doctrine of a majority of my brethren mainly tends. The assumption is, that flowed lands, including mud-flats, extending to navigable waters, are part of such waters, and clothed with a sovereign political right in the state; not as property, but as a sovereign incident to navigation, which belongs to the political jurisdiction ”