Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Moore v. McGuire — Opinion of the Court
“ The land in controversy is Island No. 76, formerly called Chapeau island, in the Mississippi river, and whether it is part of Arkansas or of Mississippi depends, as both parties agree, on what was the western boundary of Mississippi, as established by the act of Congress admitting that state to the Union. ”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Moore v. McGuire — Opinion of the Court
“ In view of this statement for the very year when Mississippi was admitted, it is impossible not to hesitate, but in Cummings's Western Pilot for 1833 we read 'channel either side: the right is nearest, and the left is probably rather deepest;' and this seems to us to have been true for the whole time. Upon the whole evidence we are compelled to decide that the plaintiffs have made out their case. ”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Moore v. McGuire — Opinion of the Court
“ The titles thus created are not attacked, but are said to have been lost by the Mississippi tax sale hereafter mentioned. The small remnant was conveyed by the United States to Arkansas ten years later by a patent under the swamp land act. Arkansas regularly taxed the island as far back as its books are preserved, and presumably before. The above-mentioned greater part was forfeited for taxes to the state. Then the state instituted a statutory proceeding to decide whether the forfeiture was valid, and, if not, to collect the taxes by a new sale. ”
