William Strong

“ Both classes of rivers are inland waters; equally such. Maritime service can be no more meritorious or efficient upon one than upon the other. In the absence of express legislative enactment to that effect, no satisfactory reason can be given why a vessel captured on the Red River five miles above its junction with the Mississippi should be turned over to the courts to be treated as captured and abandoned property under the statutes of 1863 and 1864, which does not apply to a capture made on the Mississippi itself, five hundred miles farther from the Gulf of Mexico. ”

“ The river is wholly inland. It is true that it discharges its waters into Albemarle Sound, and that it is accessible directly from the ocean. But, in speaking of inland waters, Congress must have intended waters, within land indeed, yet waters where a naval force can go, and where naval captures could be made. ”