Poole v. Fleeger

The plaintiffs in the Circuit Court of West Tennessee, instituted an ejectment for a tract of land held under a Virginia military land warrant, situate south of a line called Mathews' Line, and south of Walkers Line, the latter being the established boundary between the States of Kentucky and Tennessee, as fixed by a compact between these states, made in 1820, by which compact, although the jurisdiction over the territory to the south of Walker's Line was acknowledged to belong to Tennessee, the titles to lands held under Virginia military land warrants &o., and grants from Kentucky, as far south as "Mathews' Line," were declared to be confirmed, the State of Kentucky having, before the compact, claimed the right to the soil as well as the jurisdiction over the territory, and having granted lands in the same. The compact of 1820, was confirmed by Congress. The defendants in the ejectment claimed the lands under titles emanating from the State of North Carolina in 1786, 1794, 1795 before the formation of the State of Tennessee and grants from the State of Tennessee in 1809, 1811, 1812, 1814, in which the lands claimed by the defendants were situated, according to the boundary of the State of Tennessee, declared and established at the time the State of Tennessee became one of the states of the United States. The circuit court instructed the jury that the State of Tennessee, by sanctioning the compact, admitted in the most solemn form that the lands in dispute were not within her jurisdiction, nor within the jurisdiction of North Carolina, at the time they were granted, and that consequently the titles are subject to the compact. Held that the instructions of the circuit court were entirely correct.