Opinion of the Court.

of Shooter's Island in respect to such quarantine laws, and laws relating to passengers, as now exist or may hereafter be passed under the authority of that State, and for executing the same; and the said State shall also have exclusive jurisdiction, for the like purposes, of and over the waters of the sound from the westernmost end of Shooter's Island to Woodbridge creek, as to all vessels bound to any port in the said State of New York.

"ARTICLE FIFTH. The State of New Jersey shall have and enjoy exclusive jurisdiction of and over all the waters of the sound between Staten Island and New Jersey lying south of Woodbridge creek, and of and over all the waters of Raritan Bay lying westward of a line drawn from the lighthouse at Prince's Bay to the mouth of Mattavan creek; subject to the following rights of property and of jurisdiction of the State of New York, that is to say:

"1. The State of New York shall have the exclusive right of property in and to the land under water lying between the middle of the said waters and Staten Island.

"2. The State of New York shall have the exclusive jurisdiction of and over the wharves, docks and improvements made and to be made on the shore of Staten Island, and of and over all vessels aground on said shore, or fastened to any such wharf or dock; except that the said vessels shall be subject to the quarantine or health laws, and laws in relation to passengers, of the State of New Jersey, which now exist or which may hereafter be passed.

"3. The State of New York shall have the exclusive right of regulating the fisheries between the shore of Staten Island and the middle of the said waters: Provided, That the navigation of the said waters be not obstructed or hindered."

The act of June 28th, 1834, provides that nothing contained in said agreement "shall be construed to impair or in any manner affect, any right of jurisdiction of the United States in and over the islands or waters which form the subject of the said agreement."

It is apparent, from the terms of the various provisions of the agreement, that it is an agreement settling the territorial limits and jurisdiction of the two States in respect to the waters between them, from a point in the middle of the Hudson River,

Opinion of the Court.

The boundary

in the 41st degree of north latitude, to the sea. line is declared to be the middle of the said river, of the bay of New York, of the waters between Staten Island and New Jersey, and of Raritan Bay, except as afterwards otherwise particularly mentioned. What may be the effect of the exception, whether it affects the boundary line itself, or only amounts to a concession of extraterritorial jurisdiction to the one State and the other, beyond the territorial boundary, is not necessary to be decided in the present case. For, in either view, it is clear that the waters in which the tug was lying when she was seized were in the boundaries of the State of New Jersey. The only jurisdiction given to the State of New York, beyond the boundary line specified in Article First, over the waters of the Kill van Kull, is that specified in Article Fourth, by which it is declared that "the State of New York shall have exclusive jurisdiction of and over the waters of the Kill van Kull between Staten Island and New Jersey to the westernmost end of Shooter's Island, in respect to such quarantine laws, and laws relating to passengers, as now exist or may hereafter be passed under the authority of that State, and for executing the same." The rest of that article relates to Staten Island sound west of Shooter's Island, and has no reference to this case. The jurisdiction thus conceded to New York is clearly a limited one, and cannot, in any view, be regarded as altering the general boundary line; and as the tug, when seized, was on the New Jersey side of that line, she was within the State of New Jersey, not because she was fastened to a dock on the shore of New Jersey, but because she was within that part of the waters between Staten Island and New Jersey which, by Article First of the agreement, is set apart to New Jersey.

Being thus within the State of New Jersey, was the tug within the District of New Jersey and within the territorial jurisdiction of the District Court of the United States for the District of New Jersey? We are all of the opinion that, when the act of Congress of 1789 declared that the New Jersey district should consist of the State of New Jersey, it intended that any territory, land or water, which should at any time,

Opinion of the Court.

with the express assent of Congress, form part of that State should form part of the District of New Jersey. By sections 530 and 531 of the Revised Statutes, the State of New Jersey constitutes a judicial district. The intention is, that the boundary of the district shall be coterminous with the boundary of the State. The same thing is true as to the Southern District of New York, and as to the district across the water at the locus in quo, which is the Eastern District of New York. That district was created by the act of February 25th, 1865, chap. 54, 13 Stat. 438, to consist of "the counties of Kings, Queens, Suffolk and Richmond, in the State of New York, with the waters thereof." By section 541 of the Revised Statutes, the Northern District of New York is defined as including the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie, and Delaware, with all the counties north [and west] of them; the Eastern District as including "the counties of Richmond, Kings, Queens, and Suffolk, with the waters thereof;" and the Southern District as including "the residue of said State, with the waters thereof." It is consonant with the convenience and habits of the people, that, when any place is within the limits and jurisdiction of a State, it should not be joined to the whole or a part of another State, as to the jurisdiction of the courts of the federal government; and it is not to be presumed, in view of the terms of the statutes on the subject, and of the necessity for the consent of Congress to all compacts between the States, that such separation can be intended unless clearly expressed. Where Congress declares that such a judicial district shall consist of such a State, and afterwards the boundary of the State is so lawfully altered as to include or exclude a particular piece of territory, it is a reasonable construction to say, that the judicial district shall, ipso facto, without further legislation by Congress, expand or contract accordingly. When the State of Massachusetts ceded to the State of New York, in 1853, its sovereignty and jurisdiction over the district of Boston Corner, and the latter State accepted the same, and Congress consented to such cession and annexation, Act of January 3d, 1855, chap. 20, 10 Stat. 602, there was no special transfer by Congress of the annexed territory from the District of Massachusetts to the Southern District

Opinion of the Court.

of New York, but it fell within that district by becoming a part of Columbia County, in the State of New York.

The provision in the act of June 28th, 1834, that nothing in the agreement between New York and New Jersey shall impair "any right of jurisdiction of the United States in and over the islands or waters which form the subject of the said agreement," is well satisfied without construing it as applying to the then existing jurisdiction of any particular court of the United States. Article Second of the agreement provides that "the State of New York shall retain its present jurisdiction of and over Bedlow's and Ellis's Islands; and shall also retain exclusive jurisdiction of and over the other islands lying in the waters above mentioned and now under the jurisdiction of that State." Other articles of the agreement provide for the exclusive jurisdiction of New York or New Jersey over specified waters. In giving consent to the agreement, and “each and every part and article thereof," Congress was consenting, apparently, as against any rights of jurisdiction which the United States then had, to the exclusive jurisdictions of New York and New Jersey, respectively, over the islands and waters referred to. Hence, for abundant caution, the clause in question was added. New York had, by an act passed February 15th, 1800, 1 R. L. 189, ceded to the United States jurisdiction over "all that certain island called Bedlow's Island, bounded on all sides by the waters of the Hudson River, all that certain island called Oyster Island" (known afterwards and now as Ellis's Island), "bounded on all sides by the waters of the Hudson River," and also Governor's Island, reserving to the State the right to serve and execute, on those islands respectively, civil or criminal process issuing under the authority of the State.

Reference is made to Article Six of the amendments of the Constitution, which provides that, "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law;" and it is suggested that the boundaries of a district could not be ascertained by law, if they were left to change with such local changes as coterminous

Opinion of the Court.

States might agree upon with each other as to their respective boundaries and limits. Article Six was one of ten articles proposed by the first Congress, as amendments to the Constitution, on the 25th of September, 1789, the day after the Judiciary Act was approved, providing that the New York district should consist of the State of New York, and the New Jersey district of the State of New Jersey, and defining and ascertaining by law all the other districts which it established, solely by naming the several States as districts. There were two disputes as to boundary existing at that time between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, both of them running back to colonial times, one respecting the northern boundary of Rhode Island, and the other respecting the eastern boundary of Rhode Island. The particulars of the first dispute appear in the record of a suit in equity brought in this court by Rhode Island against Massachusetts, in 1832, 12 Pet., 657, to settle such northern boundary. In December, 1845, by a decree of this court, the bill in the suit was dismissed on the merits, and the northern boundary of Rhode Island was established on the line claimed by Massachusetts. In 1854 Massachusetts filed a bill in equity in this court against Rhode Island, to settle said eastern boundary. A conventional boundary line, different from that claimed by either State, was agreed upon, and sanctioned by Congress, by an act approved February 9th, 1859, chap. 28, 11 Stat. 382, and established by a decree of this court made December 16th, 1861, to take effect March 1st, 1862. The act of Congress declared that the new line should "be taken and deemed to be, for all purposes affecting the jurisdiction of the United States, or of any department of the government thereof," the true line of boundary between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In the latter case, as in the present one, the boundary between the two disputing States was settled on a line different from that claimed by either. The Judiciary Act defined the State as the district, not the State as either party to the dispute claimed it to be; and the effect of the change of State boundary in the present case, on the limits of judicial districts, must be held to be as potent as that in the case of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, notwithstanding the affirmative provision in the act in