Texas Attorney General Opinion: O-7190 Page: 4 of 5
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Honorable Homer Garrison, Jr., page 4
United States; but the use of the waters, and the navigs-
tion of the Sabine to the sea, and of the said rivers
Roxo and Arkansas, throughout the extent of the said
boundary, on their respective banks, shall be common to
the respective inhabitants of both nations."
Thus it is seen that in 1819 the western half of the
Sabine River constituted United States Territory.
The following rules as to how boundaries between countries
and states are established and changed seem to be universally
recognized:
I. Boundaries between countries are established by
treaties made between the sovereign powers concerned. See
Brigham, A.P., Principles in the Determination of Boundaries(
Geog. Rev., Vol VII p. 201-219, 1919.
2. Boundaries between two States of the United States
may be changed by agreement of the State legislatures, but
this agreement must be approved by Congress. The United
States Congress can not change a State boundary without
the consent of the State, nor can two States by mutual
agreement change their common boundaries without the con-
sent of Congress. U.S. Sup0 Ct. Reports, II Wallace, pages
39-59 (78 U.S. 39-59; 148 U.S. 502).
3. A boundary between a State and a Territory is
fixed by joint action of Congress and the State. Boundaries
between Territories are fixed by congressional action alone.
148 U.S. 503.
4. If a boundary line described as following the
middle of the river intersects an island, it is the usual
policy to give the entire island to the State or Govern-
ment to which the greater part would fall. 206 U.S. 46
259 U.S. 419.
5. Where running streams are the boundaries between
States, when the bed and channel are changed by the natural
and gradual processes known as erosion and accretion, the
boundary follows the varying course of the stream (See 265
U.S. 499); while if the stream from any cause, natural or
artificial, suddenly leaves its old bed and forms a new
one, by the process known as avulsion, the resulting change
of channel works no change of boundary, which remains in
the middle of the old channel (or on one bank as so fixed
by statute) although no water may be flowing in it. (See
246 U.S. 173).0--7190
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: O-7190, text, March 9, 1946; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth264467/m1/4/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.