2351. EAST AND WEST LINE, Meaning of.—
On the question what is an east and
west line? which, you say, has been a subject
of discussion in the papers, I presume * * *
that the parties have differed only in applying
the same appellation to different things. The
one defines an east and west line to be on a
great circle of the earth, passing through the
point of departure, its nadir point, and the
centre of the earth, its plane rectangular, to
that of the meridian of departure. The other
considers an east and west line to be a line on
the surface of the earth, bounding a plane at
right angles with its axis, or a circle of latitude
passing through the point of departure, or in
other words, a line which, from the point of
departure, passes every meridian at a right
angle. Each party, therefore, defining the line
he means, may be permitted to call it an east
and west one, or at least it becomes no longer
a mathematical but a philological question of
the meaning of the words east and west. The
last is what was meant probably by the east
and west line in the treaty of Ghent. The same
has been the understanding in running the numerous
east and west lines which divide our
different States. They have been run by observations
of latitude at very short intervals,
uniting the points of observation by short
direct lines, and thus constituting in fact part
of a polygon of very short sides.—
To Chiles Terril. Washington ed. vii, 260.
(M.
1822)
