The Eighty-Second and Eighty-Third Congresses and the Submerged Lands Controversy

Ever since the thirteen original Colonies became unified into a single nation, there has been an almost continual domestic dispute raging in the United States of America as to the rights and privileges of the individual States in relation to those of the Federal Government. One of the more recent of the controversies has pertained to the topic of the submerged lands off the coastal States of the United States. The discovery of rich oil and gas deposits underneath the coastal waters of California, Texas, and Louisiana presented the question as to whether these waters, and the wealth therein, fell under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government or the States off which they are located.