"I thought that is what you were referrig to"
George,
That was what I was referring to. In 1837 the State of South Carolina deeded the land that the Feds were in possision of in 1861 to the Federal Government. The term used was in perpituity(I might have this word misspelled) which means forever or without expiration. One of your previous posts wondered if it was still valid when the State of SC seceeded. I would think that in the eyes of the Federals it was still valid in that they never recognozed the secession of any of the southern states. So in their eye they still owned the property. If I can come closer in time, let us look at the Navy base in Cuba. That property was leased from the exisiting government of Cuba for a very long time. I don't know off hand how long it is but it is still in effect, that is why the Navy is still there. The U S government issues a check to Cuba once a year and the Cubans don't cash it but the Nave stays there. I suppose that if Cuba thot it could throw them out it would try but it can't as we see. South Carolina thot it was strong enough to remove the U S presense from Charleston and they removed the U S forces and took control of the property until the Feds were able to come back in a few years and kind of "reposses" it, if you get what I mean. Hope this helps answer my statement.
Frank