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1777]

Claims to Western Lands

219

people of the several states, and had no power to compel obedience in a state or an individual. It turned out to be uterly impossible to carry on the central government under this system.

1777-81.

572-577.

169. Importance of the Articles of Confederation. — The Gravity of Articles are contemptible as a scheme of government; but the crisis, the fact of their adoption was one of the half-dozen most *Frothimportant events in the history of the United States. The ingham's people of the thirteen states, who were struggling together Republic, for independence, might have formed one government or thirteen governments, or any number of governments between one and thirteen, as they saw fit; that they preferred to live bound together by even the loosest tie, showed a spirit of nationalism which was certain to lead to better results. Before condemning the men of 1776 for drawing up such an absurd scheme, it is well to remember that they had no experience to guide them: never before had a confederation of the size of the United States even been proposed; never before had any one tried to write out on paper a constitution for such a federation. The adoption of the Articles terminated one of the most serious crises in the history of the United States. The gravity of the occasion may easily be gathered from the fact that it was nearly four years ere the legislatures of the thirteen states gave their consent to the new form of government. The principal reason for this delay was the dispute which had arisen as to the disposal of the land between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi.

lands.

170. Claims to Western Lands. — In 1763 the king had Claims to forbidden the governors of the colonies on the seashore western to grant to settlers any lands west of the Alleghanies. In Fiske's Criti 1774 Parliament had annexed all of this western territory north of the Ohio River to the province of Quebec (p. 161). In 1776, when the colonies declared themselves to be independent states, they set up their old claims to western lands regardless of king or Parliament.

Under her old charter of 1629 Massachusetts claimed all lands west of the settled portions of New York, between the

cal Period, 187-195; Winsor's

America,

VII, app. i.

Claims of the states.

Clark's

western

campaign,

1778-79.

Winsor's

America,

VI, 716;
Roosevelt's
Winning of
the West,

II, chs. i-iii;

Old South

Leaflets, XI,

Ser. No. 5.

parallels of points three miles north of the source of the Merrimac and three miles south of the source of the Charles. Connecticut based her claim on the charter of 1662, which had never been formally annulled. This gave her, she contended, a clear title to all lands south of the Massachusetts line as far as the latitude of New York City. The state of New York had no claim under any charter, but the Iroquois had given a deed of cession of all their lands to the governor of New York as representative

[graphic]

General G. R. Clark

of the king. This included all the western land north of the Tennessee River, as the Iroquois had pretended to exercise authority over the Indians living in this vast region. It was now urged that this cession had been made to the governor of the colony of New York, and that the state of that name succeeded to the rights which the Iroquois had once possessed. Virginia, on her

part, claimed nearly the same land, under the charter of 1609, which had been annulled in 1624 (pp. 54, 57). She also contended that her soldiers, led by a Virginia officer, George Rogers Clark, and paid out of the Virginia treasury, had conquered this territory from the British (1778-79). Already colonists from Virginia had begun the occupation of the region now included in the state of Kentucky. The

1777]

Claims to Western Lands

221

Carolinians claimed lands south of the Virginia line and

north of the parallel of the Savannah River, under the charters of 1663 and 1665 as modified by the Georgia grant Claims of of 1732 (pp. 110, 117). Georgia claimed land under the Georgia.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

She

charter of 1732, which had been limited in point of time and had been surrendered to the crown in 1751. further contended that the Proclamation of 1763, which added to her domains the land lying between the Altamaha and St. Mary's rivers (p. 117), really gave her a title to all the land south of her charter limits and north of the Floridas as far west as the Mississippi River!

Value of

171. Value of these Claims.

It is impossible to say any

these claims. thing definite as to the value of these claims. It is probable that the claim of Connecticut and that of Massachusetts, as far as they rested upon the charter of 1691, would have been recognized as good in law. None of the other claims appears to have much weight; that of Virginia, by conquest, was the strongest. But the right of any one state to claim lands conquered by her troops while engaged in the Revolutionary War could not be defended on grounds of good morals, especially as Virginia had seldom fulfilled her military and financial duties to the United States.

Position of the other

states.

Articles ratified by several states.

Maryland refuses to ratify.

The other states- New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland - could advance no claims to western lands by grant from the king, by conquest from the British, or by cession from the Indians. They contended, however, that if this territory should come into the possession of the United States at the conclusion of peace with Great Britain, it should be used for the benefit of the people of all the United States, and not for the enrichment of the people of a few states.

172. The Land Cessions.-The Articles of Confederation were very favorable to the interests of the smaller states Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island might justly think that they would gain more benefit under the Articles than they could hope for from the sale of their share of western lands. Pennsylvania, also, was not much interested in the question, as she still held thousands of acres of unsettled land within her borders. The case of Maryland, however, was very different: her soldiers had played a gallant part in the defense of the country, although British armies scarcely touched her soil; but she had no means, save taxation, to pay them for their services. Virginia had already set on foot a scheme to reward her soldiers by grants of western lands, and Pennsylvania might easily do the same from the lands within her borders. Maryland had no such resource; she might well ask if she were being treated with justice. She refused to ratify the

1784]

The Land Cessions

223

the states. *Winsor's

Articles until this great wrong were redressed, and thus brought the matter to public notice. Congress declined Cessions by to enter into an examination of the relative merits of the several claims, and suggested that all the claimant states America, should cede the lands claimed by them to the United States, VII, app. i. to be administered in the interests of the whole people.

New York led the way in making the cession as requested, New York. and Virginia promised to do so on certain conditions. Con

fiding in the good

will of the other claimant states, Maryland withdrew her opposition to the ratification of the Articles of Confederation (March, 1781), and they went into force not long afterwards.

One after another the states followed the example set by New York and transferred their claims to western lands to the United States. Virginia (1784) in making her grant reserved the juris

[graphic]

diction and title to

Daniel Boone

Virginia.

lands in Kentucky; she also retained certain lands north of the Ohio, which had already been promised to her soldiers. Massachusetts (1785) abandoned all title to lands west of MassachuPennsylvania. Connecticut (1786) ceded the lands claimed setts and by her, except a strip one hundred and twenty miles in length lying directly west of Pennsylvania: this was called the Connecticut or Western Reserve, and the proceeds of the lands

Connecticut.

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