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Show 52 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT ginia was moving towards cession of its western lands. New York had already in 1780 given its delegates authority to cede all its land claims west of the present border of the state. Virginians were prepared to make the cession but were anxious to prevent four land companies-the Indiana, Vandalia, Illinois, and Wabash Companies, with their dubious claims to western lands derived from the Indians and from Great Britain-from gaining confirmation of their titles. That some Maryland leaders were investors in these companies did little to simplify the issue. In its first act of cession Virginia attempted to require Congress to declare null and void all previous purchases from Indians in the Ohio country. This would have destroyed the basis of the companies' claims, but Congress declined to accept the condition. Virginia's final Act of Cession of 1783 dropped this condition, but implied that Virginia did not expect Congress to recognize these claims. The lobbyists for the companies continued their agitation for confirmation or redress, but national welfare won out over special interests and the companies' claims all lapsed. In its final form, the cession of Virginia conveyed its title to all land north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi River on the following conditions: the French inhabitants were to have their claims confirmed; 150,000 acres were to be granted to George Rogers Clark and his officers and men who had taken part in the conquest of the Old Northwest; the land between the Little Miami and the Scioto Rivers was to be retained, if necessary, to satisfy bounties promised soldiers of the Revolution; the balance of the land thus ceded and not required to satisfy the land bounties Congress had promised was to be "considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become, members of the Confederation . . . Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and shall be faith- fully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever." Another condition was that the ceded territory was to be divided into states not less than 100 miles square and not over 150 miles square and that they should be admitted into the Union with the same "rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence, as the other States."10 Twenty or 25 new commonwealths of this size might have been created out of the area. However, in 1788 Virginia agreed that from three to five states might be carved out of the ceded territory. Massachusetts ceded its western lands beyond the New York border in 1785 but retained its claim to western New York as well as its ownership of the public lands in the territory of Maine. Connecticut offered in 1780 to cede title but not jurisdiction to its western lands. The offer was held to be unsatisfactory, and was rejected. In 1786 a second offer was accepted. The cession included all Connecticut's claim to land west of the western border of Pennsylvania except for a reserve 120 miles long-the Connecticut Western Reserve and the Firelands-totaling 3,800,000 acres, in which both soil and jurisdiction were reserved. After granting away the land, Connecticut released jurisdiction to the Federal government in 1797. In 1787 South Carolina ceded its narrow strip of land west of the mountains and drained by the Tennessee River. This 12- to 14-mile wide strip became the extreme northern parts of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.11 North Carolina and Virginia had permitted settlement and the location of military 10 Donaldson, The Public Domain, pp. 67-70. 11 I have relied on Donaldson, The Public Domain for the dates and acreage of land cession. Payson J. Treat, The National Land System 1785-1820 (New York, 1910) is also useful. For issues between South Carolina and Georgia over the boundary see Kenneth Cole-man, The American Revolution in Georgia, 1763-1789 (Athens, Ga., 1938), pp. 257 ff. |