Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ... national jurisdiction over the western lands. The opposition to the establishment of a public domain, under the sovereign control of Congress was so great, at the outset, that the States possessing land claims succeeded, a few days after Maryland's motion, in adding a clause to the Ninth Article of the Confederation, to the effect that no State should be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States.1 In the remonstrances to this grasping policy of the larger States, by Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Delaware, we shall find that there was no thought of investing Congress with the rights of sovereignty over the Crown lands. What these States desired was either a share in the revenues arising from the western country, or, that the funds accruing from the sale of western lands should be applied towards defraying the expenses of the war. But of the western lands as the basis of republican expansion under the national jurisdiction of Congress, these States seemed to have no conception whatever. Rhode Island, in a proposed amendment to the Articles of Confederation, expressly declared that all lands within those States, the property of which before the war was vested in the Crown of Great Britain, should be disposed of for the benefit of the whole confederacy, "reserving, however, to the States 1 October 27, 1777. Sep Journals of Congress, II., 304. within whose limits such Crown lands may be, the entire and complete jurisdiction thereof."1 New Jersev, in her remonstrance to the Ninth Article, while demanding that the Crown lands should be sold by Congress for defraying the expenses of the war, admits that, "The jurisdiction ought, in every instance, to belong to the respective States within the charter or determined limits of...
