all the States," would include a power in "the United States in Congress assembled" to "parcel out" that region "into free, convenient, and independent Governments, in such manner and at such times as the wisdom of that Assembly shall hereafter direct."

The description of the power of "the United States in Congress assembled " over the Western region as a power to "dispose of" the "lands" in that region, was evidently preferred by the Legislature of Maryland, because such a power included the power both to dispose of the soil of which the Union owned the primary title and to dispose of the jurisdiction over the Western region, and it was regarded as just and proper that, as the region was unsettled, "the United States in Congress assembled"—that is, the American Union, considered as a State, and as the Imperial State of the American Empire-should have the benefit arising from the sale of its primary title to the soil. It was doubtless because of the fact that the American Union, as a State, owned the primary title to the soil in the Western region,-it not having been appropri ated to private ownership,-that the word "lands" was uniformly coupled with the expression "dispose of " in the proceedings of Congress. Had the Western region been in part appropriated to private ownership and in part unappropriated, the Congress would undoubtedly have used the expression "the territory and lands "territory" having the meaning, as has been above noticed, of lands appropriated to private ownership and under the governmental control of the State.

It will have been noticed that Maryland, in its Instructions, demanded that the Articles of Confederation be "explained." It demanded also that this explanation should be by a "new Article or Articles." If, however, the Articles had only to be "explained," a "new Article or Articles" was unnecessary, since the proposition that the Articles required explanation implied that they

already contained an ambiguous or uncertain provision on the subject, (which they undoubtedly did by providing for the admission of "Colonies" into the Union in Article XI.), and it was the function of Congress to explain the Articles.

Congress acted upon the basis that the Articles covered the subject and that all that was necessary was to "explain" them, as regarded the Western region. With this purpose, it adopted, on September 6, 1780, the report of a committee in which it was recommended that Congress should "press upon those States which can remove the embarrassments respecting the western country a liberal surrender of their territorial claims, since they cannot be preserved entire without endangering the stability of the general Confederacy"; and Congress thereupon resolved:

That is be earnestly recommended to those States who have claims to the Western country, to pass such laws, and give their delegates in Congress such powers, as may effectually remove the only obstacle to a final ratification of the Articles of Confederation; and that the Legislature of Maryland be earnestly requested to authorize the delegates in Congress to subscribe the said Articles.

Had the Congress acceded to the request of Maryland, by adopting a new Article to be added to the Articles of Confederation, this would have required the Articles, as amended, to have been resubmitted to the Legislatures of all the States, and would have opened the way for the other States to demand other amendments. If the Articles had only to be explained, that could be done equally as well by a resolution of Congress as by a new Article. The Congress, accordingly, on October 10, 1780, adopted the following resolution:

Resolved: That the unappropriated lands that may be ceded or relinquished to the United States, by any particular State,

pursuant to the recommendation of Congress on the 6th day of September last, shall be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, and be settled and formed into distinct republican States, which shall beconie members of the Federal Union and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence, as the other States; that each State which shall be so formed shall contain a suitable extent of territory, not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square, or as near thereto as circumstances will admit.

That the said lands shall be granted or settled at such times and under such regulations as shall hereafter be agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled, or any nine or more of them.

This resolution explained that Article XI. of the Articles of Confederation, which provided that "no other Colony [except Canada] shall be admitted into the [Union], unless such admission be agreed to by nine States," included a Colony of the Union, and defined a Colony of the Union as a "distinct State," which was to be "disposed of" by the Congress, according to "regulations" made by the Congress.

The resolution related simply to "the unappropriated lands that may be ceded or relinquished to the United States, by any particular State," and hence related exclusively to the Western region. By the resolution, all these general powers of the Union were carefully qualified as respects this region. The right of disposition was subject to the proviso that the disposition was to be "for the common benefit of the United States," and with a view to the ultimate admission of the Colonies into the Union, as States, on equal terms with the rest. The right of making regulations was qualified so that it extended only to regulations made relating to the granting of the title to the soil or to the actual settlement of the region. The right of statehood on the part of these

Colonies in the Western region was subject to the proviso that the statehood should be "republican" in character, —that is, that the people of each of these Colonies in that region should be regarded as the ultimate depositary of the political power for local purposes, and should act through elected representatives.

If the resolution had been divided into two, one expressing the general principles and the other defining the method of application of those general principles to the Western region, the one expressing the general principles would have read as follows:

Resolved: That the American Union has the right, and is subject to the obligation, to dispose of all lands and populations external to it and subject to its control, it being understood that this power of disposition includes the power of regulation, and that it implies a right to statehood of all populations naturally adapted to exist as distinct States.

The resolution relating to the application of these general principles to the Western region would have read:

Resolved: That in applying these principles to the Western region, they shall be subject to the following modifications:

First: The power of disposition shall be exercised by the Union so as not to be for the benefit of any particular State, but so as to be for the common benefit of the Union, and with a view to fit the Colonies for ultimate admission into the Union, as States, on equal terms with the other States.

Second: The power of disposition shall be construed as giving the Congress the right to make only such regulations as may be necessary for the orderly granting of the primary title of the Union to the soil, and for effecting the original settlement of the region.

Third: The right of the Colonies to be distinct States shall, for the protection of the Union, be subject to the proviso that they shall all be republican States.

It was evidently the common understanding at the time the resolution of October 10, 1780, was adopted, that it applied to dispositions made by the Union of its jurisdiction over the Western region as well as to dispositions made of its primary title to the soil of unoccupied lands. Thus the deed of cession of the State of New York of March 1, 1781, granted the "right, title, jurisdiction, and claim" of the State to the lands beyond the western boundary of the State as described in the deed, "to and for the benefit of such of the States as are or shall become parties to the Articles of Confederation. to be granted, disposed of, and appropriated in such manner only as the Congress of the said United States shall direct." The Act of cession of the State of Massachusetts of November 13, 1784, authorized the Commissioners who were to make the deed to impose the condition that the land ceded should “be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, agreeably to a resolve of Congress of October 10, 1780"; and the Commissioners, by their deed, ceded “ all right, title and estate of and in, as well the soil as the jurisdiction, which the said Commonwealth hath to the territory

"to the uses in a resolve of Congress of the tenth of October, 1780, mentioned."

The committee of Congress appointed to consider the questions which had arisen concerning the Western country reported, on May 1, 1782, in favor of accepting the cession of the State of New York, holding that that State had the best title to the soil and jurisdiction of the Northwest Territory occupied by the Six Nations and their tributaries, because" all the lands belonging to the Six Nations and their tributaries have been in due form put under the protection of the Crown of England, as appendant to the late Government of New York, so far as respects jurisdiction only," and that "the Crown of England has always considered and treated the country