offence with which they were charged was not committed within the jurisdiction of the State.

In 1800, Marshall reviewed the Connecticut title to the Western Reserve in an elaborate report to the House of Representatives.' He held that title to be good and sufficient in this report; and there can be no reasonable doubt that he would have done the same thing, if the occasion had arisen, from the Supreme Bench of the United States.

State Papers: Public Lands, I., 94 et seq.

XIV.

THE LAND-ORDINANCE OF 1785.

ONE of the great arguments used in urging the claimant States to surrender some portion of their Western lands was the needs of the State and Federal treasuries. In the resolutions of Congress asking for them, the cessions are considered as lands to be sold as well as territory to be made into new States. The idea of revenue is also prominent in the acts of cession. It was almost distinctively a new idea. In colonial days, waste lands had not proved a source of income to either the colonies or the Crown. The Crown had reserved a small quit-rent, but it was rarely paid. Virginia imposed an annual rental of two cents per acre upon her waste lands, and then threw them open to indiscriminate locations. Whole States, as West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, were disposed of without affording any public revenue whatever. It is, therefore, somewhat difficult to understand how the idea that the over-mountain lands would be a source of large income became current. But so it was. Whatever is the explanation, the new idea could not be realized without a system of surveys such as was unknown to any one of the colonies. This need was met by Congress in "An Ordi nance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western territory," enacted May 20, 1785, but applying only to such lands as had already been ceded by individual States to the United States, and also been purchased by the United States of the Indians. Before presenting the salient features of this ordinance, it is necessary to glance at two or three of these Indian treaties.

By the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768, the Six Nations had sold all their right and title to lands lying south and southeast of the treaty-line running from the mouth of the Tennessee to Wood Creek, save those in the Province of Pennsylvania, the pre-emption of which belonged to the Penns. North and west of that line they continued in as full possession as ever. The protectorate of the Iroquois, recognized in 1713 and in 1726, in no way touched the fee of the Indian lands. Braddock marched toward the Forks of the Ohio to defend the allies of England, whose dominions were invaded, and he called upon the Indians to come to his help for that reason. But by a second Treaty of Fort Stanwix, negotiated in 1784 by Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, commissioners appointed by Congress, and the representatives of the Six Nations, they yielded to the United States all their claims to the country west of a line drawn from Johnston's Landing Place on Lake Ontario southerly to the mouth of Buffalo Creek on Lake Erie, and always four miles south of the "carrying path" between the two lakes; thence south to the north boundary of Pennsylvania; thence west to the end of the said north boundary; and thence south to the Ohio River. The first practical effect of this line was the alienation by the Iroquois of all their interest in the Northwest.

The United States still had to deal with the Western Indians-those on the soil-for these tribes did not acknowledge that the Six Nations could deed away their lands. A treaty concluded at Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785, between commissioners of the United States and the sachems and warriors of the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa, and Ottawa nations, made the Cuyahoga River, the portage between that stream and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, and the Tuscarawas as far as the crossing place above Fort Laurens; a line drawn thence westerly to the portage of the Great Miami; the portage between the Miami and the Maumee, and the Maumee; and Lake Erie to the north of the Cuyahoga, the boundaries between the United States and the said

tribes. Within these lines the Indians could still live and hunt; but lands east, south, and west were declared to belong to the United States, "so far as the said Indians formerly claimed the same." This treaty, which was reaffirmed at Fort Harmar in 1789, was the first of a long series of treaties that finally put the United States in full possession of all the Northwestern lands. The two treaties now sketched show how matters stood when the old Congress enacted the landordinance that we are now to examine.

This ordinance provided for a corps of surveyors, to be appointed by Congress, or a committee of the States, one from each State, to survey the lands already ceded and purchased, under the directions of the Geographer of the United States. These paragraphs describe the main features of the plan of survey:

"The surveyors shall proceed to divide the said territory into townships of 6 miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing these at right angles, as near as may be.

"The first line, running north and south as aforesaid shall begin on the River Ohio, at a point that shall be found to be due north from the western termination of a line, which has been run as the southern boundary of the State of Pennsylvania; and the first line running east and west shall begin at the same point and shall extend throughout the whole territory; provided that nothing herein shall be construed as fixing the western boundary of the State of Pennsylvania. The Geographer shall designate the townships, or fractional parts of townships, by numbers progressively from south to north; always beginning each range with No. 1 ; and the ranges shall be distinguished by their progressive numbers to the westward. The first range, extending from the Ohio to the Lake Erie being marked No. I. The Geographer shall personally attend to the running of the first east and west line; and shall take the latitude of the extremes of the first north and south line, and of the mouths of the principal rivers.

"The lines shall be measured with a chain; shall be plainly marked by chaps on the trees, and exactly described on a plat, whereon shall be noted by the surveyor, at their proper distances, all mines, salt-springs, salt-licks, and mill-seats, that shall come to his knowledge; and all water-courses, mountains` and other remarkable and permanent things, over and near which such lines shall pass, and also the quality of the lands.

"The plats of the townships respectively, shall be marked by subdivisions into lots of one mile square or 640 acres, in the same direction as the external lines, and numbered from 1 to 36; always beginning the succeeding range of the lots with the number next to that with which the preceding one concluded. And where, from the causes before mentioned, only a fractional part of a township shall be surveyed, the lots, protracted thereon, shall bear the same numbers as if the township had been entire. And the surveyors, in running the external lines of the townships, shall, at the interval of every mile, mark corners for the lots which are adjacent, always designating the same in a different manner from those of the townships.

"The Geographer and surveyors shall pay the utmost attention to the variation of the magnetic needle; and shall run and note all lines by the true meridian, certifying, with every plat, what was the variation at the times of running the lines thereon noted."1

As soon as seven ranges were surveyed, the Geographer should transmit the plats to the Board of Treasury, to be carefully recorded; and so for every succeeding series of seven ranges. It was made the duty of the Secretary of War, from time to time, to take by lot from the whole number of townships and fractional townships making up each series of seven ranges, as well those to be sold entire as those to be sold in lots, one-seventh of the whole, for the use of the Continental Army; until enough land should be drawn to satisfy the claims arising under the resolutions of Congress, adopted September 16 and 18, 1776, and August 12 and September 22,

1 Journals of Congress, IV., 520.