Act entituled 'An act to authorise the delegates &'-in these words following to wit 'Whereas the Congress &c.' [reciting the act verbatim.] And whereas the sd General Assembly by their Resolution of June 6th 1783, had constituted & appointed us the sd A. B. C. & delegates to represent the sd Commonwealth in Congress for one year from the first Monday in November then next following, which resolution remains in full force. Now therefore know ye that we the sd A. B. C. & by virtue of the power & authority, committed to us by the act of the sd. General Assembly of Virginia before recited, and in the name & for & on behalf of the sd Commonwealth do by these presents convey, transfer, assign, & make over unto the United States in Congress assembled for the benefit of the sd States, Virginia inclusive, all right, title & claim as well of soil as of jurisdiction which the sd. Commonwealth hath to the territory or tract of country within the limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying & being to the Northwest of the river Ohio to and for the uses & purposes and on the conditions of the sd recited act. In testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names and affixed our seals in Congress the day of in the year of our lord 1784, and of the independance of the United States the eighth. Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of REPORT ON GOVERNMENT FOR WESTERN TERRITORY.' C. C. [March 1, 1784.] The Committee appointed to prepare a plan for the temporary Government of the Western territory have agreed to the following resolutions: 1 Endorsed: "Report of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Chase, Mr. Howell. Temporary Governm of Western Country Delivered 1 March 1784. Ent-Read.March 3. Monday next assigned for the consideration of this report. March Resolved that the territory ceded or to be ceded by Individual States to the United States whensoever the same shall have been purchased of the Indian Inhabitants & offered for sale by the U. S. shall be formed into distinct States bounded in the following manner as nearly as such cessions will admit, that is to say; Northwardly & Southwardly by parallels of latitude so that each state shall comprehend from South to North two degrees of latitude beginning to count from the completion of thirty-one degrees North of the equator, but any territory Northwardly of the 47th degree shall make part of the state-next below, and Eastwardly & Westwardly they shall be bounded, those on the Mississippi by that river on one side and the meridian of the lowest point of the rapids of Ohio on the other; and those adjoining on the East by the same meridian on their Western side, and on their eastern by the meridian of the Western cape of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway. And the territory eastward of this last meridian between the Ohio, Lake Erie & Pennsylvania shall be one state. That the settlers within the territory so to be purchased & offered for sale shall, either on their own petition, or on the order of Congress, receive authority from them, with appointments of time and place for their free males of full age to meet together for the purpose of establishing a temporary government, to adopt the constitution & laws of any one of these states, so that such laws nevertheless shall be subject to alteration by their ordinary legislature, and to erect, subject to a like alteration counties or townships for the election of members for their legislature. That such temporary government shall only continue in force in any state until it shall have acquired 20,000 free inhabitants, 17. 1784. recommitted.”—There is no record of the appointment of this committee, but it must have been before Feb. 21, 1784, for on that date Howells wrote to Arnold (Rhode Island and the Continental Congress, 479), stating that the committee had agreed to this report, and sketching its outlines. It was probably appointed before Congress adjourned to Annapolis, Nov. 4, 1783, for Howells wrote that the subject was largely debated at Princeton last summer," but the committee did not report till the Virginia cession had been formally signed, and accepted by Congress. This report is entirely in Jefferson's handwriting, as will be seen by the facsimile. It was recommitted to the original committee, who reported a substitute for it, March 22, 1784, which is printed in this collection under that date. The governme viales in the for Northwar comprehen the compe next belove Isisipi the ramas mariolian Western ce -ward oft Anli bey petition i - ments of the state unt sne prods -ments of permanen when, giving due proof thereof to Congress, they shall receive from them authority with appointments of time and place to call a Convention of representatives to establish a permanent Constitution & Government for themselves. Provided that both the temporary & permanent Governments be established on these principles as their basis. 1, That they shall forever remain a part of the United States of America 2, That in their persons, property & territory, they shall be subject to the Government of the United States in Congress assembled and to the articles of confederation in all those cases in which the original states shall be so subject. 3, That they shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted or to be contracted to be apportioned on them by Congress, according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other states. 4, That their respective Governments shall be in republican forms, and shall admit no person to be a citizen, who holds any hereditary title. 5, That after the year 1800 of the Christian æra, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said states, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty. That whenever any of the sd states shall have, of free inhabitants as many as shall then be in any one the least numerous of the thirteen original states, such state shall be admitted by it's delegates into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the said original states: After which the assent of two thirds of the United States in Congress assembled shall be requisite in all those cases, wherein by the Confederation the assent of nine States is now required. Provided the consent of nine states to such admission may be obtained according to the eleventh of the Articles of Confederation. Until such admission by their delegates into Congress, any of the said states, after the establishment of their temporary Government, shall have authority to keep a sitting Member in Congress, with a right of debating, but not of voting. That the territory Northward of the 45th degree, that is to say of the completion of 45° from the Equator & extending to the Lake of the Woods, shall be called SYLVANIA : |