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the * Dutch Possession of that Territory, which "was after"wards granted to the Duke of York-a Possession which oc“casioned its being excepted out of the original Grant to the "Council of Plymouth, and, in Fact, prevented its being ever "vested in the Crown, until the Conquest thereof by Col. "Nichols in August 1664. As that Territory, therefore, was not

"in 1662, in the Crown to grant, no Part of it could pass by "the Patent to Connecticut."

Now the Country granted to the Duke of York extended, as has been shewn, to the West Side of Connecticut River, and therefore those Gentlemen admit that nothing to the Westward of that River passed by their Patent. If then the Crown, in order to save the Possessions of the Dutch, intended to pass nothing to Connecticut, West of that River, can it be imagined that any Thing was intended to be passed or granted, through immense Tracts of Country behind the Dutch Settlements, and cut off by them from any immediate or direct Communication with the Sea? Had this been intended, why did the Crown stop Connecticut Charter by a Northerly Line, from Mamaroneck to the Massachusets, after becoming vested with the whole Country, from the Sea throughout? Why did not Governor Winthrop remonstrate to the Crown-Commissioners, upon the Impropriety of splitting his Grant into two Parts, by erecting intermediate Governments within it? Why did he not represent that only a single Jurisdiction was given to the Governor and Company of Connecticut; and that the Grant would thus be defeated in the Main, by splitting it in such a manner, as that Government could not be administered in it, without separate Jurisdictions? Why did he not insist on his Grant being kept entire, and carried quite through what is now the Province of New-York? The Patent to the Duke could not stand in his Way; for none of the Dutch Possessions had passed by that Patent, any more than by the Patent to Connecticut, both being granted before the Conquest. And the

*In order to pave the way for this Argument, namely, that it was not the original Uncertainty of Limits in the Connecticut Charter, but the Pre-occupancy of the Dutch, that made the future Settlement of Limits by the Crown Commissioners necessary; the Author of the Susquehannah Case says that by the Charter from Charles II, "all the "Lands were granted, &c. saving what might then be actually pos"sessed or inhabited by any other Christian Prince or State "—a Saving, which, that I might argue from his own Premises, I have allowed. But there is no such "Saving" in the Connecticut Charter; and the Author would have taken it ill, if to serve the other Side of the Question, it had been said, that such a Saving was intended when not expressed,

Preference was due to the latter, as being two Years older. If Mr. Winthrop had entertained any such Idea concerning the Extent of his Patent, can it be imagined that he would have put his Hand to such an absolute and explicit Settlement of Bounds, as that inserted above? It is utterly improbable, and I am wearied with pursuing a Notion, so chimerical and Void of all Foundation!

But it will be asked in the last Place-if such be the true Construction of the Charter, what must be done with the Words-"and in Longitude, as the Line of the Massachusets "Colony, running from East to West, that is to say, from the "said Naraganset Bay on the East, to the South Sea on the "West Part?"

I answer, that with Respect to the Word Longitude, it must share the same Fate with the Word Latitude. If the latter has been rightly explained, the former may be easily understood. Longitude can only mean Length; and the Words, "on the "West Part," favor this Exposition. And, even in a geographical Sense, I believe it cannot easily be said, whether both the Length, and also the geographical Difference of Longitude, commonly called Departure, may not be at least as great by preserving the Breadth, as by sacrificing it.

With Respect to the Words-running "as the Line of the "Massachusets, &c." the Colony of Connecticut may make the most of them. We leave the Lines of both Colonies, as they ought to be, in the same Predicament; and believe that neither of them were ever intended, nor will ever be suffered, to cross the Lines of New-York, or what was reserved by the Crown as the old Dutch Rights. The Lines of the Massachusets, which are explicit, and have two Places of Beginning upon the one Sea, have been long since stopped by the Crown, without running far on their Way to the other Sea. The Lines of Virginia, which extended also from Sea to Sea, have shared the same Fate, and have been abridged in every Direction. All the Remonstrances of that ancient Colony and respectable Dominion, were of no Avail to prevent Lord Baltimore's and other Crown Grants, from being taken out of the old Virginia Patent. At a Meeting of the Privy Council, July 3, 1633, we find under their Consideration--" the Petition of the Planters "of Virginia, remonstrating that some Grants had lately been "obtained of a great Proportion of Lands and Territories "within the Limits of the Colony there-And a Day was or"dered for further hearing of the Parties, who are said to be "the Lord Baltimore, and the said Adventurers and Planters "of Virginia." In the End, "Lord Baltimore was left to his "Patent, which had been passed the Year before; and the said

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"Planters were left to the ordinary Course of Law"-which certainly would have given them a Remedy against the Patent, if his Majesty had not been vested with a Right to pass it.

Col. Beverly says that "this Precedent of my Lord Baltimore's Grant, which entrenched upon the Charters and Bounds of Virginia, was Hint enough for other Courtiers (who never intended a Settlement, as my Lord did) to find out something of the same Kind to make Money of; and was the Occasion of several large Defalcations from Virginia, a few Years afterwards"

It would be needless to mention the Defalcations, made also from the Massachusets ancient Claims, and many other Transactions of the Crown in America; which, as observed before, has always been considered as having the sole Right of regulating the American Grants, according to Equity and what was their original Intention; namely, the Settlement of the Country under separate Jurisdictions of practicable Extent; and not the Reservation of immense Tracts through distant Generations, to be parcelled to for the Convenience, and under the Wing, of any particular Colony.

Connecticut has the least of all Claims, nay not even the Shadow of a Claim, for any Thing of this Kind. For if its Charter could carry any Thing to the South Sea, it would only be a Line "from Naraganset Bay on the East, to the South "Sea on the West Part," and not any Breadth of Country. Nay, before that Charter was three Months old, it suffered an Amputation by the Authority of the Crown. The subsequent Rhode Island Charter is extended twenty-five Miles into that of Connecticut, and Paukatuck River is ordered to be the Eastern Bounds of the latter, “any Grant or Clause therein to the "Contrary notwithstanding”—And the Crown Appendix No. IX. Commissioners accordingly did * about three Years afterwards order a "Line to be drawn Northerly from "the midst of the Road going over said Paukatuck River;" which Line was then fixed, and remains their Eastern Boundary to this Day. And, thus we see the Crown, thought it had Power to limit them on the East as well as West Side, and in both Cases so absolutely, that they acquiesced in those Bounds till now. And, here it is worthy of being repeated, that from both Ends of their front Line the Crown set them off Northerly, or at about right Angles to the Shore, as required by * It is true that Mr. Winthrop, after his Charter was passed, is said to have agreed to this Amputation; but if his Refusal could have prevented it, there is no Probability that he would have parted with a Breadth of twenty-five Miles throughout, after having got it at first included in his Grant.

11-VOL XVIII.

Lord Say and Seal's Grant; by which they then claimed to have their own Charter regulated and explained. By what Rule, then, they can now claim a Western Course from the Shore, remains to be accounted for by themselves.

Douglas had the very same Idea (which is here expressed) of the Course or Direction of the Connecticut Lines, viz-that they were to run Northerly from the Shore; and that their South-Sea Line was only meant as an Extent to the Massachusets Line. Speaking of Lord Say and Seal's Grant, he says"it run, as the Sea Coast, forty Leagues towards Virginia, and East and West from Sea to Sea, or to the Massachusets South Line."

Hutchinson acknowleges that, by the Extension of the Massachusets Line to the South-Sea-or until it meets the Settlements of some Christian Prince, it has been urged that an actual passing from Sea to Sea was not imagined; but "that it was so expressed from a particular Regard to the Dutch Settlement, and that a Line to extend (even) to the Spanish Settlements, was too extravagant to have been intended." He adds what gives great Weight to this Construction—“The "Geography of this Part of America was less understood than "at present. A line to the Spanish Settlements was imagined "to be much shorter than it really was. Some of Champlain's "People, in the Beginning of the last Century, who had been "but a few Days March from Quebec, returned with great Joy, "supposing that, from the Top of a high Mountain, they had "discovered the South Sea."

We all know what were the original Motives of our Ancestors, in the first Adventures to America. The Mines of Peru and Mexico had raised the Attention of Europe. All the Lands towards the South Sea, were considered as rich Repositories of the precious Dust; and other Nations were desirous of shar ing with the Spaniards in the Golden Harvest. The Extent of this Northern Continent was not known. It was considered as a Sort of Isthmus, not much wider perhaps than that of Darien; and the Voyages of the Circum-navigators had been in such a Tract as not to discover the Mistake.

In the Year 1608, the great Council of Virginia considered their Country as a Sort of Isthmus of this Kind. They fitted up, in England, "a Barge for Capt. Newport, for Convenience of Carriage, to be taken into five Pieces; with which he and his Company were instructed to go up James's River as far as the Falls thereof, to discover the Country of the Manakins; . and from whence they were to proceed, carrying their Barge beyond the Falls, to convey them to the South-Sea; being ordered not to return without

SMITH.

a Lump of Gold, a Certainty of the said Sea, or one of the lost Company sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh."

The South-Sea was therefore put into the great original Patents of North and South Virginia, being considered as not very remote from the other Sea, and with a View of keeping up our Claim to the golden Country. And, out of these great Patents, the Word South-Sea was copied into the derivative Grants; but certainly not with an Intention of vesting any of the Grantees with a Country, afterwards found to be at least three thousand Miles across.

As to the Colony of Connecticut, to which I now return, I have made it clear that they never had any Idea of such an Extent to their Charter, at the Time of obtaining it; and I shall now proceed to shew what has been their constant Sense of its Limits and Extent, from that Time downward through a whole Century.

And first I would repeat, what hath been already observed, that it is a mere modern Notion, that the Settlement of the Connecticut Western Limits by the Crown Commissioners in 1664, was made necessary, not through any Defect of Limits in the Charter itself, but on Account of the Duke of York's Patent, to which only that Settlement had a Reference.

It appears by the King's Letter, sent to Connecticut itself with the Royal Commission, that Mr. Winthrop, when he obtained the Connecticut Charter in 1662, was made acquainted with the Intention of sending Commissioners to New-England, to settle their long-contested Limits; and those of Connecticut must have been included among the rest; for that Colony had been particularly involved in Disputes about Bounds with its Neighbours of Rhode-Island, Massachusets, New-Haven, &c. The Duke's Patent could not then have been in View, as it had not an Existence till two Years afterwards. The King's Letter begins thus

"Charles Rex,

"Trusty and well beloved-We greet you well, having, ac"cording to the Resolution We declared to Mr. Winthrop at "the Time when We renewed your Charter, now sent those "Persons of known Abilities and Affection to Us, viz. Col. Rich"ard Nichols, &c."

This Letter is not entered at large in the Connecticut Records; probably because it differed in nothing, but this Introduction, from the circular Letters of the same Date sent to the other New-England Colonies; and which expressly mention the Settlement of Bounds, &c as the Design of the Commission.

But to proceed-When Bounds were thus fixed, and New

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