CHAPTER XII.

THE CONFEDERATION (1781-1789)

148. The Confederation established (1781)

MANY writers have laid stress on
July 4, 1776, the date of the Declara-
tion of Independence, as the
great turning point of American
history; but the date when the
Articles of Confederation for-
mally went into effect - March 1, 1781
-is equally important, for it marks
the beginning of a constitutional union.
The government was crudely organized
into three departments.

(1) Everything was centered in a
Congress of delegates appointed by,
and responsible to, the state legisla
tures, each delegation casting one vote.
Congress sat always in secret session.
Seven state delegations concurring
could pass resolutions and ordinances,
but on all vital questions nine states
had to vote in the affirmative to make
a constitutional majority.

(2) The supremacy of Congress made it something like the present British Parliament, for it created all the executive offices, and commissioned all officials, civil and military. Of these the

Secretary at War, Superintendent of Finance, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Postmaster General were the most important.

(3) In addition, Congress set up what is called the Old Court of Appeals in Prize Cases, which, by the consent of such states as chose to pass the necessary laws, decided cases involving captures of British merchant vessels on appeal from state courts.

In many respects the new Congress much resembled its predecessor, the Continental Congress; but it was much superior in effectiveness: (1) it had a definite constitutional basis in black and white; (2) it had a constitutional right to levy taxes on the state governments in the so-called requisitions, and could borrow money on the credit of the United States; (3) it had a definite status as one of the world's national governments; (4) it assumed authority in matters of national concern, even though, like the public lands, they were not provided for by the Articles of Confederation.

ern land

One of the duties of Congress was to adjust the disputes with the states over the western lands, involving the three questions of state claims, administration of the public 149. Westlands, and organization of new western communities. In cessions the whole process one of the most effective arguments (1781-1784) was put forward by Thomas Paine, in a pamphlet called Public Good, in which he insisted on the right of the whole Union, as the successor of the British government, to control lands hitherto ungranted.

Influenced by such arguments and by the protests of Maryland, the four states which claimed lands north of the Ohio River gracefully yielded. (1) New York ceded all claims west of the present western boundary of that state (1781). (2) Virginia gave up all claims to territory north of the Ohio River, except ownership in the Virginia Reserve Military Bounty Lands (1784). (3) Massachusetts yielded all claims west of New York (1785), and in 1786 gave up to that

state her claim to govern western New York, retaining ownership of the land. (4) Connecticut, during the Revolution, claimed northern Pennsylvania and the region west of it, under the charter of 1662, but a decision of a commission appointed by Congress went against her. In 1786 Connecticut ceded her claims to Congress, reserving, however, a strip 120 miles long on the south shore of Lake Erie west of Pennsylvania, as an outlying district of the state, a strip known as the Connecticut Reserve, or the Western Reserve (§ 199).

The claims south of the Ohio River were harder to adjust. (1) To Virginia was left the District of Kentucky, which remained a part of Virginia until admitted as a state in 1792. (2) North Carolina claimed Tennessee, including the Watauga and other settlements, and issued land grants covering the whole tract, but in 1790 she ceded to Congress the right to govern the region. (3) South Carolina, in 1787, gave up her claim to a narrow strip lying between western North Carolina and Georgia. (4) Georgia claimed everything between the present state and the Mississippi River, and did not consent to accept her present state boundaries till 1802

Long before any part of the disputed lands came under exclusive control of Congress, that body decided to sell them 150. Basis and devote the proceeds to paying the national debt. of the public The first land bill to be adopted was the Grayson ordiland system (1785-1788) nance (May 20, 1785), following a suggestion of Jeffer

son: the western country was to be divided into townships, six miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing at right angles; each township to be subdivided by lines a mile apart into thirty-six sections, one of which was reserved for schools. The price of land was to be a dollar an acre.

To get the land into shape to be transferred, the government sometimes had to drive squatters off with troops; then the states and the holders of bounty land warrants had such quantities to

sell below the government price that sales could not be made for cash. The government debt was at a distressing discount, and shrewd men hit on the idea of buying land with certificates of debt. The

new Ohio Company (p. 195) contracted to buy about 1,500,000 acres, and took about 900,000. The Symmes Company wanted a million acres, and finally got a quarter of a million, including the site of Cincinnati. The Scioto Company, managed by speculators, undertook to buy three and a half million acres, but never took any. In the year 1788 the state of Pennsylvania bought

200,000 acres -the tri- Fort Steuben, Ohio. From a recent restoration. angle of land west of the New York line, which gave a lake front, including the site of the city of Erie.

ern settle

To settle the new southwestern frontier, a body of hardy people called "backwoodsmen" were pressing on; they were Scotch-Irish, Germans, and people of English descent, but 151. Westthus thrown together they speedily became one people. ments They took up farms on land patents, or by "toma- (1783-1789) hawk right," blazing trees where they meant to settle. In a few days of hard labor they could build a log house; in a few days more a fort. Their large families grew up and settled more land about them, or they left their farms and again plunged into the far backwoods. Their ordinary dress