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Philippine Islands, 115,300 Estimated Square Miles.

[No government survey has been made. In the "Guia Official de las Islas Filipinas para 1898: Publicada por la Secretaria del Gobierno General; Manila, 1898," the area of the Archipelago is given as 355,000 square kilometers (187,057 square miles). This does not include the Jolo (Sulu) group.]

Extract from Article III. of the Treaty at Paris, December 10, 1898, outlines the Philippine Islands.

"A line running from west to east along or near the twentieth parallel of north latitude and through the middle of the navigable channel of Bachi, from the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) to the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence along the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the parallel of four degrees and forty-five minutes (4.45) north latitude to its intersection with the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty-five minutes (119.35) east of Greenwich, thence along the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty-five minutes (119.35) east of Greenwich to the parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7.40) north, thence along the parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7.40) north to its intersection with the one hundred and sixteenth (116th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence by a direct line to the intersection of the tenth (10th) degree parallel of north latitude with the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, and thence along the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the point of beginning.

"The United States to pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty."

When the Peace Commissioners, in lieu of "the Philippine Archipelago," to avoid loose definition, drew the above geographical boundary line on basis of fixed meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude, they described parallelograms, causing an inset at the southwest corner which excluded some of the islands off the coast of Borneo. The southern boundary started at the eastern end, at the 127th meridian, along parallel 4 degrees 45 minutes westward to meridian 119 degrees 35 minutes, thence north to latitude 7 degrees 40 minutes, when deflected westward to meridian 116. A year following signature of treaty it was discovered the islands of Cibitu and Cagayan (Sulu) were excluded by the inset.

According to the principles of common law an exact boundary, not a general terminology, was essential, upon which a treaty entered into with Spain, November 7, 1900, for the purchase of the two islands for $100,000. Ratified by the Senate, January 22, 1901, by a vote of 38 to 19.

Ratifications of the treaty exchanged, March 23, 1901, at Washington, D.C., by the Duke d'Arcos, the Spanish minister, and Secretary of State Hay, payment being made by a Treasury warrant for $100,000.

President McKinley issued a proclamation, March 25, 1901, announcing the purchase of Cibitu and Cagayan of the Jolo Archipelago.

The islands number between 1000 and 2000: the "Guia" previously referred to notes 1200; the "Derrotero del Archipielago Filipino,"

Madrid, 1879, i.e. the "Coast Pilot," describes 583. These islands are within a land and sea area of 1200 miles latitude and 2400 miles longitude.

The Philippines were gained to Spain through the discovery of Magellan. The treaty of 1494 gave Spain, as her half of the world, all beyond the meridian of 370 leagues west of Ferro. The Philippines when discovered were moved on the maps twenty-five degrees east of their true position on the globe, when the islands in fact lay within the half of the world belonging to Portugal. The Spaniards made the maps and were thus enabled to bring the islands within their half.

May 1, 1898. Destruction of Spanish fleet in Manila harbor and possession taken of the city of Manila by Commodore Dewey of the United States Navy.

December 10, 1898. Treaty of Peace signed at Paris, covering surrender and indemnity for full possessions of the Philippines. July 4, 1901. Civil government inaugurated at Manila.

Guam, Guajam, or Guahn, 900 Square Miles.

One of the Mariana or Ladrone Islands in the Pacific, about thirty miles in length and about ten miles in width.

December 10, 1898. Ceded by Article II. of the Treaty of Peace at Paris.

February 1, 1899. Taken possession of by Commander Taussig of the United States gunboat "Remington."

Isle of Pines, Greater Antilles (Isla de Pinos).

Ceded to the United States under the Spanish-American Treaty of Peace, December 10, 1898.

Article II.

Spain ceded to the United States the island of Porto Rico, and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and the island of Guam, in the Mariannes or Ladrones.

Article I. reads "Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba."

The treaty specifically ceding all the Spanish West India islands, except Cuba, to the United States.

Tutuila, Annexation, 54 Square Miles.

One of the Samoan Islands, and its islets, which became a possession by virtue of a tripartite treaty with Great Britain and Germany in 1899.

See Index, "Other Lands under the Protection of the United States."

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THE BIRTH OF THE STATES.

CESSION OF GREAT BRITAIN.

From the previously named patents, charters, and grants grew the thirteen colonies. When they became States, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, having no defined western limit (only latitudinal lines being mentioned), their territorial extension ended with the lands of Great Britain, the Mississippi River, the only intervening lands excepted being those "actually possessed by any Christian prince or people."

When the Revolution ceased, it was contended by the "non-vacant lands," States, or those having no chartered extension to the west, that in justice to them, on the ground they had made common cause in securing independence, the land wrested by joint effort, the "western lands," should be considered territories of the General Government, to be shared in common for the benefit of all; that is, be joint property.

The "claimant States" were Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, boundaries unlimited westerly.

The "non-claimant States" were New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, boundaries exactly defined. New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland had fixed western boundaries, consequently no legal claim to a share in the western extension; they were called the "recalcitrant States."

Massachusetts based claim on charter of William and Mary, 1691.
Connecticut, on charter, Charles II., 1662.

Virginia, on charter, James I., 1609.

New York, on her treaty with the Six Indian Nations and allies, of lands lying between Lake Erie and the Cumberland Mountains, the Ohio River and a portion of Kentucky.

"Claimant States" expected great revenues from their western lands by which to pay their debts.

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'Non-claimant States," being landless, regarded with jealousy the wealth of the others.

The "claimants" secured the insertion of a provision in the Articles of Confederation, that no State should be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States.

Maryland positively refused to sign the Articles while the above provision was retained.

May 21, 1779. Protest of Maryland laid before Congress.

Tuesday, October 10, 1780. Congress passed an Act, "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 of September 6, 1780), "shall be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, and be settled and formed into distinct Republican States, which shall become members of the Federal Union, and have the same right 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 necessary and reasonable expenses which any particular State shall have incurred since the commencement of the present war, in subduing any part of the territory that may be ceded or relinquished to the United States, shall be reimbursed.

That 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."

The cession or relinquishment by the States, of territory to the "United States" was made:

New York, March 1, 1781. No conditions. Agreeing to the marking of her western limit by a longitudinal line crossing the western end of Lake Ontario.

Virginia, March 1, 1784. Reserving 3,709,848 acres south and east of the Ohio.

Massachusetts, April 19, 1785. No conditions.

Connecticut, September 14, 1786. Conveyed lands 120 miles west of the Pennsylvania line, reserving 4,000,000 acres along the shore of Lake Erie, known as the "Western Reserve" (q.v.).

South Carolina, August 9, 1787. No conditions (surrendering her 12 mile (wide) strip).

North Carolina, February 25, 1790. Stipulating "no regulation made or to be made by Congress, shall tend to the emancipation of slaves."

Georgia, April 24, 1802. Conditioning, that the United States should extinguish the Indian title to the east of its western line, as soon as could be done peaceably and on reasonable terms.

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