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Appendix. nation of the war. But, notwithstanding the clear right of these States, and the importance of the object, yet they are so much influenced by the dictates from Se- of religion and humanity, and so desirous of complying with the earnest request nals of Acts of their Allies, that if the line to be drawn from the mouth of the Lake Nepissing to the head of the Mississippi cannot be obtained without continuing the war for that purpose, you are hereby empowered to agree to some other line between that point and the River Mississippi; provided the same shall in no part thereof be to the southward of latitude forty-five degrees north. And in like manner, if the eastern Boundary above described cannot be obtained, you are hereby empowered to agree that the same shall be afterwards adjusted, by Commissioners to be duly appointed for that purpose, according to such line as shall be by them settled and agreed on, as the Boundary between that part of the State of Massachusetts Bay, formerly called the Province of Maine, and the colony of Nova Scotia, agreeably to their respective rights. And you may also consent, that the enemy shall destroy such fortifications as they may have erected.

Vol. iii. p. 167.

Facts and Observations in support of the several Claims of the United States not included in their Ultimatum of the 15th of June, 1781.

2. With respect to the Boundaries of the States. The patent to the council of Plymouth, bearing date the 18th of November, 1620, is the patent from which the eastern States proceed.

New Hampshire claims under the royal commission appointing Benning Wentworth, Esquire, Governour of that province, on the 13th July, in the fifteenth year of the reign of George II.

Massachusetts claims under the Charter granted by William and Mary, on the 17th October, 1691. The Treaty of Paris fixes the Mississippi as the western limit of the old colony of Massachusetts Bay, which is one of the colonies incorporated by that Charter. See old Charter of 4th March, 1628-9.

The Charter of April 23, 1662, granted by Charles II. to Winthrop and others, is the ground of the territorial claims of Connecticut. The Treaty of Paris is allowed to restrict that State also to the Mississippi.

On the 8th July, 1662, the same Prince granted the Charter under which Rhode Island claims.

New York assigns, as sources of her title, the grant from Charles II. to the Duke of York, in 1663, the capitulation of the Dutch in the same year, the Treaty of Westminster, 1674, and the renewal or confirmation of the Duke's grant immediately after the Treaty. This State adds, that the lands on the west side of Connecticut River belong to it under the farther [right] accruing by the subjection of the Five Nations, the native proprietors; and that the country, as far northward as the River St. Lawrence, and westward without known limits, is the property of New York, as having been formerly possessed by those tribes of Indians and their tributaries. The Treaties with those nations in 1684, 1701, 1726, 1744, and 1754, are particularly referred to.

On the 33d June, 1664, the Duke of York conveyed, out of his aforesaid grant to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, the limits which New Jersey claims. Upon this ground, and the resignation of the government into the hands of the Crown on the 14th August, 1703, is the title of this State built.

Vol. iii. P. 170.

It is, therefore, incumbent on us to show

First. That the territorial rights of the Thirteen United States, while in the character of British colonies, were the same with those defined in the instructions given to Mr. J. Adams, on the day of August, 1779; and,

Secondly, That the United States, considered as independent Sovereign- Appendix. ties, have succeeded to those rights; or,

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Thirdly, That if the vacant lands cannot be demanded upon the preceding from Segrounds, that is, upon the titles of individual States, they are to be deemed to nals of have been the property of His Britannic Majesty immediately before the Revo- Acts of lution, and now to be devolved upon the United States collectively taken. Congress. First. So fair are our pretensions rendered by the united operation of the Grants, Charters, Royal Commissions, and Indian cessions, enumerated above, that we shall content ourselves with reviewing the objections which will most probably be urged against them, without entering into the direct proofs of our titles. First objection.-Even upon the supposition that the Charter of Massachusetts is valid, so as to cover the vacant lands, still it does not follow, that St. John's River is part of its eastern Boundary. For that river is contended to be in Nova Scotia, under the expression in the New Charter of Massachusetts in 1691, which conveys the country between the Province of Maine and Nova Scotia. The south-west Boundary of Nova Scotia, therefore, will regulate this claim. But it is well known, that in the altercation between France and Great Britain upon this very subject, in 1751, Acadia, or Nova Scotia, was asserted by the latter to be bounded by Pentagoet, or Penobscot River.

Answer. It is to be observed, that when the Boundaries of the United States were declared to be an ultimatum, it was not thought advisable to continue the war merely to obtain territory as far as St. John's River; but that the Dividing Line of Massachusetts and Nova Scotia was to be consigned to future settlement. It must be confessed, also, that this country, which is said in the New Charter to border on Nova Scotia and the Province of Maine, on opposite sides, and which goes under the names of Sagadahock, cannot be proved to extend to the River St. John, as clearly as to that of St. Croix. But there is some reason, notwithstanding, to believe, that Nova Scotia was never supposed by the British King, in any grant to his subjects, to come to the south of St. John's River; although he might have exacted from France a relinquishment of the lands to the River Penobscot, or even Kennebeck, as a part of Nova Scotia.

The first notice taken of Nova Scotia by the King of Great Britain was in a grant which he made of that country to Sir William Alexander, on the 10th of September, 1621. According to this Grant, it was to begin at Cape Sable, to extend towards St. Mary's Bay, to cross the great bay between the Etchemins and Sourigois to the mouth of the River St. Croix to run up to the source of that river, and from thence, by a straight line drawn northwardly to the great river of Canada. On the 12th July, 1625, a patent issued to the same

Sir William Alexander, confirming to him the same.

These grants could not reach to the west of St. Croix, "because," (say the English Commissaries in their Memorial of the 11th January, 1751, sect. 42)" all the country to the westward of the River St. Croix had, in the year 1620, before the date of the first of them, been granted by King James to certain of his subjects, by the name of the Council of Plymouth, "of which grantees Sir William Alexander was one, and who, by virtue of an agreement among the said grantees, possessed the country lying between the "River St. Croix and Pemaquid, a little to the westward of Pentagoet."

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Popple's Map, which was undertaken, as the Author relates, with the approbation of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, makes St. Croix the western Boundary of Nova Scotia. Champlain expressly bounds Acadia by St. Croix to the westward. We may add, as being corroborative of this western limit of Nova Scotia, that the English Commissaries themselves, in their reply of the 4th October, 1751, commend the Map in the fourth volume of Purchas's Pilgrim, as the first ancient Map of Nova Scotia and New England deserving notice; the latter of which they assert to be bounded northwardly, as is delineated in the Map, by the River St. Croix. The same Com

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Appendix. missaries afterwards remark, that it is clear from history that the country Extracts between the Rivers Sagadahock and St. Croix had been settled many years from Se- earlier than the date of the New Charter of Massachusetts; and that Great. Britain considered it as a part of her American Colonies. It could not have been included within Nova Scotia, since it is expressly contradistinguished from it. Sagadahock, too, is granted to the Duke of York under the description of "all that part of the main land of New England beginning at a certain place called or known by the name of St. Croix, adjoining to New Scotland "in America."

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Should it be argued, that it was manifestly the opinion in England at the time of granting the New Charter, that the lands between the Rivers Sagadahock and St. Croix were not included within the limits of Massachusetts, since grants of them were not valid until confirmed by the Crown ;-an answer arises from two considerations. First.-This Charter incorporates these lands into the Province of Massachussetts in unequivocal terms; and secondly, one at least of the Counsellers directed to be chosen yearly for the Province at large, was to be from the inhabitants or proprietors of lands within this territory. The Board of Trade and Plantations on the 28th April, 1700, declared in a solemn act, that New England ought of right to extend to St. Croix.See the Act.

It does not appear, then, that Nova Scotia hath ever been carried to the west of the River St. Croix in any British grant, or any British document relative to New England. We own that in the Memorials of the Court of Great Britain to the French Court, after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, relative to the Boundaries of Nova Scotia, Penobscot River is sometimes asserted to be one of its boundaries, and Kennebeck, at others. But nothing is proved from thence, but a desire in the British King to procure an absolute release from France of all her pretensions, however distant. For a general discussion on this subject, see the British and French Memorials on the occasion, and the Treaties of St. Germain, on the 29th March, 1632, of Westminster, 3rd November, 1655, and of Breda, 31st July, 1667.

As to the territory of Sagadahock, which is synonimous with the lands between the Province of Maine and Nova Scotia, conveyed by the new Charter, we can only observe upon the expression already cited from the grant thereof to the Duke of York, that the “ place called St. Croix, adjoining to New Scotland, " must mean the territory which went by that name. Had the river only been designed, it alone would have been mentioned. It seems to have been the practice of those times to denominate a country from a river which bounded it. The River Sagadahock accordingly, at first, gave its own appellation to the whole country as far as the River St. Croix, and afterwards to the country from thence to St. John's, which had before been called St. Croix. The place, therefore, called St. Croix adjoining to New Scotland, was most likely intended to describe the lands between the Rivers St. Croix and St. John's. History does not inform us that any particular spot of them was known as St. Croix. But as the first course of the grant to the Duke of York plainly runs from Nova Scotia to Massachusetts, along the sea coast, it is probable that it was to begin at the first point in the country of St. Croix on the coast. This must have been on St. John's River. And as the last line of the grant is not closed, it is more agreeable to the usage of those days to adopt a natural Boundary. For this purpose, St. John's River was obvious as far as its head, and afterwards a line to the great River of Canada. See grant to the Duke of York for Sagadahock, 12th March, 1663-4.

We are obliged to urge probabilities, because in the early possession of a rough unreclaimed country, accuracy of lines cannot be much attended to. But we wish that the north-eastern Boundary of Massachusetts may be left to future discussion, when other evidences may be obtained, which the war has removed from us.

Second objection.-But let the New Charter of Massachusetts comprehend, by its expressions, the country from the River St. Croix to that of St. John's,

and the title papers of the other States cover by their terms ever so much land, Appendix. they cannot be supposed, at this day, to justify such wide limits as are de- Extracts manded in Mr. Adams's instructions of August, 1779.

from Secret Jour

Congress.

For 1. The Charters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Ca- nals of rolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, never had any serious western limit, since Acts of the South Sea was thought to be nearer the Atlantic than it really is: and if its true position had been known, such a grant would have been too extravagant.

2. The Charters of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, were granted to proprietors, and that of Georgia to trustees, and were afterwards resumed into the King's hands. It is therefore incumbent on these States to show either their right of succession to the proprietors and trustees, in opposition to the resumption of the Crown, or an obligation on the Crown to appropriate to them, when changed into Royal Governments, the same Boundaries which they held when proprietary or fiduciary.

3. The Treaties with the five [nations] under which New England claims, transferred to that colony no title to their lands.

4. The proclamation of 1763 abridged all the colonies which claimed beyond the sources of the rivers falling into the Atlantic to those sources.

5. By the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, the King of Great Britain bought from the Six Nations, in his own name, a great part of the country claimed by Virginia to the west of the Alleghany Mountains; and by several other Treaties with the Indian tribes, purchases have been made within its chartered limits, from which it may be inferred, that this colony was before destitute of right to the lands so purchased; and

6. The Statute of the British Parliament, commonly called the Quebec Act, in 1774, cuts off the extensive claims of the United States.

Answer to objection second, part first.-It cannot be admitted that even a miscomputation of the distance between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans vitiates the Charters which extend from the one to the other. In every contest among the European Powers concerning the soil of America, the validity of Charters hath been conceded. See Treaties of Germain, Westminster, and Breda, and the Memorials of the Commissaries above referred to.

The King of Great Britain will not fail to acknowledge their sacredness while he calls to mind the doctrine of the British Laws, by which the Charters of corporations are protected. Of how much more importance is a Charter granted to the suffering explorers of the American wilderness.

It is also remarkable, that during the rage for the sacrifice of American Charters in the reign of Charles II. some of them were vacated by the judgments of a court, by which their former legal existence was recognised; and that the arbitrary administration of a Stuart himself would not attempt to destroy a Charter without the formality of a legal process. An American Charter then, being thus respectable in its nature, equity will not suffer it to be annulled on account of a misconception of its contents, when the grantees could not possibly [have] contributed to the mistake by fraudulently withholding information upon the subject, and when the King hath never pretended that he was deceived, or erred. But had the interval between those seas been precisely ascertained, it is not probable that the King of England would have divided the chartered boundaries now in question into more Governments. For perhaps his principal object at that time was to acquire by that of occupancy which originated in this western world, to wit, by Charters, a title of the lands comprehended therein, against Foreign Powers. The sea coast too was not, in his opinion, more than sufficient for the territory of a single colony, as is manifested in the Charter to Virginia, in 1609; and the interior parts, overspread as they were by savages, and distant as they must be from that relief from Europe, without which the new settlement would certainly have perished, would have been a pitiful instance of Royal bounty, and no temptation to emigrants; nor is this merely conjectural. Let the Charters which run to the South Sea be

Appendix. reviewed in chronological order. By this it will be found, that these extensive

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Vol. iii. p. 330.

limits did not creep in through inadvertence, as they were repeated long after the error had been removed, as to the distance of that sea.

On the 23d of May, 1609, James I. granted the Charter under which Virginia claims.

On the 3d of November, 1620, the Charter to the Council of Plymouth was granted.

On the 4th of March, 1628-9, the Charter of the old Colony of Massachusetts was dated.

On the 20th of March, 1662, the first Charter of Carolina was granted.
On the 20th of April, 1662, Connecticut received its Charter.

On the 30th June, 1664, the second Charter of Carolina was granted.
On the 7th of October, 1691, the new Charter of Massachusetts, which,
among other things, re-established the old Colony, was granted.

In 1732, Georgia was erected into a separate Government.

ARTICLES agreed upon by and between Richard Oswald, Esq. the Commissioner of His Britannick Majesty for treating of Peace with the Commissioners of the United States of America, in behalf of his said Majesty on the one part, and John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens, four of the Commissioners of the said States for treating of Peace with the Commissioner of His said Majesty, on their behalf, on the other part-to be inserted in, and to constitute the Treaty of Peace, proposed to be concluded between the Crown of Great Britain and the said United States; but which Treaty is not to be concluded until terms of a Peace shall be agreed upon between Great Britain and France, and His Britannick Majesty shall be ready to conclude such Treaty accordingly.

Whereas reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience are found by experience to form the only permanent foundation of Peace and friendship between States, it is agreed to form the Articles of the proposed Treaty on such principles of liberal equity and reciprocity, as that partial advantages (those seeds of discord) being excluded, such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries may be established, as to promise and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony.

ARTICLE I.

His Britannick Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz. New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be Free, Sovereign and Independent States; that he treats with them as such, and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the Government, propriety and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof; and that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of the Boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are and shall be their Boundaries, viz.

ARTICLE II.

From the north-west angle of Nova Scotia, viz. that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of St. Croix River to the highlands, along the said highlands, which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the River St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantick Ocean, to the north-westernmost head of Connecticut River; thence down along the middle of that River, to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; from thence by a line due west on said latitude, until it strikes the River Iroquois, or Cataraquy;

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