The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1783-05-28 00:00:00, page 1

Mr. Collins and Mr. Kollock, as the Legisla
ture is now fitting at Burlington, I beg that you
will each give the inclofed a place in your papers,
that every citizen, who thinks the fubjedt worthy
his attention, may join in the solicitation with
your humble servant.
To the Honourable the Legislative-Council
and General Assembly of the State of New-
Jersey.
WITH great submission, gentlemen, I
beg your attention, while I Rate a few
things for your consideration. You
have the honour to form the firft se
nate for New-Jerfry, after its being declared by
Christendom a free, lovereign and independent Rate.
As far as the nations of the earth are concerned,
the United States of America are bid to rife in glo
ry, and display their own importance, until they
Ihall have no superior. But as every man is said to
be the smith of his own fortune, the maxim will
warrant me in faying that the honour and prospe
rity of the United States, jointly considered, depend
on the justice and wisdom of the Honourable the
Congress. Individually considered, the happiness
and weal of each Bate depends on the vigilance, sa
gacity and integrity, of those gentlemen who may,
from year to year, compose its Legislature.
No future period can involve matters of greater
import to this date, than those which at prefect
await your serious deliberation. The people which
you represent have as much merit to entitle them
to all the blessings that peace and empire can give,
as those of any Rate in the union; and your consti
tuents expetl that you will do them the justice to
place them in equilibria with the citizens of the
other Rates, in two most important points, viz.—
Procuring for the Rate of New-Jersey its dividend
of those countries lately ceded to the United States
by the King of England; or an equal benefit from
the sales thereof, in proportion to its quota of the
cxpences of the war: And that you will also make
ample provision for the encouragement of commerce
and navigation, that they may no longer lie under
the necessity ofbeing tributaries to the dates of Penn
sylvania and New-York, which they are in a degree
proportionate to their purchases at those markets.
I Ihall leave to others, whose profefiion it is, the
business of addressing your Honours on the subject
of trade, while I humbly solicit your firft attention
to an equitable division of the crown-lands.
At prefect I will not fuffcr myfelf to harbour a
suspicion, that there can be even one member in
either of your Honourable Houses, who wants a dif
potition to do every thing in his power that is just
and reasonable for the interests of the Rate of New-
Jersey. My prayer is, that early in your prefect fit
ting, you take up the business of remonstrating to
Congress on the justice and necessity of dividing to
each Rate a certain ratio, either in the profits of the
sales, or in acres of those lands aligned to the United
States, which cannot, on any reasonable pretence
whatever, be considered as the property of any indi
vidual Rate.
In aid of my prayer, I beg leave to call to your
remembrance the resolutions of preceding Levida
tures of the Rate on that fubjeft.
On the Bth day of October, 1778, at a time when
the Legislature bad in view the ratification of the
Articles of Confederation, both Houses joined in a
Representation to the United States in Congress as
sembled ; in which, among many other judicious re
marks on the confederation, in the fifth and lixth
fe&ions of the representation, they have these words:
" stb. The bounderies and limits of each Rate
" ought to be fully and finally fixed and made
" known: This we apprehend would be attended
" with very salutary effects, by preventing jcaloufies
" as well as controversies, and promoting harmony
" and confidence among the Rates. If the circum
" Rances of the times would not admit of this, pre
" vious to the proposal of the confederation to the
" several Rates, the eßablilhment of the principles
" upon which, and the rules and mode by which,
" the determination may be conducted, at a time
" more convenient and favourable, and a provision
" for dispatching the fame at an early period, not
" exceeding five years from the final ratification of
" the confederation, would be fatisfadory.
" 6th. The ninth article provides, that no Rate
" Ihall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the
" United States. Whether we are to underßand,
" that by territory is intended any lands, the pro
" perty of which was heretofore veiled in the crown
" of Great-Britain, or that no mention is made of
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
[Vol. Vl.].
WEDNESD A. Y, MAY 28, 1782.
" such lands in the confederation, we are constrained
" to observe, that the present war, as we always
" apprehended, was undertaken for the general de
" fence and interest of the confederating Colonies,
'' now the United States.
" It was ever the confident expectation of this
" state, that the benefits derived from a fuccefsful
" contest, were to be general and proportionate ;
" and that the property of the common enemy, fal
" ling in conftquence of a prosperous issue of the
" war, would belong to the United States, and be
" appropriated to their use. We are therefore
" greatly difappeinted, in finding no provision made
" in the confederation for empowering the Congress
'' to dispose of such property, but especially the va
" cant and unpatented lands, commonly called the
" crown-lands, for defraying the cxpences of the
" war, and for other such publick and general pur
" poses.
" The jurifdi&ion ought in every instance to be
" long to the refpeCtive states, within the charters
" or determined limits of which such lands may be
" fcated ; but reason and justice must decide, that
'' the property which existed in the crown of Great
" Britain, previous to the present revolution, ought
" now to belong to the Congress, in trust for the
" use and benefit of the United States. They have
" fought and bled for it in proportion to their re
" fpe&ive abilities, and therefore the reward ought
" not to be prediledionally difiributed. Shall such
" Rates as are shut out by situation from availing
" themfclves of the least advantage from this quar
" ter, be left to fink under an enormous debt, whilst
" others are enabled, in a short period, to replace
" ail their expenditures from the hard earnings of
" the whole confederacy ?" See the Journals of the
Legislative-Council for the month of October, A. D.
1778.
On the 20th of December, 1780, Mr. Trent, from
the committe of the house of Assembly, to whom
were committed the petitions of fundryrinhabitants
of tire counties of Monmouth and Hunterdon, re
fpe&ing the western unappropriated lands, reported
as follows:
'OUlb committee to whom were referred the
petitions of a large number of inhabitants of the
counties of Monmouth and Hunterdon, praying
" the Legislature to remonstrate, in the warmest
ter ms, against tlie tale of any of the western un
" appropriated lands, commonly called the crown
''lands, by any Rate for the exclusive right thereof,
" being convinced of the absolute necessity of op
" poling the conduct of the Rate of Virginia in that
" refped, as being the only one, so far as they are
" informed, which has yet proceeded to dispose of
" lands under this description, for their separate
“ emolument; and at the fame time of the propri
" cty of intreating the United States in Congress as
" fembled, to open an office for the sale and appro
“ priation pf the laid lands ; the proceeds to be
" applied to carry on and terminate the war, to aid
the funds, and establish the credit of the publick
" finances ; and, by constituting a common interest,
" to render the union firm and Lifting, on the sure
" basis of justice and equity : And having moreover
" maturely considered the prayer of tlTe said petiti
" 011 s, and examined a variety of papers and docu
" ments to which they have had access, do, in juf
" titication of the rights of the people, and from
" the full conviction of their own minds, report as
" their opinion,
" That the prayer of the said petitions ought to
be granted, tor the following, among other rea
'' sons, which, on account of their importance to
" this Rate in particular, they <^fh to be entered
" on the record of the journals of the house:
" ift. because no position is more clear and incon
" teftible than that the property of whatever kind,
" moveable or immoveable, within the territories
" efthe United States, which, previous to the re
" volution, was vested in and did belong to the
" crown of Great-Britain, in trust for the use of the
" nation, part of which the American Colonies,
“ (now the United States) were, is, and of right
" ought to be, vested in, and does belong to the said
'' Rates assembled in Congress, as the governing
" power, in trust for the use of this nation ; and
" every partial application thereof is an abstraction
" from the right and property of the people.
" 2d. Because, with rtfpeCt to Virginia, had the
“ charter of James the firft, granted in the year
" 1609, never been surrendered or vacated, it would
•' be of no validity, as no potentate on earth has,
" or ever had, a right to grant the territory of other
" sovereign, independent princes ; more especially
“ lands that were never fcen by any of his fubjedts,
THE
c< '' 3d. Because, the limits described in the said char
ter, which are in the words following : Beginning
from the Cape or Point of Land called Cape or
£ Point Comfort, thence all along the sea cooft to the
north-ward two hundred miles, and from the said
Point or Cape Comfort all along the sea cooji to the
^ south-ward two hundred miles ; and all that space
or circuit of land lying from the sea coafl of the pre
c cinclaforefaid, up into the land throughout, from
sea to fca, weft and norweft, are inconclusive, and
of course void; for if the lines are run agreeably
g g !° " ie co'ftrufion put on them by Virginia, that
J is, a northwest line from the northernmost extent
of their grant on the sea coast of the atlantick,
the laid line will wind in a spiral manner round
J the globe, and at last terminate in the north
pole, without ever touching the south sea; and
J if the northwest line is run from the southern
most extent of the bounds they claim on the sea
‘ coast of the atlantick, and a weft line from the
north bolinds on the said sea coast, which seems
the most natural confirmation of the words of the
limits of the charter, they will form a triangle,
leaving out a great part of their most valuable
settlements, and end in an angle somewhere among
the Alleghany Mountains.
" 4th. Because, on the complaint of the inhabi
-6 tants of Virginia, against the grantees mentioned
in the said charter, a ^uo Warranto was issued,
and the fame was surrendered to the crown in
" 1626, by the said grantees.
" sth. Because, on the surrender of the said charter
in 1626, by the grantees, the crown took on itfelf
the government and disposal of all those lands,
'granting part of New-Jersey and Pennsylvania, and
the whole of the Rates of Delaware and Mary
land, and a great part, if not the whole ot North
-66 , r .°" na ' fr° m what the claimed as her chartered
limits : —And here it is necessary allo to observe,
that George the third, present King of Great-Bri
tain, at a treaty held at tort Stanwix, in the year
1768, did purchase from the fix nations, the true
and absolute proprietors thereof, all the lands ly
mg between the Alleghany Mountains and the ri
ver Ohio, as low down as the Cherokee river,
66 being also within her pretended char
« limits; which purchase, and the crown's
"£ ht to these lan ds, Virginia, in her publick trans
actions since that time, repeatedly acknowledges.
'" V'^ ( he Houle ot Burgesses of the then Co
lony of Virginia, in a representation made to Lord
Botetourt, their Governor (on Donaldson's
line) speaking of the lands, fay, 66 So lately ceded
^ a J' ft y and Doctor Walker and Colo
nel Lewis, the two gentlemen who attended as
commifiioners from Virginia, at the treaty of fort
Stanwix, and were afterwards appointed by that
' colony commissioners to wait on Mr. Stuart, fu
‘ perintendant of Indian affairs for the southern de
" partment on'this line, wrote him a letter, dated
" Charleftown, South-Carolina, February 2, 1769,
" from which the following is an extract: " The
" country southward of the Big-Kenhawa," (a river
6 that empties itfelf into the Ohio, about 280 miles
" below fort Pitt)" was never claimed by the Che
" rokees, and now is the property of the crown,
" as Sir William Johnson purchased it of the fix
“ nations, at a very considerable expence, and took
" a deed of cession from them at fort Stanwix."
And Mr. Neifon, president of the council of Vb
" ginia, writes the Earl of Hillfborough, firft Lord
“ of trade and plantations, on the Bth day of Oct.
!77°, in part as follows: " On the evening of
“ that day, your Lordship's letter of the 26th of
“ July to the Governor was delivered to me; and
“ as it contains matter of great variety and impor
" tance, it hath been read in council; aid toge
“ ther with several papers enclosed in it, hath
“ been maturely considered, and I now trouble your
" Lordship with theirs, as well as my own opinion
“ upon the fubjed tof them," &c. &c.
" We do not presume to fay to whom our gra
" cious sovereign ihall grant his vacant lands,"
" &c. &c.
" With refped to the eftabliihment of a new co
" leny on the back of Virginia, it is a fubjed tof
" too great political importance for me to presume
" to give an opinion upon: However, permit me,
“ my Lord, to observe, that when that part of the
'' country shall become fufficiently populated, it
" may be a wife and prudent measure." —And fur
“ ther, on the 14th August, 1772, the King of Great
" Britain, after hearing all that Virginia had to of
" fer on the fubjett, fold part of the lands which
" he had so purchased of the fix nations, at the said
" treaty of fort Stanwix, and erected them, toge-
[Numb. 283.]