The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-09-26


tplace, was by cessions made on the par
of several of the original States, whost
grants of territory from the King o.
England extended from the Atlantic
west to the Mississippi, or south t.
"the South Sea" (Gulf of Mexico)
When the original colonies were asked
to ratify the Articles of Confederation
the possession of such extensive tract!
of territory by some of these colonies
became a matter of jealousy on the par
of others more limited in their terri
torial possessions, and some of these
New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland
/ demanded that those colonies allow
the Continental Congress to fix theil
western boundaries, and that the por.
ton cut off be coded to the United
States, to be held by the general govern
ment for the common benefit of all the
States. Against such method OF
procedure. Some of the larger States
protested, especially Virginia, which
opened her land Office and began to pre-
pare for the disposal of the vacant
lands in her western possessions. This
question for time threatened to pre-
vent the ratification of the articles
drafted to bring about a perpetual
nnion. In 1779. however, Congress
passed a resolution by a vote of eight
States to three, making q statement
that the appropriation of vacant lands
by the several States dur the contin-
uance Of the war, would be attend
with great mischief, and recommend
ing to Virginia that she reconsider the
act of her local Assembly which opened
her land Office for the sale Of those IN
occupied lands during the continuance
of the war. 1t will be remembered that
then the Revolutionary war was
in progress. Here the matter rested
until March, 1850. when the State Lsgis-
lature of New York passed. an act au
thorizing Congress to fix her western
boundary, and relinquishing all the ter
ritory west of that boundary formerly
claimed by said State to tia United
States, or for the common good of all
the States that should accept the
Articles OF Confederation. Congress
took advantage of this generous con-
cession of New York, and forwarded
copies of this act and the protest of the
Colonies Directing to States having con.
troll OF such large tracts of territory, to
the various State Legislatures, and rec
commended to those States that had
claims to western country, that they
follow the example OF New York, and
thus remove the only obstacle. to the
ratification of the Articles of Confed-
Grafton. This appeal was not made in
vain. Virginia followed the ex
ample of New York, and subse-
quently Massachusetts, Connecticut,
South Carolina, North Carolina and
Georgia all coded territory TO the
United States. Now, what was the
general government to do with this
vast accession of territory2 Was it
ever intended that the communities that
should inhabit it, we're to be deprived OF
the benefits of republican principles of
Certainly not. For, side
by side with the request which Congress
made of the State governments toicede
their uno:cupied lands for the common
good of all the States, was this resoIu-
ton passed on the 10th of October, 1880:
. Resolued That the unappropriated lands
that may be ceded or reIinQ'nshed to the
UntIed otates by any particular State =
should be disposed of for the common bene-
1t of the United States, and lie settled and |
formed Into distinct Republican States, |
the Federal Union, and hive
the same rights of sovereignty. |
freedom and Independence, as the other |
States; that each state which shall be SO |
formed shall contain "a suitable extent OF |
territory" etc.
Thus the intention was that the terri
tory acquired by the general govern
ment, so soon as it became sufficiently |
should be divided up into
States ofcenVenient size, and admitted
INTO the Union, endowed with the same
rights of sovereignty, freedom and in
dependence as possessed by theioriginal
States that formed the Union. The
general government kept that plighted
iaith, for all that territory ceded 10 the
general government has since been or
sanized into States. The same policy
has been pursued in relation to territory
hat has been obtained in other ways
han by the cession of these original
states. The same policy has been
adopted in dealing with the Florida
Purchase; also with the Louisiana Pur-
;hase. and to quite an extent with the
erritory obtained from Mexico, partly
y conquest, and in part by purchase.
.t. III. 4
Whence, then, come Terrific rial gov