Opinion ID: 787593
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Revolutionary Period and the Articles of Confederation

Text: 31 Shortly after the Revolutionary War started, the Continental Congress began drafting the Articles of Confederation, which were completed and submitted to the Colonies for ratification in 1777. The Articles were drafted against the backdrop of the ongoing war with the British and hostile Indian Nations (which included the Senecas), and a major controversy between the so-called landed states—those claiming Western lands pursuant to their colonial charters or, in the case of New York, pursuant to past dealings with the Six Nations—and the so-called landless states—those without such claims. Oneida Indian Nation v. New York, 860 F.2d 1145, 1152 (2d Cir.1988) ( Oneida II ). 32 An aim of the new confederal government was to limit the territory of the landed states to their traditional borders near the East Coast and secure for itself the lands to their west. Ultimately, a compromise was reached in which the landed states ceded western lands to the United States, often in exchange for the recognition of favorable traditional boundaries to the east. Id. As part of this compromise, New York ceded claims to all lands west of a meridian drawn south from the western tip of Lake Ontario, which left the Niagara region well within New York's western boundary. Joint Stip. ¶¶ 64-65; see, e.g., Seneca II, 206 F.Supp.2d at 552 (Map Appendix I) (demonstrating that the westernmost point of Lake Ontario lies well to the west of the Niagara region). 33 The Articles of Confederation reflected a mistrust of centralized government. Article II, for example, provided that [e]ach State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled. U.S.C.A. Art. of Confed. art. II. In ceding their claims to western lands, the landed states secured two important benefits: first, the guarantee that no State shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States, id. art. IX, cl. 2; and second, the provision that in exercising its sole and exclusive right and power of ... regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States, the United States could not infringe[] or violate[] the legislative right of any State within its own limits, id. art. IX, cl. 4 (the Legislative Rights Proviso). 9 34 The 1783 Treaty of Paris concluded hostilities and set the international boundary with Canada (then governed by Britain), in part, along the middle of the Niagara River between Lakes Erie and Ontario. See Treaty of Paris, art. 2, 8 Stat. 80, 81 (1783). Notwithstanding the Treaty of Paris, until 1796 the British retained possession of Fort Niagara, on the United States side of the River at Lake Ontario. Joint Stip. ¶ 69. The Treaty did not specifically mention the Islands. 35