1831. RESOLUTIONS.

which have been or shall be made thereon." The King of
Great Britain being entitled to the whole eminent domain of
the country, granted a part of it to Lord Baltimore, by his
charter. This right of the King was incontestible, and Vir-
ginia had no claim to any territory within the limits of Bal-
timore's charter, but inasmuch as there had been some dis-
satisfaction by some individuals in Virginia, in regard to the
charter, it was friendly and proper for her, at that time, to
make this express recognition of our limits, and had a ten-
dency to remove all difficulty or misunderstanding that could
possibly arise on the subject, through the perils of the revo-
lution. In the same section of the Virginia constitution, it
is declared, that "the western and northern extent of Virgi-
nia, shall, in all other respects, stand as fixed by the charter
of King James the first, in the year one thousand six hun-
dred and nine, and by the public treaty of peace between
the courts of Great Britain and France, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and sixty-three." The claim of
the English to the continent of North America, was founded
upon the discovery of Cabot in the year fourteen hundred
and ninety-eight; and the name Virginia was, at one time, ap-
plied by the English to the whole continent; and sundry
companies had from time to time, before the revolution,
been chartered with permission to plant colonies within the
limits of Virginia, and for other purposes. Amongst other
charters, that of King James the first, mentioned in this ar-
ticle, had been grapted, but was afterwards, as well as all
other charters of that kind, annulled; and the rights granted
by them revested in the crown, and before the date of Bal-
timore's charter, Virginia became a royal government. It
is therefore clear that the ground taken by Virginia, in the
twenty-first article of her constitution, was not tenable, ex-
cept as a recognition of the Maryland claim. The general
convention of delegates and representatives, who framed the
constitution of Virginia, met at Williamsburgh on the sixth
day of May, seventeen hundred and seventy-six, but a short
time before the declaration of independance, when Virginia
was in her first love as a sister state, it was fit and proper
for her to make such a recognition. But her reservation in
regard to the use of the rivers Potomac and Pocomoke,
were wholly gratuitous; and the two states afterwards, by
compact, on the twenty-eight day of March, in the year of
our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five regu-
lated and settled the jurisdiction and navigation of those ri-
vers, and that part of Chesapeake bay within the territory
of Virginia. If then Virginia had no right to any territory
within the limits of Baltimore's charter, and made the re-