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Royal Governments, more defined in their territorial lim-
its than in the original cessions, The right assumed by the
Crown to make such disposition of unoccupied territory,
was that of discovery. This conflict was only ended by
treaty in 1763 — the boundary then agreed upon between
the Possessions of these Kingdoms, was the Mississippi
river, from its source to the sea. "This treaty, " says
Judge Marshall, (Johnson v. McIntosh, 5 Peters 532; )
"expressly cedes, and has always been understood to cede
the whole country, on the English side of the dividing line
between the two nations. " Great Britain, on her part, se-
cured to France all her pretensions to the country west of
the Mississippi. By the 20th article of the same treaty,
Spain ceded Florida, with all its dependencies, and all the
country she claimed, east or south-east of the Mississippi,
to Great Britain.
It will be thus perceived, that prior to the revolution,
Great Britain was the proprietary of ail the territory east
of the Mississippi, subject only in her exercise of authori-
ty, to the restrictions which she had voluntarily acknow-
ledged in her grants.
At that period, the Colonial Governments were New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary-
land, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. Of
these, Virginia claimed as part of her territory, all the
land north of the river Ohio, and west of Pennsylvania,
limited only on the north by the ultimate boundary of the
United States, and west by the Mississippi. Massachu-
setts, Connecticut, New York and North Carolina also al-
leged claims to all the vacant and unsettled lands within the
limits of their respective charters. South Carolina and
Georgia made pretensions to the vacant lands south of the
35th degree of north latitude.
The war of the revolution commenced, as is known,
prior to the confederation of these States, and no question
of disputed rights with reference to the unsettled territory,
was mooted, until the articles of confederation were under
discussion. The object of the contest was the achievement
of independence — to break the fetter of colonial relation
to Great Britain; and the consequence upon the successful
prosecution of these purposes, was the acquisition of an
uninhabited and unconquered territory of larger extent and
more fertility of soil, than the limits of the old thirteen
could boast. This territory was acquired by common energy,
a common sacrifice of life, and appropriation of funds in
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