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that could not outlive the authority in which they origi-
nated.
Such is our opinion now — such was the thought of Ma-
ryland, when in the mist and doubt of the great struggle —
while the destinies of the State were dependent upon the
uncertain issue of a war, between veteran force anil orga-
nized discipline on the one hand, and untrained masses on
the other, still asserted this truth. Though she sheathed
not the sword in the field, nor remitted of her efforts in the
cause, she contended in the council against the rapacious
spirit that then asserted a contingent exclusive right to the
yet unsettled domain. This is a matter of history, ami
your committee would deem that they had discharged their
duty in merely adverting to it as a link in the chain or rea-
sons leading to the conclusion they report; but that the ex-
traordinary position of the executive of the State, renders
the inference possible, that these facts may not be of such
general knowledge as they had conceived. By reference
to the Senate Journals of Congress, from 1775 to 1788, it
will be seen that by a portion of the ninth article of the
proposed confederation, "no State should be deprived of
territory for the benefit of the United States. " On the
21st May, 1779, the delegates from Maryland were instruc-
ted to refuse to sign the articles of confederation, unless
the common property "in that country, unsettled at the
commencement of this war, claimed by the British Crown,
and ceded to it by the treaty of Paris, " was recognized by
a modification of this article. She contended, that "if
wrested from the common enemy by the blood and treasure
of the thirteen States, it should be considered as a com-
mon property. " She charged those States as "ambitiously
grasping at territory, to which, in her judgment, they had
not the least shadow of exclusive right. "
Other states who had contended with Maryland for this
modification, yielded to the exigence of the period, and
signed the articles. Maryland alone, undaunted by her iso-
lated position, unalarmed by the desertion of allies who had
made common cause with her, "against the ambitious
grasping at territory" of the larger states, strong in the pa-
triotic and prophetic wisdom of those who then wielded
her councils, remained firm to her principles. Congress,
on the 6th of September, 1780, passed resolutions recom-
mending the states to surrender "a liberal portion of their
territorial claims" for the general benefit; and not until alter
the passage of this resolution, and the precedent cession
from New-York, did she accede to the confederation.
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