Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/102



HE consideration of this subject involves a discussion of the title of all claimants to the territory between the Alleghany mountains and the Mississippi river from the Florida line to the Great Lakes, and the final cession to the United States of all this territory, except Kentucky, which was erected into an independent state by consent of Virginia. There were three distinct classes of claimants.

First.—The charter claimants:

Second.—Claimants by virtue of alleged grants or purchases from the Indians.

Third.—Foreign claimants.

There was, also, a class of indirect claimants who urged the United States to set up a claim of original right to the jurisdiction and soil of this entire region.

It was urged that the United States ought to seize this entire country as the property of the general government; that this territory, &quot;if secured by the blood and treasure of all the States, ought in reason, justice and policy to be considered a common stock.&quot; This agrarian argument aroused the indignation of the charter claimants and threatened to prevent the formation of the Union. Congress, however, was not deceived by the fallacy, and acted with wisdom and justice. By no act or declaration, under the Continental Congress, or under the Confederation, or under the Constitution, did the United States ever assert such a claim, or sanction the policy of