Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/147

Rh and New York, being part of the lands belonging to the said Six Nations and their tributaries.&quot;

Sixth.—The conditions annexed to the said cession are incompatible with the honor, interests and peace of the United States.&quot;

The report offers a series of resolutions, among other things, that Congress recommend to Virginia and other states to cede &quot;all claims and pretensions of claims to said western territory without any conditions or restrictions whatever.&quot; This report was the nearest approach to recognition which the claims of the land companies ever received in Congress, but it was a victory of short duration, and destined to an ignominious end, as shown by the following extract from the Fourth volume of Journals of Congress:

April 18, 1782.— * * * &quot;’The order of the day for taking into consideration the report of the committee on the cessions of New York, Virginia and Connecticut, and the petitions of the Indiana, Vandalia, Illinois and Wabash companies, being called for by the delegates for Virginia, and the first paragraph being read, a motion was made by Mr. Lee, seconded by Mr. Bland [both Virginia delegates], That previous to any determination in Congress, relative to the cessions of the western lands, the name of each member present be called over by the secretary; that on such call, each member do declare upon his honor, whether he is or is not personally interested, directly or indirectly, in the claims of any company or companies, which have petitioned against the territorial rights of any one of the States, by whom such cessions have been made, and that such declaration be entered upon the journals.’"

The intelligent reader will not be surprised to find that this resolution never came to a vote. On various pretexts, the consideration of this motion and the report of the committee were postponed from day to day until May 6, when it was indefinitely postponed. From this