Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/255

 CH. II.] Paris of 1763, if wrested from the common enemy by the blood and treasure of the thirteen states, ought to be deemed a common property, subject to the disposition of congress for the general good. Rhode-Island, Delaware, New-Jersey, and Maryland insisted upon some provision for establishing the western boundaries of the states; and for the recognition of the unsettled western territory, as the property of the Union.

§ 228. The subject was one of a perpetually recurring interest and irritation; and threatened a dissolution of the confederacy. New-York, at length, in February, 1780, passed an act, authorizing a surrender of a part of the western territory claimed by her. Congress embraced the opportunity, thus afforded, to address the states on the subject of ceding the territory, reminding them, "how indispensably necessary it is to establish the federal union on a fixed and permanent basis, and on principles, acceptable to all its respective members; how essential to public credit and confidence, to the support of our army, to the vigor of our councils, and the success of our measures; to our tranquillity at home, our reputation abroad; to our very existence, as a free, sovereign, and independent people." They recommended, with earnestness, a cession of the western territory; and at the same time, they as earnestly recommended to Maryland to subscribe the articles of confederation. A cession was accordingly made by the delegates of New-York on the first of March, 1781, the very day, on which Maryland acceded to the confederation. Virginia had previously acted upon the recommendation of congress; and by subsequent cessions