Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 7.djvu/16

 3 INDIAN TREATIES. By a secret treaty, which was executed about the same time, France ceded Louisiana to Spain; and Spam has since retroceded the Isame country to France. At the time_ both of its cessron and rctrocessron, rt was occupied, chiefly, by the Indians. _ _ _ Thus, all the nations of Europe, who have acquired territory on this continent, have asserted in themselves, and have recognised rn others, the exclusive right of the discoverer to appropriate the lands occupred by the Indians. I-Iave the American States rejected or adopted thrs principle? · By the treat which concluded the war of our revolution, Great Britain relinquished ad claim, not only to the government, but to the “ propriety and territorial rights of the United States," whose boundaries were fixed in the second article. By this treaty the powers of government, and the right to soil, which had previously been in Great Britain, passed definitively to these states. \We had before taken possession of them, by declaring inde endence; but neither the declaration of independence, nor the treaty condprming it, could give us more than that which we before possessed, or to which Great Britain was before entitled. Llt has never been_ doubted, that either the United States, or the several tates, had a clear title to all the lands within the boundary lines described in the treaty, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy, and that the exclusive power to extinguish that right, was vested in that government which might constitutionally exercise it. Vir'a, particularly within those chartered limits the land in controversylvdlid passed an act, in the year 1779, declaring her *• exclusive right of pre·emption from the Indians, of all the lands within the lrmrts of her own chartered territory, and that no person or persons whatsoever, have, or ever had, a right to purchase any lands within the same, from any Indian nation, except only persons du y authorized to make such purchase ; formerly for the use and beneht of the colony, and lately for the commonwealth." The act then proceeds to annul all deeds made by Indians to individuals, for the private use of the purchasers. Without ascribing to this act the power of annulling vested rights, or admitting it to countervail the testimony furnished by the marginal note opposite to the title of the law, forbidding purchases from the Indians, in the revisals of the Virginia statutes, statin that law to be repealed, it may safely be considered as an unequivocal aérmance, on the part of Virginia, of the broad principle which had always been maintained, that the exclusive right to purchase from the Indians resided in the government. In pursuance of the same idea, Virginia proceeded, at the same session, to open her land office for the sale of that country which now constitutes Kentucky, a country every acre of which was then claimed and possessed by Indians, who maintained their title with as much persevering courage as was ever manifested by any people. The states, having within their chartered limits different portions of territory covered by Indians, ceded that territory, generally, to the United States, on conditions expressed in their deeds of cession, which demonstrate the opinion, that they ceded the soil as well as jurisdiction, and that in doing so, they granted a productive fund to the government of the union. The ands in controversy lay within the chartered limits of Virginia, and were ceded with the whole country north-west of the river Ohio. This grant contained reservations and sti ulations, which could only be made y the owners of the soil; and conciirded with a stipulation, that •• all the lands in the ceded territoréy, not reserved, should be considered as a common fund, for the use an benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become members of the confederation," &c., “ according to their usual respective proportions rn the general charge and expenditure, and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever." The ceded territory was occupied by numerous and warlike tribes of