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OF

TION.

ARTICLES IX. 5. The United States in Congress assembled, shall have authority to CONFEDERA- appoint a committee to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated, “A Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each State; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction; to appoint one of their number to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses; to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the respective States an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted; to build and equip a navy; to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State, which requisition shall be binding; and thereupon the legislature of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, clothe, arm and equip them in soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled; but if the United States in Congress assembled, shall, on consideration of circumstances, judge proper that any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other State should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such State, unless the legislature of such State shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, clothe, arm, officer and equip, as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared, and the officers and men so clothed, armed and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in Congress assembled.

IX. 6. The United States in Congress assembled, shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defence and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a Commander-in-Chief of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same; nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day, be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the United States, in Congress assembled.

IX. 7. The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations, as in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State, on any question, shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a State or any of them, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several State

X. The committee of the States or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine States, shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United States assembled, is requisite.

XI. Canada, acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States.

XII. All bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed, and debts contracted by or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

XIII. Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States in Congress assembled, in all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the union shall be perpetual ; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislature of every State.

And whereas, it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World, to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorise us to ratify the said articles of confederation and of perpetual union-Know ye, that we the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective contituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, in all questions which by the said confederation are submitted to them; and that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the States we respectively represent, and that the union shall be perpetual. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands in Congress.

Done at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the 9th day of July, in the Year of our Lord, 1778, and in the 3d Year of the Independence of America.

New-Hampshire.

Josiah Bartlett,
John Wentworth, jr.

Massachusetts Bay.

John Hancock,
Samuel Adams,
Elbridge Gerry,
Francis Dana,

James Lovel,

Samuel Holten.

Pennsylvania.

Robert Morris,
Daniel Roberdeau,
Jonathan Bayard Smith.
William Clingan,
Joseph Reed,

Delaware.
Thomas McKean,
John Dickinson,
Nicholas Vandyke.

ARTICLES

OF

CONFEDERA

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ACTS OF CESSION OF VIRGINIA

OF HER TITLE TO LAND NORTH AND WEST OF THE RIVER OHIO.

MARCH 1, 1784.

(See Laws and Resolutions of the U. States, relating to the public Lands, p. 98.)

VIRGINIA.

Whereas the General Assembly of Virginia, at their session commencing on the 20th day of October, 1783, passed an act to authorize their delegates in Congress to convey to the United States, in Congress assembled, all the right of that commonwealth to the territory North-Westward of the river Ohio; and whereas the delegates of the said commonwealth have presented to Congress the form of a deed proposed to be executed pursuant to the said act, in the words following:

To all who shall see these presents, we, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe, the underwritten delegates for

* The acts of the Confederation of July, 1778, not repealed by the Constitution of the United States of 1787, are themselves of a constitutional character and validity, and as fully binding upon Congress as any part of the present Constitution of the United States. The Convention of 1787 was not intended to be subversive, but emendatory of the Confederation. All such acts therefore, under which the States, or any of them can claim any rights, are part and parcel of the Laws of each State, and are proper to be inserted in such a collection of Laws. The Acts of Cession passed by the State of Virginia of her claim to territory North and West of the River Ohio, and the Ordinance of the Confederation for the laying out and governing such new States as may be formed out of that territory, contain general provisions in which the several States of the old Confederation are or may be interested. For instance, the lands comprised within the North-Western territory, are declared to be a fund, in which the States are interested in proportion to their respective taxation. At this moment while I am writing, Mr. CLAY's bill for the disposal of the surplus revenue, arising from the sale of the public lands, is in agitation before Congress, and must constitutionally be decided on a purview of the provisions contained in the Act of Cession of Virginia, and the Ordinance of 1787. And upon these provisions will the distributory share of South Carolina depend, viz: upon taxable contribution, regulated by federal representation.

These reasons have induced the Editor to insert the documents in question, which appear at first sight to have little relation to our own State, but which may become very important to her interests. Edit.

ACT OF

the commonwealth of Virginia, in the Congress of the United States of CESSION OF America, send greeting:

VIRGINIA.

Whereas the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, at their sessions begun on the 20th day of October, 1783, passed an act entitled "An act to authorize the delegates of this State, in Congress, to convey to the United States in Congress assembled, all the right of this commonwealth to the territory Northwestward of the river Ohio," in these words following, to wit:

[Here follows the preamble of the act.]

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That it shall and may be lawful for the Delegates of this State to the Congress of the United States, o such of them as shall be assembled in Congress, and the said delegates or such of them so assembled, are hereby fully authorized and empowered for and on behalf of this State, by proper deeds or instruments in writing, under their hands and seals, to convey, transfer, assign and make over to to the United States, in Congress assembled, for the benefit of the said States, all right, title and claim, as well of soil as jurisdiction, which this Commonwealth hath to the territory or tract of country within the limits of the Virginia Charter, situate, lying and being, to the Northwest of the river Ohio, subject to the terms and conditions contained in the above recited act of Congress of the 13th day of September last; that is to say, upon condition that the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into States, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than one hundred, nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square, or as near thereto as circumstances will admit; and that the States so formed shall be distinct republican States, and admitted members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other States.

That the necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by this State in subduing any British posts, or in maintaing forts and garrison within, and for the defence, or in acquiring any part of the territory so ceded or relinquished, shall be fully reimbursed by the United States; and that one commissioner shall be appointed by Congress, one by this commonwealth, and another by those two commissioners, who, or a majority of them, shall be authorised and empowered to adjust and liquidate the account of the necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by this State, which they shall judge to be comprised within the intent and meaning of the act of Congress of the tenth of October, one thousand seven hundred and eighty, respecting such expenses. That the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskias, St. Vincents, and the neighbouring villages, who have professed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their possessions and titles confirmed to them, and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties. That a quantity not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, promised by this State, shall be allowed and granted to the then Colonel, now General George Rogers Clarke, and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment, who marched with him when the post of Kaskaskias and St. Vincents were reduced, and to the officers and soldiers that have been since incorporoted into the said regiment, to be laid off in one tract, the length of which not to exceed double the breadth, in such place, on the Northwest side of the Ohio, as a majority of the officers shall choose, and to be afterwards divided among the said officers and soldiers in due proportion according to the laws of

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