the United States northwest of the river Ohio, are the following clauses:

Under the head of lands reserved by States in their deeds of cession, it is said, "the tract of country presents itself from the completion of the forty-first degree to forty-second degree two minutes of North latitude, and extending to the Pennsylvania line before mentioned, one hundred and twenty miles westward, not mentioned in the deed of Connecticut, while all the country westward thereof was mentioned to be ceded; about two and a half millions of acres of this may, perhaps, be without the Indian lines before mentioned."

In the act of Congress passed May 18th, 1796, entitled “An act providing for the sale of the lands of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky river," is the following section:

Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That whenever seven ranges of townships shall have been surveyed below the Great Miami, or between the Scioto river and the Ohio company's purchase, or between the southern boundary of the Connecticut claims, and the ranges already laid off, beginning upon the Ohio river, and extending westwardly; and the plats thereof made and transmitted, in conformity to the provisions of this act, the said section of the six hundred and forty acres (excluding those hereby reserved) shall be offered for sale at public vendue, under the direction of the Governor, or Secretary of the Western Territory, and the Surveyor General; such of them as lie below the Great Miami, shall be sold at Cincinnati; those of them that lie between the Scioto and the Ohio Company's purchase, at Pittsburg; and those between the Connecticut claim and seven ranges at Pittsburg, &c."

On the 21st of January, 1799, Mr. Read, from a committee to whom was referred a bill to accept a cession from Connecticut of the Western Reserve, made a report to the Senate, which was as follows:

At a meeting of commissioners from sundry of the then colonies at Albany, on Tuesday, the 9th of July, it was, among other things, agreed and resolved, as follows:

That His Majesty's title to the northern continent of America appears to be founded on the discovery thereof first made,

and the possession thereof first taken in 1497, under a commission from Henry VII. of England, to Sebastian Cabot. That the French have possessed themselves of several parts of this continent, which, by treaties, have been ceded and confirmed to them.

That the right of the English to the whole seacoast from Georgia on the south, to the river St. Lawrence on the north, excepting the island of Cape Breton, and the islands in the Bay of St. Lawrence, remains indisputable.

That all the lands or countries westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea, between 48 and 34° north latitude, was expressly included in the grant of King Charles I. to divers of his subjects, so long since as the year 1606, and afterwards confirmed in 1620, and under this grant the colony of Virginia claims extent as far west as the South Sea; and the ancient colonies of the Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut were by their respective charters made to extend to the said South Sea; and so that not only the right of the seacoast, but to all the inland countries from sea to sea, has, at all times, been asserted by the Crown of England.

In 1754, some settlements were made from Connecticut on lands on the Susquehanna, about Wyoming, within the chartered limits of Pennsylvania, and also within the chartered limits claimed by Connecticut, which produced a letter from the Governor of Connecticut to the Governor of Pennsylvania, of which the following is an extract:

"WINDSOR, March 13, 1754. "There being now no unimpropriated lands with us, some of our inhabitants, hearing of this land at Susquehanna, and that it was north of the grant made to Mr. Penn and that to Virginia, are upon a design of making a purchase from the Indians, and hope to obtain a grant of it from the Crown. But Mr. Armstrong informs me that this land is certainly within Mr. Penn's grant. If so, I don't suppose our people had any purpose to quarrel with Pennsylvania. Indeed, I don't know the mind of every private man, but I never heard our leading men express themselves so inclined."

On the same day, Lieutenant Governor Fitch wrote from Hartford a letter on the same subject, of which the following is an extract:

"I do well approve of the notice you take of the attempt some of the people of this colony are making, and the concern you manifest for the general peace, &c. I know nothing of any thing done by the Government to countenance such a procedure as you intimate, and, I conclude, is going on among some of our people. I shall, in all proper ways, use my interest to prevent every thing that may tend to prejudice the general good of these governments, and am inclined to believe that this wild scheme of our people will come to nothing, though I can't certainly say."

At a General Assembly for Connecticut, holden in May, 1755, the Susquehanna Company, as were styled those who were seating lands on that river west of New York, and within the boundaries claimed by Pennsylvania and Connecticut, presented a petition praying the assent of the Legislature to a petition to His Majesty for a new colony within the chartered limits of Connecticut, and describing the lands lying west of New York; whereupon, the Assembly of Connecticut, after reciting the said petition, came to the following resolution:

Resolved, by this Assembly, That they are of opinion that the peaceably and orderly erecting and carrying on some new and well regulated colony or plantation on the lands above mentioned would tend to fix and secure said Indian nations in allegiance to His Majesty and friendship with his subjects; and accordingly hereby manifest their ready acquiescence therein, if it should be His Majesty's royal pleasure to grant said land to said petitioners, and thereon erect and settle a new colony, in such form and under such regulations as might be consistent with his royal wisdom; and also take leave humbly to recommend the said petitioners to his royal favor in the premises.

On the 31st of August, 1779, an agreement was concluded between commissioners duly appointed for that purpose by the States of Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively, whereby it was agreed "That the line commonly called Mason's and Dixon's line be extended due west five degrees of longitude to be computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania; and that a meridian drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limits of the said States, respectively, be the western boundary of Pennsylvania forever;" which agreement was ratified and finally confirmed

by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, by resolution bearing date the 3d day of September, 1780, and by the State of Virginia on the day of 178 See Journal of Pennsylvania Assembly, vol. I page 519.

On the 6th day of June, 1788, Congress directed the geographer of the United States to ascertain the boundary line between the United States and the States of New York and Massachusetts, agreeably to the deeds of cession of the said States, and also directed that the meridian line between lake Erie and the State of Pennsylvania being run, the land lying west of said line, and between the State of Pennsylvania and lake Erie, should be surveyed, and return thereof made to the Board of Treasury, who were authorized to make sale thereof.

The said land having been sold, in conformity with the above mentioned resolution, to the State of Pennsylvania, Congress, on the 3d day of September, 1788, passed a resolution relinquishing and transferring all the right, title, and claim, of the United States to the government and jurisdiction of the said tract of land, to the State of Pennsylvania forever.

As the purchasers of the land commonly called the Connecticut Reserve hold their title under the State of Connecticut, they cannot submit to the Government established by the United States in the Northwestern territory, without endangering their titles, and the jurisdiction of Connecticut could not be extended over them without much inconvenience. Finding themselves in this situation, they have applied to the Legislature of Connecticut to cede the jurisdiction of the said territory of the United States. In pursuance of such application, the Legislature of Connecticut, in the month of October, 1797, passed an act authorizing the Senators of the said State in Congress to execute a deed of release in behalf of said State to the United States of the jurisdiction of said territory.

The committee are of opinion that the cession of jurisdiction offered by the State of Connecticut ought to be accepted by the United States, on the terms and conditions specified in the bill which accompanies this report.1

1 The above letter is printed in "The American State Papers," Class VIII, Public Lands, Vol. I. Washington: Published by Gales and Seaton, 1832.

CHAPTER V

THE SPEECHES OF JOHN MARSHALL

JOHN MARSHALL was not a great speechmaker; in his time there were many great orators such as Patrick Henry, Daniel Webster, and many others, but he did not speak unless he was almost pressed to do so. However, when he did speak it was with great eloquence, as all records of the Conventions at which he spoke testify, and his speech on the death of Washington shows that he was filled with a great emotion that he was capable of expressing.

In one of Marshall's letters you will notice that he said he never wished to appear in print if he could help it. It seems that the same rule might have been his in regard to oratory,that he never wished to be heard on the public platform if he could in some manner avoid it.

Webster and Henry never missed an opportunity to air their views, and no doubt this is the case with every man who has the oratorical habit, and who can find an appreciative audience. But Marshall's method was different; he believed in doing his work in a silent way, and in this way he accomplished a great deal, to the discomfiture of those who were opposed to him.

SPEECH OF THE HONORABLE JOHN MARSHALL, Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, on the Resolutions of the Honorable Edward Livingston, relative to Thomas Nash, alias Jonathan Robbins

The case is that Thomas Nash, having committed a murder on board a British frigate, navigating the high seas under a commission from his Britannic Majesty, had sought an asylum within the United States, and on this case his delivery was demanded by the minister of the King of Great Britain.

Mr. Marshall said: -Believing as he did most seriously, that in a government constituted like that of the United States, much of the public happiness depended, not only on its being rightly administered, but on the measures of administration be