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olina, South Carolina, and Georgia, claimed that their "from sea to sea" charters gave them lands between the mountains and the Mississippi River, and that one, New York, had bought the Indian title to land in the Ohio valley. It must also be remembered that the other six states did not have "from sea to sea" charters, and so had no claims to western lands. As three of them, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, held that the claims of their sister states were invalid, they now refused to adopt the Articles unless the land so claimed was given to Congress to be used to pay for the cost of the Revolution. For this action they gave four reasons: 1. The Mississippi valley had been discovered, explored, settled, and owned by France. 2. England had never owned any land there till France ceded the country in 1763. 3. When at last England had got it, in 1763, the King drew the "proclamation line," turned the Mississippi valley into the Indian country, and so cut off any claim of the colonies in consequence of English ownership. 4. The western lands were therefore the property of the King, and now that the states were in arms against him, his lands ought to be seized by Congress and used for the benefit of all the states. For three years the land-claiming states refused to be convinced by these arguments. But at length, finding that Maryland was determined not to adopt the Articles till her demands were complied with, they began to yield. In February, 1780, New York ceded her claims to Congress, and in January, 1781, Virginia gave up her claim to the country north of the Ohio River. Maryland had now carried her point, and on March 1, 1781, her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation. As all the other states had ratified the Articles, this act on the part of Maryland made them law, and March 2, 1781, Congress met for the first time under a form of government the states were pledged to obey. %165. Government under the Articles of Confederation.%--The form of government that went into effect on that day was bad from beginning to end. There was no one officer to carry out the laws, no court or judge to settle disputed points of law, and only a very feeble legislature. Congress consisted of one house, presided over by a president elected each year by the members from among their own number. The delegates to Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two from each state, were elected yearly, could not ser
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