ate climate, as a rich field for experimentation in the erection
of new and free republics. The deed of cession of Virginia had provided:
"That the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into new
states, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than one
hundred, nor more than one hundred fifty miles square, or as near
thereto as circumstances will admit: and that the states so formed
should be distinct republican states, and admitted members of the
federal union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and
independence, as the other states." If this great public domain, thus
dedicated to the whole nation, and under the control of its supreme
legislative body, the continental congress, could be filled up with a
conglomerate population from all the states, factions and sectional
jealousies would disappear, and at the same time the original states
would be more closely knit together by the bonds of their common
interest in the new federal territory.

But there was one great obstacle to the realization of these hopes, and
that was the difficulty of opening up any means of communication with
this western empire. The mountain ranges stood as barriers in the way,
unless the headwaters of such rivers as the Potomac and the James, could
be connected by canals and portages with the headwaters of the Ohio and
its tributaries. If this could be accomplished, and if the headwaters of
the Miami, Scioto and Muskingum, could be connected in turn with those
of the Cuyahoga, the Maumee and the Wabash, then all was well, for this
would furnish an outlet for the commerce of the west through the ports
and cities of the Atlantic seaboard. There were other and highly
important political questions that engaged Washington's attention at
this time, and they were as follows: The English dominion of Canada
bordered this northwest territory on the north. The British, contrary to
the stipulations of the treaty of peace of 1783, had retained the posts
of Detroit, Niagara and Oswego, to command the valuable fur trade of the
northwest, and the Indian tribes engaged therein, and in addition they
also enjoyed a complete monopoly of all trading vessels on the Great
Lakes. To the south and west of this northwest territory lay the
Spanish possessions, and the Spanish were attempting to bar the settlers
of Kentucky from the use of the Mississippi for the purposes of trade.
In other words, they were closing the market of New Orleans