tion
among the several States to pay the expenses of the war, and ought not
to be appropriated to the use of the State in whose chartered limits
they might happen to lie, to the exclusion of the other States, by
whose combined efforts and common expense the territory was defended
and preserved against the claim of the British Government.

These difficulties caused much uneasiness during the war, while the
issue was in some degree doubtful, and the future boundaries of the
United States yet to be defined by treaty, if we achieved our
independence.

The majority of the Congress of the Confederation obviously concurred
in opinion with the State of Maryland, and desired to obtain from the
States which claimed it a cession of this territory, in order that
Congress might raise money on this security to carry on the war. This
appears by the resolution passed on the 6th of September, 1780,
strongly urging the States to cede these lands to the United States,
both for the sake of peace and union among themselves, and to maintain
the public credit; and this was followed by the resolution of October
10th, 1780, by which Congress pledged itself, that if the lands were
ceded, as recommended by the resolution above mentioned, they should
be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, and be
settled and formed into distinct republican States, which should
become members of the Federal Union, and have the same rights of
sovereignty, and freedom, and independence, as other States.

But these difficulties became much more serious after peace took
place, and the boundaries of the United States were established. Every
State, at that time, felt severely the pressure of its war debt; but
in Virginia, and some other States, there were large territories of
unsettled lands, the sale of which would enable them to discharge
their obligations without much inconvenience; while other States,
which had no such resource, saw before them many years of heavy and
burdensome taxation; and the latter insisted, for the reasons before
stated, that these unsettled lands should be treated as the common
property of the States, and the proceeds applied to their common
benefit.

The letters from the statesmen of that day will show how much this
controversy occupied their thoughts, and the dangers that were
apprehended from it. It was the disturbing element of the time, and
fears were entertained that it might dissolve the Confederation by
which