as over they petitioned for a renewal. Four other
large companies then formed themselves, called the Mississippi, the
Illinois, the Wabash, and the Indiana companies, each praying for
immense quantities of land, some amounting to two hundred miles square,
so that they proposed to cover the whole country north between the
Ohio and Mississippi, and a great portion of what is south. All these
petitions were depending, without any answer whatever from the crown,
when the revolution war broke out. The petitioners had associated to
themselves some of the nobility of England, and most of the characters
in America of great influence. When Congress assumed the government,
they took some of their body in as partners, to obtain their influence;
and I remember to have heard at the time, that one of them took Mr.
Girard as a partner, expecting by that to obtain the influence of the
French court; to obtain grants of those lands which they had not been
able to obtain from the British government. All these lands were within
the limits of Virginia, and that State determined peremptorily, that
they never should be granted to large companies, but left open equally
to all: and when they passed their land law (which I think was in 1778)
they confirmed only so much of the lands of the Loyal company as they
had actually surveyed, which was a very small proportion, and annulled
every other pretension. And when that State conveyed the lands to
Congress (which was not till 1784), so determined were they to prevent
their being granted to these or any other large companies, that they
made it an express condition of the cession, that they should be applied
first towards the soldiers' bounties, and the residue sold for the
payment of the national debt, and for no other purpose. This disposition
has been, accordingly, rigorously made, and is still going on, and
Congress considers itself as having no authority to dispose of them
otherwise.

*****

I sincerely wish, Sir, it had been in my power to have given you a more
agreeable account of this claim. But as the case actually is, the most
substantial service is to state it exactly, and not to foster false
expectations. I remember with great sensibility all the attentions you
were so good as to render me while I resided in Paris, and shall be made
happy by every occasion which can be given me of acknowledging them, and
the expressions of your friendly recollection are particularly soothing
to me.

A