the non-claimant
States had demanded in self-defense that the western land should belong
to the country as a whole and not to the individual States. Rhode
Island, Maryland, and Delaware were most seriously affected, and they
were insistent upon this point. Rhode Island and at length Delaware gave
in, so that by February, 1779, Maryland alone held out. In May of
that year the instructions of Maryland to her delegates were read in
Congress, positively forbidding them to ratify the plan of union unless
they should receive definite assurances that the western country would
become the common property of the United States. As the consent of
all of the Thirteen States was necessary to the establishment of the
Confederation, this refusal of Maryland brought matters to a crisis.
The question was eagerly discussed, and early in 1780 the deadlock was
broken by the action of New York in authorizing her representatives to
cede her entire claim in western lands to the United States.

It matters little that the claim of New York was not as good as that
of some of the other States, especially that of Virginia. The whole
situation was changed. It was no longer necessary for Maryland to
defend her position; but the claimant States were compelled to justify
themselves before the country for not following New York's example.
Congress wisely refrained from any assertion of jurisdiction, and only
urgently recommended that States having claims to western lands should
cede them in order that the one obstacle to the final ratification of
the Articles of Confederation might be removed.

Without much question Virginia's claim was the strongest; but the
pressure was too great even for her, and she finally yielded, ceding to
the United States, upon certain conditions, all her lands northwest of
the Ohio River. Then the Maryland delegates were empowered to ratify the
Articles of Confederation. This was early in 1781, and in a very short
time the other States had followed the example of New York and Virginia.
Certain of the conditions imposed by Virginia were not acceptable to
Congress, and three years later, upon specific request, that State
withdrew the objectionable conditions and made the cession absolute.

The territory thus ceded, north and west of the Ohio River, constituted
the public domain. Its boundaries were somewhat indefinite, but
subsequent surveys confirmed the rough estimate that it contained from
one to two hundred millions of acr