to abandon their claim to the northwest territory, or to
declare war. The English title was based upon their occupation of
the shores of the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Georgia.
It was claimed that this occupation carried the right to possession
westward from sea to sea.

In the earliest grants to the colonies, especially to Virginia and
Connecticut, their western boundaries extended to the South Sea.
Where the South Sea lay, and what was the breadth of the continent,
was not defined by these kingly grants. James I and his councilors
then knew but little about America. There was no way to settle
this disputed title between the two powers but by war. A Virginia
company had built a fort on the south side of the Ohio, below the
site of the present city of Pittsburg. In 1754 the French troops
occupied the point at the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany,
where the city of Pittsburg now is, and erected a fort.

Then followed the well-known war of the French and English, Braddock's
defeat, the heroism of Washington, the capture of Quebec and the
cession of Canada and the northwestern territory to Great Britain.
It is impossible to overrate the importance of these events upon
the future of America. The result was that the region east of the
Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River was the property of
Great Britain and the inheritance of the English race. The great
northwest was theirs, and fairly won.

The extinction of the French title to the Ohio territory was at
once followed by the claims of several colonies to parts of this
territory under grants from the British crown; but the English
government declared all the land west of the sources of the Atlantic
rivers as under the dominion of the king for the use of the Indians,
and all persons were forbidden to settle or remain within it. This
dispute was postponed by the War of the Revolution. An event during
the war, apparently of small importance, had a controlling influence
in securing to the United States the northwestern territory.

The State of Virginia, claiming title under a grant from the British
crown to the regions west of the Alleghanies, in 1778, organized
an expedition, under Colonel George Rogers Clark, to punish and
repel incursions of Indians, and capture the old French posts then
held by the English. This he accomplished, so that when negotiations
for peace were entered upon in 1782 our plenipotentiaries could
maintain the t