lose with the offers. Congress accepted the
New York cession gratefully, with an eye to the effect on the other
States; but for some time no progress was made in the negotiations with
the latter. Finally, early in 1784, the bargain with Virginia was
consummated. She ceded to Congress her rights to the territory northwest
of the Ohio, except a certain amount retained as a military reserve for
the use of her soldiers, while Congress tacitly agreed not to question
her right to Kentucky. A year later Massachusetts followed suit, and
ceded to Congress her title to all the lands lying west of the present
western boundary of New York State. Finally, in 1786, a similar cession
was made by Connecticut. But Connecticut's action was not much more
patriotic or less selfish than Georgia's. Throughout the controversy she
showed a keen desire to extract from Congress all that could possibly be
obtained, and to delay action as long as might be; though, like Georgia,
Connecticut could by rights claim nothing that was not in reality
obtained for the Union by the Union itself. She made her grant
conditionally upon being allowed to reserve for her own profit about
five thousand square miles in what is now northern Ohio. This tract was
afterwards known as the Western Reserve. Congress was very reluctant to
accept such a cession, with its greedy offset, but there was no wise
alternative, and the bargain was finally struck.

The non-claimant states had attained their object, and yet it had been
obtained in a manner that left the claimant States satisfied. The
project for which Maryland had contended was realized, with the
difference that Congress accepted the Northwest as a gift coupled with
conditions, instead of taking it as an unconditional right. The lands
became part of the Federal domain, and were nationalized so far as they
could be under the Confederation; but there was no national treasury
into which to turn the proceeds from the sale until the Constitution was
adopted. [Footnote: Hinsdale, 250.]

The Land Policy of Congress.

Having got possession of the land, Congress proceeded to arrange for its
disposition, even before providing the outline of the governmental
system for the states that might grow up therein. Congress regarded the
territory as forming a treasury chest, and was anxious to sell the land
in lots, whether to individuals or to companies. In 1785 it passed an
ordinance of singular wisdom, which has been the basis