ill be found that these facts
not only shed much light on the question, whether the framers of the
Constitution omitted to make a provision concerning the power of
Congress to organize and govern Territories, but they will also aid in
the construction of any provision which may have been made respecting
this subject.

Under the Confederation, the unsettled territory within the limits of
the United States had been a subject of deep interest. Some of the
States insisted that these lands were within their chartered
boundaries, and that they had succeeded to the title of the Crown to
the soil. On the other hand, it was argued that the vacant lands had
been acquired by the United States, by the war carried on by them
under a common Government and for the common interest.

This dispute was further complicated by unsettled questions of
boundary among several States. It not only delayed the accession of
Maryland to the Confederation, but at one time seriously threatened
its existence. (5 Jour. of Cong., 208, 442.) Under the pressure of
these circumstances, Congress earnestly recommended to the several
States a cession of their claims and rights to the United States. (5
Jour. of Cong., 442.) And before the Constitution was framed, it had
been begun. That by New York had been made on the 1st day of March,
1781; that of Virginia on the 1st day of March, 1784; that of
Massachusetts on the 19th day of April, 1785; that of Connecticut on
the 14th day of September, 1786; that of South Carolina on the 8th day
of August, 1787, while the Convention for framing the Constitution was
in session.

It is very material to observe, in this connection, that each of these
acts cedes, in terms, to the United States, as well the jurisdiction
as the soil.

It is also equally important to note that, when the Constitution was
framed and adopted, this plan of vesting in the United States, for the
common good, the great tracts of ungranted lands claimed by the
several States, in which so deep an interest was felt, was yet
incomplete. It remained for North Carolina and Georgia to cede their
extensive and valuable claims. These were made, by North Carolina on
the 25th day of February, 1790, and by Georgia on the 24th day of
April, 1802. The terms of these last-mentioned cessions will
hereafter be noticed in another connection; but I observe here that
each of them distinctly shows, upon its face, that they were not only
in execution of the general pl