Preface.                   vii

       to which she had no title. They therefore proposed to offer a State

       bounty of $10 cash in lieu of land.

         Congress objected. They thought that new recruits would be very

       likely to prefer ten dollars in hand to a hundred acres in the trans

       Alleghanian bush, and Maryland would therefore have an advantage

       over other States. They refused to rescind their resolution, but

       declared that it was their intention to provide the bounty-land at the

       expense of the United States. The Convention begged the Congress

       to “specify any land belonging to the United States as a common

       stock, available for such purpose.” To this there was, naturally, no

       reply. It was clear that the States would have to buy it, jointly, if not

       severally, from Virginia, after they had conquered it from Great Britain.

       The Convention reiterated their determination not to engage the State

       to any bounty of lands; the ten dollars in cash they were willing to

       offer. If Congress objected to this, they must be prepared for the

       consequences. The Convention repeated its declaration that “the back

       lands claimed by the British crown, if secured by the blood and treasure

       of all, ought in reason, justice and policy to be considered a common

       stock, to be parcelled out by Congress into free, convenient, and inde

       pendent governments.” From this just and reasonable position,

       Maryland, though she stood alone, steadily refused to recede, and

       declined to enter the Confederation until some equitable arrangement

       was made. Virginia, at last, conceded the point, and Maryland signed

       the articles of confederation on Mar. 1, 1781. Virginia ceded her

       claims to the lands northwest of the Ohio, to the United States, in 1783.