fractional parts of townships, hereinbefore reserved for the use of the late continental army, to be drawn for in such manner as he shall deem expedient, to answer the purpose of an impartial distribution. He shall, from time to time, transmit certificates to the commissioners of the loan offices of the different states, to the lines of which the military claimants have respectively belonged, specifying the name and rank of the party, the terms of his engagement and time of his service, and the division, brigade, regiment or company to which he belonged, the quantity of land he is entitled to, and the township, or fractional part of a township, and range out of which his portion is to be taken. The commissioners of the loan-offices shall execute deeds for such undivided proportions in manner and form herein before-mentioned, varying only in such a degree as to make the same conformable to the certificate from the secretary at war. Where any military claimants of bounty in lands shall not have belonged to the line of any particular state, similar certificates shall be sent to the board of treasury, who shall execute deeds to the parties for the same. The secretary at war, from the proper returns, shall transmit to the board of treasury, a certificate, specifying the name and rank of the several claimants of the hospital department of the late continental army, together with the quantity of land each claimant is entitled to, and the township, or fractional part of a township, and range out of which his portion is to be taken; and thereupon the board of treasury shall proceed to execute deeds to such claimants. The board of treasury, and the commissioners of the loan offices in the states, shall, within 18 months, return receipts to the secretary at war, for all deeds which have been delivered, as also all the original deeds which remain in their hands for want of applicants, having been first recorded; which deeds so returned, shall be preserved in the office, until the parties or their representatives require the same. And be it further ordained, That the three townships adjacent to lake Erie be reserved, to be hereafter disposed of by Congress, for the use of the officers, men, and others, refugees from Canada, and the refugees from Nova Scotia, who are or may be entitled to grants of land under resolutions of Congress now existing, or which may hereafter be made respecting them, and for such other purposes as Congress may hereafter direct. And be it further ordained, That the towns of Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrun and Salem, on the Muskingum, and so much of the lands adjoining to the said towns, with the buildings and improvements thereon, shall be reserved for the sole use of the Christian Indians, who were formerly settled there, or the remains of that society, as may, in the judgment of the geographer, be sufficient for them to cultivate. Saving and reserving always, to all officers and soldiers entitled to lands on the northwest side of the Ohio, by donation or bounty from the commonwealth of Virginia, and to all persons claiming under them, all rights to which they are so entitled, under the deed of cession executed by the delegates for the state of Virginia, on the first day of March, 1784, and the act of Congress accepting the same; and to the end, that the said rights may be fully and effectually secured, according to the true intent and meaning of the said deed of cession and act aforesaid, Be it ordained, that no part of the land included between the rivers called Little Miami and Sciota, on the northwest side of the river Ohio, be sold, or in any manner alienated, until there shall first have been laid off and appropri ated for the said officers and soldiers, and persons claiming under them, the lands they are entitled to, agreeably to the said deed of cession and act of Congress accepting the same. Done by the United States in Congress assembled, the 20th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1785, and of our soverignty and independence the ninth. Charles Thomson, Secretary. Richard H. Lee, President. [No. 5595.] Egbert Benson Files His Resignation as Attorney General with Governor Clinton. Sir, It was not til very lately I was informed, with certainty, that the Legislature had adjourned, at their last Meeting, without making any Provision respecting the office of Attorney General. I did not receive this information in Season, otherwise I should have waited on your Excellency, or have transmitted you my Resignation while the Council of Appointment were as yet assembled. A becoming Deference to Government made it proper in me to suspend my Determination until the Moment of an adjournment, as I must have supposed my Application, for a more eligible Establishment of the office in future, was still under Deliberation, and I could not in the mean time have justified even a Conjecture as to the Result. I am not insensible of the Obligation to accept public Trusts, and that this Duty has a peculiar Force, under our forms of Government; I can, however, acquit myself in relinquishing an Appointment, too burthensome to be borne gratuituously by a Person in my Situation, and I must, therefore, request Your Excellency to consider Me as having resigned the Office of Attorney General. The indulgent Access to your Excellency and the Attention with which you have been pleased to honor Me during my Continuance in this Office will always claim my most sincere Gratitude. I remain with the most perfect Respect, Your Excellency's obedt. Serv't. Poughkeepsie, June 4th, 1785. His Excellency Governor Clinton. Egb't. Benson. [No. 5604.] Mr. Jay, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Announces to Governor Clinton the Birth of the Duke of Normandy. (Circular) Office for Foreign Affairs, 14th June, 1785. Sir, I have the Honor of informing your Excellency that Congress have received a Letter from his Most Christian Majesty dated the 27th March last, announcing the Birth that Day of a Prince whom he had named Duke of Normandy. As this Event adds to the Happiness of a King and a People who have given many important Proofs of Friendship for our Nation, it must naturally excite that Pleasure which generous Minds always derive from the Prosperity of their Friends and Benefactors. I have the Honor to be, with great Respect, Your Excellency's Most obt. & very hble. Servt. John Jay. His Excellency the Governor of the State of New York. [No. 5619.] Massachusetts' Claim to Land in New York State-Governor Bowdoin to Governor Clinton. Boston, July 18, 1785. Sir, The enclosed order of the Legislature of this Commonwealth will show to your Excellency their sense of the proceedings of the Legislature of the State of New York, in regard to the Territory lying to the Westward of Hudson's River, and claimed by this State. An attempt by either State to purchase of the Natives their right in that territory, and to dispose of, grant, or settle any part of it, while their respective claims, (submitted to the decision of Commissioners mutually chosen, under the authority of Congress) remain undecided, would, as we conceive, be judged by the states disinterested, as altogether improper. And the im propriety of such a measure in itself considered, but especially considered in relation to the Confederation, and the principles upon which that is bottomed, prevented this State from adopting it. Though it appears by the New York News Papers, that your Excellency with the other Commissioners of the land office, had returned from Fort Herkimer: having there held a treaty with the Oneida and other Indians, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of New York, and accomplished your business very suc cessfully, we cannot entertain a thought that either your Excellency or your Legislature can intend, or will suffer, the cession or grant of lands made to your State by those Indians, to operate, in any respect whatever, to the disadvantage of this Commonwealth. By that Act, passed the 11th of April last, for facilitating the settlement of the waste lands claimed to be within the State of New York, it appears, that the measures for accomplishing that business are to be pursued with great dispatch; and for that purpose, that the Surveyor General was directed by it to remove his Office by the first of June (last) to Albany. You will permit me to observe here, that although the Legisla ture of this State have no right to intermeddle in matters out of their jurisdiction, yet as your Excellency must know, or have reason to think, that the said Act, and the proceedings in conse quence of it, have respect to a territory claimed by this State, they will not incur your censure for the order they have passed on the occasion; and you will think it my duty to request, and ac cordingly, in the name and behalf of the Legislature of this State, I do request your Excellency, that all proceedings, relative to those lands, may be stayed, until the Commissioners, appointed for the purpose, shall have determined the right of the two Governments in them. With the utmost Respect I have the honor to be, Sir, Your Excellency's Most Obed't. Hum'l. Servt. James Bowdoin. Commonwealth of Massachusetts In Senate, June 22d, 1785. Whereas this Court has reason to believe, that the State of New York has offered to make sale of Lands within the limits claimed to be within this Commonwealth, and that the said State is actually attempting to purchase of the Natives land lying within the same limits Therefore Ordered, that his Excellency the Governor be and hereby is requested to write to the Governor of the State aforesaid representing to him the nature and impropriety of such conduct, that it tends manifestly to lay a foundation for jealousy and discord between this Commonwealth and the State aforesaid and that in the opinion of this Legislature, all matters respecting the said Lands ought to have been permitted by the respective claimants thereof to continue in the same state they were in at the time the claim of this Commonwalth thereto was instituted. Sent down for concurrence. Samuel Phillips, junr., Presid't in the House of Representatives June 28th, 1785, Read & concurred The New York Common Council Offers a Conditional Reward for the Assailants of Brockholst Livingston. City of New York, ss At a Common Council held at the City Hall of the said City on Thursday October 6th, 1785. Present: Richard Varick, Esquire Recorder; Benjamin Blagge, Abra'm. P. Lott, John Broome, Wm. W. ard, Esq'rs. Aldermen; Aert Huysman, Danl. Pheonix, Jon'a. Lawrence, |