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states, which deed of cession when so deposited shall vest the jurisdic tion of said territory in the united states: Provided, That neither this act, nor any thing contained therein, shall be construed so as in any manner to draw into question the conclusive settlement of the dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, by the decree of the federal court at Trenton, nor to impair the right of Pennsylvania or any other state, or of any person or persons claiming under that or any other state, in any existing dispute concerning the right, either of soil or of jurisdiction, with the state of Connecticut, or with any person or persons claiming under the state of Connecticut: And provided alse, That nothing herein contained shall be construed in any manner to pledge the united states for the extinguishment of the Indian title to the said lands, or further than merely to pass the title of the united states thereto,

ACT of March 3, 1791. (Vol. I. p. 353.)

93. SECT. I. Four hundred acres of land shall be given to each of those persons, who in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty. three, were heads of families at Vincennes or in the Illinois country, on the Missisippi, and who since that time have removed from one of the said places to the other. And the governor of the territory north west of the Ohio is hereby directed, to cause the same to be laid out for them, at their own expense either at Vincennes or in the Illinois country, as they shall severally elect.

SECT. II. The heads of families at Vincennes or in the Illinois coun try in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, who af terwards removed without the limits of the said territory, are notwith, standing, entitled to the donation of four hundred acres of land made by the resolve of congress of the twenty-ninth of August, one thousand seven hundred and cighty-eight; and the governor of the said terri tory, upon application to him for that purpose, is hereby directed to cause the same to be laid out for such heads of families or their heirs; and shall also cause to be laid off and confirmed to such persons the several tracìs of land which they may have possessed, and which before the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three may have been allotted to them according to the laws and usages of the government under which they had respectively settled: Provided nevertheless, That if such persons or their heirs do not return and occupy the said lands within five years, such lands shall be considered as forfeited to the uni ed states.

94. SECT. III. One hundred and fifty acres of land, heretofore in possession of the Piankeshaw Indians, and now under actual improvement, and constituting a part of the village of Vincennes, shall be given to the persons who are severally in possession of the said land.

95. SECT. IV. Where lands have been actually improved and culti vated at Vincennes, or in the Illinois country, under a supposed grant of the same, by any commandant or court claiming authority to make

*This and the following act, (tho' in the table of private laws) have been inserted in order to render the work more acceptable to the inhabitants of the wes tern country.

such grant, the governor of the said territory shall be, and he hereby is empowered to confirm to the persons who made such improvements, their heirs or assigns, the lands supposed to have been granted as aforesaid, or such parts thereof as he, in his discretion, may judge reasonable, not exceeding to any one person, four hundred acres.

96. SECT. V. A tract of land, containing about five thousand four hundred acres, which for many years has been fenced and used by the inhabitants of Vincennes as a common, also a tract of land including the villages of Cohos and Prairie du Pont, and heretofore used by the inhabitants of the said villages as a common, shall be, and the same are hereby appropriated to the use of the inhabitants of Vincennes and of the said villages respectively, to be used by them as a common, until otherwise disposed of by law.

97. SECT. VI. The governor of the said territory shall be authorized to make a grant of land not exceeding one hundred acres, to each person who hath not obtained any donation of land from the united states, and who, on the first day of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, was enrolled in the militia at Vincennes or in the Illinois country, and has done militia duty, the said land to be laid out at the expense of the grantees, and in such orm and place as the said governor shall direct: Provided nevertheless, That no claim founded upon purchase or otherwise, shall be admitted within a track of land heretofore occupied by the Kaskaskia nation of Indians, and including their village, which is hereby appropriated to the use of the said Indians.

98. SECT. VII. Two lots of land heretofore in the occupation of the priests at Cahokia, and situated near that village, shall be, and the same is hereby granted in fee to P. Gibault; and a tract of land at Kaskaskia, formerly occupied by the Jesuits, shall be laid off and confirmed to St. Jam Beouvais, who claims the same in virtue of a purchase thereof.

99. SECT. VIII. So much of the act of congress of the twenty eighth of August, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, as refers to the locations of certain tracts of land directed to be run out and reserved for donations, to the ancient settlers in the Illinois country, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed, and the governor of the said territory is directed to lay out the same, agreeably to the act of congress of the twentieth of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.

ACT of March 3, 1795. (Vol. III. p. 228.)

100. SECT. I. The president of the united states shall be, and he is hereby authorized and empowered, to cause to be surveyed in the territory north-west of the Ohio, a tract of land, situate on the northerly bank of the river Ohio, beginning one mile and a half on a straight line above the mouth of Little Sandy, thence down the said river Ohio along the courses thereof eight miles when reduced to a straight line, thence at right angles from each extremity of the said line so as to include the quantity of twenty-four thousand acres of land to be disposed as herein after directed.

101. SECT. II. The president shall be authorized to cause to be as certained the number of French inhabitants and actual settlers of the town or settlement of Galliopolis, being males above eighteen years of age, or widows who are or shall be within the said town or settlement of Galliopolis on the first day of November next.

102. SECT. III. The president of the united states shall be, and he is hereby authorized and empowered,to issue letters patent,in the name and under the seal of the united states, thereby granting to John Gabriel Gervais, and his heirs, four thousand acres of land, part of the said twenty-four thousand acres, to be located on the northwest bank of the river Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the Little Sandy, with condition, in the said letters patent, that if the said John Gabriel Gervais, or his heirs, shall not personally, within three years from the date of the same patent, settle on the same tract of land, and there continue settled, for three years next thereafter, the same letters patent shall be void and determine, and the title thereof revest in the united states as if this law had not passed.

103. SECT. IV. The president of the united states shall be, and he is hereby authorized and empowered, to cause to be surveyed, laid off and divided, the remaining twenty thousand acres of land, residue of the twenty-four thousand acres, into as many lots or parts as the actual settlers of Galliopolis shall, on the ascertainment aforesaid, amount to, and the same to be designated, marked and numbered on a plat thereof, to be returned to the secretary of the said territory, together with a certificate of the courses of the said lots, the said lots or parts of the aforesaid tract, to be assigned to the settlers aforesaid by lot. And the president of the united states is hereby authorized and empowered, to issue letters patent as aforesaid, to the said actual settlers and their heirs, for the said twenty thousand acres, to be held by them in severalty in lots to be designated and described by their numbers on the plat aforesaid, with condition, in the same letters patent, that if one or more of the said grantees, his or her heirs or assigns, shall not, within five years from the date of the same letters, make, or cause and procure to be made, an actual settlement on the lot or lots assigned to him, her or them, and the same continue for five years thereafter, that then the said letters patent, so far as concerns the said lot or lots not settled and continued to be settled as aforesaid, shall cease and determine, and the title thereof shall revest in the united states, in the same manner as if this law had not passed.

104. SECT. V. Nothing in this act shall be taken or considered in any manner to impair or affect the claims of the said settlers against any person or persons for or by reason of any contracts heretofore made by them, but the same contracts shall be and remain in the same state as if this law had not passed.

[See Debt 21. Territory. Treasury Department 2.]

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Treaty of Amity and Commerce

Between their HIGH MIGHTINESSES the STATES GENERAL of the UNITED NETHERLANDS, and the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, to wit: NewHampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia.

HEIR High Mightinesses the States General of the United Ne

States of America,to wit: Hamp

shire, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, desiring to ascertain in a permanent and equitable manner, the rules to be observed relative to the commerce and correspondence, which they intend to establish between their respective states, countries and inhabitants, have judged that the said end cannot be better obtained, than by establishing the most perfect equality and reciprocity for the basis of their agreement, and by avoiding all those burthensome preferences, which are usually the sources of debate, embarrassment and discontent; by leaving also each party at liberty to make, respecting commerce and navigation, such ulterior regulations as it shall find most convenient to itself; and by founding the advantages of commerce solely upon reciprocal utility, and the just rules of free intercourse, reserving withal to each party the liberty of admitting at its pleasure other nations to a participation of the same advantages.

On these principles their said High Mightinesses the States General of the United Netherlands, have named for their plenipotentiaries, from the midst of their assembly, Messieurs, their deputies for the foreign affairs; and the said United States of America, on their part, have furnished with full powers, Mr. John Adams, late commissioner of the United States of America at the court of Versailles, heretofore delegate in Congress from the state of Massachusetts Bay, and chief justice of the said state, who have agreed and concluded as follows, to wit:

ARTICLE I.

There shall be a firm, inviolable and universal peace and sincere friendship, between their High Mightinesses, the Lords the States General of the United Netherlands, and the United States of America, and

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between the subjects and inhabitants of the said parties, and between the countries, islands, cities and places, situate under the jurisdiction of the said United Netherlands, and the said United States of America, their subjects and inhabitants, of every degree, without exception of persons or places.

The subjects of the said States General of the United Netherlands, shall pay in the ports, havens, roads, countries, islands, cities or places, of the United States of America, or any of them, no other nor greater duties or imposts, of whatever nature or denomination they may be, than those which the nations the most favored, are or shall be obliged to pay; and they shall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, immunities, and exemptions in trade, navigation and commerce, which the said nations do or shall enjoy, whether in passing from one port to another, in the said states, or in going from any of those ports to any foreign port of the world, or from any foreign port of the world to any of those ports.

ARTICLE III.

The subjects and inhabitants of the said United States of America, shall pay in the ports, havens, roads, countries, islands, cities or places of the said United Netherlands, or any of them, no other nor greater duties or imposts of whatever nature or denomination they may be, than those, which the nations the most favored, are or shall be obliged to pay And they shall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, immunities and exemptions in trade, navigation and commerce, which the said nations do or shall enjoy, whether in passing from one port to another in the said states, or from any one towards any one of those ports, from or to any foreign port of the world. And the United States of America, with their subjects and inhabitants, shall leave to those of their High Mightinesses, the peaceable enjoyment of their rights, in the countries, islands and seas, in the East and West-Indies, without any hindrance or molestation.

ARTICLE IV.

There shall be an entire and perfect liberty of conscience allowed to the subjects and inhabitants of each party, and to their families; and no one shall be molested in regard to his worship, provided he submits as to the public demonstration of it, to the laws of the country: There shall be given moreover, liberty, when any subjects or inhabitants of either party shall die in the territory of the other, to bury them in the usual burying places, or in decent and convenient grounds to be appointed for that purpose, as occasion-shall require; and the dead bodies of those who are buried, shall not in any wise be molested. And the two contracting parties shall provide, each one in his jurisdiction, that their respective subjects and inhabitants may henceforward obtain the requisite certificates in cases of deaths, in which they shall be interested.

ARTICLE V.

Their High Mightinesses, the States General of the United Netherlands, and the United States of America, shall endeavor, by all the means in their power, to defend and protect all vessels and other effects, belonging to their subjects and inhabitants respectively, or to any of them, in their ports, roads, havens, internal seas, passes, rivers, and

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