BY THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS
ASSEMBLED,
JUNE 20, 1788.
THE Committee consisting of Mr. Williamson, Mr. Dane, Mr. Carrington,
Mr. Kearney, and Mr.
Wingate, to whom was referred the Memorial of George Morgan, and his
associates, respecting a
tract of land in the Illinois country on the Missisippi, having reported
thereon, and their report being
amended as follows: "That there are sundry French settlements on the
river Missisippi within the tract
which Mr. Morgan and his associates propose to purchase. Near the mouth
of the river Kaskaskies,
there is a village which appears to have contained near eighty families
from the beginning of the late
revolution. There are twelve families in a small village at la Prairie
du Rochers, and near fifty
families--the Kahokia village. There are also four or five families at
fort Chartres and St. Philips,
which is five miles farther up the river. The heads of families in those
villages appear each of them to
have had a certain quantity of arable land allotted to them, and a
proportionate quantity of meadow
and of woodland or pasture.
Your Committee are of the opinion, that from any general sale which may
be made of the lands on
the Missisippi, there should at least be a reserve of so much land as
may satisfy all the just claims of
the antient settlers on that river, and that they should be confirmed in
the possession of such lands as
they may have had at the beginning of the late revolution, which may
have been allotted to them
according to the laws or usages of the governments under which they have
respectively settled. And
whereas an additional quantity of land may be necessary for the support
of those people whenever
the settlement shall increase, and the Indian trade, by which they have
chiefly subsisted, shall become
less profitable, your Committee are of the opinion, that such allowance
should also be made them
within the reserved limits.
Your Committee observe that in the contract which is already made for
the sale of a tract of land in
the western country, the purchasers are to be charged with surveying
three lots which are reserved
for the benefit of the United States. They conceive that future
contractors may be relieved from this
expence; but they would propose that every agreement hereafter to be
made shall be equally binding
on the contracting parties, whereupon they submit the following
resolves:
That the Board of Treasury be authorised to contract with any person or
persons for a grant of a
tract of land which shall be bounded as follows:--Beginning on the river
au Vase in the parallel of
latitude of the mouth of Little Wabash river, thence running due north
to the parallel of latitude which
passes through the mouth of Wood river, thence west to the Missisippi at
the mouth of Wood river,
thence down the river Missisippi to the mouth of the river au Vase,
thence up the said river to the
place of beginning, under the exceptions and reservations herein after
mentioned.
That the purchaser or purchasers shall oblige themselves to lay off the
tract at their own expence into
townships or fractional parts of townships, and to divide the same into
lots according to the land
ordinance of the 20th of May, 1785, complete returns of which are to be
made to the Board of
Treasury. The lot No. 16, in each township, or fractional part of a
township to be given perpetually
for the purposes contained in the said ordinance; and the lot No. 29, in
each township, or fractional
part of a township, to be given perpetually for the purposes of
religion, and that each of the several
townships shall be thus laid off before the original purchaser or
purchasers shall have disposed of the
same, or made any settlement therein. The price to be not less than two
thirds of a dollar per acre for
the contents of the said tract, except the reservations and gifts herein
mentioned payable in specie,
loan-office certificates, reduced to specie value, or certificates of
liquidated debts of the United
States, the principal only of the said certificates to be received in
payment; and the Board of Treasury
for such interest as may be due on the certificates rendered in payment
as aforesaid prior to the first
day of January, 1787, shall issue indents for interest to the
possessors, which shall be receivable in
payment as other indents for interest of the existing requisitions of
Congress. And for such interest as
may be due on the said certificates between that period and the time of
payment, the said Board shall
issue indents, the payments of which to be provided for hereafter.
That part of the purchase money, not less than one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, shall be paid
down upon closing of the contract, and the remainder of the purchase
money whenever the Indian
claim shall have been extinguished, and the boundary line of the tract
run by the geographer of the
United States, or his assistant, the contents of the land which is to be
sold ascertained, and a plot of
the same returned to the office of the Treasury Board, on which payment
a grant shall be made, and
the purchaser or purchasers shall have the right of entry and occupancy.
That separate tracts shall be reserved for satisfying the claims of the
antient settlers which shall be
included within the following boundary, viz. A straight line to be
extended from the mouth of the little
river Marie below the river Kaskaskies to the old French fort on the
east side of the said river
Kaskaskies, and opposite the Kaskaskies village, thence north three
miles, thence west across the
Kaskaskies river to the ridge of rocks and high land that extends from
the Kaskaskies to the Illinois
rivers, then along the west side or foot of the said ridge of rocks and
high land to the parallel that runs
two miles north of the church at Kahokia, thence west to the river
Missisippi, thence down the said
river to the mouth of the river Marie.
That measures be immediately taken for confirming in their possessions
and titles, the French and
Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers on those lands, who on or
before the year 1783 had
possessed themselves citizens of the United States, or any of them, and
for laying off the several
tracts which they rightfully claim within the described limits, and for
laying off for the benefit of said
inhabitants three additional tracts adjoining the several villages,
Kaskaskies, la Prairie du Rochers,
and Kahokia, in the form of a parallelogram, extending from the river
Missisippi eastward to the ridge
of rocks before described, and of such extent as shall contain four
hundred acres for each of the
families now living at either of the villages of Kaskaskies, la Prairie
du Rochers, Kahokias, fort
Chartres or St. Phillips. The additional reserved tract adjoining the
villages of Kaskaskies shall be for
the heads of families in that village, the tract adjoining la Prairie du
Rochers for the heads of families in
that village, and the tract adjoining Kahokia for the heads of families
in that village, as also for those
at fort Chartres and St. Philips. Such additional donations of four
hundred acres each, to be
distributed by lot, and immediate possession given: Provided
nevertheless, that no person thus
obtaining possession of such donation lands shall have power to alienate
the same, until he or she, or
his or her heirs shall have resided at least three years from the time
of such distribution within that
district; at the end of which period every such resident shall obtain a
title to the reserved lot; and all
lots not thus conveyed to residents, shall revert to the United States.
That whenever the French and Canadian Inhabitants, or other settlers
aforesaid, shall have been
confirmed in their possessions and titles, and the amount of the same
ascertained, and the three
additional parallelograms for future donations, and a tract of land one
mile square on the Missisippi,
extending as far above as below fort Chartres, and including the said
fort, the buildings and
improvements adjoining the same, shall be laid off; the whole remainder
of the soil within the reserved
limits above described, shall be considered as appertaining to the
general purchase, and shall be
conveyed accordingly.
That measures be immediately taken to extinguish the Indian claim, if
any such claim exists to the land
bordering on the Missisippi from the mouth of the Ohio to a determined
station on the Missisippi, that
shall be sixty or eighty miles north from the mouth of the Illinois
river, and extending from the
Missisippi as far eastward as may be.
That the Governor of the western territory be instructed to repair to
the French settlements on the
Missisippi, at and above the Kaskaskies;--That he examine the titles and
possessions of the settlers
as above described, in order to determine what quantity of land they may
severally claim, which shall
be laid off for them at their own expence, and that he take an account
of the several heads of families
living within the reserved limits, in order that he may determine the
quantity of land that is to be laid
off in the several parallelograms, which shall be laid off accordingly
by the Geographer of the United
States, or his assistant, at the expence of the United States.
That the Geographer of the United States be instructed to take the
latitude of the mouth of the river
au Vase, and the mouth of Wood river, and of the north-east and
south-eastern angle of the tract,
and that in executing all other large surveys, he take the latitude of
three or four of the chief corners."
RESOLVED, That CONGRESS agree to the said Report.