Excerpt from A Preliminary Sketch of the History of OhioThis expedition was attended by important consequences. It annihilated the British authority upon the Mississippi, detached Several Indian tribes from the British interest, inspired the rest with a salutary dread of the Amer ican arms, and had an important in¿uence on the negotiations, which after wards established the Mississippi as the western boundary of the United States. The conquered country was erected into a county by the name of Illinois, by the legislature of Virginia, and a regiment of infantry and a troop of cavalry weie voted for its defence.In 1779, Virginia opened an office for the sale of her western lands. This act attracted the attention of the other states, several of which re garded the vacant reg1en in the west, as a common fund for the future pay ment of the expenses of the war for independence, in which the confeder'acy was then involved. This claim, in behalf of the United States, was asserted on the ground, that the western lands had been the property of the crown, and naturally fell, on the declaration of independence, to the Opponent of the former sovereign. It was contended that it was manifestly unjust, that a vast tract of unoccupied country, acquired by the common efforts, and at the common expense of the Whole union, should be appropriated for the exclu sive benefit of particular states, while the rest would be left to bear the unmitigated burden of a debt, contracted in asserting that independence, by which this immense acquisition was wrested from Great Britain. 'ou the other hand, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut asserted separate, and in some degree, con¿icting claims, founded upon the construction of their respective charters, and New York also, advanced some vague pretensions.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.