land, and neither then nor subsequently obtained the sanction of the United States. It was abhorrent to all the principles so recently announced in the Declaration of Independence, the only charter under which the United States could, at that time, claim existence.
When the thirteen colonies became States by the Declaration of Independence, their several territorial limits remained unchanged. "These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." What colonies? "These." The several colonies as they were on the 4th of July, 1776, with their respective boundaries and charter rights, became States. What defined "these" colonies? Their several charters. In the same series of resolutions of October 30, 1776, in which Maryland began the assault on the rights of Virginia, she asserted her own territorial rights, and based them upon "the charter granted by His Majesty Charles the First to Csecilius Calvert. "
The declaration to which the several States plighted "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor," bound them to respect and defend each other s chartered rights by "the blood and treasure of all." But for whose benefit were these chartered rights to be respected and defended? Was all the territory of the States to become the property of Congress, and form a common stock? Every sentiment of justice revolts at the thought.
Had the war been unsuccessful, each State would have returned to its colonial condition without change of boundary. Had independence been achieved, and no union established, certainly each State would have retained its charter boundaries. In the case of conflict of title under charter claims, as in the case of Virginia’s conflict with Massachusetts and Connecticut, the matter would have been settled between the claimant States, either by war or by treaty.
When independence was achieved and union was established, the charter rights of the claimants were in no
