FROM PHILADELPHIA 171 



through Phillips' Manor, across the Hudson, across the 

 Delaware at East-town, and in this way divides Jersey 

 and the Moravian establishments in Pensylvania into 

 two districts. By such claims as these a great part of 

 the state of Pensylvania was made disputable territory 

 and Connecticut asserted title to lands it had never 

 possessed. Connecticut admits that the debateable 

 tract in the state of New York was set off from itself 

 by grants to New York made later, but claims that it 

 does not therefore follow that its right has been with- 

 drawn to lands falling on its line beyond New York. 

 Thus it has happened that the first settlements in Wy- 

 oming were made by New England and these have 

 kept their hold there in matters of government. Pen- 

 sylvania, on the other hand, shows by its grant that 

 the Wyoming region, with other districts in dispute, 

 lies in the midst of its original territory as fixed by 

 England. These claims and assertions on the one side 

 and the other have been the cause of many difficulties. 

 Pensylvania as well as Connecticut sold and made 

 over lands there, so that of the land-owners of Wyom- 

 ing one held his land under the one state and another 

 under the other. With such dispositions, animosities 

 were inevitable, and thus even before the outbreak 

 of the Revolution there was a continual private war 

 between the Pensylvania and New England parties 

 in Wyoming. People fought over the right to the 

 land. If a Pensylvanian came with a deed to so much 

 land, he must first see if it was already taken up by a 

 New Englander. If so, he must attempt to gain pos- 

 session by force: failing, he reserved his right for the 

 time and chose an unsettled place in the neighborhood, 

 from which after a few years, and improvements be- 



