St. Clair and Wayne 345 



her rights to the territory northwest of the Ohio, 

 except a certain amount retained as a military re 

 serve for the use of her soldiers, while Congress 

 tacitly agreed not to question her right to Kentucky. 

 A year later Massachusetts followed suit, and ceded 

 to Congress her title to all the lands lying west 

 of the present western boundary of New York 

 State. Finally, in 1 786, a similar cession was made 

 by Connecticut. But Connecticut's action was not 

 much more patriotic or less selfish than Georgia's. 

 Throughout the controversy she showed a keen de 

 sire to extract from Congress all that could possibly 

 be obtained, and to delay action as long as might be ; 

 though, like Georgia, Connecticut could by rights 

 claim nothing that was not in reality obtained for 

 the Union by the Union itself. She made her grant 

 conditionally upon being allowed to reserve for her 

 own profit about five thousand square miles in what 

 is now northern Ohio. This tract was afterward 

 known as the Western Reserve. Congress was very 

 reluctant to accept such a cession, with its greedy 

 offset, but there was no wise alternative, and the 

 bargain was finally struck. 



The non-claimant States had attained their object, 

 and yet it had been obtained in a manner that left 

 the claimant States satisfied. The project for which 

 Maryland had -contended was realized, with the dif 

 ference that Congress accepted the Northwest as a 

 gift coupled with conditions, instead of taking it as 

 an unconditional right. The lands became part of 

 the Federal domain, and were nationalized so far 



