40 Colorado College Studies. 



"seventeen States" still undiminished. This is the general 

 scheme; and a later paragraph applies it in detail for the 

 region north of the Ohio, which was already ceded except the 

 two strips claimed by Massachusetts and Connecticut; the 

 northeast corner State of the general scheme, consisting chiefly 

 of lake surface, is extinguished and the points of the Michigan 

 peninsulas are given to the contiguous States. Two of the ten 

 States here bounded and named lie partly in Kentucky, Peli- 

 sipia being thus no mere remnant north of the Ohio. Six 

 States of the general scheme are not here named nor particu- 

 larly bounded ; doubtless because they lie in the still unceded 

 region south of the Ohio, and the eastern boundaries of the 

 expected cessions are not certainly known. The " ten States" 

 plan is thus a mere definition of part of the " seventeen States " 

 plan, and Jefferson's draft represents both. 



EIDICULE of the DRAFT. 



The proposed list of State names (rejected by Congress) 

 was a cause of great hilarity in it^ day, and the pleasure is 

 shared by some recent historians. It can scarcely be that 

 their amusement comes from any other feature of the plan, 

 for the comparatively small size of the States was due to an 

 express requirement in Virginia's deed of cession,* and the 

 attempt to lay down State lines was not untimely, for the 

 lines drawn by the more famous Ordinance of 1787 are, with 

 little change, those that separate Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 

 We must look to the names alone for the suj)posed absurdity, 

 and there a mere glance seems to prove it — Sylvania, Michi- 

 gania, Chersonesus, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Sara- 

 toga, Washington, Polypotamia, Pelisipia. 



At a second glance the list is less formidable. Michigania, 

 Illinoia, Washington, are names that have since won the pre- 

 ference of States; and Sylvania is a manifest improvement 

 upon Pennsylvania. Saratoga is a blameless commemorative 

 name. The absurdity is reduced to the other five. As to 

 those, no one will pretend that better names, for three at least, 

 might not have been found easily. But there is room for 



*The larger States of the Ordinance of 1787 were made in view of an expected modifica- 

 tion of Virginia's deed, which duly followed. 



