9095. WESTERN TERRITORY, Deed of cession.—
To all who shall see these presents
we [here name the delegates] the underwritten
delegates for the Commonwealth of Virginia
in the Congress of the United States of
America send greeting:
Whereas the General Assembly of the Commonwealth
of Virginia at their sessions begun
on the 20th day of October, 1783, passed an
“Act entituled `An Act to authorize the delegates,
&c.'—in these words following to wit,
`Whereas the Congress, &c.' [reciting the act
verbatim].
And whereas the said General Assembly by
their Resolution of June 6th, 1783, had constituted
and appointed us the said A. B. C. &c.,
delegates to represent the said Commonwealth
in Congress for one year from the first Monday
in November then next following, which resolution
remains in full force.
Now, therefore, know ye that we the said
A. B. C. &c., by virtue of the power and authority,
committed to us by the act of the said
General Assembly of Virginia before recited,
and in the name and for and on behalf of the
said Commonwealth, do by these presents convey,
transfer, assign, and make over unto the
United States in Congress assembled, for the
benefit of the said States, Virginia inclusive, all
right, title and claim as well of soil as of jurisdiction
which the said Commonwealth hath to
the territory or tract of country within the
limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying,
and being to the Northwest of the river Ohio,
to and for the uses and purposes and on the
conditions of the said recited act. In testimony
whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
and affixed our seals in Congress the—day
of—in the year of our Lord 1784, and of
the Independence of the United States the
eighth.—
Deed of Cession.
Ford ed., iii, 406.
(March 1, 1784)
