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Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee and French Arms Tavern Coin
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Sixth President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 30, 1784 to November 23, 1785
http://www.richardhenrylee.org

Library of Congress Collection Broadside Facsimile - CF-045

[Lee, Richard Henry Land Ordinance of 1785] - Broadside extracted from the Journals of the United States, in Congress Assembled. This is a facsimile, 9 ½” x 14”, of Western Land Ordinance from the collection at the Library of Congress.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 set aside a test tract of land in the Northwest Territory for real estate development.[i]  The federal surveyors divided the land into individual square townships. Each side of the township square was to be six miles in length containing thirty-six square miles of territory. The township was then divided into one-square mile sections, with each section receiving its own number and encompassing 640 acres. Section sixteen was to be set aside for a public schools and sections eight, eleven, twenty-six, and twenty-nine were to provide veterans of the American Revolution with land as payment for their service during the war thus greatly reducing the war debt. The government would then sell the remaining sections at public auction at the minimum bid of 640 dollars per section or one dollar for an acre of land in each section.

The federal land that was not in dispute by the Native Americans was eagerly occupied by western settlers but as squatters.   The frontiersman had no respect for the authority of the United States, in Congress Assembled. In 1785, the settlers were correct in their assessment as the federal government failed to muster the capital necessary to pay magistrates and troops to enforce the $1.00 per acre fee. With the States no longer in control of the lands and a weak federal government floundering in debt, a tide of western squatters flowed into the Northwest Territory. President Lee’s plan to fund the federal government from western land sales imploded and no capitol flowed into the federal treasury from the western lands.   The survey system would expand from this small range in Ohio to the Pacific Ocean and then into Alaska as the United States acquired territory during its “manifest destiny” period.  Future Presidents would utilize Lee’s system and fund government projects, public education, railroads, interstate highways and national parks through land sales and swaps throughout the 19^th and 20^th Centuries.  Lee's plan was prophetic but like most visionaries he was slightly ahead of its time.

Stanley L. Klos Collection - CF-047

[Virginia Act of Cession – United States, in Congress Assembled] - The Massachusetts Centinel,  9 ½” x 14 ¼”  dated Saturday August 19, 1786 containing a full printing of a Northwest Territory Act of Virginia Land Cession:

Whereas it appears, from the knowledge already obtained of the tract of Country lying Northwest of the river Ohio, that the laying it out and forming it into states of the Extent mentioned in the resolution of Congress of the 10th of October, 1780, and in one of the conditions contained in the cession of Virginia, will be productive of many and great inconveniences: That by such a division of the country, some of the new states will be deprived of the advantages of Navigation, some will be improperly intersected by lakes, rivers and Mountains, and some will contain too great a proportion of barren unimprovable land, and of consequence will not for many years, if ever, have a sufficient number of inhabitants to form a respectable government, and entitle them to a seat and voice in the federal council: And whereas in fixing the limits and dimensions of the new states, due attention ought to be paid to natural boundaries, and a variety of Circumstances which will be pointed out by a more perfect knowledge of the country, so as to provide for the future growth and prosperity of each state, as well as for the accommodation and security of the first adventurers. In order therefore that the ends of government may be attained, and that the states which shall be formed, may become a speedy and sure accession of strength to the Confederacy:

Resolved, That it be, and it hereby is recommended to the legislature of Virginia, to take into consideration their Act of cession, and revise the same, so far as to empower the United States in Congress assembled, to make such a division of the territory of the United States lying Northerly and westerly of the river Ohio, into distinct republican states, not more than five nor less than three, as the situation of that country and future circumstances may require; which states shall hereafter become members of the federal Union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the original states, in conformity with the resolution of Congress of the 10th October, 1780.[ii]

Richard Henry Lee’s Presidency passed the Western Land Ordinance of 1785 the previous year.  Despite this it was necessary for Congress to pass this resolution to persuade Virginians to secede their Northwest Territorial claims to the federal government.   This was no small matter to Virginians as land sales were a primary source of State revenues and the Ohio River would become the dividing line between Virginia and what was being proposed as a slave free territory.  Virginia ceded the land and in 1787 the Northwest Ordinance would be passed by the United States, in Congress Assembled.

 
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Richard Henry Lee and French Arms Tavern Buttons
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Richard Henry Lee and The French Arms Tavern Card
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King George III                    Charles Thomson

Presidents of the Continental Congress

Declaration of Independence                  Continental Congress

Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled

United States in Congress Assembled

 

*Huntington was elected as President of the Continental Congress but
ascended to the United States Presidency on March 2, 1781
under the Constitution of 1777 -- The Articles of Confederation

Eight Capitol Coins of the United Colonies/States of America
1774 – 1789

Philadelphia	September 5, 1774 to October 24, 1774	City Tavern on September 4th and then Carpenters Hall
Philadelphia	May 10, 1775 to December 12, 1776	Pennsylvania State House
Baltimore	December 20, 1776 to February 27, 1777	Henry Fite House, Maryland
Philadelphia	March 4, 1777 to September 18, 1777	Pennsylvania State House
Lancaster	September 27, 1777	Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Court House
York	September 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778:	York, Pennsylvania, Court House
Philadelphia	July 2, 1778 to June 21, 1783	Philadelphia, College Hall, then Pennsylvania State House
Princeton,	June 30, 1783 to November 4, 1783	Prospect House and then Nassau Hall, New Jersey
Annapolis	November 26, 1783 to August 19, 1784	Maryland State House
Trenton	November 1, 1784 to December 24, 1784	French Arms Tavern, New Jersey
New York City	January 11, 1785 to November 13, 1788	New York City Hall
New York City	November 1788 - March 1789	Fraunces Tavern

© Stanley L. Klos