Is Virginia Entitled to Compensation, for the Cession of the Northwest, Territory to the National Government? - Paper Read #264778

In a paper of this character it is not easy to trace the sources of information which enter into the conclusions reached, still some effort in this direction should be made, because of the labors of those who have preceded the writer in this interesting line of investigation.<br><br>The mere suggestion that the State of Virginia, representing herself and the other thirteen colonies, has a just claim against the nation approximating the enormous sum of two hundred million dollars and that any Court clothed with the necessary jurisdiction to hear and determine the law and facts involved would in all probability make such an award is a question that has hitherto escaped both the attention of the historian and the acumen of the legal profession. It is not believed, however, that the inattention to which this matter has been subjected for a century and a quarter relieves the Nation of the duty of discharging a just liability, if such liability is found to exist, or the States vitally concerned from the responsibility of pressing this claim upon its attention.<br><br>The writer's interest in this general subject was first aroused in 1906 when he was engaged in the preparation of a paper, afterwards read before this Association, entitled "The Dismemberment of Virginia," at which time the imperial colonial possessions of Virginia were found to be surpassed only by her striking generosity in ceding these possessions to the Nation at a time when their retention by her would have postponed indefinitely, if not forever, the establishment in the western hemisphere of a republic upon the federal principle. Nor is this generosity in any wise diminished, if it be found that a fair interpretation of the language of the deed of cession discloses that the nation thereby became a trustee of a large part of this territory for the benefit of Virginia and the remaining thirteen colonies, with respect to which trust there has been no accounting whatever by the nation in favor of the states interested.