It was a violation of the state constitution for the senate and assembly, on the 19th of February, 1787, to instruct their members to move in Congress for an act recommending a convention; and it was also a violation of the 13th article of the confederation for Congress, on the 21st day February, to recommend a convention to the several legislatures. It was a further violation of the constitution of this state, by the senate and assembly, on the 27th day of March, to join and to appoint delegates to meet in convention, and it being done in that hasty, if not surreptitious manner, by joint resolutions, when acts of the least consequence, even for the yoking of hogs, require to be passed under the formalities of a law, makes it more glaringly so. It was an outrageous violation in the convention on the 17th of September, 1787, to attempt a consolidation of the union, and utterly destroy the confederation and the sovereignty of particular states, when their powers were restricted “to the sole and express purpose of revising and amending the confederation.” It was again an infringement of the 13th article in the confederation, for Congress, on the 28th of September, not to arrest and prevent its being transmitted to the several legislatures; nor was the legislature of this state less culpable, in the beginning of February, 1788, who, in the course of three hours, took up and concluded the measure of calling a convention without apprising their constituents of the danger. It is notorious that the right of regulating Indian affairs, especially with the five nations, has been in the colony of New York since the year 1664, and before that period, from the year 1614, whilst it was called New Nederland under the Dutch. That by the confederation, although Congress are invested with the power of regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, that they are restricted to those Indians “not members of any of the states, and a special proviso that the legislative rights of any state within its own limits be not infringed or violated.” It therefore was a violation of the confederation and of the rights of the state for the congressional commissioners of Indian affairs to treat, at fort Stanwix, with and thereat to make a purchase from the five nations without the authority or consent of the legislature of this state. It was an infraction of the rights of the citizens of this state, and an insult on their government, for those commissioners to wrest private property from individuals, imprison their persons, set at defiance the civil authority of the county of Montgomery, and violently to resist the execution of legal process. Nor was the ordinance of the 7th of August, 1786, for the regulation of Indian affairs, less so, namely, that “the Indian department be divided into two districts, viz.: the southern, which shall comprehend within its limits all the nations in the territory of the