The first alteration made in the article reported by the committee was to strike out the clause which declared that the new States should be admitted on an equal footing with the old ones. The reason assigned for this change was, that the legislature ought not to be tied down to such an admission, as it might throw the balance of power into the Western States.[286] The next modification was to strike out the clause which required a vote of two thirds of the members present for the admission of a State.[287] This left the proposed article a mere grant of power to admit new States, requiring the consent of the legislature of any State that might be dismembered, as well as the consent of Congress. An earnest effort was then made, by some of the members from the smaller States, to remove this restriction, upon the ground that the United States, by the treaty of peace with England, had become the proprietor of the crown lands which were situated within the limits claimed by some of the States that would be likely to be divided; and it was urged, that to require the consent of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia to the separation of their Western settlements, might give those States an improper control over the title of the United States to the vacant lands lying within the jurisdiction claimed by those States, and would enable them to retain the jurisdiction unjustly, against the wish of the settlers. But a large majority of the States refused to concede a power to dismember a State, without its consent, by taking away even its claims to jurisdiction. It was considered by them, that as to municipal jurisdiction over settlements already made within limits claimed by Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, the Constitution ought not to interfere, without the joint consent of the settlers and the State exercising such jurisdiction; that if the title to lands unoccupied at the treaty of peace, lying within the originally chartered limits of any of the States, was in dispute between them and the United States, that controversy would be within the reach of the judicial power, as one between a State and the United States, or it might be terminated by a voluntary cession of the State claim to the Union.[288] The next step taken in the settlement of this subject was to provide for the case of Vermont, which was then in the exercise of an independent sovereignty, although it was within the asserted limits of New York. It was thought proper, in this particular case, not to make the State of Vermont, already formed, dependent for her admission into the Union on the consent of New York. For this reason, the words "hereafter formed" were inserted in the article under consideration, and the word "jurisdiction" was substituted for "limits."[289] Thus modified, the article stood as follows:--