[280] I think we are to understand Mr. Madison's assertion in the Federalist,--that what had been done by Congress in relation to the Northwestern Territory was without constitutional authority,--to mean, that it had been done without the authority of any proper constitutional provision. Mr. Madison himself, being a member of Congress in 1783, voted for the acceptance of a report, by the adoption of which Congress settled the conditions on which the cession of Virginia was to be received by the United States. These conditions embraced the whole of the three fundamental points, that the territory should be held and disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, that it should be divided into States, and that those States should be admitted into the Union. So that Mr. Madison was a party to the arrangement by which Congress undertook to hold out these promises to the States. (Journals of Congress for September 13, 1783, VIII. 355-359.) But he was not a member of Congress in 1784, when Mr. Jefferson's measure was adopted; and although he was a member in 1787, when the Ordinance was adopted, he was at that time in attendance upon the national Convention, and consequently never voted upon the Ordinance. His participation in the proceedings of the Convention, by which the necessary power was created, shows his sense of its necessity. [281] See especially the cession by Virginia, of March 1, 1784. Journals of Congress, IX. 67. Cession by Massachusetts, April 19, 1785. Journals, X. 128. Cession by Connecticut, September 13, 1786. Journals, XI. 221. Also the resolve of Congress passed, in anticipation of these cessions, October 10, 1780. Journals, VI. 325. [282] Resolution 10. Madison, Elliot, V. 128. [283] Art. XVII. of the draft prepared by the committee of detail. Elliot, V. 381. [284] August 18. Elliot, Vol. V. p. 439. [285] August 29. Elliot, V. 492-497. [286] Ibid. 492, 493. [287] Ibid. 493. [288] See the vote on a proposition moved by Mr. Carroll for a recommitment for the purpose of asserting in the Constitution the right of the United States to the lands ceded by Great Britain in the treaty of peace. New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland alone voted for the recommitment. Elliot, V. 493, 494. [289] Elliot, V. 495. [290] Ibid. 496. New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, _ay_. [291] When the Constitution was finally revised, the word "hereafter" was left out of the first clause of the third section of article fourth, apparently because the phraseology of the clause was sufficient, without it, to save the case of Vermont, which was regarded as not being within the "_jurisdiction_," although it was within the asserted _limits_, of the State of New York. [292] Elliot, V. 496, 497.