Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; Constitutional law -- United States
acquired or secured by the joint efforts of the Confederacy, remained
undiminished. If, contrary to probability, it should be admitted by all
the States, that each had a right to a share of this common stock,
there would still be a difficulty to be surmounted, as to a proper rule
of apportionment. Different principles would be set up by different
States for this purpose; and as they would affect the opposite
interests of the parties, they might not easily be susceptible of a
pacific adjustment.
In the wide field of Western territory, therefore, we perceive an ample
theatre for hostile pretensions, without any umpire or common judge to
interpose between the contending parties. To reason from the past to
the future, we shall have good ground to apprehend, that the sword
would sometimes be appealed to as the arbiter of their differences. The
circumstances of the dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania,
respecting the land at Wyoming, admonish us not to be sanguine in
expecting an easy accommodation of such differences. The articles of
confederation obliged the parties to submit the matter to the decision
of a federal court. The submission was made, and the court decided in
favor of Pennsylvania. But Connecticut gave strong indications of
dissatisfaction with that determination; nor did she appear to be
entirely resigned to it, till, by negotiation and management, something
like an equivalent was found for the loss she supposed herself to have
sustained. Nothing here said is intended to convey the slightest
censure on the conduct of that State. She no doubt sincerely believed
herself to have been injured by the decision; and States, like
individuals, acquiesce with great reluctance in determinations to their
disadvantage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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