New York was the first to respond to the suggestion of congress, in 1781, by ceding all her title to lands west of a line drawn north and south twenty miles west of Niagara River, without conditions. Virginia followed, and on March 1, 1784, conveyed her territory west of the Ohio River to the United States. Massachusetts, in 1785, also renounced her claim, unconditionally, to any lands west of the Hudson River. Connecticut, in 1786, ceded to the United States all the lands claimed by her west of a north and south line drawn one hundred and twenty-five miles west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania. Virginia's first charter having been withdrawn, the second, dated in 1609, gave this colony all the territory for two hundred miles north and south of Point Comfort, on the Atlantic Coast, and westward to the "South Sea," or Pacific Ocean, with all islands lying within one hundred miles of either coast. The extension westward only to the Mississippi of the northern line of Virginia, by the Treaty of Peace, left nearly half of that state on the northwest side of the Ohio River. This territory Virginia, in 1783, offered to cede to the United States, upon condition that it should be divided into states of not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square, "or as near thereto as circumstances will admit, and that the states so formed shall be distinct republican states, and admitted members of the federal union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other states."[3] The expenses incurred by Virginia "in subduing British posts, or in maintaining forts and garrisons within or for the defense, or in acquiring any part of the territory so ceded or relinquished" should be fully reimbursed by the United States. The French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers who had professed themselves to be citizens of Virginia, were to have their possessions confirmed to them, and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties. A quantity of land, not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres, was required to be granted "to General George Rogers Clarke and the officers and soldiers of his regiment, who marched with him when the post of Kaskaskia and Saint Vincent were reduced, and to the officers and soldiers that have been since incorporated into the said regiment," to be laid off in one tract in such shape as the officers should choose. Also, in case the land reserved by law on the southeast side of the Ohio River for the bounties of the Virginia troops should prove insufficient or of poor quality, then the deficiency should be made up from the lands on the northwest side of that river. All the land within the ceded territory, not reserved or appropriated to the purposes named, was to be a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as had become, or should become, members of the confederation, "according to