By the treaty of peace, in 1783, Great Britain relinquished all claim not only to the government, but to the soil, and territorial rights, of the thirteen Colonies as claimed by the American negotiators of that treaty, the boundaries of which collectively were fixed by its second article. And by that treaty all the powers of that government and its right to the soil passed to the Thirteen States, not as a single Sovereignty, but as thirteen Independent Sovereignties. But neither the Declaration of Independence, nor the Treaty, could give us more than we possessed by virtue of the former, or to which Great Britain was before entitled.

New York, four years before the Articles of Confederation were adopted and became operative (which did not occur till March, 1781), adopted a constitution, at Kingston, on the 20th day of April, 1777; by the 37th Article of which (since reincorporated in all the subsequent State Constitutions), contracts for lands with the Indians in this State are made void unless sanctioned by the Legislature, and such purchases are declared to be a penal offense by a subsequent act of the Legislature ; the object being the protection of the Indians in the possession of their lands.

During her whole existence as a British Colony, a period of one hundred and nineteen years, New York was a Royal Government, a Province independent in all respects except her allegiance to the British sovereign, whose representative was the Royal

Governor for the time being. As such representative the Governor granted by patent all the lands which were granted in the Province, except those previously granted by, the prior Dutch government, the i)Ossession of which by their owners was duly confirmed by the Articles of Capitulation under which the Dutch surrender of New Netherland was made in 1664.