Such acts were passed both by New-York and Massachusetts, the former State at the same time substituting Melancthon Smith, Robert Yates and John Lansing, Junr., as agents, in place of John Jay and Walter Livingston, resigned. The agents on both sides met at Hartford, in November, 1786, and after about three weeks negotiation made the final arrangement by which Massachusetts was allowed the ownership of most of the western part. of our State, beyond the military tract, while the jurisdiction _ over it» was to be retained by New-York. As the Indian title was not then extinguished, as the land was wild and our State in want of population, few of the present day will doubt the advantage of the bargain to have beenours. The direction then given to emigration from Massachusetts was to her wild lands in our State instead of the Ohio, which was then Opening to settlement, and to which country great efforts were making in New-England fo allure settlers.

In 1788, Mr. Duane was elected a member of the Convention that met at Poughkeepsie, to consider the propriety of adopting the Constitution of the United States, and it is hardly necessary to say, that like most of those who had served long in Congress, and viewed the importance of a closer Union of the States, and

1 This document is among the MSS. of the New-York Historical Society, a copy taken by permission of the Society, has been deposited in the State Library,

HON. JAMES DUANE. 1081