174 Claims to Western Lands

174. Claims to Western Lands

The Confederation seemed to be falling to pieces . That it did not actualy fal to pieces was largely due to the fact that all the states were interested in the settlement of the region northwest of the Ohio River . It wil be wel to stop a moment and see how this came about . Under their old charters Massachusetts , Connecticut , Virginia , Carolina , and Georgia had claims to lands west of the Aleghanies . Between 1763 and 1776 the British government had paid slight heed to these claims ( pp .75,89). But Daniel Boone and other colonists had settled west of the mountains in what are now the states of Kentucky and Tennessee . When the Revolution began the states having claims to western lands at once put them forward , and New York also claimed a right to about one half of the disputed territory . Naturally , the states that had no claims to these lands had quite different views . The Marylanders , for example , thought that the western lands should be regarded as national territory and used for the common benefit . Maryland refused to join the Confederation until New York had ceded her claims to the United States , and Virginia had proposed a ces sion of the territory claimed by her .