and the rights of all parties remained the same under the new Government
as they were under the Confederation.

The deed of cession of North Carolina was executed in December, 1789,
and accepted by an act of Congress approved April 2, 1790. The third
condition of this cession was in the following words, viz:


That all the lands intended to be ceded by virtue of this act to the
United States of America, and not appropriated as before mentioned,
_shall be considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of the
United States of America, North Carolina inclusive, according to their
respective and usual proportions of the general charge and expenditure,
and shall be faithfully disposed of for that purpose, and for no other
use or purpose whatever_.


The cession of Georgia was completed on the 16th June, 1802, and in its
leading condition is precisely like that of Virginia and North Carolina.
This grant completed the title of the United States to all those lands
generally called _public lands_ lying within the original limits of the
Confederacy. Those which have been acquired by the purchase of Louisiana
and Florida, having been paid for out of the common treasure of the
United States, are as much the property of the General Government, to
be disposed of for the common benefit, as those ceded by the several
States.

By the facts here collected from the early history of our Republic it
appears that the subject of the public lands entered into the elements
of its institutions. It was only upon the condition that those lands