Bill for Pennsylvania Land Contract, [21 December] 1791
Bill for Pennsylvania Land Contract
[21 December 1791]
Mr. Madison, from the committee appointed, presented a bill for carrying into effect a contract between the United States and the State of Pennsylvania …1
, 2d Cong., 1st sess., 277.
1. During the final session of the Continental Congress in 1788 JM served on a committee ordered to arrange the transfer of jurisdiction over a strip of land “entirely separated from the other lands of the western territory,” to the state of Pennsylvania. Although a resolution was passed, title to the surveyed lands bordering Lake Eric had never been conveyed by the federal government ( , XXXIV, 480, 499–500). On 20 Dec. 1791 the House was informed of the situation by a message from the president, accompanied by a report from Jefferson with other documents relating to a settlement. JM was then appointed chairman of the committee to report the required bill, which the House passed on 26 Dec. ( , 2d Cong., 1st sess., 274–75, 284; , I, 229).