The petitioners prayed that a president of judicature be sent to them, with executive powers to a certain extent, and that subordinate civil officers be appointed, to reside in each village or station, with power to hear and decide all causes upon obligations not exceeding three hundred dollars, higher amounts to be determined by a court to be held at Kaskaskia and to be composed of the president and a majority of the magistrates. It was [pg 044] desired that the grant in which the Kaskaskia settlements lay should be considered as one district. It contained five villages, of which Kaskaskia and Cahokia were the largest. The grant extended to the headwaters of the Illinois River on the north. The land had been granted to the settlers by the Indians, and the Indians, having given their consent by solemn treaties, had never denied the sale. The tract referred to was probably the two purchases of the Illinois Company. Maps give but one of these and, in fact, the other was said to be so described as to comprise a line only. Naturally, this fact was not known at the time of purchase.
It was frankly acknowledged that Illinois had no man fitted for the office of president. It was hoped that Virginia would furnish one, and would send with him a company of regulars to act under his direction and enforce laws and authority. The president should be empowered to grant land in small tracts to immigrants. The privilege of trading in Spanish waters, especially on the Missouri, was much desired. It was said that Carbonneaux “appears to have been instructed as to the ground of his message by the better disposed part of the inhabitants of the country whose complaints he represents.”[82]
At the time of Carbonneaux's petition, there was no legal way by which newcomers to Illinois could acquire public land. Virginia had prepared to open a land-office, soon after the conquest of the Illinois country, but she seems to have heeded the recommendation of Congress that no unappropriated land be sold during the war.[83] Some grants had been made by Todd, Demunbrunt, the Indians, and others with less show of right, but they were made without [pg 045] governmental authority. The Indians had presented a tract of land to Clark, but the view consistently held was that individuals could not receive Indian land merely upon their own initiative.[84] One of the grants made at Vincennes, which seems to have been a typical one, was signed by Le Grand, “Colonel commandant and President of the Court,” and was made by the authority granted to the magistrates of the court of Vincennes by John Todd, “Colonel and Grand civil Judge for the United States.” The purpose of the grant, which comprised four hundred arpents “in circumference,” was to induce immigration.[85] The grants made by the court of Vincennes became notorious from the fact that thousands of acres were granted by the court to its own members.[86]
On March 1, 1784, Virginia ceded her western lands to the United States, thus transferring to the general government the question of land titles. The country had been in a state of unconcealed anarchy for more than two years, all semblance of Virginia authority having ceased, and the cession is quite as much a tribute to Virginia's shrewdness as to her generosity. Never was so large a present made with less sacrifice. The cession was made with the following conditions, some of which were to have a direct and potent influence upon the settlement of the ceded region:
1. The territory should be formed into states of not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty square miles each;
2. Virginia's expenses in subduing and governing the territory should be reimbursed by the United States;
3. Settlers should have their “possessions and titles confirmed;”
4. One hundred and fifty thousand acres, or less, should be granted to George Rogers Clark and his soldiers;
5. The Virginia military bounty lands should be located north of the Ohio River, unless there should prove to be enough land for the purpose south of that river;
6. The proceeds from the sale of the lands should be for the United States, severally.[87]