FROM CHARTER TO CONSTITUTION.
BY DANIEL J. RYAN.
INTRODUCTION.
The compilation of official documents
and state papers which
follows this introduction was made for
the purpose of collecting
together the established and historical
evidences of the title to
the landed area now known as the State
of Ohio.
The English Charters which were granted
in the beginning
of the seventeenth century form the
fountain head of the title
of the United States subsequently
acquired from Great Britain
by the treaty of 1783. It is
historically valuable to study these
charters with a view to a more thorough
understanding of this
subject.
In 1606, April 10, James I. of England,
on petition of Sir
Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers and
others, issued a charter
empowering them and their associates to
establish two colonies
named in the charter as the "First
Colony" and "Second Colony."
The "First Colony" is known in
history as the "London Com-
pany" because it was composed, to
use the language of the charter,
of "Adventurers of and for our City
of London." It had its
headquarters in the chief city of
England. Its grant, territorially
speaking, covered a strip of sea coast
fifty miles broad, extend-
ing from the thirty-fourth to the
forty-first parallel, with all the
islands within one hundred miles of the
shore. No settlements
were to be permitted to the interior or
the rear of this strip except
upon written permission of the Colonial
Council. By the same
charter certain privileges were granted
to "Second Colony"
which was composed of citizens of
Plymouth, England, and is
therefore referred to historically as
the "Plymouth Company."
To this company the charter granted the
land lying between
the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth
parallels. It will be seen that
the three degrees of territory between
the thirty-eighth and for-
ty-first parallels were embraced in both
charters, but conflict of
jurisdiction was avoided by providing
that neither colony should
(vii)