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Pennsylvania,
by a treaty under Charles II, in 1681, had a title to land
running west a certain distance, five longitudes, from the
Delaware River. Pennsylvania
wasn't sure exactly where the western boundary of its land would
physically lie. They were stopped by the Indians in trying to carry out the
measurement.
Virginia
also claimed land west of the mountains.
Their claim was based on an earlier treaty, given by
James I, and also by a purchase in 1744.
And they felt their claim was further supported by their
participation in the French & Indian War.
Virginia had sent in soldiers, Virginians, to help the
British regulars. Pennsylvania
had helped the British soldiers with a small amount of supplies,
but refused to send in Pennsylvanians to fight.
The Pennsylvania legislature said they weren't even sure
if the area around "The Forks of The Ohio" was part of
Pennsylvania. "Where
her western boundary might lie she seemed to know little and
care less," Boyd Crumrine p 507 "History..."
For
Pennsylvania, it was simply an issue of measuring the property
line, and seeing where the western border would lie.
For Virginia, there was a larger concept and a vision -
westward expansion, such that the boundary of Virginia would
stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River.
The Ohio River and the headwaters of its tributaries -
the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny, were said to
"co-mingle" with the headwaters of the Potomac.
In the 1770's the Virginia counties of Yohogania,
Monongalia and Ohio were named after these rivers
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