under the general regulations of the United States General of America." This company should consist of at least one hundred persons, and receive its grant on condition that within seven years it should have a certain number of families settled on the land and a civil government established, "regulated and supported on the most free and liberal principles, taking therein the advice of the honorable Congress of the United States of America." 1 3 Deane's scheme further provided that the new state should not be taxed until it had a thousand families, when it should contribute to "the publick expenses of the continent, or United States" in proportion to its population and "be entitled to a voice in Congress." 1 We have seen that about a year before this Silas Deane was much interested in the Transylvania undertaking.' James Hogg thought then that he was meditating settling in their new colony himself with a party of Connecticut adventurers. It is not improbable then, that when he suggested to the secret committee of Congress the advisability of planting a new state in the West, he hoped to take a prominent part in its affairs himself. If his recommendation had been acted upon, and a grant given to "a company formed indiscriminately of Europeans and Americans," he, as agent of Congress in Paris, was in good position to enlist the Europeans in the enterprise. But, so far as we know, the suggestion of Silas Deane was never even considered by Congress, and he himself, if he ever had the idea of molding a new state government and wielding a strong power in it, must have soon abandoned it. In conclusion, it needs only to be pointed out that in spite of the fact that every one of the numerous schemes to form governments west of the Alleghany mountains had failed, 1 Silas Deane to Secret Committee of Congress, Dec. 1, 1776. 5 Am. Archives, III., 1021. 2 See above, p. 58. See also his long letter to James Hogg, laying down liberal principles of government which he thought a new colony should adopt. 4 Am. Archives, IV.' 556; N. C. Col. Records, X., 300-304. Hogg to Henderson. N. C. Col. Records, X., 376. some few giving promise for a time of ultimate success, but most of them meeting with little or no real encouragement from the first-in spite of this there had been, when Congress took up the subject, a pretty constant agitation of the question throughout the whole preceeding quarter century. During that time the American people as a whole must have contemplated more than once the possibility of new governments being set up in the West. Although the idea received a check when the back land was all claimed as within the legal limits of certain of the thirteen states, and it was not generally held that Congress had succeeded to the right of the crown to carve out new governments in the west at will, nevertheless the statesmen of the Revolution could hardly have come finally to the task of dealing with the west without remembering something of those attempts, and being influenced by the fact that until then there had been a widespread expectation that separate gov ernments on a political equality with those of the sea-board, would in time be established beyond the mountains. It was another question which brought Congress to take its first action in favor of new states, but had that action not been taken at that time, and had the old states held on to the western land, it must have been recognized sooner or later, that the West had not gained its proportionate share in the liberty acquired by the Revolution, that concerning the local colonial governments which had been expected, the West had plainly lost by the Revolution. We may fairly say that the schemes for new western governments prior to congressional action on the subject, served as a not unimportant factor in ushering in that action. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Albach, James R. Annals of the West. Pittsburgh, 1858. American Archives: 4th series, 6 vols., 1837-46; 5th ser ies, 3 vols., 1848-53. By Peter Force. Washington. American State Papers, Vols. IV. and V.; Indian Affairs, Vols. I. and II. Washington, 1832-34. Gales and Seaton. 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