The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Extrait from the proceedings in CONGRESS, relative to the District of KENTUCKY. July 3, 1788.

WHEREAS application has been lately made to Congress by the legislature of Virginia and the district of Kentucky for the admission of the said district into the federal union, as a separate member thereof, on the terms contained in the acts of the said legislature, and in the resolutions of the said district relative to the premises. And whereas Congress having fully considered the subject, did, on the third day of June last, resolve that it is expedient that the said district be erected into a sovereign and independent state, and a separate member of the federal union; and appointed a committee to report an act accordingly, which committee on the second instant was discharged. it appearing that nine states had adopted the constitution of the United States, lately submitted to conventions of the people. And whereas a new confederacy is formed among the ratifying states, and there is reason to believe that the state of Virginia including the said district, did, on the 25th of June last, become a member of said confederacy: and whereas an act of Congress, in the present state of the government of the country, severing a part of the said State from the other parts thereof, and admitting it into the confederacy formed by the articles of confederation and perpetual union, as an independent member thereof, may be attended with many inconveniences, while it can have no effect to make the said district a separate member of the federal union formed by the adoption of the said constitution, and therefore it must be manifestly improper for Congress, assembled under the said articles of confederation, to adopt any other measures relative to the premises, than those which express their sense, that the said district ought to be an independent member of the union as soon as circumstances shall permit proper measures to be adopted for that purpose:

Resolved, That a copy of the proceedings of Congress, relative to the independency of the district of Kentucky, be transmitted to the legislature of Virginia, and also to Samuel M'Dowell, Esq, late President of the said convention; and that the said legislature and inhabitants of the district aforesaid, be informed, that as the constitution of the United States is now ratified, Congress think it unadvisable to adopt any further measures for admitting the district of Kentucky into the federal Union, as an independent member thereof, under the articles of confederation, and perpetual union; but that Congress thinking it expedient that the said district be made a separate state and member of the union, as soon after proceedings shall commence under the said constitution as circumstances shall permit, recommend it to the said legislature and to the inhabitants of the said district, so to alter their acts and resolutions relative to the premises, as to render them conformable to the provisions made in the said constitution, to the end that no impediment may be in the way of the speedy accomplishment of this important business.