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Memoir of the iion. James uuane.

of the war, until 20th March, 1790, when the Senate voted that his seat, as well as that of three otherSenators, had become vacant in consequence of having, accepted olSces under the United States .The correctness of this decision was acquiesced in without much objection. In this period of hisSenatorship many of our most important public laws were passed, of the provisions of which hewas the principal author. The law for incorporating religious societies, for establishing theuniversity, and for the sale of the public lands are instances. The first revision of our statutelaw after the Revolution, by Jones & Varick, also came before the Legislature at this period, and hisattention and knowledge were bestowed, and were very useful in the accomplishment of the work.

The claims of Massachusetts on New-York , which prior to the Revolution seemed only to relate toour eastern boundary, after the peace assumed a more important form. The former State put in aclaim to all the territory lying between her western boundary and the Pacific ocean. On the 12thNovember, 1784, James Duane, John Jay , Robert R. Livingston , Egbert Benson , and WalterLivingston, were appointed agents of the State in that controversy which was then expected tobe tried by a federal court under the articles of confederation. In December the agents pro-ceeded to Trenton, where Congress then sat to meet the Massachusetts agents to form the court.Several weeks were spent in vain attempts to obtain unobjectionable judges, and when such werefound, some of them would not serve, so that the business had to be done over again. The con-ferences were extended into 1785, and New York selected as the place of meeting. In this matterMr. Duane drew the brief on the part of New' York 1 (subsequently indeed handed to Samuel Jonesand Alexander Hamilton , as counsel to complete) and drew most of the notes and communicationsto the other agents, the petitions to Congress , and the letters to the selected judges. The difficultyof procuring a court in which both parties had confidence and a conviction among all the agents,that an amicable arrangement might be made by themselves, advantageous to both parties, inducedthem to request their respective Legislatures to allow' them to settle tfie dispute as each shouldthink most for the interest of their own State. Such acts were passed both by New-York andMassachusetts , the former State at the same time substituting Melancthon Smith, Robert Yates andJohn Lansing, Junr., as agents, in place of John Jay and Walter Livingston, resigned. The agentson both sides met at Hartford, in November, 1786, and after about three weeks negotiation madethe final arrangement by which Massachusetts was allowed the ownership of most of the westernpart of our State, beyond the military tract, while the jurisdiction over it was to be retained byNew-York . As the Indian title was not then extinguished, as the land was wild and our State inwant of population, few of the present day will doubt the advantage of the bargain to have beenours. The direction then given to emigration from Massachusetts was to her wild lands in ourState instead of the Ohio , which was then opening to settlement, and to which country great effortsW'ere making in New-England to allure settlers.

In 1788, Mr. Duane was elected, a member of the Convention that met at Poughkeepsie , toconsider the propriety of adopting the Constitution of the United States , and it is hardly necessaryto say, that like most of those who had served long in Congress , and viewed the importance of acloser Union of the States, and the necessity of more powers in the general government to performmany of its essential functions, he spoke and voted in favor of its adoption. The new government•went into operation in the spring of 1789, and in September of that year, Mr. Duane was nominatedby President Washington, and appointed by the Senate , District Judge of the District of New-York .

1 This document is among the MSS. of the New-York Historical Society , a copy taken by permission of the Society , hasbeen deposited in the State Library.