Enclosure No. 8. [Resolutions Relating to the Pennsylvania-Virginia Boundary]
Resolved that the agreement made on the 31st day of August 1779 between Jas. Madison & Robert Andrews Commissioners for the Commonwealth of Virginia & George Bryan, John Ewing & David Rittenhouse Commissioners for Pennsylvania be ratified & fully confirmed (Vizt.) That the line commonly called Mason & Dixsons line be extended due West five degrees of longitude to be computed from the River Delaware for the Southern Boundary of Penna. & that a Meridian drawn from the western extremity thereof to the Northern limits of this State respectively be the Western bounds of Pennsa. forever.
On Condition that the private property & rights of all person acquiring under, or founded on, or recognised by the Laws of either Country previous to the date hereof be saved &confirmed unto them, although they shoud be found to fall within the other, & the decision of all disputes thereupon, preference shall be given to the elder or prior right, which ever of the said States they shall have been acquired under, such persons paying to the State within whose boundary they shall be included the same purchase as consideration Money, which would have been due from them to the State under, which they claimed the right, & where any such purchase or Consideration Money have since the Declaration of American Independancy, been received by either State for Lands which according to the before recited agreement shall fall within the territory of the other, the same shall be reciprocally refunded & repaid, & that the Inhabitants of the disputed territory now ceded to the State of Pennsa. shall not before the first day of December in the present year be subject to the payment of any Taxes, nor at any to the Arearage of any Taxes or imposition laid in either State.
Resolved that upon the acceptance & full ratification of this Condition & agreement on the part of Penna. the Governor be empowered by advice of the Council to appoint Commissioners on behalf of this Commonwealth in conjunction with Commissioners to be appointed by the Commonwealth of Pennsa. to extend the line commonly called Masons & Dixsons line five degrees of Longitude from Delaware River as aforesaid, & from the western determination thereof to run and Mark the Meridian Line to Ohio River, which is as far as the General Assembly conceive the same can at present be done without Danger & Umbrage to the Indians giving to the commissioners on the part of Virginia such instructions therein as the Governor & Council shall think proper.