Illinois-Wabash Company - Merger and American Denial of Title

Merger and American Denial of Title

During the war the British had sparsely garrisoned the Illinois Country, which was far away from the main area of action. In July 1778, Colonel George Rogers Clark and a small force took possession of the region on behalf of Virginia, which, by virtue of its colonial charter, had a claim to the entire Illinois Country. In December of that year, Murray presented a memorial to the Virginia legislature, informing them of the land claims of the Illinois and Wabash companies. In order to consolidate their lobbying efforts, the two companies merged on March 13, 1779, becoming the United Illinois and Wabash Land Company. The cause of the company was promoted by influential Americans such as James Wilson and Robert Morris, who had become investors. Other notable members included Silas Deane, Samuel Chase, and Maryland governor Thomas Johnson.

Despite these political connections, Virginia declined to recognize the Illinois-Wabash purchases and instead created the "County of Illinois" in November 1779. Thus rejected, the company turned its efforts to lobbying the new national government of the United States. This issue became part of a wider debate in Congress about the western boundaries of states, with the states without western lands demanding that Virginia and other states with large land claims cede these lands to the national government. Virginia ceded her western land claims to the United States in 1784. Despite repeated appeals by the Illinois-Wabash Company, which were regularly renewed into the early 19th century, the U.S. government declined to recognize their land claims. The company faded away.

The United States eventually bought the lands in question from Native Americans in treaties conducted by William Henry Harrison. After the War of 1812, the United States began to issue land patents to settlers. In 1820, the executor of the estate of an investor in the Illinois-Wabash Company filed suit against William McIntosh, one of the largest of the new landowners. The lawsuit claimed that McIntosh had bought land rightfully owned by the Illinois-Wabash Company, based on the earlier purchase from the Indians. In 1823, the issue made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in Johnson v. M'Intosh. The Court decided in favor of McIntosh, ruling that private purchases of native lands were not valid. The decision brought to an end the story of the Illinois-Wabash Company.