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Important document signed by Thomas Paine as Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, extending the Mason-Dixon Line approximately 350 miles west and ratifying the southern and western boundaries of Pennsylvania. Headed ''In Assembly Nov. 19th 1779'', Paine writes to Pennsylvania President Joseph Reed regarding the passage in the Assembly of a resolution finally resolving the disputed boundary between Pennsylvania and Virginia. That resolution famously extended the Mason-Dixon line 5 degrees longitude to the west along Pennsylvania's southern border and also used that endpoint as its western boundary. Paine writes in part, ''Motion Resolved that the...Ratification be copied and sent to the Supreme Executive Council requesting that honorable Board to transmit the same to the Government of Virginia...Thomas Paine / Clerk of the Gen'l Assembly''. Paine also handwrites the integral address leaf, ''His Excellency Joseph Reed Esq. / President of the Supreme Executive Council''.
The Pennsylvania-Virginia boundary, surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in 1767, remained unsettled and was disputed by property owners in both territories. Although this resolution didn't quiet the property disputes, it did officially end the uncertainty around the state's boundary lines. That resolution reads in part, ''To extend Mason's and Dixon's line due west five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the said state be the western boundary of Pennsylvania forever.'' Of the resolution, Joseph Reed would write Thomas Jefferson six days later on 25 November 1799 that it was ''the great desire of this State to preserve...[the] harmony and good correspondence with a Sister State.''
Document on bifolium measures 8.125'' x 13'' with docketing on fourth page also noting the ''Boundary of Virginia'' in another hand. Uniform toning and splits starting along fold lines. Very good condition. An important document signed by Founding Father Thomas Paine regarding one of the most consequential survey lines in the United States.