Illinois-Wabash Company

The Illinois-Wabash Company, formally known as the United Illinois and Wabash Land Company, is a company formed in 1779 from the merger of the Illinois Company and the Wabash Company.

The two companies have been established in order to purchase land from Native Americans in the Illinois Country, a region of North America acquired by Great Britain in 1763.

The Illinois Company purchases two large tracts of land in 1773; the Wabash Company purchases two additional tracts in 1775.

Because the Royal Proclamation of 1763 forbids private purchase of Native American lands, Great Britain refuses to recognize these transactions.

Following the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, officials of the merged Illinois-Wabash Company appeal to both Virginia (which claims the Illinois Country) and to the United States to recognize their land purchases, but are unsuccessful.

After the United States buyst the land in question from Native Americans and resells it, the matter eventually goes to the Supreme Court of the United States.

In Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823), the Court rules that the U.S. government, following earlier British precedent, will not recognize private purchases of native lands, and that Illinois-Wabash Company's purchases are therefore invalid.

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