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485
CESSION BY VIRGINIA.
New York ; and that the acceptance by Congress of the New York cession, would vest the whole western territory belong- ing to the Six Nations and their tributaries, in the United States, greatly to the advantage of the nation." The com- mittee also reported against a federal guaranty to Virginia of the territory southeast of the Ohio, and maintained that large tracts west of the mountains had been sold by Great Britain before the Revolution ; " that in the year 1763, a very large part thereof was separated and appointed for a distinct government and colony by the King of Great Britain, with the knowledge and approbation of the government of Virginia," and that the west boundary line of Virginia had been otherwise declared by the King of Great Britain, in council, previous to the Revolution. This report elicited much and warm debate, postponing the formal acceptance of the deed of New York to October 31, 1782-" an accept- ance intended," says Hildreth, " as a means to compel the other States to make satisfactory cessions."2 Massachusetts and Virginia voted against it; the Carolinas were divided ; all the other States in the affirmative.
The subject of the Virginia cession was again referred, on the 4th of June, 1783, to a select committee consisting of Messrs. Rutledge, Ellsworth, Bedford, Gorham and Madison. They recommended that Congress should accept all the con- ditions proposed by Virginia, except the territorial guaranty already mentioned, and a condition " that all Indian pur- chases, which had been or should be made for the use of private persons, and all royal grants inconsistent with 'the chartered rights, laws and customs of Virginia,' should be declared void." This report was agreed to by all the States except New Hampshire, New Jersey and Maryland ; and the
2) History of the United States, by Richard Hildreth, vol. iii., p. 427.
486
HISTORY OF OHIO.
General Assembly of Virginia, at their session commencing on the 20th of October, 1783, passed an act accepting the proposition of Congress, and authorized their delegates in Congress to make the cession.
Accordingly, on the 1st day of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, delegates of Virginia, executed a deed of cession to the United States in Congress assembled, of all right, title and claim, as well of soil as jurisdiction, which that commonwealth had to the " territory or tract of country within the limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying and being to the north- west of the river Ohio," upon six enumerated conditions, namely : Firstly, distinct Republican States, not less than one hundred, nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square, were to be formed and admitted members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other States-a recital of the resolution of Oct. 10, 1780. Secondly, Virginia to be reimbursed the expenses of subduing British posts, and acquiring or defend- ing the territory conveyed, as the same should be adjusted by commissioners, according to the intent and meaning of the aforesaid resolution of Congress. Thirdly, the French and Canadian inhabitants, who had professed themselves citizens of Virginia, to be confirmed in their possessions and titles, and protected in their rights and liberties. Fourthly, one hun- dred and fifty thousand acres of land to be selected by the officers and soldiers of Clark's regiment, who were engaged in the reduction of Kaskaskia and St. Vincents, which should be laid off in one tract not more than twice its breadth in length. Fifthly, " that in case the quantity of good land on the southeast side of the Ohio, upon the waters of the Cum- berland River, and between the Green River and Tennessee
487
FURTHER RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS.
River, which had been reserved by law for the Virginia troops upon continental establishment, should, from the North Carolina line, bearing in further upon the Cumberland lands than was expected, prove insufficient for their legal bounties, the deficiency should be made up to the said troops in good land, to be laid off between the rivers Sciota and Little Miami, on the northwest side of the river Ohio, in such proportions as have been engaged to them, by the laws of Virginia." Sixthly, " that all the lands within the territory so ceded to the United States, and not reserved for, or appropriated to, any of the before mentioned purposes, or disposed of in bounties to the officers and soldiers of the American army, shall be considered a common fund, for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become members of the confederation, or federal alliance of the said States, Virginia included, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge or expenditure, and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose what- soever."
Congress declared, by resolution, that the United States were ready to receive the foregoing deed. The delegates of Virginia then proceeded and signed, sealed and delivered the same ; whereupon Congress came to the following reso- tion : "The delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia having executed the deed ; Resolved, That the same be re- corded and enrolled among the acts of the United States in Congress assembled."
On the 29th of April, 1784, Congress adopted the follow- ing resolution :
" Congress, by their resolution of September 6th, 1780, having thought it advisable to press upon the States, having
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488
HISTORY OF OHIO.
claims to the western country, a liberal surrender of a portion of their territorial claims ; by that of the 10th of October, in the same year, having fixed conditions to which the Union should be bound on receiving such cessions ; and having again proposed the same subject to those States, in their address of April 18th, 1783, wherein, stating the national debt, and expressing their reliance for its discharge on the prospect of vacant territory in aid of other resources, they, for that purpose, as well as to obviate disagreeable controver- sies and confusions, included in the same recommendations a renewal of those of September 6th and October 10th, 1780, which several recommendations have not yet been fully com- plied with :
" Resolved, That the same subject be again presented to the said States ; that they be urged to consider, that the war being now brought to a happy termination, by the personal services of our soldiers, the supplies of property of our citi- zens, and loans of money from them as well as foreigners ; these several creditors have a right to expect that funds will be provided, on which they may rely for indemnification ; that Congress still consider vacant territory as an important re- source ; and that, therefore, said States be earnestly pressed, by immediate and liberal cessions, to forward these necessary ends, and to promote the harmony of the Union."
Massachusetts, on the 13th of November, 1784, having authorized her delegates in Congress to cede to the United States so much of her claims to western territory as they might see fit, it was proposed by Rufus King, one of her delegates, on the 16th of March, 1785, to modify a report on the western territory, which had been accepted by the late Congress, by inserting a total and immediate prohibition of slavery. This resolution, substantially adopted by the
489
CESSION BY CONNECTICUT.
vote of seven States, including Maryland ; Delaware unrep- resented ; Virginia, the two Carolinas and Georgia in the negative. This was a test vote, and having thus secured the welfare of future generations, rather than any temporary advantage to the ceding States, the delegates of Massachu- setts, Rufus King and Samuel Holten, on the 19th of April, 1785, executed a deed of cession as to all the territory west of the present western boundary of New York ; whereupon Congress resolved " to accept said deed of cession, and that the same be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States in Congress assembled."
Another year elapsed, when Connecticut resumed the con- sideration of a cession of western territory, and at a general assembly of the State, on the second Thursday of May, 1786, passed the following act :
" Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representa- tives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That the delegates of this State, or any two of them, who shall be attending the Congress of the United States, be, and they are hereby directed, authorized, and fully empowered, in the name and behalf of this State, to make, execute and deliver, under their hands and seals, an ample deed of release and cession of all the right, title, interest, jurisdiction and claim of the State of Connecticut, to certain western lands, beginning at the completion of the forty-first degree of north latitude, one hundred and twenty miles west of the western boundary line of the commonwealth of Penn- sylvania, as now claimed by said commonwealth, and from thence by a line to be drawn north, parallel to, and one hundred and twenty miles west of the said west line of Pennsylvania, and to continue north until it comes to forty- two degrees and two minutes north latitude ; whereby all the
490
HISTORY OF OHIO.
right, title, interest, jurisdiction and claim of the State of Connecticut to the lands lying west of the said line, to be drawn, as aforementioned, one hundred and twenty miles west of the western boundary line of the commonwealth of Penn- sylvania, as now claimed by said commonwealth, shall be included, released, and ceded to the United States in Con- gress assembled, for the common use and benefit of said States, Connecticut inclusive."
This pertinacity succeeded, and on the 26th of May, 1786, it was resolved, "that Congress, in behalf of the United States, are ready to accept all the right, title, interest, juris- diction and claim of the State of Connecticut to certain western lands, beginning at the completion of the forty-first degree of north latitude, one hundred and twenty miles west of the western boundary line of the commonwealth of Penn- sylvania, as now claimed by said commonwealth ; and from thence, by a line to be drawn north, parallel to, and one hundred and twenty miles west of the said west line of Penn- sylvania, and to continue north until it comes to forty-two degrees two minutes north latitude, whenever the delegates of Connecticut shall be furnished with full powers and shall execute a deed for that purpose."
On the 14th of September, 1786, William Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Sturges, delegates from Connecticut, executed a deed of cession agreeably to the above resolution, and it was resolved " that Congress accept the said deed of cession, and that the same be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States in Congress assembled."
The western boundary of Pennsylvania, so frequently men- tioned in these transactions, had been in dispute between the colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania, but on the 31st of August, 1779, an agreement was concluded between com-
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491
THE CONNECTICUT RESERVATION.
missioners appointed by those States respectively, that the line run in 1767, by Jeremiah Mason and Charles Dixon, and which had been established as the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, should be extended due west five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the river Del- aware for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania; and that a meridian drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the said States respectively, should be the western boundary of Pennsylvania forever. Both States concurred in the action of the commissioners.
One of the conditions of the cessions just enumerated- originally contained in the resolution of Congress of October 10th, 1780, and recognized in the deed of Virginia-pledged the government of the Union to the formation of States, each with an extent not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square. By a resolution of Congress, dated July 7, 1786, to which Virginia responded by an act dated December 30, 1788, this condition was changed so as to empower Congress to make a division of the territory north- west of the Ohio, into not less than three nor more than five States.
Some further particulars upon the subject considered in this chapter should here be added :
Connecticut, in 1786, provided for the survey of that por- tion of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga River, and opened a land office-in 1792, granted five hundred thousand acres, the west part thereof, to certain citizens of the State as a compensation for property burned and destroyed in the towns of New London, New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk, by the British troops during the Revolution-in 1795, sold the balance of the Reserve, and in 1800, ceded her jurisdiction over the tract to the United States, in consideration of an
492
HISTORY OF OHIO.
act of Congress, passed April 28th, authorizing the President to issue letters patent to the Governor of Connecticut in trust for the grantees of the soil. The proceeds of the Western Reserve were applied to the school fund of Connecticut.
On the 9th of August, 1787, South Carolina, by John Kean and Daniel Huger, her delegates in Congress, ceded to the United States the territory west of the mountains which divide the western from the eastern streams. A similar cession, but by no means so liberal in its terms, was made by North Carolina on the 25th of February, 1790, while the Western limits of Georgia were not adjusted until 1802.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH WESTERN TERRITORY. - OR- DINANCE OF 1787.
To dispose of the soil and to determine the political institu- tions of the valley between the Alleghanies and the Missis- sippi, was recognized by the Congress of the Confederation, as a grave and urgent duty. The members exaggerated the value of the lands, as a resource of revenue and credit to the government; but there was no error, either of purpose or policy, in their political regulations for the undeveloped em- pire of the west.
Still, the necessity of the case was substituted for any direct constitutional authority. The Articles of Confedera- tion conferred upon Congress the power of "regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States, provided that the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not infringed or violated," and of admitting other colonies into the confederacy with the assent of nine States by their delegates; but we look in vain for any other warrant of the legislation by Congress for the disposition and government of the western territory. The power to raise a revenue, from which the requisite implica- tion might have been derived, consisted only of a right to make requisitions upon the respective States without the authority to enforce their compliance. But, in the course of events, Congress had acquired a public domain, and the proposition that checked or answered cavil, was, that the
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
right to acquire, necessarily implied the right to dispose of the soil and protect the settlers by territorial governments.
The intrusions of settlers forced a public system of survey and sale upon the attention of Congress. On the 20th of May, 1785, " an ordinance for ascertaining the mode of dis- posing of lands in the Western Territory" was perfected by Congress, and became the foundation of the existing system. A corps of surveyors-one from each State, and appointed by Congress-were placed under the direction of Thomas Hutchins, Geographer of the United States, and instructed to divide the territory into townships of six miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing these at right angles, as far as practicable. The first line running north and south was to begin on the Ohio River, at a point due north from the western termination of the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and the first line running east and west was to begin at the same point and extend through the territory. The townships, whole or fractional, were to be numbered from south to north-the ranges of townships progressively westward. The townships were to be subdi- vided into thirty-six sections, each containing a mile square, or six hundred and forty acres. The survey has since been carried to half sections, quarter sections and eighths, and in some cases to sixteenths.
When the survey of seven ranges of townships was com- pleted, plats were to be returned to the Board of Treasury, and the Secretary of War was to reserve, by lot, one- seventh part for the use of the late continental army, and so of every subsequent seven ranges, when surveyed and returned. Lots eight, eleven, twenty-six and twenty-nine in each township were reserved by the United States for future sale: lot sixteen for the maintenance of public schools
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495
CONTINENTAL LAND SYSTEM.
within the township, and "also one-third part of all gold, silver, lead and copper mines to be sold or otherwise dis- posed of as Congress should direct."
With these exceptions, the townships were to be drawn in the name of the different States, in the proportion of the latest requisitions by Congress upon them, and sold at pub- lic vendue, after a prescribed notice, by the commissioners of the loan office of the several States, in the following man- ner: The township or fractional part of a township number one, in the first range, to be sold entire; and number two in the same range, by lots: and thus in alternate order through the whole of the first range. In the second range, the first township to be sold in lots, the second entire: and so alternately through the subsequent ranges. "Provided, That none of the lands within the said territory be sold under the price of one dollar the acre, to be paid in specie, or loan office certificates reduced to specie value by the scale of depreciation, or certificates of liquidated debts of the United States, including interest, besides the expense of the survey and other charges thereon, which are rated at thirty-six dollars, the township in specie or certificates as aforesaid, and so in the same proportion for a fractional part of a township, or of a lot, to be paid at the time of sales; on failure of which repayment, the lands shall again be offered for sale."
If lands remained unsold by a State after eighteen months, they were to be returned to the Board of Treasury, and sold as Congress might direct.
This ordinance also gave the mode for dividing among the continental soldiers the lands set apart for them: reserved three townships adjacent to Lake Erie for refugees from Canada and Nova Scotia, on account of their devotion to the
496
HISTORY OF OHIO.
American cause :1 secured to the Moravian Indians the towns of Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrun and Salem on the Muskingum, and such adjacent lands as would, in the judgment of the geographer, be sufficient for them to cultivate: and exclu- ded from sale the territory between the Little Miami and Scioto, in accordance with the provisions made by Virginia in her deed of cession in favor of her own troops.2
On the 15th of June, 1785, Congress instructed the com- missioners empowered to conclude a treaty with the western Indians, to warn off " several disorderly persons who had crossed the Ohio River and settled upon unappropriated lands," which was industriously, however ineffectually, done by General Richard Butler, on his journey to the conference with the Shawanese at the mouth of the Great Miami.
Congress instructed Hutchins and his body of surveyors, by a resolution of May 9th, 1786, not to proceed with their survey further north than the east and west line (the exten- sion of the southern boundary of Pennsylvania) mentioned in the ordinance of May 20th, 1785. A year afterwards, Congress directed that the sale of lands, after the deduction of one-seventh for army bounties, should be held at the place where Congress was in session.
The bounties to the officers and soldiers of the Revolution, who had continued in service until the close of the war, or until discharged, and the representatives of those who were slain by the enemy, had been granted by resolutions of Con- gress, dated September 16th and 18th, 1776, and August
1) This tract was afterwards located eastwardly from the Scioto River, near and including the city of Columbus. It is a narrow strip of country, 43 miles broad from north to south, and 48 miles in length-having the United States twenty ranges of military or army lands north, and twenty- two ranges of Congress lands south, and consisting of 100,000 acres.
2) Land Laws of the United States, edition of 1828, p. 349.
497
ORGANIZATION OF THE OHIO COMPANY.
12th and September 22d, 1780, and were as follows : a Major General, eleven hundred acres; Brigadier General, eight hundred and fifty ; Colonel, five hundred ; Lieutenant Colonel, four hundred and fifty ; Major, four hundred ; Captain, three hundred ; Lieutenant, two hundred; Ensign, one hundred and fifty ; each non-commissioned officer and soldier, one hundred.3 The possession of these and other claims upon the government of the Union, by the disbanded and often impoverished soldiery of the Revolution, became a prominent agency in the settlement of Ohio. In June, 1783, peace having been proclaimed, General Rufus Putnam, of Massa- chusetts, forwarded to Washington a memorial from a number of persons holding these claims for an appropriation of west- ern lands, which Washington transmitted to Congress, but the States had not made their cessions, and Congress was obliged to postpone the consideration of the subject. In July, 1785, Benjamin Tupper, a Revolutionary officer of Massachusetts, was appointed a surveyor of western lands, and during the year visited Pittsburgh. The survey was interrupted by Indian troubles, and he went no further, but returned with such impressions of the Ohio country that Putnam and himself united in a publication, dated January 10, 1786, which proposed an association for the purchase and settlement of Ohio lands. Whoever desired to promote the scheme were invited to meet in their respective counties of Massachusetts, (enumerating the places) on the 15th of February, and choose a delegate or delegates to meet at " the Bunch of Grapes tavern, in Boston, Essex."
This convention assembled on the 1st of March, and con- sisted of the following persons : Winthrop Sargent and John Mills, of Suffolk county ; Manassah Cutler, of Essex ; John
3) Land Laws of the United States, p. 336. 21*
498
HISTORY OF OHIO.
Brooks and Thomas Cushing, of Middlesex ; Benjamin Tup- per, of Hampshire ; Crocker Sampson, of Plymouth ; Rufus Putnam, of Worcester ; John Patterson and Jahlaliel Wood- bridge, of Berkshire ; and Abraham Williams, of Barnstable. General Rufus Putnam was elected chairman, and Major Winthrop Sargent clerk.
On the 3d of March, a committee consisting of Messrs. Putnam, Cutler, Brooks, Sargent and Cushing, reported a plan of association, which was adopted. The leading features of the organization were these : a fund of a million dollars, mainly in continental specie certificates, was to be raised for the purchase of lands in the western territory; there were to be a thousand shares of one thousand dollars each, and upon each share ten dollars in specie were to be paid for contingent expenses. One year's interest on the certificates was to be appropriated to the charges of making a settlement and assisting those who were unable to remove without aid. The owners of every twenty shares were to choose an agent to represent them, and attend to their interests, and these agents were to choose five directors, a treasurer and secretary.
The next meeting of the associates was held at Bracket's tavern, in Boston, on the 8th of March, 1787, called by special advertisement. At this meeting it appeared that two hundred and fifty shares had been subscribed in this " company's funds," and "that many in the commonwealth of Massachu- setts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, were inclined to become adventurers, and restrained only by the uncertainty of obtaining a sufficient tract of country, collec- tively, for a great settlement." It was resolved that three directors be appointed for the company, who were to make immediate application to Congress for a private grant of lands. General Samuel H. Parsons, General Rufus Putnam, and the
499
NEGOTIATIONS WITH CONGRESS.
Rev. Manassah Cutler were chosen. Major Winthrop Sar- gent was elected secretary. The appointment of the other two directors and treasurer was postponed until another meeting.
The directors employed Dr. Cutler to make a contract with Congress, and for that purpose he passed the month of July in New York, with the exception of a week's attendance upon the federal convention, then engaged in Philadelphia in framing the constitution of the United States. An interview with Thomas Hutching, shortly after Cutler's arrival in New York, confirmed the previous impressions of the New Eng- land adventurers in favor of a location inclusive and westward of the Muskingum valley. General Parsons, as a commis- sioner to the Shawanese, in 1786, had shared the enthusiasm of all the early voyagers along the river coast of that region of Ohio, and Hutchins doubtless spoke from his preposses- sions while the companion of Colonel Bouquet twenty years before. In a published journal of Dr. Cutler, under date of July 9, he says that Hutchins advised him " by all means to make the location on the Muskingum, which was decidedly, in his opinion, the best part of the whole western country." Another circumstance in favor of the Muskingum, was the security to the colonists from the establishment, since the autumn of 1785, of a post-Fort Harmar-at the confluence of the Muskingum and the Ohio.
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