USA > Ohio > History of the state of Ohio > Part 36
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The journal of Cutler indicates very distinctly, that his embassy to New York would have been unsuccessful if he and Sargent (whom he associated with himself in the nego- tiation) had not consented to extend their contract for the benefit of another company. He was also obliged to surren- der General Samuel H. Parsons, as a candidate for governor of the territory, in favor of the appointment of General
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Arthur St. Clair, who was a delegate from Pennsylvania, and also president of Congress. On the 20th of July, Colonel William Duer, and " a number of the principal characters of the city," induced Cutler to extend his purchase so as to include their own speculations, although this part of the transaction was to be kept " a profound secret ;" and Cutler admits that " matters went on much better " after St. Clair and his friends had been informed that Parsons was given up for the governorship.
On the 23d, Congress authorized the Board of Treasury to contract with any person or persons for a grant of a tract of land which should be bounded by the Ohio from the mouth of the Scioto to the intersection of the western boundary of the seventh range of townships then in course of survey ; thence by the said boundary to the northern boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio; thence by a due west line to Scioto ; thence by the Scioto to the beginning."
Cutler, Sargent and Duer, as the former admits in his diary, "now entered into the true spirit of negotiation with great bodies. Every machine in the city that it was possible to work was now put in motion," &c. They succeeded, and it appears from the resolution of July 23, authorizing the Board of Treasury to contract on certain terms therein enu- merated, from a communication by Cutler and Sargent, as " agents of the Ohio Company of Associates," dated July 26, and from the final resolution of Congress on the 27th, that the following were the terms of sale for the tract above described.
A survey of the tract, ascertaining its contents and plainly marking the northern boundary, was to be made by the United States, but the company should lay off the tract into town- ships and lots, pursuant to the ordinance of May 20th, 1785.
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The reservations in each township were : lot sixteen, for schools ; twenty-nine, for the purposes of religion ; and eight, eleven and twenty-six, for future disposition by Congress. The price to be one dollar per acre, " payable in specie, loan office certificates reduced to specie value, or certificates of liquidated debts of the United States," liable to a reduction of one-third for bad lands and all contingencies. The prin- cipal of the certificates was only to be received, but military bounties were admitted, acre for acre, in payment of one- seventh of the lands. Of the whole amount, five hundred thousand dollars were to be paid down ; another five hundred thousand when the tract above described should be surveyed by the proper officer of the United States, and the remainder in six equal semi-annual instalments, with interest on the sums due from the completion of the United States survey.
Congress, by their resolution of July 23, had stipulated for a reservation of two townships to be given perpetually for the uses of an university, and laid off by the purchasers in good land as near the centre (of the whole tract) as might be-that good and sufficient security be given for the com- pletion of the contract-and that the grant should be made upon the full payment of the consideration money, and a right of entry and occupancy be acquired immediately for so much of the tract as should be agreed upon between the Board of Treasury and the purchasers.
On these points the agents of the Ohio company submitted the following conditions, and induced Congress to acquiecse in them as modifications of the original proposition :
" The lands assigned for the establishment of an university to be nearly as possible in the centre of the first million and a half of acres we shall pay for ; for to fix it in the centre of the proposed purchase, might too long defer the establishment.
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" When the second payment is made, the purchasers shall receive a deed for as great a quantity of land as a million of dollars will pay for, at the price agreed on; after which we will agree not to receive any further deeds for any of the lands purchased, only at such periods and on such conditions as may be agreed on betwixt the board and the purchasers.
" As to the security, which the act says shall be good and sufficient, we are unable to determine what those terms may mean, in the contemplation of Congress, or of your honorable board ; we shall, therefore, only observe that our private for- tunes and those of our associates being embarked in the support of the purchase, it is not possible for us to offer any adequate security but that of the land itself, as is usual in great land purchases.
" We will agree so to regulate the contract that we shall never be entitled to a right of entry and occupancy but on lands actually paid for, nor receive any deeds till our pay ments amount to a million of dollars, and then only in pro- portion to said payment. The advance we shall always be under, without any formal deed, together with the improve- ments made on the lands, will, we presume, be ample secu- rity, even if it was not the interest as well as the disposition of the company to lay the foundation of their establishment on a sacred regard to the rights of property."
This communication was dated July 26; " Friday, July 27," as recorded in Dr. Cutler's diary, was occupied very effectively in obtaining the consent of Congress. "I rose very early this morning," writes Cutler, " and after adjusting my baggage for my return, (for I was determined to leave New York this day) I set out on a general morning visit, and paid my respects to all the members of Congress in the city, and informed them of my intention to leave the city that
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day. My expectations of obtaining a contract, I told them, were nearly at an end. I should, however, wait the decision of Congress, and if the terms I had stated-and which I conceived to be very advantageous to Congress, considering the circumstances of that country-were not acceded to, we must turn our attention to some other part of the country. New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, would sell us lands at half a dollar, and give us exclusive privileges beyond what we have asked of Congress. The speculating plan concerted between the British of Canada was now well . known. The uneasiness of the Kentucky people, with respect to the Mississippi, was notorious. A revolt of that country from the Union, if a war with Spain should occur, was uni- versally acknowledged to be highly probable; and most certainly a systematic settlement in that country, conducted by men thoroughly attached to the federal government, and composed of young, robust and hardy laborers, who had no idea of any other than the federal government, I conceived to be an object worthy of some attention."
Such tactics could hardly fail of success. Before the day closed, the order of July 27th was obtained, of which Dr. Cutler remarks : "By this ordinance we obtained the grant of near five million of acres, amounting to three million and a half of acres for the Ohio Company, and the remainder for a private speculation, in which many of the principal characters of America are concerned. Without connecting this speculation, similar terms and advantages could not have been obtained for the Ohio Company."
On the 27th of October, 1787, the verbal arrangement of July was consummated by two contracts of purchase-the first being the actual transaction of the Massachusetts associa- tion, and the other in secret trust for William Duer and the
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
."principal characters of America." In both instruments, Cutler and Sargent appear as agents of the Ohio Company. Their first purchase began where the Ohio is intersected by the western boundary of the seventh range of townships, and ran due north on that boundary one thousand three hundred and six chains and twenty-five links; thence due west, to the western boundary of the seventeenth range of townships (as afterwards surveyed by the government); thence due south to the Ohio and up the river to the beginning; the whole area containing one million seven hundred and eighty- nine thousand seven hundred and sixty acres of land, of which two hundred and eighty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty acres constituted the reservations of the United States.
The second purchase of Cutler and Sargent began at the northeastern angle of the tract just described, and ran due north to the northern boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio; thence, due west to the Scioto; thence down the same and up the Ohio to the southwestern angle of the first purchase, and along the western and northern boundaries thereof, to the beginning, the whole area estimated by Jeffer- son, in a communication from the Department of State in 1791, to contain 4,901,480 acres, including the reservations of the United States. Although Cutler and Sargent, on the 29th of October, (two days after their contracts with the Board of Treasury,) executed an assignment to William Duer and his associates of a moiety of the tract last described, and the latter proceeded to organize a Scioto Land Company, yet they made no payments either to the Ohio Company or the government in execution of their agreement, and the lands finally reverted to the United States.
The Ohio Company did not even retain the whole of their
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ORDINANCE OF 1784.
purchase proper-the subject of their first contract with the Board of Treasury. By an act of Congress, dated April 21st, 1792, it was confirmed so far as to include a tract bounded by the Ohio on the south, the seventh range of town- ships on the east, the western bounds of the fifteenth range of townships on the west, and a line on the north so drawn as to make seven hundred and fifty thousand acres, besides the reservations enumerated in the contract of October 27th, 1787. The President of the United States was authorized to issue letters patent for the tract above described, to Rufus Put- nam, Manassah Cutler, Robert Oliver and Griffin Green, in trust for the persons composing the Ohio Company of Associ- ates, besides a tract of two hundred and fourteen thousand acres for the liquidation of army bounties under the resolutions of 1776 and 1780, and a third tract of one hundred thousand acres, which the company received on condition that they would, within five years, convey the same in tracts of one hundred acres to actual settlers. The whole were to be loca- ted with the original purchase of a million and a half acres. The company finally became possessed of nine hundred and sixty-four thousand two hundred and eighty-five acres.4
Simultaneously with the cessions of the Atlantic States, the negotiations for the Indian title, and the preliminaries of settlement, Congress was engaged upon a scheme of republi- can government for " the transmontane half of the American Republic." Before the cession by Virginia, the subject had been considered by a committee, consisting of Jefferson of Virginia, Howell of Rhode Island, and Chase of Maryland ; and on the 1st of March, 1784-the date of the Virginia
4) A full abstract of Dr. Cutler's Journal is given in the North American Review, for October, 1811 (vol. liii., 334 to 343). See also l'erkins' Western Annals, 287 to 292; U. S. Land Laws, p. 362.
22
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
cession-Thomas Jefferson, as chairman of the committee, reported a plan for the government of the Western Territory -not lying north of the Ohio merely, but the whole territory, ceded or to be ceded, from the north line of Florida to the north line of the United States.
This plan proposed to divide the territory into seventeen States ; eight between the Mississippi and a north and south line through the Falls of the Ohio, each to contain two par- allels of latitude, except the northernmost, which was to extend from the forty-fifth parallel to the northern boundary ; eight more between this line and another parallel to it, drawn through the mouth of the Great Kanawha, to be laid out in plots corresponding to the first eight; the remaining tract east of this last line, and between the Ohio, the Pennsylvania boundary and Lake Erie, to constitute the seventeenth State.
"The settlers," to repeat the language of the report, " shall, either on their own petition or on the order of Con- gress, receive authority, with appointments of time and place, for their free males, of full age, to meet together for the purpose of establishing a temporary government.
* Such temporary government shall only continue in force, in any State, until it shall have acquired twenty thou- sand inhabitants ; when, giving due proof thereof to Congress, they shall receive from them authority, with appointments of time and place, to call a convention of representatives, to establish a permanent constitution and government for them- selves : Provided, that both the temporary and permanent governments, be established upon these principles as their basis-
" First : That they shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States of America.
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ORDINANCE OF 1784.
" Second: That they shall be subject to the Articles of Confederation in all those cases in which the original States shall be so subject, and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in Congress assembled, conformable thereto.
" Third: That they in no case shall interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with the ordinances and regulations which Congress may find necessary, for securing the title of such soil to the bona fide purchasers.
" Fourth : That they shall be subject to pay a part of the Federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, to be appor- tioned on them by Congress, according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States.
" Fifth : That no tax shall be imposed on lands, the prop- erty of the United States.
" Sixth: That their respective governments shall be re- publican.
" Seventh : That the lands of non-resident proprietors shall, in no cases, be taxed higher than those of residents within any new State, before the admission thereof to a vote by its delegates in Congress.
" Eighth : That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty."
The States thus authorized, were to be admitted by their delegates into Congress, when any of them should have, of free inhabitants, as many as the least numerous of the thirteen original States, provided the consent of nine States to such admission was given. An amendment of the Articles of
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Confederation, substituting the vote of two-thirds of the States, wherever nine had been previously requisite, was also proposed. During the temporary government, Congress might take measures for the preservation of peace and good order among the settlers in any of the said new States ; and the latter were allowed, before their temporary organization, to " keep a member in Congress, with a right of debating but not voting." The plan under consideration closed with the following provision :
" That the preceding articles shall be formed into a charter of compact ; shall be duly executed by the President of the United States in Congress assembled, under his hand, and the seal of the United States ; shall be promulgated, and shall stand as fundamental constitutions between the thirteen original States, and each of the several States now newly described, unalterable from and after the sale of any part of the territory of such State, pursuant to this resolve, but by the joint consent of the United States in Congress assembled, and of the particular State within which such alteration is proposed to be made."
On the 19th of April, Mr. Spaight of North Carolina moved that the anti-slavery proviso be stricken out. Under the Articles of Confederation, which governed the proceed ings of Congress, a majority of the thirteen States was ne cessary to an affirmative decision of any question ; and the vote of no State could be counted, unless represented by at least two delegates.
The question upon Mr. Spaight's motion was put in this form :
" Shall the words moved to be struck out stand ?"
The vote stood-
For the Proviso, six States, viz: New Hampshire, Massa-
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ORDINANCE OF 1784.
chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Penn- sylvania.
Against the Proviso, three States, viz: Virginia, Mary- land and South Carolina.
Delaware and Georgia were not represented. New Jer- sey, by Mr. Dick, voted aye, but her vote, only one delegate being present, could not be counted. The vote of North Carolina was divided-Mr. Williamson voting aye, Mr. Spaight, no. The vote of Virginia stood-Mr. Jefferson, aye, Messrs. Hardy and Mercer, no. Of the twenty-three delegates present and voting, sixteen voted for, and seven against the proviso, which was thus defeated by a minority vote. It so happened that Mr. Beatty of New Jersey, the colleague of Mr. Dick, had left Congress a day or two before, and returned a day or two after. Had he been present, or had one of Mr. Jefferson's colleagues voted with him, the result would have been changed.5
The ordinance of 1784, with this material omission, was passed on the 23d of April following. In 1785, Mr. Jef- ferson went as minister to France, and on the 16th of
5) Journals Cong. Confed., vol. iv. p. 374 : See also Congressional Globe, 1848-9, Appendix, 294, Speech of John A. Dix ; also Specch of S. P. Chase, on Mr. Clay's Compromise Resolutions, in U. S. Senate, March 26, 1850. Besides the general provisions for the division of the Western Territory, Jefferson's original draft designated the States north of the Ohio-ten in number-by specific boundaries and names. This paragraph, which the committee suppressed on a recommitment, was as follows :
" That the territory northward of the forty-fifth degree, that is to say, of the completion of forty-five degrees from the equator, and extending to the Lake of the Woods, shall be called Sylvania; that of the territory under the forty-fifth and forty-fourth degrees, that which lies westward of Michigan, shall be called Michigania ; and that which is eastward thereof, within the peninsula formed by the lakes and waters of Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, and Eric, shall be called Cheronesus, and shall include any part of the pe- ninsula which may extend above the forty-fifth degree. Of the territory under the forty-third and forty-second degrees, that to the westward
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
March, Rufus King of Massachusetts, preceded the assent of his colleague and himself to a cession of western lands in behalf and by the authority of the State of Massachusetts, with a motion that the following proposition be committed to a committee of the whole House :
" That there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary ser- vitude in any of the States described in the resolves of Con- gress of the 23d of April, 1784, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been personally guilty; and that this regulation shall be an arti- cle of compact, and remain a fundamental principle of the constitutions between the thirteen original States, and each of the States described in the said resolve of the 23d of April, 1784."
The motion was seconded by Mr. Ellery of Rhode Island, and prevailed by the votes of New Hampshire, Massachu- setts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland-eight; against the votes of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia- four. Delaware was not represented. The vote of Mary- land was determined by two ayes against one no, while that through which the Assenisipi or Rock River runs, shall be called Assenisi- pia ; and that to the eastward, in which are the fountains of the Muskin- gum, the two Miamies of Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois, the Miami of the Lake, and the Sandusky Rivers, shall be called Metropotamia. Of the terri- tory which lies under the forty-first and fortieth degrees, the western, through which the river Illinois runs, shall be called Illinoia; that next adjoining, to the eastward, Saratoga ; and that between this last and Penn- sylvania, and extending from the Ohio to Lake Erie, shall be called Wash- ington. Of the territory which lies under the thirty-ninth and thirty-eighth degrees, to which shall be added so much of the point of land within the fork of the Ohio and Mississippi as lics under the thirty-seventh degree, that to the westward, within and adjacent to which are the confluences of the rivers Wabash, Shawnee, Tanisee, Ohio, Illinois, Mississippi and Mis- souri, shall be called Polypotamia ; and that to the eastward, farther up the Ohio, otherwise called the Pelisipi, shall be called Pelisipia."
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ORDINANCE OF 1787.
of Virginia was determined by two noes against one aye-the single affirmative from Virginia being the vote of Mr. Gray- son, the successor of Mr. Jefferson.6
The resolution of Mr. King differed from the proposition of Mr. Jefferson, inasmuch as the prohibition of slavery was total and immediate, and not deferred to the year 1800: but was identical with it in the extension of the prohibition over the whole western territory, from the thirty-first par- allel of north latitude to the northern boundary of the Uni- ted States. No expression could be more conclusive of a determination by the statesmen and patriots of the revolu- tionary epoch, to confine slavery to the Atlantic States.
The division of States contemplated by the ordinance or resolution of 1784, was found inexpedient, and an act exclu- sively applicable to the recent cessions by New York, Mas- sachusetts, Virginia and Connecticut-the entire territory then belonging to the United States-was proposed in Con- gress, and resulted in the celebrated ordinance of July 13, 1787. It was reported in September, 1786, by a commit- tee composed of Messrs. Johnson of Connecticut, Pinckney of South Carolina, Smith of New York, Dane of Massachu- setts, and Henry of Maryland. Subsequently it was- sub- mitted to another committee, consisting of Messrs. Carring- ton of Virginia, Dane of Massachusetts, R. H. Lee of Virginia, Keen of South Carolina, and Smith of New York. On its final passage, the Ordinance received the unanimous vote of the States, and with a single exception from New York, of all the delegates.
This well-known enactment organized a single territory northwest of the Ohio and eastward of the Mississippi, but
6) Journals Cong. Confed., vol. iv. p. 481.
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subject to a future division, if deemed expedient by Con- gress, into two districts.
The important principles of the equal inheritance of intes- tate estates, and the freedom of alienation by deed or will, were established and defined, with a reservation in favor of the laws and customs in the French and Canadian settlements.
A governor, for the term of three years, a secretary for four years, and three judges during good behavior, were to be appointed by Congress. The governor was invested with the appointment of civil and military officers, and authorized to establish the territorial divisions of counties and townships. The legislative power was to be exercised by the governor and judges, by the adoption of such laws of the original States, criminal and civil, as were suitable to the circum- stances of the country, but which remained in force, only on condition that Congress and the territorial legislature, when created, should approve thereof. The other powers of the officers above mentioned, were not unusual.
This was only a temporary system, however. A more popular form would displace it, when there should be five thousand free male inhabitants of full age in the district. That fact ascertained, the people would be authorized to elect representatives to a Territorial Legislature, and from their nomination of ten persons, Congress (or the President of the United States, after the adoption of the Federal Constitution) would select five names, to constitute a legislative council. The representatives were to serve two, and councilmen five years-the two bodies constituting a Territorial Legislature, with power to make any laws, not repugnant to the National Constitution or the Ordinance of 1787. The judges were thenceforth to be confined to purely judicial functions. The governor was to retain his appointing power, his general ex-
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ORDINANCE OF 1787.
ecutive authority, and to have an absolute negative upon all legislative acts. By a joint ballot of the council and house of representatives, a delegate to Congress might be chosen, with the right of debate but no vote.
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