Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/78

 66

��HISTOEY OF OHIO.

��an accomplished scholar, an excellent gentleman, and a firm believer in freedom. In the choice of him as the agent of the Company, lies the fact, though unforeseen, of the beginning of anti-slavery in America. Through him the famous " compact of 1787," the true corner-stone of the Northwest, originated, and by him was safely passed. He was a good "wire-puller," too, and in this had an advantage. Mr. Hutchins was at this time the geographer for the United States, and was, prob- ably, the best-posted man in America regarding the West. Dr. Cutler learned from him that the most desirable portions were on the Muskingum River, north of the Ohio, and was advised by him to buy there if he could.

Congress wanted money badly, and many of the members favored the plan. The Southern mem- bers, generally, were hostile to it, as the Doctor would listen to no grant which did not embody the New England ideas in the charter. These members were finally won over; some bribery be- ino; used, and some of their favorites made officers of the Territory, whose formation was now gomg on. This took time, however, and Dr. Cutler, be- coming impatient, declared they would purchase from some of the States, who held small tracts in various parts of the West. This intimation brought the tardy ones to time, and, on the 23d of July, Congress authorized the Treasury Board to make the contract. On the 26th, Messrs. Cutler and Sargent, on behalf of the Company, stated in writing their conditions; and on the 27th, Con- gress referred their letter to the Board, and an order of the same date was obtained. Of this Dr. Cutler's journal says:

" By this grant we obtained near five millions of acres of land, amounting to $3,500,000 ; 1,500,- 000 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 peculation, similar terms and advantages for the Ohio Company could not have been obtained."

Messrs. Cutler and Sargent at once closed a ver- bal contract with the Treasury Board, which was executed in form on the 27th of the next Octo- ber.*

By this contract, the vast region bounded on the south by the Ohio, west by the Scioto, east by the seventh range of townships then surveying, and north by a due west line, drawn from the north


 * Land Laws.

��boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio, direct to the Scioto, was sold to the Ohio associ- ates and their secret copartners, for $1 per acre, subject to a deduction of one-third for bad lands and other contingencies.

The whole tract was not, however, paid for nor taken by the Company — even their own portion of a million and a half acres, and extending west to the eighteenth range of townships, was not taken ; and in 1792, the boundaries of the purchase proper were fixed as follows : the Ohio on the south, the seventh range of townships on the east, the six- teenth range on the west, and a line on the north so drawn as to make the grant 750,000 acres, be- sides reservations ; this grant being the portion which it was originally agreed the Company might enter into at once. In addition to this, 214,285 acres were granted as army bounties, under the resolutions of 1779 and 1780, and 100,000 acres as bounties to actual settlers; both of the latter tracts being within the original grant of 1787, and adjoining the purchase as before mentioned.

While these things were progressing, Congress was bringing into form an ordinance for the gov- ernment and social organization of the North- west Territory. Virginia made her cession in March, 1784, and during the month following the plan for the temporary government of the newly acquired territory came under discussion. On the 19th of April, Mr. Spaiglit, of North Carolina, Stooved to strike from the plan reported by Mr. Jeff'erson, the emancipationist of his day, a provis- ion for the prohibition of slavery north of the Ohio after the year 1800. The motion prevailed. From that day till the 23d, the plan was discussed and altered, and finally passed unanimously with the ex- ception of South Carolina. The South would have slavery, or defeat every measure. Thus this hide- ous monster early began to assert himself. By the proposed plan, the Territory was to have been divided into States by parallels of latitude and merid- ian lines. This division, it was thought, would make ten States, whose names were as follows, beginning at the northwest corner, and going southwardly : Sylvania, Michigania, Cheresonisus, Assenispia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia and Pelisipia.*

A more serious difficulty existed, however, to this plan, than its catalogue of names — the number of States and their boundaries. The root of the evil was in the resolution passed by Congress in October,


 * Spark's Washington.

��^1

�� �