OHIO Archæological and Historical PUBLICATIONS. THE BEGINNING OF THE OHIO COMPANY AND THE SCIOTO PURCHASE.* BY MAJOR E. C. DAWES. The beginning of the year 1783 saw the Revolutionary war virtually at an end, although the final treaty of peace was not signed until September third. The colonies had achieved their independence at the price of the lives of many, and the fortunes of all of their defenders. The Continental currency, despite the fiat of the government, had long since ceased to be of value. Since 1780 all army supplies had been purchased with interest bearing notes, payable in coin, issued by the Quartermaster General by authority of Congress. These were known as "Continental specie certificates" and had depreciated to about one sixth their par value. The troops were about disbanded; there was no money to pay them. Many meetings were held among the officers and many plans for securing the arrearages of pay were discussed. All conferences came to the same conclusion. The United States had no credit upon which to borrow money, no power to enforce the collection of a tax, no property with which to pay its debts. The only apparent resource was the land west of the Alleghenies belonging to the Indians, the * In preparing this paper I have made liberal extracts from an essay read by me before the Cincinnati Literary Club, in 1881, a few copies of which were printed. I have also used, with consent of the publisher, almost the whole of an article on the Scioto Purchase, published in the Magazine of American History, December 1889. Vol. IV-1 English claim to which had been ceded to the United States by the preliminary articles of peace made known in America in March, 1783. Even there some of the States claimed prior rights. Hoping by successful revolution to acquire these lands, Congress had, in 1776 and 1780, agreed to give certain amounts to all officers and soldiers who should serve through the war or become disabled in it. About the first of April, 1783, Colonel Timothy Pickering, then Quartermaster General, presented to a meeting of officers a proposition, to be made to Congress on behalf of the Army, for the formation of a new State, west of the Ohio river, as follows: "Proposition for settling a new State by such officers and soldiers of the Federal army, as shall associate for that purpose." "1. That the United States purchase of the natives that tract of country that is bounded by Pennsylvania on the east, the river Ohio on the south, a meridian line drawn thirty miles west of the river Scioto on the west, this meridian line to run from the Ohio to the Miami River, which runs into Lake Erie,— and by this river and Lake Erie on the north. "2. That, in the first instance, lands be assigned to the army to fulfill the engagements of the United States by the resolutions of September 16, 1776, August 13 and September 30, 1780, towit: To hospital and regimental surgeon's mates, each.... To regimental surgeons, and assistants to the purveyor 400 acres. 300 acres. *Life of Timothy Pickering, Volume 1, page 546. "3. That all associates who shall actually settle in the new State, within one year after the purchase shall be effected, and notice given by Congress or the committee of the associators, that the same is ready for settlement (such notice to be published in the newspapers of all the United States), shall receive such additional quantities of land as to make their respective rights. in the whole to contain the following number of acres, to-wit: Other non-commissioned officers and soldiers, each... 700 acres. 600 acres. And 50 acres more for each member of a family, besides the head of it. "4. That the rights of the officers in the medical depart ment be increased in like manner on the same condition. "5. That all officers in the other staff departments, who shall actually settle in the new State within the time above limited, shall receive rights of land in the proportions last stated, on an equitable comparison of their stations with the ranks of the officers of the line and the medical staff. "6. That this increased provision of lands shall extend to all officers of the line and staff, and to all non-commissioned officers and soldiers, who, during the present war, have performed in the whole three years service, whether in service or not at the close of the war, provided they present their claim and become actual settlers in the new State by the time above limited. "7. These rights being secured, all the surplus lands shall be the common property of the State, and disposed of for the common good; as for laying out roads, building bridges, erecting public, buildings, establishing schools and academies, defraying the expenses of government, and other public uses. "8. That every grantee shall have a house built and acres of land cleared on his right within shall be forfeited to the state. years, or the same "9. That to enable the associators to undertake the settlement of the new state, the United States defray the expenses of the march thither, furnish the necessary utensils of husbandry and such live stock as shall be indispensably necessary for com mencing the settlement, and subsistence for three years, to wit: One ration of bread and meat per day to each man, woman and child; and to every soldier a suit of clothes annually, the cost of these articles to be charged to the accounts of arrearages due to the members of the association respectively. 10. That, for the security of the state against Indians, every officer and soldier go armed, the arms to be furnished by the United States and charged to the accounts of arrearages. Ammunition to be supplied in the same way. "11. That a constitution for the new state be formed by the members of the new state previous to their commencing the settlement, two-thirds of the associators present at a meeting duly notified for that purpose agreeing therein. The total exclusion of slavery from the state to form an essential and irrevocable part of the constitution. "12. That the associators so assembled agree on such general rules as they shall deem necessary for the prevention and punishment of crime and the preservation of the peace and good order in the state, to have the force of laws during the space of two years, unless an assembly of the state, formed agreeably to the constitution, shall sooner repeal them. 13. That the state so constituted shall be admitted into the confederacy of the United States, and entitled to all the benefits of the Union in common with the other members thereof. "14. That at the above mentioned meeting of the associators, delegates be chosen to represent them in the Congress of the United States, to take their seats as soon as the new state shall be erected. "15. That, the associators having borne together as brethren the dangers and calamities of war, and feeling that mutual friendship which long acquaintance and common sufferings give |