mentous fact that some portion of the region belonged to individual states and not to that new nation which had come so recently to birth. Three of these, Virginia, Connecticut and New York, still more earnestly devoted to themselves, as states, than to that newer and greater political unit, the Federation, clung so tenaciously to their rights as to threaten the very existence of the national government itself. After long and acrimonious struggles, however, New York magnanimously surrendered her claims; Virginia followed and finally Connecticut, with but a single reservation—a great and fertile body of land in the northern part of Ohio which she was grudgingly permitted by the others to retain and known as the Western Reserve. General Effect of Possession of Northwest Territory. So few words as these in which these memorable events have been hastily recorded can serve but feebly to convey their vastness and importance. Aside from the actual separation of the Colonies from the mother country, no other event (except the civil war) has had more influence upon our national development than the conquest thus imperfectly described. The whole, immense domain belonged at last to the national government to be disposed of at its will, just at the very moment when more land was almost as necessary to its existence as fresh air and water. The soldiers of the Revolutionary War, so recently and so gloriously terminated, had returned to their homes broken in health and fortune. The government, grateful as it was for the heroism and self-sacrifice by which it had been begotten, was as poor as they, themselves, and utterly incapable of furnishing them with an adequate or, indeed, with any financial reward at all. But, at the crucial moment, by this great conquest of this enormous region it found itself inestimably rich in land! A virgin wilderness lay open, offering the most tempting field for adventure and industry. What could have been more fortunate and what could be more important than to so fit this empire by a code of laws and a political organization to become the reward and the home of these heroic and impoverished soldiers? This preparation was a problem beset with difficulties too immense and intricate for us to study here. For years, the legislature of the new government conceived ideas which proved, upon discussion, to be impracticable and sometimes absurd; but finally a plan was proposed which met the approbation of all, or nearly so, and harmonized contending factions. The Ordinance of 1787. This plan was embodied in an immortal document called "Ordinance for Governing the Northwestern Territory" and was passed in 1787. With that wisdom (almost a prescience) which characterized the political activities of the founders of our government, the men who gave the ordinance its final form provided, strange as it may seem, for every important emergency that actually arose in the complicated struggle to subdue, populate and govern a vast wilderness over which still roamed bands of savage Indians from whom it finally had to be seized by force of arms. Wise, interesting and important as were all the provisions of this great document, there was a single one so remarkable there and so significant afterward that, although they are passed by in silence, it must never be permitted to go without a word of praise. The others were political. It was ethical. By it, human slavery, in this region sacred to the highest uses of humanity, was forbidden then and evermore. CHAPTER III. THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. THE ACTUAL SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY-THE OHIO COMPANYJUDGE SYMMES AND HIS LAND GRANTS-BENJAMIN STITES AND HIS BAND SETTLE AND CALL THE PLACE COLUMBIA-MATTHIAS DENMAN AND HIS FOLLOWERS LOCATE ON THE SPOT NOW KNOWN AS CINCINNATI AND CALL IT LOSANTIVILLE— JUDGE SYMMES LOCATES AT NORTH BEND. This preliminary survey of the military and political preparation of the Northwest Territory to become the abode of men and the site of great cities must now be abandoned for the study of those events which paved the way, immediately, for the foundation of the city whose history we have set ourselves to trace and comprehend. This survey has taken no inconsiderable amount of valuable time and required no trifling mental effort; but it has been necessary for our purpose. What we set out to do, it will be remembered, was to afford a sort of bird's eye view of those prodigious movements and influences which have preceded and paved the way for the phenomenon which we are contemplating, the building of a great city. Until they are understood, the contemplation of the mystery and majesty of any great metropolis is impossible. No one can, indeed, acquire a full conception of the beauty of even the tiniest flower that blows, without realizing that a universe has been required to grow it! Earth, air and ocean; sun, moon and stars have all been called upon to furnish the ingredients of its life. So also have the resources of the universe been called upon to build a city! As it takes all rivers to make an ocean, it has taken all the tributary streams of history to create the town we live in. 1783-1786. No sooner had the struggle with the mother country ceased and the conviction become established that a nation had been born, than the eyes of multitudes, but particularly of the veterans of the Revolution, began to turn eagerly toward this new El Dorado in the west. Even before the problem of its government had been settled, many of the most adventurous of them had crossed the mountains and pushed their way, fearlessly, into the unknown recesses of the primeval forests. But now, that the way was wide open, the movement began to take a more orderly form through schemes for colonization on a large scale. As early as 1783, an attempt had been made by a company to secure a grant of lands between the Ohio river and Lake Erie; but the strife in Congress over the ownership delayed the survey so long that the soldiers almost gave up their hopes. In March, 1786, however, the more zealous of the promoters met in Boston and formed a new "Ohio company for the purchase and settlement of western lands." General Rufus Putnam, General Samuel H. Parsons and Rev. Manasseh Cutler were the three leading spirits and when, after the most determined and even desperate efforts the charter was secured, they selected as the site of their enterprise the region about the mouth of the Muskingum river. It was on the 27th of October that the grant was signed and the day is an epoch marker in the life of the infant nation, as well as in that of the Northwest Territory. It deserves to be forever remembered by all true patriots, while the foresight and devotion of its three great promoters ought to be celebrated as long as our government shall stand. Marietta. Success in securing the charter did not relax the energies of the men who had consecrated themselves to the achievement of their great undertaking. They went immediately to work to give their plans material form, and in the month of February following, the various groups of the enthusiastic colony began to assemble at the mouth of the Youghiogheny river. There they eagerly constructed flat boats, hopefully embarked and successfully reached their destination on the 7th of April, 1788. Under the protection of the guns of Fort Harmar (a considerable military post) they laid the foundations of a settlement which they named, at first, Adelphia, but afterwards Marietta, in honor of the French Queen Marie Antoinette. By the 4th of July their plans had been so rapidly carried out that a pretentious celebration of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was observed, while, on the 17th of the same month the government of the new territory was formally installed by General Arthur St. Clair, who had been selected for the great honor. In 1790 the village had increased to the number of eighty houses, and other settlements sprang up in the region round about. By this first step, feeble apparently as that of a little child, the movement which resulted in the population of the middle west, was thus auspiciously begun, and the second step will lead us to the foundation of our own beautiful, important and ever growing city. The Ohio Company "The Two Miamis." The Ohio company had carefully considered the attractions of the region between the two Miamis in selecting their location; but for "good and sufficient reasons" rejected it for that at the mouth of the Muskingum. Traditions of its fertility had been widely circulated; but it was considered as being so dangerously open to the attacks of hostile Indians that settlers were afraid to make their homes upon it. The ferocity of its aboriginal inhabitants and the ruthless onslaughts they had made upon the few courageous adventurers who had dared to try an entrance, had secured for it that terrible designation "The Miami Slaughter House." As early as 1780 a fleet of sixty-three boats with a thousand fighting men aboard had observed the lovely shores of the land between those famous rivers, as they floated down the Ohio, seeking for a place to land and build their homes. Attractive as the country was, the numerous bands of hostile Indians who were seen skulking along through the forests deterred them from its selection, although five hundred of the company recklessly went ashore at the mouth of Mill creek and chased the savages many miles into the wilderness. Two months later on the region was once more penetrated by white men, for Captain Bird, commanding six hundred Indians and Canadians, accompanied by artillery men with their cannon, broke their way through the woods along the |