the formation of two companies as proposed. Dr. Cutler therefore addressed a letter to the Board of Treasury stating the only terms upon which he would enter into a contract. The principal changes he asked were, first: that the terms of payment should be half a million dollars when the contract was executed, half a million more when the exterior line of the tract was run and the remainder in six equal payments, computed from the date of the completion of the survey by the Geographer; second, that the lands assigned for the university should be located as nearly as possible in the centre of the first million and half acres of land paid for and, third, that a deed should be given for the first million and a half acres when one million of dollars were paid.

As the grant was much greater than contemplated by the Ohio Company, Doctor Cutler requested Major Sargent to join him in this letter, which he readily consented to do. The Board referred the letter to Congress and on July 27, Congress referred it back to the Board directing them to accept the terms stated in it without the least variation. This action placed the entire tract of land described in the ordinance of July 23, at the disposal of Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, subject to their obligations to the Ohio Company. Dr. Cutler started home the same evening, after arranging with the Board of Treasury that the first payment be made October 27. In his diary this day he writes, "By this ordinance we obtained the grant of nearly 5,000,000 acres of land amounting to three and one half millions of dollars, one million and a half acres for the Ohio Company and the remainder for a private speculation in which many of the principal characters in America are concerned. Without connecting this speculation similar terms and advantages could not have been obtained for the Ohio Company."

This speculation was the Scioto Purchase. Colonel William Duer projected it. The favorable "terms and advantages" obtained by the Ohio Company by connecting this speculation with it were the completion of its own negotiation upon terms dictated by its agent; the guarantee of success by an agreement on the part of Colonel Duer to loan to it one hundred thousand dollars in public securities, if needed, in making the first payment to the Board of Treasury; the advantage to its funds of the delay in

the final payment until the exterior line of the whole tract was run; the powerful influence in its behalf of Colonel Duer and others of the "principal characters of America" who were associated with him. Colonel Duer obtained a number of subscriptions to the shares of the Ohio Company. He also agreed that he would manage the Scioto speculation and that those persons who had taken an active part in promoting the Ohio Company might have one-half interest in it.

On August 29, at a meeting of the Directors and Agents. of the Ohio Company, held at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston, Doctor Cutler reported that, in consequence of the resolves of Congress of July 23 and 27, he had agreed with the Board of Treasury to purchase as much land as the Company's fund of one million of dollars would pay for and described the lands as bounded on the east by the seventh range of townships; south by the Ohio river; west by a meridian line. drawn through the western cape of the Great Kanawha river, and extending north far enough to include the whole, with the reservations stated in the resolve of Congress for schools, ministry, the university and the three sections in each township held for future sale. The report was received and his actions were "fully approved, ratified and confirmed." The subscription to the shares. of the Company was nearly completed. The few shares not taken were allotted "pro rata" to the different agents. The organization was perfected by electing Gen. James M. Varnum to the board of directors, and Colonel Richard Platt, of New York City, treasurer. The Ohio Company was now fairly begun. All of the conditions of success seemed to be fulfilled. There were two clouds only on its horizon. Neither was as large as a man's hand. The price of the public securities in which its shares were payable had already advanced. Some of the Indians in the Northwest Territory denied the right of their chiefs to sign away their hunting grounds.

THE SCIOTO PURCHASE.*

In October, Doctor Cutler and Major Sargent returned to New York City and on the 27th of that month the board of treasury made a contract with them "as agents for the directors of the Ohio Company of associates so called" for the sale of fifteen hundred thousand acres of land lying between the seventh and the seventeenth ranges and the Ohio river. The consideration was one million of dollars in public securities, one-half of which was paid on signing the contract; the remainder was payable one month after the exterior line of the tract had been surveyed by the geographer or other proper officer of the United States. No title was to pass to the Ohio Company until all payments were made, but the right was given to occupy and cultivate one-half of the tract fronting on the Ohio river between the seventh and fifteenth ranges of townships.

On the same day the board of treasury made a contract with "Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent for themselves and associates" for the sale to them of the remainder of the tract described in the ordinance of congress of July 25, 1787. Payments, at the rate of two-thirds of a dollar per acre in public securities, were to be made in six semi-annual installments, the first falling due six months after the exterior line of the tract had been surveyed by the government. This was the Scioto purchase. It comprised over four million acres of land, threefourths of it west and one-fourth north of the Ohio Company

tract.

When these contracts were executed no lands had been surveyed west of the seventh range of townships, the western boundary of which intersects the Ohio river about five miles east of the mouth of the Muskingum. The lines of the fifteenth range

The contracts made by Mr. Barlow in France and much of his correspondence with Colonel Duer are owned by the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio. They were obtained in various places, after years of persistent search, by Mr. John M. Newton, the accomplished librarian of the Young Men's Mercantile Library of Cincinnati. manuscripts referred to are in my possession. — E. C. D.

Other

and the seventeenth range of townships are recognized in both contracts as "to be laid out according to the land ordinance of May 20, 1785." From calculations made by Captain Thomas Hutchins, then geographer, or surveyor general, of the United States, it was believed that the west line of the seventeenth range would strike the Ohio river nearly opposite the mouth of the Big Kanawha.

Simultaneously with the execution of the second or Scioto contract, Cutler and Sargent conveyed to Colonel William Duer of New York city a one-half interest in it, and gave him full power to negotiate a sale of the lands in Europe or elsewhere and to substitute an agent. Colonel Duer had agreed to loan to the Ohio Company one hundred thousand dollars public securities; he was obliged to advance it $143,000 to enable it to make its first payment. Soon after, Cutler and Sargent conveyed a little over three-fourths of their retained interest in about equal proportions to Generals Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Samuel H. Parsons, Colonel Richard Platt, Royal Flint and Joel Barlow. Many others became interested with these in greater or less proportions.

In May, 1788, Joel Barlow, who also held an interest by assignment from Colonel Duer, was sent to Europe to negotiate a sale of the lands or a loan upon them. He held a power of attorney from Colonel Duer, to which was attached a certified copy of the contract of Cutler and Sargent with the board of treasury, and their assignment and power to Colonel Duer. In all these papers the lands are recognized as held by a right of pre-emption only. Mr. Barlow met with no success until the summer of 1789, when he made the acquaintance of William Playfair, an Englishman then residing in Paris. Principally through his efforts a company was quickly organized in Paris, called the society of the Scioto, to which in November, 1789, Mr. Barlow sold the right of his principals to three million acres of land lying west of the seventeenth range of townships. The price was six livres per acre; the payments were to be made in installments, commencing December 31, 1789, and ending April 30, 1794. The contract recites that Barlow's powers were exhibited and proved, and provided that "as soon as and not before the said payments are re

mitted arising from the price of the present sale, Mr. Barlow binds his principals toward the society purchasing to put them in possession and enjoyment of an amount of the three million acres proportionate to the amount of the said payment at the aforesaid rate of six livres per acre." The lands were to be located in equal tracts from the seventeenth range westward. It also provided that the society might "re-sell all or a part of the three million acres before the times fixed for the payment of their price, provided that the said society gives up to the Sieur Barlow under the title of pledge the agreements of the under purchasers." Playfair and Barlow were both interested in the society of the Scioto and, with M. Jean Antoine Chais de Soisson, became its. sub-agents for the sale of the lands.

Mr. Barlow did not send a copy of this contract to Colonel Duer, but wrote him an abstract of it November 29. He added that he was preparing an arrangement with the royal treasury of France to exchange the obligations of the French society of the Scioto for the American bonds held by it, and that either by that method or by an immediate settlement on the lands, the payments would be anticipated and the whole business closed within a year. He had reason to hope that Major-General Duportail, subsequently minister of war of France, and Colonel Rochefontaine, both of whom had served in America during the Revolution, would go at the head of the first establishment. He urged that the lines of the seventeenth and eighteenth ranges of townships. be ascertained without delay. He admitted that he had proceeded as if Colonel Duer had already secured a modification of the contract with the board of treasury, so that titles might be obtained for the lands in smaller tracts as paid for, "by giving the company here power to re-sell portions before they made the first payment on the contract, requiring as my security the deposit of the payments for these portions." He insisted that at all events five or ten thousand acres of land opposite the mouth of the Great Kanawha "on the eighteenth range" must be secured on which to locate the first settlers; that huts be built there to accommodate at least one hundred persons, and that a person of activity be sent from the settlement to Alexandria, Virginia, to prepare for the reception of the settlers, and make the necessary