Territory to settlers, and to confer upon them a good title whenever they should come within its borders, to secure a relinquishment of the Indian titles. Accordingly, by the treaty of Fort Stamwix, in October 1784, the powerful Six Nations, comprising the Mohawks, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras and Oneidas, released their claims to the territory. In this treaty the celebrated chiefs, Cornplanter and Red Jacket, represented the Nations, and Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee were the Congressional Commissioners. In January of the next year, the Delawares, Wyandots, Chippewas and Ottawas, with whom the treaty of Fort McIntosh was formed, relinquished all claim to the Ohio Valley. A year later the Shawanese concluded a treaty concerning their interest with the same result. These and other treaties, with subsequent purchases, extinguished the title of the red man to the Ohio Territory.

The Territory of the Northwest added about two hundred and forty thousand square miles to the United States. Congress saw the necessity of clothing it with some kind of official government, for it prohibited settlement within its limits until such measures should be taken. In 1784, a committee, with Thomas Jefferson as its Chairman, reported a plan which was entirely too cumbersome for practical operation. He provided for seventeen states, for ten of which, Jefferson proposed the following names: Sylvania, Michigania, Cheronesus, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia and Pelisipia. The project resulted as a dead letter statute; the names alone were sufficient

to kill it. Congress again took up the subject on the 7th of July, 1786, the entire plan of government and its operation was thoroughly debated until July 11th, 1787, when Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, reported the famous "Ordinance of Freedom," better known as the Ordinance of 1787, which was passed by Congress two days afterwards. By its terms all former legislation on the subject was repealed. Next to the Federal Constitution, it has passed into history as the greatest of all American legislative acts. The wisdom and statesmanship of its makers seemed to penetrate the distant future, for they legislated for a coming generation as if it were present. It has been a marvelous factor in the greatness of five states; it stamped upon the Northwest the marks of a new age, and furnished for citizens yet to be born, the foundations on which they might build mighty and prosperous commonwealths.

Daniel Webster said that no one single law of any law-giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, marked and lasting character than this ordinance. Of it Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the United States, wrote, "Never, probably in the history of the world, did a measure of legislation so accurately fulfill, and so mightily exceed the anticipations of the legislators."

The ordinance of 1787, or, as its legal title reads, An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River," provided that not more than five, nor less than three states should be formed out of the territory. It guaranteed freedom, religious and civil; prohibited slavery, except as to criminals; provided for the

maintenance of common schools, and set apart lands for a university, doing so with the preamble that religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government, schools and the means of education shall ever be encouraged." Thus was the Territory of the Northwest consecrated to civilization. The authorship of this ordinance has been the subject of much dispute; its greatness has placed it side by side with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It has been variously ascribed to Rufus King, of Massachusetts, to Nathan Dane, of the same state, and to Thomas Jefferson. The circumstances all mark its controlling features as the. handiwork of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, who afterwards settled at Marietta.

In October, 1787, Congress ordered seven hundred troops for the frontier, to emphasize to the Indians that the white man's government had at last commenced in the territory. On the fifth of the same month Congress also elected officers for the new government. Arthur St. Clair was chosen Governor, and elected with him were James M. Varnum, Samuel Holden Parsons and John Armstrong, Judges, and Winthrop Sargent, Secretary. Mr. Armstrong afterwards declined to serve as Judge, and John Cleves Symmes was named to fill the vacancy.

On the ninth of July, 1788, Governor St. Clair and his associate officers, with the exception of Judge Symmes, arrived at Fort Harmar, where they remained until the 15th, when they entered Marietta as the representatives of the National Government. He was received with display and acclamations by the new settlement. He addressed the people in a

dignified speech. Secretary Winthrop Sargent read the Ordinance. Governor St. Clair's address on this occasión, accurately preserved in his papers, shows the striking interest that he had already formed for the new territory and its people. It was replete with wisdom and affection. Of the powers of the new officers, he said, "You will observe, gentlemen, that the system which has been formed for this country, and is now to take effect, is temporary only, suited to your infant situation, and to continue no longer than that state of infancy shall last. During that period the Judges, with my assistance, are to select from the codes of the mother States such laws as may be thought proper for you. This is a very important part of our duty, and will be attended to with the greatest care. But Congress has not intrusted this great business wholly to our prudence and discretion. We are bound to report to them all laws which shall be made, and they have reserved to themselves the power of annulling them, so that, if any law not proper in itself, or not suited to your circumstances, either from our not seeing the whole extent of its operation, or any other circumstance, should be imposed, it will be immediately repealed." The Governor then spoke of the necessity of fair treatment and good example to the Indians; of the physical advantages of the location of the settlement, as well as of the territory at large, and he closed by asking the co-operation, as well as the cheerful acquiescence, of the settlers in his official rule of the territory. After the speech, General Rufus Putnam, in behalf of the citizens of Marietta, welcomed the Governor to their midst, and pledged

in warm and loyal language their support to his administration. The peroration was, "Great sir, we pray that Heaven may grant to you, both in public character and private life, all the felicity that can meet your expectations, or warmest desires. May you long enjoy the tranquility of a mind influenced by the principles of rectitude only. May the cold hand of death never arrest you until you shall have accomplished all the objects which a great and good man can embrace; and then, when life shall lose her charms, when nature shall begin to sink beneath the weight of mortality, and when the mind, impatient to be free, shall burst the brittle shell which holds it, may you rise triumphant on cherub's wings to enjoy God in realms of endless felicity." This was the inauguration of civil government in the Territory of the Northwest. It was the beginning of

law in Ohio.

Arthur St. Clair, the first and only Governor of the territory, was one of the most brilliant and distinguished military characters in the Revolutionary War. A contemporary writer calls him the "great St. Clair," and while in the gubernatorial chair of the Northwest, Judge Burnet marked him as "unquestionably a man of superior talents, of extensive information, and of great uprightness of purpose, as well as suavity of manners." Courtly, scholarly and honest, he was a fitting representative of the government in the new land. St. Clair, as his name indicates, was of French origin, although his ancestors had for centuries lived in Scotland, where he was born in 1734. He received his education at Fai 1 burgh University, and was indentured as a student of