General Assembly. The act of Congress had, as we have seen, provided for all the details; it had fixed the ratio of members to population and apportioned them to each county; specified the place where the convention should hold its meetings, and the day upon which it should convene. The State party could be relied upon to nominate candidates and vote for them; if the opponents to the formation of a State neglected or refused to do the same, so much the better for the State party; for that a convention to form a State government would be held was now certain, and the only question left unsolved was, which party would control it.

The second territorial Legislature had adjourned its first session on the 23d of January, to meet again for its second session at Cincinnati on the fourth Monday of the following November. On the very day it was to begin (Monday, November 29, 1802), the Constitutional Convention finished its sittings and adjourned, sine die, after making and ratifying, without a division, a constitution for "the State of Ohio."

The second General Assembly of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the river Ohio did not "meet pursuant to adjournment," nor did it ever have a successor.

CHAPTER VIII

Election of Members of Constitutional Convention-ProSlaveryism alleged against Certain Candidates—Tiffin chosen a Delegate and President of the ConventionPersonnel of the Convention-Democratic-Republicans control it-The Governor is permitted to address the Convention as "Arthur St. Clair, Sr., Esq.”—The Slavery Question in Convention-Ephraim Cutler's Part in it-Votes of Members of "Junto" upon it, and upon the Status of the Negro in the New State-Negro Suffrage defeated by a Single Vote-Constitution not submitted to the People-Quick Work of the Convention.

IN the campaign which followed for the election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Tiffin was one of the candidates brought forward to represent Ross' County. It seems that some animosity had been engendered between Major Elias Langham and himself, the cause and origin of which is not very clear, although it appears that Tiffin thought Langham was not sufficiently earnest and active in promoting the State project, and said so. In a letter to Worthington, written February 1, 1802, he says: "Langham is now, I am told, a great advocate for State government, and promises the people his best exertions. But a

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new election" (of legislators) “ which is approaching has made him a convert."

Langham actively opposed Tiffin's election as delegate, and among other means to accomplish his defeat published a communication in the Scioto Gazette, in which he charged that Tiffin would, if elected, endeavor to legalize negro slavery in the new State, through the constitution to be made.

To this charge Tiffin quietly replied by a card in the next issue of the Gazette, in which he said that "even were it possible to establish slavery herewhich it is not, because it was forever prohibited by the Ordinance of 1787-I would regard its introduction as being the greatest injury we could possibly inflict upon our posterity." And in the same paper an anonymous writer said: "It is well known to hundreds of people living in this Territory that Dr. Tiffin, before leaving Virginia, set free his slaves for whom he refused an offer of one thousand pounds sterling."

By the bye, if the Virginians and Kentuckians of the Scioto Valley and Reservation were in truth so generally and so earnestly in favor of the introduction of domestic slavery into the new State of Ohio, as is asserted and insisted upon by the writers of the Cutler books, would Major Langham, himself a Virginian, have made and published the charge, as an argument addressed to those Vir

ginians and Kentuckians why they should defeat Tiffin's candidacy for delegate to the convention, that he, Tiffin, was in favor of doing the very thing they desired?

That there existed no such general sentiment in favor of slavery amongst any class of the pioneers of Ohio is apparent in many facts of history; and one of these facts is that the charge that candidates for the convention were pro-slavery was brought against them for the purpose of defeating them.

"Previous to the election "-wrote Ephraim Cutler years after the event-" the question whether slavery should be admitted into the State was agitated." How agitated we learn from this TiffinLangham incident, and also from a letter from Jehial Gregory, of Athens, dated August 3, 1802, and addressed to Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., who was a candidate from Washington County. "We have hot times about slavery. News is spreading that you want slavery. Judge Ephraim Cutler tells that you are for slavery, and urges people not to vote for you. Over on Federal Creek Rev. Mr. Pugsley has spread it all around."

Tiffin was elected, having received as many votes as any of the candidates, and, as we shall see, when the convention convened was chosen to preside over its deliberations.

And still he remained clerk of the courts of Ross County and the Supreme Court; still he continued

to practise medicine whenever he could command. the time to answer calls; and still he continued to preach the Methodist faith on almost every Sabbath day!

On the day, and at the place designated in the Enabling Act, the convention met. The following named persons were found to have been duly elected delegates, viz. :

From Adams County: Joseph Darlinton, Israel Donalson and Thomas Kirker.

From Belmont County: James Caldwell and Elijah Woods.

From Clermont County: Philip Gatch and James Sargent.

From Fairfield County: Henry Abrams and Emanuel Carpenter.

From Hamilton County: John W. Brown, Charles Willing Byrd, Francis Dunlavy, William Goforth, John Kitchel, Jeremiah Morrow, John Paul, John Reily, John Smith and John Wilson.

From Jefferson County: Rudolf Blair, George Humphrey, John Milligan, Nathan Updegraff and Bazaliel Wells.

From Ross County: Michael Baldwin, James Grubb, Nathaniel Massie, Edward Tiffin and Thomas Worthington.

From Trumbull County: David Abbot and Samuel Huntington.