proportionate representation of the people in the legislature, and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. All persons shall be bailable unless for capital offences where the proof shall be evident or the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate, and no cruel or unusual punishments shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land; and should the public exigencies make it necessary for the common preservation to take any person's property or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. And in the just preservation of rights and property it is understood and declared that no laws ought ever to be made or have force in the said territory that shall, in any manner whatever, interfere with or affect private contracts or engagements, bona fide and without fraud, previously formed.

"ART. 3. Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights and liberty they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from time to time, be made for preventing wrongs being done to them and for pre

serving peace and friendship with them.

"ART. 4. The said territory and the States which may be formed therein shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States of America, subject to the articles of confederation and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made, and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in Congress assembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them by Congress, according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the inhabitants of other States; and the taxes for paying their proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district or districts, or new States, as in the original States within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new States shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title. in such soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and

St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to citizens of the United States and those of any other States that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost or duty therefor.

"ART. 5. There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three nor more than five States; and the boundaries of the States, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established, as follows, to wit: The western State in the said territory shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and Wabash Rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post Vincents due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada; and by the said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash, from Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern State shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line: Provided, however, and it is further understood and declared that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress shall here

after find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. And whenever any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein such State shall be admitted by its delegates into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government. Provided, The constitution and government so to be formed shall be republican and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and so far as it can be consistent with the general interests of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the State than sixty thousand.

"ART. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid."

of the Ohio Company was founded the city of Marietta — the first permanent English settlement in the territory northwest of the Ohio River. This company was projected by two New England men, heroes of the Revolutionary War, General Rufus Putnam and General Benjamin Tupper, of Massachusetts. The spirit of adventure, always a prominent trait in the New England character, had naturally been strengthened by the war, and the close of the Revolution found many soldiers, reduced through poverty or bankruptcy through the results of the seven year's struggle, ready to embrace any plan that promised to retrieve their wasted fortunes. Washington and other Revolutionary leaders had long sought to encourage and promote western colonization. The time was now ripe for carrying their wishes into effect.

A system of military land bounties for the benefit of all soldiers who should serve through the war had

By the provisions of this act a colonel was entitled to receive 500 acres, a lieutenant-colonel 450 acres, and other officers smaller quantities in proportion to their rank. A private was allowed 100 acres. In 1780 it was enacted that a major-general should be entitled to 1,100 acres and a brigadier to 850 acres.

"In 1783, seeing that the final reduction of the army must soon take place, the officers to the number of 288, anxious for definite action, petitioned Congress to locate the lands they were entitled to somewhere in the region now known as Eastern Ohio; but even the great influence of Washington was not able to bring about the object sought, and no legislation affecting the interests of the petitioners was enacted. Congress had not yet a perfect title to the territory northwest of the Ohio. It must be remembered that the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary army did not receive money for their priceless services, but almost value

less certificates. In 1784 they were worth only about 3s 6d to 4s to the pound, and as late as 1788 they brought not more than 5s or 6s."

In 1784 Virginia ceded to the general government all her claims to the territory northwest of the Ohio, excepting only that tract since known as the Virginia Military District, lying between the Scioto and the little Miami. This session led to new efforts on the part of the New England officers to obtain some adequate recognition by Congress of the justness of their claims, but without result. At this juncture the plan of buying a tract was presented by Generals Putnam and Tupper. Gen eral Tupper was one of the government surveyors appointed by Congress to lay out in townships and ranges that part of the Northwest Territory which is now Southeastern Ohio. He had visited the western country in the performance of his duties in 1785, and doubtless that visit and his favorable report of the region had its influence on the subsequent purchase of the tract of the Ohio Company on the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers.

In January, 1786, General Tupper visited his friend General Putnam at the home of the latter in Rutland, Worcester County, Mass., and as the result of their conference there appeared in the newspapers of Boston on the 25th of January an address to the people, headed "Information," which read as follows:

"The subscribers take this method to inform all officers and soldiers who have served in the late war

and who are by a late ordinance of the honorable Congress to receive certain tracts of land in the Ohio country, and also all other good citizens who wish to become adventurers in that delightful region, that from personal inspection, together with other incontestible evidences, they are fully satisfied that the lands in that quarter are of a much better quality than any other known to the New England people; that the climate, seasons, products, etc., are, in fact, equal to the most flattering accounts that have ever been published of them; that being determined to become purchasers and to prosecute a settlement in the country, and desirous of forming a general association with those who entertain the same ideas, they beg leave to propose the following plan, viz.: That an association by the name of the Ohio Company be formed of all such as wish to become purchasers, etc., in that country, who reside in the commonwealth of Massachusetts only, or to extend to the inhabitants of other States, as shall be agreed on."

The address further proposed that all favoring the plan should meet at designated places in their respective counties on the 15th of the following month (February) for the purpose of choosing delegates, who should assemble at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston, on Wednesday, March 1, 1786, "then and there to consider and determine upon a general plan of association for said company."

The meeting, which was destined to have such an important bearing

upon the future of the West, came off at the time and place designated. The delegates, among whom were some of the foremost men of the State at that day, were as follows: Manasseh Cutler, of Essex County; Winthrop Sargent and John Mills, of Suffolk; John Brooks and Thomas Cushing, of Middlesex; Benjamin Tupper, of Hampshire; Crocker Sampson, of Plymouth; Rufus Putnam, of Worcester; Jelaliel Woodbridge and John Patterson, of Berkshire, and Abraham Williams, of Barnstable. General Putnam was chosen chairman and Major Winthrop Sargent, secretary. A committee of five was chosen to draft articles of association, which were unanimously adopted on the 3d of March, and thus the Ohio Company formally entered upon its important

mission.

The design of this association," as stated in the preamble of the resolutions, was to raise a fund in Continental certificates for the sole purpose and to be appropriated to the entire use of purchasing lands in the western territory belonging to the United States, for the benefit of the company, and to promote a settlement in that country." Article I provided that the fund should not exceed $1,000,000 in Continental specie certificates, exclusive of one year's interest due thereon (except as afterward provided); each share to consist of $1,000, as aforesaid, and also $10 in gold or silver. Article II provided that the whole fund, except one year's interest on the certificates, should be applied to the

purchase of lands. The one year's interest was reserved to be "applied to the purpose of making a settlement in the country and assisting those who may be otherwise unable to remove themselves thither." The gold and silver was for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the agents of the company and other contingent expenses.

No person was allowed to hold more than five shares in the company's funds. Agents were to be appointed representing divisions of twenty shares each; and in case the fund was not raised to the proposed amount, the agents of divisions, after October 17, 1786, were to be entitled to proceed as if the whole fund had been raised. Five directors were to be chosen, who should have the sole disposal of the company's funds.

A year elapsed. The projectors of the scheme had used their best efforts, yet at the second meeting of the company at Brackett's Tavern, in Boston, March 8, 1787, it was reported that only two hundred and fifty shares had been subscribed for: Despite this somewhat meager showing the directors seemed satisfied and encouraged, and decided at once to make application to Congress for the purchase of lands. It was stated at this meeting that many persons in Massachusetts, and also in the neighboring commonwealths of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire were "inclined to become adventurers," and were only deterred by the uncertainty of obtaining a sufficient tract of land, collectively, for a good settlement.