Articles of comjaci, &c.

Congress, with the right of debating, but not of voting, during this temporary government.

And for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws, and constitutions, are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory; to provide, also, for the estab lishment of States, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States, at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest:

It is hereby ordained and declared, by the authority aforesaid, That the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact, between the original States and the people and States in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit:

ARTICLE 1. No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory.

ART. 2. The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury; of a 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 law 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, bonafide, 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 towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they never shall 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 preserving peace and friendship with them.

ART. 4. The said territory, and the States which may be

pact, &c.

formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this confeder- Articles of comacy 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 other States; and the taxes for paying their proportion shall be laid and lev ied 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 bonafide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and in no case shall nonresident 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 the 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.(1)

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 Vincent's, 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 States shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash, from Post Vincent's 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 hereafter 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

(1) Part II, page 14, No. 13.

pact, &c.

Articles of com 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 interest 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 one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions of the 23d of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby, repealed and declared null and void.

[See Part II, Nos. 35, 43, 134, 136, 137.]

In Congress, 1787, July 23.

Board of Treasury authorized to con

a tract of land.

tract.

CHAP. 21.-Powers to the Board of Treasury to contract for the sale of Western

territory.

The report of a committee, consisting of Mr. Carrington, Mr. King, Mr. Dane, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Benson, amended to read as follows, viz:

That the Board of Treasury be authorized and empowered tract for a grant of to contract with any person or persons for a grant of a tract of land-which shall be bounded by the Ohio, from the mouth Boundaries of the of Scioto to the intersection of the western boundary of the seventh range of townships now surveying; thence, by the said boundary, to the northern boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio; thence, by a due west line, to Scioto; thence, by the Scioto, to the beginning upon the following The tract to be terms, viz: The tract to be surveyed, and its contents ascertained, by the geographer or some other officer of the United States, who shall plainly mark the said east and west line, and shall render one complete plat to the Board of Treasury, The purchasers to and another to the purchaser or purchasers. The purchaser to townships, at or purchasers, within seven years from the completion of this their own expense, work, to lay off the whole tract, at their own expense, into townships and fractional parts of townships, and to divide the same into lots, according to the land ordinance of the

surveyed, &c.

lay off the tract in

&c.

given for schools.

given for religious

20th of May, 1785;(1) complete returns whereof to be made to the Treasury Board. The lot No. 16, in each township or Lot No. 16 to be fractional part of a township, to be given perpetually for the purposes contained in the said ordinance. The lot No. 29, Lot No. 29 to be in each township or fractional part of a township, to be given purposes; and lots perpetually for the purposes of religion. (2) The lots Nos. 8, reserved for future 11, and 26, in each township or fractional part of a township, disposition. to be reserved for the future disposition of Congress. Not more than two complete townships to be given perpetually

Nos. 8, 11, and 26,

and in what paya.

ficates only admit

&c.

for the purposes of an university, to be laid off by the pur- Two townships for chaser or purchasers, as near the centre as may be, so that university. the same shall be of good land, to be applied to the intended object by the Legislature of the State. The price to be not Price of the land, less than one dollar per acre for the contents of the said tract, ble, &c. excepting the reservations and gifts aforesaid, payable in specie, loan office certificates reduced to specie value, or certificates of liquidated debts of the United States, liable to a reduction by an allowance for bad land, and all incidental charges and circumstances whatever; provided that such allowance shall not exceed, in the whole, one third of a dollar per acre. And, in making payment, the principal only Principal of certiof the said certificates shall be admitted; and the Board of ted in payment, Treasury, for such interest as may be due on the certificates rendered in payment as aforesaid, prior to January 1, 1786, shall issue indents for interest to the possessors, which shall be receivable in payment as other indents for interest of the existing requisitions of Congress; and for such interest as may be due on the said certificates between that period and the period of payment, the said board shall issue indents, the payment of which to be provided for in future requisitions, or otherwise. Such of the purchasers as may possess rights Rights for military for bounties of land to the late army, to be permitted to ren- charge, may be der the same in discharge of the contract, acre for acre; pro-acre, provided, &c. vided that the aggregate of such rights shall not exceed one seventh part of the land to be paid for; and provided, also, that there shall be no future claim against the United States on account of the said rights. Not less than 500,000 dollars of the purchase-money to be paid down upon closing of the down, &c. contract, and the remainder upon the completion of the work, to be performed by the geographer or other officer on the part of the United States. Good and sufficient security to be given by the purchaser or purchasers for the completion of the contract on his or their part. The grant to be made upon the full payment of the consideration-money, and a right of entry and occupancy to be acquired immediately for so much of the tract as shall be agreed upon between the Board of Treasury and the purchasers.

Ordered, That the above be referred to the Board of Treasury, to take order.

[See Part II, No. 13.]

(1) See the ordinance, ante, chapter 14, page 11.

(2) This grant of No. 29, for religious purposes, is confined to the Ohio Company's purchase, and to John Cleves Symmes' patent.

bounties, in dis

rendered acre for

$500,000 to be pa id

Security, &c.

In Congress, 1787, July 26. Ohio Company.

CHAP. 22.-Sale to the Ohio Company.

NEW YORK, July 26, 1787:

GENTLEMEN: We observe, by the act of the 23d instant, that your honorable board is authorized to enter into a contract for the sale of a tract of land therein described, on certain conditions expressed in the act. As we suppose this measure has been adopted in consequence of proposals made by us, in behalf of ourselves and associates, to a committee of Congress, we beg leave to inform you that we are ready to enter into a contract for the purchase of the lands described in the act, provided you can conceive yourselves authorized to admit of the following conditions, which in some degree vary from the report of the committee, viz:

The subordinate surveys shall be completed as mentioned in the act, unless the frequency of Indian irruptions may render the same impracticable without a heavy expense to the company.

The mode of payment we propose is, half a million of dollars when the contract is executed; another half a million when the tract as described is surveyed by the proper officer of the United States; and the remainder in six equal payments, computed from the date of the second payment.

The lands assigned for the establishment of an university to be nearly as possible in the centre of the first million and a half of acres we shall pay for; for, to fix it in the centre of the proposed purchase, might too long defer the establishment.

When the second payment is made, the purchasers shall receive a deed for as great a quantity of land as a million of dollars will pay for, at the price agreed on; after which, we will agree not to receive any further deeds for any of the lands purchased, only at such periods and on such conditions as may be agreed on betwixt the board and the purchasers.

As to the security, which the act says shall be good and sufficient, we are unable to determine what those terms may mean in the contemplation of Congress, or of your honorable board; we shall therefore only observe that our private fortunes and that of most of our associates being embarked in the support of the purchase, it is not possible for us to offer any adequate security but that of the land itself, as is usual in great land purchases.

We will agree so to regulate the contracts that we shall never be entitled to a right of entry or occupancy, but on the lands actually paid for, nor receive any deeds till our payments amount to a million of dollars, and then only in proportion to such payment. The advance we shall always be under without any formal deed, together with the improvements made on the lands, will, we presume, be ample security, even if it was not the interest, as well as the disposition, of the company, to lay the foundation of their establishment on a sacred regard to the rights of property.