and lead are also found in many parts, and there are many saltwells. It has no foreign commerce, but carries on an active trade with New Orleans and various ports on the Ohio and Mississippi.

TENNESSEE.

This State is bounded north by Kentucky and Virginia, southeast by North Carolina, south by Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and west by Arkansas and Missouri. It contains 45,600 square miles, or 29,384,000 acres.

The governor is elected by the people for two years, by a plurality vote. The secretary of state, treasurer, and comptroller are chosen by the general assembly; the attorney-general is appointed by the judges of the Supreme Court. The senators and representatives are elected for two years. Their number depends on population; the representatives are not to exceed seventy-nine, until the population of the State shall be one million and a half, and shall never be more than ninety-nine; the senators shall not exceed one-third the number of representatives. The sessions of the legislature are biennial. The judges are elected by the people, and hold office for eight years.

It is believed that the spot where Memphis now stands was visited in 1550 by De Soto, the Spanish explorer, who discovered the Mississippi. But there was no settlement of the territory by white persons for more than two centuries. A settlement was attempte by a party of North Carolinians in 1754; but they were driver back by the Indians. Two years afterwards the first permanent settlement was made; and this was the first settlement by persons of English descent south of Pennsylvania and west of the Alleghanies. The conflicts with the Indians were constant and bloody. At length the savages were sufficiently subdued to remain quiet. During the war of the Revolution, and afterwards, until 1784, this territory formed a part of North Carolina. In 1785 the State of Franklin was organized, the people having become dissatisfied with the government of North Carolina. But the new State was again united with North Carolina in 1788. The next year that State ceded the territory to the general government, and in the following year it, with Kentucky, was organized with the territory of the United States south of Ohio. In 1794 Tennessee was made a distinct territory, and in 1796 was admitted into the Union.

The soil and climate of Tennessee are excellently adapted to the raising of stock, and the productions of the cereals, and of tobacco, which is mainly produced in its middle region. The western part of the State is well adapted to cotton. Iron ore is found, of great excellence and of great abundance; coal, copper, and nitre are also

found, in quality and quantity sufficient to repay the working. In the eastern part of the State there is abundant water-power for manufactures; but it is not yet largely utilized.

OHIO.

Ohio is bounded north by Michigan and Lake Erie, east by Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, south by West Virginia and Kentucky, and west by Indiana. It contains 39,964 square miles, or 25,576,960 acres.

The governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and attorney-general, are chosen by the people. The auditor for four years, the others for two years. The judges are chosen by the people, those of the Supreme Court and Court of Common Pleas for five years. The senators and representatives are elected biennially, and hold office two years.

The first explorers of this territory were Frenchmen, whose object was to trade with the Indians, but not to settle in the country; they established, however, trading posts. The English claimed the territory, under a grant from their king; and from these conflicting claims a war broke out, which we have spoken of in our account of Virginia. The French kept possession of the country until it was surrendered to England by the treaty with France in 1763. Ohio was formed from the North-west Territory, from which many other States were subsequently formed. It is necessary, therefore, to give some account of this territory.

The North-west Territory.

At the time when the United States first formed a confederation, great difficulties arose from the claims of different States to the vast territory in the west, which was then for the most part unexplored and uninhabited, except by Indians; some of the States holding on to rights given them as colonists, and defining their territories by the terms of grants to the colonies; some of them by these grants extended across the continent to the Pacific, while others went as far as the Mississippi. But there were others of the original States, with limited boundaries defining their territory, and terminating it much nearer the Atlantic coast. In other words, some of the States had, so far as those grants could give it, a claim to a vast extent of the western territory, while others of the States could claim no part of it. In 1778 the State of Maryland proposed and insisted that the boundaries of such of the States as claimed to reach the Mississippi or Pacific, should be defined and restrained within much nar

rower limits, so that the property in the vast western territories might be held by the confederation as the common property of all the States. Different States offered various propositions and resolutions. Those from Delaware, presented to Congress in 1779, express the views of those of the States which had no such wide boundaries so clearly that we copy them here.

"RESOLVED, That this State thinks it necessary, for the peace and safety of the States to be included in the Union, that a moderate extent of limits should be assigned for such of those States as claim to the Mississippi or South Sea; and that the United States, in Congress assembled. should, and ought to have, the power of fixing their western limits.”

"RESOLVED, That this State consider themselves justly entitled to a right, in common with the members of the Union, to that extensive tract of country which lies westward of the frontiers of the United States, the property of which was not vested in or granted to individuals at the cominencement of the present war. That the same hath been or may be gained from the King of Great Britain, or the native Indians, by the blood and treasure of all, and ought therefore to be a common estate, to be granted out on terms beneficial to the United States."

The State of Virginia was perhaps foremost in the assertion of such claims, and opened a land-office for the sale of her unappropri ated lands. Whereupon Congress, in 1779, passed the following act:

"Whereas the appropriation of vacant lands by the several States, during the continuance of the war, will, in the opinion of Congress, be attended with great mischiefs: therefore,

"RESOLVED, That it be earnestly recommended to the State of Virginia to reconsider their late act of assembly for opening their land-office; and that it be recommended to the said State, and all other States similarly circumstanced, to forbear settling or issuing warrants for unappropriated lands, or granting the same, during the continuance of the present war."

Difficulties still continued, and assumed a more threatening character; when the legislature of New York, in 1780, authorized its delegates to limit and restrict the western boundaries of that State, with such reservations of the jurisdiction or the right of soil as they should think proper. The territory to be so ceded or relinquished should be disposed of only by Congress, for the benefit of the United States. And in the same year Congress took into consideration this act, together with the instructions of the legislature of Maryland to its delegates, and the remonstrance of the legislature of Virginia, and after a very forcible and eloquent preamble passed the following resolve:

"RESOLVED, That copies of the several papers referred to the committee be transmitted, with a copy of the report, to the legislatures of the

several States, and that it be earnestly recommended to those States who have claims to the western country to pass such laws, and give their delegates in Congress such powers as may effectually remove the only obstacle to a final ratification of the articles of confederation."

This appeal answered its purpose. The seven States that claimed rights in this territory successively ceded the same to the United States: New York in 1781, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts in 1785, Connecticut in 1800, South Carolina in 1787, North Carolina in 1790, Georgia in 1802. Some of the States reserved a right to the soil, especially Virginia, which reserved nearly four millions of acres for her State troops; and Connecticut reserved about as many acres near Lake Erie. It was by the sale of this reservation that Connecticut acquired her school fund, which now amounts to over two millions of dollars.

In 1787 Congress passed the celebrated and most important "Ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States north-west of the river Ohio." This ordinance is very long, and its provisions are minute and carefully adjusted. At its close, six articles are stated to be "articles" of compact between the original States and the people in the States in the said territory, and are for ever to remain unalterable, unless by common consent. By the first article, religious freedom is secured; by the second article, habeas corpus, trial by jury, and the validity of contracts are secured; the third article provides that education shall be encouraged, that good faith shall be observed towards the Indians, and that they shall be treated with justice and humanity; the fourth article provides that the territory and the States formed therein shall remain part of the United States; that the primary disposal of the soil shall belong to Congress exclusively; and that the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence should be for ever free and common highways for the citizens of the United States; the fifth article provides for the formation of new States within the territory; the sixth article declares that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory. For a few of the immediately succeeding years the territory was much harassed by the attacks of the Indians.

The State of Ohio was the first which was carved out of this great territory, and was admitted as a State in 1803. It was followed by many more, as we shall presently see. The State was rapidly settled by immigrants, chiefly from New England; and in its turn it has sent large numbers of immigrants to the States west of it.

Coal-fields cover nearly one-third of the whole State. Iron of the finest quality is found in many places. Large quantities of salt

are manufactured and exported. Its extensive shore line on Lake Erie, with excellent harbors, give it great facilities for commerce, both domestic and foreign, by the lakes and the St. Lawrence. It is covered by an extensive system of railroads. But to its agriculture mainly it owes its great prosperity; nearly all the land of the State being of good quality, and a very large proportion of it, much more than half, being under cultivation.

LOUISIANA.

This State is bounded north by Arkansas, east by Mississippi and the Atlantic, south by the Gulf of Mexico, and west by Texas. It contains 41,255 square miles, or 26,403,200 acres.

The governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, are chosen by the people, for four years each. The senators, numbering thirty-six, are elected for four years, onehalf every two years; the number of representatives shall never exceed one hundred and twenty, nor be less than ninety, and they are chosen every two years. The judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate, for the term of eight years. They must be citizens of the United States, and have practised law in the State for five years, of which three are next preceding their appointment. The district judges are chosen for the term of four years by the people.

Although the Spaniards had navigated the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River was not discovered until the close of the sixteenth century, when the French founded a colony there. In 1717 New Orleans was founded. In 1716, the famous Mississippi bubble, so called, was begun by John Law at Paris. The territory was granted to a company formed by him, under the name of the Mississippi Company. When this bubble burst, as it soon did, to the ruin of many persons, the territory was resumed by the French government, who retained possession of it until 1762, when they ceded it to Spain. In 1800, Napoleon Buonaparte, at that time first consul, induced the government of Spain to cede the territory back to France; but it was held by that country only long enough to enable Napoleon to sell it to the United States, who paid him for the territory fifteen millions of dollars. Napoleon knew that neither he nor Spain could hold the territory against the naval forces of England, with whom war was then impending. By selling it to the United States he placed it in safe hands, and acquired a large sum of money, which was then of great importance to him. President Jefferson made the bargain, doubting very much whether he was not straining, if not overstepping, the limits of the constitution.