Act of Confederation.

time within the year, and to any place within the united states, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the Journal of their proceedings monthly, except such part thereof relating to treaties, alliances or military operations, as in their judgment may require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each state on any question shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a state, or any of them, at his or their request shall be furnished with a transcript of the said Journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several states.

ARTICLE X. The committee of the states, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of congress, such of the powers of congress as the united states in congress assembled, by the consent of nine states, shall from time to time think it expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine states in the congress of the united states assembled is requisite.

ARTICE XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the united states, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of his union: but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.

ARTICLE XII. All bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed and debts contracted by, or under the authority of congress, before the assembling of the united states, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the united states, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said united states, and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

ARTICLE XIII. Every state shall abide by the determination of the united states in congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the united states, and be afterward confirmed by the legislatures of every state.

AND WHEREAS, it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, Know Ye that we the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular

Signers of the Act of Confederation.

the matter and things therein contained: And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determination of the united states in congress assembled, on all questions, which by the said confederation are submitted to them. And that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the states. we respectively represent, and that the union shall be perpetual.

IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto set our hands in congress. DONE at Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord one Thousand seven Hundred and Seventyeight, and in the third year of the independence of America.

ON THE PART AND BEHALF OF THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Josiah Bartlett,

John Wentworth, Jun'r,

August 8, 1778.

ON THE PART AND BEHALF OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

ON THE PART AND IN BEHALF OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND

ON THE PART AND BEHALF OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT.

ON THE PART AND BEHALF OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

ON THE PART AND IN BEHALF OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY.

Jno Witherspoon,

Nathl Scudder, Nov. 26, 1778.

ON THE PART AND BEHALF OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Robert Morris,

Daniel Roberdeau,

Jona Bayard Smith,

William Clingan,
Joseph Reed,

July 22, 1778.

ON THE PART AND IN BEHALF OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE.

John Dickinson, May 5, 1779, Tho M'Kean, Feb. 12, 1779.

Signers of the Act of Confederation.

ON THE PART AND IN BEHALF OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND.

John Hanson, March 1, 1781,

Daniel Carrol, March 1, 1781.

ON THE PART AND IN BEHALF OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA.

Richard Henry Lee,

John Bannister,

Thomas Adams,

John Harvie,

Francis Lightfoot Lee.

ON THE PART AND BEHALF OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

John Penn, July 21, 1778, Jno. Williams.

Corns. Harnett,

ON THE PART AND BEHALF OF THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

Henry Laurens,

William Henry Drayton,

John Mathews,

Richard Hutson,

Thos. Heyward, Jun.

ON THE PART AND BEHALF OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA.

Jno. Walton, 24th July, 1778, Edw Langworthy.
Edw Telfair,

NOTE.--Prior to the Declaration of Independence, and on the 12th day of the preceding month, a committee was appointed by the Continental Congress, "to prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be entered into between these colonies." The report of the committee was made on the 12th of July, and printed copies placed in the hands of members of the congress for their secret examination. For two years the articles were under discussion by the members of the several state legislatures to whom copies were sent by the new government, and on the 9th of July, 1778, the representatives in congress of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina, signed the form above which had been agreed upon. To those states whose delegates being absent or uncertain of their power, did not sign the form at this time. Congress addressed a request for action with all convenient dispatch. North Carolina ratified the Act on the 21st of July, and Georgia on the 24th of the same month, thus giving the assent of ten states to the instrument. The remaining ratifications were given; by New Jersey, November 26, 1778; by Delaware, May 5, 1779; and by Maryland, March 1, 1781.

Congress assembled under the Act of Confederation, March 2, 1781, the day following the ratification of the act by Maryland,

William McKinley, President, was born at Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 29, 1843; was educated in the public schools, Poland Academy, Allegheny College, before at taining his majority he taught in the public schools; enlisted as a private in the Twentythird Ohio Volunteer Infantry June 11, 1861; promoted to commissary-sergeant April 15, 1862, to second lieutenant September 23, 1862, to first lieutenant February 7, 1863, to captain July 25, 1864; served successively on the staffs of Generals R. B. Hayes, George Crook and Winfield S. Hancock and was brevetted major in the United States Volunteers by President Lincoln for gallantry in battle March 13, 1865; detailed for acting adjutantgeneral of the First Division, First Army Corps, on the staff of General S. S. Carroll: mustered out of service July 26, 1865; returning to civil life, he studied law in Mahoning County: took a course at the Albany (N. Y.) Law School, and in 1867 was admitted to the bar and settled at Canton, Ohio, which has since been his home; ir 1869 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Stark County, and served a term in that office; in 1876 was elected a member of the National House of Representatives, and for fourteen years represented the congressional district of which his county was a part; as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee he reported the tariff law of 1890, but in November following was defeated for Congress in a gerrymandered district, although reducing the usual adverse majority from 3,000 to 300; in 1891 was elected governor of Ohio by a plurality of 21,511, and 1893 was re-elected by a plurality of 80,995; in 1884 was a delegate-at-large to the Republican national convention and supported James G. Blaine for president; was a member of the committee on resolutions and read the platform to the convention; in 1888 was also a delegate-at-large from Ohio, supporting John Sherman, and as chairman of the committee on resolutions again reported the platform; in 1892 was again a delegateat-large from Ohio, and supported the nomination of Benjamin Harrison, and served as chairman of the convention. At that convention 182 votes were cast for him for presi dent, although he had persistently refused to have his name considered. On June 18, 1896, he was nominated for president at St. Louis, receiving 661 out of 905 votes. He was elected president at the ensuing November election by a popular plurality of 600,000 votes, and received 271 electoral votes as against 176 for William J. Bryan, of Nebraska. He was again elected president in 1900. On September 6, 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition he was shot by an anarchist, and died of his wound September 14. His remains were buried at Canton, Ohio.

AN ORDINANCE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED

STATES NORTH WEST OF THE RIVER OHIO.

[Adopted by the Confederate Congress July 13th, 1787. The Constitution of the United States was adopted by the Congress the 28th of September following. The text from which this was printed was found in a volume of territorial laws printed in Cincinnati in the year 1796. By authority W. Maxwell, Jr., and known as "Maxwell's Code, 1796."]

B'

E it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That the said territory, for the purpose of temporary government, be one district; subject, however, to be divided into two districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, make it expedient. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that the estates both of resident and non-resident proprietors, in the said territory, dying intestate, shall descend to, and be distributed among their children, and the descendants of a deceased child in equal parts; the descendants of a deceased child or grandchild, to take the share of their deceased parent in equal parts among them; and where there shall be no children or descendants, then in equal parts to the next of kin, in equal degree; and among collaterals, the children of a deceased brother or sister of the intestate shall have in equal parts among them. their deceased parents share; and there shall in no case be a distinction between kindred of the whole and half blood; saving in all cases to the widow of the intestate, her third part of the real estate for life, and one-third part of the personal estate; and this law relative to descents and dower, shall remain in full force until altered by the legislature of the district. And until the governor and judges shall adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the said territory may be devised or bequeathed by wills in writing, signed and sealed by him or her, in whom the estate may be (being of full age) and attested by three witnesses; and real estates may be conveyed by lease and release or bargain and sale signed, sealed and delivered by the person, being of full age, in whom the estate may be, and attested by two witnesses, provided such wills be duly proved, and such conveyances be acknowledged, or the execution thereof duly proved, and be recorded within one year after proper magistrates, courts, and registers shall be appointed for that purpose; and personal property may be transferred by delivery, saving, however, to the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskies, Saint Vincents, and the neighboring villages, who have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Virginia, their laws and customs now in force among them, relative to the descent and conveyance of property.

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that there shall be appointed from time to time, by Congress, a governor, whose commission