the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit: "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. "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 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, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed. "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 preserving peace and friendship with them. "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 1787. ORDINANCE FOR NORTH-WESTERN TERRITORY. 471 thereof shall be made on the 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 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. "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 St. 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 State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post St. 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. 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 au cast 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. "There shall be neither slavery or 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 services 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. Done, &c." * The passage of this ordinance, and the grant to the New England associates, was soon followed by an application to government by John Cleve Symmes of New Jersey, for the country between the Miamis. This gentleman had been led to visit that region by the representations of Benjamin Stites, of Redstone, (Brownsville,) who had examined the valleys of the Shawanese soon after the treaty of January, 1786. Symmes found them all, and more than all they had been represented to be, and upon the 29th of August, 1787, wrote to the President of Congress, asking that the Treasury Board might be empowered to contract with him for the district above named. This petition, on the 2d of October, was referred to the Board, with power to act, and a contract was concluded the next year. Upon the 18th of the month last named, another application was made by Royal Flint and Joseph Parker, for lands. upon the Wabash and Mississippi; this was also referred to the Board of Treasury, During the autumn of the same year, the New England company were employed in making arrangements for the settlement of the lands they had purchased on the Ohio. At a meeting of the directors, immediately after the completion of the contract, a resolution was adopted, to reserve out of the purchase, a tract of Land Laws, p. 356. Burnet's letters in the Ohio Historical Transactions. 1787. NEW ENGLANDERS EMIGRATE WEST. 473 five thousand seven hundred and sixty acres of land near the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, for a city and commons; and resolutions were adopted to provide houses for the use of settlers, and to encourage the erection of mills. "At a meeting of the directors of the Ohio Company, at Bracket's tavern in Boston, November 23d, 1787, it was ordered that four surveyors be employed under the direction of the superintendent hereinafter named; that twenty-two men shall attend the surveyors; that there be added to this number, twenty men, including six boat-builders, four house-carpenters, one blacksmith, and nine common workmen—in all forty-eight men. That the boat-builders shall proceed on Monday next, and the surveyors shall rendezvous at Hartford the 1st day of January next, on their way to the Muskingum; that the boat-builders and men with the surveyors, be proprietors in the company; their tools, and one axe, and one hoe, to each man, and thirty pounds weight of baggage, shall be carried in the company's wagons, and that the subsistence of the men on their journey be furnished; that upon their arrival at the place of destination, and entering upon the business of their employment, the men shall be subsisted by the company and allowed wages at the rate of four dollars cach, per month, until discharged; that they shall be held in the company's service until the 1st of July next, unless sooner discharged; and if any of the persons employed shall leave the service or willfully injure the same, or disobey the orders of the superintendent or others acting under him, the person so offending shall forfeit all claim to wages; that their wages shall be paid the next autumn in cash, or lands upon the same terms as the company purchased them; that each man furnish himself with a good small-arm, bayonet, six flints, a powder-horn and pouch, priming wire and brush, half a pound of powder, one pound of balls, and one pound of buck-shot. The men so engaged shall be subject to the orders of the superintendent, and those he may appoint, as aforesaid; in any kinds of business they shall be employed in, as well for boatbuilding and surveying, as for building houses, erecting defenses, clearing land, and planting, or otherwise for promoting the settlement. And as there is a possibility of interruption from enemies, they shall be subject to orders, as aforesaid, in military command, during the time of their employment. That the surveyors shall be allowed twenty-seven dollars per month and subsistence, while in actual service; to commence on their arrival at the Muskingum; that Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, from Rhode Island; Mr. Anselm 474 ŘEV. DANÍEL STORY APPOINTED TEACHER FOR COLONY. 1787. Tupper and Mr. John Matthews, from Massachusetts; and Colonel R. J. Meigs, from Connecticut, be the surveyors; that General Rufus Putnam be the superintendent of all the business aforesaid, and he is to be obeyed and respected accordingly; that he be allowed for his services forty dollars per month and his expenses, to commence from the time of his leaving home.” * At the same meeting a committee was appointed to consider and report on "the expediency of employing some suitable person as a public teacher, at the settlement on the Ohio." They reported "that the directors be requested to pay as early attention as possible, to the education of youth, and the promotion of public worship among the first settlers; and that for these important purposes, they employ, if practicable, an instructor, eminent for literary accomplishments and the virtue of his character, who shall also superintend the first scholastic institutions and direct the manner of instruction; and to enable the directors to carry into execution the intentions expressed in this resolution, the proprietors and others of benevolent minds, are earnestly requested to contribute by voluntary donation to the forming a fund to be solely appropriated thereto." In accordance with this resolution, the Rev. Daniel Story was appointed and sent in the next year as the first New England missionary to Ohio. When Clark took his unauthorized possession of Vincennes, in 1788.] October, 1786, he had asked the savages of the north-west to meet him in council in November; they replied that it was too late in the year, and the proposed meeting was postponed till April. Of this meeting, Messrs. Marshall, Muter, and others, when writing to Virginia, gave information, and suggested that the government should take Clark's place in it. The council of Virginia coincided with the suggestion, and recommended to Congress, James Wilkinson, Richard C. Anderson, and Isaac Shelby, as commissioners on behalf of the United States. Congress, however, received notice of Clark's movements too late for the proposed treaty, and nothing seems to have been done until July 21st, when the superintendent of Indian affairs in the north, or, if he could not go, Colonel Harmar, was instructed to proceed to Vincennes, or some other convenient place, and there hold a council with the Wabash Indian and Shawanese, for the purpose of putting an end to the warfare. * Hildreth's Pioneer History, 202. |