"We have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, for ourselves and associates, gentlemen, your obedient and humble servants, MANASSEH CUTLER,

WINTHROP SARGENT.”*

On the 27th of October, 1787, Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, as agents for the "Ohio Company of Associates," entered into a contract with the board of treasury for the purchase of one million five hundred thousand † acres of land, lying within the bounds of the tract which was offered for sale by the act of Congress, of the 23d July, 1787; and, on the same day (27th October), Messrs. Cutler and Sargent contracted with the board of treasury for the remainder of the tract. On the 29th of October, 1787, articles of agreement were made between Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, and their associates, of the one part, and William Duer and his associates, of the other part, for one half of the second purchase, which half was assigned to Duer and his associates, who agreed to interest Cutler, Sargent, and their associates, in the profits of the sale of the lands in Europe or elsewhere; and Duer was authorized to make such sale, and to employ an agent for that purpose. In consequence of this agreement, Joel Barlow was sent to Europe, as the agent of the contracting parties, to sell the lands; and, for the purpose of aiding the sale, a company was formed, under the name of the Scioto Company, to whom the lands were conveyed. Mr. Barlow, and the agent of this company, conjointly, disposed of a considerable quantity of the lands to companies and individuals in France. A small number of the purchasers emigrated from France to the United States, in the year 1790, and founded, on the northwestern side of the river Ohio, a French settlement, which they called Gallipolis.

* Old Journals of Congress, 26th July, 1787.

The quantity was afterward reduced, by consent of the parties, to 964,285 acres, and the lands were conveyed, by letters patent, under the seal of the United States, to Rufus Putnam, Manasseh Cutler, Robert Oliver, and Griffin Green, in trust for the persons composing the "Ohio Company of Associates."

American State Papers, Public Lands, vol. i, 24.-Laws of the United States, i, 456, 492; ii, 276.

On the 7th of April, 1788, eight families, under the direction of General Rufus Putnam (who was one of the "Ohio Company of Associates"), arrived at the mouth of the river Muskingum, where they made a settlement, and laid the foundation of the town of Marietta.

On the 29th of August, 1787, before the first contract was fully made between the board of treasury of the United States and the "Ohio Company of Associates," John Cleves Symmes addressed the following petition to the President of Congress: "NEW YORK, 29th August, 1787.

"To His Excellency, the President of Congress, the petition of John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, showeth:

"That your petitioner, encouraged by the resolutions of Congress, of the 23d and 27th of July last, stipulating the condition of a transfer of federal lands on the Scioto and Muskingum rivers, unto Winthrop Sargent and Manasseh Cutler, esquires, and their associates, of New England, is induced, on behalf of the citizens of the United States, westward of Connecticut, who also wish to become purchasers of federal lands, to pray that the honorable the Congress will be pleased to direct that a contract be made by the honorable the Commissioners of the treasury board, with your petitioner, for himself and his associates, in all respects similar in form and matter to the said grant made to Messrs. Sargent and Cutler, differing only in quantity, and place where, and that instead of two townships for the use of a university, that only one be assigned for the benefit of an academy.

"That by such transfer to your petitioner and his associates, on their complying with the terms of sale, the fee may pass of all the lands lying within the following limits, viz: Beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river; thence running up the Ohio, to the mouth of the Little Miami river; thence up the main stream of the Little Miami river, to the place where a due west line, to be continued from the western termination of the northern boundary line of the grant to Messrs. Sargent, Cutler & Co., shall intersect the said Little Miami river; thence due west, continuing the said western line, to the place where the said line shall intersect the main branch or stream of the Great Miami river; thence down the Great Miami, to the place of beginning. JOHN C. SYMMES."

The foregoing letter was referred to the Board of Treasury on the 2d of October, 1787; and on the 15th of October, 1788, a contract was made between the board and Symmes and his associates, for the sale of a tract of land of one million of acres. In the contract the boundaries of Symmes' purchase were defined as follows:-"Beginning on the bank of the river Ohio at a spot exactly twenty miles distant along the several courses of the same from the place where the Great Miami empties itself into the said river Ohio; from thence, extending down the said river Ohio, along the several courses thereof, to the Great Miami river; thence, up the said river Miami, along the several courses thereof, to a place whence a line drawn due east will intersect a line drawn from the place of beginning aforesaid, parallel with the general course of the Great Miami river, so as to include one million of acres within those lines and the said rivers; and from that place, up the said Great Miami river, extending along such lines, to the place of beginning, containing, as aforesaid, one million of acres."

By an act of Congress, of the 12th of April, 1792, the President of the United States was authorized, at the request of John Cleves Symmes, to alter the first contract between the board of treasury and the said Symmes and his associates, so that the tract of land described in that contract might extend "from the mouth of the Great Miami to the mouth of the Little Miami, and be bounded by the river Ohio on the south, by the Great Miami on the west, by the Little Miami on the east, and by a parallel of latitude on the north, extending from the Great Miami to the Little Miami, so as to comprehend the proposed quantity of one million of acres: Provided, that the northern limits of the said tract shall not interfere with the boundary line established by the treaty of Fort Harmar,* between the United States and the Indian nations.” The quantity of one million of acres could not be included within. the bounds prescribed by this act; and Mr. Symmes and his associates, having encountered several unexpected and insurmountable obstacles, could not fulfill their contract with the board of treasury. The original purchase of one million of acres was therefore reduced to a tract of land bounded on the

*See Appendix E.

south by the river Ohio, on the west by the Great Miami river, on the east by the Little Miami river, and on the north by a parallel of latitude to be run from the Great Miami to the Little Miami so as to comprehend the quantity of three hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and eighty-two acres. For this tract of land letters patent, under the seal of the United States, were granted to Mr. Symmes and his associates, on the 30th of September; 1794.* The settlement of Symmes' purchase was commenced in 1789; in the course of which year Fort Washington was erected by a detachment of troops under the command of Major John Doughty, on a portion of the ground which is now the site of Cincinnati; and a few families settled on the rich bottom lands just below the mouth of the Little Miami river, where they laid the foundation of the town of Columbia. Sometime in the same year, a town, which was called Losantiville, was laid off on the lands adjoining Fort Washington.

ON the 5th of October, 1787, Major-general Arthur St. Clair was elected, by Congress, governor of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio. St. Clair was a native of Scotland, from which country he came to the British colonies of North America, in 1755. He joined the Royal American or 60th British regiment, and served under General Amherst at the taking of Louisbourg, in 1758. He carried a standard at the storming and capture of Quebec by the troops under General Wolfe, in 1759. Soon after the peace of 1763, he settled in Ligonier valley, in the western part of the province

*American State Papers, Public Lands, vol. i, 93, 115.-Laws U. S., vol. i, 457, 494, 495, 497;-vol. ii, 270, 287;-vol. iii, 264, 428, 502, 541, 554.

of Pennsylvania, where he continued to reside until the commencement of the Revolutionary war, when, having received from Congress a commission of colonel, he joined the American army with a regiment of seven hundred and fifty men. Having been promoted to the rank of major-general, he was tried by a court martial, in 1778, for evacuating Ticonderoga* and Mount Independence. He was, however, unanimously acquitted, with the highest honor, of all the charges which were brought against him; and from this time, holding the rank of a major-general, he continued to act in the service of the United States until the close of the war. In a letter to the honorable William B. Giles, of Virginia, St. Clair wrote as. follows:

"In the year 1786 I entered into the public service in civil life, and was a member of Congress, and president of that body, when it was determined to erect a government in the country to the west, that had been ceded by Virginia to the United States; and, in the year 1788, the office of governor was in a great measure forced on me. The losses I had sustained in the Revolutionary war, from the depreciation of the money, and other causes, had been very great; and my friends saw, in this new government, means that might be in my power to compensate myself, and to provide handsomely for my numerous family. They did not know how little I was qualified to avail myself of those advantages, if they had existed. I had neither taste nor genius for speculation in land: neither did I think it very consistent with the office."

By the first instructions which governor St. Clair received from Congress, in 1788, he was authorized and directed, Firstly: To examine carefully into the real temper of the Indians. Secondly: To remove, if possible, all causes of controversy, so that peace and harmony might be established between the United States and the Indian tribes. Thirdly: To regulate trade among the Indians. Fourthly: To neglect no opportunity that might

*On the evacuation of Ticonderoga, St. Clair said to Major James Wilkinson, "I know I could save my character by sacrificing the army; but were I to do so, I should forfeit that which the world could not restore, and which it can not take away-the approbation of my own conscience."-WILKINSON'S MEMOIRS, 1, 85.