Fallen in Defense of American Freedom," ""The Amiable Partners of our Delicate Pleasures," and "The Glorious Fourth of July." An oration was delivered by General James M. Varnum, one of the recently appointed judges of the territory, in which he said: "We have made provision among our first institutions for scholastic and liberal education; and, conscious that our being as well as prosperity depends upon the supreme will, we have not neglected the great principles and institutions of religion. Many of our associates are distinguished for wealth, education, and virtue, and others, for the most part, are reputable, industrious, well informed planters, farmers, tradesmen, and mechanics. Were the paths of life entirely strewed with flowers, we should become too much attached to the world to wish even to exchange it for a more exalted condition. Diffi culties we must expect to encounter in our infant state; but most of the distresses common to new countries we shall never experience, if we make use of the means in our power to promote our own happiness."

These festivities occurred two weeks prior to the establishment of civil government under St. Clair's rulership. On the same day a code of laws suited to the exigencies of the colony were posted upon the smooth trunk of a large beech tree. The settlers who dined together that Fourth of July were without roofs to their heads as yet, were living in tents chiefly; but there was apparently no lack of hilarity at the banquet. The bright, clever men present indulged in sallies of wit and humor as heartily as if they were dwelling in marble halls. They were exultant over their prospects under the new order of government; yet while they were as familiar with the provisions of that immortal document, the Ordinance of 1787, as our readers are supposed to have already become, they could hardly have prophesied the magnitude of the blessings it was destined to secure to them, to their children and children's children, to all future generations, and to the millions yet unborn. The eminent author, Dr. Hinsdale, truly says: "No act of American legislation has called out more eloquent applause than the Ordinance of 1787. Statesmen, historians, and jurists have vied with one another in celebrating its praises. In one respect it has a proud pre-eminence over all other acts of legislation on the American statute books. It alone is known by the date of its enactment, and not by its subject-matter. It is more than a law or statute. It was a constitution for the territory northwest of the river Ohio. More than this, it was a model for later legislation relating to the national territories; and some of its provisions, particularly the prohibition of slavery, stand among the greatest precedents of our history."

The steps through which the nation acquired its title to the Northwest

Territory-the discussions, protests, remonstrances and petitions, which finally resulted in the cession to the Union by the states of their vacant lands-is an interesting morsel of our country's annals, but does not come within the scope of this paper. The simple facts are that New York conveyed her claim to Congress on the 1st of March, 1781. Virginia released hers upon the first of that month, three years later. Massachusetts delayed till the 19th of April, 1785, and Connecticut till the 14th of September, 1786. And when this public domain was secured it could not be fully nationalized under the Articles of Confederation. Thus the land-question, with its inevitable mixture of state and national ideas, harassed and tormented the public mind until the Constitution went into operation. In the meantime the Ohio Company of Associates was formed, negotiated for and purchased of Congress one and a half millions of acres in the Muskingum valley, and the forty-eight pioneers led by General Rufus Putnam had

OUTLINE OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.

[From an Old Print.]

been on the site of their chief city since the 7th of April. The details. of these preliminary events bristle with instruction; but they have been so many times and so admir. ably recited within the past few months that neither student or citizen can hereafter be excused for lack of information. The coming of the first governor was daily expected, and as his approach could not as now be heralded by electrical instrumentality, it was a season of anxious outlook. On the 9th of July the guns at Fort Harmer announced his presence there, and a glad shout echoed through the woods of Marietta.

Governor Arthur St. Clair was then fifty-four years of age, a distinguished soldier, a sterling patriot, skilled in the civil law, and an accomplished gentleman. He was of Scotch birth, the son of the Earl of Roslyn. He had been educated at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1758, when only twenty-four, came with Boscawen's fleet to America and served in the remainder of the French war. In 1760 he married Phebe Bayard, whose

mother was the sister of Governor Bowdoin of Massachusetts. He was an officer in the Revolution, a friend of Washington, and at the time of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, president of the old Congress. At five o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th of July he stepped from the barge in which he had crossed the Muskingum from Fort Harmer with his attendants, and was received with military honors in the bowery (now the park) by General Rufus Putnam, the supreme judges, and all the principal inhab

itants of the place. Winthrop Sargent, the secretary of the territory, a young man of ability from Massachusetts, "a soldier, civilian, a member of learned societies and a poet," read the governor's commission, the Ordinance of 1787, and the commissions of the first judges, General Samuel Holden Parsons, General James M. Varnum, and Hon. John Cleves Symmes. The provisions of the Ordinance made the governor and these judges a temporary legislature with all necessary powers.

Foremost, as you will notice, among those to welcome Governor St. Clair on this memorable afternoon was Rufus Putnam, one of the original founders of the Ohio Company and afterwards its superintendent. He was a tall, well-proportioned man of fifty, of soldierly bearing and commanding presence, and of quick, decisive, almost abrupt manners. Being very kind-hearted, however, he never failed to be conciliatory when the occasion warranted. He was charming and impressive in conversation, possessing a rich fund of anecdote and ready information on all topics. In his youth he had been a careful student of mathematics, and attained great proficiency in its application to navigation and surveying. It was the ability he displayed as an engineer that first attracted Washington, who pronounced him a more competent officer in that line than any of the French gentlemen who had been trained in the profession. Through his correspondence with Washington at the close of the war he was the motivepower in creating the system of laying out the public lands in townships. Congress, in 1785, appointed him to command the survey of a part of the Ohio country, but having important engagements General Benjamin Tupper was appointed in his place. The latter proceeded to Pittsburg, but trouble with the Indians obstructed the contemplated survey until General Parsons should succeed in concluding a treaty with them. General Tupper was a close observer, and became enthusiastic over the fertility and beauty of the land. When he returned east he visited General Putnam at his home in Rutland, Vermont, and the two men spent the whole night of January 10, 1786, devising the scheme of an association for purchasing a large tract west of the Ohio river. Thus originated the Ohio Company. The next day they issued a public notice; and in due course of time the learned and versatile Rev. Manassah Cutler was sent, accompanied by Winthrop Sargent, to New York city to make the purchase, and arrived there in time to take a hand in the great act of legislation, the passage of the famous Ordinance, which was to be so beneficial in its results. General Putnam removed his family to Marietta in 1790, which then consisted of his wife, six daughters, two sons and two grandchildren.

General Tupper journeyed west the second time in June, 1786, and the survey was completed under his direction. He returned home, and brought his family to Marietta in the summer of 1788. His eldest son, Anselm, who like his şire was an expert surveyor, and also the first school teacher in Marietta, came with the pioneers on the 7th of April. General Tupper took his family to reside in Campus Martius as soon as a habitation was ready. His home was in the west-front facing the Muskingum river. General Putnam's was in the south-front facing the town. Colonel Ichabod Nye's