the plan of selling the eastern country, I thought they would not be very warm advocates in our favor. And I dare not trust myself with any of the New York delegates with whom I am acquainted, because that government are wisely inviting the eastern people to settle in that state; and as to the delegates of other states, I have no acquaintance with any of them.

These circumstances must apologize for my troubling you on this subject, and requesting the favor of a line to inform us in this quarter what the prospects are with respect to our petition, and what measures have or are likely to be taken with respect to settling the Ohio country.

I shall take it as a very particular favor, sir, if you will be kind enough to recommend me to some character in Congress, acquainted with and attached to the Ohio cause, with whom I may presume to open a correspondence.

I am, sir, with the highest respect,

GEN. WASHINGTON.

Your humble servant,

RUFUS PUTNAM.

MOUNT VERNON, June 2, 1784.

Dear Sir:-I could not answer your favor of the 5th of April, from Philadelphia, because General Knox, having mislaid, only presented the letter to me in the moment of my departure from that place. The sentiments of esteem and friendship which breathe in it are exceedingly pleasing and flattering to me, and you may rest assured they are reciprocal.

I wish it was in my power to give you a more favorable account of the officers' petition for lands on the Ohio and its waters than I am about to do. After this matter, and information respecting the establishment for peace, were my inquiries, as I went through Annapolis, solely directed, but I could not learn that any thing decisive had been done in either.

On the latter, I hear Congress are differing about their powers; but, as they have accepted of the cession from Virginia, and have resolved to lay off ten new states, bounded by latitudes and longitudes, it should be supposed that they would

determine something respecting the former before they adjourn, and yet I very much question it, as the latter is to happen on the third, that is to-morrow. As the Congress who are to meet in November next, by the adjournment, will be composed of an entire new choice of delegates in each state, it is not in my power, at this time, to direct you to a proper correspondent in that body. I wish I could, for persuaded I am that to some such cause as you have assigned may be ascribed the delay the petition has encountered; for, surely, if justice and gratitude to the army, and general policy of the Union, were to govern in this case, there would not be the smallest interruption in granting its request. I really feel for those gentlemen who, by these unaccountable delays (by any other means than those you have suggested), are held in such an awkward and disagreeable state of suspense, and wish my endeavors could remove the obstacles. At Princeton, before Congress left that place, I exerted every power I was master of, and dwelt upon the argument you have used, to show the propriety of a speedy decision. Every member with whom I conversed acquiesced in the reasonableness of the petition. All yielded, or seemed to yield, to the policy of it, but pleaded the want of cession of the land to act upon; this has been made and accepted, and yet matters, as far as they have come to my knowledge, remain in statu quo. I am endeavoring to do something with the lands I now hold and have held in that country these twelve or fourteen years. The inclosed contains the terms upon which I propose to lease them. If you think the promulgation of the paper inclosed. can be of service to myself, it is optional with you to do so. I am, dear sir, with very sincere esteem and regard, Your most obedient servant, G. WASHINGTON.

GEN. R. PUTNAM.

12

CHAPTER V.

EXTRACTS FROW RECORDS OF OHIO COMPANY-ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT— LETTERS TO MAJOR SARGENT AND NATHAN DANE-DIARY, 1787.

By the failure of Congress to act upon the petition of the officers, their scheme was delayed, but not defeated. The urgent necessities of the principal movers compelled them to disperse, as soon as the army was disbanded, and seek employment. Putnam took a contract to survey ten townships for Massachusetts, in her province of Maine. General Tupper,† another

*Rufus Putnam was born in Sutton, Mass., 1738. He served in the old French War in four campaigns, 1757 to 1761, and attained the rank of Ensign. After the war he studied navigation and surveying, and became especially proficient as a civil engineer. He served in the Revolutionary War as Lieutenant-Colonel of Brewer's Regiment, Chief Engineer of the Army, Colonel of the 5th Massachusetts, and Brigadier-General. He was a member of the Massachusetts General Court in 1787. He became interested in the project of a settlement northwest of the Ohio in 1783, was one of the founders of the Ohio Company, was appointed its Superintendent in 1787, and led the first party who landed at Marietta, 7th April, 1788. He was one of the Judges of the North-west Territory, 1790 to 1796; Surveyor-General of the United States, 1796 to 1803; and a member of the convention which formed the first Constitution of Ohio, in 1802. He died in Marietta, Ohio, 1824.

Benjamin Tupper was born in Stoughton, Mass., 1738. He was a soldier in the old French War, and was in the field during the whole of the Revolutionary War, rising from the rank of Major to Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General. In 1785 he was appointed one of the Surveyors of the North-west Territory, and it was his report, after a visit to the west, that led to the call, signed by himself and General Putnam, for the meeting which resulted in the formation of the Ohio Company. In the summer of 1786, in command of troops under General Lincoln, he took an active part in suppressing Shay's rebellion. Early in 1788, he removed to Marietta, with his family and that of his son-in-law, Ichabod Nye, reaching there 19 August, 1788. These families, and those of Colonel N. Cushing and Major Goodale, who accompanied them, were the first families to settle in what is now the State of Ohio. General Tupper was appointed Judge of the Common Pleas

of the signers of the petition, accepted a vacancy made by Putnam's retirement from the United States Surveyors appointed to run out the seven Ranges. But, in 1786, they met again. Putnam could say, from personal observation, of Maine: "That country in general is not fit for cultivation, and when this idea is connected with the climate, a man. ought to consider himself curst even in this world, who is doomed to inhabit there as a cultivator of the lands only."

Tupper, returning from a visit to the Ohio in 1785, could say: "The lands in that quarter are of a much better quality than any other known to the New England people; the climate, seasons, products, etc., are in fact equal to the most flattering accounts that have been published of them."

With this addition to their stock of knowledge as to locations, they issued, on the 10th day of January, 1786, a paper, headed "Information," calling a meeting of those who wished to take an interest in the " Ohio scheme" of settlement. This advertisement was as follows:

INFORMATION.

The subscribers take this method to inform all officers and soldiers, who have served in the late war, and who are by a late ordinance of the honorable Congress to receive certain tracts of land in the Ohio country, and also all other good citizens who wish to become adventurers in that delightful region, that from personal inspection, together with other incontestible evidences, they are fully satisfied that the lands in that quarter are of a much better quality than any other known to New England people; that the climate, seasons, product, etc., are in fact equal to the most flattering accounts that have ever been published of them; that being determined to become purchasers, and to prosecute a settlement in this country, and desirious of forming a general association with those who entertain the same ideas, they beg leave to propose the following plan, viz: That an association by the name of The Ohio

in September, 1788, and, with General Putnam, held the first court in the North-west Territory. He died in Marietta, 1792. The entry in Dr. Cutler's journal, August 15, 1788, indicates that General Tupper was the real inventor of the screw propeller.

Company be formed of all such as wish to become purchasers, etc., in that country who reside in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts only, or to extend to the inhabitants of other states as shall be agreed on. In order to bring such a company into existence the subscribers propose that all persons who wish to promote the scheme should meet in their respective counties at 10 o'clock A. M. on Wednesday the 15th day of February next, and that each county meeting then assembled choose a delegate or delegates to meet at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, in Boston, on Wednesday the first day of March next, at 10 o'clock A. M., then and there to consider and determine on a general plan of association for said company; which plan, covenant, or agreement being published, any person (under condition therein to be provided) may by subscribing his name become a member of the company. RUFUS PUTNAM, BENJAMIN TUPPER.

RUTLAND, January 10, 1786.

In consequence of this notice meetings were held in the several counties, and delegates appointed, who convened at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, in Boston, March 1, 1786. These were Winthrop Sargent and John Mills, from Suffolk County; Manasseh Cutler, from Essex; John Brooks and Thomas Cushing, from Middlesex; Benjamin Tupper, from Hampshire; Crocker Sampson, from Plymouth; Rufus Putnam, from Worcester; John Patterson and Jelaliel Woodbridge, from Berkshire; and Abraham Williams, from Barnstable.

General Rufus Putnam was chairman of this meeting and Major Winthrop Sargent, secretary. It appears from the Records of the Ohio Company that: From the very pleasing description of the western country given by Generals Putnam and Tupper, and others, it appearing expedient to form a settlement there, a motion was made for choosing a committee to prepare a draft of a plan of an association into a company for the said purpose, for the inspection and approbation of this convention. Resolved in the affirmative. Also resolved that the committee consist of five. General Putnam, Manasseh Cutler, Colonel Brooks, Major Sargent, and Captain Cushing