TO THE PERSON CLAIMING HIS OR HER LABOR OR SERVICE 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That the resolutions of the 23d of April, 1784, RELATIVE TO THE SUBJECT OF THIS ORDINANCE, be and the same are hereby repealed and declared null and void.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 by the United States, in Congress assembled, the 13th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of their sovereignty and independence the 12th.

CHAS. THOMSON, See'y.

ORDINANCES FOR THE SALE OF LANDS IN THE NORTH-WESTERN TERRITORY.

[In Congress, July 23, 1787, 1 Vol. L. U. S., p. 573.]

The report of a committee, consisting of Mr. Carrington, Mr. King, Mr. Dane, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Benson, amended to read as follows, viz:

That the Board of Treasury be authorized and empowered. to contract with any person or persons for a grant of a tract of land which shall be bounded by the Ohio, from the mouth of the Scioto to the intersection of the western boundary of the seventh range of townships now surveying; thence, by the said boundary to the northern boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio; thence, by a due west line, to the Scioto; thence, by the Scioto, to the beginning, upon the following terms, viz: The tract to be surveyed, and its contents ascertained, by the geographer or some other officer of the United States, who shall plainly mark the said east and west line, and shall render one complete plat to the Board of Treasury, and another to the purchaser or purchasers.

The purchaser or purchasers, within seven years from the completion of this work, to lay off the whole tract, at their own expense, into townships and fractional parts of townships, and to divide the same into lots, according to the land ordinance of the 20th of May, 1785; complete returns whereof to be made to the Treasury Board. The lot No. 16, in each township or fractional part of a township, to be given perpetually for the purposes contained in the said ordinance. The

lot No. 29, in each township or fractional part of a township, to be given perpetually for the purposes of religion.* The lots Nos. 8, 11, and 26, in each township or fractional part of a township, to be reserved for the future disposition of Congress. Not more than two complete townships to be given perpetually for the purposes of a University, to be laid off by the purchaser or purchasers, as near the center as may be, so that the same shall be of good land, to be applied to the intended object by the legislature of the State. The price to be not less than one dollar per acre for the contents of the said tract, excepting the reservations and gifts aforesaid, payable in specie, loan-office certificates reduced to specie value, or certificates of liquidated debts of the United States, liable to a reduction by an allowance for bad land, and all incidental charges and circumstances whatever: Provided, That such allowance shall not exceed, in the whole, one-third of a dollar per acre. And in making payment the principal only of the said certificates shall be admitted, and the Board of Treasury, for such interest as may be due on the certificates rendered in payment as aforesaid, prior to January 1, 1786, shall issue indents for interest to the possessors, which shall be receivable in payment as other indents for interest of the existing requisitions of Congress; and for such interest as may be due on the said certificates between that period and the period of payment, the said board shall issue indents, the payment of which to be provided for in future requisitions, or otherwise. Such of the purchasers as may possess rights for bounties of land to the late army, to be permitted to render the same in discharge of the contract, acre for acre: Provided, That the aggregate of such rights shall not exceed oneseventh part of the land to be paid for: And provided also, That there shall be no future claim against the United States on account of the said rights. Not less than 500,000 dollars of the purchase-money to be paid down upon closing of the contract, and the remainder upon the completion of the work to be performed by the geographer or other officer on the part

*The grant of No. 29, for religious purposes, is confined to the Ohio Company and J. C. Symmes' purchase.

of the United States. Good and sufficient security to be given by the purchaser or purchasers for the completion of the contract on his or their part. The grant to be made upon the full payment of the consideration money, and a right of entry and occupancy to be acquired immediately for so much of the tract as shall be agreed upon between the Board of Treasury and the purchasers.

July 23, 1787.

Ordered, That the above be referred to the

Board of Treasury to take order.

LETTER OF CUTLER AND SARGENT TO THE BOARD OF TREASURY, DATED NEW YORK, JULY 26, 1787, FROM JOURNALS OF CONGRESS, VOLUME 4, APPENDIX, PAGE 17.

We observe, by the act of the 23d instant, that your honorable board is authorized to enter into a contract for the sale of a tract of land therein described, on certain conditions expressed in the act. As we suppose this measure has been adopted in consequence of proposals made by us in behalf of ourselves and associates, to a committee of Congress, we beg leave to inform you that we are ready to enter into a contract for the purchase of the lands described in the act, provided you can conceive yourselves authorized to admit of the following conditions, which, in some degree, vary from the report of the committee, viz:

The subordinate surveys shall be completed as mentioned. in the act, unless the frequency of Indian irruptions may render the same impracticable without a heavy expense to the company.

The mode of payment we propose is, half a million of dollars when the contract is executed; another half a million when the tract, as described, is surveyed by the proper officer of the United States; and the remainder in six equal payments, computed from the day of the second payment.

The lands assigned for the establishment of a university to be as nearly as possible in the center of the first million and a half of acres we shall pay for; for, to fix it in the center of the proposed purchase, might too long defer the establishment.

When the second payment is made, the purchasers will receive a deed for as great a quantity of land as a million of

dollars shall pay for, at the price agreed on; after which we will agree not to receive any further deeds for any of the lands purchased, only at such periods, and on such conditions, as may be agreed on betwixt the board and the purchasers.

As to the security, which the act says shall be good and sufficient, we are unable to determine what those terms may mean, in the contemplation of Congress, or of your honorable board; we shall, therefore, only observe that our private fortunes, and that of most of our associates, being embarked in the support of the purchase, it is not possible for us to offer any adequate security but that of the land itself, as is usual in great land purchases.

We will agree so to regulate the contracts that we shall never be entitled to a right of entry or occupancy but on lands actually paid for, nor receive any deeds till our payments amount to a million of dollars, and then only in proportion to such payment. The advance we shall always be under, without any formal deed, together with the improvements made on the lands, will, we presume, be ample security, even if it was not the interest as well as the disposition of the company to lay the foundation of their establishment on a sacred regard to the rights of property.

If these terms are admitted, we shall be ready to conclude the contract.

We have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, for ourselves and associates, etc., MANASSEH CUTLER, WINTHROP SARGENT.

July 27, 1787. "Ordered, That the above letter from Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, to the Board of Treasury, containing proposals for the purchase of a tract of land described in the act of Congress of the 23d instant, be referred to the Board of Treasury to take order: Provided, That after the date of the second payment therein proposed to be made, the residue shall be paid in six equal and half-yearly installments, until the whole thereof shall be completed, and that the purchasers stipulate to pay interest on the sums due from the completion of the survey to be performed by the geographer."

AN ORDINANCE FOR ASCERTAINING THE MODE OF DISPOSING OF LANDS IN THE WESTERN TERRITORY.

[Passed May 20, 1785.]

"Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled That the Territory ceded by individual States to the United States, which has been purchased of the Indian inhabitants, shall be disposed of in the following manner:

"A SURVEYOR from each State shall be appointed by Congress, or a Committee of the States, who shall take an oath for the faithful discharge of his duty, before the Geographer of the United States, who is hereby empowered and directed to administer the same, and the like oath shall be administered to each chain-carrier by the surveyor under whom

he acts.

"The geographer under whose direction the surveyors shall act, shall occasionally form such regulations for their conduct as he shall deem necessary; and shall have authority to suspend them for misconduct in office, and shall make report of the same to Congress, or to the Committee of the States; and he shall make report in case of sickness, death, or resignation of any surveyor.

"The surveyors, as they are respectively qualified, shall proceed to divide the said Territory into townships of six miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing these at right angles, as near as may be, unless the boundaries of the late Indian purchases may render the same impracticable, and then they shall depart from this rule no further than such particular circumstances may require. And each surveyor shall be allowed and paid at the rate of two dollars for every mile in length he shall run, including the wages of chain-carriers, markers, and every other expense attending the same.

"The first line running north and south as aforesaid, shall begin on the River Ohio, at a point that shall be found due north from the western termination of a line which has been run as the southern boundary of the State of Pennsylvania; and the first line running east and west shall begin at the