Editorialana. 123
"that ordinance and especially the
non-slavery clause, was not the work
of Nathan Dane of Massachusetts, but of
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia."
It is not our purpose to enter into this
discussion which has been
the theme of many a writer. Our
impression is that Mr. Jefferson has
not been duly accredited with the share
due his ordinance as a basis for
the one of 1787. Jefferson must, says
Curtis M. Geer, in his volume on
the Louisiana Purchase, be
"credited with the effort of trying to abolish
slavery but his anti-slavery clause
would have been of doubtful value,
for the Ordinance of 1787 prohibited
slavery at once instead of waiting
sixteen years before abolishing
it." Mr. Benton was of course spe-
cifically in error, but on the other
hand partially correct, for the Ordi-
nance of 1787 was based in large measure
on the provisions of Jefferson's
ordinance of 1784. The latter, however,
as has been noted, was sug-
gested in the main features by the Bland
ordinance of 1783, so that
who "thought first" is still
an open question. Mr. Jefferson is to be
credited in no small way with the many
features of the final famous
ordinance, but many of its chief and
characteristic articles were the
products of other hands--the hands of
Nathan Dane, Rufus King and
Manasseh Cutler; while to the latter,
above all others, was due the
final touches and diplomatic efforts
that brought about the passage of
the great Magna Charta of the Northwest
Territory.
RUFUS PUTNAM MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION.
The Rufus Putnam Memorial Association,
the headquarters of
which are at Worcester, Mass., and which
society now has the title and
possession of the Rufus Putnam Homestead
at Rutland, Mass., held its
tenth annual meeting in the Rufus Putnam
House at Rutland on Septem-
ber 27, 1910. G. Stanley Hall,
President, presided. At this meeting the
following resolutions were unamiously
adopted:
"WHEREAS, General Rufus Putnam, in
whose honor this Asso-
ciation was formed, in his home at
Rutland, Mass., with General
Benjamin Tupper planned the Ohio Company
of Associates and
within its walls wrote the call for
election of delegates to form
that Company, an event of great national
importance, and
"WHEREAS, General Putnam led the
first colony of pioneers
from Massachusetts and Connecticut to
Marietta, Ohio, making
there the first legal settlements in the
Territory Northwest of the
River Ohio, where he labored for
thirty-six years for the cause
of City and State, promoting and
organizing Muskingum Academy
in 1797, the percursor of Marietta
College, and
"WHEREAS, Marietta College
represents the high ideals of
patriotism and morality carried into the
Northwest by Massa-
124 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
chusetts pioneers one hundred and
twenty-five years ago, now owns
and preserves with pride the Journals,
Diaries, and all other papers
of General Rufus Putnam, and all the
Journals, records, accounts,
surveys and other manuscripts of the
original Ohio Company of
Associates, owns the Stimson Collection
of Americana, and the
Slack Collection of Historical Documents
and Prints, and its His-
torical Museum preserves hundreds of
priceless memorials of those
historic Massachusetts Founders of Ohio,
has already been made
custodian of the archives of the Ohio
Company of Associates of
New York, and further, is with fidelity
and patriotic enthusiasm
keeping alive the memory of this great
historic movement; There-
fore be it
"Resolved, That we, the Rufus Putnam Memorial Association,
in order to perpetuate through the
centuries the reverence for the
unselfish devotion of the pioneers who
first settled in the great
State of Ohio, do appoint through its
President, a Committee of
Ten to formulate and carry out a plan to
secure what shall be
known as the General Rufus Putnam
Memorial Fund of One
Hundred Thousand Dollars;
"That the income of this Fund be
expended;
"For the maintenance of the Rufus
Putnam home in Rutland,
Mass., in its present state of
preservation;
"For the support of the departments
of History and Political
Science and the Historical Museum of
Marietta College;
"For such other purposes as shall
promote the general aim of
this enterprise;
"That the Trustees of Marietta
College, Marietta, Ohio, be
made the custodians and trustees of this
Fund who shall make
annual report to this Association of its
condition and the dis-
position of its income;
"That the Ohio Company of
Associates of New York, the
Trustees of Marietta College, and the
patriotic and historical
societies of Massachusetts and Ohio be
asked to participate in this
endeavor."
In accordance with the above
resolutions, a Committee was ap-
pointed to take charge of raising the
Memorial Fund, as follows: G.
Stanley Hall and A. George Bullock, of
Worcester, Mass.; Whitelaw
Reid, of London, Eng.; A. F. Estabrook
and Ex-Gov. Curtis Guild, Jr.,
of Boston, Homer Lee, of New York; and
W. W. Mills, Chas. S. Dana
and A. B. Hulbert, of Marietta, Ohio.
At the annual dinner of the Association,
held in Rutland on the
same date (September 27), Honorable
Charles S. Dana of Marietta, a
Life Member of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
Society,
Editorialana. 125
as well as a member of the Rufus Putnam
Memorial Association, delivered
the following eloquent address on the
life and achievements of General
Rufus Putnam:
Permit me to state at the beginning of
my remarks, ladies
and gentlemen, that I regard this
association and this occasion
of high character. It is a privilege to
me to stand by the threshold
of the founder of Ohio and greet you of
the East who revere the
life and the deeds of Rufus Putnam. Here
among the hills of
Massachusetts the name of Rutland seems
the articulation of
the empire of the great Northwest. The
mists of a century and
a quarter do not dim the deeds of the
Company of Ohio Asso-
ciates, upon whom history spreads all
the effulgence of the glorious
sun.
So I greet you of the Old Bay State, as
ones who love the
story of our national beginning, of our
expansion, of our terri-
torial acquisitions and of our public
characters whose lives are
a legacy. The plain history of America
transcends all the gilded
imaginations of the writer of the
historical novel. The pen cannot
add to the life of Washington, of
Hamilton, of Adams, of Putnam,
and within our own time it can but
fittingly record its tribute to
that great American of your own
Commonwealth, George Frisbie
Hoar.
The story of Rufus Putnam is the story
of thirteen Colonies,
of the Continental Government, of the
Colonial and Indian Wars,
of the American Revolution, of the
suppression of Shay's Rebellion
and of Ohio. His days were crowded in an
epoch that changed the
course of civilization and hand in hand
with the men of 1776 he
took up the inheritance of the Magna
Charta, of Plymouth Rock,
of the Virginia Constitution, of the
Declaration of Independence
and while the Colonies were framing the
Constitution of the United
States he joined in compelling the
Ordinance of 1787.
Can the imagination, at this distance,
reach the sublimity of
the work of Putnam and his compeers?
From the heights of Abraham in quick
succession the Amer-
ican idea paved the way for the heroic,
self-sacrificing events that
flashed from Lexington to Yorktown.
From Yorktown "westward the course
of Empire took its
way" and stopped over the Ohio
country, gave us Marietta, with
the Ohio Company, with Putnam and
Tupper, and a state that today
is the "seat and the center of
Empire."
If Quebec had not fallen into the hands
of the English under
General Wolfe, it is highly probable
that the land we now call the
great Northwest would exist under the
colors of France. If
Laurence and Augustine Washington had
not formed a company,
with Lord Fairfax, in 1748, that they
called the Ohio Company,which
126 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
company controlled the land immediately
south of the Ohio
river and north of the Little Kanawha,
it is also possible that
Ohio would be a French province today.
If. General Lewis had
not led his poorly-armed and clad
Virginia mountaineers to the
battle of Point Pleasant in the Ohio
Valley and routed the Indians,
(who were fighting under English
directions) it is also possible
that there would not have been any
reason for this Putnam society
to exist.
The stolid Englishmen had made their
homes along the lines
of the Atlantic Coast.
The country beyond the Allegheny
mountains did not appeal
to them, while the Frenchmen quickly
laid claim to its vast extent.
Here that brilliant race of men, with
all their force of fancy,
dreamed the dreams of Empire in a land
that Daniel Webster de-
scribed as "vast, untouched,
unbounded, magnificent wilderness."
The first Ohio company under the
brothers of George Wash-
ington failed.
In 1763 King George issued an order that
shut out all the
Virginians from the Ohio lands, leaving
the French unmolested,
and here, in my opinion, is where France
failed in not following
up her possession with colonies in which
women and children
could be found.
During the darkness of Valley Forge
George Washington
called his officers about him and told
of the beautiful lands of
the Ohio, a country that he had visited
more than once in youth
and early manhood, and suggested that in
the event of the loss
of the American cause that the soldiers
of the Revolution seek a
home in its genial climate.
The war was ended and the treaty of
peace signed in Septem-
ber, 1783.
The colonists were independent, but the
lives of many of the
defenders were lost in battle and the
remaining ones lived in utter
poverty. The troops were without pay,
the Continental government
had neither money nor credit. The hearts
that had not faltered
before Hessian guns now faced a
situation wherein heroism of
another kind had to obtain. The
resources of the government
were exhausted and the only relief in
sight of any kind was in the
Western lands that Maryland had
compelled the other colonies
to form into a single body by
surrendering all of their individual
claims thereto.
May we not pause here a moment and call
to mind the sig-
nificance and the final effect of this
action on the part of Mary-
land.
Let us keep in mind that the history of
our country is an
open book. We do not trace our beginning
to a she wolf, nor do
Editorialana. 127
the gods of mythology enter into our
story. Here we have a
nation builded in the bright and broad
light of history, and we
can trace the lines and subtle
influences in a large and, yes, a
small way in their entirety that created
our Constitution.
This action on the part of Maryland
created a ward for the
Colonies, and this charge made the
opening of the Ohio Company
of Associates. The Ohio Company was the
dynamic force whence
came the Ordinance of 1787. The
Ordinance of 1787 forced the
ratification of the constitution by the
Colonies and was one of the
most effective weapons in the hands of
Hamilton in dealing with
the stubborn assembly of New York.
This great Ordinance stands as one of
the mothers of human
progress. In the language of Webster,
"it fixed the character of
the population in the vast regions
northwest of the Ohio by ex-
cluding from them involuntary
servitude."
The Ohio Company grew from a call issued
from yonder house
by General Putnam and General Tupper
-both brave soldiers of
the Revolution, and the friends and
companions of Washington.
We have met to commemorate and
perpetuate the life and the
deeds of Rufus Putnam in the fragrance
of appreciation and
grateful memory.
Putnam, the step-son of a Sutton
inn-keeper, became a self-
made man of the highest type. He early
developed a fondness
for engineering and had his early
training in the old French and
Indian wars. While in the conflict of
the Revolution his services
were most distinguished at Dorchester
Heights, in the fortifying
of West Point, the creating of coast
defenses, taking part in the
capture of the army under Burgoyne and
the safe return from
Long Island.
We cannot stop for the narrative of his
career in full today,
time forbids; but we of the Ohio country
look to this Rutland home
as the pilgrim to his shrine.
Rufus Putnam, the father of Ohio, is my
toast! Rutland!
Marietta! Ohio! these are the sequences.
It is mine to be one of you in heart and
pride, for I am a son
of the men of 1788, who established
government in Ohio, and it has
been my privilege to live in the
appreciation of the high ideals,
plans and effective work of Putnam and
his associates. "The wise
and brave men," said Senator Hoar,
"who settled Marietta would
have left an enduring mark, under
whatever circumstances, on
any community to which they had
belonged. But their colony was
founded at the precise and only time
when they could have secured
the Constitution which has given the
Northwest its character and
enabled it, at last, to establish in the
whole country, the principles
128 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
of freedom which inspired alike the
company of the first and
second Mayflower."
I question if history records another
instance wherein the
government of a state was projected and
the laws worked out in
detail in the advance of the coming of a
single individual to the
land. Herein the genius of Putnam was
recognized and, with his
forceful character, he was placed at the
head of the Ohio Com-
pany of Associates.
Our history is dotted with the accounts
of land companies
from way down in Maine to Texas and
Oregon. Man has felt
here the lure of the land and answered
the call of adventure and
of gain since Bradford came to Plymouth.
The organization of
such companies has worked upon the
speculative side of humanity
and very few of them, indeed, have found
a place in history. They
lacked both the opportunity and the
character of the Ohio Company.
The work of our fathers is secure. We
approach with all the
pride of confidence.
Congress granted the Ohio lands to the
soldiers of the Revo-
lution as compensation for their
services and the character of these
men who followed Putnam has marked
beyond no doubt or ques-
tion the five great states over which
Governor St. Clair once
ruled.
In the settlement at Belpre, the first
off-shooting colony from
Marietta, there was not a man who was
not a commissioned officer
of the Revolution. These men did not
come by accident, they
were the associates of Putnam and of
Tupper. They loved their
country and these Ohio pioneers took
with them their flag and
placed it by the cabin door, and to them
it meant a new country,
a new home, a new state, one for which
they had fought and
suffered. Such men as these could not be
driven back by a naked,
lurking foe. Their inspiration was their
home and they needed but
to glance over their shoulders into
loving eyes and to hear the
prattle of babes around the cabin fire.
General Washington said "I know
many of the settlers per-
sonally, and there never were men better
calculated to promote
the welfare of such a community."
"I know them all" cried
Lafayette with emotion, when he
visited Marietta, in 1824. "I know
them all. I saw them at Brandy-
wine, Yorktown and Rhode Island. They
were the bravest of
the brave."
Senator Hoar said "Washington and
Varnum, as well as
Carrington and Lafayette, dwell chiefly,
as was Washington's
fashion, upon the personal quality of
the men and not upon their
public offices or titles. Indeed to be
named with such commendation,
upon personal knowledge, by the cautious
and conscientious Wash-
Editorialana. 129
ington, was to a veteran soldier better
than being knighted on the
field of battle."
The names of the first forty-eight to
arrive at Marietta in the
Ohio Mayflower and their immediate
successors, with the families
that commenced to come a little later
even now proclaim the care
and plans of Putnam with increasing
worth, and their simple,
upright, conscientious lives come to us
as a benediction.
Rufus Putnam placed great value on
religious and educational
opportunities. To Washington he wrote
"We will hew down the
forests, and therein erect temples to
the living God, raise and edu-
cate our children to serve and love and
honor the nation for
which their fathers fought, cultivate
farms, build towns and cities,
and make the wilderness the pride and
glory of the nations."
I have never been able to picture Putnam
as a man given to
making money from his associates. He did
not exploit the Ohio
Company. When he left Rutland he had in
his heart the love of
God and the love of his fellow man and
to him the Ohio Country
offered an opportunity for the
advancement of mankind in a land
where human slavery could not exist, and
where the church was
to stand beside the school-house. He
realized that a people to be
great must be accomplished, and so he
took with him the plans of
a university and under the Ohio Company
the first institution of
this kind was established in Ohio.
In the wilderness our fathers propagated
Greek and Latin
roots from the very beginning and raised
a citizenship of con-
spicuous mark. Men of broad lives and
views, who knew their
rights and dared maintain them; men who
absorbed the ideas of
Putnam's life and placed their own lives
behind the guns that
flashed from Sumter and Appomattox.
The Ohio pioneers responded to their
country's call and
crushed Burr's attempt to divide the
west from the east. Whether
Burr carried such a guilty motive or
not, the Federal power relied
upon the men from New England in the
Ohio Valley to execute
the government will.
Putnam's idea of a college was carried
into effect at Marietta.
The corner stone in Ohio of higher
education was laid at Marietta,
in 1797, and at the head of the academy
was a graduate of Yale.
And from this beginning Marietta College
was charactered and
throughout the years it has always
maintained and exalted the
standard of its founders as an
institution of high order.
The atmosphere that made it necessary
was of Putnam origin
and Putnam's estate passed eventually
into its endowment funds.
Rufus Putnam could not have conceived of
the creation of a
community without an institution of
higher learning, and by the
Vol. XX.-9.
130 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
fire place here in Rutland he planned
for an institution like Marietta
College. Through his seat of learning
his influence lives, today,
and Rutland and Marietta are joined by
the ties that will endure.
Ohio is now one of the empire states
with a population repre-
sentative of the civilization of the
globe. Her children have amal-
gamated the blood of New England and of
the Virginians, and
in these strains her men and women are
virile, they are yet the
exemplars of the Putnam band and must be
the source of per-
petuating the good, honest, common sense
that has, after all, made
America great.
Do not, ladies and gentlemen, allow your
ideals of Putnam's
standard to be replaced by the
"Melting Pot." The pure strain of
American blood must not he contaminated
in this way for other-
wise we will turn back the hands of
time.
Truly this is a time of rapid progress.
Ours is the engine
of internal combustion, the wireless
message, the subtle power
of electricity, the recording of the
human voice, the power of
aerial travel.
This is a country just passing the
portals of real human prog-
ress and we are a part of the same. Ours
is the inspiration of all
that has made our nation great, and it
is ours to help keep perpetual
the integrity of Rufus Putnam, his
honest purpose and his devotion
to "religion, education and
morality."
Concerning the further proceedings of
the Rufus Putnam Memorial
Association, in celebration of the 125th
anniversary of the organization
of the "Ohio Company of
Associates" for the purpose of making the
first permanent settlement in the
Northwest Territory, the Boston
Transcript of January 11, 1911, has this to say:
A unique anniversary meeting was held
yesterday at the
Rufus Putnam House in this town to
celebrate the first step
that was taken by Massachusetts soldiers
toward making a
settlement west of the Allegheny
Mountains, in what is now
Ohio. Early on the morning of Jan. 10,
1786-125 years ago-
Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin
Tupper completed in this
house the final draft of a circular
entitled "Information," which was
sent out to the press of Massachusetts
in fourteen Massachusetts
counties, calling upon all the soldiers
of the Revolution who desired
to exchange their worthless certificates
for public land in the West,
and all others who desired to join a
company and make a settle-
ment on the Ohio, to meet at certain
taverns in certain specified
towns on the fifteenth of the following
February, and there elect
delegates to represent them at a meeting
in Boston, March 1, 1786.
This circular, with the list of
delegates elected in the various coun-
ties, is given below.
Editorialana. 131
As a result of the meeting at the Bunch
of Grapes Tavern
in Boston, March 1, the "Ohio
Company" was organized, which
company played a very important part in
inducing Congress to enact
the famous Ordinance of 1787, which
created our first American
Territory with its exceedingly important
slavery prohibition.
It is the hope of the members of the
committee from the
Rufus Putnam Memorial Association and
the Ohio Company of
Associates of New York that the
patriotic societies in Boston,
Salem, Cambridge, Northampton, Plymouth,
Barnstable, Worcester
and Lenox will be sufficiently
interested in this interesting his-
torical anniversary to hold meetings in
their respective towns on
Feb. 15, 1911- the 125th anniversary of
local meetings- and elect a
delegate or delegates to an anniversary
banquet to be held in Bos-
ton on the night of March 1 to celebrate
the 125th anniversary of
the formation of the Ohio Company, which
played an all-important
part, through its chief agents, General
Putnam and Rev. Manasseh
Cutler, at the critical hour in the
expansion of the United States.
An exact copy of the
"Information" and the record of the
first meeting of the Ohio Company of
Associates, held March 1,
1786, copied from the originals in the
library of Marietta College,
Marietta, O., follows:
On the twenty-fifth day of January, one
thousand seven
hundred and eighty-six, appeared in the
Public Prints a Piece styled
"Information" with the
Signature of the Generals Putnam and
Tupper, of the late American Army-and in
Substance as follows,
Verbatim, viz:
INFORMATION. -
The subscribers take this method to
inform all Officers and
Soldiers who have served in the late
War, and who are by an
Ordinance of the Honourable 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, produce,
&c., are in fact equal to the
most flattering accounts which have ever
been published of them-
that being determined to become
purchasers, and to prosecute a set-
tlement in this Country--and desirous of
forming a general asso-
ciation 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 COMPANY,
be formed of all such as wish to become
purchasers, &c., in that
Country (who reside in the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts only,
132 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
or to extend to the Inhabitants of other
States, as shall be
agreed on).
That in Order to bring such a Company
into existence, the
Subscribers propose that all persons who
wish to promote the
scheme should meet within their
respective Counties (except in
two instances hereafter mentioned) at
ten o'clock A. M., on Wed-
nesday, the 15th day of February
next-and that each County,
or meeting, there assembled, chuse a
delegate or delegates, to
meet at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in
Boston, on Wednesday
the first day of March next at ten
o'clock A. M., then and there to
Consider and determine upon a General
Plan of Association for
said Company-which plan, covenant, or
agreement being published,
every person (under condition therein to
be provided) may by
subscribing his name, become a member of
the Company. -
To carry these proposals into effect,
the subscribers request,
that all persons disposed as aforesaid,
will meet on the said 15th
day of February, for the purpose of
chusing delegates as aforesaid,
at the places hereinafter mentioned,
viz: -
Those of Suffolk County at the Bunch of
Grapes Tavern, in
Boston - Essex at Capt. Webbs in Salem -
Hampshire, at Pome-
roys in North Hampton - Plymouth at
Bartlets in Plymo - Barn-
stable Dukes & Nantuckett Counties,
at Houland's in Barnstable--
Bristol at Crockers in Taunton- York at
Woodbridge's, in York-
Worster at Patch's in Worster -
Cumberland and Lincoln, at
Shattuck's in Falmouth - Berkshire, at
Dibble's in Lenox -
RUFUS PUTNAM,
BENJa
TUPPER.
Rutland, Jany. 10th, 1786.
In Consequence of the foregoing-On the
first Day of
March, One thousand seven hundred and
Eighty-six, Convened at
the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, in Boston,
as Delegates from several
of the Counties of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts to consider
of the Expediency of forming an
Association or Company to pur-
chase Lands and make a settlement in the
Western Country, the
Gentlemen whose names are underwritten-
County of Suffolk--Winthrop Sargent,
John Mills
County of Essex-Manasseh Cutler
County of Middlesex-John Brooks, Thomas
Cushing
County of Hampshire -Benja
Tupper
County of Plymouth -Crocker Sampson
County of Worcester -Rufus Putnam
County of Berkshire-John Patterson,
Jahlaliel Woodbridge
County of Barnstable-Abraham Williams
Elected General Rufus Putnam Chairman of
the Convention
and Maj. Winthrop Sargent Clerk-From the
very pleasing De-
Editorialana. 133
scription of the Western Country given by Generals Putnam and Tupper & others, it appearing expedient to form a settlement there, a Motion was made for chusing a Committee to prepare the Draught or Plan of an Association into a Company for the said Purpose, for the Inspection and Appropriation of this Convention - Resolved in the Affirmative.--Also Resolved that this Committee shall con- sist of five.-General Putnam, Mr. Cutler-Col. Brooks, Major Sargent & Capt. Cushing were elected.- Adjourned to half after 3 o'clock, Thursday.-- The officers of the societies interested in these anniversary meetings include President G. Stanley Hall, Clark University, Worcester, president of the Rufus Putnam Memorial Association; Hon. Whitelaw Reid, president of the Ohio Company of Associates of New York, and Professor Archer Butler Hulbert of Marietta College. Professor Hulbert will be a guest at the annual banquet of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the Revolution, Jan. 17, when he will speak on "Rufus Putnam."
WILLIAM HENRY RICE-IN MEMORIAM. William Henry Rice, for many years a Life Member of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, and for seven years pre- vious to last May, a Trustee of the Society, died in South Bethlehem, |
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From this institution he was graduated with distinction, and after spend- ing a short time teaching, he entered Yale Theological Seminary. In his middle year at this institution he joined the Union Army and was chosen Chaplain of the 129th Pennsylvania Infantry, in which were many of his friends from Bethlehem. Dr. Rice never tired of relating his army experiences and on every possible occasion used what elo- quence he could command to fire the enthusiasm and patriotism of his fellow countrymen. |