The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-23

| the inviolability of private contracts,
 the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus
 and trial by jury the operation of the
 common law in judicial proceedings.
 urged the maintenance of schools and
 the means of education; declared that
 religion, morality and knowledge were
 essential to good government; exacted
 a pledge of good faith toward the Indi- ans; and prescribed slavery within the | limits of the territory. It provided for
 the opening, development and govern
 ment of the territory and formed the
 basis of subsequent state legislation. Williams might have further partic- | ularized that the ordinance established
 laws of descent and devise, of inheri- tanoe and conveyance, secured q proportionate representation in the leg | lslature. provided for bail except in the
 most extreme eases, and moderate fines. It forbade unusually cruel pun ishments, the deprivation of liberty or
 property except by the judgment of
 peers and the law of the land, and re-
 quired compensation for private prop erty taken for public uses.
 1 Chief Justice Chase said of it:
 l -NN'SA' pApbopiyp III tilG AlSlNiS SL
 the world did a measure of legislation
 so accurately fuldll, and yet so nightly
 exceed, the anticipation of the legisla- l tors''
 1 Daniel Webster said: We are ac-
 customed to praise the lawgivers of an-
 tiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame
 of solon and Lycurgus; but I doubt l whether one single law of any lawgiv-
 CT, ancient or modern, has produced ef- l fleets of more distinct marked and last
 ing character than the ordinance of
 1737 We see it's consequences at this
 moment and we shall never cease to
 see them, perhaps, while the Ohio shall i flow"
 In short, the ordinance, constitu
 tion of itself, was indeed a very noble forerunner of the great constitution of
 the United States.
 Not even the legal profession can be
 much interested in discussing the in-
 terminable wrangles and tangles invol-
 wing titles to the regions west of Penn sylvania and New York Whatever l Connecticut has claimed under royal I charter she limited by deed, Septem- | Der 4, 1796, to grant in the northeast ern part of Ohio, sometimes called l New Connecticut" but better known
 as the Western reserve. Tn May, 1792, she granted half a million acres of the | western portion of that Reserve to the
 sufferers in Connecticut by the devas- | tations of Tryon and Arnold in the rev olution. In 1900 Connecticut relin- | quished all claims of political jurisdic-
 tion over the reserve, and the United States confirmed her title to the soil.
 In May, 1795, the general assembly au thorized eight citizens, one for each
 county, all bearing names well known
 and honored in the state, to sell three
 million acres of the land. The deed
 was executed September g. 1795, trans
 ferring the said tract to thirty-five or l thirty-six citizens of Connecticut, some of whom represented associates. The
 price was s1,20o, ,000, afterwards the ba sis of the school fund of that state. l The Connecticut Land company was l immediately formed. seven directors were appointed, and a deed of trust of | the entire purchase given to John Cald- well, Jonathan Brace and John Nor l gan. The deeds of these trustees were 1 the sources Of all titles on the reserve. All the trustees were living as late as l 1886 and joined in deeds of land within the city of Cleveland
 I General Moses Cleaveland, the found- CT of the Forest City, was man. of su perior character and ability. He was born in Canterbury, Conn.,. and gradu-
 ated at Yale college in TIT. He was a l captain of sappers and miners in the 1 United States army in 1779, and distin-
 guished himself at the capture of Stony
 Point. He was a member of the state | legislature, brigadier- general of mili- 1 tia, a gentleman of polished manners
 and unauestioned integrity, enjoying i the entire confidence of the republic.
 He was cool, brave and courageous, a
 man of few words and serious thought. One of your own historians says that l the city of Cleveland will always refer | with pride to her inheritance of his
 name. He was the chosen agent of the l trustees of the Connecticut Land com l pany and was sent out to survey the
 lands. With him were Augustus Por-
 ter and Seth Pease, surveyors; Moses
 Warren, Amos Spafford, John M Hol- | ley (father of Governor Holley of Con- necticut), and Richard Stoddard as as- | SlSIdllL 5uINeyClS, OO0llud plcW, SoiI-
 missary; Theodore Shepard, physician;
 thirty-seven employees and few emil
 grants, making a company of fifty per
 sons. The party crossed the line into
 New Connecticut at p. m,, July 4, 1796,
 and reached Conneaut at 5:30. Cleave- 1 lands diary says that "the day memo
 rable as the birthday of American in- | dependence and freedom from British l tyranny, and commemorated by all 1 good free-born sons of America, and
 memorable as the day on which the
 settlement of this new country was
 commenced, and in time may raise her 1 head among the most enlightened and l improved states"
 The party of fifty felt that "a just
 tribute of respect to the day ought to 1 be paid" They fired a Federal salute
 of fifteen guns and gave a sixteenth in
 honor of old Connecticut They gave 1 three cheers and christened the place Port Independence. They drank six l toasts, beginning with the president of l the United States. and the journal says | closed with three cheers. drank seve-
 ral pails of grog, supped and retired in remarkably good order.'
 General Cleaveland, taking a division
 of his survey party, sought the mouth | of the Cuyahoga and landed there one hundred years ago this day. From the precipitous bluff which overlooked the