ORGANIZATION OF THE OHIO LAND COMPANY. Far away upon the Atlantic sea board forces were at work a score of years anterior to 1788 which were not only to form the first settlement but to plant New England morals, law and institutions upon this vast inland domain of the nation. Ideas were in inception which, as the prime impetus in a long chain of causes and effects, were to swell the tremendous result and effect the destiny not alone of the west but of the Republic from sea to sea. [Illustration: Rufus Putnam] It is a pleasant thought that in the British war against the French, General Putnam (at the time of his enlistment in 1757, nineteen years of age) and many others assisted in wresting from the enemy and securing to their sovereign the very territory which was to become their home; and it is a disagreeable fact that they had finally so dearly to purchase a small portion of the domain which they had twice bought by bravery of arms. The men who fought to win for England the territory which the French disputed, in 1755–1760, were foremost to win it from her twenty years later, and thus twice exhibited the hardihood and heroism of their natures. Something of the spirit of emigration manifested itself in New England after the conclusion of the French and Indian war, and in fact was an outgrowth of that struggle. An organization of ex-soldiers of the colonies was formed, called “The Military Company of Adventurers,” whose purpose it was to establish a colony in West Florida (now Mississippi). Although the project had been entered upon soon after the establishment of peace, it was not until the year 1772 that anything was accomplished. General Lyman, after several years’ endeavor, succeeded in procuring a tract of land. It was decided to explore the tract, and a company of surveyors, of which the celebrated Israel Putnam was the leader, went out in January, 1773, for that purpose. Rufus Putnam was a member of the party. The examination was satisfactory, and several hundred families embarked from Massachusetts and Connecticut to make a settlement. They found to their chagrin that the king’s grant had been revoked, and the settlement was therefore abandoned. Those who did not fall sick and die returned to their homes. Such was the disastrous end of this project of settlement, which, had it succeeded, might possibly have changed the whole political history of the United States. It seems at least to be within the realm of probability that had a settlement been planted in Mississippi, Massachusetts would not have made the initial settlement in the Ohio country and extended her influence over the territory from which five great States have been created. The enterprise of founding a colony in the far south, thwarted as it was, undoubtedly had its effect upon the New England mind, and was one of the elements which prepared the way for the inauguration of a new scheme of emigration in later years.