Clair’s connection with this great and beneficent ordinance is of very great interest, intensified, however, by the fact that Mr. William Frederick Poole, in an able and well written contribution to the North American Review in 1876, on the authorship of the Ordinance, did him a great injustice by imputing to him improper motives wholly foreign to his character. For a full understanding of the charge and its complete refutation a brief history of the Ordinance will be necessary. In 1784 Thomas Jefferson had prepared and reported a comprehensive measure for the government of the Northwest Territory, from which ten States were to be formed. It contained among other provisions the following stipulation: “That, after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said (ten) States, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty.” This provision was stricken out, and the ordinance was passed, but owing to the fact that the lands had not been surveyed nor Indian titles perfected, it became inoperative and remained a dead letter. In 1786, a memorial having been received from the inhabitants of Kaskaskia, praying for the organization of a territorial government, a committee consisting of Mr. Johnson of Connecticut, Mr. Pinckney of South Carolina; Mr. Smith of New York, Mr. Dane of Massachusetts, and Mr. Henry of Maryland, was appointed to draft a suitable measure, and April 26, 1787, reported a code of laws for the temporary government of the Territory, which reached a third reading on the 10th of May, but was not brought to a final vote. At this juncture there appeared at the door of Congress a gentleman to whom more than to any other the people of the northwestern States are indebted for the prompt action by Congress which gave them this great bill of rights, aptly called the Ordinance of Freedom. This gentleman was the Rev. Manasseh Cutler of Ipswich, Massachusetts. He came before Congress as the agent of the Ohio Land Company. He wished to purchase for that company a million and a half—and finally did purchase nearly five million—acres of land in the Northwest Territory. He was well fitted for the business he had undertaken. He was a ripe scholar, a graduate of Yale College, a distinguished scientist, an able divine, an eloquent speaker, and more than all, a wily diplomatist, possessed of a fine and commanding presence and courtly manners. He came to Congress armed with letters of introduction to Gen. St. Clair, the President of that body, General Knox, Richard Henry Lee, Melancthon Smith, Colonel Carrington and others.