The Ordinance having become a law on the 13th day of July, the negotiation for the Ohio Company’s purchase was concluded on the 27th of the same month, and terms agreed upon. On the 5th day of October, 1787, officers for the government of the new territory were elected by Congress as follows: Arthur St. Clair, Governor; James M. Varnum, Samuel Holden Parsons and John Armstrong, Judges, and Winthrop Sargent, Secretary. Mr. Armstrong declining, the vacancy was filled by the appointment of John Cleves Symmes. The charge against General St. Clair, made by Mr. Poole, is that Dr. Cutler, when he arrived in New York and called on the President of Congress to obtain the appointment of a committee to draft and report a system of laws for the Northwest Territory that should be friendly to his terms of purchase, met with a cool reception, and, to quote from Mr. Poole, “_he found that General St. Clair wanted to be Governor of the Northwest Territory; and Dr. Cutler, representing the interests of the Ohio Company, intended that General Parsons, of Connecticut, should have the office. But he must have General St. Clair’s influence, and found it necessary to pay the price. From the moment he communicated this decision, General St. Clair was warmly engaged in his interests._” This is an extremely unjust imputation upon a gentleman who in all the affairs of life showed himself to be the very soul of honor. That it is false in every particular, a bare recital of the above facts, coupled with the additional fact that Dr. Cutler in the daily journal he kept makes no reference to General St. Clair in connection with the governorship until the evening of the 23rd, _ten_ days after the passage of the ordinance, is clear and sufficient proof. The extract from the journal containing this reference is as follows: JULY 23rd. * * * * Spent the evening with Colonel Grayson and members of Congress from the southward, who were in favor of a contract. Having found it impossible to support General Parsons as a candidate for Governor, after the interest that General St. Clair had secured, and suspecting that this might be some impediment in the way (for my endeavors to make interest for him [Parsons] were well known), and the arrangements for civil officers being on the carpet, I embraced the opportunity frankly to declare that for my own part—and ventured to engage for Mr. Sargent—if General Parsons could have the appointment of first judge, and Sargent secretary, we would be satisfied; and I heartily wished that his excellency, General St. Clair, might be governor, and that I would solicit the eastern members to favor such an arrangement. This I found rather pleasing to the southern members, and they were so complacent as to ask repeatedly what officer would be agreeable to me in the western country.