That General St. Clair should have received the Ohio Company’s agent coolly on the 6th day of July, and on the 9th of the same month appointed as chairman of the committee to treat with Dr. Cutler the very man the latter wished appointed, Col. Carrington, a personal friend; that General St. Clair wanted the governorship, and remained hostile to Dr. Cutler’s plans, until Dr. Cutler gave up Parsons and came to his support on the 23rd day of July, is on the face of it so improbable that, without any direct evidence to the contrary, no fair minded person at all familiar with St. Clair’s character could give it credence. However, we have the very best proof of the untruthfulness of Mr. Poole’s statement in General St. Clair’s own words. [12]In a letter to the Hon. William Giles, written some time after his election as governor, he says the office was forced upon him by his friends; that he did not desire it and would not have accepted it but for “the laudable ambition of becoming the father of a country, and laying the foundation for the happiness of millions then unborn.” All this shows conclusively that General St. Clair was friendly to the land negotiation from the start; that he clearly saw the advantages to the government of the sale of so large a body of western lands; that he received Dr. Cutler cordially, and warmly espoused his cause from the first; that he had no thought of the governorship until pressed by his friends for the office; that Dr. Cutler discovering the drift of sentiment in his favor concluded it would be futile to longer endeavor to obtain interest for General Parsons, the man of his choice. St. Clair, before Dr. Cutler announced himself in his favor for the governorship, appointed a committee favorable to the land negotiation to draft the ordinance for the government of the Territory; and in fact there is good reason for believing that some of the grand principles of that great charter owe their incorporation in that instrument to his wisdom and foresight. Everything convinces that General St. Clair’s relation to Dr. Cutler, to the land negotiation and to the governorship, was in all respects creditable to the dignity of his office and to his personal honor.