within a twelve month make a record of their citizenship." This provision, giving the right of suffrage to negroes and mulattoes, was stricken out a few days later.

Section 2, of Article 8, prohibited slavery in any form, but there was strong opposition to this, and an effort was made to introduce a modified slavery by which male slaves could be held until they were thirty-five, and females until they were twenty-eight years old. This provision for the admission of slavery was strongly urged by those who thought that its exclusion operated against the true interests of the State. Cutler was on the committee to which the eighth article was committed for consideration.

In the debate he dwelt with energy on the principle that the Ordinance of 1787 was strictly a compact, and the convention was either bound to pass the section prohibiting slavery or leave the matter as it was, in which case the Ordinance would be the law. One curious argument seriously advanced was that this advance of modified slavery over a larger area tended to destroy the institution.

The proposition that the state should not tax any land sold by the government until the land had been in the possession of the settlers for five years was looked upon with special disfavor. This would mean that new settlers would be exempt from bearing their share of the burden of taxation.

There is much uncertainty about the date of the admission of Ohio to the Union. The dates given vary from April 28, 1802, to March 3, 1803, due to the fact that the act or resolution of admission which we find in other cases is lacking in the case of Ohio. Congress passed no act explicitly declaring its admission. The one coming nearest to it is "An act to provide for the due execution of the laws of the United States within the State of Ohio." The facts in the case are these: April 30, 1802, Congress passed "An act to enable the people of the eastern division of the Territory Northwest of Ohio River to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States."

This was followed in the same year by the constitutional convention which was in session through nearly all of November, finishing its work on the 29th of that month. This latter date may be the date of admission, but if it was, the precedent established by Congress in the case of Tennessee, was not followed, because Tennessee was not admitted upon the adoption of the constitution by the State, but only after the action of the State had been ratified by Congress. There was also a provision in the Enabling Act which allowed a State to be formed provided the government was to be Republican, and not repugnant to the Ordinance of July 13, 1787. Naturally, the body making this provision would be the one to decide whether the conditions had been fulfilled or not. The constitution was laid before Congress and the matter referred to a committee, which, on January 19th, reported the action of the Ohio convention, and that the constitution so formed, agreed with the conditions laid down by Congress. The committee concluded the report with the words: "It is now necessary to establish a district court within the said State, to carry into complete effect the laws of the United States within the same." February 19th an act embodying the conclusions of the committee received the signature of the president. This was the first recognition of the new State. It proceeded on the supposition that the State was a member of the Union from the fact of its compliance with the conditions laid down by Congress, though it had never been formally admitted.

Ohio was greatly troubled by boundary disputes, and this Enabling Act which cut off Michigan from Ohio was the innocent cause of one of the most serious of them. The northern boundary was to be an east and west line drawn through the southerly extremity of Lake Michigan. This northern line was taken from the Ordinance of 1787, which provided that three States might be made of the Territory unless Congress exercised the privilege of making five States. In the latter case, the two additional States were to be made

in that part of the territory north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. But the southern end of Lake Michigan was an utterly unknown region in 1787. The map which was depended upon for making the division of territory was Mitchell's map of 1755. On this the southern end of the lake was placed at forty-two degrees twenty minutes north latitude. Much of the trouble would have been avoided had the more acccurate map made by Hutchins in 1778 been used. While the convention which formed the Constitution of Ohio was in progress, it received information about the location of the southern point of Lake Michigan which caused some hesitation. The northern boundary as defined by Congress was accepted, with the proviso that, in case the line should be found not to intersect Lake Erie, or to intersect it east of the mouth of Maumee River, then, with the consent of Congress, the boundary should be a straight line running from the southerly extreme of the lake to the most northerly cape of Maumee Bay, from its intersection with the Miami meridian to the international boundary line. The boundary question was also complicated by the fact that this proviso was never rejected or ratified by Congress. Here was the material for a quarrel, which was sure to come as soon as the section in controversy was settled. Ohio saw the possible trouble and attempted to obtain a decision from Congress, but secured no action until 1812, when a committee was appointed to examine the In 1817 a line was run giving the northern limit of Ohio as defined in its constitution. Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan, had another one run, giving the boundary claimed by Michigan Territory. From the names of the surveyors, these lines are known respectively as the Harris line and the Fulton line. After the War of 1812, the country began to be settled and the inhabitants were anxious to know whether they were in Michigan Territory or in Ohio, but for years Congress delayed giving any definite answer. The northern range of townships, including

matter.

the city of Toledo, was in possession of Michigan in cials could not interfere. and built roads.

dispute. The territory was in reality, and the Ohio State offiMichigan organized townships

But matters came to a crisis over the question of the canal which was to join Miami and Maumee Rivers. Toledo was a rapidly growing village in the disputed territory, and it could gain more advantage from the canal if it was in Ohio. In 1835, Governor Lucas brought the matter before the legislature of Ohio in a special message, and the legislature extended the boundary to the Harris line, and divided the land in controversy into townships. When Mason, Governor of Michigan, learned of the message of Lucas, he prepared for trouble. He ordered out the militia, and, with a force of about a thousand men, encamped in Toledo prepared to resist any invasion of what he considered was Michigan Territory. General Bell and six hundred of the Ohio militia were present to sustain the claims of their State. The two parties were greatly excited and there was a prospect of bloodshed, but the contest was finally settled because of political conditions in Washington. President Jackson did not know what to do, but he knew that an election was approaching and that Illinois and Indiana were interested in the dispute and favored Ohio. He sent commissioners to bring about peace in the district in contention. Congress, in June, 1836, gave the decision of the question to Ohio and admitted Michigan on condition that she accept the decision, but as compensation gave Michigan the lands, later to be so immensely valuable, in the upper peninsula.

CHAPTER XI

SPANISH LOUISIANA AND THE WEST

WHEN the British were victorious on the Plains of Abraham in 1759, the French power in North America came to an end. By the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, France surrendered to Great Britain all her lands east of the Mississippi, excepting the Isle of Orleans at the mouth of the river. In the preceding November, by the Treaty of Peace between France and Spain, the latter country had acquired all the land known by the name of Louisiana, including New Orleans and the island upon which the city stood. In the war, Spain had been an ally of France. During hostilities Havanna had been captured by the British. Havanna was of immense importance to Spain and to regain it, she surrendered Florida to Great Britain and received as compensation from France all the latter's possessions in North America which did not pass to England. The result was that at the outbreak of the Revolution, the North American continent was divided between Spain and Great Britain, with the Mississippi, for nearly its whole length as the boundary line. With the Treaty of Peace, the boundaries of the United States were, naturally, those of the lands won from Great Britain, and the rights in the navigation of the Mississippi, which had belonged to Great Britain by treaty also passed. The treaty of 1763 had guaranteed to the subjects of France and Great Britain the right to free navigation of the Mississippi, in its whole