such circumstances it was easy to
strike a bargain. The land, as we have seen, was roughly estimated at
one dollar an acre; but, as the company wished to purchase a million
acres, it demanded and obtained wholesale rates of two-thirds of the
usual price. It also obtained the privilege of paying at least a portion
in certificates of Revolutionary indebtedness, some of which were worth
about twelve and a half cents on the dollar. Only a little calculation
is required to show that a large quantity of land was therefore sold at
about eight or nine cents an acre. It was in connection with this land
sale that the Ordinance of 1787 was adopted.

The promoter of this enterprise undertaken by the Ohio Company was
Manasseh Cutler of Ipswich, Massachusetts, a clergyman by profession who
had served as a chaplain in the Revolutionary War. But his interests and
activities extended far beyond the bounds of his profession. When the
people of his parish were without proper medical advice he applied
himself to the study and practice of medicine. At about the same time
he took up the study of botany, and because of his describing several
hundred species of plants he is regarded as the pioneer botanist of New
England. His next interest seems to have grown out of his Revolutionary
associations, for it centered in this project for settlement of the
West, and he was appointed the agent of the Ohio Company. It was in this
capacity that he had come to New York and made the bargain with Congress
which has just been described. Cutler must have been a good lobbyist,
for Congress was not an efficient body, and unremitting labor, as well
as diplomacy, was required for so large and important a matter. Two
things indicate his method of procedure. In the first place he found
it politic to drop his own candidate for the governorship of the new
territory and to endorse General Arthur St. Clair, then President of
Congress. And in the next place he accepted the suggestion of Colonel
William Duer for the formation of another company, known as the Scioto
Associates, to purchase five million acres of land on similar terms,
"but that it should be kept a profound secret." It was not an accident
that Colonel Duer was Secretary of the Board of the Treasury through
whom these purchases were made, nor that associated with him in this
speculation were "a number of the principal characters in the city."
These land deals were completed afterwards, but there is little