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of the northwestern territory, shorn of its proscriptions of slavery, was adopted, and remained in force for

three years. Later in the session, Jefferson reported an ordinance for ascertaining the mode of locating and disposing of the public lands. The continental domain, when purchased of the Indians, was to be divided by the surveyors into townships of ten geographical miles square, the townships into hundreds of one mile square,and with such precautions that the wilderness could be mapped out into ranges of lots so exactly as to preclude uncertainty of title. As to inheritance, the words of the ordinance were: "The lands therein shall pass in descent and dower according to the customs known in common law by the name of gavelkind."

Upon this ordinance of Jefferson, most thoughtfully prepared and written wholly by his own hand, no final vote was taken.

See ist Bancroft's History of the Constitution of the United States, p.

153.

THE NATIONAL LAND LAWS.

Supplementing the action of the continental Congress in regard to Jefferson's ordinance of 1784,is the action of Congress in regard to the disposi tion and survey of the national domain of the west.

Bancroft, who has devoted much attention in his work on the Constitution to the west, in speaking upon this subject, among other things, says: The sixteenth of March, 1785, was

fixed for the discussion of the affairs of the west.

The report that was before Congress was Jefferson's scheme for "locating and disposing of land in the western territory;" and it was readily referred to a committee of one from each State, Grayson being the member from Virginia and King from Massachusetts.

King, seconded by Ellery, of Rhode Island, proposed that a part of the rejected antislavery clause in Jefferson's ordinance for the government of the western territory should be referred to a committe; all that related to the western territory of the three southern States was omitted; and so, too, was the clause postponing the prohibition of slavery.

On the question for committing this proposition, the four New England States, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, voted unanimously in the affirmative; Maryland by a majority, McHenry going with the South, John Henry and William Hindman with the North. For Virginia, Grayson voted aye, but was overpowered by Hardy and Richard Henry Lee. The Carolinas were unanimous for the negative. So the vote stood, eight States against three; eighteen members against eight; and the motion was forthwith committed to King, Howell and Ellery.

On the 6th of April King, from his committee, reported his resolution, which is entirely in his own handwriting and which consists of two clauses: it allowed slavery in the .

Northwest until the first day of the year 1801, but not longer; and it "provided that always, upon the escape of any person into any of the States described in the resolve of Congress of the 23rd day of April, 1784, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the thirteen original States, such fugitive might be lawfully reclaimed and carried back to the person claiming his labor or service, this resolve nothwithstanding." King reserved his resolution to be brought forward as a separate measure,after the land ordinance should be passed. "I expect," wrote Grayson to Madison, "seven States may be found liberal enough to adopt." But there is no evidence that it was ever again called up in Congress.

On the 12th of April the committee for framing an ordinance for the disposal of the western lands made their report, it was written by Grayson, who formed it out of a conflict of opinions, and took the chief part in conducting it through the house. As an inducement for neighborhoods of the same religious sentiments to confederate for the purpose of purchasing and settling together, it was a land for a people going forth to take possession of a seemingly endless domain.

Its division was to be into townships, with a perpetual reservation of one mile square in every township for the support of religion, and another for education. The house refused its assent to the reservation for the support of religion, as connecting the

church with the State; but the reservation for the support of schools received a general welcome. Jefferson has proposed townships of ten miles. square; the committee of seven; but the motion of Grayson, that they should be of six miles square, was finally accepted. The South, accustomed to the mode of indiscriminate locations and settlements, insisted on the rule which would give the most free scope to the roving emigrant; and, as the bill required the vote of nine States for adoption, and during the debates on the subject more than ten were never present. The eastern people, though "amazingly attached to their own custom of planting by townships," yielded to the compromise that every other township should be sold by sections. The surveys were to be confined to one State and to five ranges, extending from the Ohio to Lake Erie, and were to be made under the direction of the geographer of the United States. The bounds of every parcel that were sold were fixed beyond a question; the mode of registry was simple, convenient, and almost without cost; the form of conveyance most concise and clear. Never was land offered to a poor man at less cost or with a safer title. For one bad provision, which, however, was three years after repealed, the consent of Congress was for the moment extorted; the lands, as surveyed, were to be drawn for by lot by the several States in proportion to the requisitions made upon them,

and were to be sold publicly within the States. But it was carefully provided that they should be paid for in the obligations of the United States, at the rate of a dollar an acre. To secure the promises made to Virginia, chiefly on behalf of the officers and soldier who took part in conquering the Northwest from British authority it was agreed, after a discussion of four days, to reserve the district between the Little Miami and the Scioto.

The land ordinance of Jefferson, as amended from 1784 to 1788, definitely settled the character of the national land laws, which are still treasured up as one of the most precious heritages from the founders of the repub. lic. See Bancroft's History of the Constitution.

TOBACCO IN OLD VIRGINIA.

There is not in human history a more striking example of the utter infatuation of a people than is to be found in the history of Virginia regarding tobacco. Its discovery and introduction into England created such a demand for it that it soon became almost the sole staple of production in the plantation, and every means was made use of at home and abroad to stimulate its growth.

A recent historian says that "It is principally to the introduction of tobacco into the markets of Europe, that Virginia owes its place in history. This plant began to be tilled during the government by the London Company, but during the period when Vir

ginia was a crown colony its importance increased by leaps and bounds so that it soon became the foundation of her prosperity. The rapid development of the habit of using tobacco— America's most welcomed gift to the Old World that the large profits that it offered to the tillers of the soil, led in the first place to a large immigration from England; and in the second place to the wide scattering of the population along the tide. water district of the colony, and inland as far as the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge."

Hening says, that "culture of tobacco seems to have been a favorite object with the first settlers, and was the only staple commodity to which they could be induced to turn their attention. In order to improve its. quality various laws were passed limiting the number of plants to be cultivated by each hand and the leaves to be gathered from a plant.

Other details in the process of making it were also prescribed by the legislature, and to insure a just compensation for the labor of the planter, the price at which it was to be sold was fixed by the assembly at different times.

The first idea of inspecting tobacco is contained in an act passed in 1630, before any warehouses were established. The process was very simple, and the penalty for offering unmerchantable tobacco in payment equally

severe.

If a planter offered to pay away or

barter any bad tobacco, the commander of the plantation (an officer who united with the powers of a justice of the peace, the supreme military command of the settlement) with two or three discreet men, were directed to view it, and if found of bad quality to cause it to be burnt, and the owner was prohibited from planting any more tobacco until authorized by the general assembly.

At the next session the law was amended so as to make it the duty of the commander to issue his order either verbally or in writing to two 'sufficient men' to view the tobacco, who were in like manner, to burn it, if of bad quality. The same law was reenacted in the revisal of 1632. In 1633, warehouses, then called storehouses, were established, and the inspectors were to be composed of that member of the King's council whose residence was nearest any warehouse, and the commissioners of the several plantations as assistants.

In 1623-4, 21st James, 1st monthly courts were organized "in the corporations of Charles City and Elizabeth City for the decyding of suits and controversies not exceeding the value. of one hundred pounds of tobacco." I Hening, 125, 133.

THE BABLINGS OF WOMEN PUNISHED BY DUCKING THE WOMAN AND MAKING THE HUSBAND PAY 500 POUNDS OF TOBACCO.

By the act of 1661, 2 Hen. 75, every County Court was directed to have erected a ducking stool, and by act of

1662, 2 Hen. 166, it was enacted that "whereas oftentimes many babling women often slander and scandalize their neighbors, for which their poore husbands are often brought into chargeable and vexatious suits and cost in great damages.

"Bee it, therefore, enacted by the authority of the aforesaid, that in actions. of slander occasioned by the wife as aforesaid, after judgment passed for the damages, the woman shall be punished by ducking, and if the slander be soe enormous as to be adjuged at a greater damage than five hundred pounds of tobacco,then the woman to suffer a ducking for each five hundred pounds of tobacco adjudged against the husband if he refuse to pay the tobacco."

WIVES BOUGHT WITH TOBACCO.

The part that tobacco played in the early settlement of Virginia is thus depicted by one of the historians of that commonwealth as follows: "In early years the voyagers to far off Virginia had been simply adventurersmen adventuring to seek their fortunes, but with no intention of settling and passing the remainder of their lives in the new land. They looked upon the country as a place in which they can make no long tarrying, and neither brought their families with them nor established their homes there. They hoped to return in a few years with improved fortunes to England; but this was not the spirit that founds new commonwealths."

Sandys clearly saw that unless Virginia was looked upon as home, the enterprise would miscarry, and the best means of making it such was plain to him.

What the Virginians required as a stimulus to exertion, was to have wives and children depending upon them.

With these they would perform. honest labor cheerfully and not look back toward England when the hand was on the plow. Wife and child would make the home in the new land what home had been in the old. The result was that ninety young women were sent out by Sandys as

wives for the settlers-persons of unexceptional character who had volunteered for the purpose.

A singular feature of the arrangement was that their husbands were to purchase them. The expenditure of the company in sending them out was considerable, and it was required that those who selected them or were selected by them should repay the cost of their outfit and passage. This was fixed at one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco-about eighty dollars. On payment of that amount the settler was entitled to a wife. ing's Statutes at Large, Vol. I. ELLIOTT ANTHONY.

Hen

TRINIDAD UPON THE LAS ANIMAS.

HER COAL FIELDS-A GREAT PAY ROLL.

WHEN the locomotive, "David H. Moffat," (and the first to enter Colorado), left Cheyenne in 1872 for Denver, its wheels continued to revolve, not only until it reached the city of Trinity upon the river of Lost Souls, but until it had crossed the entire Rocky Mountain range.

The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, as the pioneer enterprise of the kind in the State, in building its basal line along the mountain, fixed its southern terminus at the latter point, situated about three hundred miles from Cheyenne. Upon the railway

thus built, and thereby promoted, may be named four distinctive or individual cities: Denver, Colorado Springs and Manitou; Pueblo; and Trinidad.

Colorado has, therefore, Denver, of world-wide reputation; Colorado Springs and Manitou, as National Health Resorts; Pueblo as a manufacturing metropolis, and Trinidad possessing the characteristics, to a degree, of them all.

Much as I have travelled over the State, and much as has been attempted at pen description, I confess sur

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