He had been sent out by the government of Virginia, and that state therefore laid claim to all the territory northwest of the Ohio river, which was the same territory ceded to Great Britain by France in the treaty of 1763. On March 1, 1784, through her authorized delegates in Congress, Virginia ceded this territory to the United States. She stipulated that it be divided into states but specified no boundaries. By virtue of ancient royal charters, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut also claimed large territories north of the Ohio river, but these claims were all transferred to the United States, Connecticut alone reserving a tract which was called the Western Reserve until May 30, 1800, when she surrendered her jurisdictional claim over this tract to the United States. Thus the general government obtained the jurisdiction over the Northwest Territory, and of the lands, subject however to the proprietary rights of the Indians.

When Congress assumed the jurisdiction there was no established government anywhere in the territory. The French commandants of the posts had administered the laws dictated by France, the British succeeded them and proclaimed the common law of England to be in force, Virginia also had extended her laws, but there were no courts to enforce any of them. The question of forming some kind of government for the newly acquired territory at once attracted the attention of Congress.

At first a report was made providing for the formation of the territory into ten states with fanciful names, but no action was taken upon it. This was Thomas Jefferson's scheme. From the time of its acquirement by the government until 1787, there was no organized control over the Northwest Territory. The people who were settling in it were left to struggle along as best they could. But on April 23, 1787, a committee consisting of Mr. Johnson of Connecticut, Mr. Pinckney of South Carolina, Mr. Smith of New York, Mr. Dane of Massachusetts, and Mr. Henry of Maryland, reported an ordinance for the government of the new territory. It was discussed from time to time and very greatly amended, and finally, on the 13th of July, it passed Congress. This is the celebrated Ordinance of 1787, a document which, next to the Constitution of the United States, perhaps has occasioned more discussion than any other, on account of its sound principles, statesmanlike qualities and wise provisions.

It is Article 5 of this ordinance which has most intimately to do with our present subject. That article provided for the formation in the territory of not less than three nor more than five states, it fixed the

western, the southern, and the eastern boundaries of what became Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and then the ordinance said, "If Congress shall find it hereafter expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." We call special attention to this line, for it is the first boundary line with which we have to do, and has been of exceeding great importance in the so-called boundary line dispute. But for a strange combination of circumstances and long continued strife, it would have been the southern boundary of Michigan. It is called the "ordinance line" because it was specified in the great Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory.

On May 7, 1800, Congress divided the Northwest Territory by a line running from the mouth of the Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, and thence due north to the Canadian line. It will be seen that this line is not the same as that prescribed in the ordinance, which was a line from the mouth of the Miami river to Fort Recovery and thence due north, making the boundary line due north and south all the way, from Canada to the Ohio river where the Miami empties into it. The mouth of the Kentucky river is several miles west of the mouth of the Miami, and a line from the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Recovery runs east of north. This threw a three-cornered piece of territory, shaped like a church spire with its base resting on the Ohio river, into Ohio, which, when the states were organized, was included in Indiana according to the ordinance, and afterwards Ohio from time to time set up claims to this tract.

All the region east of this line was still to be Northwest Territory, and that on the west was erected into the Indiana Territory. It will be seen that this division threw about one-half of the Michigan country into Indiana and left the other half in the Northwest Territory.

And now for the first time the ordinance line, the east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, comes into prominence; for all that portion of the east Michigan country which lay north of this line was organized as Wayne County of the Northwest Territory, and its settlers supposed that their fortunes were thenceforth identified with those of Ohio.

The Ordinance of 1787 had provided for the admission into the Union of the prospective states of the Northwest Territory as follows: "Whenever any of the said states shall have sixty thousand free inhab