time to time, be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.

"The said territory, and the states which may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States of America, subject to the articles of confederation, and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made; and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in congress assembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted, or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them by congress according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other states; and the taxes, for paying their proportion, shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the district or districts, or new states, as in the original states, within the time agreed upon by the United States in congress assembled. legislatures of those districts or new states shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in congress assembled, nor with any regulations congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers. "No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and, in no case, shall nonresident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost or duty, therefor.

The

"There shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three nor more than five states; and the boundaries of the states, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to-wit: The western state in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post St. Vincent's due north, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada; and, by the said territorial line, to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi.

"The middle state shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post St. Vincent's to the Ohio; by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line. The eastern state shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line: provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three states shall be subject so far to be altered, that if congress shall hereafter find it 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.

And, whenever any of the said states shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such state shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the congress of the United States on an equal footing with the original states in all repects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government: provided, the constitution and government, so to be formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and so far as it can be, consistent with the general interests of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the state than sixty thousand.

"There shall be neither slavery or involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or services as aforesaid."

With this general collection of events touching the history of the northwest, in a general sense, we proceed to present historical sketches of the several states separately, and wherein we have omitted the mention of important events in the foregoing, the deficiency will be supplied in the following chapters. In many instances we have skipped over events in the history of Ohio and Michigan in this general sketch, preferring to leave subject matter for connected state histories.

In this year Ponce de Leon discovers Florida. Father Simon Le Moine discovered the Onon