into the church he manumitted his slaves, and his subsequent record shows how sincere were his convictions on this subject.

As president of the first Constitutional Convention he won still greater honors and established his reputation as a man of unquestioned ability; indeed, so pronounced and universal was this that he was elected governor of the new State in January, 1803, without opposition. He was reëlected in 1805 without opposition, and in 1807 declined a third term which public sentiment was ready to confer upon him. During his second term he summarily arrested the participants in the Aaron Burr expedition, which resulted in the flight of Burr and the breaking up of the conspiracy. His vigorous and prompt measures on this occasion called forth a public letter of thanks from President Jefferson.

In 1807 he was elected United States Senator from Ohio. While in the Senate he was the means of securing much valuable legislation for the new Appropriations for the Ohio River, and for surveying the public lands were obtained by him, and much of the same kind of practical work which characterized him as Governor marked his Senatorial term. He resigned in March, 1809, owing to the death of his wife. It so affected him that he determined to retire from public life. Returning to his once happy home in Chillicothe, it was his intention to spend his remaining days in peace, but notwithstanding his desires, his fellow-citizens elected him to the Legislature where he was unanimously elected Speaker of the House.

He was afterwards appointed Commissioner of the Land Office, being the first to hold that office, and he systematized the claims and surveys of the public lands. He was in Washington in 1814 when it was burned by the British. President Madison, his Cabinet and the heads of the departments fled like cowards in the panic, and nearly all the public records of the American Republic were destroyed except the records of the Land Commissioner's office. Edward Tiffin stayed and saved the complete records of his department. So completely, compactly and systematically were they maintained, and so cool and level-headed was their custodian, that they were removed to a place of concealment in Loudon County, Virginia, ten miles out of Washington. All the other departments lost most of their records; Edward Tiffin saved all of his.

He closed his life as surveyor general of the West, which position he held during the administrations of Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams and into Jackson's. He died in Chillicothe among the people who loved and honored him for more than a third of a century, after a remarkable life of usefulness and distinction.

This was the Edward Tiffin that confronted Arthur St. Clair in the contest for statehood. And Tiffin had a foeman worthy of his steel. Arthur St. Clair, the first and only governor of the Northwest Territory, was one of the most brilliant and distinguished military characters of the Revolutionary War. A contemporary writer calls him "the great St. Clair," and while in the gubernatorial chair of the Northwest, Judge Burnet marked him as "unquestionably a

man of superior talents, of extensive information, and of great uprightness of purpose, as well as suavity of manners." Courtly, scholarly and honest, he was a fitting representative of the government in a new land. St. Clair, as his name indicates, was of French origin, although his ancestors had for centuries lived in Scotland, where he was born in 1734. He received his education at Edinburgh University, and was indentured as a student of medicine. He disliked this, and purchasing his time, he entered the English army in 1757. He was in the French and Indian War, and served under General Wolfe at Quebec, where his conduct was gallant and effective. He resigned from the English army in 1762 and settled down to civil life in Pennsylvania, where he filled many positions of trust, honor and importance.

When the colonies rebelled against Great Britain, St. Clair threw his entire fortune and enthusiasm on the side of his country. In 1775 he was summoned to Philadelphia by a letter from President Hancock. His record from thence is a part of the history of the Republic. He was the assistant and confidant of Washington; he was a member of his military family and shared the hardships of Valley Forge, together with the victories of many hard fought battles.

St. Clair, after the Revolution, retired to civil life. His fortune was gone in the whirligig of war. He started into the Revolution a rich man; when peace was declared the riches had flown. In 1786 he was in Congress from Pennsylvania, and as a hero of two wars and a distinguished patriot, he was elected its president in 1787. This Congress formulated and passed the