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THE SECOND LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

(1789.)

HE ratification of the Constitution of the United States by a sufficient number of states having occurred during the latter part of the year 1784, and President Washington having assumed the reins of government thereunder, it was construed to be the duty of the Executive to appoint such officers whose commissions, having been issued by the Congress under the old form of government, were held to have expired with that government. In pursuance of this conception of his duty, the President, in a letter dated New York, August 18, 1789, nominated for the officers of the Northwest Territory: Arthur St. Clair, for Governor, and Messrs. Samuel Holden Parsons, John. Cleves Symmes, and William Barton (vice Varnum, deceased), Judges. The nominations were confirmed by the Senate of the United States, but Mr. Barton declining the appointment, the President nominated Mr. George Turner, who was confirmed on the eighth day of September.

There is no public record of the acts of the council during the year 1789. In November of this year, Judge Parsons, who was the Chief Justice of the court, was drowned in a ford in the Muskingum valley, while returning to the seat of government from a treaty council with the Indians of the Western Reserve.

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THE THIRD LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

(1790.)

HE year 1790 was marked by the sitting of the Council in the farther west, at the town of Vincennes (more generally known at that day by the name of "au Post"). Winthrop Sargent, Secretary and acting Governor, sat with Messrs. Symmes and Turner, Governor St. Clair being absent in the eastern states, and no successor sitting in the room of Judge Parsons, who had been succeeded. by General Rufus Putnam, Jr., of Marietta. This council, in its meeting at Vincennes, published the following laws, which were afterwards disapproved and ordered to be repealed by the Congress, as having no foundation in the older laws to which the territorial council was confined by the Ordinance of 1787.

July 19-An act prohibiting the giving or selling of intoxicating liquors to Indians.

July 26—An act restricting the sale of intoxicating liquors to soldiers, and to prevent the pawning or selling of arms, ammunition, clothing and accoutrements.

August 4-An act suppressing gambling and making void all contracts and payments made in consequence thereof.

Removing to the town of Cincinnati, the council passed, in November-Governor St. Clair having resumed his attendance with the body, and Secretary Winthrop Sargent retiring-the following laws:

November 4-An act to alter the terms of the General Court. November 5-An act to augment the terms of the County Courts. November 6-An act to authorize the Courts of Quarter Sessions. to divide the counties into townships, and to appoint constables, overseers of the poor, and township clerks.

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THE LAWS OF 1791.

HE body to which has been given in this volume the designation of the Third Legislative Council, was permitted to serve until no change in its official membership, except that in the absence of the Governor his seat was occupied by the Secretary as Acting Governor, from the appointment of Judge Putnam in the winter of 1790 to 1796, when Judge Putnam resigned his seat on the bench and in the council to accept the office of Surveyor General of the United States, to which he had been appointed by President Washington.

Messrs. St. Clair, Symmes and Turner affixed their signatures to the following laws in the year 1791, and caused the same to be published at Cincinnati:

June 22-An act supplementary to the act of September 6, 1798, respecting crimes.

June 22-An act for the punishment of persons who deface publications set up by authority.

June 22-An act creating the office of clerk of the legislature.

June 22-An act making the records of the courts of the United States evidence in the courts of this territory.

June 22-An act abolishing the distinction between murder and petit

treason.

June 29-An act regulating the enclosures of ground; and on

July 2-An act to amend the militia laws of 1788 as to days of muster, and fines for disobedience.

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bills:

THE LAWS OF 1792.

HE session of the council for the year 1792 seems to have been held in Cincinnati prior to the first day of August, and including that day, Messrs. Winthrop Sargent (acting Governor), Symmes, and Putnam signing and publishing the following

August 1-Granting licenses to merchants, traders, and tavernkeepers.

August 1-An act creating the office of Treasurer General and of county treasurers.

August 1-An act directing the manner of raising money to defray the expenses of the several counties.

August 1-An act regulating the opening and care of Highways. August 1-An act directing the building of a court house, jail, pillory, whipping post and stocks in every county.

August 1-An act regulating prisons.

August 1-An act regulating strays.

August 1-An act repealing so much of the law creating the office of clerk of the legislature, as required him to furnish certain public officers with manuscript copies of all acts of the territorial council. (Congress having provided for the printing of the territorial laws in Philadelphia.)

August 1-An act supplementary to the law of November 23, 1788, regulating marriages.

August 1-An act to regulate the admission of attorneys.

August 1-An act to empower the judge of the Probate Court to appoint guardians to minors.

August 1-An act prescribing forms of writs and mode of procedure in civil cases.

August 1-An act establishing the fee of judges of the Probate Court, of the Common Pleas Court, clerk of the Common Pleas, Probate, Orphans' and Sessions' Courts, of the Court of Quarter Sessions, General or Supreme Court, clerk of the same, attorneys, attorneys for the United States, witnesses, constables, coroners, sheriffs, criers, jailers, grand jurors, etc.

These laws are found in a published volume of the date of 1792, Philadelphia, and certified by Winthrop Sargent, Secretary.

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THE LAWS OF 1795.

HE council sitting in 1795, in the town of Cincinnati, devoted the months of June, July and August to a careful revision of the code laws then in use in the territory, and by an act of repeal (See law of July 14 in list below, eliminated those laws to which, as exceeding the authority of the council, the Congress had objected, at the same time putting into operation new laws in their stead, which, by careful citation of the authority of some one of the original states, attested the propriety of such act by council.

The sitting members of the council at this time were Governor St. Clair and Judges Symmes and Turner, who certified, and caused to be published at Cincinnati, on the dates mentioned in each case, the following, which, being printed by William Maxwell, printer of Cincinnati, came to be known as "The Maxwell Code."

Cincinnati, June 1, 1795-An act subjecting real estate to execution for debt. Effective August 15. Signatures: St. Clair, Symmes and Turner.

Same day and same signers-An act allowing domestic attachments. Effective August 15. An act regulating domestic attachments. Effective August 15.

June 3-A law for the easy and speedy recovery of small debts. Effective October I.

June 3-A law concerning defalcation. Effective October 1.

June 5-A law for the trial and punishment of larceny under a dollar and a half. Effective August 15.

June 5-An act to prevent unnecessary delays in causes, after issue is joined. Effective August 15.

June 6-Establishing courts of judicature. Effective August 15. June 10 For the limitation of actions. Effective October 1. June 11-Prescribing form of affirmation for those opposed to the common form of oath. Effective October I.

June 11-For the recovery of fines and forfeitures. August 25.

Effective

June 16-Ascertaining and regulating fees of the officers and persons named. (From New York and Pennsylvania Codes.) Effective October I.

June 16-A law for establishing orphans' courts (Pennsylvania). Effective October 1.

June 16-A law for the settlement of intestates' estates (Pennsyl