OHIO. One of the new states of the American Union.
2. MassaChusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia claimed. under their respective charters, the tern tory lying northweet of the river Ohio. At the solioitation of the continental congress, these claims were, eoon after the close of the war of independence, ceded to the United Statee. Vir ginia, however, reserved the ownership of the soil of three million seven hundred thousand acres between the Scioto and the Little Miami rivere, for military bounties to tbe soldiers of her line who had served ia the revolutionary war ; and Con necticut reserved three million six hundred and eixty-six thousand acres in northern Ohio, now usually called " the Western Reserve." The history of these reeervatione, and of the several " pur chases" under which land-titles have been acquired in various parts of the etate, will be found in Albaehi's Annals of the West ; in the Preliminary Sketch of the History of Ohio, in the first volume of Chase's Statutes of Ohio; and in Swan'e Land Laws of Ohio. The conflicting titlee of the etatee having been extinguished, congress, on July 13, 1787, passed the celebrated ordinan ee. for the govern ment of the territory northwest of th4 river Ohio. 1 Curwen's Revised Statutes of Ohio, 86. It pro vided for the equal distribution of the eetates of intestates among their children, gave the widow dower as at common law, regulated the execution of wills and deede, secured perfect religious tolera tion, the right of trial by jury, judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law, the bene fits of the writ of habeas corpus, security against cruel and unusual punishments, the right of reasonable bail, the inviolability of contracts 'and of private property, and declared that " there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said terri tory, otherwise than in the puniehment of crimee whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." 3. These provisions have been, in euhstance, incorporated into the constitution and laws of Ohio, as well as of the other states which have since been formed within " the territory." The legal effect of the ordinance has been much discussed, and the eupreine court of Ohio and the circuit court of the United States for the seventh circuit, on the one hand, and the supreme court of the United States, on the other, have arrived at directly opposite con clusions in respect to it. By the former it was
considered a compact not incompatible with etate eovereignty, and as binding on the state of Ohio as her own constitution; while the latter treated it as a mere temporary statute, which waa abrogated by the adoption of the constitution ,of the United Statee. 5 Ohio, 410; 7 id. 416; 17 id. 425; 1 Mc Lean, 336; 3 id. 226; 3 How. 212, 589 ; 10 id. 82 : 8. e., 8 Western Law Jour. 232.
On the 30th of October, 1802, congress paned an act making provision for the formation of a state constitution, under which, in 1803, Ohio was a.d mitted into the Union, under the name of " the State of Ohio." This constitution was never sub niitted to a vote of the people. It continued to be the organic law of Ohio until September 1, 1851, when it was abrogated by the adoption of the present constitution.
4. The hill of rights which forms a part of thie constitution containe the provisions common to such instruments in the constitutions of the differ ent states. Such are the prohibitions against any laws impairing the right of peaeeably assembling to consult for the common good, to bear arms, to have a trial by jury, to worebip according to the dictates of one's own conscience, to have the benefit of the writ of habeas ccopus, to be allowed reason able bail, to he exempt from exceesive fines and cruel and unueual puniehmente, not to be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamoue crime Unless un presentment or indiotment of a grand jury, to have a copy of the indictment, the aid of :wined, compulsory process for witnessee, a speedy end public trial, to be privileged from testifying against one's self or to be twice put in jeopardy for the same offenoe. Provision is also made against the exiatence ef slavery, against transporting of. fendere out of the state, against imprisonment for debt unless in CE1.13CH of fraud, against granting kereditary honors, against quartering eoldiere in private houses, for the security of persons from unreasonable arrest or searches, and for the freedom of speech and the press.