Rufus Putnam, Founder and Father of Ohio - An Address by by George F. Hoar, on the Occasion of Placing a Tablet to the Memory of Rufus Putnam, Upon His Dwelling-House in Rutland, 17 September, A. D. 1898 #221038

Cutler returned to Massachusetts successful and in triumph. He was not himself one of the first settlers in Ohio, but his sons represented him. Putnam led his company down the Ohio River to Marietta on board a galley appropriately named the Mayflower, giving new honor and fragrance to the name. He landed with his little company of forty-eight men April 7, 1788. There is no question that but for this clause in the Ordinance that territory, if it had remained a part of the country, would have been slave territory. It would have been settled from Virginia and Kentucky. As it was, it was saved to freedom as by fire.. The people of Indiana repeatedly petitioned Congress to be relieved from the clause prohibiting the introduction of slavery. A majority of the people of Illinois was pro-slavery, and the recognition of slavery in the first constitution of that State was only prevented by the dexterity and sagacity of Governor Coles.