Under such circumstances it was easy to strike a bargain.

The land, as we have seen, was roughly estimated at one dollar an acre; but, as the company wished to purchase a million acres, it demanded and obtained wholesale rates of two-thirds of the usual price.

It also obtained the privilege of paying at least a portion in certificates of Revolutionary indebtedness, some of which were worth about twelve and a half cents on the dollar.

Only a little calculation is required to show that a large quantity of land was therefore sold at about eight or nine cents an acre.

It was in connection with this land sale that the Ordinance of 1787 was adopted.
The promoter of this enterprise undertaken by the Ohio Company was Manasseh Cutler of Ipswich, Massachusetts, a clergyman by profession who had served as a chaplain in the Revolutionary War.