Cutler must have been a good lobbyist, for Congress was not an efficient body, and unremitting labor, as well as diplomacy, was required for so large and important a matter.

Two things indicate his method of procedure.

In the first place he found it politic to drop his own candidate for the governorship of the new territory and to endorse General Arthur St.Clair, then President of Congress.

And in the next place he accepted the suggestion of Colonel William Duer for the formation of another company, known as the Scioto Associates, to purchase five million acres of land on similar terms, "but that it should be kept a profound secret." It was not an accident that Colonel Duer was Secretary of the Board of the Treasury through whom these purchases were made, nor that associated with him in this speculation were "a number of the principal characters in the city." These land deals were completed afterwards, but there is little doubt that there was a direct connection between them and the adoption of the ordinance of government.
The Ordinance of 1787 was so successful in its working and its renown became so great that claims of authorship, even for separate articles, have been filed in the name of almost every person who had the slightest excuse for being considered.

Thousands of pages have been written in eulogy and in dispute, to the helpful clearing up of some points and to the obscuring of others.