FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE. 165 



house ; after passing both branches of the legislature, it was 

 signed by the president of the council, and speaker of the 

 house, and countersigned by the clerk. Jacob Burnet who 

 was a member of the council from Hamilton county, was the 

 most efficient member of this first legislature, northwest of the 

 Ohio river. He drafted the rules by which this legislature 

 were governed, the address to the governor, and the address 

 to the president of the United States. He drafted most of 

 the complicated laws which passed both houses. The amount 

 of his labors, are truly wonderful, when we compare them 

 with the labors of members of our legislature. The amount of 

 useful legislative labors, which were performed by Mr. Bur- 

 net, during this session, was greater than is now performed 

 by some whole general assemblies of the present times. 

 These acts of the old territorial legislature, have had their 

 effect on our system of laws, to the period in which this is 



written. 



Jacob Burnet was born in Newark, New Jersey, educated at 



Princeton, in Nassau Hall where he regularly graduated. He 

 studied law one year with Richard Stockton, Esquire ; and the 

 remainder of his time devoted to the study of his profession, 

 preparatory to his admission to the bar, was spent with Elisha 

 Boudinot, Esquire. Having completed his classical and legal 

 studies, and on being admitted to the bar, as a lawyer, he im- 

 migrated into the North Western Territory, and settled at 

 Cincinnati, in 1796. He immediately rose into eminence in 

 his profession. He attended the supreme court at Cincinnati, 

 Marietta and Detroit, in each year. The judges, and their 

 officers, to wit: Daniel Symmes their clerk, Arthur St. Clair 

 the attorney general, and Mr. Burnet and other lawyers, tra- 

 versed the country, then a dense forest, without a house, after 

 they had left each town more than twenty miles. These 

 judges, and their officers, traveled on horseback, from court 

 to court, carrying with them, blankets, horse-feed and food for 

 themselves. They camped out at night, in the woods, and 

 there was neither tavern, bridge, ferry nor even a road, in 

 their route. Starting at Cincinnati, they wended their way in 



