These two germ ideas remained in their minds, even though their petition bore no fruit.

They kept before their eyes the plan of a company to undertake the work, after getting the proper cession from Congress.

Finally, in the early spring of 1786, some of the New England officers met at the "Bunch of Grapes" tavern in Boston, and organized the Ohio Company of Associates.

They at once sent one of their number as a delegate to New York, where the Continental Congress was in session, to lay their memorial before that body.
Congress and the Ohio Company.
Congress was considering another ordinance for the government of the Northwest when the memorial was presented, and the former was delayed until the latter could be considered by the committee to which it had been referred.

In July, Dr.Manasseh Cutler, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, arrived as a second delegate to look after the interests of the company.
He and they were as much concerned in the terms of the governmental ordinance, as in the conditions on which the land grant was to be made.
The orderly, liberty-loving, keen-minded New Englanders who formed the company, would not go to a land where the form of government was hostile to their ideas of righteousness and sound public policy.
The Prohibition of Slavery.
The one point of difficulty was the slavery question.