Ephraim Cutler and the One Vote That Kept Ohio Free

In eighteen oh two, delegates gathered in Chillicothe to write the first constitution for the new state of Ohio. One of the most consequential moments came down to a single vote. Ephraim Cutler, who had arrived in Marietta in seventeen ninety-five, drafted the anti-slavery clause in Article Eight of that constitution. It passed by one vote.

By his own later account, Cutler was so ill that he was carried to the convention to cast that vote, though historians dispute the story. Either way, Ohio entered the Union as a free state, setting the legal and cultural course for the Old Northwest Territory. A lake in southeastern Ohio is named Veto Lake in honor of his role, and the name recalls slavery being vetoed in Ohio. It was one of the closest calls in the early history of American freedom.