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Arthur St. Clair Medallion

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© Stanley L. Klos has a worldwide copyright on the artwork in these Medallions not legal tender.

 Medallion Obverse: Engraving of Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania  was elected President of the United States, in Congress Assembled February 2, 1787 serving until October 29, 1787.  Arthur St. Clair was born in Thurso, Scotland on March 23, 1734 and died in Greensburg, Pennsylvania on August 31, 1818. St. Clair's life, more then any other U.S. President, was comprised of sterling and stark contrasts. Enjoying a great family inheritance in his youth only to end his life in desolate poverty; crossing the Delaware with Washington to capture Trenton and Princeton while later loosing Fort Ticonderoga under his own command; presiding as President of the United States in the Congress Assembled that produced the U.S. Constitution and Northwest Ordinance only to be removed by President Jefferson as Governor of the Northwest Territory for opposing Ohio Statehood.  

Born in a Tavern and ending in a Tavern The United States Founding governments
occupied 11 different capitol buildings experienced 15 years of challenges that included war,
hyper-inflation, a failed constitution, judicial corruption, armed citizen and U.S. Army rebellion. 

Medallion Reverse:  City Hall, New York City was utilized as the Capitol of the United States from January 11, 1785 to November 13, 1788. The building was started in 1699 and completed in 1702.  It stood on the corner of Nassau and Wall Streets until 1812 when it was razed.  This 1702 structure was where John Peter Zenger was tried and acquitted of seditious libel in 1735, marking the country's first great Freedom of the Press' trial. In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress was held in the building to protest British taxation without the deliberation and consent of the colonists.

In December 1784 NYC offered City Hall to the United States in Congress Assembled as a Capitol Building.  It was accepted and Congress convened there on January 11, 1785. It was remodeled and enlarged in 1788 and 1789 preparing for the new tri-parte government under the direction of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. This was the first example of Federal Style architecture in the United States. The building was renamed Federal Hall when it became the first Capitol of the United States under the Constitution of 1787.  L'Enfant would be later selected by George Washington to design the capital city on the Potomac River in Maryland. 

The medallion's reverse also marks the passage of the Northwest Ordinance under Arthur St. Clair's Presidency which Daniel Webster called:

We are accustomed to praise lawgivers of antiquity ... but I doubt whether one single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced the effects of more distinct, marked, and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787.[i]

The world was now put on notice that the land north and west of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi would be settled and utilized for the creation of  "… not less than three nor more than five territories." Additionally, this plan for governing the Northwest Territory included freedom of religion, right to trial by jury, the banishment of slavery, and public education as asserted rights granted to the people in the territory. This ordinance was and still remains one of the most important laws ever enacted by the government of the United States and it begins:

An Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio. Section 1. Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That the said territory, for the purposes of temporary government, be one district, subject, however, to be divided into two districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, make it expedient. …"[ii] 

Specifically, this ordinance was an exceptional piece of legislation because Article Five permitted the people North and West of the Ohio River to settle their land, form their own territorial government, and take their place as a full fledged state, equal to the original 13. The Northwest Ordinance's Article Five became the principle that enabled the United States rapid westward expansion, which ended with the inclusion of Alaska and Hawaii as our 49th and 50th states. This ordinance also guaranteed that inhabitants of the Territory would have the same rights and privileges that citizens of the original 13 States enjoyed.

Equally important Article Six provided that slavery and involuntary servitude were outlawed in the Northwest Territory.  This was a law that finally gave some merit to the Declaration of Independence's "... all men are created equal..." It took three years and a Congress led by Arthur St. Clair to pass this ordinance making the legislation one of the great documents in American History.

Theism was also openly expressed in the legislation as Article Three of the Ordinance stated:

Religion, Morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged.[iii]

This measure basically legislated that religion and morality were indispensable to good government but it was not carried out by the federal government because the United States confederation was financially insolvent in 1788 and faded away in 1789. A new constitution emerged from Philadelphia that laid the legal foundation that eventually would lead to the separation of the Christian church from the federal system of government.  Several state governments adopted similar legislation and provided financial assistance to the churches in the West in the early 19^th Century.  Today this 220 year old constitution often finds itself an opponent to States that support religion with public funding.

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