USA > Illinois > Illinois, historical and statistical, comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state, Vol. I > Part 16
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* " Wheaton, " VIII, 593.
179
CLAIMS OF VIRGINIA AND NEW YORK.
of territory over which they wandered, and had no power of alienation. The purchases made from them by colonies were merely a measure of policy to prevent hostilities .* The claim of the Iroquois to western lands, although that confederacy was never backward in asserting its demands, was never so strongly urged by themselves for their own benefit as by the British government for the purpose of effecting its controversy with France, which brought on the French-and-Indian War. The claim of the Six Nations to the western country by right of
conquest before 1700 was undoubtedly an afterthought. They frequently fixed their boundary themselves, and in the year 1744, at the Lancaster conference, when explicitly requested by the governor of Virginia to define the extent of these claims, either original or as acquired by conquest, and to name what nations they had conquered any lands from in Virginia, replied that it was the territory only between the Potomac and the Warrior Ridge, and was bounded by the lands of the Susque- hanna and Potomac Indians,+ making no pretense of claim to the Wabash or Illinois country.
By 1763, their claim by conquest had grown in inverse ratio to their power, which had been steadily waning. It extended, according to Sir William Johnson, as far west as the Falls of the Ohio, and thence northerly to the south end of Lake Michigan.+ The nations claimed to have been subdued were the Shawnees, Delawares, Miamis, and other Western Indians, who had become their tributaries. As to the Delawares, the assertion had some semblance of truth, but none whatever so far as relates to the others. While the Iroquois had on several occasions, by reason of their having been supplied with firearms, successfully attacked the Illinois tribes and at one time driven them beyond the Mississippi, the latter never failed in any year to reoccupy their old camping-grounds, and frequently defeated and drove back their ancient foes. So far from conquering the Miamis, the latter were able not only to take care of themselves at home, but to attack their enemies on their own ground, where they so roughly handled them as to compel them to fly to the governor
" Wheaton, " VIII, 595.
+ Colden's " History of the Five Nations, " II, 81.
+ "Pennsylvania Archives," VI, 602.
180
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
of New York for help. While a few of the Shawnees acknowl- edged for a time a limited dependency upon the Iroquois, they early threw off the yoke and ranged themselves on the side of the French against them. All the Western Indians, including the Miamis and Shawnees, formed an independent alliance under Pontiac in 1762, claiming to own the territory of the Northwest themselves, and it was in support of this claim that they went to war under the great Ottawa chieftain.
At the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, however, the claims of the Iroquois, real as well as pretended, including those by right of conquest, were fully considered, and that nation's boundary was definitely established as follows: "We begin at the Ohio at the mouth of the Cherokee River, which is our just right, and from thence we go up on the south side of the Ohio to Kittaning, above Fort Pitt; from thence in a direct line to the forks of the Susquehanah," and thence by various courses as described, northward to Fort Stanwix. "And this we declare to be our final resolves."*
Thus was effectually concluded whatever claim New York had to any portion of the western lands by reason of her alleged protectorate over the Iroquois. And the assurance of the com- mittee in endorsing a claim so attenuated is equaled only by the apparent obliviousness of facts shown by attempts at this late day to revive the alleged reasons originally advanced in its support.
Other deeds of cession to the United States were made as follows: By Massachusetts, April 19, 1785, including a strip about eighty miles in width, beginning at the western boundary of New York from 42° 2' north latitude to 43° 43' 12" across the country to the Mississippi River. By Connecticut, Sept. 13, 1786, including a strip of land about sixty-two miles in width, commencing west of a meridian passing one hundred and twenty miles west of the west boundary of Pennsylvania and extending westward from 41° to 42° 2' north latitude, running also to the Mississippi River. By South Carolina, Aug. 9, 1787, to the
* "Colonial History of New York," VIII, 136. A second treaty of Fort Stan- wix, concluded with the United States, Oct. 22, 1784, and subsequently reaffirmed by the treaty of Fort Harmar, Jan. 9, 1789, still farther restricted the boundary of the Six Nations, and declared in express terms that they yielded all claims to the country west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio.
18I
CESSIONS AND PURCHASES.
northern portions of the present states of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. By North Carolina, Feb. 25, 1790, under our present constitution, to what is now the State of Tennessee. And by Georgia, April 24, 1802, to a strip lying west of its western boundary and to the Mississippi River, between paral- lels 31° and 34° 41' north latitude in the states of Mississippi and Alabama.
And thus it was through these several cessions by seven states of the original thirteen that the United States consum- mated its title to the public domain lying east of the Mississippi River .*
* The area and number of acres thus acquired is shown by the following table :
DATE. SQUARE MILES.
ACRES.
COST.
Massachusetts § claimed and disputed. includ- { Apr. 19, 1785,
Connecticut ? ed in Va. cession, estimated § Sep. 13, 1786,
54,000 40,000
34,500,000 25,600,000
New York and Massachusetts, actual,
Mar. 1, 1781,
315
202, 187
Virginia, disputed and undisputed, exclusive of Kentucky, western reserve, and fire lands, Mar. 1, 1784,
259,625
166,159,680
Connecticut, western reserve and fire lands,
Sept. 13, 1786,
5,937
3,800,000
South Carolina,
Aug. 9, 1787,
4,900
3, 136,000
North Carolina, nominal, the area of Tennessee being almost covered with reservations,
Feb. 25, 1790,
45,600
Georgia,
Apr. 24, 1802,
88,578
29,184.000$ 56,689,920 -
paid Yazoo scrip claims, $6,200,000
404,955 259, 171,787
By adding to the foregoing the subsequent purchases by the United States, the entire extent and cost of
the public domain is shown, as follows :
The Louisiana purchase from France,
Apr. 30, 1803, Feb. 22, 1819,
1,182,752 59,268
756.961,280 37,931,520
6,489,768
Mexican acquisition by treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
Feb. 2, 1848,
522,568
334,443,520
15,000,000
The State of Texas, Sept., 1850, $8,500,000; 1855, $7,500.000,
Feb. 28, 1855,
96,707
61,892,480
16,000,000
The Gadsden purchase from Mexico,
Dec. 30, 1853,
45,535
29, 142,400
10,000,000
Alaska, from Russia,
Mar. 30, 1867,
577,399
369, 529,600
7.200,000
Making a grand total of
2,889, 175 1,849,072,587
$88,157,389
Expenses of surveys, to June, 1880,
$24,468,691 Expenses of executive and administrative departments, to June, 1880. partly estimated, 22,094,611 Amount paid to extinguish Indian titles, annuities, and expenses, to June, 1880, 187,338,904
Total cost, to June, 1880,
$322,049,595
Sold at New York to June 30, 1796, 1,484.047 acres,
$1,201,725
Sold since at public sale, net receipts, to June, 1880, - 199,501.124
200,702,849
Total cost above receipts to June, 1880, -
$121,345,746
There remained unsold, June 30, 1880 (not including Alaska), 791, 178,438 acres, which were valued, according to the testimony and estimates in the report of the public-land commissioner, Feb. 24, 1880, at $1, 159,921,261 .- Compiled principally from "The Public Domain; Its History, with Statistics. By Thomas Donaldson. Washington, 1884." Published as a congressional document.
$27,267,621
East and West Florida from Spain,
182
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
The United States having thus acquired the ownership of the public lands heretofore belonging to the respective states, it became necessary to provide for their disposition. Three prob- lems presented themselves requiring an immediate solution : First, what plan to adopt for their survey and sale; second, how to provide satisfactorily for the extinguishment of the claim of the Indians thereto; and third, what form of government should be adopted for the people residing thereon. Each of these questions presented grave difficulties, but that relating to the title of the red man was the greatest. It confronted Congress at the beginning, and out of it grew those Indian wars which marked the bloody period of pioneer settlements in the entire Northwest. Its adjustment involved the expenditure of mil- lions of money and the sacrifice of thousands of lives.
The first law passed by Congress on the subject of the dis- posal of the public lands was dated May 20, 1785, and provided for a survey, and after setting apart one-seventh part for the use of the Continental army, and making reservations for school purposes, and providing for the division of the remainder among the original thirteen states, for their sale; but failing to answer the purpose for which it was framed, it was in its main features repealed by the ordinance passed July 9, 1788.
The system of land-surveys authorized by this law, and which have been continued ever since, is called the rectangular. From the principal bases, townships six miles square were to be laid out and established, each containing thirty- six sections one mile square, numbered from one to thirty-six, beginning at the north- east corner of the township, each section to contain six hundred and forty acres. Principal meridians and bases were initiated as follows: The first principal meridian, coincident with 84° 5 1' of longitude west of Greenwich, divides the states of Ohio and Indiana, having for its base the Ohio River. The second, coincident with longitude 86° 28' governs the surveys in Indiana and a portion of those in Illinois. The third, coincident with longitude 89° 10' 30", governs the surveys in Illinois east of said meridian, with the exception of those lands on the west side of the Illinois River. The fourth begins in the middle of the channel of the Illinois River at its mouth, in latitude 38° 58' 12" north, and longitude 90° 29' 56" west, governs the surveys in
183
FIRST SURVEYS.
Illinois west of the Illinois River and west of the third principal meridian north of said river. Other meridians were initiated for other states and territories westward as the surveys required.
The first officer in charge of the surveys of the public lands was Thomas Hutchins, who was appointed under the law of 1785, and was called the geographer. He had been a captain in a British regiment-Sixtieth Royal, and was assistant-engi- neer in Bouquet's expedition. He was for a time stationed at Fort Chartres, but when the Revolution broke out, being strongly in sympathy with the colonists, he relinquished his position. In 1779, he was imprisoned in London on a charge of being in treasonable correspondence with Benjamin Franklin. After his release he proceeded to Charleston, and joined the army of Gen. Greene. He was the author of a "Topographical Description of Virginia," and several other valuable works .*
It is claimed for him that he was the author of the plan of surveys adopted by congress, and to him was committed the task of putting it into successful operation, which he performed with remarkable care, patience, and ability. His work and descriptions of the country surveyed by him are of great value. Rufus Putnam was the first surveyor-general, so called, and was appointed under the act of 1796, creating the office. No lands were disposed of under the law of 1785.
* He was born in Monmouth, N.J., in 1730, and died in Pittsburg, Penn., April 28, 1789, where his remains now lie unnoticed in the cemetery of the First Pres- byterian Church .- Allen's "American Biographical and Historical Dictionary." "Ohio Surveys," Tract, No. 59.
Authorities : "The Public Domain" (cong. doc.), by Thomas Donaldson; "Jour- nals and Laws of Congress"; early Illinois pamphlets; "United-States Supreme-court Reports"; Cadwallader Colden's "History of the Five Nations," 3d ed .; "Pennsyl- vania Archives"; "Colonial History of New York."
CHAPTER XII.
Ordinance of 1787-First Sales of Public Lands.
T HE necessity in the meantime of providing the people of the Northwest Territory with the means of governmental protection became apparent and even urgent. Accordingly, on March 1, 1784, a committee, of which Thomas Jefferson was chairman, was appointed to prepare a plan for the temporary government of the western territory. The report submitted by Jefferson proposed to divide the territory into seven states, to be named as follows: Sylvania, Michigania, Cher- sonesus, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Polypotamia, and Poli- sipia; and among other things it was provided that after the year 1800, " there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servi- tude in any of the said states otherwise than in punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This was recommitted, but the second report agreed in substance with the first, omitting the names given to states. The anti- slavery clause, failing to secure a majority of states for its retention, was striken out. The report was then adopted, April 23, in the form of a resolution. Provision was made for the organization of states by the people, but it was left to congress to provide such measures for the preservation of peace and good order among the settlers as "might from time to time be taken." No such action, however, was taken by congress.
The resolutions of 1784 having failed to serve any practical purpose, remaining in fact inoperative, the inhabitants of Kas- kaskia in August, 1786, petitioned congress to provide some means by which they could form a better government. That body directed its secretary to reply "that congress have under consideration the plan of a temporary government for said district, and that its adoption will no longer be protracted than the importance of the subject and due regard to their interests may require."
On Sept. 19, 1786, the plan above referred to was reported to congress, and after some discussion its further consideration
184
.
185
PRELIMINARY LEGISLATION.
was postponed. On April 29, 1787, the same committee re- ported another measure, which was read a second time and ordered to a third reading on May 10. On that date, however, action was again postponed. It contained none of those declar- ations in favor of freedom and human rights which distinguished the ordinance afterward adopted.
After these repeated delays, all at once the situation was changed. Apathy gave place to interest, and inaction to earnest effort, and the greatest work of the Continental Congress was soon to be accomplished. The influence which produced this desirable result grew out of a plan to purchase western lands. A number of gentlemen in New England, nearly all of them ex-officers of the Revolutionary army, owning large amounts of government certificates of indebtedness, then not marketable, the previous year had organized themselves into a company for the purpose of converting their paper into land, with which the government was decidedly better supplied than with money to pay its debts. The most able and active member of the company was sent to New York to conduct the negotiations. This was Rev. Manasseh Cutler, D. D., a distinguished New- England divine who had served sometime as a regimental chaplain. He was a ripe scientist, an eloquent speaker, and a man of large experience. His person was commanding and his address as courteous as his oratory was convincing. His asso- ciates in the company, generals James Mitchell Varnum, Samuel Holden Parsons, Benjamin Tappan, colonels Rufus Putnam, and Ebenezer Sproat, and Maj. Winthrop Sargeant, were all men of influence and ability. Gen. Parsons had presented to con- gress the memorial embodying the proposed plan of exchanging scrip for land the previous May.
Dr. Cutler arrived in New York on July 5, and at once entered upon the work assigned him. He sought to impress upon members not only the advantage of the proposed ex- change, but also how essential it was that a proper founda- tion for a good system of government should be laid for the people who should reside in the Far-West where the land desired by the New-England creditors of the government was situated, and without which the grant, if made, would be worthless. He even insisted that this was the first thing
186
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
demanding consideration; and as that subject was then occu- pying the attention of congress, the doctor became very busy. He interviewed Gen. Arthur St. Clair-president of congress, and other leading members of that body, besides capital- ists and prominent citizens. The first-fruit of his efforts was the appointment, on July 9, of a new committee, composed mostly of fresh material: Edward Carrington and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, John Kean of South Carolina-new members; Nathan Dane of Massachusetts, and Melancthon Smith of New York-old members. The bill as it then stood was submitted to Dr. Cutler "with leave," as he says "to make remarks and propose amendments." These he reported, and having favorably presented his proposition and put new life into the proposed ordinance, on July 10, he departed for Philadel- phia, where the Constitutional convention was in session.
The time for dilatory proceedings had now passed. Here was an opportunity presented to congress to discharge several millions of dollars of the Nation's indebtedness in exchange for lands on the frontier, which could not be expected to have any market value for years if left to the natural course of events; and also to interpose a bulwark of settlements against Indian invasions of Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania, which opportunities ought not to be neglected. An enactment for the government of the people of the proposed new settlement which would be satisfactory to the promoters of the enterprise was a prerequisite which ought not to be withheld or deferred.
The committee went to work in earnest, and the new ordi- nance as prepared was reported to congress and read on July II. The next day it was read a second time and amended by the insertion of the sixth article; and on the day following, July 13, it was passed, receiving the unanimous vote of eight states, to wit : Virginia, Massachusetts, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, all that were present. A majority of these were slave-states- indeed, slaves were held in all the states except Massachusetts. But slavery had not yet become a political question, and many of the leading men of the Southern States were strongly opposed to its existence and had so expressed themselves. While they would not favor the emancipation of slaves in their
187
PASSAGE OF THE ORDINANCE.
own states, it was not difficult for them to consent to its exclu- sion from the Northwest Territory. Grayson of Virginia, ex- plained his vote by saying that the anti-slavery clause in the ordinance would prevent the raising of tobacco, cotton, and indigo north of the Ohio River. Other Southern members were no doubt influenced by similar considerations.
This celebrated enactment, justly distinguished as the great "American charter," and which in the centennial year of its adoption was the subject of renewed encomiums, was in the nature of a compact, and older than the constitution itself. While the object primarily sought to be obtained by its passage was the provision of a government for, and the encouragement of the settlement of, a vast territory destined to expand into future states, congress seized upon the opportunity thus offered to engraft upon the organic law, by legislative enactment, the fundamental principles of human freedom and equal rights, of which the Declaration of Independence formed the grandest statement which the world had yet seen. The ordinance vital- ized and put into practical operation those eternal truths which the Declaration stated only doctrinally, upon which the Ameri- can government was founded and upon the preservation and maintenance of which its existence alone depends.
Daniel Webster said of it: "We are accustomed to praise the law-givers of antiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and Lycurgus; but I doubt whether one single law, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinct, marked, and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787." Chief-Justice Salmon P. Chase, while governor of Ohio, spoke of it as follows: "Never, probably, in the history of the world did a measure of legislation so accurately fulfil, and yet so mightily exceed the anticipations of the legislators. It has been well described as having been a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night in the settlement and government of the North- western States."
It is not surprising that the question of authorship of so important a document should have awakened more than ordi- nary interest. And here it must be noted that the era in which it was produced was remarkable alike for its discussion of ques- tions relating to the rights of man, and for the advancement made
188
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
in theories of human government. It was a period of bold thought and searching investigation. The splendid rhetoric of Edmund Burke, the unanswerable logic of Thomas Jefferson, the keen satire of Thomas Paine, and the profound philosophy of Benjamin Franklin revolutionized public sentiment. Old ideas of the prerogative of kings, hereditary rights, and class legislation, with their attendant train of suffering and oppres- sion were shown to be untenable. Man was lifted up to a higher plane, where his eyes were opened to a clearer concep- tion of his rights, no less than of his duties and obligations.
It was, therefore, in line of the thought of the age that in providing for the government of the inhabitants of that magnifi- cent domain, lately acquired by the general government, all the benefits-social, political, and educational-derived from enlarged views of freedom and culture should be extended to them and embodied in their fundamental law. The principles announced in the Declaration of Independence remaining there without form of law to enforce them would indeed have proved to be merely "glittering generalities." But they had already been vitalized by enactment into the constitutions of Virginia, Penn- sylvania, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, New Hampshire, and especially in Massachusetts. In all of these instruments articles were adopted in favor of religious liberty, the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus, the trial by jury, estab- lishing the common law, the right to bail, that fines should be moderate, and that no man should be deprived of his liberty or property without due process of law, and that full compensation should be made for private property taken for public uses.
In the constitutions of Massachusetts, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New Hampshire provision was made for the establishment of public-schools and their support by the state. In Massachusetts, almost the precise language was used as that in the ordinance, the statement being, " the happiness of the people and the good order and preservation of civil govern- ment essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality." "Wisdom and knowledge as well as virtue diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preserva- tion of their rights and liberties."
In regard to real property, it repealed the leading features of
189
AUTHORSHIP OF THE ORDINANCE.
feudalism by which all lands before the Revolution were held by socage tenure, denoting a fixed and determined service .* In thus providing for the free and unconditional alienation of the public lands by the general government, and for the equal distribution of estates among the descendants of intestates and their dispositon by will, as against the English laws of primo- geniture, and the alienation of real estate by lease and release or bargain and sale by deed, in fee simple, "it struck the key- note of our liberal system of land laws, not only in the states formed out of the public domain, but also in the older states."+
But even these important provisions, although not so broadly and clearly shaped, were already contained in the Constitution of Georgia, (Art. II.)
It appears, in fact, that some of the most important declara- tions of rights contained in these early constitutions, and since reenacted, were not included in the ordinance, namely: the liberty of the press, the right of free-speech, the right of peti- tion, the freedom of elections, the right to bear arms, and the prohibition of ex-post-facto laws.
The proposition that certain articles should be considered as a compact between the original States and the people and States in the said territory, seems to have originated with Jefferson. It was in the ordinance reported by him in 1784. This ordin- ance also contained an article of which Jefferson was the author, prohibiting slavery in any state to be formed out of said terri- tory after the year 1800; but Jefferson, in 1787, was our min- ister to France, and took no part in the later enactment. In 1785, Rufus King of New York, introduced a resolution as a supplement to the ordinance of 1784, providing for the pro- hibition of slavery in the States to be formed out of said terri- tory. It was referred to a committee and never reported upon.
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