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 17
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That portion, therefore, of Art. VI. which prohibited slavery in the territory was new. The original draft was in Mr. Dane's handwriting, as indeed was the entire instrument, and he says in his letter to Rufus King that "when I drew the ordinance, which passed, a few words excepted, as I originally formed it, I had no idea the States would agree to the Sixth Article, as only Massachusetts of the Eastern States was present, and
+ Com'r, J. S. Wilson.
* Kent, III, 527.
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therefore omitted it in the draft ; but finding the House favor- ably disposed on the subject after we had completed the other parts, I moved the Article which was agreed to without opposi- tion."
On the other hand, Judge Ephraim Cutler, son of the doctor, tells us that while on a visit to his father, then a member of Congress, at Washington, in 1804, having informed him that he had prepared the anti-slavery clause of the Ohio constitution, his father stated in response, that it was a singular coincidence, as he himself (the doctor) had prepared that part of the Ordin- ance of 1787 while he was in New York negotiating the pur- chase of lands for the Ohio Company.
In regard to other clauses, the doctor informs us in his diary that on his return from Philadelphia, July 19, he found that the ordinance which had been adopted had been "in a degree new- modeled," but that the amendments proposed by him had all been made except one, which related to taxation. These, as claimed by him, it appears, were the provisions relating to religion, education, and slavery .*
The provisions of the ordinance which were distinctly new, in addition to article six, were as follows :
The plan for the organization of a civil government for the northwestern territory was a venture into an entirely new field. The grant of power to the people was, however, not very liberal. Every office of the territory was to be filled by appointment, and the incumbents were required to be land owners. The minimum was a free-hold estate therein of five hundred acres each by the secretary and judges, and one thousand acres by the governor. All "magistrates and other civil officers" were appointed by the governor, who, with the judges made the laws, until the territory rose to the second grade. The elective franchise, only to be exercised after the territory had obtained five thousand inhabitants, was confined to the election of members of the general assembly. A repre- sentative was required to be a citizen of the United States, a resident of the district, and the owner of two hundred acres of land ; while an elector must be the owner of fifty acres.
Both reflection and experience demonstrated the fact that
* Cutler's " Life of Rev. Manaseh Cutler," I., 342-3.
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FIRST SALES OF PUBLIC LANDS.
these provisions were too narrow, and the ordinance was. amended in 1809 so that the people were authorized to elect a council, theretofore appointed by the president and a member of congress, previously chosen by the Legislature; and in 1811, the right of suffrage was extended to all those who paid a tax and resided one year in the territory.
The other provisions of the ordinance which were new, were (1) the clause in regard to the inviolability of private contracts; and (2) that in regard to the treatment of the Indians. The claim of originality by Dane to both of these, seems to be well founded, and has not, indeed, been seriously questioned. That the committee was greatly benefited and assisted by the sug- gestions and personal influence of Dr. Cutler, during the final preparation of the ordinance, there can be no doubt. But the eminent services of the able Dane, who, in his official capacity as a member of congress, prepared and aided in securing the passage of the document, can not be over estimated by the millions of people who are now reaping and enjoying the bene- fits of its wise provisions.
Having shown how the public domain was acquired, the system of surveys established, and the provision made for the government of the inhabitants residing thereon, a brief space will now be devoted to the plan adopted for its disposition.
The first sale of land after the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, was made in pursuance of an act of congress, July 23, the same year, instructing the Board of Treasury to contract for the sale of the large tract to the Ohio Land Company, of 822,- 900 acres, receiving therefor certificates of ownership and army land-warrants valued at $642,859. This was followed by one to John Cleves Symmes, of 272,540 acres, for which he and his associates paid $189,643; and by another to the State of Penn- sylvania, of 202,187 acres. All other sales of public lands of the United States were made under general laws."
On May 19, 1796, an act was passed by congress for the sale of lands in Ohio; but the general system finally adopted, under which all the public lands have been since disposed of, was embraced in the act of May 10, 1800, the credit for originating which is due to the profound thought, and far --
* " Public Domain," 17, 197-8.
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
reaching sagacity of that eminent financier and statesman, Alexander Hamilton. The subject having been referred to him as secretary of the treasury, he presented a report in which he recommended the establishment of a general land-office, the appointment of a surveyor-general, and all the other prominent features embodied in the act last named. Provision was made for receivers and registers; the lands were to be offered at pub- lic sale in lots of 320 and 640 acres, and at not less than two dollars per acre, one-fourth of the purchase money to be paid within 40 days and the remaining three-fourths in two, three, and four years, with interest at the rate of six per cent per annum on the deferred payments.
Prior to the passage of the act in question, the only portion of the public domain sold had been in Ohio. The sales had aggregated 1,484,047 acres, for which there had been paid into the Treasury the sum of $1,201,725 .*
Amendments were made to the law of May 10, 1800, at various times, extending the time of payments, and providing for sales in smaller quantities than 320 acres, until in 1820 the credit system was abolished and sales of eighty-acre lots per- mitted, and the price fixed at $1.25 per acre. Subsequently entries also were allowed for forty-acre lots. Under the credit system there had been sold in Illinois 1,593,247 acres.
In every instance the following tracts were excepted from sale : (1) One thirty-sixth portion (640 acres) of each township for the support of schools. (2) Seven entire townships, viz: Two in Ohio and one each in the territories of Michigan, Indi- ana, Illinois, Mississippi, and Louisiana, were reserved for the support of seminaries of learning. (3) All salt-springs and lead- mines were also reserved, but might be leased by the president.
* "Public Domain," 17.
Authorities : Laws and Journals of Congress ; Article in "North American Review," April, 1876, by W. F. Poole; "The St. Clair Papers," by W. H. Smith; " Life, Journal and Correspondence of Manasseh Cutler," by W. P. and J. P. Cutler; " Charters and Constitutions," by Ben. Perley Poore; "The Public Do- main," Congressional Document.
CHAPTER XIII.
As a Part of the Northwest Territory-Illinois Merged into St. Clair County-First Officers-Land-Titles in Illinois - Indian Disturbances-St. Clair's Defeat- Randolph County - Early Attempts to Dismember the American Union, 1789-1800.
T' `HE chronological sequence of events having been broken somewhat in the two foregoing chapters, it will now be resumed before taking up the subject of Indian treaties.
A plan for the government of the Northwest Territory hav- ing been formulated and adopted by congress, it became neces- sary to appoint officers to administer it.
This question had already received some consideration, even at the time of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787. That famous statute and the act authorizing the sale of western lands were in charge of congressional committees whose personnel was almost identical, both having the same chairman, and three of the members of one being also members of the other. It soon transpired that the parties interested in the Ohio Land Com- pany desired Gen. Parsons for governor. The act of congress providing for the sale, as passed July 23, was not satisfactory to the proposed purchasers, especially in regard to the security re- quired for the unpaid purchase money, and Dr. Cutler addressed a letter to the treasury requesting modifications. There was a serious hitch in the proceedings, and the doctor threatened that unless the terms proposed in his letter were complied with the company would purchase land from the states. But the chief obstacle in the way to success, as he soon began to suspect, was the company's candidate for governor. The program was accordingly changed, the doctor frankly declaring to Col. Gray- son and other members of congress, "that if Gen. Parsons could have the appointment of first judge, and Sargent secretary, we should be satisfied; and that I heartily wished Gen. St. Clair might be governor, and that I would solicit the Eastern mem- bers to favor such an arrangement." The doctor further states
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
that he found this suggestion "rather pleasing to the Southern members;" and the next morning meeting Gen. St. Clair, that gentleman informed him that "he would make any possible ex- ertion to prevail with congress to accept the terms contained in our letter." Dr. Cutler added 'that things went on much bet- ter since St. Clair and his friends had been informed that we had given up Parsons; " and on that very day, July 23, congress accepted the proposed modifications and closed the contract .*
The reverend doctor's experience in public affairs proved to be of great advantage to him in this emergency, and enabled him to consummate his great scheme without the surrender of a single point seriously insisted upon.
The officers for the Northwest Territory were finally ap- pointed February 1, 1788, as follows: Gen. Arthur St. Clair, governor; Winthrop Sargent, secretary; and Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, and John Cleves Symmes- vice John Armstrong declined-judges. The ordinance having been amended to conform to the Constitution in regard to appointments, these officers were all re-appointed by President Washington and confirmed by the Senate, Aug. 8, 1789.+
Gen. St. Clair was a native of Scotland, whence he emigrated to North America in 1755, when he was twenty-one years of age. He entered the army and served through the French and Indian wars and that of the Revolution, leaving the army with the rank of a major-general. In 1786, he was elected a dele- gate to congress from Pennsylvania, and was president of that body when he received his gubernatorial appointment.
He was now to enter upon an untried field. The theory of congress was to be put to the crucial test of actual experiment. Stupendous results might depend upon the success or failure of
* Cutler's Journal in Smith's " St. Clair Papers, " I, 129.
+ Other officers, in place of those who had died or resigned, were subsequently appointed as follows : Judges, George Turner, Sept. 12, 1789 - vice Wm. Birton, declined-resigned 1797 ; Rufus Putnam, March 31, 1790 - vice S. H. Parsons, deceased-resigned 1796 ; Joseph Gilman, Dec. 26, 1796, in place of Putnam ; Re- turn Jonathan Meigs, Jr., Feb. 12, 1798, in place of George Turner ; Secretaries, Wm. H. Harrison, 1798-9; Charles Willing Byrd, 1799 to 1803 ; Attorney Gen- eral, Arthur St. Clair, Jr., from 1796; Treasurer, John Armstrong, from 1792; Auditors of Public Accounts, Rice Bullock, 1799; Thomas Gibson, from 1800; Delegates to Congress, W'm. H. Ilarrison, 1799-1800, William McMillan, 1800-I, Paul Fearing, 1801-3.
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ST. CLAIR'S ARRIVAL AT MARIETTA.
his initiatory efforts to lay broad and deep the foundation on which was to rest the superstructure of five mighty states, and the welfare of the unborn millions who would people them. How to deal with the white inhabitants, separated from the restraints of older communities, and with the red men, who largely outnumbered them; how equitably to settle complicated and conflicting land claims arising from grants and treaties; how to provide wholesome laws and regulations adapted to the growth and prosperity of the inhabitants-these were a few of the profound as well as perplexing problems which the situation presented.
On July 9, 1788, the twelve-oared barge of the governor reached Marietta, the name of the settlement which formed the nucleus of the colony to be planted by the Ohio Land Company; and as he stepped on shore, he was received by the recently arrived citizens with military honors.
On July 15, the governor and judges formally proceeded to organize the new government. The county of Washington was established, and a code of laws adopted and published .*
It was not long before it was evident that there was a lack of harmony between the executive and judicial departments. They entertained different views as to their respective and rela- tive powers, and did not agree as to the character of needed legislation. Some of the laws adopted were construed to be in violation of the ordinance, and subsequently failed of ratifica- tion by congress.
The governor found his situation neither pleasant nor profit- able, and returning to Philadelphia in the Fall, seriously thought of tendering his resignation. But his plans for preferment and the advancement of his personal interests in his old home failed, and he returned to his position.
These laws were not always adopted from the statutes of the original states as required by the ordinance, but were changed at first to meet the supposed exigencies of the case. This action was not approved by congress, but the laws were generally permitted to remain in force until reenacted by the first territorial legislature. After 1795, the laws adopted were almost literal transcripts of those of other states, of which, up to 1799, when the governor and council were superseded by the legisla- ture, twenty-five (limitations, settlement of estates, wills, enclosures, ejectment, etc.) were taken from Pennsylvania, eight (dower, divorce, coroners) from Massachusetts, four each from Virginia, Connecticut, and Kentucky, two from New York and one from New Jersey.
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
In January, 1790, the governor and judges proceeded to Fort Washington, where the county of Hamilton was organized, and the name of the village changed from Losantiville to Cincinnati .*
From here the governor and secretary determined to visit for the first time the Illinois country, and arrived at Kaskaskia March 5, 1790, The county of St. Clair was established (named after himself) being laid off into three districts, and officers ap- pointed therein. The selection of the latter the governor found to be a difficult task, since, as he says " not a fiftieth man could read or write," and the entire district "afforded barely a suffi- cient number of persons who were in any degree qualified to fill the necessary offices." So, doubtless, it appeared to the gov- ernor, but why it happened that so few Americans received appointments, when there were then nearly a hundred in the county, among them the Moores, Ogles, Wm. Arundel, Shad- rach Bond, sr., the Clarks, Lemons, George Atchison, and many others who possessed qualifications above the average pioneer settler, it is impossible to conjecture. Did they prefer to re- main out of the way, waiting to see how they might be affected by the changed aspect of affairs?+
The governor made his first visit to Cahokia April 27, 1790. He found the inhabitants of the Illinois country in a deplor- able condition. Ever since it had fallen under American con- trol they had been involved in no little distress. They had with great cheerfulness furnished Col. Clark and his troops with sup- plies, robbing themselves even of necessaries. The certificates which they had received in payment, were still in their hands unliquidated and unpaid. The authorities of Virginia had re-
* Dillon's " Historical Notes, " 40.
+ The first officers appointed in St. Clair County were as follows :
Judges of the Court of Common Pleas: Jean Bte. Barbeau, John Edgar, Antoine Gerardin, Philip Engle, and John de Moulin ; Justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions and Justices-of-the-Peace : John Edgar, Philip Engle, Antoine Gerardin, Antoine Louviers ; Justices of the Court of St. Clair County : Francois Trottier, F. Janis, Nicholas Smith, James Piggott, B. Saueier ; Judge of Probate : Bartholo- mew Tardiveau ; Clerk and Recorder of Deeds : William St. Clair, a nephew of the governor ; Sheriff: William Briggs ; Coroner : Charles le Fevre ; Surveyor : Antoine Gerardin ; Militia : Lt-Colonel, Bartholomew Tardiveau ; Major, Antoine Geradin ; Captains, John Edgar, J. B. Dubergin, Philip Engle, F. Janis, and James Piggott ; Notary Public : Joseph La Bussiere .- Sargent's Journal in " St. Clair Papers."
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THE GOVERNOR IN ILLINOIS.
fused payment because the obligation had been assumed by the general government, and the latter had failed to provide for them. Added to this they had suffered the loss of the Indian trade, and extortions at the hands of those who had been for- merly their friends. Other misfortunes followed, among the chief of which had been three successive and extraordinary inunda- tions of the Mississippi, which swept away their crops or pre- vented their being planted, together with the loss of their pre- vious crop by an untimely frost.
Father Gibault, the patriotic priest who had rendered such valuable service to Gen. Clark in 1778, in order to meet the de- mands for supplying American troops, and as an example and encouragement to others, had even "parted with his tithes and his beasts, receiving therefor only paper dollars," and was "com- pelled to sell two of his good slaves" to raise a required sum of $1500. He had done all in his power to aid the Revolutionary cause, only, as he claimed, "to perceive that it was intended to pillage and abandon the French inhabitants."
Charles Gratiot, at Cahokia, performed like patriotic services on a much larger scale. Himself and François Vigo, with others, contributed large sums not only to supply troops but also to purchase goods for the Indians to close treaties, without which they could not have been successfully concluded. Gra- tiot presented his claims at Richmond and after repeated visits there, and years of effort, he finally succeeded in having them allowed, receiving but little ready money for them, however, be- ing compelled to take pay in tobacco, slaves, and lands at high prices.
Vigo's claim was originally $8716, a large sum in those days, the failure to collect which kept him poor. His heirs finally succeeded in securing its allowance in the Court of Claims, but the United States appealed from the decision to the Su- preme Court, where it was reaffirmed in 1876, amounting then to about $50,000 .*
The French inhabitants of the Illinois territory had, indeed, experienced the most remarkable vicissitudes of political for- tune. They had become the subjects of their own conquerors and the victims of their own wars. Subjugated by the British,
* " Magazine of Western History," I, 230.
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
deserted by the Indians, despoiled and cheated by the Ameri- cans, it is not surprising if, in their present condition, they looked back with regretful longings to the good old days of French rule, or even to the time when the British were over them, who, if they took their property, paid for it at a fair valu- ation in gold.
The governor remained in the new county until June II, after which time he did not revisit it for five years. In the meantime the government which he had inaugurated therein was far from being a success. The 'militia organization had proved an entire failure, many of the officers refusing to discharge their duties, and their successors manifesting no desire to improve the ser- vice. The men were insubordinate, and had refused to muster for eighteen months. The judiciary was in an equally unsatis- factory condition. The courts were rarely convened, their few sessions being marked by the absence of order or decorum. In other respects also the government was a failure, and the pros- pects of the people were indeed gloomy .*
In 1795 Judge Turner, at the request of the governor, pro- ceeded to St. Clair County to hold court. His visit was pro- ductive of more harm than good. He ordered the removal of the records from Cahokia to Kaskaskia, and removed the clerk from office because he opposed the transfer. Out of this pro- ceeding arose a controversy between the governor and the judge, which resulted in the preferment of charges against the latter, and in his ultimate resignation. The division of St. Clair County, and the establishment of Randolph-named after Gov. Beverly Randolph of Virginia-also had its origin in the same cause. This event occurred in 1795-the dividing line between the counties ran from the Mississippi through the New Design settlement to the Wabash. Kaskaskia was made the county- seat of Randolph County, and Cahokia of St. Clair.
The governor revisited these counties in 1796, and with him came Judge Symmes, who held court at both Kaskaskia and Cahokia.
At the latter place an exciting incident was the attempt to indict Col. William Whiteside and others for the killing of cer- tain Indians. The grand jury refused to find a bill, and the
" Report of William St. Clair, " in June, 1793, "St. Clair Papers."
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LAND-CLAIMS IN ILLINOIS.
governor, who was present, approved their action, stating that the killing was not only justifiable but praiseworthy .*
The complications arising out of conflicting claims and titles to land in Illinois were as difficult of adjustment as they were various and perplexing. There were the old French grants, whose lines were often difficult to find, the British grants, and those of the Virginia authorities. These latter were judiciously restricted and guarded by Col. Todd, but not by his successor, who, it is said, made grants indiscriminately.
To make "confusion worse confounded," in accordance with the stipulations of the deed of cession by Virginia, in part com- pensation for the hardships imposed upon the inhabitants of Illinois by the events of war which followed the capture of Kas- kaskia by Gen. Clark, congress on the 29th of August, 1788, had passed a resolution providing for the confirmation in their possessions, and titles of the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers about Kaskaskia and Vincennes, who on or before the year 1783, had professed themselves citizens of the United States, or any of them; and also donating a tract of four hundred acres of land to each head of family of the same description of settlers. The act was just and right, the difficulty lay in the failure to execute it.
Although ten years had elapsed since the conquest of the country, and five years since the close of the Revolutionary war, congress had taken no action in compliance with the numerous petitions of settlers requesting that their claims be confirmed and their titles quieted. Mindful of the injury being done in consequence of these delays, in his first letter of instruction to Gov. St. Clair, President Washington, in October, 1789, called especial attention to this subject, and directed him to "execute the order of congress," stating that it was a matter of import- ance "that the said inhabitants should as soon as possible possess the lands to which they were entitled by some known and fixed principle."
Gov. St. Clair found the task assigned him by the resolution, which required him to make lists of the persons entitled to lands and have them surveyed, a most trying one, the difficul- ties of which were enhanced by the passage of the act of con-
* " St. Clair Papers."
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
gress of March 3, 1791. This law extended the benefits of the resolution not only to those who had removed from one place to another within the district, but also to such as had removed out of the limits of the territory specified, upon condition of their returning and occupying said lands within five years.
It further provided that when lands had been actually im- proved and cultivated within the limits before mentioned under a presumably valid grant of the same by any commandant or court claiming authority to make such grants, the governor was "empowered to confirm the same to such persons, their heirs or assigns, or such parts thereof as he might deem reasonable, not exceeding four hundred acres to any one person." The statute also contained a provision to the effect that "the governor be authorized to make a.grant of land not exceeding one hundred acres to each person who hath not obtained any grant of land from the United States, and who on the first day of August, 1790, was enrolled in the militia at Vincennes, or the Illinois country, and has done militia duty."
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