USA > Indiana > Centennial history and handbook of Indiana : the story of the state from its beginning to the close of the civil war, and a general survey of progress to the present time > Part 6
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Map of the Territory of Indiana, May 7, 1800. It in- cludes all of the Northwest Territory west of a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States. From map drawn b. E. I. Shockley.
the officers at Marietta they proceeded to their work of compiling a body of laws, the result be- ing a small volume, printed in 1795, known as the "Maxwell Code."
With the history of the Northwest Territory prior to the formation of Indiana Territory. in 1800, however, it is not our purpose to deal be- vond noting in a general way the westward movement that presently extended to our terri- tory. With the opening of the new country the influx began, and "it is estimated that within a year following the organization of the territory full twenty thousand men, women and children
* The Northwest Territory comprised the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and a part of Min- nesota. It was the first public domain of the United States and the first use made of the lands was in the discharge of the na- tion's debts to Revolutionary soldiers. For matter at length on this subject, see Burnet's "Notes on the Northwest Territory" and chapter on same in Dunn's "Indiana."
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
passed down the Ohio river to become settlers upon its banks."* Most of this earlier immigra- tion, presumably, did not go beyond Washington county. The progress westward was retarded by the hostilities of the Indians, whose ill-feeling at the encroachments upon their lands was kept alive by British influences from the north, Eng- land's desire being that this region should still remain a wild territory between the frontiers of the two nations. According to Judge Burnet, "the woods were literally swarming with In- dians, scattered in every direction, and, in addi- tion to other difficulties, those who ventured into the wilderness, from duty or choice, were in con- stant danger of meeting some of those parties and suffering the consequences."+ Nevertheless, or- ganization proceeded and by 1796 there were four counties-Washington, Hamilton, St. Clair and Knox, with seats of justice, in the order named, at Marietta, Cincinnati, Kaskaskia and Vin- cennes.
Character of First Immigrants. - Judge Jacob Burnet, in his "Notes on the Northwest Territory," tells us that "the early adventurers to the Northwest Territory were generally men who had spent the prime of their lives in the War of Independence. Many of them had exhausted their fortunes in maintaining the desperate strug- gle, and retired to the wilderness to conceal their poverty and avoid companions mortifying to their pride while struggling to maintain their families and improve their condition. Some of them were young men, descended from Revolutionary pa- triots, who had fallen in the contest or become too feeble to endure the fatigue of settling a wilderness. Others were adventurous spirits to whom any change might be for the better, and who, anticipating a successful result, united in the enterprise. Such a colony as this left New England in 1787 for the purpose of occupying the grant made to Sargent, Cutler & Co., on the Muskingum river."#
Elsewhere, speaking of the social status at Cincinnati and the garrison there, Fort Wash- ington, during the latter part of the eighteenth century, he says: "Idleness, drinking and gambling prevailed in the army," owing to the fact that they had "been several years in the
wilderness, cut off from all society but their own, and no amusements but such as their own ingenuity could invent. Libraries were not to be found; men of literary minds or polished manners were rarely met with, and they had long been deprived of the advantage of modest, accomplished female society. Thus situated
the bottle, the dice box and the card table were among the expedients resorted to. Such were the habits of the army when they began to associate with the inhabitants of Cincinnati and of the western settlements generally."*
SUPPLEMENTARY MATTER
Proposed Division of Northwest Territory .- Prior to the framing of the Ordinance of 1787 a committee, of which Thomas Jefferson was a member, elaborated a plan for the government of the western lands, and this plan as originally presented proposed the division of the north- western country into ten States which were to be christened with sounding names reflecting the stilted taste for the classics that prevailed at that day. We quote from J. P. Dunn ("Indiana," p. 180) :
"The region west of Lake Michigan and north of parallel 45 was to be a State under the name of Sylvania. The lower peninsula of Michigan north of parallel 43 was to form Cheronesus. That part of Wisconsin between parallels 43 and 45 was to be Michigan. Below this there were to be two States to every two degrees of latitude, divided by a meridian line drawn through the rapids of the Ohio, except that all the territory east of a meridian line drawn through the mouth of the Great Kanawha was to be one State named Washington. Between parallels 41 and 43 the eastern State was Saratoga and the western Illi- noia. Between parallel 39 and the Ohio, the eastern State was Pelisipia and the western Poly- potamia. Indiana, therefore, would have been divided up among these six States last named."
French and American Differences .- In tem- perament, customs, habits and general charac- ter the two elements had little in common. The French are pictured as indolent, shiftless and easy-going, given to vivacity, noise and merry- making, their very manner of apportioning their lands being an index to their social nature, for
* Lossing.
+ Burnet's "Notes on the Northwest Territory."
# Burnet's "Notes," p. 42.
* Ibid., p. 36.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIAN.A
the long, narrow tracts they farmed were so shaped as to bring their houses near together. The Americans, on the other hand, were business- like and thrifty, with an eye to seizing advan- tages, and when the two classes came into indus- trial competition the incompetent Frenchman gradually went to the wall and much of his land that had formerly yielded him some sort of a living went to his competitor at prices little more than nominal. Before this turn of affairs, how- ever, they had serious cause of complaint, as is
flour and corn taken forcibly, and various other wrongs perpetrated .*
These summary proceedings might have been accounted for, in part, by the exigencies of war. for the capture of Vincennes was by no means the end of military operations in the Northwest. but they also indicate that the rude frontier -- man who performed the rough work of conquest that has been described, was not given to gentle- ness, nor, perhaps, to strict justice. In short, the less robust exiles were not fitted to cope with him
The Niagara Falls of Washington county are about 30 feet high. The water falls over three or four ledges or benches of rocks as shown in the picture, which was taken when the temperature was sixteen degrees below zero, in the early morning. The stream is fed by a spring quite a distance from the falls. The water run- down a knob about 150 feet high. It is 150 feet up the knob to the falls. The rock, which is shale and lime- stone, is ragged and rough, making it difficult to ascend. The falls are six miles northwest of Salem. -Orra Hopper.
shown by a letter, signed by sixteen of the lead- ing citizens of Vincennes and addressed to the governor of Virginia in 1781. This letter affirms "horrible treatment" from the Virginia troops. particularly after Colonel Clark left the town, the charge being that they were obliged to ac- cept for their goods and food supplies depreci- ated continental money at coin value ; that their cattle and hogs were killed in the fields, their
and with those who followed him as permanent citizens, and thus the story of French life on Indiana soil has in it something of tragedy.
Francis Busseron's Commission as Justice .- A curious relic among the documents of the Las- selle collection is an early form of commission for the office of justice of the peace. Franci- "Bussero," to whom the commission was issued.
* George Rogers Clark Papers, p. 430.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
properly spelled Busseron or Bosseron, was one of the most prominent French citizens of Vin- cennes at the time of the conquest and for some years after. He was a major in the militia and his name is to the present day perpetuated in Knox county by a creek and a village.
The commission, issued by the "Honourable Winthrop Sargent, Esquire," who is "vested with all the powers of the governor and commander- in-chief of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio," and bearing the seal of the territory, is curious by reason of a legal wording that seems little short of barbarous maltreatment of language, and it is interesting as showing the functions imposed upon the magis- trate. He seems, indeed, to have been a justice, a prosecuting attorney and a grand jury all rolled into one. The commission follows :
"To all unto whom these Presents shall come, Greet- ing :
"Know ye that we have assigned and constituted, and do by these Presents constitute and appoint Francis Bussero, Esquire, to be one of the justices to keep the Peace of the Quorum in our county of Knox, and to keep and cause to be kept, the Laws and Ordinances made for the Good of the Peace, and for the Conserva- tion of the same, and for the Quiet, Rule and Govern- ment of our Citizens and Subjects in the said county in all and every the Articles thereof according to the Force, Form and Effect of the same, and to chastise and punish all Persons offending against the Form of those Laws and Ordinances, or any of them, in the county aforesaid, as according to the Form of those Laws Ordinances shall be fit to be done; and to cause to come before him, the said Francis Bussero, Esquire, all those that shall break the Peace, or attempt anything against the same, or that shall threaten any of the Citi-
zens or Subjects in their Persons, or in burning their Houses, to find sufficient security for the Peace, and for the good Behaviour toward the Citizens and Sub- jects of this Government; and if they shall refuse to find such security, then to cause them to be kept safe in Prison until they shall find the same; and to do and perform in the county aforesaid, all and whatsoever, according to our Laws and Ordinances, or any of them, a Justice of the Peace & Quorum may and ought to do and perform; And with other Justices of the Peace (according to the Tenor of the Commission to them granted) to enquire by the oaths of good and lawful men of the said county by whom the Truth may be bet- ter known, of all and all Manner of Thefts, Trespasses, Riots, Routs and unlawful Assemblies whatsoever, and all and singular other Misdeeds and Offenses of which by Law Justices of the Peace in their General Sessions may and ought to enquire, by whomsoever or howsoever done or perpetrated, or which shall hereafter happen, howsoever to be done or attempted in the county afore- said, contrary to the Form of the Laws and Ordinances aforesaid, made for the common good of our Citizens and Subjects; And with other Justices of the Peace (according to the Tenor of the Commission to them granted as aforesaid) to hear and determine all and singular the said Thefts, Trespasses, Riots. Routs, un- lawful Assemblies, and all and singular other Premises, and to do therein as to Justice appertaineth, according to the Laws, Statutes and Ordinances aforesaid.
"IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, we have caused our Public Seal to be hereunto affixed : Witness Winthrop Sargent Esqr. vested with all the Powers of Our Gov- ernor and Commander-in-chief.
Dated at Post Vincennes the third day of July, Anno Domini One Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ninety, and in the fourteenth year of the Inde- pendence of the United States of America. "W. SARGENT. "Secretary.
"Before me, Winthrope Sargent, appeared Francis Bussero, Esqre. and took the oath prescribed to all offi- cers by an Act of the United States, and also the Oath of Office as directed by the Laws of this Territory.
"In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of July, 1790.
"\V. SARGENT."
CHAPTER IV
INDIANA TERRITORY-BEGINNINGS
The Origin of "Indiana."-Who gave the name "Indiana" to the western part of the North- west Territory when it was set off as a new terri- tory in 1800, is not now known, but it was evi- dently borrowed from a preceding "Indiana" that may be found on maps dating back into the eighteenth century. The map best showing the exact boundaries of this forgotten tract is one by Thomas Hutchins, published in 1778 .* Roughly described it occupies the approximate triangle formed by the Little Kanawha and the Ohio rivers and the western ranges of the Alleghany mountains. In other words, it covers all of six and parts of five other counties now within the State of West Virginia, and it contains about five thousand square miles, or an area equal to the State of Connecticut.
The little chapter of forgotten history con- nected with this original Indiana is interesting and runs as follows: After the French and In- dian war, when the territory in question had passed into the possession of Great Britain, a trading company was organized at Philadelphia to establish an extensive fur trade with the In- dians of the Ohio valley. A large consignment of goods sent by this company down the river was forcibly appropriated by some predatory bands of savages despite the nominal peace then existing between the white and the red men. The powerful Iroquois confederation known as the "Six Nations," which claimed jurisdiction over the marauders, was appealed to for redress; it admitted the justice of the claim, and, as its wealth consisted chiefly of land, it gave the com- pany, by way of indemnity, the Virginia land in question. The value of the goods had been placed at something like a half-million dollars. The vast tract thus acquired was called "Indiana" by its new owners. The name may be interpreted "the land of the Indians," and in it may be de- tected the classical bias that is traceable in Loui- siana, Virginia, Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and many other geographical names.
This was in 1768. Either then or later the owners took the name of "the Indiana Land Com-
pany," under which title it figures in the Con- gressional Journals for several years, beginning in 1779, with a memorial from the company pray- ing for relief. The occasion of this memorial was the refusal of Virginia to recognize the com- pany's title to the land. The case dragged along in Congress as such things do : finally that body decided that it could do nothing in the mat- ter. and in the end Virginia swallowed it all, leaving the Indiana Land Company to drop out of history and Indiana as a region to pass from the maps. By 1798, "Indiana" had ceased to exist.
Territorial Hall, Vincennes, 1808, the Building in Which the First Territorial Legislature Mel.
Two years later, when the "Territory North- west of the Ohio" was divided. a name had to be found for the western part of the region. The name of the now defunct Indiana across the river seemed to be equally applicable to this country, and so in some way, now lost to his- tory, the application was made. In the sub- divisions that followed, our State was the first to take on permanent boundaries, and it retairel the name. This time it stuck, and so the red mien have the monument that the old land company contemplated.
In western Pennsylvania there is a county bearing the name "Indiana." which is probably a reminiscence of the old Virginia tract. This county was erected in 1802.
An interesting and little-known monograph on
* For map see p. 25.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
this subject is "The Naming of Indiana," by Prof. Cyrus W. Hodgin, of Earlham college, published by the Wayne County Historical Society some years ago.
The "Gore."-What was once facetiously known as the "Gore" in Indiana Territory was a long tract in the shape of a wedge or gore off the east side of the Territory, widening south- ward and comprising most of the Whitewater valley. This, along with land about Vincennes and a few small tracts, represents the first terri- tory in Indiana to come into the possession of the United States by treaty with the Indians, and dates back to 1795. By Wayne's treaty of that year, part of the Indian boundary line extended from Fort Recovery (in Ohio) to a point on the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky. When Indiana Territory was created, that line was part of its eastern boundary, but when Ohio was admitted as a State in 1802, the line was shifted eastward to the mouth of the Miami river-a boundary that had really been fixed by the Ordinance of 1787. Thus the triangle in question antedated, as a frontier, the early pur- chases along the Ohio river, though the lands were not put on sale prior to 1802. Ohio has laid claim to this strip of territory, as Michigan has to a ten-mile strip that was added to Indiana on the north, but no serious attention has ever been paid to these claims.
Creating of Indiana Territory .- By 1800 the population of the Northwest Territory had in- creased and spread over a territory so vast, in centers so widely separated that the administra- tion of government and operation of the courts became very difficult in many instances, and cor- respondingly ineffective. A reduction of the area and administration at shorter range became desirable, and hence, in the year named, the most thickly populated section in the eastern part was set off from the remainder. This eastern por- tion, bounded by the treaty line established by General Wayne's treaty with the Indians of the northwest at Greenville, in 1795, comprised the present State of Ohio and the eastern part of Michigan. Until the creation of the State of Ohio, in 1802, this still retained the name of the "Northwest Territory." The western portion, comprising all the rest of the original territory, and extending westward to the Mississippi river
and northward to Canada, was reorganized un- der the name of "Indiana Territory." There were at first three counties-St. Clair, Randolph and Knox, the latter covering all of the present State of Indiana, and the population was given at 6,550 by a census of 1800 .*
Organization of Government .- The form of government as determined by the Ordinance of 1787, first established a governor and three judges whose duty it was to compile from exist- ing statutes a code of laws for the territory. The large powers of the governor, and the entire con- trol by the federal government were the distinct- ive features of what was termed the first terri- torial grade. On attaining to a population of 5,000 free male adults the territory was eligible to a second grade, in which a governor and legis- lative councils, appointed by Congress, and a house of representatives, elected by the people, succeeded to the governor and judges. Laws created by this legislative body took the place of the borrowed code. The territory was entitled to a delegate in Congress, with the right of debate but not of vote. This form of government was imposed until the territory should have 60,000 free inhabitants, which population entitled it to statehood with its own constitution and machin- ery for government.
Beginning of Government .- The govern- ment of Indiana Territory began July 4, 1800, as recorded in the opening entry of the territorial journal.+
The seat of government was Vincennes. The governor was William Henry Harrison, and his three coworkers, the judges, were William Clarke, Henry Vanderburgh and John Griffin. John Gibson was secretary of the territory and acting-governor on various occasions. Harrison himself did not arrive at Vincennes until January of 1801 and prior to that Gibson appointed a number of minor officials and attended to the necessary administrative matters.
One of Harrison's first acts was to convene his judges and proceed to adopt and publish laws for the territory, the result being a code of seven
* This population is said to have been distributed as follows: At Clark's Grant, 929; in and near Vincennes, 2,497; in the Kas- kaskia region, 1,103; Cahokia and other Mississippi river settle- ments, 1,255. Also there were remote trading settlements at Michillimacinac, Prairie du Chien, Green Bay and other points. Executive Journal of Indiana Territory, 1800-1816 .- Ind. Hist. Soc. publications, vol. iii.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
laws and three resolutions. These, chiefly, dealt with the levying of taxes, the practise of attor- neys and of courts, the establishment of courts, the compensation of officers and the establish- ment of ferries .*
The first session of the general court was be- gun by the territorial judges at Vincennes, on March 3, 1801, and the first grand jury was em- paneled with nineteen members.
First Public Questions .- "Between the years 1800 and 1810 the principal subjects which at- tracted the attention of the people of the Indiana Territory were land speculations, the adjustment of land titles, the question of negro slavery, the purchase of Indian lands by treaties, the organi- zation of territorial Legislatures, the extension of the right of suffrage, the division of the Indi- ana territory, the movements of Aaron Burr, and the hostile views and proceedings of the Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, and his brother, the Prophet."t
The Slavery Question .- In spite of the pro- vision in the Ordinance of 1787 that there should be "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude" in the Northwest Territory, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, there was from the first a pronounced attempt to make it legal in In- diana. The entering wedge for this attempt was the fact that negro slavery had existed among the French. This continued to exist and its elimina- tion was but laxly followed up. It is estimated that in 1800 there were one hundred seventy-five slaves in the territory, twenty-eight of which were at Vincennes. In some instances the "in- voluntary servitude" clause was avoided by the slaves agreeing by indentures or contracts to remain with their masters for a certain number of years.
With the incoming American population were many southerners who were favorable to slavery. and Governor Harrison himself decidedly leaned that way. In December of 1802, pursuant to a proclamation issued by the governor, an election was held in the various counties to choose dele- gates for a convention at Vincennes on the twen- tieth of that month, the purpose of which was to consider the slavery proviso in the ordinance. This was a movement of the slavery element. and the result of the convention was a memorial to Congress petitioning that the proviso be sus-
pended. The argument made was, in part, that such suspension "would be highly advantageous to the territory"; that it would "meet the appro- bation of at least nine-tenths of the good citizens of the territory"; that "the abstract question of liberty and slavery" was not involved, and that the slaves themselves would be benefited as those possessed in small numbers by farmers "were better fed and better clothed than when they were crowded together in quarters by hundreds" (Dillon ). The committee to which this memorial was referred disapproved of the suspension and Congress took no action. That, however, by 110 means ended the matter and the attempts to sad- dle slavery upon the territory continued through- out the territorial period. Meanwhile the anti- slavery element was not indifferent or idle and the political history of those years is in no small degree one of party alignment on that question. Generally speaking, the Harrison party of Knox county which stood for slavery was opposed by Clark county and the Quaker element of the Whitewater, with whom Jonathan Jennings be- came a conspicuous leader, and whom, in 1816. they made the first governor of the State. By 1816 the anti-slavery element had so gained in strength as to elect a large majority of the dele- gates to the constitutional convention of that year, and by virtue of this the State constitution fixed firmly the status of Indiana as one of the free commonwealths. This was the beginning of the end, but the tenacity of this nefarious cancer on the body politic is well illustrated by the fact that as late as 1840 a few slaves were reported in Indiana in open violation of the constitutional law .*
Indian Treaties and Land Purchases .- \r- ticle iii of the Ordinance of 1787 defines the pol icy of the United States toward the Indians, one clause being that "their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent." This means that while the United States nomi- nally took possession of the country beyond the Ohio river it considered the land as still in the possession of the original owners. Hence Gov- ernor Harrison was put in authority over a coll . try which, except for a few small tracts the In- dians had previously parted with. did not belong
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