USA > Indiana > Indiana, a redemption from slavery > Part 20
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In a political way the Americans regarded the French as an inferior race. There was nothing in their composi- tion of the wild French republicanism of 1793. Their fathers had settled in America with an easy-going faith that royalty and nobility were very proper and good in-
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stitutions, and their descendants had grown up in the same unambitious views. They had no conception of the modern ideas of civil liberty and political rights. They regarded self-government as an imposition on the people. They did not wish to make any laws. Heaven forbid ! Why should they trouble themselves with such stuff ? An honest commandant and the customs of the country were sufficient for their wants.1 In the eyes of the American settlers, people with such ideas were fitted only to be serfs; and yet self-government was nothing more than a matter of sentiment during the existence of Northwest Territory. There was only one election of law-makers in all that time, - the legislature of 1799, - and no election of executive officers at all. The privi- leges of citizenship consisted chiefly in obeying or dis- obeying the laws which the Governor and Judges saw fit to make. As a natural result of the race differences, however, the Americans soon gained the ascendency in public affairs. When Volney visited Vincennes in 1796, he found that the Americans already controlled the place, and that the French considered themselves down-trodden and oppressed. They attributed their unhappy lot to some mysterious kind of injustice, while the Americans coolly informed them that it was due solely to their own indolence and prodigality.2
Near the close of 1789 St. Clair started to the Western settlements. On January 2, 1790, at Losantiville (Cin-
1 The customs which obtained in the French settlements are commonly referred to as the coutume de Paris. The laws and customs of Paris were established as the law of the greater part of the Mississippi valley by the grant to Crozat; but they had become so modified in the lapse of years that coutume du pays would be more appropriate.
2 View of U. S., pp. 367-393.
-
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cinnati), he created Hamilton County out of the lands lying between the Big and Little Miamis. On April 27, at Kaskaskia, he established St. Clair County, in- cluding all of Illinois south of the Illinois River and west of a line drawn from Fort Massac to the mouth of Mackinaw Creek. On June 11 he returned, on account of alarming reports of Indian hostilities, but deputed Secretary Sargent to act in his stead. Sargent pro- ceeded to Vincennes, and, on June 20, organized Knox County, which was made to include all the country be- tween Hamilton and St. Clair counties from the Ohio to the great lakes. These, with Washington County, were the only counties organized before 1795, and during this period the northern parts of Knox County were in pos- session of the British. From 1790 the laws of North- west Territory were enforced in the Western settlements, and were the source of much discontent among the French inhabitants, who did not understand them and believed them prejudicial to their interests. While at Vincennes, Sargent, with Judges Turner and Symmes who accompanied him, passed three stringent laws against the sale of liquor to Indians and soldiers, and against gaming. These were considered oppressive by the French, who had always maintained that "God- given liberty of living" which is supposed to entitle a man to get drunk, or furnish materials for intoxication to others, when he likes. The law against the sale of liquor to Indians was repealed in 1795, and Vincennes soon became the scene of the savage dissipation de- scribed by Volney.
None of the laws passed prior to 1795 were valid, because they were not "laws of the original states," which alone the Governor and Judges were authorized
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to enact. The Judges, from the first, favored framing original laws, because no state had laws suited to the needs of a half-dozen frontier posts scattered over a wilderness hundreds of miles in extent. St. Clair op- posed such an assumption of power, but finally assented to it.1 On May 24, 1794, the national House of Repre- sentatives adopted a resolution disapproving the terri- torial laws for this reason, and afterwards a joint reso- lution declaring them void was read twice and com- mitted, but no further action was taken.2 Governor St. Clair stated that it passed the House, but was rejected by the Senate, because, "as they considered them all ipso facto void, they thought it improper to declare any of them so by an act of the legislature." 3 On May 29, 1795, the Governor and Judges convened at Cincinnati, and adopted quite an elaborate code of laws from divers states. These were printed by Mr. Maxwell of Cincin- nati, and have since been known as the Maxwell Code. The former laws were treated as being still in existence, though their validity was questioned, until 1799, when they were reenacted by the legislature on recommenda- tion of the governor.4 In 1795 Randolph County was created of the southern part of St. Clair County. In 1796 Wayne County was created, including all of Michi- gan and portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wiscon- sin. In 1797 the counties of Adams, Ross, and Jefferson were organized, - all within Ohio. No other counties were established while Indiana remained a part of
1 St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 334.
2 Am. State Papers : Misc., vol. i. p. 82; Annals 3d Congress, pp. 1214, 1223.
3 St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 356.
4 Laws N. W. Ter., pp. 93 note, 211.
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Northwest Territory, but in 1798 Hamilton County was extended westward to the Indian boundary line, from Fort Recovery to the mouth of the Kentucky River.
In 1798, it having been ascertained that the territory contained " five thousand free male inhabitants of full age " (there were, indeed, more than twice that number), an election for delegates to a general assembly was called. Of the twenty-two representatives elected, sixteen were from Ohio, three from Michigan, two from Illinois, and one from Indiana. Of the five members of the council selected by President Adams from ten persons nomi- nated by the representatives, the only one from outside of Ohio was Henry Vanderburgh, of Vincennes, who was made president of the council. He was a man of much native ability, who rose to the position of captain in the Fifth New York Regiment, Continental Line, during the Revolution, and soon after its close settled at Vincennes and married into the family of Racines, one of the old- est and most prominent there. The Knox County repre- sentative, Colonel John Small, was also a man of promi- nence at Vincennes, where he settled in 1785 with the first influx of American families. He was a universal mechanic, - gunsmith, millwright, blacksmith, surveyor, etc., -and was for many years the most prominent miller in that region. He served as Adjutant-General of Indiana Territory under Governor Harrison, to whom he was always a warm friend.1
1 Somewhat extended biographical notices of the prominent men of early Indiana, which originally formed part of this work, have been omitted in revising. The ground will be fully covered in an exhaustive collection of biographies entitled "The Legis- lators of Indiana," which is being prepared by Hon. W. H. Eng- lish of Indianapolis, and is expected to appear in a few months.
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It is stated by Judge Burnet that politics scarcely entered into the question in the election of representa- tives,1 and this might naturally be expected of the first election in a new country ; but politics certainly did in- fluence the action of the legislators, who were nearly evenly divided between the two great parties of the day. Closely connected with national politics, but not wholly identified with it, was the question of division of the Territory. It was certain that a state must soon be formed from the eastern portion, but on the boundaries of this state depended the determination of its politics. If it extended no farther west than the Little Miami, it gave promise of being Federalist, and with strong New England sympathies. If it extended to a line drawn north from the mouth of the Big Miami to the national boundary, as provided by the Ordinance, it would be close politically, but probably Republican. If it extended to this line, but was cut off on the north so as to exclude the Michigan settlements, it would be Republican, for Wayne County was a Federalist stronghold.2 Governor St. Clair was an ardent Federalist. He had published a pamphlet in support of Mr. Adams's administration, and had made a defense of the alien and sedition laws, which was printed in the newspapers and subsequently in pamphlet.8 He considered it best for his party so to divide the territory that both parts would be held in territorial government as long as possible, and thus give the executive opportunity to gain the good-will of the people through official patronage and other favors. In December, 1799, he wrote a long letter to Senator Ross,
1 Burnet's Notes, p. 289.
2 St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 580, note.
3 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 412.
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of Pennsylvania, urging that from party policy Hamilton and Wayne counties should be placed in the Western division,1 which would leave each division with too little population for advance to state government. He re- frained from circulating his views in the territory, and wisely, for a large majority of the people in the eastern division desired state government. At the same time the people of the Illinois and Wabash countries were opposed to a union with Hamilton and Wayne counties, because the western division would then have sufficient population for the second or representative stage of territorial government, and those two counties would have dominated in that government. The people of Knox County petitioned Congress this same winter for an immediate return to the first stage, assigning as their reason that the second stage subjected them to heavier taxation, and was of no advantage whatever to them.2
There was much personal feeling connected with the public affairs of the territory. St. Clair was charged with nepotism and overriding the judiciary, and he had given cause for both complaints. The judiciary was not popular. Judge Turner, whose arbitrary conduct had called forth severe rebukes from the governor and almost caused his impeachment in Congress,8 had resigned, and Return Jonathan Meigs had succeeded him in 1798; but Meigs, like Symmes and Putnam, was distrusted on ac- count of his connection with the great land companies, and naturally so, because nearly all of the litigation of
1 St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 482.
2 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 489.
3 Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 330, 342, 345, 348, 372; Am. State Papers : Misc., vol. i. pp. 151, 157.
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the territory grow out of transactions with one or the other of these companies. Judge Symmes was con- sidered a peculiarly dangerous heretic by the French settlers, because, in a charge to a grand jury in Wayne County, he had tried to persuade these Catholics that their payment of tithes and devotion of so much time to worship were neither enjoined by the Scriptures nor conducive to temporal welfare. This indiscreet show of bigotry caused so great excitement that the judge was glad to make conciliatory explanation from the bench.1 St. Clair's popularity was also impaired by his contin- uous friendship for Winthrop Sargent, the Secretary of the Territory, of whom it was said that " his pride, his insolence, and his tyranical disposition had rendered his name odious to the Western country."2 Sargent resigned in 1798, and was succeeded by William Henry Harrison, who was a much more acceptable man to the people, but who had little sympathy with St. Clair's ideas. He was a pro-state man and a Republican in politics, though he maintained a judicious reserve on this subject, as did many other Republicans, so long as the Federalist party was in power. He afterwards explained that his ap- pointment by President Adams was due to the influence of General Wayne and President Washington, and that politics had nothing to do with it.8 He had served in the recent Indian war as aid-de-camp to Wayne, and had left the army shortly after his marriage to the daughter of Judge Symmes.
The territorial House organized on September 23, 1799, and on October 3 proceeded to the election of a
1 Burnet's Notes, p. 282, note.
2 Natl. Intelligencer, December 24, 1800.
3 Harrison to Lyons, June 1, 1840.
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delegate to Congress. Judge Burnet states that he was talked of as a candidate, but the only candidates named before the House were Arthur St. Clair, Jr., son of the governor, and William Henry Harrison. Harrison was elected, receiving eleven of the twenty-one votes. There are a few straws which indicate the political current in the House. Edward Tiffin, afterwards Republican gov- ernor of the state, was elected speaker; the contested election of Dunlavy v. Martin, from Hamilton County, was decided in favor of the latter by a vote of nine to eight, - a close analogy to the vote for delegate; and, just before the close of the session, an address to Presi- dent Adams, indorsing his administration, was voted against by five members of the House, though others, who were afterwards leading Republicans, supported it.1 With these facts in view, we may accept with large cre- dence Mr. Harrison's account of the election, which is as follows: "In 1799 I was selected by the Republican party of the Territorial Legislature to be their candidate for the appointment of delegate to Congress. Between Mr. Arthur St. Clair, Jr. (the son of Governor St. Clair), the Federal candidate, and myself, the votes were di- vided precisely as the two parties stood in the Legisla- ture, with the exception of one Republican, who was induced by his regard for the Governor to vote for his son. The vote was 11 to 10, -not one of the nine Federalists voting for me." 2
1 St. Clair Papers, vol. i. p. 213; vol. ii. pp. 447-452, note.
2 Harrison to Lyons, June 1, 1840, in Richmond Whig, June 15, 1840, and Natl. Intelligencer, June 18, 1840. This letter is not to be considered authoritative historically except as corroborated. It is a political document, carefully worded with reference to the issues of the campaign of 1840. It was probably written, or re- vised, by what the general called his " conscience-keeping com-
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Harrison was but twenty-six years of age when he went to Philadelphia charged with the delicate task of getting a Republican scheme of division through a Fed- eralist Congress. He exerted a strong influence in the House, though he had no vote ; and he was ably seconded in the lobby by Colonel Thomas Worthington, who, in addition to laboring in a general way for the Republican plan, was representing the Chillicothe interest in an attempt to have that town made the capital of the east- ern division of the territory. St. Clair put the Fed- eralists on their guard as to Worthington in his letter to Senator Ross, above mentioned, but he apparently re- garded Harrison as an unsophisticated youth who might be beguiled into supporting his own plan. On February 17, 1800, he wrote to Harrison, urging the division of the territory into three parts, one east of the Scioto, one west of the Big Miami, and the third the intermediate country. In this letter there is not the slightest allusion to party policy ; the argument is based entirely on popu- lation, convenience, and other matters of a general na- ture.1 Unfortunately for St. Clair's political welfare, he had in the preceding December written a letter to Timothy Pickering, then Secretary of State, in which he disclosed his real motives substantially as in the letter to Senator Ross; and Pickering showed this letter to Harrison, who on the same day confided its contents to Worthington.2 In this manner St. Clair's political enemies were put in full knowledge of his actual designs when he was on paper before them professing entirely different ones. To the party hatred engendered by this
mittee," - three gentlemen sent to North Bend by the Whig leaders to look after the campaign correspondenee.
1 St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 489. 2 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 570.
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and subsequent political plotting and counter-plotting must largely be attributed the harsh policy under which St. Clair was permitted to pass his old age in destitu- tion and humiliation, -a result which will ever be a blot on the fair fame of his adopted land.1
Mr. Harrison's course in this Congress was such that it led many persons, including both friends and foes in politics, to believe him a Federalist; and in his future career nothing gave him more trouble than this charge of Federalism. He denied it repeatedly, and the cir- cumstantial evidence supported his denial, but his oppo- nents never abandoned their ground. In 1805 it was openly charged that he had turned Republican when Jefferson became President, in order to hold his office of Governor of Indiana.2 On March 20, 1826, in the Senate, John Randolph, who had been with him in the Congress of 1800, declared him to have been at that time " an open, zealous, frank supporter of the sedition law and black-cockade Administration." 3 In 1840 the charge was renewed with unflagging persistence; and it was declared that he returned from Congress wearing the black cockade, and introduced " the odious badge of Toryism " at Cincinnati.4 On the other hand, Judge Burnet in 1840 solemnly averred, of his own knowl- edge, that Harrison in 1800 was "a firm, consistent, unyielding Republican of the Jefferson school ; " and
1 Burnet's Notes, pp. 381-383; St. Clair Papers, vol. i. pp. 248- 256.
2 Letters of Decius, p. 25.
3 Debates 1st Sess. 19th Cong., vol. ii. pt. 1, p. 359.
4 Indiana Democrat, June 27, 1840. The Federalists wore the black cockade as an offset to the tri-colored cockade of France, which was worn by Republicans to indicate their friendship for France during Mr. Adams's administration.
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General Solomon Van Rensselaer confirmed him.1 To Randolph's attack Mr. Harrison replied, on the same day, tliat he had approved Mr. Adams's administration " as to the course pursued by it in relation to the Gov- ernment of France," and that he considered Mr. Adams "an honest man and a pure patriot." He continued : " But, sir, my opposition to the alien and sedition laws was so well known in the Territory, that a promise was extorted from me by my friends in the Legislature, by which I was elected, that I would express no opinions in Philadelphia which were in the least calculated to defeat the important objects with which I was charged. As I had no vote, I was not called on to express my senti- ments in the House. The Republican party were all in favor of the measures I wished to have adopted. But the Federalists were the majority. Prudence, therefore, and my duty to my constituents, rendered it proper that I should refrain from expressing sentiments which would injuriously affect their interests, and which, if expressed, could have not the least influence upon the decisions of Congress." 2 It is most probable that Harrison's line of action caused Pickering to consider him a Federalist, and therefore to show him St. Clair's letter; for though Pickering had regarded Mr. Adams's conduct with "in- dignation and disgust " for two years past,3 and though he was summarily removed from office on March 12, 1800, he had no love for Republicanism. His troubles with the President were due to his preferring Hamilton
1 Natl. Intelligencer, February 6, June 6, July 16, 1840.
2 Debates 1st Sess. 19th Cong., vol. ii. pt. 1, pp. 364, 365. A similar but more guarded statement is made in the letter to Lyons above quoted.
3 New England Federalism, p. 331.
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to Adams as a leader. Harrison's revelation of the con- tents of the letter to Worthington, on the same day, however, must be accepted as conclusive proof of his Republicanism at that time.
Harrison secured substantially what he wanted. The matter of division was referred to a committee composed of Messrs. Craik, Harrison, and Bird. On March 3, 1800, they reported a resolution that the territory be " divided into two distinct and separate governments, by a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami River, and running through a north course, until it intersects the boundary line between the United States and Canada." 1 They gave their opinion that this would at once give the second stage of government to the west- ern division, as it was "supposed to contain at the present time fifteen thousand inhabitants." A bill to this effect was brought in and passed, but it was amended by the Senate. The House refused at first to concur in the amendment, but a committee of conference was ap- pointed, and the House receded from its position ; so the bill as passed made the boundary the old Greenville treaty line, from the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Recovery, until it intersected a line drawn north from the mouth of the Big Miami, and thence north on the latter line to the national boundary. It was provided, however, that when a state should be formed from the eastern division, all the land west of the north line from the mouth of the Miami should be thrown into Indiana Territory. The western division was given a govern- ment as provided in the Ordinance, except that it was to pass to the second stage, or representative government, whenever a majority of the freeholders so desired, no 1 Annals 6th Cong., pp. 583, 1320.
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matter what the population might be ; but in such case the number of representatives was to be not less than seven nor more than nine. The Chillicothe people also secured their object, for that town was made the capital of the eastern division. Vincennes was made the capital of the western division.1
At this Congress, also, Mr. Harrison secured the pas- sage of an act which was an unfailing source of popu- larity to him while he lived, and which forms his strong- est claim to statesmanship with the historian. Up to this time the western lands, by law, were not sold in tracts of less than 4,000 acres. This was doubtless made the law through the influence of the land companies, and on the theory that more rapid settlement and a better class of settlers could be obtained through the companies. The result of it was that the small purchaser had to buy his lands of the companies. It is questionable if the system were ever a wise one, but even if so originally, it was no longer beneficial to any one, and was a serious impediment to the growth of the country ; and one of the principal objects with which Harrison had been charged when he came to Congress was a radical change of this system. He brought his plans before the House, and the matter was referred to a committee of which he was made chairman, - a signal honor, by the way, for this was the first time in the history of the House that a territorial delegate was made chairman of a committee. He reported a bill authorizing the sale of land by half and quarter sections.2 The House passed the bill, but the Senate made objectionable amendments. A com-
1 Annals 6th Cong., p. 1498.
2 The report is in the Duane Collection of Pamphlets, vol. xcviii. Library of Congress.
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mittee of conference was appointed, of which Harrison was a member, and the matter was compromised by authorizing sale in sections and half sections. Pur- chasers were given the easy terms of one fourth down and balance in two, three, and four years, with six per cent. interest, and a discount of eight per cent. if paid before due. For public convenience, land offices were established at Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Marietta, and Steubenville, at each of which there were to be public sales, at fixed times, for three weeks, and private sales thereafter.1 Thus the most injurious effect of the great land companies was swept away just as Indiana Terri- tory was ushered into existence.
During the time that Indiana was a part of North- west Territory, three attempts were made to secure a repeal or modification of the sixth article of compact, or slavery clause, of the Ordinance. The first was a peti- tion to Congress from the Illinois country, dated at Kas- kaskia, January 12, 1796. This petition declared the belief of the signers that the sixth article was " contrary to the promises and assurances made them, on behalf of the State of Virginia," by General George Rogers Clark, when he took possession of the country ; and also con- trary to a fundamental principle of natural justice, in that it retroactively dissolved vested rights. It con- tinued : "Your petitioners then were, and now are, pos- sessed of a number of slaves, which the article above re- cited seems to deprive them of (perhaps inadvertently) without their consent or concurrence. It may be said, as it is the better opinion, that all such as were slaves at the date of that ordinance are to continue so during their lives ; but then it is also said that the issue of such slaves
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