USA > Indiana > Indiana, a redemption from slavery > Part 22
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It is possible that Mr. Edgar's confidence was based on a belief that the governor was, like himself, a Fed-
1 Annals 6th Cong., p. 735. Most of the above particulars are taken from the original on the Senate files.
2 St. Clair Papers, vol. ii. p. 533. .
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eralist, for Mr. Harrison had made no parade of his Republicanism since coming to Indiana. He afterwards declared that his appointment as governor by Mr. Adams was not a favor from a political friend; that "it was necessary to get me out of the way" in Ohio to secure a Federal state there; and that he refused the appointment until convinced by his friends that "there was no doubt of Mr. Jefferson's election in the ensuing November, and that I would be continued Governor of Indiana, and some Republican would succeed Governor St. Clair in the Northwest Territory." 1 In the same letter, however, he says : "I therefore accepted the ap- pointment with a determination, as Indiana had no voice in the choice of the President, that I would take no part in the contest." The closeness of his adherence to this resolve produced in 1805 the charge : " No sooner was Mr. Jefferson elected to the presidency than you began to apprehend danger. . . . From the firmest Federalist you wheeled about like the cock on a steeple, and de- clared yourself a Republican." ? On the other hand, while Edgar may have counted on Harrison's Federal- ism, it is possible that he counted on the governor's not daring to put himself in opposition to the known wishes of the people, or even that he supposed the governor to have no discretion in the matter, for the division act provided that the second grade "shall be in force and operate in the Indiana Territory, whenever satisfactory evidence shall be given to the governor thereof that such is the wish of a majority of the freeholders."
Whatever may have been their theories, Edgar, Mor- rison, and their friends secured and submitted the
1 Harrison to Lyons, June 1, 1840.
2 Letters of Decius, p. 25.
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requisite petitions, and left the governor confronted by a serious political problem. A Republican himself, and anticipating a continued ascendency of his party in the nation, he still knew that the people of Indiana were mostly Federalists ; and he had before him the task of winning their favor and political friendship. If a legis- lature were established, the members would exercise an influence which would weaken his own ; would pass acts for political purposes ; would probably be enabled to maintain their political ascendency in the Territory. True, he would still have an absolute veto, but he knew from St. Clair's experience that a resort to the veto would speedily make him an object of popular odium. His only safe course was to prevent the advance to the second grade ; but to do this without sacrificing his hopes of popularity, he must satisfy the people that it was to their interest to remain in the first grade. He accord- ingly prepared a "letter to a friend" which at once found its way into print. Its effect is thus stated by one of his bitterest enemies : "Previous to this famous letter of the governor against the second grade of government, the people, whether right or wrong, had generally peti- tioned the governor to adopt the measure. A declara- tion of his own opinion, accompanied with an exag- gerated calculation of the expenses incident to this form of government, alarmed the people, by a representation of heavy taxes; and they immediately changed their opinions, for no other reason than those stated by the governor." 1
This dangerous point being safely rounded, Harrison proceeded judiciously to secure the good-will of the people and the support of the influential men, by his 1 Letters of Decius, p. 7.
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appointments, by his efforts to secure various land claimants their rights, and by his endeavors to promote the sale and settlement of government lands. For the last-named purpose a session of the Governor and Judges was called in January, 1802, at which two laws were passed, providing for county surveyors in each of the counties and regulating their duties and fees. No other laws were passed at this session, and there is nothing noteworthy in these except a provision that slaves might be levied on to secure surveyors' fees. On July 20, 1802, Harrison delighted the orderly element of Vin- cennes, and conferred a lasting benefit on the place, by issuing a proclamation forbidding the sale or gift of liquor to Indians within a mile of the town, and also calling upon the citizens to aid in arresting and " to in- form against all those who violate the Sabath by selling or Bartering Spiritous Liquors or who pursue any other. unlawfull business on the day set apart for the service of God." 1
Meanwhile the pro-slavery sentiment had not abated. In the fall of 1802 Harrison went to the Illinois country to attend to official business, and while there the desira- bility of the admission of slavery was strongly urged upon him. The Ordinance had provided no mode for ascertaining the consent of the people to an alteration of the articles of compact, but Governor Harrison expressed his willingness to call a convention to consider the ex- pediency of the admission of slavery into the Territory, and other subjects mentioned in the memorial of 1801, if petitioned so to do.2 Petitions were at once put in
1 Executive Journal, July 20, 1802.
2 Letters of Decius, p. 27. In many respects these letters are unjust to Harrison, but as to the slavery question, from the view
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circulation, but before many of them were sent in Har- rison returned to Vincennes, where, on November 22, he issued his proclamation for the convention. It di- rected that elections should be held at the court-houses of the various counties on Tuesday, December 11, for delegates to a general convention ; the sheriffs were to hold the elections, unless they were candidates, in which case the coroners were to serve; the apportionment of delegates was four to Knox County, three each to Ran- dolph and St. Clair, and two to Clark.1 Two days later a supplemental proclamation was issued directing the delegates elected to assemble at Vincennes on Monday, December 20.
The delegates to this convention ranked among the most intelligent and public-spirited men of the Territory. From Knox County were returned Governor Harrison and Colonel Francis Vigo, together with William Prince, a lawyer of considerable ability who was repeatedly elected to office by his fellow-citizens, and Luke Decker, a substantial farmer who came to the Wabash from Vir- ginia early in the nineties, bringing his slaves with him.2 The most diligent inquiry at every point where there of the present day, they are not. Public sentiment in the Terri- tory, when they were published, favored the admission of slavery, and the writer avoided giving Harrison credit for his efforts in that direction as far as possible.
1 Clark County had been organized from the eastern part of Knox, on February 3, 1801. It included all of the Territory east of Blue River (the present dividing line between Harrison and Crawford counties) and south of the east fork of White River. On the same day Randolph and St. Clair counties were extended east to a line drawn north from the "Great Cave," i. e. Cave-in- rock. No other changes were made in the counties until 1803.
2 The names of these delegates were obtained from the original poll-book.
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seemed a possibility of obtaining information has failed to reveal the names of the two delegates from Clark County, though an old resident hazards the conjecture that they were Davis Floyd and one of the Beggs brothers, of whom mention will be made hereafter. The only certainty as to these two delegates, whoever they may have been, is that they opposed the introduction of slavery.1 The Randolph County delegates were Pierre Menard, Robert Reynolds, and Robert Morrison.2 Me- nard was the celebrated fur-trader who served as the first lieutenant-governor of Illinois. Reynolds was an Irish Protestant of broad, strong mind; he was the father of Governor Reynolds. Robert Morrison, a brother of William Morrison, was a Pennsylvanian who was eminent in official and social life in the Illinois country ; his wife was a pioneer in Western literature, distinguished by a versification of the Psalms, by nu- merous contributions to scientific and literary period- icals, and by the composition of many of the petitions and memorials that went to Washington from the Illi- nois country in territorial times. From St. Clair County the delegates were Jean Francois Perrey, Shadrach Bond, and Major John Moredock.8 Perrey was a Lyonnais, of noble lineage on his mother's side, the son of a prominent French judge, and himself educated in the civil law. He was an emigre of 1792. He did not practice law in Illinois, but held judicial office, and was noted for his learning, his honesty, and his benevo- lence. Shadrach Bond, a nephew of the member of the legislature of 1799 of the same name, was from Mary-
1 Am. State Papers : Misc., vol. i. p. 485.
2 Reynolds's Pion. Hist. of Ill., pp. 133, 242, 249.
8 Ibid., pp. 117, 240, 271.
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land. Reynolds quaintly says of him: "The whole creation should be a man's school-house, and nature his teacher. Bond studied in this college, and Providence gave him a diploma." In later years he represented Illinois in Congress, and was the first governor of the state. John Moredock was a bright, indolent, good- natured, uneducated young fellow, who inherited a large fortune, and was deeply skilled in all the accomplish- ments and vices of the frontier.
At the organization of the convention on December 20, 1802, Governor Harrison was made president, and John Rice Jones secretary. Jones was a prominent character in early times. He was a Welshman by birth, an accomplished lawyer, and noted for his energy and his powers of vindictive oratory. The delegates passed a week in consultation, and on December 28 they agreed on their memorial to Congress. This document, after reciting the authority by which the convention met, pro- ceeds at once to the slavery question as follows : "The Sixth Article of Compact between the United States and the people of the Territory, which declares there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in it, has prevented the Country from populating, and been the Reason of driving many valuable Citizens possessing Slaves to the Spanish side of the Mississippi, most of whom but for the prohibition contained in the Ordinance would have settled in this Territory, and the conse- quences of keeping that prohibition in force will be that of obliging the numerous Class of Citizens disposed to emigrate, to seek an Asylum in that country where they can be permitted to enjoy their property. Your me- morialists however and the people they represent do not wish for a repeal of the article entirely, but that it may
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be suspended for the Term of Ten Years and then to be again in force, but that the slaves brought into the Ter- ritory during the Continuance of this Suspension, and their progeny, may be considered and continued in the same state of Servitude, as if they had remained in those parts of the United States where Slavery is permitted and from whence they may have been removed." It will be observed that the project of gradual emancipa- tion, proposed in the former petitions, is here dropped, and the slavery asked for is absolute and unending.
In addition to this request, the convention also asked for action by Congress as follows : The extinction of the Indian title to the southern portion of the Territory ; the right of preemption to actual settlers on public lands ; special grants of lands for the support of "Schools and Seminaries of learning " for "the two settlements in the Illinois, the settlement of Vincennes, and that of Clark's Grant ;" the granting of four hundred acres of land to persons who would "open good waggon roads and Establish houses of Entertainment thereon for Five Years," on the routes between the principal settlements ; ' the grant of the saline spring below the mouth of the Wabash to Indiana Territory ; permission to the ancient inhabitants of the Illinois to locate their donation grants outside of the surveys originally made for them; an ex- tension of the right of suffrage by dispensing with the qualification of a freehold of fifty acres ; and the pay- ment of a salary to the Attorney-General of the Terri- tory. The memorial concluded with an expression of hope that, although their requests were numerous, " their neglected and orphan-like Situation " might cause them to receive consideration.1
1 These particulars are taken from the original, on the House files.
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This petition was sent to Washington by a special agent appointed by the convention, and this agent also carried two other papers which are worthy of mention. The first was a letter of Governor Harrison enclosing the formal resolution of consent to the suspension of the sixth article, which had been adopted by the convention on December 25. The governor's letter is purely formal. The resolution consents to the suspension of the sixth article " for the space of ten years from the day that a law may be passed by Congress for suspending the said article : Provided, however, that should no law be passed by Congress for suspending the said article before the 4th day of March, 1805, then the consent of the people of this Territory, hereby given, shall be void and of no effect." 1 The second document was a recommendation to the President, by the convention, that Governor Har- rison be reappointed to his then office, - an indorsement which was occasionally alluded to in the political contro- versies of the Territory as having been obtained by the undue influence of Harrison over the convention.2 The convention also recommended John Rice Jones for ap- pointment as chief justice of the territorial court, from which, together with the recommendation of a salary for the Attorney-General, -the office then held by Jones, - it is apparent that he had no little influence with the convention. He was at this time a firm personal and political friend of Governor Harrison, but a few years later became one of his bitterest enemies.
1 Governor Harrison's letter is not on the files. The only printed copy in existence, so far as has been discovered, is in the collection of the Executive Documents 7th Cong. 2d Sess., in the Boston Public Library.
2 Letters of Decius, pp. 8, 28. The governor's term was three years, and expired in 1803.
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The letter, resolution, and petition were laid before the House of Representatives on February 8, 1803, and referred to a committee composed of John Randolph of Virginia, Mr. Griswold of Connecticut, Robert Williams of North Carolina, Lewis R. Morris of Vermont, and Mr. Hoge of Pennsylvania. On March 2 the committee reported adversely on all the requests excepting the grant of the right of preemption to actual settlers and the payment of a salary to the Attorney-General. The portion of the report which refers to slavery appears to have been designed, by the great commoner of Roanoke who presented it, not only to influence the House, but also to appeal to the sober judgment of the people of Indiana. It is in these words : "The rapidly increasing population of the State of Ohio sufficiently evinces, in the opinion of your committee, that the labor of slaves is not necessary to promote the growth and settlement of colonies in that region; that this labor, demonstra- bly the dearest of any, can only be employed to advan- tage in the cultivation of products more valuable than any known to that quarter of the United States ; that the committee deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the hap- piness and prosperity of the Northwestern country, and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier. In the salutary operation of this sagacious and benevo- lent restraint, it is believed that the inhabitants of In- diana will, at no very distant day, find ample remunera- tion for a temporary privation of labor and emigration." 1 This report was referred to a committee of the whole for the next day, but the next day was the last day of the session, and nothing more was heard of the petition
1 Am. State Papers : Pub. Lands, vol. i. p. 146.
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for the time. At the beginning of the next session, how- ever, on December 15, 1803, the petition and the report of Mr. Randolph's committee were recommitted to a new committee, composed of Mr. Rodney of Delaware, Mr. Boyle of Kentucky, and Mr. Rhea of Tennessee. On February 17, 1804, this committee reported favorably to a suspension of the sixth article of compact for ten years, permitting the introduction of slaves " born within the United States, from any of the individual states : Provided, That such individual state does not permit the introduction of slaves from foreign countries : And provided further, That the descendants of all such slaves shall, if males, be free at the age of twenty-five years, and, if females, at the age of twenty-one years." In other respects the report was as the former one, except that it recommended the repeal of the freehold qualification for electors.1 This report was referred to a committee of the whole for the following Monday, but it was not then called up. There was action on the petition subse- quently, but not until after the period of consent fixed by the Vincennes convention ; it was in connection with other matters to be considered hereafter.
Governor Harrison's connection with this convention had much influence over his future political career, and usually a favorable influence. Temporarily, it gained him the confidence and approval of a large majority of the people of the Territory. In the campaign of 1840 the Whigs paraded Harrison's connection with the con- vention as conclusive evidence of his friendship to the slaveholders ; the Democrats made as little mention of it as possible, one of their chief arguments against him being that he was in sympathy with the abolition move-
1 Am. State Papers: Misc., vol. i. p. 387.
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ment ; the Abolitionists were divided. One faction, which had its chief strength in New York, found the record of General Harrison on the slavery question quite as unsatisfactory as that of Mr. Van Buren, and de- nounced both nominations as surrenders to the slave power. In January, 1840, the New York Anti-Slavery Society resolved to issue a call for a national convention to consider the nomination of a presidential candidate, to be held at Albany on April 1. This was a new de- parture, and was opposed by the great majority of Abo- litionists, who did not wish to "drag the question into politics." The national executive committee took no action on the subject, but "The Emancipator," their organ, advocated holding the convention. The state societies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachu- setts unanimously condemned the movement, and that of the last-named state issued an address sharply criti- cising all parties concerned in it, and begging Abolition- ists, " for the honor and purity of our enterprise," to frown upon it. The convention met, but only six states were represented, and of the 121 delegates 104 were from New York. The "Liberty Party " was organized, and James G. Birney and Thomas Earle were nominated for President and Vice-President.1 The nominees de- clined, but they received 7,059 votes out of about two and one half millions that were cast.
It is unquestionable that Harrison believed in the theory of a constitutional right of the Southern people to carry slavery into the territories, not only from his action in Indiana and from repeated public declarations, but
1 Birney and Francis J. Lemoyne had been named for the same offices by a convention of the society of Western New York, at Warsaw, in the preceding November.
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also from his votes, in February, 1819, against the pro- hibition, restriction, and gradual abolition of slavery in Missouri and Arkansas.1 His Ohio constituents did not approve of these votes, and defeated him at the con- gressional election of 1822, “ on account of his adher- ence to that principle of the Constitution which secures to the people of the South their preexisting rights." 2 In that campaign, to the charge of being a pro-slavery man he replied : "I am accused of being friendly to slavery. From my earliest youth to the present mo- ment I have been the ardent friend of human liberty. At the age of eighteen I became a member of an Aboli- tion Society established at Richmond, Virginia ; the object of which was to ameliorate the condition of slaves and procure their freedom by every legal means. My venerable friend Judge Gatch, of Clermont County, was also a member of this society, and has lately given me a certificate that I was one. The obligations which I then came under I have faithfully performed. I have been the means of liberating many slaves, but never placed one in bondage."
In the campaign of 1840 a very different state of affairs existed, there being far more danger politically from the charge of abolitionism, then preferred against him, than from any pro-slavery taint ; and his campaign biographers succeeded in breaking completely the force of his broad statement of eighteen years earlier. One of them followed a quotation of it, as above given, with these words : "It is proper to remark that this society, established by the Quakers, but not confined to them,
1 Annals 15th Cong. 2d Sess., vol. i. pp. 1214, 1215 ; vol. ii. pp. 1237, 1238.
2 Natl. Intelligencer, October 20, 1822.
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was, according to the statement of Judge Gatch, a 'Humane Society ; ' and it seems to have been of a char- acter to which no exceptions were taken in Virginia. A number of the citizens of Richmond were members, and its principles were not understood to be at all in conflict with the rights guarantied to the owners of slaves by the Constitution and the laws of the land. Within a few months after his first connection with this society, General Harrison, then but eighteen years of age, removed from Virginia, since which time he has never attended one of its meetings, nor been either directly or indirectly connected with any society touch- ing the question of slavery." 1 Thus was punctured the bubble of his performance of the " obligations " imposed upon him as a member of this abolition society ; and the remainder of his statement is chiefly oratorical froth. For example, from the condition of negroes in the United States, it is not evident how he could have " placed one in bondage " if he had desired to, unless he had engaged in kidnaping free negroes. It is presum- able that he did not here refer to slavery by indenture, for he had placed negroes in bondage by that method. That he was "the means of liberating many slaves " may possibly have been true, but I have failed to dis- cover the evidences of it; though in one case, shortly after the Vincennes convention, he did interfere in be- half of negroes.
The circumstances were these : In the spring of 1804, Simon Vannorsdell, acting as agent for the heirs of John and Elizabeth Kuykendall, arrested two negroes named George and Peggy, at Vincennes, and was about to carry them out of the Territory. Harrison issued a 1 Tippecanoe Text Book, pp. 69, 70.
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proclamation forbidding this, based on information that Vannorsdell was " about to transport from the Territory certain indented servants, without their consent first had and obtained, with a design as is supposed of sell- ing them for slaves." 1 Vannorsdell was indicted, and habeas corpus proceedings were instituted to free the negroes. At the September term of court, Vannorsdell was discharged, no one appearing to prosecute him; but the court released the negroes from his custody. Van- norsdell, assisted by John Huling, at once rearrested the negroes, but a new habeas corpus proceeding was insti- tuted for their release. This was continued to the next term, Harrison, General W. Johnston, and John Johnson becoming bail for the negroes.2 At the June term, 1805, the negroes were produced, but pending the pro- ceedings George had indented himself to Harrison for a term of eleven years, and the case as to him was dropped. Peggy was released by the court in April, 1806, as has been mentioned,3 and afterwards sued Vannorsdell for wages during her detention, but the trial resulted in a finding for the defendant.4
Harrison's enemies attacked him for his " officious and interested interference " in this case with the follow- ing ingenious dilemma : " In this case the governor has done an enormous injury either to the poor unhappy negroes or to the heirs of John and Elizabeth Kuyken- dall. And the truth of this assertion rests on this simple argument : The negroes were free, or they were not free ; if they were free, what greater injury could the
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