USA > Indiana > Indiana, a redemption from slavery > Part 23
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1 Executive Journal, April 6, 1804.
2 Ter. Court Docket, September Term, 1804.
8 Ante, ch. vi.
4 Ter. Court Docket, September Term, 1808, p. 337.
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governor do a man than to deprive him of his liberty for eleven years ? - And in what terms should the character of such an executive be spoken of ?- If the negroes were not free, why should the governor by an illicit interference prevent the heirs from a free disposi- tion of their property? - The case is so plain against the governor that it does not require a comment." 1 Neither conclusion is just, because circumstances existed which modified the premises stated. That Vannorsdell had no right to remove the two negroes is assured by the two decisions, and by the fact that he was indicted for kidnaping another negro in 1806.2 On the other hand, it is very certain that the negroes would have been carried South and sold if some one had not interfered in their behalf. It was perhaps light consolation to George that he came out of the difficulty a slave for eleven years while Peggy went free, and yet it is probable that Harrison did as much in behalf of these two unfortu- nates as any one then in the western part of the Terri- tory would have done, even though he did not make the record as a philanthropist that he might have made. At least, he and his friends did something, while his political enemies, who were so shocked at his doings, failed to ex- tend a helping hand to the negro over whose fate they lamented on paper for political purposes.
The action of Congress on the petition of the Vin- cennes convention created great dissatisfaction in the Territory outside of Clark County, and set the people to thinking of other methods of escaping the obnoxious provision of the Ordinance. Two noteworthy results followed. The first was "A Law Concerning Ser-
1 Letters of Decius, p. 39.
2 Ter. Court Docket, September Term, 1806, pp. 246, 248.
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vants," which was passed at the next session of the Governor and Judges. It provided that a person com- ing into the Territory " under contract to serve another in any trade or occupation shall be compelled to per- form such contract specifically during the term thereof." The contract of service was assignable to any citizen of the Territory, if the servant consented. The provisions for maintaining the respective rights of master and ser- vant were as just as such things can reasonably be made, with perhaps the exception of a provision that any one who bartered with a servant for " any coin or commodity whatsoever," without permission from the owner, was subject to receive thirty-nine lashes at the public whip- ping-post. This act applied to " negroes and mulattoes and other persons not being citizens of the United States." The only distinction made between white ser- vants and others was a provision that "No negro, mulatto or Indian shall at any time purchase any ser- vant, other than of their complexion ; and if any of the persons aforesaid shall nevertheless presume to purchase a white servant, such servant shall immediately become free." 1
The obvious intention of this law was to produce a legal relation of master and slave which had formerly existed in England under the common law, and which is thus stated by Blackstone : " A slave or negro, the instant he lands in England, becomes a freeman ; that is, the law will protect him in the enjoyment of his per- son and his property. Yet, with regard to any right which the master may have lawfully acquired to the per-
1 Laws, 3d Sess. Governor and Judges, p. 26. The law is dated September 22, 1803, and was passed by Harrison, Vanderburgh, and Davis.
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petual service of John or Thomas, this will remain ex- actly in the same state as before ; for this is no more than the same state of subjection for life, which every apprentice submits to for the space of seven years, or sometimes for a longer term."1 As to its objectionable feature of "selling white men," this law did not differ from the " Act concerning Servants " adopted in 1807. In subsequent political controversies, however, the earlier law was overlooked, probably because the printed copies of those laws were very rare, and yet it was the more formidable of the two as an argument against Harrison. In the other case he merely approved a law passed by the legislature, and justified himself on the ground that he never would obstruct the wishes of the people, as ex- pressed by the lawmaking power, by interposing the veto.2 In this case he was one third of the legislative power as well as sole executive.
The second manifestation of the desire of the people to escape from the Ordinance was a petition from the Illinois counties to be added to the Territory of Louisi- ana, as soon as it should be organized. The controversy over the navigation of the Mississippi had been compli- cated by the secret retrocession of Louisiana to France by Spain in 1800, and our diplomats had since been vainly endeavoring to purchase the eastern bank to its mouth, from the new owner. In the spring of 1803 they made an unexpected settlement of the matter by enter- ing into an unauthorized treaty for the purchase of all Louisiana. Information of this reached Indiana in the
1 Commentaries, book i. p. 424. Of course this could not be considered English law after Lord Mansfield's decision of the Sommersett case in 1772. Loft's Rep. p. 1; 11 St. Tr. p. 340.
2 Natl Intelligencer, September 29, 1840.
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summer of the same year, and it was assumed that the treaty would certainly be ratified by Congress at the special session in October, which had been called by President Jefferson, although grave doubts existed as to the constitutionality of the purchase. The Edgar and Morrison party at once put petitions in circulation, and had little trouble in obtaining signers, for annexation to Louisiana appeared to offer relief from all the vexations of which the Illinois people had been complaining. Slavery and speedy population would be theirs. By this move, also, the Edgar and Morrison party would get rid of Harrison, under whose administration they were get- ting a very small share of the offices. In fact the Har- rison party charged that this was their only motive, and claimed that they had formed a plan for Edgar to be governor, and Robert Morrison secretary, of the new territory.1
The petition was presented to Congress, considered in committee, and reported upon ; 2 but Congress adopted other plans. So much of the new purchase as lay south of 33º north latitude (the southern line of Arkansas) was organized as the Territory of Orleans ; the northern part was named the District of Louisiana. For purposes of government the latter was joined to Indiana Terri- tory, but it was not made a part of Indiana ; nor was it made a dependency of Indiana ; nor was the Ordi- nance made its fundamental law. The provision was that the governor, judges, and secretary of Indiana should perform the duties of their respective offices for
1 Woollen's Biog. and Hist. Sketches of Early Ind., p. 5.
2 Annals Sth Cong. 1st Sess., pp. 489, 555, 623. There were several other schemes before Congress and numerous candidates for the offices. Edwards Papers, p. 30.
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Louisiana also.1 Indiana Territory and the District of Louisiana, therefore, were two distinct and independent governments, but with the same officers. In this way, at least, the law was construed and carried into operation. The Governor and Judges assembled in the fall, and on October 1 passed six laws for the District of Louisiana ; but, although they were passed at Vincennes, these laws did not affect Indiana ; nor was any law of Indiana, in form, extended over Louisiana. The law that received most attention at this legislative meeting was a long and minutely detailed code for the regulation of slavery. Its provisions were fairly humane, and it was so satisfactory that it remained unmodified for years ; indeed, many of its provisions were in force so long as slavery existed in Missouri.2
The extent of the District of Louisiana was enormous, but its civilized population did not exceed 10,000, and these were nearly all within thirty miles of St. Louis. The increase of official labor was found very burden- some, especially by the judges and the secretary ; 3 and the people of Louisiana were in a furor of indignation over the form of government provided for them. They held a convention at St. Louis in September, 1804, and remonstrated vigorously ; their principal grounds being the inconvenience of having their officials so distant from them, and a fear that Congress had joined them to a territory in which the Ordinance was in effect as a pre- 1 Annals Sth Cong. 1st Sess., p. 1293. The act was approved March 26, 1804.
2 For these laws see Rev. Laws of La. Terr. 1808. The exist- ing laws of the District were retained in force by the act of Con- gress " until altered, modified, or repealed by the Governor and Judges of Indiana Territory."
3 Annals 1st Sess 9th Cong., p. 453.
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liminary to the abolition of slavery.1 Their objections were heard, and on March 4, 1805, the District of Louisiana was erected into a separate territory, with the Mississippi for its eastern boundary.2
During the year of Louisiana's government by Indiana officials, Indiana Territory advanced to the second grade ; and the manner in which this change was made formed a fruitful theme for political controversy in the Terri- tory. The condition of Indiana was not what it had been when the advance to the second grade was asked in 1801. When Ohio became a state, a large amount of territory had been added to Indiana, and from this two new counties had been organized. On January 24, 1803, Wayne County was created of the lands east of a north and south line through the western extreme of Lake Michigan, and north of an east and west line through the southern extreme of the same. On the same day the lands east of the Greenville treaty line were added to Clark County, and so remained until March of the same year, when they were made an independent county under the name of Dearborn. A vast addition to the lands available for settlement had been made by treaties with the Indians. By the first of these, on June 7, 1803, there was no real acquisition of territory, but the bounds of the ancient " Vincennes tract " were definitely fixed, so that its survey and sale might be completed. On August 13, 1803, the Kaskaskias had surrendered all of Illinois south of the Kaskaskia River except two small reservations. On August 18, 1804, the Delawares had ceded all of southwestern Indiana, below the Vincennes tract and the old road from Clarksville to Vincennes,
1 Am. State Papers : Misc., vol. i. p. 400.
2 Annals 8th Cong. 2d Sess., p. 1684.
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and on the 27th of the same month the cession was rati- fied by the Piankeshaws, the only tribe recognized as holding a conflicting title. In March, 1804, Congress had passed a law for the survey and sale of the two cessions first mentioned, and to establish land offices at Kaskaskia and Vincennes.
There had been some increase of population by im- migration, and there was every prospect of a more rapid increase ; and yet the population was still so scanty that an advance to the second grade would be a burdensome expense to the people. It would have been much more so if the expense had been as great as Harrison had pictured it three years earlier. Besides this, the people of Wayne County were clamoring for separation from Indiana Territory ; and they had come near securing it at the last Congress. In brief, the change of position since 1801 was so slight, and the inconsistency of a change of opinion on the subject so manifest, that Har- rison did not advocate the measure openly, though he voted for it and his friends worked for it; and the op- position took the ground that there had been no material increase of population in the Territory.1 It is not cred- ible that the change of population was the cause of the desire for the advance, though it was the principal as- signed reason. The key to the movement will be found in some additional reasons afterwards given by one of its most active advocates, as follows : "That the people [on entering the second grade] would be entitled to a partial representative government; that they would have absolute control over one branch of the legislature ; that it would give them a representative in Congress, and although he would not be entitled to vote, yet from
1 Letters of Decius, p. 7.
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his situation he would acquire respect and attention, and would give a faithful representation of our situation ; and that some sacrifices ought to be made to obtain even the partial exercise of the rights considered so dear and of such universal importance to the several states." 1
On their face these reasons would appear to have been as cogent in 1801 as in 1804, but there were changed circumstances in 1804 which gave them a much greater weight politically. The great desire of a major- ity of the people was to obtain an authorization of the introduction of slavery, but during four years of the first grade their efforts to secure it had been fruitless. Three times their prayers had been presented to Con- gress, and three times Congress had turned a deaf ear to them. If they had a representative in the body, one who would make it his business to urge their needs and desires, a more respectful attention might be hoped. The legislative authorities of the Territory had done all they could to legalize the introduction of slavery by in- denture, but the result was not satisfactory. The Van- norsdell cases had called the attention of legal men to the nature of the statutory provisions, and their inade- quacy to the end in view was very manifest. The courts might rightfully be given authority to enforce contracts made outside the Territory if valid where made, but no authority could be given to enforce a contract that was void where made. Slavery was clearly duress ; a con- tract made under duress was null at common law ; the common law obtained in all the nation except the newly acquired French territory. The Governor and Judges could not remedy the defect because there was no law of any of the original states that would better the situa- 1 Woollen's Sketches, p. 6.
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tion ; but a legislature would not thus be restricted in the adoption of measures, and could probably devise some satisfactory remedy.
It was plain that the road to slavery led through the second grade ; and for political reasons, independent of personal inclinations, the Harrison party were desirous of securing the introduction of slavery. The prospects of a rapid increase of population warned them that the second grade must soon be reached ; and a political party must be in the good graces of the people when it was reached, if it were to remain in existence. A majority of the people in the Territory desired the introduction of slavery, but that majority was constantly dwindling away, because the immigration was restricted to non- slaveholders, who were almost unanimously opposed to the introduction of slavery; and unless some means of , inducing an immigration of pro-slavery men were found, there was almost a certainty of an anti-slavery majority at no distant time. This would mean a suspension of power, if not a lasting quietus, to the Harrison party, for they were already firmly committed to the pro-
slavery movement. They were obliged to fight through on the position they had taken ; and, as Harrison could not consistently refute his own arguments, the leader- ship devolved on Benjamin Parke, a young gentleman from New Jersey who had been practicing law in Vin- cennes since 1801, and whose talents, learning, and ele- vated moral character had given him high standing in the Territory. Other prominent men of Knox County, who favored the advance, were Colonel Vigo, John Rice Jones, Henry Hurst (clerk of the territorial court), John Johnson, and General W. Johnston.1
1 Woollen's Sketches, p. 7.
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Inconsistent as was Harrison's position, his enemies were in a worse one. Edgar and Morrison, who had championed the advance to the second grade in 1801, were now violently opposed to it, and for no conceiv- able reason except that their political foes favored it. In 1801 they claimed that the increase of taxation would be small, and of slight importance as compared with the great benefits to be derived from the change. In 1804, notwithstanding the increase of population and taxable property, and the bright prospect of rapid settlement in the newly purchased lands, they could see nothing but ruin for the people from the impending increase of tax- ation. For months they had been bemoaning the great extent of the governor's official power, and denouncing him for a tyrannical exercise of it; yet now they could see only danger to the liberties of the people from a measure which largely diminished that power. Their cause was weak, and even in Randolph County they met with active opposition under the leadership of Pierre Menard and Dr. George Fisher - the sheriff of the county. In Knox County the principal opposition to the advance came from Henry Vanderburgh and Wil- liam McIntosh. McIntosh was a Scotchman who had lived in Vincennes since the Revolutionary war. He had formerly been very friendly with Harrison, having received from him in February, 1801, appointments of Major of Militia and Treasurer of the Territory, but had recently fallen out with his patron. His opposition to the measure resulted in a bitter newspaper contro- versy, and that in a challenge from Parke, which was not accepted.
On August 4, 1804, proclamation was made directing an election to be held in the several counties on Septem-
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ber 11, to ascertain the will of the people as to the second grade. This left a very brief time for consider- ation of the question ; in fact the proclamation was not received in Wayne County in time to admit of holding an election.1 The vote shows conclusively that the elec- tion was not fully advertised, for the number of votes in the various counties varied inversely with their distance from Vincennes. In the entire Territory only 400 votes were cast, and of these 175 were in Knox County. In Dearborn only 26 votes were cast, and they were all against the advance. In Clark 48 votes were cast, and a majority of 22 favored the advance. In Randolph there were 61 votes, with a majority of 19 for the ad- vance. In St. Clair there were 81 votes, and a majority of 37 against the advance. In Knox County the major- ity for advance was 151, but the majorities in the other counties cut this down to a total of 138 majority in the whole Territory. That this election was legal, as the Harrison party afterwards maintained, is doubtless true ; but that it furnished any "satisfactory evidence " to the governor of "the wish of a majority of the freeholders " is credible only on the theory that the governor was dis- posed to be easily satisfied. On December 5, 1804, he issued a proclamation announcing the result of the elec- tion, and declaring that "Indiana Territory is and from henceforth shall be deemed to have passed into the second or representative grade of Government, and that the Good people of the Territory, from the date thereof, are entitled to the rights and priviledges belonging to that situation."
1 Executive Journal, December 5, 1804.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SECOND GRADE.
THE proclamation declaring the advance to the second grade called for an election, on January 3, 1805, of nine representatives, the maximum allowed by the division act. The apportionment was three for Wayne County, two for Knox, and one each for Dearborn, Clark, Ran- dolph, and St. Clair. The members-elect convened at Vincennes on February 1, and on proceeding to consider the qualifications of members of their house, declared the election in St. Clair County null and void because the polling had been forcibly stopped by a mob of oppo- nents to the second grade.1 The only additional busi- ness of the House was to make the nominations for the Council, which were as follows : John Rice Jones and Jacob Kuykendall of Knox, Samuel Gwathmey and Marston G. Clark of Clark, Benjamin Chambers of Dearborn, John Hay and Jean François Perrey of St. Clair, Pierre Menard of Randolph, James May and James Henry of Wayne.2 On receiving these names, President Jefferson returned them to Governor Har- rison, and delegated to him the right of selection,3 but
1 Laws 2d Sess. 2d Gen. Ass., p. 13.
2 Congress had detached Michigan (Wayne County) from In- diana Territory by act of January 11, but information of the change had not yet reached Vincennes.
8 Dawson's Harrison, p. 71.
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this was not made public until long afterwards. As those rejected could hardly have failed to consider the selection a personal slight, the appointments were an- nounced as being made by the President.1 Wayne County having been detached, the governor appointed one councilor from each of the five counties remaining, as follows : Benjamin Chambers of Dearborn, Samuel Gwathmey of Clark, John Rice Jones of Knox, Pierre Menard of Randolph, and John Hay of St. Clair.
Of these men, Menard and Jones are already known to the reader. Benjamin Chambers was a Pennsylva- nian, a son of the Revolutionary general, and was one of the first surveyors of southeastern Indiana. He became proprietor of Lawrenceburgh after the failure of Vance, the original owner. In 1803 Harrison had appointed him a judge of the Common Pleas, and lieutenant- colonel of the Dearborn militia. Samuel Gwathmey was a Virginian whom Harrison had appointed clerk of the courts of Clark County in 1801, and treasurer of the county in the following year. He was also one of the first trustees of the town of Jeffersonville. He held slaves in the territorial period.2 John Hay, a son of Governor Hay of Canada, received a collegiate education at Three Rivers, but entered the fur-trade on the death of his father in 1785. In 1793 he settled at Cahokia, where he was universally loved for his most estimable qualities, and where he was kept continuously in offices of trust by St. Clair, Harrison, and the authorities of the general government. He was a personal as well as political friend of Harrison, and headed the cavalcade of Illinois people who escorted the governor to St. Louis
1 Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Mercury, July 2, 1805.
2 Western Sun, April 30, 1814.
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in 1804, when he took possession of Upper Louisiana for the United States.
The detachment of Michigan left the House with only five members, but, there being a vacancy for St. Clair County, the governor, on April 18, 1805, directed a special election to be held in that county on May 20 for two representatives, thus increasing the membership of the House to the minimumn under the division act. The legislature convened on July 29, in response to a call of June 7. The representatives were Jesse B. Thomas of Dearborn, Davis Floyd of Clark, Benjamin Parke and John Johnson of Knox, Shadrach Bond and William Biggs of St. Clair, and Dr. George Fisher of Randolph. Of these we have met Parke, Bond, and Fisher. Jesse B. Thomas was a native of Maryland, who came to Kentucky in 1799, and, after reading law with his brother, settled at Lawrenceburgh in 1803. He soon drifted into politics, and never drifted out. He was regarded as "tricky " by his contemporaries, and owed much of his political success to practicing upon his favorite maxim, " You cannot talk a man down, but you can whisper him to death." Davis Floyd was a Virginian who had served under George Rogers Clark. He settled in Clark's Grant, where he kept a tavern and operated a ferry across the Ohio. He was appointed recorder of Clark County in 1801, and sheriff in 1802, by Harrison. His political career was tem- pararily suspended a little later by a conviction of im- plication in Aaron Burr's conspiracy, for which, how- ever, he received a sentence of three hours' imprison- ment only.1 John Johnson also was a Virginian. He
1 Western Sun, November 25 to December 16, 1807. This episode constituted the chief effect of Burr's project in Indiana,
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settled at Vincennes at the organization of Indiana Territory, and soon took rank as one of the ablest law- yers in the Territory, although he was not a fluent speaker. He took an active part in local politics, always as a consistent pro-slavery man. William Biggs, a Marylander, was a noted character in St. Clair County. He served under Clark in the famous Illinois campaign, and located among the French settlers soon afterwards. In 1788 he was captured by a party of Kickapoos and carried to the Wabash towns, whence he was soon ran- somed by Bazadone, the Spanish merchant whose goods had been impressed by Clark two years earlier.
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