USA > Indiana > Indiana, a redemption from slavery > Part 24
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As soon as the composition of the legislature was known, it was announced that Benjamin Parke would be a candidate for representative in Congress. The "Let- ters of Decius " then began to appear in opposition to him, urging that he was a tool of Harrison, who wanted him in Washington to secure his reappointment as gov- ernor in the following year. They dwelt at length on the extensive powers of the executive, his facilities for influencing the legislature, and the injurious effects of such influence on the interests of the people. Their intense bitterness, the skill with which they are com- posed, and their subsequent appearance in pamphlet form, point to William McIntosh as their author, for he had both wealth and talent, and was unflagging in his hatred of the governor. They recommended Judge Thomas T. Davis as the best man for the office. They must have had some effect, for Parke received but three majority ; 1 and yet it is evident that Davis did not
and it was not lasting, for Floyd soon regained his standing and afterwards became one of the leading men of the state.
1 Liberty Hall, September 17, 1805.
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actively oppose Parke and the governor, for on March 1 following he was appointed Chancellor of the Territory in place of John Badollet, resigned. To the effect pro- duced by these letters may also be attributed the friendly warning against the use of the veto power which appears in the reply of the assembly to Harrison's message at this session.1 As to Benjamin Parke, it will be con- ceded without hesitation that the "Letters of Decius " fell short of their mark most deservedly, for he was one of the purest and most useful men that ever entered public life in Indiana. His pro-slavery views are the only known taint on his character, and this may be con- sidered blotted out by years of honest, faithful service in Congress and on the bench, by bravery which won him promotion at Tippecanoe, by constant friendship to public education, by labors for the success of the Vin- cennes Library and Vincennes University, by founding the State Law Library (now Library of the Supreme Court), and by organizing the Indiana Historical Society, of which he was the first president. We may with rea- son be thankful that his public career was not checked at the outset by Decius, for we have had no such men to spare.
The next business of the legislature that is of present interest was a provision for the introduction of slavery by indenture, for which purpose " An Act concerning the introduction of Negroes and Mulattoes into this Territory" was passed. It provided that any slave- holder of any of the states or territories of the Union might bring a slave over fifteen years of age into Indi- ana ; and within thirty days might enter into an agreement
1 Ind. Hist. Soc. Pamph. No. 1, p. 22; Dawson's Harrison, p. 71.
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with such slave, before the clerk of a court of common pleas, as to the number of years such slave would serve his then owner. If the slave would make no agreement, the master might within sixty days thereafter remove him from the Territory. The clerk was required to make a record of the agreement; and no indentured servant could be removed from the Territory except on his own consent given before a judge of the common pleas. Slaves under fifteen years might be brought in and held, the males until thirty-five years of age and the females until thirty-two, without any formalities except- ing a registry of the name and age of the negro with the clerk. The children born of slaves under indenture were to serve the master of the mother, males until thirty years of age and females until twenty-eight. Masters were required to give bond in $500 that the slave should not become a public charge if he became free at the age of forty years or upwards. The act did not apply to white apprentices, but certain provisions of an act passed at the same session concerning white ap- prentices were made applicable to indented slaves, by which provisions, in case of ill usage, an apprentice (and by the latter act a slave) might make complaint before a justice of the peace, and the justice might can- cel his indenture.1
This act at the time was satisfactory to a majority of the people of Indiana, but it was " much to the dissatis- faction of the minority ; " 2 and this minority was one that grew daily in numbers and in determination to abolish the system of slavery thus thrust upon them. Outside of the Territory, the reception of the law was
1 Acts 1st Sess. 1st Ass., pp. 5-25.
2 Espy's Tour in the Ohio, p. 23.
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not flattering to the legislature which adopted it. The "Liberty Hall " of Cincinnati published an abstract of the law, surrounded by those heavy turned rules through which editors are accustomed to mourn, and introduced by these words : " If it were possible, with tears of blood we are constrained to publish the following sketch of the law of the Indiana Territory respecting Ne- groes." 1 When a man's grief makes him so incoherent as that, we must at least give him credit for sincerity. The " National Intelligencer " emerged from the non- opinionative editorial style of those days, and roundly denounced the law and its makers. It declared that it was a violation of the Ordinance and a menace to the entire Union ; that other territories might do the same thing if Indiana were sustained in this action ; that the slave trade would be stimulated to an activity during the remaining months of its protected existence that was not anticipated by the framers of the Constitution ; that the Governor and Council ought to be removed if they supported the law ; and that Congress ought to refuse every application of Indiana to become a state until she retraced her steps.
This editorial was reprinted in the Cincinnati paper,2 and attracted general attention. An ingenious India- nian, who wrote over the name " Eumenes," replied in defense of the law. He maintained that it was an ad- vantage to Indiana, because its effect would be to open and clear 700,000 acres of rich land. It was an advan- tage to the South, for it would relieve the over-crowded plantations of surplus negroes. It was no less than a blessing to the slaves, for they would be removed from
1 Liberty Hall, September 17, 1805.
2 Ibid., March 31, 1806.
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the Southern States, " where they are driven in famished droves - where farms are overstocked with them - where they are hired out for want of employ to every mercenary wretch, whose only study is how he may strain the most labor with the least sustenance - where they are fed on cotton seeds, stinking fish, and the very off-scouring of the soil - where they are lashed, slashed, fettered, and trodden down - where the least glimmer- ing of hope never comes, but slavery without end. From this soul-sinking situation, worse than non-existence, they are brought into the Indiana Territory, where they are bound to serve for seven years 1 to an industrious farmer, who works in the same field with them : here they are decently clad and well fed with good, wholesome food : here they may learn industry, frugality, and in short how to gain a comfortable living ; cheered and delighted with the sure and certain prospect of future freedom to themselves and their children." 2
Eumenes could hardly have been less judicious in his selection of arguments. In response to him, " Benevo- lensus," of Hamilton County, Ohio, quoted the words just given, and followed them thus : " Good God, what a wretched, but yet what a just picture of human misery, the review of which makes the blood thrill in my veins : yet these are the tyrants who are to grace and populate the Indiana Territory ; for, according to Eumenes, those are the slaves to be brought thither to have their condition ameliorated ! Will this writer prove that the
1 This error apparently arose from a supposition that the law provided for an apprenticeship similar to that existing for white children, which was not the case. There was no limit to the time of service either in the law or the practice under it.
2 Liberty Hall, June 2, 1806.
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tyrant will lose his mercenary and vicious disposition when he enters the Territory ? Or will it be possible that the crossing, or even all the waters of the Ohio will regenerate him? . .. How much happier their condi- tion will be when they have the honor of working in the same field with their masters !! I suppose the master will not exact less labor when the extent of their services is circumscribed than if they were to serve him during life. From such kind of compassion Good Lord deliver us. . . . I have been making some enquiries respecting the growing population of Indiana Territory, but cannot find any comparison in the numbers to those who come to this state. - The bait has not taken. - 'The cunning slave-holder feels too flimsy a security to bring his horde to a country where the term of holding them is so pre- carious. - And those who are opposed to that hellish traffic are afraid to risk themselves in a country where there is a prospect of its introduction." 1
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Our Indiana champion did not escape with this drub- bing. In the same issue came "Corpus Collosom," of Clermont County, with these arguments : "I cannot see how the master's working with the slave will lessen his misfortunes, or mitigate his toil ; as the master that has seven years interest in the slave will feel the same oper- ate on him that a master in the South who has hired a slave, with this exception ; the master in the Territory will work with the slave, and I think this will make the case worse. If they will live better, as you indicate, in your Territory, they will work much harder ; at chopping down trees, rolling logs, splitting rails, and all the most hard and servile labour of opening lands in a heavy timbered country. .. You get seven years out of the
1 Liberty Hall, July 14, 1806.
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most useful part of their lives, and then they are set free ; many of them with enfeebled and broken consti- tutions will be abandoned to get their living by hiring out by the day, month, or year. I think, sir, that if all your pompous arguments are stript of their sophistry they expose these simple facts, that you want ten thou- sand men to serve you for seven years, without paying them that do the labour any valuable consideration for their labour and toil ; and when you can hold them no longer you will let them go free, and have ten thousand more under indenture in the same way." This, double attack left Eumenes in a wiser but less pugnacious frame of mind. He roused himself for one more effort, but in this he abandoned all his former grounds except the proposition that the slave would be happier with future freedom in prospect, and his opponents were content to let him hobble off on this feeble crutch.1
As to the legality of this law there is no room for question, although it was not overthrown by the terri- torial courts of either Indiana or Illinois. Slaves were held here under it long after Indiana became a state, and yet no case arising from it came before the Supreme Court of the state.2 In Illinois, under the state govern- ment, a very peculiar condition arose from the recogni- tion of this law in the Constitution. In December, 1828, the Supreme Court of the state held that registered or indented servants were chattels, subject to attachment
1 Liberty Hall, Angust 11, 1806.
2 The case of Mary, a woman of color, 1 Blackford, 122, which is sometimes cited as putting an end to indentures under this law, has no reference to them. It arose on an indenture made October 24, 1816, after the adoption of the Constitution. For Kentucky decisions against the validity of this law, see ante, p. 281.
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and levy for debt.1 At the same time they held that indentures under the territorial law of 1807, which is the same as that of 1805, were void because repugnant to the Ordinance; but that nevertheless the indented negroes were bound to performn their service, because the third section of the sixth article of the Constitution provided : " Each and every person who has been bound to service by contract or indenture, in virtue of the laws of the Illinois territory heretofore existing, and in con- formity to the provisions of the same, without fraud or collusion, shall be held to a specific performance of their contracts or indentures, and such negroes and mulattoes as have been registered, in conformity with the afore- said laws, shall serve out the time appointed by such laws." 2 This construction was followed in 1836, with special stress laid upon the point that the indenture must have been in conformity with the territorial law.8 It was also proceeded under as existing law in 1844.4 At this time there must have been very few indented servants with unexpired terms, especially as the court had already held that the children of indented servants were absolutely free, notwithstanding the provision of the Con- stitution, " That the children hereafter born of such per- sous, negroes or mulattoes, shall become free ; the males at the age of twenty-one years, and the females at the age of eighteen years." 5 This was the limit of the advance of the Illinois court towards freedom on this line, but in 1845 it made the decision abolishing the French slavery
1 Nance v. Howard, Beecher's Breese, p. 242.
2 Phœbe v. Jay, Beecher's Breese, p. 268.
3 Choisser v. Hargrave, 1 Scam. 317.
4 Williams v. Jarrot, 1 Gilm. 120.
5 Boon v. Juliet, 1 Scam. p. 258.
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as to negroes born after the passage of the Ordinance ; 1 and the remnant of the indenture slavery died out, withi the last relics of the ancient system, under the Constitu- tion of 1848, which dropped the clause as to indented negroes.2
A case involving the validity of the indenture law came before the Supreme Court of Missouri in 1834, and that court arrived at a conclusion which was doubtless satisfactory to the judges, though it was reached by a very unique piece of legal construction. They held the territorial law of 1807 to be void, as repugnant to the Ordinance ; and also that the provision of the Illinois Constitution could not bring any of the indented slaves under legal obligation of service to their masters, not- withstanding they conceded the people of Illinois to have had the right of introducing absolute slavery by their Constitution if they so desired. The ground of the de- cision was that the constitutional provision applied only to cases of indenture made " without fraud or collusion," and that any indenture made during the territorial period was necessarily " in fraud and violation of the Ordinance." 3 This was of course equivalent to a de- cision that the constitutional provision was nugatory, for on this theory it could apply to no indenture whatever.
There was another matter before this legislature of 1805 which claims our attention. It was a petition for the introduction of slavery, addressed to Congress, and professedly made from motives of the purest philan- thropy. It has no mention of benefits to be derived from the change by the people of Indiana. It disclaims
1 Jarrot v. Jarrot, 2 Gilm. 1.
2 Poore's Charters and Const., pt. i. p. 449.
8 Hay v. Dunky, 3 Mo. 588.
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any "sordid motive, or one that springs merely from a view to the present circumstances and situation of this country." It considers only the relief of the South from its surplus of slaves, and the great blessings which will result to the slaves from a removal to Indiana Territory, following, as to these, the line of argument which was afterwards used by Eumenes. The territorial House re- fused to adopt this petition, but their action was not due to the anti-slavery sentiments of the members, for the only one of them who was not a pro-slavery man was Davis Floyd of Clark. A majority of the constituency of Jesse B. Thomas of Dearborn were anti-slavery at this time, but the line had not been sharply drawn on this question at the late election there. He had no firmly fixed principles on the subject, and on this occa- sion had no vote, being speaker of the House. The re- jection, therefore, was due to some other feature of the petition. It contained a request for the extension of suffrage, but no one objected to that. It asked a cession to the Territory of the saline springs within its bounda- ries, but no one objected to that. It asked a change of location of the land donations to the ancient inhabitants of the Illinois, but no one objected to that. It also con- tained a protest against a projected division of the Terri- tory, and this was the rock upon which the pro-slavery members split. After reciting that application for a division of the Territory would be made at the next ses- sion of Congress, and stating an opinion that the division would be very detrimental to the interests of the peo- ple, the petition gives the grounds for this opinion, as follows: "The seat of Government is established at Vincennes, situate as near the centre between the west- ern and eastern extremes of the Territory as conven-
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ience and propriety will admit. It has been said that the distance from the exterior parts of the Territory to Vincennes operates a serious inconvenience to the inhabitants thereof. Your Petitioners believe there is no reason neither just nor plausible in support of the Opinion. The administration of Justice, and of the Government generally, is arranged in such a manner that a Journey to Vincennes is in very few instances necessary. The General Court holds one annual session in each county for the trial of issues of fact belonging thereto and made up in the General Court. It is true that were there a greater number of Judges of the Gen- eral Court, some delay in the trial of causes might be saved, as there could be two instead of one annual ses- sion in each County. But the Territory has recently adopted the second grade of Government by which a considerable expence must necessarily be incurred. Taxes will be as heavy as the people can support for several years. Land is almost the only source of Ter- ritorial revenue. If the contemplated division takes place one section of the Territory will necessarily have to support the expence that is now collected from tlie whole."
To this extent the protest was reasonable enough, but it went farther, and in so doing it revealed a project which had been formed in the interest of Knox County. The petitioners say : "They wish that the United States may be relieved from the expences and inconveniences of the Territorial Government, and for this purpose that the citizens of the Territory should be permitted to formn a State Government as soon as their population would authorize the measure. At present the Ordinance con- templates a division of the Territory into two States.
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But many years must elapse before the two sections will arrive at a degree of population by which this desirable object can be effected. With submission they would therefore propose to connect the two divisions in one State Government, until they severally obtain a popula- tion that will authorise a division into two States. They conceive that no disadvantage could result to the United States from this arrangement, and they are confident that it would be productive of essential benefits to the country. The consideration of self Government alone is sufficient to render it desirable. The Indian Title, ex- cept a part of the Piankashaw claim, has been extin- guished from the Miami to the Mississippi; and from the measures recently taken by the General Government for the Surveying and disposal of Public Lands, a short time will connect all the settlements from one extreme of the Territory to the other. It is less than three hun- dred miles from the Miami to the Mississippi ; from the upper settlements, opposite the Missouri, it is less than two hundred miles to the Ohio; and from Vincennes on the Wabash to the Ohio it is about fifty miles. This tract of country lies in a convenient form for a State. The character, customs, and manners of the people are nearly the same ; their respective interests are the same ; as also the climate, soil, and productions. And the country at any future period can be divided into two States if an accumulated population renders it expedient or necessary." 1
This petition brought an issue on a new question in Indiana politics. The anti-Harrison faction in the Illi- nois country had begun agitating the question of separa- tion from Indiana in 1804. just after the failure of their 1 Original paper, House files.
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project to be added to Louisiana,1 and this movement constantly gained strength as Knox County grew in im- portance through the advance to the second grade, and through favors by the executive to Knox County men. At this time a petition for the continuance of the terri- torial government, as it then stood, might have passed the House ; but a proposal to advance to a state govern- ment, especially when coupled with an intimation that in the subsequent division of this original state it would be desirable to make one state of the lands to which the Indian title had then been extinguished, was a very different matter. That would ultimately result in the formation of two states like Kentucky and Tennessee, having their greatest extension east and west, which was not only contrary to the provision of the Ordinance, but also to the interests of the Illinois people, for it would necessarily continue them perpetually in a secondary condition. In a state extending from the Miami to the Mississippi and from the Ohio to the neighborhood of 39° 30', the capital would naturally remain at Vin- cennes ; at least it could never go to the Mississippi set- tlements. But under a division in accordance with the Ordinance, the capital of the Western territory was cer- tain to go to Kaskaskia or Cahokia for a time, and prob- ably for a long time. The representative and the coun- cilor from Randolph were strong enough Harrison men to support the petition, but the St. Clair County men were unanimously against it, and with the anti-slavery representatives of the eastern counties were able to de- feat it. After this action by the legislature, the petition was forwarded to Congress as " The petition of the sub- scribers, members of the Legislative Council and House 1 Woollen's Sketches, p. 5.
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of Representatives of the Indiana Territory, and con- stituting a majority of the two Houses respectively." It bore the signatures of Benjamin Chambers, John Rice Jones, and Pierre Menard, of the Council, and Jesse B. Thomas, John Johnson, George Fisher, and Benjamin Parke, of the House; but Chambers afterwards denied that he signed it.1
The Illinois petition, which this petition was designed to counteract, was also presented to Congress at the next session. It was quite a formidable document, directed towards two ends, a separation from Indiana and the introduction of slavery to the Illinois country, but par- ticularly to the former. The petitioners, after review- ing their disappointment at not being joined to Louis- iana, and their continuing desire for the introduction of slavery, proceeded to a detail of the disadvantages which accrued to them from their connection with the country east of the Wabash. They portrayed the road to Vin- cennes as "one hundred and eighty miles through a dreary and inhospitable wilderness, uninhabited, and which, during one part of the year, can scarcely afford water sufficient to sustain nature, and that of the most indifferent quality, besides presenting other hardships equally severe, while in another it is in part under water, and in places to the extent of some miles, by which the road is rendered almost impassable, and the traveller is not only subjected to the greatest difficulties, but his life placed in the most imminent danger." But
1 Am. State Papers : Misc., vol. i. p. 485. The charge made by the anti-slavery people, in 1807, that this petition "by some legislative legerdemain " found its way to Congress as " the legis- lative act of the Territory," is unfounded. No such authority was claimed for it.
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the mere difficulty of getting across those terrible prairies of Illinois was not their worst feature. "From the ob- stacles already but very partially described, and from the peculiar nature of the face of the country lying be- tween these settlements and the Wabash, a communica- tion between them and the settlements east of that river cannot, in the common course of things, for centuries yet to come, be supported with the least benefit, or be of the least moment to either of them. This tract of country consists chiefly of extensive prairies, which scarcely afford wood or water, which utterly precludes the possibility of settlement to any extent worthy of no- tice. From the existence of this serious fact, a bar to the interchange of mutual good offices, and of private interests and concerns, is raised upon a foundation too firm to be shaken or surmounted."
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