USA > Indiana > Indiana, a redemption from slavery > Part 26
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were the head and front of the anti-slavery party in Clark.
The Assembly convened for its first session on August 17, 1807, at Vincennes.1 Benjamin Parke was an- nounced as a candidate for reelection as soon as the ses- sion was called, and no organized opposition was made to him. Several articles appeared criticising his failure to secure the legislation that the people desired, but none of any importance except some that emanated from Eli- jah Backus, Receiver of the Land Office at Kaskaskia, who had acted as agent of the Illinois people at the pre- ceding Congress. He accused Parke of preventing him from being heard before the committee, and of hinder- ing action on the proposed division ; but Parke denied this squarely, and in turn charged that Backus had been purely ornamental as an emissary to Washington, not even being of service in securing the favorable con- mittee report ; all of which he supported by his affida- vit.2 This vindication, together with assurances which Parke gave of his intention to work for slavery and division, gave him his election in the week following, by a vote of eight out of the eleven members present; the three anti-slavery men scattered.
The pro-slavery party continued in harmony during this session, as in the preceding one. They adopted a memorial to Congress asking the suspension of the sixth article, but it added nothing to what had already been put before Congress except a formal resolution of con- sent to the suspension. It was adopted both in the
1 The Western Sun, July 25, 1807. The laws for this year make the beginning on August 16, but as that was Sunday, the Sun is evidently correct.
2 Western Sun, September 5, 1807.
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House and in the Council by two-thirds majorities, but President Chambers of the Council refused to sign it. Finally he was persuaded to leave the chair, and Gwath- mey, whom he had appointed President pro tem., signed the memorial.1 This legislature also adopted the re- vision of the laws of the Territory which had been made by John Johnson and John Rice Jones, in pursuance of an act of the last session. The revision is in fact very little more than a compilation of the laws; but in it the extensive titles of the originals are dropped, and no guides are substituted to show the source from which any enactment was taken. In consequence of this, and because the revision soon entirely displaced the separate collections of acts, many laws were subsequently referred to as passed in 1807, though in fact they had been in effect for years. The indenture law and the act concern- ing servants were among these, there being no change made in the provisions already in force as to slaves or servants. The legislature was prorogued on August 26, having taken no other action that is of present interest.
The anti-slavery people were now thoroughly roused to the danger of the situation, and determined to make a vigorous resistance in Congress. In Clark County a mass meeting was called for October 10, at Springville, then county seat, to take action on the legislative resolu- tion. There was a large attendance and a general har- mony of sentiment. John Beggs was elected chairman and Davis Floyd secretary. On motion, Abraham Lit- tle, John Owens, Charles Beggs, Robert Robertson, and James Beggs were appointed a committee to draw a memorial against the legislature's resolutions. It is probable that James Beggs prepared the memorial. He 1 Am. State Papers : Misc., vol. i. p. 485.
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was best fitted of the committee-men to do so, and its occasional verging on Scripture style, together with its statement that " a great number of citizens, in various parts of the United States, are preparing, and many have actually emigrated to this Territory, to get free from a Government which does tolerate slavery," in- dicate him the author. This memorial is peculiarly memorable because it promulgated a theory which was new to Indiana and to the nation - the doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty." It antedates by forty years the letter of General Cass in which this doctrine is com- monly supposed to have been first enunciated. After reviewing briefly the history of the slavery controversy in Indiana, the memorial proceeds : "And although it is contended by some, that, at this day, there is a great majority in favor of slavery, whilst the opposite opinion is held by others, the fact is certainly doubtful. But when we take into consideration the vast emigration into this Territory, and of citizens, too, decidedly opposed to the measure, we feel satisfied that, at all events, Congress will suspend any legislative act on this subject until we shall, by the constitution, be admitted into the Union, and have a right to adopt such a constitution, in this re- spect, as may comport with the wishes of a majority of the citizens. . . . The toleration of slavery is either right or wrong; and if Congress should think, with us, that it is wrong, that it is inconsistent with the principles upon which our future constitution is to be formed, your memorialists will rest satisfied that, at least, this subject will not be by them taken up until the constitutional number of the citizens of this Territory shall assume that right." Beyond this the petitioners asked nothing.1
1 Am. State Papers : Misc., vol. i. p. 485.
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In Dearborn County the people were of similar senti- ment, but they were especially indignant over the reën- actment of the obnoxious indenture law of 1805. Their situation too differed from that of Clark in that they were distant from the other settlements of Indiana, from which also they were separated by lands that were still in possession of the Indians. They were adjoining Ohio and in close political sympathy with its people. Cincin- nati was even more their metropolis than it is to-day. Instead of proposing to remain and fight the question out, as the Clark County people had done, they asked the same remedy that they had proposed two years earlier. They prepared a memorial to Congress " stat- ing that a law for regulating slaves in that territory had been unconstitutionally passed, and praying a revisal of that act, or that the said county may be annexed to the State of Ohio." 1 This memorial was presented to the House by Jeremiah Morrow of Ohio, on January 7, 1808. The alternative proposed by it, of a revisal of the indenture law by Congress, was an apparently simple remedy, though there might be some question as to its legality. The Ordinance reserved to Congress the right of rejecting the laws of the Governor and Judges, but it made no such provision as to the laws after advance to the second grade. It gave the legislature only authority to make laws not repugnant to the Ordinance, and that was all that was said on the subject. As a matter of fact, however, Congress treated the Ordinance much the same as any other law, and had it felt disposed to alter it, or to annul any of the territorial laws, ample author-
1 Natl. Intelligencer, January 8, 1808; Annals 1st Sess. 10th Cong., p. 1331. The original is not on the files ; it was probably among the papers destroyed by the British vandals in 1814.
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ity would have been found for so doing. However in- valid any of those laws may have been, Congress gave a tacit approval to them by failing to abrogate them.
While these movements were progressing in the east- ern counties, an event of almost equal importance oc- curred in Knox. This was the falling-out of Harrison and John Rice Jones. What was their difference has never been stated by any one who could well have known, but the most probable cause in view was the failure of Jones to receive an appointment on the terri- torial bench. On November 15, 1807, Judge Thomas T. Davis, who was then chancellor of the Territory, died at Jeffersonville. On November 24, Waller Taylor was appointed chancellor in his place by Harrison. Davis had also been one of the judges of the Territorial Court, and the vacancy there was evidently saved for Benjamin Parke until spring, when he was appointed by the President. On receiving this appointment Parke resigned the office of Attorney General, which he had held while a congressman, and on June 2, 1808, Thomas Randolph was appointed to that place by the governor. Taylor and Randolph were Virginians who had lately come to Indiana. Both were men of culture, and both served as aids to Harrison at Tippecanoe. They and Parke formed the innermost circle of Harrison's friends in subsequent times, and Jones probably realized that one or the other of them would be certain to get any de- sirable office that was vacant in the future. Taylor went down politically with his party under the Territory, but after the organization of the State was twice elected to the national Senate. He died August 26, 1826, in Vir- ginia. Randolph at the time of his appointment was thirty-seven years of age. He was a graduate of Wil-
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liam and Mary's, a lawyer by profession, and had served one term in the Virginia legislature. He was rated very high by his friends, and was without doubt a man of good parts, but he appears to have been put a trifle out of balance by his pride of ancientry and his broad ap- preciation of his own merits. He was of the Pocahontas blood.
John Rice Jones was no small loss to the Harrison party. He was at that time a councilor, with more than two years to serve ; he had full knowledge of the inside workings of past political movements ; he had the abil- ity to use his knowledge to the best advantage ; and he was absolutely tireless in his political work. Soon after his defection he formed an alliance with William McIn- tosh and Elijah Backus for newspaper work against the opposition, and their bitter articles goaded their enemies almost to madness. That their attacks were largely the product of pure malevolence is evident, but for all that they had considerable effect with the people, as we shall shortly see. For the present we must turn again to Congress.
The petition of the legislature and the memorial of the Springville meeting were presented to the Senate on November 7, 1807, and were referred to Messrs. Frank- lin of North Carolina, Kitchel of New Jersey, and Tiffin of Ohio. They reported on the 13th that it was inexpedient to suspend the sixth article, and a resolution to that effect was adopted on the 17th.1 The House had received these same communications on the 6th and referred them, but no action upon them was taken after the report in the Senate. The Dearborn County peti- tion did not reach the House until January 7. It was 1 Annals 1st Sess. 10th Cong., pp. 22, 23, 31.
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then referred, but no action was taken. From this line of treatment of the petitions, and from Mr. Parke's subsequent declaration that Congress would not permit the introduction of slavery if a majority of the people asked for it,1 it would seem apparent that a majority of the members had settled down on the squatter-sover- eignty principle as the proper solution of the question. If their want of action had been due to a disapproval of slavery they would probably have put a stop to the indenture system. It certainly was not due to mere neglect, for they gave prompt attention to other Indiana matters. At this same session Mr. Parke secured the passage of an act reducing the freehold qualification of voters to fifty acres of land, or a town lot of the value of one hundred dollars.2
During the session of Congress the anti-Harrison peo- ple were making a move for division that involved a new feature. At the last session of the legislature Davis Floyd had been elected Clerk of the House, notwith- standing he was then under indictment for treason for complicity in the Burr expedition, and had just been convicted of misdemeanor for his action in the same matter. The full proceedings of Burr's trial at Rich- mond, extending from May 22 to October 20, 1807, had been communicated to Congress by the President on November 23, 1807. It was very generally understood that Jefferson wanted Burr convicted, and the conclu- sion naturally followed that anything hostile to Burr, or to any person involved with Burr, would be soothing to the President. The anti-Harrison faction of the pro-
1 The Western Sun, February 25, 1809.
2 Annals 1st Sess. 10th Cong., p. 2834, -approved February 26, 1808.
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slavery party seized on the opportunity to make fair weather at Washington. On January 4, a public meet- ing was held at the court-house in Vincennes, at which resolutions were passed denouncing the legislature for its action, and declaring that Indiana had no sympathy with Burr; which resolutions were duly forwarded to Jefferson.1 A similar meeting was held at Kaskaskia on February 18, John Edgar presiding, at which resolu- tions were adopted disapproving Floyd's election, de- claring that the Randolph County members were not present when he was elected, stating that the union of the Illinois country with the eastern part of the Terri- tory was "a grievance of the greatest magnitude," and demanding a division of the Territory.2 A copy of these resolutions was directed to be sent to Jefferson. The opposition faction did not pay any attention to the Floyd matter until July 6, 1808, when the governor revoked Floyd's commissions as major of the Clark County militia and pilot of the Falls. This was proba- bly done at the suggestion of the President, for on this same day the governor announced several appointments that came from Washington.3
The Illinois people also prepared two memorials to Congress, reciting their reasons for desiring a separate government as in former petitions, and specially urging that inasmuch as the region east of the Wabash had three fifths of the representation, and all of the appoint- ive officers, "they who live in the country which is to constitute the Western State are oppressed with taxes, the avails whereof are expended in the country which is to form the Eastern State, and at the discretion of those
1 Western Sun, January 6, 1808.
2 Ibid., March 23, 1808.
8 Executive Journal, July 6, 1808.
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over whom they can have no control." These were presented to the House on April 6, by Matthew Lyon of Kentucky, and were referred to a committee of which Lyon was chairman and Parke a member. On the 11th the committee made a report setting forth the bases of the petitions, but giving their opinion that on account of the press of business before Congress, and the inability of the treasury to meet the expense of an additional territory, it was for the time being inexpedient to make a division.1 This closed the action of Congress for the session so far as Indiana was concerned.
And now came a revolution. Pierre Menard and John Hay had withdrawn from the Legislative Council, and on the recommendation of the governor the Presi- dent had appointed George Fisher of Randolph and Shadrach Bond of St. Clair to their places, thus taking two of Harrison's strongest friends from the House. On July 6 the governor called for an election, to be held on July 25, to fill these vacancies. The time was short, but the campaign was one of the most bitter ever known in Indiana Territory. The Illinois people were in a state of disappointment and indignation. For three years the governor's right-hand man had been in Con- gress seeking to secure the introduction of slavery, and now they seemed farther from it than ever. He had professed, too, not to stand in the way of division, but Backus was accusing him of doing so, and division had been withheld for apparently trivial causes ; besides which the Knox County interest were openly working against division. Meanwhile the governor and his friends absorbed all the territorial offices ; Knox County
1 Annals 1st Sess. 10th Cong., p. 1976; Am. State Papers : Misc., vol. i. p. 922.
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was being built up out of all proportion to the remainder of the Territory ; and the country east of the Wabash controlled legislation unless the Illinois delegation com- bined with one or the other of the eastern factions. These points were urged with vigor, and at the same time the peculiar circumstances attending the advance to the second grade were resurrected and held up as incontrovertible proof of the governor's tyranny.
It is not surprising that with such arguments in their favor the anti-Harrison faction triumphed. In Ran- dolph, Rice Jones, eldest son of John Rice Jones, was elected. He was a young man of twenty-seven years, of great native talent and unusually broad education. He had graduated in letters at Transylvania University, in medicine at Philadelphia, and in law at Litchfield, Connecticut ; and had established himself in the prac- tice of the latter at Kaskaskia in 1806.1 From St. Clair County was elected John Messinger, one of the most useful men in the Illinois country. He was a son-in-law of Matthew Lyon, that impetuous Irishman who suc- ceeded in martyring himself to the alien and sedition laws in Vermont, and afterwards found a balm for his wounded feelings in elections to Congress from Vermont, Kentucky, and Arkansas.2 Messinger was a Massachu- setts boy, reared on a farm, and qualified as a carpenter, a millwright, and a surveyor, by his own efforts. He was thoroughly versed in all branches of mathematical science, particularly so in surveying and astronomy. He was the author of a surveyor's handbook, and was for some years professor of mathematics at the Rock Spring Seminary, one of the earliest Illinois educational insti-
1 Reynolds's Illinois, pp. 140, 141.
2 The Edwards Papers, p. 29, note.
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tutions. He also devoted many of his odd hours to the instruction of his own and his neighbors' children ; and, although not a church-member, was an active agent in the circulation of the Bible through the settlements of St. Clair County.1 He was, in short, a type of the hard-headed, practical Yankees, who came west in early times and built their lives into the foundations of our commonwealths, while others were doing the ornamental work.
On September 26, the legislature of 1808 met at Vincennes pursuant to a call of the governor issued on August 17. The situation was one that made a politi- cal combination a necessity. Councilors Chambers and Gwathmey did not attend. Councilor Jones and Repre- sentatives Jones, Biggs, and Messinger were in favor of division and the introduction of slavery, but were op- posed to Harrison. Representatives Thomas and Beggs were opposed to the introduction of slavery, but had no objection to division. Councilors Bond and Fisher and Representative Decker were in favor of the introduction of slavery, but were opposed to division, and were sup- porters of Harrison.2 Representative Johnston belonged with the last-named party, but was desirous of going to Congress, and was willing to be guided by his legislative constituents to some extent, even against the policy of his party. The combination that naturally resulted was between the anti-slavery and anti-Harrison pro-slavery factions. The former had no serious objections to the introduction of slavery into Illinois, provided Indiana ecame free-soil; they had no objection to division, be- use it would soon throw their capital east from Knox
1 Reynolds's Illinois, pp. 227, 277-280.
2 Western Sun, November 19, 1808.
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County, which would be acceptable to the great mass of their constituents. The latter party, if they could secure division, had no objection to the prohibition of slavery in the Indiana part of the Territory - in fact they were pleased with that prospect of revenge on the Harrison party. The only difficulty in the way of this combina- tion was the selection of a delegate to Congress to fill the vacancy caused by Parke's resignation. The Illinois people favored John Rice Jones, but the anti-slavery people would not support him because he had long been identified with the Harrison party and was a pronounced pro-slavery man. Jesse B. Thomas was a candidate, but the Illinois people were afraid to trust him because it was said, and commonly believed, that he had made pledges to the Harrison party both before and since his election, as well as to themselves. Across these walls of doubt the combination did not pass for many days. Meanwhile the Harrison party adhered to Michael Jones, Register of the Land Office at Kaskaskia, as their candidate for Congress, hoping eventually to catch the Illinois vote. General W. Johnston caucused by himself, and was evidently aiming to induce a union of the delegates east of the Wabash on him.
Early in the session it was demonstrated that the peo- ple had a lively interest in the slavery question. Peti- tions poured in from all sides. On October 1 came the petition of John Griffin and others against slavery. On the 4th came the petitions of "sundry inhabitants " of Dearborn and Clark against, and "sundry inhabitants" of Knox in favor of, slavery. On the 5th came the peti- tion of John Johnson and others of Knox for, and of William Nixon and others against, slavery. On the same day all the slavery petitions were referred to a select
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committee composed of Johnston, Messinger, and Decker -an eminently judicious selection for Mr. Thomas, the Speaker, as it would necessarily put Johnston, his most dangerous opponent, on record on the slavery question ; and this record, whatever it might be, was certain to cut off some support beyond all hope of recovery.1 On the 7th of October four more petitions were presented, all against slavery : from Christopher Wyant and others ; from John Alton and others of Knox ; from E. Mc- Namee and others; and from John Allen and others of Knox.
On the 11th the Illinois members put the Congres- sional candidates to the test, by taking up resolutions to make the delegates in Congress thereafter elective by the people, and for a division of the Territory. This disposed of Johnston. A vote against the proposed change in electing the Congressional delegate would be acceptable only to the Harrison faction, for it was believed that the executive could exercise much more control over the legislature in their choice, by means of appointments and other favors, than he could over the people at large. With him a vote for division was suicidal not only for the present but for the future also, for he lived in Knox County, and the overwhelming majority there was against division. He voted against the resolutions, but he also tried to force Thomas to a record on the same questions by proposing that the standing rules be suspended and the Speaker be given an opportunity to vote. To this proposition Thomas replied that he believed a majority of his constituents were favorable to a division, and as the House already stood in favor of it there was no oc- casion for a vote from him.2
1 Western Sun, November 19, 1808.
2 Ibid., November 19, December 6, 1808; March 4, 1809.
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The petitions still continued to come in. On the 13th three anti-slavery petitions were presented : from Charles Beggs and others; from Robert Robinson and others ; and from George Leach and others. On the next day came a petition from John Badollet and others against slavery, and a petition of William McClure and others for slavery. On the same day was presented a peti- tion of William Achison and others of St. Clair, praying that all anti-slavery petitions before the House "may be thrown under the table." This facetious proposition came very nearly dooming the petition to the ignomin- ious fate it had suggested for the others, for a motion to that effect was defeated by a majority of only one vote. It was very evident that there must be no trifling on the slavery question, so far at least as the country east of the Wabash was concerned. Here were fifteen petitions on the subject of slavery, eleven of them against any legislative action for its admission, and of the signers a majority of over 600 were against it, much the greater part of whom were from Dearborn and Clark.1 The pro-slavery people had never suspected the strength of the opposition. until now.
Whether Johnston still had hopes of an election to Congress, or merely looked forward in a general way to a political future in Indiana, is difficult to say, but that he faced about on the slavery question is certain. He had acted openly and avowedly with the pro-slavery party at the preceding session of the legislature, though he afterwards declared that he was always morally op- posed to the introduction of slavery, and had favored its introduction as a representative only because a majority of his constituents were so minded.2 On the morning of
1 Western Sun, November 12, 1808.
2 Ibid., February 4, 11, 18, 1809.
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October 19 he presented to the House the report of the select committee of which he was chairman - a report which appears to be wholly his own work, and one which is entitled to rank among the ablest, if not as the ablest, of state papers ever produced in Indiana. By way of exordium it sketches the feeling in the United States at the close of the Revolution on the subject of slavery, the abolition of the slave-trade by the majority of the states, the passage of emancipation laws by part of them, and the effort of Congress in the formation of the Ordinance of 1787, "to prevent the propagation of an evil which they could not totally eradicate." The committee shows the existing indenture law to be "contrary botli to the spirit and letter of the Ordinance," and then, leaving questions of construction, it declares " that the most fla- gitious abuse is made of that law ; that negroes brought here are commonly forced to bind themselves for a num- ber of years reaching or extending the natural term of their lives, so that the condition of those unfortunate persons is not only involuntary servitude but downright slavery."
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