USA > Indiana > Pioneer history of Indiana : including stories, incidents, and customs of the early settlers > Part 31
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"GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REP- RESENTATIVES:
"The period has arrived which has devolved on you the important duty of giving the first im- pulse to the government of the State. The result of your deliberation will be considered as indica- tive of its future character, as well as the future happiness and prosperity of its citizens. The repu-
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tation of the State; as well as its highest interest, will require that a just and generous policy toward the general government and due regard to the rights of its members, respectively, should invari- ably have their proper influence.
In the commencement of the State government the shackels of the colonial should be forgotten in your united exertions to prove, by happy experi- ence, that a uniform adherence to the first princi- ples of our government and a virtuous exercise of its powers, will best secure efficiency to its meas- ures and stability to its character. Without a fre- quent recurrence to those principles, the adminis- tration of the government will imperceptibly be- come more and more arduous, until the simplicity of our republican institutions may eventually be lost in dangerous expedients and political design. Under every free government the happiness of the citizens must be identified with their morals, and while a constitutional exercise of their rights shall continue to have its due weight in the discharge of the duties required of the constituted authorities of the State, too much attention cannot be bestowed to the encouragement and promotion of every moral virtue and to the enactment of laws calculated to restrain the vicious and prescribe punishment for every crime commensurate to its enormity.
"In measuring, however, to each crime its ade- quate punishment, it will be well to recollect that the certainty of punishment has generally the surest effect to prevent crime, while punishments unnecessarily severe too often produce the ac- quittal of the guilty and disappoint one of the greatest objects of legislation and good govern- ment. The dissemination of useful knowledge will be indispensably necessary as a support to morals and a restraint to vice, and on this subject it will only be necessary to direct your attention to the plan of education as prescribed by the consti- tution.
"I recommend to your consideration the pro- priety of providing by law, to prevent more effect- ually any unlawful attempts to seize and carry into bondage persons of color legally entitled to their freedom, and at the same time, as far as practi-
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cable, to prevent those who rightfully owe service to the citizens of any other state or territory from seeking, within the limits of this state, a refuge from possession of their lawful owners. Such a measure will tend to secure those who are free from any unlawful attempts (to enslave them) and secure the rights of the citizens of the other states and territories as far as ought reasonably to be ex- pected."
BOUNDARY AND AREA.
The State of Indiana is situated between the parallels of 37 degrees, 50 minutes and 41 degrees, 46 minutes north lati- tude, and between 8 degrees, 48 minutes and 11 degrees and 1 minute west longitude from Washington. The extreme length from north to south is two hundred and seventy-six miles. The state, however, is nearly an oblong, the only ir- regularities being the Ohio river on the south and where the Wabash is the dividing line between it and Southern Illinois. The average length is two hundred and forty miles, the aver- age width one hundred and fifty-two miles, making the con- tents about thirty-six thousand five hundred square miles, or twenty-three million three hundred and sixty thousand acres.
By the ordinance of Congress of April 19, 1816, the con- templated state was to be bounded on the east by a meridian line which forms the western boundary of the State of Ohio, being a northern line from the mouth of the Miami; on the south by the River Ohio, from the mouth of the great Miami to the mouth of the River Wabash; on the west by a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash from its mouth to a point where a due north line drawn from the town of Vin- cennes would last touch the northwestern shore of said river and from thence by a due line north until the same should intersect an east and west line drawn through a point ten miles north of the southern extremity of Lake Michigan; on the north by the said east and west line until the same shall intersect the first mentioned meridian line, which forms the western boundary of the State of Ohio.
Indiana is therefore bounded by Ohio on the east, Ken-
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tucky on the south, Illinois on the west, and Michigan on the north.
The titles to the lands in this state have been acquired and the lands all passed through the general government, ex- cept the French grants near Vincennes, which were con- firmed to the descendants of the early settlers there, and the grants near the falls of the Ohio made to Clark's regiment by the State of Virginia for their services in the Indian cam- paign.
In the surveys, meridian lines were first established run- ning due north from the mouth of some river or from some other point easily located. These are intersected at right angles by lines running east and west and called base lines.
The first principal meridian for the State of Indiana is a. line running due north from the mouth of the Miami, and is in fact the east line of the state. The second principal meridian is a line running due north from the mouth of Little Blue river, eighty-nine miles west of the eastern state line. The only base line running through the state crosses it from east to west in latitude 38 degrees, 30 minutes, leav- ing the Ohio twenty-five miles above Louisville and striking the Wabash four miles above the mouth of White river. From this base line the Congressional townships of six miles square are numbered north and south from the second principal meridian crossing the base line six miles south of Paoli, in Orange County; all the ranges of township are numbered east and west, except the counties of Switzerland, Dearborn and parts of Franklin, Union, Wayne and Randolph. This part of the state, which was acquired by the Greenville treaty in 1795, was attached to the land office at Cincinnati and was surveyed in townships from a base line fifteen miles north of the former and it ranges west of the first principal meridian.
Townships are sub-divided into thirty-six equal parts or thirty-six square miles, containing six hundred and forty acres each, called sections. These sections are sub-divided into halves of three hundred and twenty acres and quarters of one hundred and sixty acres each, which last are again sub-divided into halves of eighty acres and into quarters of
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eighty acres and into quarters of forty acres each.
The townships are laid off into sections. commencing at the northeast corner, numbering from the right to the left hand and from the left to right hand until the thirty-six sec- tions are numbered.
The Territorial government of Indiana ended on the 7th of November, 1816, when it was superseded by the state gov- ernment and the state was formally admitted by resolution of _ Congress, approved the 11th of December the same year. The first Senators elected to represent Indiana in the United States Senate were James Noble and Waller Taylor. Robert C. New was elected Secretary of State; William H. Lilly was elected Auditor; Daniel C. Lane, Treasurer. After this the first General Assembly adjourned on the third day of Janu- ary, 1817.
The citizens of the infant state had but very few among its number who were well off financially, and as the amount required to run the state machinery at that period was not large, the taxes on the property were kept at the lowest possible figure. For state revenue purposes the taxes were raised from the land, of which they made three classes. In 1817 and 1818 the rate of taxation on one hundred acres of first rate land was one dollar; on a hundred acres of second rate land, eighty-seven and a half cents; on a hundred acres of third rate land it was fifty cents. In 1821 it was increased to a dollar and a half on one hundred acres of first rate land and other land in proportion. About this same rate of tax- ation was continued until the year 1831, when the taxes on one hundred acres of first rate land were reduced to eighty cents; second rate land, sixty cents, and third rate land, forty cents. The tax for the funds to support the county institu- tions and officers, taking care of the poor and for such im- provements on public highways as building bridges, etc., was secured from a poll tax on the head of every man over twenty- one and under fifty years, and from all sorts of merchandise and personal property and a license to venders of all sorts of merchandise. Even at these low rates of taxation it was a great hardship on many people to pay the small amounts as-
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sessed against them. Nearly all the people were more or less in debt in small amounts, and in some cases for the money which purchased their lands. Very little of the land was. cleared up and productive, and it was several years after 1820 before the people could depend upon agricultural sources for money. Nearly all of the men put in their time on the chase and paid but very little attention to clearing the land or cul- tivating the soil.
While it was true that money was hard to get and many of the people had nothing practically in this way, there never were people who lived better or had more of the real comforts that come to people who are willing to accept the situation and make the best of it, than did the pioneers of Indiana. Their homes at that time were log cabins and were finished in a very rude manner- in most cases with such furniture as. the men could make by the use of an auger and an ax.
During Jennings' administration as Governor of Indiana, the inconvenience of transporting articles of merchandise and of travel, was so apparent that the first note of internal im- provements was sounded by him in a message to the Legisla- ture in 1818, in which he said:
"The internal improvements of the state form a subject of the greatest importance and deserves the most serious consideration. Roads and canals are calculated to afford facilities for commercial transactions connected with the exports and im- ports of the country, by lessening the expense and time attendant, as well as on the transportation of bulky articles which compose our exports, as on the importation of articles, the growth and manufac- ture of foreign countries, which luxury and habit have rendered too common and indispensable to our consumption. They enhance the value of the soil by affording agriculturists the means of deriving greater gains from its cultivation with an equal proportion of labor, thereby presenting stronger inducements to industry and enterprise, and at the same time, by various excitements, invite to a more general intercourse between the citizens. The success which had attended the exertions of the Jeffersonville and Ohio Canal Company affords a
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flattering prospect of a speedy commencement upon a great object for which the corporation was cre- ated, and presents still stronger claims upon the General Assembly to aid in its ultimate execution."
Governor Jennings in 1818, in connection with General Cass and Judge Parks, was appointed a commissioner to treat with the various tribes of Indians for lands in central Indiana. In the series of treaties they succeeded in purchas- ing the Indians' claims to all the lands in the central part of the state. In fact, except the Miami, Thorntown and a few other small reservations, they purchased all the land south of the Wabash river. This was a very important transaction for Indiana, and was of sufficient excuse, in the opinion of the majority of the people, for the violation of the clause in the constitution which forbids the Governor of the State to hold any office under the United States. In order to insure success, the contemplated proceedings were kept secret. The negotiations were not protracted and the offense, whatever it may have been, was wholly inadvertent on the part of the Governor. He was, however, very much chagrined when he learned that his conduct had been called into question. He threw his commission into the fire and left it to his enemies, as he called them, to sustain their charge. The subject came up before the Legislature whether the Governor had not va- cated his office, thereby devolving it on the Lieutenant Gov- ernor by acting as commissioner of the United States. The Legislature, however, appreciated the motives of the Gov- ernor and declined any action in the premises. Lieutenant Governor Harrison immediately resigned his office and at the August election of 1819 was a candidate against Jennings for Governor. Jennings received 9,168 votes out of 11,256.
During the year 1816 the following counties were organ- ized:
Pike County, containing 338 square miles. Jennings County, containing 380 square miles.
Monroe County, containing 420 square miles.
Orange County, containing 400 square miles. Sullivan County, containing 430 square miles.
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During the year 1817 the following counties were organ- ized:
Davis County, containing 420 square miles.
Dubois County, containing 432 square miles.
Scott County, containing 200 square miles.
In the year 1818 the following counties were organized: Crawford County, containing 320 square miles. Lawrence County, containing 438 square miles.
Martin County, containing 340 square miles.
Morgan County, containing 453 square miles.
Owen County, containing 396 square miles.
Randolph County, containing 440 square miles.
Ripley County, containing 440 square miles.
Spencer County, containing 408 square miles.
Vanderburg County, containing 240 square miles.
Vigo County, containing 408 square miles.
Floyd County was organized in 1819, containing 144 square miles.
The first few years after the state was admitted into the Union the price of government land was held at two dollars an acre. One-fourth of which must be paid down and the balance in three equal annual payments and a year of grace after the last payment became due before forfeiture was ex- acted. If paid at the end of four years, interest was exacted on all the unpaid installments. The government allow- ing credit to the purchaser caused many men to bargain for more land than it was possible for them to pay for. In many cases they would borrow money and buy a half section or more of land, paying one-fourth or fifty cents an acre. Good land at this time advanced very rapidly in price. About the year 1818 there was great trouble caused by so many who were unable to secure money to settle the second or third payments.
By 1821 thousands of those purchasers were unable to meet their obligations as it was utterly impossible for them to secure the money. This subject was brought up before Congress and the plan that was agreed upon was probably most favorable to the people of any that could have been
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adopted. All interest, which then amounted in many cases to more than one-third of the debt was released. Lands en- tered, that part payments had been made on, were allowed to be relinquished and the amount that had been advanced was applied on such lands as the purchaser would select, paying for it in full. The lands were thereafter sold for cash only at $1.25 an acre.
The three years of 1820, '21 and '22 were attended with more fatal sickness than has ever been known either before or since in the western country. Many of the young towns which were county seats, which had sprung up in the vari- ous parts of the country, were almost depopulated. During that time very few persons escaped without one or more se- vere attacks of fever. The prevailing disease was what is known as bilious or remittent fever, in many cases differing very little from the yellow fever known in the extreme south. In all parts of the new country, owing to so much decaying veg- etation, there was a great deal of malaria and almost every- body was affected with it. The regular old shaking "ague fits" and fever were common on every hand.
The persons owning milk cows permitted them to graze on the rich range of the country, and from some cause the cows contracted a disease called Tires, or Milk-sickness. The disease was thus conveyed to the people and in many cases proved fatal. A tired and weary feeling was the chief char- acteristics of this disease, and many times the little calves would reel and fall down while sucking milk from their mothers. As the country was cleared this disease became less prevalent, and in a few years entirely disappeared. The same was also true of the ague which was so prevalent.
In November, 1821, Governor Jennings convened the Legis- lature in extra session to make provisions for the payment of the interest on the state debt. It was thought that a sufficient amount for that purpose could be realized on the notes of the State Bank and its branches, and the Governor urged upon the Legislature that the public debt could honestly and con- scientiously be paid with these depreciated notes. He said that it would be oppressive if the state, after the paper of
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this institution was authorized to be circulated in revenue, should be prevented by any assignment of the evidence of the existing debt, from discharging at least so much of the debt with the paper of the bank as would absorb the collections of that year, especially when their notes were to be made re -- ceivable by the agent of the state because greatly depreciated by mismanagement on the part of the bank itself. It was not to be expected that a public loss to the state should be avoided by resorting to any measures which would not com- port with the correct views of public justice, nor should it be anticipated that the Treasurer of the United States would. ultimately adopt measures to secure an uncertain debt, which would interfere with the arrangement calculated to adjust the demands against the state without producing an ad- ditional embarrassment ..
The manufacturing industries which had been started in New England and the Atlantic states furnished a good de- mand for cotton that was raised in the Southern states and territories. This furnished labor for a large number of per- sons in the East, also a large amount of slave labor in the south and there was a great demand for produce raised in the western states. Flat-boating commenced and was in full blast, carrying corn, wheat and pork to New Orleans, where it was then distributed to the cotton country and by ship to the New England shores. All sorts of business flourished and there was a great deal of emigration into this state. This favorable condition of things was noted by the min- isters of foreign countries. There being no tariff (or not a. sufficient one) to protect our new industries, in a short time immense quantities of goods were imported into our country which could be sold for much less price than our new man- ufacturing institutions could make them. This stopped our manufacturing business, broke down the demand for cotton and destroyed, or nearly so, our flat boat trade with produce in the south.
For the next few years after 1820, produce became so cheap that it did not pay to raise any more than was needed for the home consumption. Everything and all sorts of busi-
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ness was affected from the same cause. Land that had been advancing in price during the short period of good times was now in no demand. Improved farms which had been worth from six to ten dollars per acre were not worth now more than two and a half. Contracts which were made during the good times, where deferred payments were to be made, caused ruin to many parties.
It was impossible to collect debts by forced sales; nobody wanted property. The failure of the bank at Vincennes that had become the state bank of Indiana, and its branches at Corydon, Brookfield and Vevay left a large amount of worth- less paper in the hands of the people. This was another severe blow to the people of this State. There was no possi- ble reason why this bank and its branches should not have kept solvent if they had lived up to the conditions of their charter; but speculation and peculation were engaged in contrary to the stipulated and lawful conditions of the charter of this bank, which brought ruin to it and injured thousands of the citizens of Indiana. The Government of the United States received only thirty-seven thousand dollars on a deposit of two hundred thousand dollars for land sales.
The bank at Madison, Indiana, was an honest institution and was governed by a Board of Directors and bank officers who regarded a solemn oath to mean that it was their duty to protect those who intrusted them with the keeping of their means, and not to mean to get all they could by honest or dishonest means and keep it all. The financial pressure on this bank, however, was very heavy, caused by the failure of the others, and it was forced to suspend. A little while af- terward it terminated its business and paid the last farthing of its debts.
These bank failures were one of the real causes of such hard times in Indiana at that period. There was very little coin in the country at that time, the silver, with the excep- tion of a small amount of subsidiary coin, the old style bits ( twelve and a half cent pieces) and what was termed by the Hoosiers "fo-pence" (six and a half cents), was all Mexican dollars. They cut many of these dollars into quarters and
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sometimes into eighths when the transaction called for twelve and a half cents. Then, as now, some who wanted to get the best of the bargain would cut the dollar into five pieces, thus making a quarter on each dollar cut up. This became so common that many county commissioners had a diagram made of a cut quarter when a dollar was to be cut in equal parts, and when paying taxes and cut money was used, it had to conform to the diagram or it was rejected. Storekeepers resorted to the same expedient to detect short quarters.
When blacksmithing was needed, if the account amounted to a quarter and the customer had a dollar to pay it with, they took the dollar and laid it on the anvil and the black- smith, with a cold chisel, cut out a notch of one-fourth of the dollar for his pay. Some times a round bit would be fur- nished when the article was only six and a fourth cents and it would be cut in the middle.
Governor Jennings was elected to two terms as Governor of Indiana. At the August election of 1822 he was elected as member to Congress and served in that position until 1831. Soon after his being elected to Congress, he resigned his po- sition of Governor and was succeeded by Ratliffe Boone, of Boonville, Indiana, who at that time was Lieutenant Gov- ernor. At the election of August, 1822, William Hendricks was elected Governor. He was a good man and made a good Governor and held that position until 1825, when he was elected United States Senator.
In 1820 a committee was appointed to select a suitable place for a state capital. The commissioners for that pur- pose were George Hunt, of Wayne County; John Conner, of Fayette County; Stephen Ludlow, of Dearborn County; Joseph Bartholomew, of Clark County; John Tipton, of Har- rison County; Thomas Emmerson, of Knox County; Jesse B. Durham, of Jackson County; John Gilliland, of Switzerland County, and Frederick Rapp, of Posey County. William Prince was appointed on that committee from Gibson County, but failed to go. The commission, in accordance with a proclamation of Governor Jennings, met at the cabin of Wil- liam Conner on the west fork of White river, May 22, 1820.
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After canvassing many sites which were presented and rec- ommended to them by delegations of citizens from various towns who were at the meeting, owing to the location of many of these recommended sites being so near the southern border of the state, it was agreed to select a site as near as practicable in the center of the state. This had to be deter- mined by the surveys which had then been made and by the length and breadth of the territory which was then unsur- veyed. After a heated controversy the site of Indianapolis was agreed upon, it having received the votes of a majority of two of all the commissioners present. At that time there was not a white family located in that immediate neighborhood. Sur- veyors were put to work and laid out a new location for the capital. On the 9th of January, 1821, the report of the com- mission was accepted and the capital of Indiana, then a dense woods, was located and named Indianapolis. Congress do- nated four sections of land for that purpose, on which the city was laid out and which now stands so proudly as a mon- ument to Hoosier progress and industry.
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