USA > Mississippi > The westward movement : the colonies and the republic west of the Alleghanies, 1763-1798 with full cartographical illustrations from contemporary sources > Part 23
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A route for which surveys by the new bill were also ordered, and which was more satisfactory to the mass of tide-water Vir- ginians, was by the James River, whence a short portage, say twenty-five or thirty miles, conducted to New River, and then to the Kanawha below its falls, and finally to the Ohio. It was on this route that Washington earlier secured some lands, and
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Indian Country.
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[The above map is from a MS. map by Heckewelder (1796), reproduced in the Western Reserve Hist. Soc. Tract. No. 64 (1884). It shows the valleys of Muskingum and Cayahoga, and the In- dian paths. ]
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256
THE INSECURITY OF THE NORTHWEST.
Albert Gallatin was at this time surveying some adjacent prop- erty on the Kanawha for himself.
When these plans were well devised, Washington, on Novem- ber 30, 1785, wrote to Madison : " It appears to me that no country in the universe is better calculated to derive benefit from inland navigation than this is; and certain I am that the conveniences to the citizens generally, which will be opened thereby, will be found to exceed the most sanguine expecta- tion." Very likely this letter expresses exactly the opinions which Washington in the previous spring had disclosed to the commissioners of Maryland and Virginia, when, after their conferences at Alexandria in the interests of intercolonial trade, they had accepted an invitation to Mount Vernon, and spent several days with its owner, - a meeting that proved one of the preliminary steps to the federal convention at a later day.
Whatever the favorite route from tide-water, it was neces- sary, when once the Ohio basin was reached, to discover the best avenne to the lakes. On this point Washington had been actively seeking information. He had applied to Richard Butler, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs, particularly in reference to a connection which Jefferson had recommended between the Muskingum and the Cayahoga, so as to reach Lake Erie at the modern Cleveland. Later, in 1786, Congress made all the portages between the lakes and the Ohio basin common highways, - a provision that was the next year embodied in the ordinance of 1787. At a still later day (January, 1788), the New York portage by Lake Chautauqua was, at the instance of General Irvine, made the subject of other action.
While these physical difficulties were under consideration, it was clear to Washington's mind that, to develop any such busi- ness as these rival routes contemplated, it was necessary not only that a large immigration should be sent beyond the moun- tains, but that it should be directed in the right way. It was apparent that for the present the contemplated channels of trade might suffice and serve to keep the nascent common- wealths of the west in touch with the older communities ; but Washington did not disguise his continued apprehension that "whenever the new States became so populous and so ex- tended to the westward as really to need the Mississippi, there could be no power to deprive them of its use." There
257
CANAL COMPANY.
was, partieularly among the Virginians, a growing conviction that this Mississippi question was a burning one, and its solu- tion could not be far ahead. It was a necessary outgrowth of that eaballing of Vergennes and Spain which Jay and his asso- ciates, in 1782, had so boldly and dexterously overcome. France was still as treacherous and Spain was as weakly obstinate as they had been then. In the summer of 1784, Madison had met Lafayette at Baltimore, and endeavored to make him com- prehend that France needed, in order to preserve the friendship of the United States, to persuade Spain to give up her exclu- sive pretensions to the Mississippi. "Spain is such a fool that allowances must be made," said Lafayette. It was only a ques- tion how long she could afford to be a fool, while her unfriend- liness was not altogether distasteful to Washington, since it helped his ulterior projects about the western connections of Virginia.
After the James River and Potomac Canal Company had been formed, Washington was induced to become its first president. He remained long enough in control of it to take a broad view of its future development. Just after he had resigned his pres- idency, and was about to assume the executive chair under the Federal Constitution, he congratulated Jefferson that the recent surveys had shown the sources of the Ohio and Potomae nearer than was supposed, and two or three boats had lately passed from Fort Cumberland to Great Falls, nine miles above tide- water, showing what progress had been made in opening the Potomac.
In appreciation of the value to the company of his services, the Virginia Assembly made Washington a considerable sharer in its stock. He hesitated long about embarrassing his action by accepting such a gratuity, and was persuaded to do so only by the urgent representations of Patrick Henry. He reserved, however, the right to make its advantages ultimately aecrue to the public, as later under his will was provided.
As to the political needs of the country thus to be reached and developed, there had been movements in Congress looking to the formation of States out of it, while the war was still in progress. It had been proposed, in 1780, to constitute States of dimensions not more than one hundred or one hundred and
258
THE INSECURITY OF THE NORTHWEST.
fifty miles square. Washington had been urging James Duane to action in this matter, and on October 15 Congress resolved on some step towards setting up such Western States, and Jeffer- son was made the chairman of a committee to consider the ques- tion. On March 1, 1784, he reported an ordinance which gave to the proposed States some such area as had been suggested in 1780. His original plan, however, was more comprehensive than an organization of the northwestern region merely, for he de- sired, with the consent of Virginia and the other Southern States, to include also their over-hill country, and to exclude slavery therefrom after the year 1800. By this plan there could be laid out fourteen States south of the 45th parallel and north of the 31st. He proposed to give two degrees of latitude to each State in horizontal tiers. The most westerly north and south column would have six States below the 43d parallel and one above, lying west of Lake Michigan, and a second still farther north, stretching to the bounds of Canada. Those below the 43d would be bounded on the east by a meridian cutting the falls of the Ohio. Near this point Louisville was already a town of a hundred motley houses, including the only variety store in the Ohio valley, kept in stock by the traders who passed down the river from Pittsburg. North of the 43d parallel, and lying between Lakes Michigan and Huron, was another State, with four other States lying directly south, and extending to the 35th parallel. South of that the country east of the me- ridian already named was to be joined to South Carolina and Georgia. The eastern boundary of this second column of States was to be a meridian cutting the mouth of the Kanawha. This left an irregular piece of territory lying east of this last me- ridian, and inclosed by it, by the Alleghany River, by the west- ern bounds of Pennsylvania, and by Lake Erie, which was to make an additional State. By this division the Ohio bisected the two States lying between the 37th and 39th parallels. It was provided that these States could become members of the confederation as they successively attained a population equal to the smallest of the original States. A series of curious and pedantic names, rather ludicrously mixed with more familiar
NOTE. - The opposite map is a section of a " Carte Générale des Etats-Unis " in Crèvecœur's Lettres d'un Cultivateur, Paris, 1787. It shows the proposed divisions of the western territory under Jefferson's ordinance of 1784. Frankland is misplaced.
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260
THE INSECURITY OF THE NORTHWEST.
appellations, was given to the group. The most northern of all was named Sylvania. Michigania and Chersonesus lay respectively west and east of Lake Michigan. Just south of these lay Assenisipia and Metropotamia ; then came in the next tier Illinoia and Saratoga ; while Polypotamia embraced the country holding the various rivers that joined the Ohio in its lower course, and Pelisipia lay to the east of the last named, and mainly south of the Ohio. The State of irregular outline was to be called Washington.
The ordinance was recommitted, somewhat modified, again reported March 22, and was later by amendment subjected to other changes. Jefferson's uncouth names were abandoned. The Ohio, instead of the 39th parallel, was made the boundary between the States which had earlier been called Saratoga and Pelisipia. The territory north of 45° up to 49° was added to what Jefferson had called Michigania. The clause abolishing slavery after 1800 was removed. The ordinance thus reformed was adopted on April 23, 1784. The essential feature of the new law was that the States could adopt constitutions like that of any of the original States, and when they reached a popula- tion of 20,000, they could be admitted to Congress by delegates, and they could have the right to vote when a census showed their State to have a population equal to the smallest of the old States. All provisions were in the nature of a compact between the new communities and the old.
, Though an act of Congress had thus indicated the future of the northwest, there was little disposition among the people to give it force, and it remained practically a dead letter for the next three years. During this interval tentative efforts were made from time to time to improve the seheme. Washington objected to the ordinance as being too ambitious. He thought a plan of " progressive seating," by which States should be called one after another into being, as population demanded, would have been wiser. There was a feeling among the frontiersmen in favor of natural boundaries rather than for astronomical ones. This objection was met by Pickering: "This will make some of the States too large, and in many of them throw the extremes at snch unequal distances from the centres of government as must prove extremely inconvenient." This terminal question took a definite issue when, in January, 1785, the settlers west of the
261
OHIO SURVEYS.
Alleghanies sent a memorial to Congress, asking that a sopa- rate government should be set up with bounds upon the Kana- wha and Tennessee rivers ; but the movement was premature.
Pickering now developed an active agency in two directions. It is probable that he incited Rufus King to move, on March 16, 1785, that the ordinance of April 23, 1784, should be amended so as to abolish slavery after 1800. The proposition was referred to a committee, who reported on April 6, but the matter dropped without definite action.
At the same time (March 16, 1785), Jefferson's plan for a survey of the western territory was referred to a grand commit- tee. Pickering had, at the beginning of that month, sent a plan to Gerry, in which he deprecated the Virginia habit of scram- bling for allotments and of setting up "tomahawk claims," which had prevailed in the Kentucky region, and which had proved an incentive to Indian outbreaks. He outlined instead a scheme of township surveys, with indications of the quality of the lands, in order that there might be a more systematic assignment of rights by constituted authority. On April 12, 1785, the grand committee, of which Grayson was chairman, reported an ordinance of such a character, which provided also that a section of a square mile should be reserved in each town- ship for the support of religion, and another for schools. The educational clause alone was retained. The township was made six miles square ; and five ranges of townships were to be sur- veyed between the Ohio and Lake Erie, beginning west of the Pennsylvania line. The district between the Scioto and the Little Miami was reserved to meet the bounties dne the troops who took part in Clark's campaign. On April 26, an observer wrote to Gerry that Congress had spent a month on the prob- lem, while Virginia made many difficulties. "The Eastern States," he added, " are for actual surveys and sale by town- ships ; the Southern States are for indiscriminate locations." On May 20, 1785, the reported plan was adopted as in effect an adjunct of the ordinance of 1784, and Grayson wrote to Wash- ington that it was the best that under existing circumstances could be procured.
It was evidently the purpose of Congress, in this ordinance of May 20, to follow Washington's advice and push westward by stages, and make settlements by " compact and progressive
262
THE INSECURITY OF THE NORTHWEST.
settlements." The expansive tendency had, moreover, earned Jay's reprobation. " The rage for separation and new States," he wrote to John Adams, October 14, 1785, " is mischievous ; it will, unless checked, scatter our resources and in every view enfeeble the Union." What territorial limits to give the new States became an inherent element of any scheme. Monroe, who was interested, journeyed west on a tour of observation. He found the discomforts of the way fatiguing, and doubtless looked upon the country in a spirit which was influenced by his irksome experiences. He saw and heard enough about the country to believe that the stories of the inordinate fertility of the soil were the work of land speculators. Nevertheless, there was, as Jay expressed it, " a rage for emigrating to the western country," and the Continental Land Office was thronged witli those seeking " to plant the seeds of a great people beyond the mountains." In Monroe's judgment, no more than five States could be profitably laid out where Jefferson had counted on perhaps double that number. When Monroe returned, a move- ment was vigorously made in Congress to diseredit the astro- nomieal bounds and substitute natural ones, and to reduce the number of States to be laid out to three or five. It was neees- sary, in the first instance, that the conditions of the cessions of Virginia and Massachusetts - later explained - should be made to conform to the new disposition of States, and this was in due time accomplished. Grayson now proposed a division like this: An east and west line should be drawn from the western bounds of Pennsylvania so as to touch the southern head of Lake Michigan. This gave one State in the lower Michigan peninsula and another west of that lake, extending north to 49°, and bounded west by the Mississippi. Between the Ohio and the east and west line there were to be three States, to complete the five, and the lines to separate them were to be meridians cutting the months of the Great Miami and the Wabash. This last line was later changed, so that the division followed the Wabash north till it reached Vincennes, and then went due north by the river and by a meridian.
Jefferson saw danger in this smaller number of States. He would have them of about thirty thousand square miles each, and not one hundred and sixty thousand. It was like the differ- ence between Virginia, east of the mountains, and a common-
263
MASSACHUSETTS CESSION.
wealth three times as large, as he contended. He feared that the people in such large States could not be kept together, and that they would very likely break up their territory. In this way they might, in part at least, withdraw to join either the British or the Spanish. He wrote to Madison. (December, 1786) that he thought this policy of making large States "re- versed the natural order of things." He then reverted again to the chance of distractions arising from the disposition of Spain to monopolize the Mississippi, and said that the prospect gave him " serious apprehension of the severance of the eastern and western parts of our confederacy. A forced connection [with the west] is neither our interest nor within our power."
Jefferson was not alone certainly in perceiving trouble ahead in this direction, but there were measures more pressing which must be put in train, before any congressional action regulat- ing the civic government of the northwest could be satisfac- torily applied. The first of these was to complete the release of territorial claims, urged by some of the seaboard States ; and the other was to quiet the Indian title sufficiently, at least, to open areas to settlement. It is necessary now to consider these two measures.
The cessions of New York and Virginia had thrown the further responsibility upon Massachusetts and Connecticut. Connecticut was still governed under her original charter, which gave her a sea-to-sea extension. Massachusetts had had a similar charter taken from her by the king in council : but she did not recognize the power of the monarch, and now with a new and revolutionary constitution, she stood for her original territorial rights.
The first charter of Massachusetts placed her northern bounds on a parallel three miles north of the Merrimac River on any part of it. In early days she had contended that this meant three miles north of that river's source in Lake Win- nipiseogee, while New Hampshire was willing to accept a line which started west three miles north of its mouth. The dispute culminated at a time when Massachusetts was little inclined to favor the royal prerogative. The Privy Council, being called upon to arbitrate, punished the older colony by curving the line from a point on the coast three miles north of
264
THE INSECURITY OF THE NORTHWEST.
the mouth of the Merrimac, so that it ran parallel to that river till it reached its southernmost bend, from which point it was carried due west, - as defined in the maps of to-day. Massa- chusetts, in recognizing, at that time, this paramount authority of the sovereign as settling her bounds east of the Hudson, argued that west of that river, beyond the rights acquired by New York, - which were allowed to extend to the upper waters of the Delaware, - her independence secured her orig- inal rights so far as they had been untouched. Therefore she claimed that her rights were unimpaired in the northwest, be- tween the latitude of Lake Winnipiseogee and a continuation of her bounds on Connectieut. This gave a belt westward, eighty miles wide, north of 42° 2'. These limits gave Massa- chusetts pretensions to the larger part of western New York, - wherein she was a rival elaimant with New York, - and the southern parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, where Virginia, holding rival claims, had already released them. The Mohawk basin was unsettled beyond Cherry Valley, at the headwaters of the Susquehanna, and German Flats. New York, while claiming jurisdiction in the country farther west than the Mo- hawk, particularly in the valley of the Genesee, after having, for a year or two before, presumed to sell the lands which were in dispute, entered into an agreement with Massachusetts made at Hartford, December 12, 1786, by which she recognized the fee of that region west of Seneca Lake to be in Massachusetts, but subject to the native title. This arrangement covered six million acres, which Simeon de Witt was to survey and plot in a map, subsequently published in 1802. Massachusetts sold these lands in 1788 to Phelps and Gorham, who had sought in vain to enlist the aid of Rufus King in the purchase, but that portion of it, about four million aeres, west of the Genesee, later reverted to Massachusetts, and was again sold by her to Robert Morris. He retained what was known as the Morris Reserve, and sold the rest to the Holland Land Company. It is not necessary to go into details about this particular part of the western claims of Massachusetts. When her western bounds - of the State proper - had been fixed in 1773 by a line, roughly parallel to the Hudson and say twenty miles east of it, Thomas Hutchinson, one of her commissioners, had for- tunately insisted that the acceptance of that line was without
265
CONNECTICUT CESSION.
prejudice to the claims of Massachusetts farther west, so that this State was not now debarred from claiming in the far West. This was but one of the obligations under which Massachusetts lay to her later exiled governor, one of the loyalists who was best provided for, in England. What Hutchinson saved for Massachusetts east of Niagara was not indeed to be yielded to the public domain ; but this was not the case with the fifty-four thousand square miles in Michigan and beyond, whose fee and jurisdiction she ceded to Congress by an act of April 19, 1785. This was prior, as we have seen, to the movement for reducing the number of States proposed to be set up in the northwest.
To remove the last bar to a clear title to this public domain, there was now nothing left but for Connecticut to do what Massachusetts had done, in regard to a strip west of Pennsyl- vania and south of Lake Erie and of the Massachusetts cession, or between 41° and 42° 2', and stretching to the Mississippi. This claim covered about forty thousand square miles. In assertion of her charter rights, Governor Trumbull of Connecti- cut, on November 15, 1783, had, by proclamation, warned all intruders off. Connecticut had had a long and, at times, some- what ferocious quarrel with Pennsylvania over a similar strip which cut off a northern segment of the territory of William Penn's charter, and only a year before (1782) it had been settled by the intervention of Congress, which gave no reasons, but upheld the claim of Pennsylvania. So what was left for Connecticut to contribute was this same strip further westward, where it covered what is now a part of the States of Ohio, Indi- ana, and Illinois. Within it were the sites where Cleveland was to be founded a few years afterwards in 1791, and Toledo and Chicago at a later day. This was the cession which Con- necticut made, September 14, 1786. She imposed a condition. however, which, but for her promise to settle the country on Lake Erie, might have failed of acceptance in Congress. This was reserving a section along Lake Erie in the present State of Ohio, which is still known as the Western Reserve ; and whose settlement, soon to follow, realized the hope of Franklin, twenty years before, of a barrier State in that position. After a struggle in Congress, in which there was much opposition to any recognition of the Connecticut's charter rights in this res-
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THE INSECURITY OF THE NORTHWEST.
ervation, the act of cession was accepted on May 26. It was supposed that the reservation as defined included about six million acres, but it proved to contain only about three million two hundred and fifty thousand acres, when it was finally surrendered to the United States in 1800. This Connecticut cession, barring what was temporarily withlield with some doubt as to the retention of jurisdiction with the fee, compacted the great public domain of the northwest. There was still a small unclaimed area on Lake Erie. The long controversy over the western boundary of Pennsylvania had been closed in 1784 by running her southern line due west from the Delaware for five degrees, when it turned at right angles and was extended north to 42°. This point proved to be contiguous to Lake Erie, but there were five or six miles of lake shore east of it that did not belong to New York, since the western bounds of that State had recently been run by Andrew Ellicott on a meridian twenty miles west of the most westerly point on the banks of the Niagara River. Thus a bit of territory nearly triangular in shape and known as the " Erie triangle," measuring some- thing over two hundred thousand acres, was considered to be a part of the public domain, not embraced in the ordinances of 1784, or in the later one of 1787. In 1788, the United States extinguished the Indian title in it for £1,200 and then sold it to Pennsylvania, by which that State secured on the lake the old port of Presqu'Isle, now the city of Erie.
Meanwhile, before the cession of Connecticut had been made, Congress had in connection with the ordinance of May 20, 1785, created the office of Geographer of the United States, electing to that position Thomas Hutchins, who had been Bouquet's engineer in a campaign in this western country twenty years before. After the Connecticut Reserve had been made, Hutchins was directed to survey seven, instead of five, longitudinal ranges of townships, north of the Ohio, west of Pennsylvania, and south of the Reserve.
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