USA > Ohio > Washington County > Marietta > The ninety-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Ohio, at Marietta. Historical address > Part 1
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Gc 977.101 W27w 1652594
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00827 4497
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https://archive.org/details/ninetyfifthanniv00wash
Providence R. Q. 1 FE930.EU
fram AVAndrews.
NINETY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
SETTLEMENT AT MARIETTA, OHIO.
THE
Ninety-Fifth Anniversary
OF THE
-
SETTLEMENT OF OHIO,
AT MARIETTA. -
HISTORICAL ADDRESS
BY
HON. GEORGE B. LORING,
AND OTHER ADDRESSES BEFORE THE
WASHINGTON COUNTY, PIONEER ASSOCIATION,
MARIETTA, OHIO, APRIL 7, 1883.
MARIETTA : PRINTED FOR THE PIONEER ASSOCIATIONS 1883. REGISTER PAINT.
1652594
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION, 1883.
-¿-
PRESIDENT, .
VICE PRESIDENT,
DOUGLAS PUTNAM. COL JOHN STONE. W. F. CURTIS.
RECORDING SECRETARY,
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, R. E. HARTE.
TREASURER,
BEMAN GATES.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
HENRY FEARING,
W. P. CUTLER.
I. W. ANDREWS.
B. F. HART,
L. J. P. PUTNAM.
· CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE,
To make arrangements for the Centennial Celei ration to de held in Marietta, April 7th, 1888 :
I. W. ANDREWS,"
WM. P. CUTLER,
BEMAN GATES,
GEORGE O. HILDRETH,
R. M. STIMSON.
2475
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ADDRESS OF HON. GEO. B. LORING.
F ELLOW CITIZENS-We are assembled at the gateway through which American civilization, after more than a century and a half of struggle and development along the Atlantic seaboard, passed on to occupy the vast and luxuriant territory lying northwest of the Ohio river. Not on this path alone, indeed, did our resolute ancestors approach the great empire which lay before them as they journeyed to the West; but they made this the highway along which they bore to their land of promise the institutions of freedom, learning and religion, without which the home they prepared for themselves and their children, would have been a social wilderness more gloomy than the savage territory which they reclaimed and civilized. Nearly a hundred years have passed away since they entered upon their labors here-a century of growth in everything which makes life powerful and prosperous and refined and Christian, unparallelled in the history of the world. The observers and admirers of human progress, wherever they are to be found, may turn to the great social and civil achievements which mark the career which we this day contemplate-the teeming population, the successful industry, the busy cities, the fertile lands loaded with abounding harvests, the churches, the institutions of learning, the accumulations of art and literature, the great men born here to guide their country in peace and in war, the brave and industrious and patriotic multitudes who throng these States, with wonder and encouragement. But
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you who count your ancestors among the pioneers of all this marvellous work, can consider it with pride and supreme satisfaction also. In the pursuit of our own immediate designs we are roused to constant endeavor by a wise and honorable ambition, without which no duty is ever accom- plished ; but to the great labors of our ancestors we turn with a pious regard, and we cherish their memory and ponder upon their record with a filial and religious fervor which inspires us to our best and noblest deeds. Happy the man who can turn to an honorable and industrious ancestry ! Happy the people who can turn to a foundation of high purpose, and noble deeds, and lofty principles, and whose career began in heroic struggle for freedom and right! As life goes on, nations and men tend towards the characteristics which were manifest and controlling in infancy and child- hood. The morning and the evening have a touching resemblance to each other. . And however long the years of the national circuit may be, the characteristics which marked the dawn will also mark the mid-day and the close. The spirit of protest and self-assertion which brought our fathers to these shores and brought their descendants to this spot remains with us still, and will remain through all the meridian splendour and in the declining hours of the American Republic. To their great virtues you turn with proud affection, you rejoice in them as your precious inherit- ance, and you hope to pass them on to the generations that come after you, for their support and inspiration. It is to these heroic qualities that the North-west owes its existence, the fundamental law on which its States were founded, and its present power under a government dedicated to its own social and civil organization.
With the exception of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth there is no event in history which so strongly marks the power of man's independent spirit, his devotion to human right and his faith in a government based on the consent of the governed, as does this planting of the Sons of the Pilgrims on the soil of Ohio. When the outstretched
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arm of Massachusetts enfolded the Pilgrim in its embrace, no previous attempt had been made to occupy the spot, the foot of the white man had never trod that bleak and inhos- pitable shore. The Pilgrim found there no rival. When, however, the brave and hardy band of the sons of New England planted New England civilization on the banks of the Muskingum, they had behind them a hundred years of romantic adventure in repeated attempts to occupy the soil. A hundred and twenty years before the keel of their May- flower divided the waters of the Ohio, La Salle had navigated that stream as far down as Louisville ; French explorers and missionaries defied the hardships of the wilderness and the severity of inclement seasons, as they pushed their way along the great lakes and traversed the rivers which drain the broad lands lying between these great inland seas and the Gulf of Mexico- With a spirit of chivalry rarely excelled, these adventurous pioneers planted the cross along the northern solitudes, or led their gay and glittering processions through the southern savannahs. leaving behind them the scattered monuments of their progress, and nothing more permanent that the fascinating story of their adventures, unless it be the names of Joliet and Marquette and La Salle and Champlain, and DeSoto, which are to be found along the Mississippi valley at this day. To the successful settlers of this spot this story of quixotism and religious enthusiasm was familiar, as was also that sterner and more impressive story of the occupation by English Protestants of the shores of Massachusett's Bay, and the immense influence that nar- row empire had already exerted on the history of mankind.
This vast territory into which the English-speaking people of this continent entered for the first time, with a deliberate purpose of colonization simultaneously with the adoption of the Federal Constitution was, prior to the Revolution, the scene of constant conflict. Its value was well understood by the powerful Indian tribes who occupied it, and by the French and English who were struggling for its possession. As early as 1753 the Ohio Company of that day having
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received a royal grant of half a million acres of land, endeavored to establish a trading post on the Big Miami, which was destroyed by the French, and became the spot where France and England commenced their conflict for the West. During the strife which ensued there were enacted some of the most interesting events in our history. Here for the first time a British colony asserted its right to defend the privileges of its citizens and to demand an explanation from the French government. Here Washington, then a young man of twenty-one. commenced his public service as a messenger to the commander of the French forces to demand the reason for invading the British dominions : to warn them that the right of Virginia must not be invaded ; to negotiate with certain Indian tribes for their support against the invaders ; and to prepare the way for that union of the colonies against France which gave victory to the British arms during the French war, and gave military experience to the heroes who twenty years later made their stand at Concord and Lexington, poured out their blood at Bunker Hill, and were found on all the hard fought fields of . the war for independence. Here Washington first displayed his great military qualities, and on the dark and bloody field of Braddock's defeat, won that reputation which afterwards gave him the command of the Continental army.
At the close of the Revolutionary war this territory, al- though largely unoccupied, had passed into the possession of Virginia and was confirmed by the treaty of 1783, owing to the sagacity and foresight of General George Rogers Clarke, who, under a commission from the Governor of Virginia, in 1778 captured the military posts of the British in the North- west, and secured the support of the French inhabitants there to the American cause. The State of Virginia there- fore included territory northwest of the Ohio river, so recog- nized by the treaty and by her House of Burgesses, who in 1778 had declared that "All the citizens of the Common- wealth of Virginia who are already settled there, or who shall hereafter be settled on the west side of the Ohio, shall be in-
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cluded in the district of Kentucky which shall be called Illinois County." This disposition of this territory of the State of Virginia which on the 1st of March, 1784, ceded it to the United States, withholding only some small reserva- tions to fulfill obligations already made, constitutes one of the most princely gifts recorded in the annals of history. She had conquered this territory during the war, had in- cluded it among her recognized counties, had secured her title by treaty, and had abundant ability to extinguish the Indian claims. But by deed of cession she transferred to the United States her title to this territory and opened it for set- tlement under the protection of the general government. Out of it the States of Michigan and Wisconsin and those portions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois lying between the Ohio river and the forty-first parallel of latitude, have been formed.
The establishment of a proper form of government for this territory at once occupied the thoughts of the ablest and most influential statesmen of that day. The organization of a ter- ritorial government was a thing wholly unknown-in fact the organization of the Federal government itself was an un- solved problem whose solution taxed the strongest powers. The thirteen colonies which had entered upon the war of Independence, and had secured a nationality, constituted all there was of a republic. They held in their hands a govern- ment clothed with power to enact laws and make treaties; and such governments in all times past had organized colonial possessions but never independent states as a part of the empire they controlled. They had themselves just emerged from their colonial condition, and had been created into states. The organization of great empires from the days of Greece and Rome, to the hour when the question of pro- viding laws for their immense territorial possessions was brought before the Congress of the thirteen original states, had consisted of the seat of power with colonial attachments. When Greece scattered her colonies " o'er Asia's coast " she had nothing more in view than the establishment of markets
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and the increase of her commerce. She had no place in her civil system for independent communities bound to her by social sympathies and working out with her the great problems of state and society. Even contiguous territory was ruled by her as a possession, and not as an ally or asso- ciate. So too of Rome. Her colonies stretching from Britain to India were occupied by people whom her armies had subdued; and wherever her eagles were planted they meant Roman conquest and occupation by Roman armies. These were the lessons our fathers had learned when, having achieved their national independence, they found themselves possessed of a wide continental domain, embracing every variety of climate and soil, and capable of sustaining millions of people. These were the lessons they had learned from their own experience as colonists over whom the flag of a mother country had floated, and upon whom the authority of a mother country had been exercised, until that authority had become intolerable. But hardly had the war for American Independence ended, when Washington with that broad com- prehension and wise foresight which made him the con- trolling statesman of his age, urged upon Congress the estab- lishment of a temporary government for the " Western terri- tory whose inhabitants were one day to be received into the union under republican constitutions of their own choice." Jefferson, having presented to Congress the deed by which Virginia conveyed her lands to the United States, proposed at once a plan for the temporary government of this western territory on the principle of popular sovereignty, and Con- gress promptly provided that the new States formed out of this territory " Shall remain forever a part of the United States of America; they shall have the same relation to the confed- eration as the original States; they shall pay their apportion- ment of the Federal debts; they shall in their government uphold republican forms." And this system was to prevail wherever the United States acquired new territory either by purchase or conquest. The spread of free institutions and independent communities throughout this land was secured
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The hopes of the early colonists that they might one day be able to legislate for themselves, and to manage their own counsels were realized by their descendants, who, having se- cured their own nationality, began to add State after State, to the union which they had founded. To the emigrants from the old States, these territories, provided with a tempor- ary government by Congress until they could assume powers of their own, became at once a home. They were obliged, it is true, to endure the hardships of an existence in the wilder- ness-the scanty fare, the rude habitations, the tedious toil, the destructive exposure of frontier life. But they brought with them all those rights and privileges, all those principles, which had made their old homes so dear to them, and to establish which they had endured the distress of a long and cruel war. Their altars and their firesides attended them on their journey. The simple and fervent worship and the abiding faith of the Puritan Church were theirs. They for- got neither the lessons nor the discipline of the New England school house. The tone of New England thought, the do- mestic customs, the prudence and thrift of New England were carried with them. They left a well organized society behind them, and they proceeded at once to establish a well organized society in their new home. They were citizen pro- prietors of small estates, and this American system of land holding they fixed "on these lands which you now occupy. They had the Anglo-Saxon love of the land, and above all they had the Anglo-Saxon love of individual independence; and landed monopolies entail and primogeniture were especially odious to them. They established here as their fathers did along the Atlantic slope a system of land holding so simple, so exact, so easily managed that it has become the example which all republican governments follow. They organized a public registry of deeds and provided for an easy and recorded transfer of landed estates from hand to hand, as easy as the transfer of personal property. The State which they founded here became not only the home of civil and religious freedom, but of independent landed pro-
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prietorship also. The feudal tenure of England never gained a foothold here. But the commercial tenure which took its place gave every prosperous member of society an oppor- tunity to establish his own little kingdom, and to dispose of it at his pleasure. The personal independence and the civil power which have grown out of this system can hardly be calculated. With it has been associated a multitude of civil rights and privileges and opportunities which have lain at the foundation of our very existence as a nation. The occu- pants and owners of these farms were the pillars of the church; they filled the municipal offices; they took their places in the legislative halls and made laws for the Com- monwealth; they took part in the public assembly with its stormy debate and free ballot; they aspired to high office and acquitted themselves well when they attained it. The school- house, the library and the lecture room they erected for their mental culture, the church for their moral and religious ele- vation. They founded a system of state and society here which required of them and requires of those who come after them also, a liberal expenditure for public and private neces- sities and comforts to be provided for only by industry, econ- omy and liberality. Their system offers a solution of many difficult problems in our day, and has been pronounced by one of the most thoughtful and accomplished publicists of modern times to be the only sure foundation of a well organ- ized republic.
As an illustration of the simplicity and economical traffic of the times we this day celebrate, and of the people to whose institutions I have called your attention, I present to you ex- tracts from a letter placed in my hands by Chief Justice Waite, and written January 1st, 1789, by Dr. Joseph Spencer of St. Cority, now probably Vienna, in West Virginia, about half way between Parkersburg and Marietta, whose wife was grand-aunt of the Chief Justice. The letter is addressed to Mr. Richard E. Selden, Lyme, Connecticut. After stating that he desired to sell a parcel of land belonging to him in Lyme, he says: " I will propose to you and the rest of my
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friends that if they will take the land and let me have a yoke of oxen next spring and so a yoke annually till it amounts to the sum which you suppose proper, you shall have it free of any interest. It will oblige me very much. My reasons for this proposition will appear by informing you of my circum - stances. The land I have bought wants much to be done to it, and in order thereto I must have a yoke of oxen and must hire a good hand, and then I shall be able to put in a good crop of wheat. Now, although I have done considerable business yet I shall not be able to collect more than to sup- port my family before next fall when it will be too late to answer my plan of sowing my proposed crop of wheat. I would, therefore, in order to prosecute my plan (which I think will be of singular advantage) condescend to the lowest terms that generosity will admit of. Rather than be disap- pointed I wish my desire herein might be signified to all my friends and all concerned. It really seems that my requisi- tions might be complied with, but I submit the matter. I now want your judgment respecting one of Margaret's brothers, either Sam or Sim, as I want a good, steady, faithful fellow, one that will work alone (I can plan for him). I want one that will work and take a prudent care of things; in short I want a good servant. I would like such an one six or twelve months. * * * Now if you should think that one of them would answer, and that he would be willing to come and that you should comply with my request respecting the land, I should want him to take the oxen along with him and be here about the first of May."
Dr. Spencer and the young man, whether Sam or Sim we know not, and the oxen have all passed away, but the group may be remembered as the point from which started the great system of traffic and transportation which has opened the markets of the world to the industries of this spot, and has brought your homes to the very thresholds of your an- cestors who left their lands behind them in New England and sought a wider sphere in this unbroken. wilderness.
And now we may with propriety consider the character of
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the leaders of this early emigration, the pioneers in the most remarkable and rapid growth of States known in ancient or modern times. Among them we find Rufus Putnam, de- scended from one of the earliest and strongest settlers of Salem, Massachusetts, born in a family which has furnished a long line of wise and useful magistrates, soldiers, lawgivers and pillars of the church. In the old French war and in the Revolution he performed most valuable service, and on the return of peace devoted himselt to the development of the country for whose freedom his sword had performed efficient work. He lived to see the State he had helped to found here strong and prosperous, and when at a great old age he passed away it was said of him that " The impress of his character is strongly marked on the population of Marietta, in their buildings, institutions, and manners." There too, were Whipple, the brave and devoted servant of his country on land and on sea during her severest trials, a son of New England; Varnum, the Massachusetts scholar, the brave soldier, the eloquent advocate; Parsons, uncle of the first great Chief-Justice of Massachusetts, son of a most learned and pious minister of that State, the sagacious companion of Washington, one of the first and ablest jurists of this State of his adoption, Tupper, another son of Massachusetts, the efficient commander in the army of the Revolution, the de- voted friend of Putnam in the work of opening the North- west, Sproat, the brave Massachusetts soldier, the humane and faithful officer, the admirer and supporter of Washing- ton and his policy. Devol, a son of Rhode Island, the modest, brave, and untiring Return Jonathan Meigs, a son of Con- necticut of whom his native State may indeed be proud, " one of the choice spirits brought out by the stirring times of the American Revolution," " a pattern of excellence as a patriot, a philanthropist, and a Christian; " Fearing, from the land of the Pilgrim, the accomplished young lawyer of the colony; Gilman of New Hampshire, the patriot and friend of Samuel Adams, the faithful and able jurist; the Rev Daniel Story, the first minister of the gospel ordained
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for the Ohio Company, a native of Boston, the self-sacrificing missionary; True, the skillful and devoted young physician from New Hampshire; Dana, of most honorable family in Massachusetts, who died in 1809, and, we are told, " left a numerous train of descendants who rank in vigor of mind, intelligence, civil and moral usefulness, with the first families in the community; " Cushing, who brought from his birth- place near Plymouth Rock, the quality of the Pilgrims and an honorable record as a soldier in the Continental army; Haskell, too, from "The Old Colony " a " brave man and a good officer;" Battelle, a graduate of Harvard, a partner of Isaiah Thomas of almanac memory, a religious and exem- plary man; Israel Putnam, with the blood of the old Revo- lutionary hero running in his veins; Goodale and Bradford, and Stone and Oliver, and Tyler, and Gray, and Stacey, all honored names, all representing some of the best families in Massachusetts-these are the men who led the way to the North-west Territory and set the type of civilization here which has never been obliterated, demanding a fundamental law before they occupied these lands, which secured " equal and exact justice to all men," freedom to all, and sacred protection to the rights of property.
The cession, purchase, and settlements of lands in the North-west Territory constitute a most interesting chapter in the history of our country. We look back upon the cession by the State of Virginia of this vast domain with admiration. We turn to the purchase of such wide posses- sions in a time of financial disaster and ruin with deep interest, as indicating the confidence and energy of our ancestors, And we contemplate the mode and provision of settlement with the same pride that fills our breasts as we recall the devotion and resolute zeal of Plymouth, and re- hearse the declaration of principles on which our fathers fought the war of the Revolution. That the attention of an emigrating people should have been turned to the broad landed possessions lying within their reach on the western frontier is not surprising. That a bankrupt government
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should have readily considered any sound proposition by which a bankrupt people could extricate their national treas- ury from debt and help themselves into prosperity, was to be expected of those who had learned their lessons of thrift during the poverty of peace and the stress of war. That the organic law under which the settlement was made in accordance with the civil experience and education of that remarkable body of men, who brought their own customs, doctrines and institutions to this new shore of the new world, is now manifest. To many it was manifest even in their day; evidently not to all. Richard Henry Lee wrote to Washington on the 15th of July, 1787 : "I have the honor to enclose to you an ordinance that we have just passed in Congress, for establishing a temporary government beyond the Ohio, as a measure preparatory to the sale of lands. It seemed necessary, for the security of property among unin- formed, and, perhaps, licentious people, as the greater part of those who go there are, that a strong-toned government should exist, and the rights of property be clearly defined. Our next object is to consider of a proposition made for the purchase of five or six millions of acres in order to lessen the domestic debt. An object of much consequence this, since the extinguishment of this part of the public debt would not only relieve us from a very heavy burden, but, by demolishing the ocean of public securities, we should stop that mischievous deluge of speculation that now hurts our morals and extremely injures the public affairs."
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