Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 56

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020

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The contest for the election of delegates was a very bitter one. The leaders of the State party were Col. Nathaniel Massie, Col. Thomas Worth- ington and Dr. Edward Tiffin; and in Hamilton County, Judge Symmes, John Smith, William Goforth, Francis Dunlevy and Jeremiah Mor- row. St. Clair's opposition to statehood made him necessarily the point of attack of all its ad- vocates. As a result of this, the contest became largely a personal one against the Governor. Into this contest there entered with eagerness many of the most prominent citizens of the Ter- ritory. The strongest defender of St. Clair, ac- cording to Judge Burnet, was a man whose name afterwards became distinguished throughout the State,-Charles Hammond, a young lawyer of Wheeling just admitted to the bar of the Terri- tory, who published a series of numbers in the Scioto Gasette, defending the Governor with great ability. He had not been personally'ac- quainted with the Governor but had an intense admiration for his conduct and an enthusiastic belief in the purity of his motives. The violence of the party feeling is shown by two celebrations described by St. Clair's biographer :

"On the 4th of July, 1801, there were two notable celebrations in- Hamilton County. One,

held at Columbia, had as presiding officers, Wil- liam Goforth and Benjamin Stites. Governor St. Clair who had just returned from a tour to the upper counties was present by invitation. The following toast offered during his temporary ab- sence was received with applause: 'His Exc'y. Gov. St. Clair-May his administration be as agreeable to himself as his grey hairs are hon- orable, and may it be his glory to have been in- strumental in metamorphosing the present anti- revolutional heterogeneous government of the Territory into that of a free State.'

"At the other which was held on the Ohio above Deer creek and presided over by Judge John Cleves Symmes, the toasts were all wildly Republican-extolling Jefferson, Burr, Gallatin, Madison, Clinton, and Mckean to the skies. There was no reference to Washington or to Adams." (St. Clair Papers, Vol. I, p. 235.)

The result of the election was that St. Clair and his party were badly beaten. When the con- vention assembled on the first Monday in No- vember, 1802, at Chillicothe, it was clear that the delegates would be in favor of forming a State. The delegates from Hamilton County were Francis Dunlevy, whom Judge Burnet calls a veteran pioneer of talents, of liberal education and of unbending integrity, Jeremiah Morrow, John Smith, Charles Wylling Byrd, William Go- forth, John Reily, John Paul, John Wilson, John W. Browne and John Kitchel.

Edward Tiffin of Ross was elected president and Thomas Scott, secretary. Before they pro- ceeded to business, Governor St. Clair proposed to address them in his official character. The proposition was resisted and finally a motion was carried by a vote of 19 to 14,-"that Arthur St. Clair, Sr., Esquire, be permitted to address the convention on those points which he deems of importance." Judge Burnet speaks of the ad- dress as sensible and conciliatory. Mr. King re -. gards it as an unhappy mistake.

The address certainly was indiscreet in that it undertook to criticise Congress for what it called an interference in the internal affairs of the country. It could hardly be called conciliatory in its tone nor can any good reason be perceived why it should have been made under the circum- stances. On the other hand it is plain that there was nothing in it that afforded a sufficient reason for the action of the President but its deliver- ance was made an excuse for an action to which many other influences contributed.

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, TIIE REMOVAL OF ST. CLAIR.

The attack on St. Clair had been vigorous for some time. At the time of his reappointment, as has been noted, protests were filed. The charges as they are now preserved are not worthy of serious consideration ; it seems inconceivable that so childish a controversy should have had so serious an effect upon the history of the State. Massie's letter to Madison, asking that the charges be laid before the President, complained first that the Governor had assumed to recom- mend to Harrison, the delegate in Congress, the plan of division already referred to-a most re- markable complaint indeed. He also charged St. Clair with receiving oppressive fees and as- suming legislative powers. Both of these were matters wherein a reasonable difference of opinion might and did exist, and where the courts could easily determine the controversy. His con- duct with relation to the magistrates is com- plained of. It is remarkable that this charge should have been made as it redounded to St. Clair's credit. Another charge was made to the effect that he manifested a hostile disposition to the republican form of government. This charge was true in those days of every Federalist, from the standpoint of the Jeffersonian Republican.

Colonel Worthington and Baldwin were se- lected to present the charges to the President and on January 30, 1802, Worthington addressed a letter to the President. The opening words are indicative of its character and its insincerity,- "feeling no prejudice toward Governor St. Clair as a man but on the other hand viewing him rather with an eye of pity." The whole letter and the charges accompanying it might well be considered as among the humors of politics were it not for the serious results. The whole pro- ceeding is so undignified and so unworthy of the men who were engaged in it, in view of the fact that in the natural course of things the people would soon have an opportunity to pass upon St. Clair's administration that it has a tendency to climinish the esteem in which the fathers of the State have usually been held. St. Clair's address however gave the opportunity and his enemies availed themselves of it.

On November 22, 1802, the Secretary of State, James Madison, addressed to the Governor the following letter :

"ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, EsQ.,

"Sir :-- The President observing, in an address lately delivered by you to the convention held at Chillicothe, an intemperance and indecorum of

language toward the Legislature of the United States, and a disorganizing spirit and tendency of very evil example, and grossly violating the rules of conduct enjoined by your public station, determines that your commission of Governor of the Northwestern Territory shall cease on the receipt of this notification."

At the same time a letter was sent to Charles W. Byrd, Secretary of the Territory, notifying him of the President's action and of the fact that the functions of the office devolved upon him as Secretary of the Territory and enclosing the let- ter to St. Clair." St. Clair's acceptance of this remarkable notice was written in the severest tones, which seem entirely justified after the lapse of time.

ST. CLAIR'S SUBSEQUENT ILL TREATMENT.

Thus ended the connection of its first and only Governor with the Northwest Territory. Sadly enough, the name St. Clair will live in history in connection with one of the most terrible defeats suffered by the Western people and furthermore in connection with one of the blackest pages of the nation's ingratitude. This Revolutionary sol- dier, who sacrificed his all to the cause of his country and at the conclusion of the war had left the charms of a home life in a congenial community for the hardships of an utterly un- settled community to which he had given the best years of his life, was pursued to the grave by the bitterest and most malignant persecutions. As he himself stated he undoubtedly committed many errors. The most serious of these arose from lack of tact. There does not seem to have been in all the years that have passed, in spite of the most searching . and rancorous investiga- tion, a single act of his life made public that was done from a corrupt or dishonorable motive. No purer officer ever served a State. Had he been more subservient to popular favor and less in- flexible in adherence to his own views of right and wrong, he might have retained forever pub- lic favor but his temperament and character were of the kind that made no compromise and as a result he suffered defeat. He had many friends, however, in the Territory and he was desired by some of them to become a candidate for Gov- ernor of the new State. Prior to his removal on December 8, 1802, he delivered an address to the people of the Northwest Territory declining to make the race which would have been a use- less one. He returned to Pennsylvania and with his family lived at Ligonier. He had become an

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old man, too old to engage in business, and his life and fortune had been given to the public. During the Revolutionary time when Washing- ton was in the greatest distress for funds, St. Clair had supplied from his private resources the necessary money. This had never been repaid and when application was made to Congress in St. Clair's bchalf, the committee reported that the money had been furnished and expended for the benefit of the country but that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations. St. Clair as superintendent of Indian affairs had given a bond for supplics furnished. His first account had been disallowed because the accompanying vouchers had not been reccipted. When they were receipted, St. Clair was required to give his personal bond for the payment of the voucher and when again it was presented for payment it could not be paid as there was no appropriation ; in 1796 the papers were all destroyed by fire. An application was made by St. Clair to Con- gress but here again the statute of limitations was again invoked. The creditors got a judg- ment on the bond and five thousand dollars were paid on the debt. In 1810 the debt with interest had increased to ten thousand dollars and St. Clair's property, including a large tract of land, his mill, dwelling house, farm houses, his smelt- ing furnace and property valued at over fifty thousand dollars, was sold at a sacrifice. At the time when the embargo had driven the money out of the country, the property was sold for four thousand dollars and St. Clair and his family were made penniless to pay a debt from which he had not received one penny's benefit and which was the debt of the United States which he had served so well. Even as late as 1818, when a rcsolution was offered in Congress to the effect that Congress entertained a high sense of the tried integrity as well as of the civil and military virtucs of Arthur St. Clair, late president of the Congress and commander-in-chief of the army of the United States, whom they learned with regret had been reduced by misfortune to ex- treme poverty, the bitterness of his enemies was such as to defeat the motion by a vote of 81 to 61. Finally a pension of $60 a month was passed but it was seized by a creditor before it ever reached St. Clair. Pennsylvania at length gave him an annuity of $300 a year which in 1817 was increased to $600. St. Clair was driven from his home to a log house near the old State road passing from Bedford to Pittsburg. Here he lived with his daughter, Louisa, much of the time in great want. Lewis Cass saw him shortly be-

fore his death in this rude cabin where he was supporting himself by selling supplies to the wagoners who traveled the road. Another trav- eler saw him in 1815. He says of him: "I never was in the presence of a man that caused me to feel the same degrec of esteem and veneration. He wore a citizen's dress of black of the Revolu- tion ; his hair clubbed and powdered. When we entered, he rose with dignity, to receive us most courteously. His dwelling was a common double log-house of the Western country, that a neigh- borhood would roll up in an afternoon. Chest- nut Ridge was bleak and barren. There lived the friend and confidant of Washington, the ex- Governor of the fairest portion of creation. It was in the neighborhood, if not in view, of a large cstate near Ligonier that he owned at the commencement of the Revolution, and which, as I have at all times understood, was sacrificed to promote the success of the Revolution. Pov- erty did not cause him to lose his self-respect, and, were he now living, his personal appearance would command universal admiration." (Elisha Whittelsey, St. Clair Papers, Vol. I, p. 253.)

In the latter days of August, 1818, St. Clair, then 84 years of age, while undertaking a trip to Youngstown, three miles distant, was thrown from his wagon. He was found lying insensible, where he had fallen, with his ponies standing by him. He was carried back to the house but never recovered consciousness. He died August 31, 1818. He was buried in the cemetery at Greens- burg. On the monument are cut the words : "The earthly remains of Major-General Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath this humble mon- ument, which is erected to supply the place of a nobler one due from his country."

TIIE CONSTITUTION OF 1802.

The convention, at the conclusion of the ad- dress of the Governor, proceeded to the consid- eration of the constitution. Its first action was to declare that in its judgment it was expedient to form a constitution and State government for the people of the Territory. This was carried by a vote of 32 to I. Judge Burnet states that "more than a fourth of the members, composing the body, had expressed their opinion, in very decided terms, against the expediency of the measure, and against the manner of its accom- plishment ; yet the resolution was carried. * * . Judge Cutler (Ephraim), an indomitable . Whig, of Washington County, voting in the negative, 'solitary and alone.' " (Burnet's Notes, p. 352.)

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A resolution to submit the proposed constitu- tion to the people was rejected by a vote of 27 to 7. As the people had nothing whatsoever to do with passing the law by the authority of which the convention had been called, nor any oppor- tunity other than the mere election of delegates to express an opinion on the conditions of the constitution, this was rather a remarkable action and gave rise to suspicion that the convention feared that the people would repudiate their work and on the other hand to the charge that the members were over anxious to get the new gov- ernment in operation as it was expected that all the offices were to be filled by themselves. An effort to prescribe the belief in the Deity or in a place of future rewards and punishments as a test of eligibility to office was defeated by a vote of 30 to 3. At first the right of suffrage was given to negroes but afterwards by a casting vote of the president of the convention, Edward Tiffin, it was taken from them. On the 29th of Novem- ber the constitution was adopted by the unani- mous vote of the convention. By the terms of the enabling act of April 30, 1802, the action of the convention was final.

The constitution of 1802 need not be discussed in a history of this character. It seems to have been relegated to the limbo of things that ought not to have been. It never gave satisfaction to the people and those who felt that its adoption was brought about by improper methods could point to its defects as a justification of their op- position to it. Mr. King says of it: "The in- strument so adopted, it would be respectful to pass in silence. It was framed by men of little experience in matters of state, and under cir- cumstances unfavorable to much forecast. With such a model of simplicity and strength before them as the National Constitution, which had just been formed, the wonder is that some of its ideas were not borrowed. It seems to have been studiously disregarded; and Ohio, as well as some States further westward, which her emi- grant sons with filial regard induced to adopt hier example, has suffered ever since from a weak forin of government made up in haste, and ap- parently in mortal dread of Governor St. Clair. * *

* Briefly stated, it was a government which had no executive, a half-starved, short- lived judiciary, and a lop-sided Legislature." (Ohio, p. 291.)

The constitution was immediately forwarded to Congress and was laid before the House of Representatives on December 23rd. The ques- tion was immediately raised in that body as to

Mr. Fearing's right to continue as delegate from the Territory. On January 3Ist the house de- cided that he still held his place. On March 3, 1803, a supplementary act was passed consenting to the modifications proposed by the convention. The Senate on January 5th had taken under con- sideration the State of Ohio and on February 19th, an act was passed reciting the organization of the State of Ohio and organizing the said State as a district and providing for the appoint- ment of the United States judge and a district attorney and marshal. Up to this time, however, no State government had been formed. The elections were held on January 11, 1803, and the General Assembly, the first of the State of Ohio, met at Chillicothe March 1, 1803. Edward Tiffin was elected Governor and during the session Re- turn Jonathan Meigs, Samuel Huntington and William Sprigg appointed the judges of the Su- preme Court. Thomas Worthington and John Smith of Columbia were chosen as Senators and subsequently Jeremiah Morrow of Hamilton County was elected a member of Congress. Con- gress had adjourned, however, and the Ohio Representatives and Senators were not admitted until the next session. As there was no act of Congress formally admitting the State of Ohio, some dispute has arisen as to the first day of the State's official existence. The first official act as a State being the meeting of the Legislature on March 1, 1803, this date lias by common consent been agreed upon as the birthday of the State of Ohio. The action of Congress with reference to the salaries of the territorial judges, taken some years later, in effect adopts this date.

An account of the reception of the first State constitution in Cincinnati is given in a letter of the pioneer, William Cary, written April 6, 1859, to the Cincinnati Pioneer Association and con- tained in the minutes of that association. Ac- cording to this, "on the inauguration of the con- stitution framed in 1802 the leading Republicans of Hamilton County, Daniel Symmes, Hezekialı Flint, Thomas Ramsey and others, determined to celebrate the event by a grand demonstration. A great barbecue was resolved upon, a large ox procured and roasted whole in the following manner : A pit was excavated some four or five feet deep in the wall of the ancient circular forti- fication (which was then visibly surrounded about ten acres five or six feet above the level) the spot being on Fifth street near where the east end of the market house now stands ( Fifth and Walnut). The pit was filled with logs and then fire and when it was burned mitil the smoke

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was well exhausted a wooden spit was thrust lengthwise through the ox poised over the fire and turned with a common windlass. After the ox had been well roasted it was served to the multitude with bread and 'fixens,' not forgetting the universal beverage of the day, whiskey, not your poisonous strychnine manufactured stuff of to-day but good old Monongahela, a much slower but nevertheless fatal poison to many of the first settlers. After fully discussing the good things provided, a procession was formed which, pre- ceded by a fife and drum, went to Main street below Fifth, where a triumphal arch had been placed, and nfarched and countermarched under it for some time. In the center of the arch which was supported on each side by columns was painted the rising run with this inscription : 'The sun of liberty has arisen to never set.' Finally, like Sampson with the gates of Gaza, they seized the columns and bore the whole through the principal streets of the town fol- lowed by an enthusiastic liberty-loving multitude two or three hundred strong, a large crowd for the times. When the festivities of the day were over, the arch with the painting and inscription was deposited for safe keeping in the second story of a huge log house on Main street near Front, kept as a hotel by a man whose name I think was Gordon. The following morning the arch and appendages were lashed to a whipping post and pillory, those relics of a darker age which then and for several years afterwards stood on Fifth street on the spot now occupied by John Cavagna near Walnut street ( Peebles'). When it is remembered that at this time party spirit ran high between Federalists and Repub- licans and that in the previous election for dele- gate to the constitutional convention the Repub- licans charged the .Federalists with the design of introducing slavery in spite of the Ordinance of '87 the object of the above proceedings will be understood. Tlie design undoubtedly was to insult the friends of freedom."

THE ERECTION OF HAMILTON COUNTY.

There can be no question that Hamilton Coun- ty began its existence under the name which it now bears on the 4th day of January, 1790. As already stated, Governor St. Clair arrived at Lo- santiville and Fort Washington on January 2nd. He was received as he stepped ashore from liis barge with a salute of 14 guns and as he marched into Fort Washington with his suite another sa- lute of 14 guns was fired in his honor. He sent for Judge Synes at North Bend on the follow-

ing day. It is probable that at the meeting of January 3rd the names were all determined upon. St. Clair naturally permitted Symmes, the owner of the entire purchase, to name the county and town. General Harmar, who was in command, had already named the garrison Fort Washing- ton. The name naturally to suggest itself next to the two soldiers would be that of Alexander Hamilton and that was selected as the name of the county. The city was named in honor of the order in which St. Clair was one of the most conspicuous officers and in whose member- ship there was hope to draw many settlers. The proclamation of the Governor was dated as of the 2nd of January, 1790, but was issued on January 4th and that date can properly be cred- itcd with being the birthday of the present county. In the manuscript journal of the official record appears the following :

"1790, January 2 .- His Excellency arrived at Fort Washington in the purchase of Judge Symmes and on the 4th was pleased to order and direct that the whole of the lands lying and being within the following boundaries-viz: Be- ginning on the bank of the Ohio River at the confluence of Little Miami, and down the said Ohio River to the mouth of the Big Miami, and up said Miami to the Standing Stone Forks or branch of said river, and thence with a line to be drawn due east to the Little Miami, and down said Little Miami River to the place of begin- ning-should be a county by the name and style of the county of Hamilton, and the same was accordingly laid off agreeably to the form which has been transmitted to Congress." These limits of Hamilton County were probably given in ac- cordance with the suggestion of Judge Symmes and indicated clearly the boundaries which he intended for his purchase.

In accordance with the terms of the Ordinance which provided that the Governor should pro- ceed from time to time as circumstances required to lay out a part of the districts in which the Indian titles should have been extinguished into counties and townships, subjeet, however, to such alterations as might thereafter be made by the Legislature, St. Clair issued a proclamation of February 11, 1792, adding the territory between the Scioto and the Little Miami, which had not been included in any county, to the county of Hamilton. This made the county of Hamilton as follows: "Beginning at the confluence of the Scioto with the Ohio River, and up. the Scioto River with the courses thereof to the upper part of the old Shawance town upon said river ;

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thence by and with a line to be drawn due north to the Territorial boundary line, and westerly along said line to the eastern boundary of the County of Knox, and down along the said east- ern boundary of Knox County by a due south line to the standing stone forks of the Great Miami River, and with the said Miami to its confluence of the Ohio River ; thence up the Ohio River to its place of beginning." (St. Clair Papers, Vol. II, p. 310.)

THE ERECTION OF OTHIER COUNTIES.

Knox County, most of which was in the State of Indiana, had already been organized on June 20, 1790. By this provision Hamilton County included the land between the Miamis and also that east to the Scioto and a long narrow stretch between parallel lines running to Lake Erie and Lake Huron, taking in Detroit and the eastern part of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan.

In the following year, August 15, 1796, Wayne County was organized by the Secretary of the Territory, Winthrop Sargent, acting as Governor in the absence of St. Clair. The southern bound- ary of Wayne County began at Fort Laurens, extended "thence by a west line to the eastern boundary of Hamilton County, *

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 56

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020