History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 14

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 14

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A gigantie scheme to purchase eighteen or twenty million acres in Michigan, and then pro- cure a good title from the Government-who alone had such a right to procure land-by giving mem- bers of Congress an interest in the investment, appeared shortly after Wayne's treaty. When some of the members were approached, however, the real spirit of the scheme appeared, and, instead of gaining ground, led to the exposure, resulting in the reprimanding severely of Robert Randall, the principal mover in the whole plan, and in its speedy disappearance:

Another enterprise, equally gigantie, also ap- peared. It was, however, legitimate, and henee successful. On the 20th of February, 1795, the North American Land Company was formed in Philadelphia, under the management of such pat- riots as Robert Morris, John Nicholson and James Greenleaf. This Company purchased large traets in the West, which it disposed of to actual settlers, and thereby aided greatly in populating that part of the country.

Before the close of 1795, the Governor of the Territory, and his Judges, published sixty-four statutes. Thirty-four of these were adopted at Cincinnati during June, July and August of that year. They were known as the Maxwell code, from the name of the publisher, but were passed by Governor St. Clair and Judges Symmes and Turner. Among them was that which provided that the common law of England, and all its stat- utes, made previous to the fourth year of James the First, should be in full foree within the Terri- tory. "Of the system as a whole," says Mr. Case, "with its many imperfections, it may be doubted that any eolony, at so early a period after its first establishment, ever had one so good and applicable to all."

The Union had now safely passed through its most critical period after the close of the war of independence. The danger from an irruption of its own members; of a war or alliance of its West-

ern portion with France and Spain, and many other perplexing questions, were now effectually settled, and the population of the Territory began rapidly to increase. Before the elose of the year 1796, the Northwest contained over five thousand inhabitants, the requisite number to entitle it to one representative in the national Congress.

Western Pennsylvania also, despite the various conflicting claims regarding the land titles in that part of the State, began rapidly to fill with emigrants. The "Triangle" and the " Struck District " were surveyed and put upon the market under the aet of 1792. Treaties and purchases from the various Indian tribes, obtained control of the remainder of the lands in that part of the State, and, by 1796, the State owned all the land within its boundaries. Towns were laid off, land put upon the market, so that by the year 1800, the western part of the Keystone State was divided into eight counties, viz., Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango and Armstrong.

The ordinance relative to the survey and dis- posal of lands in the Northwest Territory has already been given. It was adhered to, save in minor eases, where necessity required a slight ehange. The reservations were recognized by Congress, and the titles to them all confirmed to the grantees. Thus, Clarke and his men, the Connecticut Reserve, the Refugee lands, the French inhabitants, and all others holding patents to land from colonial or foreign governments, were all confirmed in their rights and protected in their titles.

Before the elose of 1796, the upper North- western posts were all vacated by the British, under the terms of Mr. Jay's treaty. Wayne at once transferred his headquarters to Detroit, where a county was named for him, including the north- western part of Ohio, the northeast of Indiana, and the whole of Michigan.

The oceupation of the Territory by the Ameri- cans gave additional impulse to cmigration, and a better feeling of seeurity to emigrants, who fol- lowed closely upon the path of the army. Na- thaniel Massie, who has already been noticed as the founder of Manchester, laid out the town of Chillicothe, on the Scioto, in 1796. Before the close of the year, it contained several stores, shops, a tavern, and was well populated. With the increase of settlement and the security guar- anteed by the treaty of Greenville, the arts of eivilized life began to appear, and their influence upon pioneers, especially those born on the frontier,

HISTORY OF OIIIO.

began to manifest itself. Better dwellings, schools, churches, dress and mauners prevailed. Life began to assume a reality, and lost mueh of that recklessness engendered by the habits of a frontier life.

Cleveland, Cincinnati, the Miami, the Mus- kingum and the Seioto Valleys were filling with people. Cincinnati had more than one hundred log cabins, twelve or fifteen frame houses and a population of more than six hundred persons. In 1796, the first house of worship for the Presby- terians in that city was built.

Before the elose of the same year, Manchester contained over thirty families ; enuigrants from Virginia were going up all the valleys from the Ohio; and Ebenezer Zane had opened a bridle- path from the Ohio River, at Wheeling, across the country, by Chillicothe, to Limestone, Ky. The next year, the United States mail, for the first time, traversed this route to the West. Zane was given a section of land for his path. The popu- lation of the Territory, estimated at from five to eight thousand, was chiefly distributed in lower valleys, bordering on the Ohio River. The French still occupied the Illinois country, and were the principal inhabitants about Detroit.

South of the Ohio River, Kentucky was pro- gressing favorably, while the "Southwestern Ter- ritory," ceded to the United States by North Carolina in 1790, had so rapidly populated that, in 1793, a Territorial form of government was allowed. The ordinance of 1787, save the clause prohibiting slavery, was adopted, and the Territory named Tennessee. Ou June 6, 1796, the Terri- tory contained more than seventy-five thousand inhabitants, aud was admitted into the Union as a State. Four years after, the eensus showed a population of 105,602 souls, including 13,584 slaves and persons of color. The same year Tennessee became a State, Samuel Jackson and Jouathan Sharpless crected the Redstone Paper Mill, four miles east of Brownsville, it being the first mauufactory of the kind west of the Alle- ghanics.

Iu the month of December, 1796, Gen. Wayne, who liad done so much for the development of the West, while on his way from Detroit to Philadel- phia, was attacked with sickness and died in a cabin near Erie, in the north part of Pennsylvania. He was nearly fifty-one years old, and was one of

the bravest officers in the Revolutionary war, and one of America's truest patriots. In 1809, his remains were removed from Erie, by his son, Col. Isaae Wayne, to the Radnor churchyard, near the place of his birth, and an elegant monument ereeted on his tomb by the Pennsylvania Cincinnati So- ciety

After the death of Wayne, Gen. Wilkinson was appointed to the command of the Western army. While he was in command, Carondelet, the Spanish governor of West Florida and Louisiana, made one more effort to separate the Union, and set up either an independent government in the West, or, what was more in accord with his wishes, effect a union with the Spanish nation. In June, 1797; he sent Power again into the Northwest and into Kentucky to sound the existing feeling. Now, however, they were not easily won over. The home government was a certainty, the breaches had been healed, and Power was compelled to abandon the mission, not, however, until he had received a severe reprimand from many who saw through his plan, and openly exposed it. His mission closed the efforts of the Spanish authorities to attempt the dismemberment of the Union, and showed them the coming downfall of their power in Amer- ica. They were obliged to surrender the posts elaimed by the United States uuder the treaty of 1795, and not many years after, sold their Amer- ican possessions to the United States, rather than see a rival European power attain control over them.

On the 7th of April, 1798, Congress passed an act, appointing Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Northwest Territory, Governor of the Territory of the Mississippi, formed the same day. In 1801, the boundary between America and the Spanish pos- sessions was definitely fixed. The Spanish retired from the disputed territory, and heneeforward their attempts to dissolve the American Union eeased. The seat of the Mississippi Territory was fixed at Loftus Heights, six miles north of the thirty-first degree of latitude.

The appointment of Sargent to the charge of the Southwest Territory, led to the choice of William Ilenry Harrison, who had been aid-de-camp to Gen. Wayne in 1794, and whose character stood very high among the people of the West, to the Secretaryship of the Northwest, which place he held until appointed to represent that Territory in Con- gress.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST TERRITORIAL REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS-DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY-FORMA- TION OF STATES-MARIETTA SETTLEMENT-OTHER SETTLEMENTS-SETTLEMENTS IN THE WESTERN RESERVE-SETTLEMENT OF THE CENTRAL VALLEYS- FURTHER SETTLEMENTS IN THE RESERVE AND ELSEWHERE.

T THE ordinance of 1787 provided that as soon as there were 5,000 persons in the Territory, it was entitled to a representative assembly. On October 29, 1798, Governor St. Clair gave notice by proclamation, that the required population ex- isted, and directed that an election be held on the third Monday in December, to choose representa- tives. These representatives were required, when assembled, to nominate ten persons, whose names were sent to the President of the United States, who selected five, and with the advice and eonsent of the Senate, appointed them for the legislative council. In this mode the Northwest passed into the second grade of a Territorial government.

The representatives, eleeted under the proclama- tion of St. Clair, met in Cincinnati, January 22, 1799, and under the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, nominated ten persons, whose names were sent to the President. On the 2d of March, he selected from the list of candidates, the names of Jacob Burnet, James Findlay, Henry Vander- burgh, Robert Oliver and David Vance. The next day the Senate confirmed their nomination, and the first legislative council of the Northwest Territory was a reality.

The Territorial Legislature met again at Cincin- nati, September 16, but, for want of a quorum, was not organized until the 24th of that month. The House of Representatives consisted of nine- teen members, of whom seven were from Hamilton County, four from Ross-ereeted by St. Clair in 1798 ; three from Wayne-ereeted in 1796; two from Adams-ereeted in 1797; one from Jeffer- son-erected in 1797; one from Washington- ereeted in 1788; and one from Knox-Indiana Territory. None seem to have been present from St. Clair County ( Illinois Territory).

After the organization of the Legislature, Gov- ernor St. Clair addressed the two houses in the Rep- resentatives' Chamber, recommending sueh meas- ures as, in his judgment, were suited to the eon- dition of the country and would advanee the safety and prosperity of the people.

The Legislature continued in session till the 19th of December, when, having finished their business, they were prorogued by the Governor, by their own request, till the first Monday in November, 1800. This being the first session, there was, of necessity, a great deal of business to do. The transition from a colonial to a semi-independent form of government, ealled for a general revision as well as a considerable enlargement of the stat- ute-book. Some of the adopted laws were re- pealed, many others altered and amended, and a long list of new ones added to the eode. New offices were to be created and filled, the duties at- tached to them prescribed, and a plan of ways and means devised to meet the increased expenditures, oceasioned by the change which had now occurred.

As Mr. Burnet was the principal lawyer in the Couneil, much of the revision, and putting the laws into proper legal form, devolved upon him. He seems to have been well fitted for the place, and to have performed the laborious task in an excel- lent manner.

The whole number of acts passed and approved by the Governor, was thirty-seven. The most im- portant related to the militia, the administration of justice, and to taxation. During the session, a bill authorizing a lottery was passed by the council, but rejected by the Legislature, thus interdieting this demoralizing feature of the disposal of lands or for other purposes. The example has always been followed by subsequent legislatures, thus honorably characterizing the Assembly of Ohio, in this re- speet, an example Kentucky and several other States might well emulate.

Before the Assembly adjourned, they issued a congratulatory address to the people, enjoining them to "Inculcate the principles of humanity, benevolence. honesty and punctuality in dealing, sincerity and charity, and all the social affections." At the same time, they issued an address to the President, expressing entire confidenee in the wis- dom and purity of his government, and their warm attachment to the American Constitution.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

The vote on this address proved, however, that the differences of opinion agitating the Eastern States had penetrated the West. Eleven Representatives voted for it, and five against it.

One of the important duties that devolved on this Legislature, was the election of a delegate to Congress. As soon as the Governor's proclama- tion made its appearance, the election of a person to fill that position excited general attention. Be- fore the meeting of the Legislature public opinion had settled down on William Henry Harrison, and Arthur St. Clair, Jr., who eventually were the only candidates. On the 3d of October, the two houses met and proceeded to a choice. Eleven votes were cast for Harrison, and ten for St. Clair. The Leg- islature prescribed the form of a certificate of the election, which was given to Harrison, who at once resigned his office as Secretary of the Territory, proceeded to Philadelphia, and took his seat, Con- gress being then in session.

"Though he represented the Territory but one year, " says Judge Burnett, in liis notes, " he ob- tained some important advantages for his constitu- ents. He introduced a resolution to sub-divide the surveys of the public lands, and to offer them for sale in smaller tracts ; he succeeded in getting that measure through both houses, in opposition to the interest of speculators, who were, and who wished to be, the retailers of the land to the poorer classes of the community. His propositiou be- came a law, and was hailed as the most beneficent aet that Congress had ever done for the Territory. It put in the power of every industrious man, how- ever poor, to become a freeholder, and to lay a foundation for the future support and comfort of his family. At the same session, he obtained a liberal extension of time for the pre-emptioners in the northern part of the Miami purchase, which enabled them to secure their farms, and eventually to become independent, and even wealthy."

The first session, as has been noticed, closed December 19. Gov. St. Clair took occasion to enumerate in his speech at the elose of the session, eleven acts, to which he saw fit to apply his veto. These he had not, however, returned to the Asscm- bly, and thereby saved a long struggle between the exceutive and legislative branches of the Territory. Of the eleven acts enumerated, six related to the formation of new counties. These were mainly disproved by St Clair, as he always sturdily main- tained that the power to erect new counties was vested alone in the Executive. This free exercise of the veto power, especially in relation to new

counties, and his controversy with the Legislature, tended only to strengthen the popular discontent regarding the Governor, who was never fully able to regain the standing he held before his in- glorious defeat in his campaign against the Indians.

While this was being agitated, another question eame into prominenee. Ultimately, it settled the powers of the two branches of the government, and caused the removal of St. Clair, then very distasteful to the people. The opening of the present century brought it fully before the people, who began to agitate it in all their assemblies.

The great extent of the Territory made the operations of government extremely uncertain, and the power of the courts practically worthless. Its division was, therefore, deemed best, and a committee was appointed by Congress to inquire into the matter. This committee, the 3d of March, 1800, reported upon the subject that, “In the three western counties, there has been but one court having cognizance of erimes in five years. The immunity which offenders experience, attracts, as to an asylum, the most vile and aban- doned eriminals, and, at the same time, deters useful and virtuous citizens from making settle- ments in such society. The extreme necessity of judiciary attention and assistance is experienced in civil as well as criminal cases. The supplying to vacant places such necessary officers as may be wanted, such as clerks, recorders and others of like kind, is, from the impossibility of eorreet notiee and information, utterly neglected. This Territory is exposed as a frontier to foreign nations, whose agents can find sufficient interest in exciting or fomenting insurrection and discontent, as thereby they can more easily divert a valuable trade in furs from the United States, and also have a part thereof on which they border, which feels so little the eherishing hand of their proper gov- ernment, or so little dreads its energy, as to render their attachment perfectly uncertain and am- biguous.

" The committee would further suggest, that the law of the 3d of March, 1791, granting land to certain persons in the western part of said Ter- ritory, and directing the laying-out of the same, remains unexecuted; that great discontent, in consequence of such neglect, is excited in those who are interested in the provisions of said laws, which require the immediate attention of this Legislature. To minister a remedy to these evils, it occurs to this committee, that it is expedient

HISTORY OF OHIO.

that a division of said Territory into two distinct. and separate governments should be made; and that such division be made by a line beginning at the mouth of the great Miami River, running directly north until it intersects the boundary between the United States and Canada." *

The recommendations of the committee were favorably received by Congress, and, the 7th of May, an act was passed dividing the Ter- ritory. The main provisions of the act are as follows:

"That, from and after the 4th of July next, all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky River, and running thenee to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it intersects the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of tem- porary government, constitute a separate Territory, and be called the Indiana Territory.

"There shall be established within the said Ter- ritory a government, in all respects similar to that provided by the ordinance of Congress passed July 13, 1797."+

The act further provided for representatives, and for the establishment of an assembly, on the same plan as that in force in the Northwest, stipulating that until the number of inhabitants reached five thousand, the whole number of representatives to the General Assembly should not be less than seven, nor more than nine; apportioned by the Governor among the several counties in the new Terri- tory.

The aet further provided that " nothing in the act should be so construed, so as in any manner to affect the government now in force in the terri- tory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, further than to prohibit the exercise thereof within the Indiana Territory, from and after the aforesaid 4th of July next.

" Whenever that part of the territory of the United States, which lies to the eastward of a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami River, and running thence due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall be erected into an independent State, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the orig- inal States; thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently, the boundary line between such State and the Indiana Territory."

* American State Papers. + Land Laws.

It was further enacted, " that, until it shall be otherwise enacted by the legislatures of the said territories, respectively, Chillicothe, on the Scioto River, shall be the seat of government of the ter- ritory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River; and that St. Vincent's, on the Wabash River, shall be the seat of government for the Indiana Territory."

St. Clair was continued as Governor of the old Territory, and William Henry Harrison appointed Governor of the new.

Connecticut, in eeding her territory in the West to the General Government, reserved a portion, known as the Connecticut Reserve. When she afterward disposed of her claim in the manner narrated, the citizens found themselves without any government on which to lean for support. At that time, settlements had begun in thirty-five of the townships into which the Reserve had been divided ; one thousand persons had established homes there ; mills had been built, and over seven hundred miles of roads opened. In 1800, the settlers petitioned for acceptance into the Union, as a part of the Northwest; and, the mother State releasing her judi- ciary elaims, Congress accepted the trust, and granted the request. In December, of that year, the population had so inercased that the county of Trumbull was erected, including the Reserve. Soon after, a large number of settlers came from Pennsylvania, from which State they had been driven by the dispute concerning land titles in its western part. Unwilling to cultivate land to which they could only get a doubtful decd, they abandoned it, and came where the titles were sure.

Congress having made Chillicothe the capital of the Northwest Territory, as it now existed, on the 3d of November the General Assembly met at that place. Gov. St. Clair had been made to feel the odium cast upon his previous aets, and, at the open- ing of this session, expressed, in strong terms, his disapprobation of the censure east upon him. He had endeavored to do his duty in all cases, he said, and yet held the confidence of the President and Congress. He still held the office, notwithstanding the strong dislike against him.

At the second session of the Assembly, at Chil- licothe, held in the autumn of 1801, so much out- spoken enmity was expressed, and so much abuse heaped upon the Governor and the Assembly, that a law was passed, removing the capital to Cincinnati

* Land Laws.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

again. It was not destined, however, that the Territorial Assembly should meet again anywhere. The unpopularity of the Governor eaused many to long for a State government, where they could choose their own rulers. The unpopularity of St. Clair arose partly from the feeling connected with his defeat ; in part from his being connected with the Federal party, fast falling into disrepute; and, in part, from his assuming powers which most thought he had no right to exercise, especially the power of subdividing the counties of the Terri- tory.

The opposition, though powerful out of the Assembly, was in the minority there. During the month of December, 1801, it was foreed to protest against a measure brought forward in the Council, for changing the ordinance of 1787 in such a man- ner as to make the Seioto, and a line drawn from the intersection of that river and the Indian boundary to the western extremity of the Reserve, the linuits of the most eastern State, to be formed from the Territory. Had this change been made, the formation of a State government beyond the Ohio would have been long delayed. Against it, Representatives Worthington, Langham, Darlington, Massie, Dunlavy and Morrow, recorded their pro- test. Not content with this, they sent Thomas Worthington, who obtained a leave of absenee, to the seat of government, on behalf of the objeetors, there to protest, before Congress, against the pro- posed boundary. While Worthington was on his way, Massie presented, the 4th of January, 1802, a resolution for choosing a committee to address Congress in respect to the proposed State govern- ment. This, the next day, the House refused to do, by a vote of twelve to five. An attempt was next made to procure a eensus of the Ter- ritory, and an act for that purpose passed the House, but the Council postponed the considera- tion of it until the next session, which would eom- mence at Cincinnati, the fourth Monday of No- vember.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 14

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014