USA > Ohio > Mercer County > History of Mercer County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 2
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The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original States, criminal and civil, as may be necessary and best suited to the circumstances of the district, and report them to Congress from time to time: which laws shall be in force in the district until the organization of the General Assembly therein, unless disapproved of by Congress; but, afterwards, the legislature shall have authority to alter them as they shall think fit.
The governor, for the time being, shall be commander-in-chief of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same below the rank of general officers; all general officers shall be appointed and commissioned by Congress.
Previous to the organization of the General Assembly, the governor shall appoint such magistrates and other civil officers, in each county or township, as he shall find necessary for the preservation of the peace and good order in the same: After the General Assembly shall be organized, the powers and duties of magistrates and other civil officers shall be regulated and defined by the said assembly; but all magistrates and other civil officers, not herein otherwise directed, shall, during the continuance of this temporary government, be appointed by the governor.
For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts of the district, and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed, from time
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to time, as circumstances may require, to lay out the parts of the district in which the Indian titles shall have been extinguished, into counties and townships, subject, how- ever, to such alterations as may thereafter be made by the legislature.
So soon as there shall be 5,000 free male inhabitants of full age in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive authority, with time and place, to elect representatives from their counties or townships to represent them in the General Assembly : Provided, That, for every 500 free male inhabitants, there shall be one repre- sentative, and so on progressively with the number of free male inhabitants, shall the right of representation increase, until the number of representatives shall amount to 25; after which, the number and proportion of representatives shall be regulated by the legislature: Provided, That no person be eligible or qualified to act as a representative unless he shall have been a citizen of one of the United States three years, and be a resident in the district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years; and, in either case, shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee simple, 200 acres of land within the same: Provided, also, That a freehold in 50 acres of land in the district, having been a citizen of one of the States, and being resident in the district, or the like free- hold and two years residence in the district, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a representative.
The representative, thus elected, shall serve for the term of two years; and, in case of the death of a representative, or removal from office, the governor shall issue a writ to the county or township for which he was a member, to elect another in his stead, to serve for the residue of the term.
The General Assembly, or Legislature, shall consist of the governor, legislative council, and a house of representatives. The legislative council shall consist of five members, to continue in office five years, unless sooner removed by Congress; any three of whom to be a quorum: and the members of the council shall be nominated and appointed in the following manner, to wit: As soon as representatives shall be elected, the governor shall appoint a time and place for them to meet together; and, when met, they shall nominate ten persons, residents in the district, and each possessed of a freehold in 500 acres of land, and return their names to Congress; five of whom Congress shall appoint and com- mission to serve as aforesaid; and, whenever a vacancy shall happen in the council, by death or removal from office, the house of representatives shall nominate two persons, qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names to Congress; one of whom Congress shall appoint and commission for the residue of the term. And every five years, four months at least before the expiration of the time of service of the members of council, the said house shall nominate ten persons, qualified as aforesaid, and return their names to Congress; five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members of the council five years, unless sooner removed. And the governor, legislative council, and house of representatives, shall have authority to make laws in all cases, for the good government of the district, not repugnant to the principles and articles in this ordinance established and declared. And all bills, having passed by a majority in the house, and by a majority in the council, shall be referred to the governor for his assent; but no bill, or legislative act whatever, shall be of any force without his assent. The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue, and dissolve the General Assembly, when, in his opinion, it shall be expedient.
The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, and such other officers as Con- gress shall appoint in the district, shall take an oath or affirmation of fidelity and of office; the governor before the President of Congress, and all other officers before the governor. As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, the council and house, assembled in one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to Congress, who shall have a seat in Congress, with a right of debating but not of voting during this temporary government.
And, for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form
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the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions are erected; to fix and estab- lish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory: to provide also for the establishment of States, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States, at as early periods as may be con- sistent with the general interest :
It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid, That the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact between the original States and the people and States in said territory and forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, to wit: ART. Ist. No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory.
ART. 2d. The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of trial by jury; of a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature; and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offences, where the proof shall be evi- dent, or the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual punishments shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land; and, should the public exigencies make it necessary, for the common preservation, to take any person's property, or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. And, in the just preserva- tion of rights and property, it is understood and declared that no law ought ever to be made, or have force in the said territory, that shall, in any manner whatever, interfere with or affect private contracts or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed.
ART. 3d. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and prop- erty shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars author- ized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall, from time to time, be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.
ART. 4th. The said territory, and the States which may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States of America, subject to the Articles of Confederation, and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made; and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in Congress assembled, con- formable thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them by Congress according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other States; and the taxes, for paying their proportion, shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislature of the district or districts, or new States, as in the original States, within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new States, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and, in no case, shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the Confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty, therefor.
ART. 5th. There shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three nor more than five States; and the boundaries of the State, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act
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of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: The Western State in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post Vincent's, due North, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada; and, by the said territorial line, to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vincent's, to the Ohio; by the Ohio, by a direct line, drawn due North from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The Eastern State shall be bounded by the last-mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line: Provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two States in that part of the said territory which lies North of an East and West line drawn through the Southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. And, whenever any of the said States shall have 60,000 free inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State government: Provided, the constitution and government so to be formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles con- tained in these articles; and, so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the Confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the State than 60,000.
ART. 6th. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed : Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be law- fully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.
Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions of the 23d of April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby, repealed and declared null and void.
Done by the United States, in Congress assembled. the 13th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of their sovereignty and independence the twelfth.
PROBABLE NUMBER AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION IN 1787.
Up to the time of the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, there had been no permanent settlements by white men established upon territory embraced within the boundaries given to the Northwest Territory, except the few French villages in the western and the northwestern portions of it. If any such existed within the present limits of Ohio, they must have been situated along the Maumee River, and of small extent. The government had hitherto, for the sake of peace, discouraged, and by military force prevented, all at- tempts of white settlers to occupy lands belonging to the Indians.
The chief of those French villages were: Detroit, on the Detroit River ; St. Vincents, on the Wabash; Cahokia, five miles below St. Louis; St. Philip, 48 miles below St. Louis, on the Mississippi; Kaskaskia, six miles above the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, which empties into the Mississippi 75 miles below St. Louis; Prairie-du-Rocher, near Fort Chartres; and Fort Chartres, 15 miles northwest from Kaskaskia. These were all small settlements or villages, whose aggregate inhabitants probably did not exceed 3,000.
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The inhabitants of these remote settlements in the wilderness and on the prairies, says a late writer, "were of a peculiar character. Their intercourse with the Indians, and their seclusion from the world, developed among them peculiar characteristics. They assimilated themselves with the Indians, adopted their habits and almost uniformly lived in harmony with them. They were illiterate, careless, contented, but without much industry, energy or foresight. Some were hunters, trappers and anglers, while others run birch-bark canoes by way of carrying on a small internal trade, and still others cultivated the soil. The traders or voyageurs were men fond of ad- venture, and of a wild, unrestrained, Indian sort of life and would ascend many of the long rivers of the West almost to their sources in their birch- bark canoes, and load them with furs bought of the Indians. The canoes were light, and could easily be carried across the portages between streams."
There was attached to these French villages a "common field," for the free use of the villagers, every family, in proportion to the number of its members, being entitled to share in it. It was a large enclosed tract for farm- ing purposes. There was also at each village a "common," or large inclosed tract, for pasturage and fuel purposes, and timber for building. If a head of a family was sick, or by any casualty was unable to labor, his portion of the "common field" was cultivated by his neighbors, and the crop gathered for the use of his family. "The French villagers," says the author of "West- ern Annals,": "were devout Catholics, who, under the guidance of their priests, attended punctually upon all the holidays and festivals, and per- formed faithfully all the outward duties and ceremonies of the church. Aside from this, their religion was blended with their social feelings. Sundays, after mass, was the especial occasion for their games and assemblies. The dance was the popular amusement with them, and all classes, ages, sexes and conditions, united by a common love of enjoyment, met together to partici- pate in the exciting pleasure. They were indifferent about the acquisition of property for themselves or for their children. Living in a fruitful country, which, moreover, abounded in fish and game, and where the necessaries of life could be procured with little labor, they were content to live in unam- bitious peace and comfortable prosperity. Their agriculture was rude, their houses were humble, and they cultivated grain, also fruit and flowers; but they lived on from generation to generation without much change or im- provement. In some instances they intermarried with some of the surround- ing Indian tribes."
Most of these far-off Western villages were protected by military posts, and some of them (notably Detroit, which in 1763, when in possession of the English, had for months successfully withstood the attacks of the great Pontiac) had realized something of the "pride, pomp and circumstances of
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glorious war." The morning guns of these forts had sounded the merry reveille upon the early breeze, waking the slumbering echoes of the forest, daily, for a century or more; the boom of their loud mid-day cannon across the broad prairies, and its reverberations from the cliff beyond, had been heard for generations; and their evening bugle had wailed plaintively its long-drawn, melancholy notes along the shores of the "Father of Waters"- the mighty river of the West-for more than a hundred years before the adoption of "freedom's ordinance."
ORGANIZATION OF THE OHIO COMPANY OF ASSOCIATES. -
While Congress had under consideration the measure for the organiza- tion of a territorial government northwest of the Ohio River, the prelimin- ary steps were taken in Massachusetts towards the formation of the Ohio Company of Associates, for the purpose of making a purchase of a large tract of land in said territory, and settling upon it. Upon the passage of the ordinance by Congress, the aforesaid company perfected its organization, and by its agents, Rev. Manasseh Cutler and Maj. Winthrop Sargent, made application to the Board of Treasury, July 27, 1787, to become purchasers, said board having been authorized four days before to make sales. The purchase, which was perfected October 27, 1787, embraced a tract of land containing about a million and a half of acres, situated within the present counties of Washington, Athens, Meigs and Gallia, subject to the reserva- tion of two townships of land six miles square, for the endowment of a college, since known as the Ohio University, a't Athens; also every 16th sec- tion, set apart for the use of schools, as well as every 29th section, dedicated to the support of religious institutions; also sections 8, II and 26, which were reserved for the United States, for future sale. After these deductions were made, and that for "donation lands," there remained only 964,285 acres to be paid for by the Ohio Company of Associates, and for which patents were issued.
At a meeting of the directors of the company, held November 23, 1787, Gen. Rufus Putnam was chosen superintendent of the company, and he ac- cepted the position. Early in December, six boat-builders and a number of other mechanics were sent forward to Simrell's Ferry (now West Newton), on the Youghiogheny, under the command of Maj. Haffield White, where they arrived in January, and at once proceeded to build a boat for the com- pany. Col. Ebenezer Sproat, of Rhode Island, Anselm Tupper and John Matthews, of Massachusetts, and Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, of Connect- icut, were appointed surveyors. Preliminary steps were also taken at this meeting to secure a teacher and chaplain, which resulted in the appointment
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of Rev. Daniel Story, who some time during the year arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum in the capacity of the first missionary and teacher from New England.
Early in the winter the remainder of the pioneers, with the surveyors, left their New England homes and started on their toilsome journey to the Western wilderness. They passed on over the Alleghanies, and reached the Youghiogheny about the middle of February, where they rejoined their companions who had preceded them.
The boat, called the "Mayflower," that was to transport the pioneers to their destination, was 45 feet long, 12 feet wide, and of 50 tons burden, and was under the command of Captain Devol. "Her bows were raking or curved like a galley and strongly timbered; her sides were made bullet proof,, and she was covered with a deck roof," so as to afford better protection against the hostile savages while floating down towards their Western home, and during its occupancy there, before the completion of their cabins. All things being ready, they embarked at Simrell's Ferry, April 2, 1788, and passed down the Youghiogheny into the Monongahela, and thence into the Ohio, and down said river to the mouth of the Muskingum, where they ar- rived April 7th, and the first permanent settlement of civilized men within the present limits of Ohio was made then and there. These bold ad- venturers were reinforced by another company from Massachusetts, who, after a nine weeks' journey, arrived early in July, 1788.
Many of these Yankee colonists had been officers and soldiers in the Revolutionary Army and were, for the most part, men 'of intelligence and character, enterprising, fond of adventure and daring, and not to be intimidated by the formidable forests nor by the ferocious beasts sheltered therein, nor by the still more to be dreaded savages, who stealthily and with murderous intent roamed througout their length and breadth. Their army experience had taught them what hardships and privations were, and they were quite willing to encounter them. A better set of men could not have been selected for pioneer settlers than were these New England colonists- these brave-hearted, courageous hero-emigrants of the great Northwest, who, having triumphantly passed the fiery ordeal of the Revolution, volunteered to found a State and to establish American laws, American institutions and American civilization in this the wilderness of the uncivilized West. If any State in our American Union ever had a better start in its incipient set- tlement than Ohio, we are not aware of it. General Washington, writing of these brave pioneers, said that, "no colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. Information, property, and strength will be its characteris- tics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men
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better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community." Having had a personal army acquaintance with Generals Putnam and Parsons, and with Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, and probably with many other leading members of this pioneer colony, his favorable opinion of them is entitled to great weight.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT UNDER THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.
Of course no time was lost by the colonists in erecting their habitations, as well as in building a stockade fort, and in clearing land for the production of vegetables and grain for their subsistence, 50 acres of corn having been planted for the first year. Their settlement was established upon the point of land between the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, just opposite and across the Muskingum from Fort Harmar, built in 1786, and at this time gar- risoned by a small military force under command of Major Doughty. At a meeting held on the banks of the Muskingum, July 2, 1788, it was voted that Marietta should be the name of their town, it being thus named in honor of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.
SURVEYS AND GRANTS OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 1
Congress Lands .- The first survey of the public lands northwest of the Ohio River was the seven ranges of Congress lands, and was done pursuant to an act of Congress, of May 20, 1785. This tract of the seven ranges is bounded by a line of 42 miles in length, running due west from the point where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses the Ohio River; thence due south to the Ohio River, at the southeast corner of Marietta township in Washington county, thence up said river to the place of begin- ning. The present counties of Jefferson, Columbiana, Carroll, Tuscarawas, Harrison, Guernsey, Belmont, Noble, Monroe and Washington are, in whole or in part, within the seven ranges.
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