USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Three > Part 10
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before that tribunal, where acts of Congress can be tried, would be declared a nullity.
"To all acts of Congress that respects the United States (they can make no other) in their corporative capacity, and which are extended by express words to the Territory, we are bound to yield obedience. For all internal affairs we have a complete legislature of our own, and in them are no more bound by an act of Congress than we would be bound by an edict of the first consul of France. Had such an attempt been made upon any of the United States in their separate capacity, the act would have been spurned from them with indignation. We, I trust, also know our rights, and will support them, and, being assem- bled, gentlemen, as a convention, no matter by what means it was brought about, you may do whatever appears to you to be for the best for your constituents as freely as if Congress had never interfered in the matter, and it may be a strong motive to you for so acting, that, by this very act, above five thousand people are divested of the rights they were in posses- sion of without a hearing-bartered away like sheep in a market-transferred to another government, and thrown back into a stage of it which has been loaded with every epithet of opprobrium which the English language affords."
A more inopportune and unwise speech can scarcely be imagined. For a governor of a territorial govern- ment to attack the motives and powers of Congress, which under the Constitution, had full power in the premises, was not only bad taste but official disloyalty. He certainly had no right to complain if the admin-
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e istration at Washington should be offended at his words, and resent his attitude with all its strength.
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"Sir Arthur," as his enemies called him, at last placed in their hands, what they, in all their malignity, had never been able to secure-a cause for his removal from office. Dropping, for the moment, further con- sideration of this occurrence, and awaiting the move- ments of President Jefferson in relation to it, it may be observed that the sarcastic response of the Con- vention to the Governor's speech was the immediate passage of the resolution favorable to statehood, as heretofore narrated.
The most important step taken by the Convention, outside of the adoption of the Constitution itself, was in relation to submitting it for acceptance or disapproval to a vote of the people of the eastern division of the Territory. The refusal to submit it to the people for a vote was sustained both in the Committee of the Whole and in the Convention. There were only seven votes favorable to a submission.
Mr. Cutler voiced the sentiment of those who demanded the opportunity for the people of declaring their assent or dissent to the Constitution. He argued that the dissatisfaction with the work of the Conven- tion would be increased by the fact that the authority under which they acted had not been derived from the people who were to receive the benefits, or abide the evils that were prepared for them. If the Constitution was submitted to the people, said he, the mouths of the clamorous would be stopped, and the minds of the judicious satisfied. To the objection that it would occasion delay and additional expense, he answered,
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that the time for the coming into operation of the State government would not be greatly procrastinated. Two months would probably be found sufficient to answer the purpose proposed, and as to expense, if harmony was thus secured, it would be a cheap pur- chase. But the majority gave no heed to his words, in what he called "mad haste to change the form of government."
The fact that this Constitution was not submitted to the people, has been the subject of discussion and criticism by historians and publicists from that time to this. An idea has prevailed that it was extraor- dinary and revolutionary. On deliberate consideration it will be found that it was neither. Congress had the undoubted right to authorize the Convention "to form a constitution and state government."
A convention such as this, under the act of Congress creating it, possessed inherent powers amounting tc sovereignty. It was the evident intent of the framers of the act in question, to commit the whole and ex- clusive duty of forming the Constitution to the Con- vention. The legal theory under which it (the Con- vention) was formed, was that it was a strictly represen- tative body composed of the agents of the people, and that it possessed all the inherent power of the sovereign In other words, it was a virtual assemblage of the people, of whom, by reason of numbers and remotenes! from each other an actual assemblage was impossible The Convention met clothed with all the power the sovereign people would have had if gathered together It might say with Louis XIV: "We are the State.'
GOVERNOR ALLEN TRIMBLE From a painting by Freeman Thorp in the Capitol at Columbus.
Born in Augusta County, Virginia, November 24, 1783; removed to Ohio in 1805; served in the House of Repre- sentatives in 1816, and in the Senate in 1818; as Speaker of the Senate he became Governor when Governor Brown was elected United States Senator; elected as Governor in 1826 and 1828; died February 3, 1870 at Hillsboro.
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That the time for the coming into operation of the State goveranaMIST NAdIA dunavonly procrastinated Twas fodiqsThedtymi gionT asmesifled |gaitgisq sdmoufficient to answer the purpose .proposed, .andmulo a sto expense, il haringa 1 garfoH SHf m bovisa feo8i ni omO ot bsvomstheap pur chasersoqe est :818 miotsasajont ni bas d18i hizovitatnotis word in what C POVOD as botosle ;10sns2 251st2 befinU berssis abw fe the form of governomodelliH ts 0181 .& VISITdsH beib ; 8581 brs ds81 ni
The fact that this Con tienition was not submitt to the people, has bom the object of discussion and Nisinouns and publicists from that tim Ax ale has preyaded that it was extraon dian atoren. Oni deliberate consideration thay le wat neither. Congress h Le undou ned righe to authorize the Convention " form a constitution and state government."
A convention auch as this, under the act of Congr creating it, possessed inherent powers amounting sovereignty. It was the evident intent of the frame of the act in question, to commit the whole and clusive duty of forming the Constitution to the Com- vention The legal theory under which it (the Con vention) was formed, was that it was a strictly represen tative lody composed of the agents of the people, lun à peurd All the inherent power of the sovereign In viles wurde, it was a virtual assemblage of poopit, of whom, by reason of numbers and remotene from each other an actual assemblage was impossible The Convention met clothed with all the power um sovereign people would have had if gathered together It might say with Louis XIV: "We are the State
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The failure of the Convention to submit its work to the people is not of itself an unusual proceeding. It is a practice that for one hundred years has been more honored in its observance than in its breach. Of the constitutional conventions held in this country for the purpose of framing the first constitution of their respective states, the following submitted their work to the people: California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin, fifteen in number. The fol- owing State conventions did not submit their first constitutions to the people for expression: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mis- souri, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennes- see, and Vermont, in all twenty-one states.
On a careful study of the first Constitution of Ohio the conclusion is inevitable that it was dominantly and arbitrarily democratic, using that term in its broadest sense. It distinctly bears the impress of Thomas Jefferson, and was intended to be the foun- dation of a people's government. The Executive was ignored and restricted, the Judiciary controlled and limited, and all the power possible was placed in the Legislature, which was elected for a short period.
The principle of vesting in the Legislative branch so much power was the rage in that Jeffersonian period. As indicative of this we find Nathaniel Macon, a promi- nent statesman of North Carolina, at this time a mem- ber of Congress from that State, and speaker of the
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House of Representatives, writing to Thomas Worth- ington urging the increase of the power of the Legis- lature. In a letter dated September 1, 1802, (St. Clair Papers, II, 590) he urges that all appointments to office be made by the Legislature rather than by the Governor. He advocated the election of the Governor and all the State officers by the Legislature. This idea was peculiarly a Southern sentiment, and it had some effect on the work of the Convention; indeed, the suggestions of Speaker Macon, except as to the Governor, were adopted by the Convention and formed a distinctive feature of the new Constitu- tion.
What influence did President Jefferson exert per- sonally on the Convention and the Constitutioni We have seen how much interested he was in the creation of the new State and the formation of its organic law. There is evidence of a decidedly reliable stamp that he was in touch with the movements of his party in the Territory, and that his advice was sought and given. There are two circumstances bearing on Mr. Jefferson's relation to the Convention that while not a matter of record, are worthy of con. sideration.
Mr. Brown of Hamilton county was one of the Committee on the Bill of Rights and offered a prop- osition in the committee providing that, "No person shall be held in slavery, if a male, after he is thirty-five years of age; or a female, after twenty-five years o age." Mr. Cutler had no doubt but that this prop osition was in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson The proposition was laid on the table and when nex
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considered in the Committee, Mr. Brown observed that what he had presented was approved by the great- est men of the Nation as a step towards gradual abolition of slavery. Mr. Cutler further states on the authority of Thomas Worthington that Jefferson expressed to the latter when he was at Washington urging the passage of the enabling act, that he (Jeffer- son) hoped an article in the Ohio Constitution (similar to the one afterwards offered by Brown) might be adopted by the Convention; and that he hoped that there would not be any effort to totally exclude slavery from the proposed State, as it would militate against the interests of those who desired to settle in Ohio from the South.
As further and cumulative information on this subject, the observations of Jeremiah Morrow, who was the first Representative in Congress from Ohio, and afterwards United States Senator and Governor, is given by Asahel H. Lewis, who was State Senator from the Summit-Portage district in 1846-7. This letter was written to William Parker Cutler, son of Ephraim Cutler before referred to; it is dated "Cin- cinnati, January 5, 1854," and is published with the Cutler writings. It is given as throwing an interesting sidelight on the politics of this period. Mr. Lewis says : "In answer to your note of the 3Ist inst., I state that in the winter of 1846-7, as I think, I had several con- versations with the late Governor Jeremiah Morrow, whowas then at Columbus. These related in a consider- able degree to the early history of Ohio, the convention that formed the state constitution of 1802, and the character of many of the leading men of the period.
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"I had then just read very attentively the journals of that convention, and being interested in the subject, sought to elicit from him such reminiscences as he had in relation to those points. In one of these he stated that when he went to Washington as a member of Congress, in 1803, he visited Mr. Jefferson; that their conversation turned upon the then new constitution of Ohio, that Mr. Jefferson commended it highly in its main features, but thought that the convention had misjudged in some particulars. One of these was in the structure of the judiciary, which Mr. J. thought was too restricted by the constitution for the future wants of the state, using, in this connection, the ex- pression 'they had legislated too much.' Another was in the exclusion of slavery. Mr. Jefferson thought 'it would have been more judicious to have admitted slavery for a limited period,' 'an opinion,' added Governor Morrow, 'in which I did not concur.' This statement of the conversation with Mr. Jefferson was much more full and minute, but, as I have not by me the memoranda I made at the time, I can give only the substance. This, I am sure, is correct.
"I do not recollect that he told me the fact mentioned by you respecting the section believed to have been drawn by Jefferson's own hand, but am inclined to think I was informed of it by yourself.
"There is no impropriety, I think, in my repeating these statements. Governor Morrow understood the inquiries which I made of him as being, if I may so say, directed to 'the truth of history,' and that I should use this information if I saw proper. If you think so, you have the same liberty."
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Considering the character and reliability of those who have handed down to us these reminiscences, it is difficult to reject them as mere fabrications. What- ever may be the value of these traditions one thing is historically true, that is, if Mr. Jefferson sought to in- fluence the Constitutional Convention on the question of modified slavery it was received by that body with the negation of silence.
Recurring now to Governor St. Clair, there is left to record the most disgraceful episode of that period. Not the mere fact of his removal, but the cowardly and insulting manner in which it was accomplished. His speech before the Convention of course stirred to rage his enemies, and in it they saw their long sought opportunity. Its contents were promptly forwarded, by whom it is not known, to President Jefferson and the result was the following official communication from the Secretary of State:
"Department of State,
Washington, November 22, 1802. 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 disorgan- izing 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 North-Western Territory shall cease on receipt of notification.
I am, etc., James Madison."
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The brutal elimination of a title, civil or military, and the curt close, stamps it as a letter bearing the marks of a petty insult. While the letter was ad- dressed to the Governor it was not sent to him, but was mailed to Charles Willing Byrd, the Secretary of the Territory, with instructions to deliver it to Governor St. Clair, and in the same communication Byrd was made the acting Governor.
The details of this transaction are worthy of being dwelt upon; they cannot be read without feelings of indignation and shame, as well as sympathy for one whose life had been full of great services to his country.
The spirited old man, now sixty-eight years of age, accepted his fate with courage and calmness, but he could not resist the temptation to let fly one Parthian arrow at Jefferson and Madison. He addressed to the latter a bitter and aggressive letter, which in justice to the completion of the history of the Territory is given here in full. It was as follows:
"Cincinnati, December 21st, 1802.
"Sir :- Your letter of the 22d of November, notifying me that the President had determined that upon receipt of that letter my commission of governor of the Northwestern Territory should cease, was de- livered to me by Mr. Secretary Byrd on the 14th day of this month.
"I request you, sir, to present my humble thanks to the President for that favor, as he has thereby discharged me from an office I was heartily tired of about six weeks sooner than I had determined to rid myself of it, as he may have observed from an address-not to the Convention, but-to the people, on the 8th instant.
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"I cannot, however, agree with the President that in my address to the Convention, which is assigned as a reason for my being dismissed, there was either 'intemperance or indecorum of language towards the Legislature of the United States, or a disorganizing spirit of evil tendency and example,' unless an honest and true representation of facts deserve these epithets, or that 'the rules of conduct enjoined by my public station' were in any way violated, unless it is under- stood that the rule of conduct is an implicit, blind obedience.
"As the Convention, sir, was to meet in pursuance of an act of Congress, whereby the election of the members was to be made according to the law of the Territory that had existed, but had been long repealed, a sense of duty led me to cause the election to be made conformably to the spirit of the act and the existing laws of the Territory, as they could not be made con- formably to the words of it; and when the Convention was met, I had done with it in my official capacity.
"Every citizen has a right to address that body, either openly or in writing, and that right was common to me with the rest; and I believe, sir, it is a paramount duty which every man owes to the community of which he is member, to give warning, either to the representatives or to the body, when he sees the rights of that community invaded-from whatever quarter the invasion may come-and direct them, if he can, to the means of warding it off or of repelling it; and I scruple not to say that the violent, hasty and un- precedented intrusion of the Legislature of the United States into the internal concerns of the Northwestern
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Territory was, at the least, indecorous and inconsistent with its public duty. And I might add that the transferring of above five thousand people, without their knowledge or consent, from a country where they were in possession of self-government, to another where they will be, at least for some time, deprived of that privilege and subjected to many other incon- veniences, was something worse than 'intemperate and indecorous;' and that, had it happened in Germany, where such things have happened, no man in America would have hesitated to have used a harsher term. "Degraded as our country is and abject as too many of her sons have become, there is still a vast proportion of them who will be at no loss for the proper term.
"Be pleased, sir, to accept my thanks, too, for the peculiar delicacy you observed in committing the delivery of your letter, and furnishing him with a copy of it, to Mr. Byrd, against whom there was in your hands, to be laid before the President, complaints of something more than mere 'indecorum'-the total neglect of, and refusal to perform, his official duty.
"It is such strokes as this which serve to develop character and, like the relief in painting, brings out the figure distinctly in its proper place.
"It produced, however, no other emotion in me but that kind of derision which physiognomists tell us is the involuntary expression on the countenance of a certain mental sensation which I do not choose to name, and never fails to produce it.
"With due respect, I am, etc., "Ar. St. Clair."
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This closes the official life of General Arthur St. Clair in the great Territory which he helped to create, and which he governed for fourteen years. We have read how as President of the old Continental Congress he gave his powerful aid to secure by the Ordinance of 1787 a charter of freedom for five States, whose foundations, were thereby, built upon the corner stones of liberty, religion and education. We see to-day the influence of these ideas in the growth, wealth and progress of the quintet of republics moulded out of the Territory of which he was Governor. It would seem that a character like St. Clair's would at least have retained the admiration and gratitude of his country. In another age and in another Republic he would have received the eternal acclaim of his countrymen, the wreath of laurel would have been placed upon his brow and wealth would have added peace and luxury to old age. But not so here. The proverbial ingratitude of the people was never so strongly illustrated.
To point this moral, to adorn and complete the story of the Northwest Territory, the after history of Governor St. Clair may properly be told. He returned to Pennsylvania and settled at Ligonier. He was now an old man, broken in spirit and health and fortune. The life that was once powerful and brilliant was now being surrounded by the shadows of poverty, ingrati- tude and debt. The record of his closing days cannot be written without mingled sentiments of disgust, indignation and sadness.
St. Clair had advanced money in behalf of the government during the darkest days of the Revolution,
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in order to hold Washington's army together in Jan- uary, 1781. There was a mutiny in the Pennsylvania line, and St. Clair from his private finances advanced sufficient to meet all demands for pay. Repeatedly did he attempt to have the government reimburse him; when finally it was passed upon by the Committee of Claims, of Congress, who reported that although the money had been expended for the benefit of the United States, the claim was barred by the Statute of Limitations !
While he was in charge of Indian affairs in the Territory he incurred liability for nine thousand dollars in order to carry out the orders of the Secretary of War. After much circumlocution this claim was also refused on account of the Government pleading the same bar as it did in his Revolutionary claim.
Elisha Whittlesey, a prominent lawyer of the Western Reserve for a half-century and a Congressman from 1822 to 1837, met St. Clair in his home at Ligonier in 1815. Whittlesey was on his way to Connecticut and concerning this incident he says: "I proposed that we stop at his house and spend the night. He had no grain for our horses, and after spending an hour with him in the most agreeable and interesting conversation respecting his early knowledge of the Northwestern Territory, we took our leave of him with the deepest regret.
"I never was in the presence of a man that caused me to feel the same degree of esteem and veneration. He wore a citizen's dress of black of the Revolution; his hair clubbed and powdered. When we entered, he rose with dignity, and received us most courteously.
GOVERNOR JEREMIAH MORROW From a painting by John H. Witt in the Capitol at Columbus.
Born at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, October 6, 1771; removed to Ohio in 1795; served in the Territorial Legis- lature, 1801, and in the first Constitutional Convention in 1802; was the first and sole Congressman from Ohio from 1803 to 1813; was United States Senator from 1813 to 1819; elected Governor in 1822 and reëlected; again elected to Congress in 1840; died, March 22, 1853.
THE RISE AND PROGRE
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porent lawyer of the West Borys For Well-contary und a Congressman fre KR == 1.3817. met St. Clair in his home at Ligonier THE: WENNDiesey war on his way to Connecti und vorming this Incident he says; "I propos that as winp at by house and spend the night. lud zo gras ho wur horses, and after spending brmar ath hun In the poor agreeable and interest conversabon respecting lix early knowledge of Northern Territory, wy took our leave of bin with the deepest regret
"I never was in the presence of a man that cau me to feel the same degree of room and venerating He wore a citiem's dress of black of the Revolution his hair dabbed and powdered. When we enter he rote with dignity, and received as most courteously
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His dwelling was a common double log-house of the Western country, that a neighborhood would roll up in an afternoon. Chestnut Ridge was bleak and barren. There lived the friend and confidant of Was- ington, the ex-Governor of the fairest portion of creation. It was in the neighborhood, if not in view, of a large estate 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. Poverty did not cause him to lose his self-respect, and, were he now living, his personal appearance would command universal admiration. "
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