USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Three > Part 14
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These pioneer newspapers exercised great influence in their day. They were edited with conscientious intelligence, and divided with the statesmen of the period great power in politics. The majority of them were Democratic-Republican in the issues of the time, and the dominancy of that party in Ohio during the early part of the nineteenth century can be ascribed very largely to them. They were literally the moulders of public opinion, and their weekly visits and declara- tions were anxiously expected by the subscriber to advise him of the way he should think and act. The editor was usually a man of larger intelligence than his constituency, and his opinions exercised an in- dividual influence which the newspaper of today does not have.
Up to 1810 nothing had been done toward develop- ing literature in Ohio. The pioneer age is not con- ducive to that. The publications for the West had been produced entirely at Lexington and Frankfort, Kentucky. At these points there was a decided
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
literary atmosphere and valuable contributions to scholarship and literature had been published even at this early day. But Ohio was at the beginning of its book making. The first book published in the Northwest Territory was "Maxwell's Code," an octavo of two hundred and twenty-five pages entitled, "Laws of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, adopted and made by the Governor and Judges, in their legis- lative capacity, at a session begun on Friday the XXIX day of May, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, and ending on Tuesday the 25th day of August following, with an Appendix of Resolutions and the Ordinance for Government of the Territory. By authority. Cincinnati: Printed by W. Maxwell, 1796." These yearly volumes of the laws, first printed at Cincinnati and afterward at Chillicothe, were the earliest publications printed in Ohio.
Almanacs were published in Cincinnati by William McFarland in 1805; by Carney and Morgan in 1809, and by John W. Browne & Co. at the Liberty Hall office in 1810. One of the first books published in Cincinnati by David E. Carney in 1807, was "The Trial of Charles Vattier, convicted of the Crimes of Burglary and Larceny, for stealing from the Office of Receiver of Public Works for the District of Cin- cinnati." Dr. Daniel Drake's "Notices Concerning Cincinnati, Its Topography, Climate and Diseases," which is now a work of great rarity and literally worth its weight in gold, was printed by John W. Browne in 1810.
This work was the first fruit of literary and scientific culture in Ohio. The personal knowledge of Dr.
1
FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY
From the original in possession of Judge David F. Pugh, Columbus, Ohio.
TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES
NORTH-WEST OF THE OHIO
Mapted and made by the GOVERNOUR and JUDGES, in their Lea Rifative Capacity, as a Seffign begun on Friday, the xxIx away of May, one thousand, eleven hundred and nunery five, and ending on Tuesday the twenty fifib day of Augus following
WITH AN APPENDIX -
RESOLUTIONS AND THE
ORDINANCE
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY.
By Authority.
CINCINNATI: PRINTED BY W. MAXWELL.
M, DCC,XCVL
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RISE AND PROGRI
ТРЯІН АНТ ХО НДАЯ АІТІТ АНТ ХО АНМІЭЭАТ
танинтяой янт и санация Nuavie eofeributions УЯОТІЯЯНТ d been published ev donT.H bivsa sgbul fo foizasazoq ni Isnigho odf moid Di Divo wasoido ehdibeginning
The first book published in Northwest Territory was "Maxwell's Code," octavo of two hundred and twenty-five pages entitl "Lawwod the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, adop and made by the Governor and Judges, in their leg lative capacity, at a session begun on Friday XXIX day of May, one thousand seven hundred a minety-five, and ending on Tuesday the 25th day August following, with an Appendix of Resoluti sul the Otfinner for Government of the Territo Hr wtres Cincinnati: Printed by W. Maxw Theo cranky volumes of the laws, first prin sau and afterward at Chillicothe, were roma printed in Ohio.
Aw acs were published in Cincinnati by Will A Farland M (805, by Carney and Morgan in 18 Toliw W. Browne & Co. at the Liberty make in 116. One of the first books published Cincinnati by David E. Carney in 1807, was '] Trial of Charles Vattier, convicted of the Crime Burglary and Larceny, for stealing from the Offic Recine ol Publle Works for the District of inurl " D. Daniel Drake's "Notices Concern Cincho r His Topography, Climate and Disea wlikk w pow . wwk of great rarity and literally w Da mucho w gold, was printed by John W. Bro
Thù work was the first fruit of literary and scien culture in Ohio. The personal knowledge of
LAWS
OF THE
TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES
NORTH-WEST OF THE OHIO
Adopted and made by the GOVERNOUR and JUDGES, in their Le- gifative Capacity, at a Seffign begun on Friday, the xxix any of May, one thousand, eleven hundred and nunery five, and ending on Tuesday the twenty fifib day of August following ..
WITH AN
APPENDIX - OF RESOLUTIONS AND THE ORDINANCE
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY.
By Authority.
CINCINNATI: PRINTED BY W. MAXWELL.
M, DCC,XCVL
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Drake, of Cincinnati and the surrounding country, supplemented by his study of botany, geology, antiq- uities and meteorology, his readings of scientific travelers in America, his practice of medicine and his social communion with the pioneers gave this work an original value. That part of it which relates to the Natural History and Antiquities of the Miami country still remains the best account we have of them. The features and productions of nature, as he depicted them are still the same, although clothed with the garb of civilization, thereby testifying to the accuracy of his writings.
Among the earliest literary productions of this period are the publications of the Shakers. Richard McNemar in 1807 published his "Kentucky Revival," which furnished a reliable account of that great spiritual movement, and also the history of Shakerism in the West and its work among the Indians. It was printed in Cincinnati. In 1808 was published at Lebanon, Ohio, "Christ's Second Appearing"-the first, greatest and most authentic theological work of Shakerism. It was written by Benjamin Seth Youngs and was printed by John McLean, afterward a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. It passed through four editions, the last printed in 1856, and has been called the Shakers' Bible. The next publication of this sect was in 1810, and is entitled "Transactions of the Ohio Mob"; it relates to the mob against the Shakers which gathered at Union Village August 27, 1810. It is in pamphlet form and is now exceedingly scarce.
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
The brief period in the life of the young State which has thus far been recorded, saw its foundations securely laid. It saw the beginnings of its commerce, its agriculture, its education and its literature. This was all done under conditions which were the most distressful in the history of the State. The scarcity of money, the absence of markets and the isolation of its people brought on a most discouraging situation. But in the face of all such obstacles, these pioneers forced the State forward. The year 1810 closed with Ohio occupying a position of prominence in the Union.
When she entered the sisterhood of States she was the eighteenth in rank in population; since then, she had become the thirteenth. In value of domestic imports she was the fifteenth and in manufactures, the sixteenth; the census of 1810 showing that no less than 10,586 looms were in operation in Ohio.
The temporary location of the State Capital at Chillicothe expired under the constitution in 1808. There was a pronounced feeling of dissatisfaction as to its continuance at that place. Knowing this, the citizens of Zanesville petitioned for its removal to their town, and upon assurance being given the Leg- islature that the State would not be put to any expense, the Legislature removed the seat of the state govern- ment to that place in 1810. It remained here for two years.
The election for Governor in 1808 was an exciting and bitter contest. Politically speaking, these first years of the State were stormy ones. The events before recorded, such as the legislative assault on the judiciary, the ousting of the State officers under the
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
"sweeping resolution," and the removal of the capital to Zanesville were all issues that gave rise to acrimoni- ous discussion both on the public rostrum and in the press. The situation developed three candidates for Governor, all of them being Democratic-Republicans, the Federalist party apparently having no political life.
These candidates were Thomas Kirker, the acting Governor, Thomas Worthington, who had completed his term as one of the first United States Senators from Ohio, and Samuel Huntington, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, and against whom at the time impeachment proceedings were pending. The election was not conducted upon political or partisan lines, but rather upon the personal relationship of the candidates to the people of the State. The result of the poll was that Samuel Huntington received 7,293 votes, Thomas Worthington 5,601, and Thomas Kirker 3,397.
Samuel Huntington, the third Governor of Ohio, was born in Coventry, Connecticut, October 4, 1765; he was adopted and educated by his uncle, Samuel Huntington, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and Governor of Connecticut from 1786 to 1796. The younger Huntington removed to Cleve- land in 1801 and to Painesville in 1805. He was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1785, and had traveled much abroad. He represented in Ohio politics the dying Federalist party but he acted with the Jefferson- ian Democracy because there was no other party organization; he was all his life the leading character of the Western Reserve. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention from Trumbull County,
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
and served as State Senator, Judge of the Supreme Court and Governor. He afterwards (1811-12) served as Representative from Ashtabula and Cuyahoga counties in the General Assembly. During the War of 1812 Governor Huntington with General Lewis Cass visited Washington to secure funds for the defense of Ohio, and it was through their efforts that sufficient military spirit was aroused to defend the lake region. He served as Paymaster in the Army with the rank of Colonel until peace was declared. He died at Paines- ville, Ohio, June 18, 1817, leaving behind him a reputa- tion for accomplished scholarship, pronounced execu- tive ability and acknowledged integrity.
The most far-reaching and important event of this period, and one which exercised the greatest beneficent results to Ohio in this era occurred in 1811. This was the construction, and the departure from Pittsburg, of the steamboat "New Orleans." It opened up a future of almost illimitable growth to the State which soon started and progressed with unexampled rapidity. It verified in a superlative degree Lord Macauley's declaration: "Of all the inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civiliza- tion of our species."
Robert Fulton, aided by Chancellor Livingston, had demonstrated the supremacy of steam on the Hudson, and they turned westward for new triumphs. For this purpose the Ohio Steamboat Navigation Company was incorporated December 10, 1810 for the purpose of operating steamboats on the Western waters under the Fulton-Livingston patents. The incorporators,
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
all distinguished citizens of New York, were Daniel D. Tompkins, Robert R. Livingston, DeWitt Clinton, Robert Fulton, and Nicholas J. Roosevelt.
No more distinguished set of promoters ever signed incorporation papers or assumed the chances of a new venture than these men. Daniel D. Tompkins had been Governor of New York six years, and afterward served two terms as Vice President of the United States. Robert R. Livingston was one of the Committee of Five chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence, and as Chancellor of New York he administered the oath of office to George Washington on his inauguration as first President. He was Minister to France, enjoy- ing the confidence of Napoleon Bonaparte to such an extent that he successfully accomplished the cession of Louisiana to the United States. While in Paris he met Robert Fulton, and together they developed a plan of steam navigation which was triumphantly completed afterwards on the Hudson.
De Witt Clinton belonged to a famous family that had been prominent in New York for a hundred years. He had been Mayor of New York City and twice Governor of the State; he was the father of its canal system. Robert Fulton was the practical man of the combination, and whatever may be said against his being the originator of steam navigation, the fact remains that he first applied it to commercial use. Nicholas J. Roosevelt was also an inventor as well as a civil engineer. Fulton's steamboat never would have been a success had he not adopted Roosevelt's invention of vertical wheels, which he first refused to do, but which he accepted in 1803. In 1809 Fulton
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
and Roosevelt became associated in steam navigation and the Ohio Steamboat Navigation Company was the result.
Prior to the application of steam to navigation on the Ohio River the means of transportation thereon consisted of keelboats, barges and flatboats. Keel- boats and barges ascended as well as descended the stream. The flatboat was a mere box to float down stream, and was broken up for its lumber when it reached its journey's end. The keelboat was long and slender, sharp fore and aft, with a narrow gangway just within the gunwale, for the boatmen as they poled or warped up stream, when not aided by the eddies that made their oars available. When the keelboat was covered with a low house lengthwise, it took the more aristocratic name of "barge." Keelboats, barges and flatboats had large and powerful steering oars, and oars of the same kind were hung on fixed pivots on the sides. These were the best contrivances for transpor- tation on the Western waters in 1810; and knowing nothing better, the people were so satisfied with them that when steamboats were suggested, they stead- fastly and indignantly claimed that they could not be operated on the Ohio River.
Whether this was true or not, Fulton and his asso- ciates did not regard the success of steam navigation on the Hudson River as settling that question on the Ohio. It was, therefore, considered necessary that investigations and surveys should be made of the Western waters. These were undertaken by Mr. Roosevelt. He accordingly went to Pittsburg in May, 1809, accompanied by his wife, to whom he was
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
recently married. The only means of conveyance were the keelboats, barges and flatboats already described. None of those in use were suited to Mr. Roosevelt's purpose. Accuracy of survey rather than speed was the essential with him, and to secure this he determined to build a boat after his own ideas. This he accordingly did, and for the next six months it was home to himself and Mrs. Roosevelt.
Cincinnati, Louisville and Natchez were the only places of note between Pittsburg and New Orleans. To the leading citizens of those places Mr. Roosevelt carried letters of introduction; by all of them he was kindly received and hospitably entertained. They listened respectfully as he stated his purpose, and incredulously as he stated what he expected to do. He was regarded as a sanguine enthusiast. Not only were the men he met in society incredulous, but the pilots and practical boatmen regarded his scheme of steam navigation as impracticable so far as the Ohio River was concerned. They listened to his narration of the success between New York and Albany; and then pointed to the whirling eddies, rapid currents and turbid channels of the great river as a conclusive answer to all of his statements. That steam could overcome these obstacles they could not be made to see. But Mr. Roosevelt was firm in his optimism; he was sure that steam would work as well on the Ohio as on the Hudson. In his surveys and investigations he pene- trated every problem, and did not leave it until he had solved it to his own satisfaction. He studied the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; he gauged them; he measured their velocity at different seasons; he obtained all the
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
practical information he could, and then formed a judgment that was prophetic. So sure was he of the future, that finding coal on the banks of the Ohio, he purchased and opened mines. So confident was he of his project that he caused supplies of the fuel to be heaped upon the shore in anticipation of the wants of a steamboat whose keel was not yet laid.
If we are to fix upon any one man the credit for the new progress of the West following steam navigation, it must be upon Nicholas J. Roosevelt. To his superb confidence, both as an inventor and an engineer, is due the materialization of the plans of Fulton and his associates. Filled with the spirit of scientific opti- mism, he returned to New York from New Orleans by sea, and presented to Fulton and Livingston an elabo- rate report of his examinations and conclusions demon- strating the feasibility of their project. The result was the formation of the Ohio Steamboat Navigation Company and Mr. Roosevelt was sent to Pittsburg in the spring of 1810 to construct the first steamboat for the Ohio River. The design and plan were furnished by Fulton, and it was for a hull one hundred and sixteen feet long and a twenty feet beam. The engine was to have a thirty-four inch cylinder with proportionate boiler. These plans were modified somewhat and the vessel was made larger. After numerous annoyances and difficulties it was completed at a cost of about $38,000.
The "New Orleans" contained two cabins, one aft for ladies, and a larger one forward for gentlemen. Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt were the only passengers. The crew consisted of a captain, an engineer, a pilot,
pate
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
six hands, one male and two female servants, a cook and an immense Newfoundland dog named Tiger. Thus equipped, this little craft started down the Ohio River on a voyage which changed the destiny of the West. The people of Pittsburg turned out to bid "God speed" to the pioneer voyagers of a new era. On the second day after leaving Pittsburg the "New Orleans" reached Cincinnati. Here also the whole town turned out, and many whom Mr. Roosevelt met on his first journey came aboard the boat which was anchored in the stream, for there were no levees nor wharves in those days. The visitors congratulated him, saying, "Well, you were as good as your word; you have visited us in a steamboat, but we see you for the last time. Your boat may go down the river, but as to coming up it, the very idea is an absurd one."
The stop at Cincinnati was brief, only long enough to take on wood for the trip to Louisville which was reached October 1, 1811, at midnight of the fourth day after leaving Pittsburg. In a brilliant moonlight the "New Orleans" anchored opposite the town. The next day prominent citizens came aboard and heartily welcomed Mr. Roosevelt with the same pessimism regarding the boat ascending the stream as was ex- pressed at Cincinnati. In return for the hospitality extended to Mr. Roosevelt, he invited his visitors to dine on his boat, and while all were enjoying themselves the boat began moving. The company was seized with terror, for they supposed that the vessel had slipped her anchor and was drifting towards the Falls, which they felt was sure wreck and destruction. They rushed to the deck to find the boat steaming up the
190 RISE AND PROGRESS OF AN AMERICAN STATE
river, leaving Louisville far down stream. When incredulity was conquered, they were filled with delight and admiration. After a ride of a few miles up the river, the "New Orleans" returned to her anchorage.
As there was not a sufficient depth of water on the Falls of the Ohio to permit a safe passage downward, it was determined to surprise Cincinnati by returning to that city. This was done, and the reception was even more enthusiastic than that of a few days before. The first was marked by universal incredulity as to the future of steamboat navigation, the second by unbounded confidence in Mr. Roosevelt and his pre- dictions. With a rise in the river, the "New Orleans" proceeded to her destination. She entered the New Orleans and Natchez trade and never returned to the Ohio River.
Other steamboats were constructed, now that the great fact had been demonstrated. The whole phase of trade on Western waters was changed, and instead of the Ohio merchants and farmers shipping their cargoes of thirty tons in keelboats, they were forwarded in steamboats of four hundred tons burden. This gave a new touch of increased vigor to domestic commerce, and an era of progress was clearly started that would soon place Ohio and her people in the forefront of West- ern development.
CHAPTER VI. THE OPERATIONS OF AARON BURR IN OHIO
I N the year 1805 Aaron Burr made his first visit to the West. It was the beginning of one of the most wrangled over and absorbing incidents in American history. For more than a century, historians and partisans have disputed over his plans and intentions. The State of Ohio was a conspicuous theater of his schemes, and some of her most distin- guished citizens were important characters in con- nection with his so-called conspiracy. It is not the purpose in these pages to enter into the merits of this dramatic incident in the picturesque life of Aaron Burr. It will be helpful, however, to a full under- standing of his operations in Ohio, to know something of the man, his career, and the events in connection with his sensational movement.
When Aaron Burr stepped from the high office of the Vice-Presidency of the United States and started for the West, he was just past his forty-ninth year. He was in the zenith of his intellectual vigor, and had closed a career in public life allotted to but few men in the Nation's history. Fame, flattery, power, honors and obloquy had been heaped upon him in a super- lative degree. An outcast in politics, hated by his enemies and rejected by his own party, he turned his organizing genius to new fields, and out of his brain came visions and schemes that inseparably connect his name with one of the most disturbing events in our pioneer period.
Burr's forbears were of the best, and he had back of him a blue-blooded New England lineage. His grand- father on his mother's side, was Jonathan Edwards, the distinguished New England divine and the first
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
American theologian of his time. Jonathan Edwards, himself, could trace his ancestry direct to Alfred the Great.
His father was the Reverend Aaron Burr, D.D., also a noted divine and president of Princeton College. The Burrs were distinguished in the colonial history of Connecticut. Colonel Andrew Burr, a collateral ancestor, was at the capture of Louisburg in 1745. Peter Burr, another ancestor, was Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut and one of the early graduates of Harvard College. Another, Samuel Burr, graduated from Harvard in 1697 and became the head of the famous Grammar School at Charlestown, Massachusetts. And still another, John Burr, ranks as the founder of the school system of Connecticut.
Aaron Burr's troubles commenced early in life; before he was two years old, he had lost father, mother and grandparents, and thus orphaned and alone, he with his little sister, was taken to raise by his uncle Timothy Edwards. This uncle was a strict and gloomy Puritan, living always in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and thus, in the formative period of his life, young Burr, deprived of the love of a mother and the warm companionship of a father, grew up in an atmosphere of coldness, inappreciation and formality. The frank and impulsive spirit of boyhood was absent and he became old before his time. Much of the defective character of his manhood can be attributed to his barren child life.
The ample estate of his father furnished him an education, and at the age of sixteen he graduated with honors from Princeton. For a year after his
AARON BURR
Born in Newark, N. J., February 6, 1756, died on Staten Island, September 14, 1836; figured conspicuously in Ohio in 1806-1807 as a promoter of a western movement con- strued by the Jefferson administration as unfriendly to the Union; on this mission he visited Marietta, Chilli- cothe and Cincinnati.
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THE RISE AND PROGR
American ЯЯЦЕ МОЯДА Jonathan Edw
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