USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 66
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At six o'clock on the evening of the 27th of November, 1844, two hundred men in disguise approached the jail, thrust the guard aside, broke open the doors, and shot the two Smiths. Joe's last words were, as the balls pierced his body, "O. Lord, my God."
The governor was deeply aggrieved by this violation of the public faitli. He issued a manifesto, in which he said :
" I desire to make a brief statement of the affairs at Carthage, in regard to the Smiths. They have been assassinated in jail ; by whom, it is not known. but it will be ascertained. I pledged myself to their safety. Upon this assurance they surrendered themselves as prisoners. The Mormons sur- rendered the public arms and submitted to the command of Captain Single- ton, of Brown county, deputed for that purpose by me. I had secured a pledge of safety for the Smiths, by the unanimous vote of all the officers and * men under their command .* * When I had marched about three miles a messenger informed me of the occurrence at Carthage. I hastened on to that place. The guard, it is said, did their duty, but were overpowered."
The news of the death of the prophet created the wildest excitement at Nauvoo. In their organization a man by the name of Brigham Young was president of a band called " the Twelve Apostles." These chose Young as the successor of Joe Smith, and to be the head of the church. Sidney Rigdon rebelled, demanding the position for himself. Brigham arrested him ; de- clared him to be an emissary of the devil, excommunicated him, and " de- livered him over to the buffetings of the devil in the name of the Lord."
All was quiet for a while, and the Mormons built a temple one hundred and twenty-eight feet long by eighty-eight feet wide. The Mormon Timex and Seasons said of it : " Our temple, when finished, will show more wealth, more art, more science, more revelation, more splendor and more God than all the rest of the world."
During the calm outside of Nauvoo, all sorts of rumors were in circulation as the great number of crimes being constantly committed within the city.
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A convention was called and a resolution passed that the Mormons must leave. Brigham Young saw that it was nseless to resist, and at once made preparations to leave and move beyond the boundaries of the United States into the territory of Mexico.' Young displayed great skill in removing 15,000 souls many hundred miles, over an almost pathless wilderness, in the midst of winter, to a new home, yet to be made, many hundred miles away. The first band crossed the Mississippi on the ice in February, 1846.
The Nauvoo Times and Seasons said : " To see such a large body of men, women and children compelled, by the inefficiency of the law, to leave a great city in the month of February, for the sake of the enjoyment of pure religion, fills the soul with astonishment and gives the world a sample of fidelity and faith brilliant as the sun, forcible as the tempest, and enduring as eternity."
This journey occupied nearly three months. Colonel Thomas L. Kane, brother of Doctor Elisha Kane, who became so illustrious by his polar tour, witnessed this emigration, and writes of it in the most glowing terms for its strict order, the devotional exercises of the people, their quiet endurance, and he conchides : " Every day closed as every day began, with an invoca- tion of the Divine favor, without which no Mormon seemed to dare to lay himself down to rest. With the first shining of the stars laughter and loud talking were hushed. The neighbor went his way. You heard the last hymn sung, and then the thousand voice murmur of prayer was heard. like bubbling water falling down the hill."
The war with Mexico brought Utah, with Salt Lake City, within the en- larged boundaries of the United States. Brigham Young was a man of un- doubted ability and great sagacity, but with an exceedingly coarse and vulgar mind. Upon their arrival at Salt Lake, he issued a proclamation to all the world, from which the following is extracted :
"The kingdom of God consists in correct principles, and it mattereth not what a man's religious faith is, whether he is a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Latter Day Saint, a Mormon, a Campbellite, a Catholic, an Epis- copalian, a Mohammedan, or even a Pagan, or anything else. If he will bow the knee, and with his tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ, and will support good and wholesome laws for the regulation of society, we hail him as a brother, and will stand by him as he stands by ns in these things, for every man's faith is a matter between his own soul and his God alone. But if he shall deny the Jesus, curse God, shall indulge in drunkenness, de- bauchery and crime, lie, swear, steal, etc., etc., he shall have no place in our midst, etc., etc."
With the flood of emigration into Utah, the enforcement of the laws of the United States over the territory, what will become of Mormonism ?
SALUTATORY
In the first issue of the Van Burenite, by Joshua Seney :
" We shall advocate with a becoming zeal, and dignifiedly in manner, the great Democratie Republican principles, as established and taught by Thomas Jefferson. That ours is a government of specified and limited-not general-powers, and ought so to be strictly observed, to attain the ends for which it was established, all must admit.
" The few and venerable patriots, who, when our government dated its
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existence, were upon the bright summit of glory, and have lived till this late day, are willing to exclaim that our system of government has eminently ex- ceeded the most sanguine expectations of those who achieved the glorious victory upon which it was established. and became an object, not only of admiration, but of envy and emulation by all the world.
" It is therefore our duty, rendered imperious by the position we occupy as a nation, to preserve for its character as pure and untarnished as the bright and illustrious spirit of liberty, which dictated its existence among its framers, and still serves as a beacon light to the benighted, and a home for the oppressed of mankind, the object for which the blood of our fore- fathers and heroes-and labor of our ages have been bestowed to obtain.
" In regard to the present federal administration, we unhesitatingly de- clare that we will wage against it and its measures an unyielding opposition. We would banish from ns all prejudice-cast off all party predilection, and admonish the American people to view the awful and deplorable condition of our country, brought about by the short federal predomination of one year, and ask themselves if this is the ' change' to which they were invited.
" The Democracy, who, in trying times, have been entreated to rally and rescue our government, must appreciate the present as a crisis equally im- portant, and prepare to restore her from the dominion of an unprincipled and reckless political party, who are now plunging her into debt, disgrace and dishonor, regardless of consequences. We shall endeavor to maintain a courteous but decided position in regard to the principles we intend pro- mulgating, and in discussion have a strict observance for the truth of what shall appear in our paper. * * *
". With these remarks we throw ourselves upon the support of our friends in the cause of Democracy, and by an honest, fearless and independent course, we hope to merit the support which they shall be pleased to bestow upon us."
THE OLD STATE HOUSE.
The reader will find no fault with the writer for preserving for him a short history of the old State House, and I am sure he will valne the " Dirge on the State House Bell." Governor Chase's speech must not be lost.
Columbus took great pride in this occasion of welcome, and the historic data referred to by Governor Chase are so important, and the " Dirge " so beautiful, that they are attached without further comment :
On the evening of the 6th of January, 1857, there was a superb banquet given at the Capitol by the citizens of Columbus to the members of the legis- lature, heads of departments, judiciary, citizens and strangers-a mighty throng. Visitors were seen from all parts of the state, male and female, and some besides-a prodigious crowd. In fact almost everybody seemed to be there, and they were welcome.
The " Cleveland Grays," a fine looking company, arrived at one o'clock. and were received by the " State Fencibles," of Columbus, whose guests they were. The two companies, when marching, made a splendid appear- ance.
During the day. the State House was duly prepared for the great convoca- tion. All chairs and furniture were removed from the halls. The rotunda had been arched, and was handsomely decorated with tri-colored muslin,
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evergreens. ete., the tables for the feasting being within it, and placed in a semi-curenlar form.
At night the whole edifice was brilliantly lighted, including the dome. which was finely illuminated, and showed togreat advantage. "The crowd at one time inside the yard," says the Ohio State Journal, " must have num- bered 4,000, while abont 1.000 were outside at the door of the old office of the secretary of state, which was the only open place of entry to the inside of the square."
About nine o'clock a. m., the exercises commenced in the hall of the house of representatives. Prayer was offered and addresses made.
At the conclusion of Mr. Kelly's address, Governor Chase arose and said :
EXTRACT FROM THE ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR CHASE.
" It is made my very agreeable duty to respond, in behalf of the people of the state, to the cordial welcome which yon, sir, in behalf of the citizens of Franklin county, have just extended to them.
" It was very fit that the citizens of the county-within whose limits the seat of the state government is established-should distinguish the occasion upon which the state capitol is first opened for occupancy, by an invitation to their fellow citizens of other counties, to join with them in their festival of congratulation. The multitudes who now throng these halls, attest the cordial promptitude with which the invitation has been accepted. Only the words of welcome which you have uttered were needed to complete their sat- isfaction.
" In their name, sir, I thank you. In their name I thank the citizens, whose organ you are; in their name I thank the committee, under whose care this pleasant festival has been provided. I only wish that all the peo- ple of the state could be here to participate in it.
" We dismiss, to-night, all memory of party divisions. We forget the things wherein we differ; we remember only the things wherein we agree.
** Over the gates of a city in Scotland once appeared, and perhaps appears now, this inscription, " Let Glasgow Flourish !" In the heart of every son and daughter of Ohio, native or adopted, in this city or in the country, at home or abroad, lives and shall live, ever fresh and ever fervent, the warm aspiration, " LET Omo FLOURISH."
" A century ago, Ohio was a French dominion. French forts-at Sandus- ky; on the Maumee, then the Miamis: at Erie, then Presqu' Isle ; at Pitts- burg, then Duquesne-commanded its whole extent, and connected it with the great line of French possessions, extending through the interior, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi. The appar- ent destiny of Ohio was to French civilization and despotic govern- ment.
.. But though England, careless of interest or possessions, actually offered to yield to France all the territory west of New York and the Alleghenies, there were Americans who better understood its immediate value and future importance. Conspicnons among these were Washington and Franklin. The former. in 1754. led a military expedition to the banks of the Mononga- 42
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hela ; the latter, indefatigable in his endeavors to rouse attention to the im- portance of extending English colonization beyond the Alleghanies, confi- dently predicted that the country between the Lakes and the Ohio would ' become, perhaps, in less than another century, a populous and powerful dominion.'
" The efforts of Franklin were partially successful. Nine years later the French dominion had passed away forever. By the treaty of Paris, of 1763. France ceded to Great Britain all her North American possessions cast of the Mississippi.
.. But the substitute for French civilization proposed by Great Britain was barbarism. Already jealous of the increasing strength of her American rolonies, or believing that they would be, commercially, more profitable if confined to the Atlantic slope, she attempted to restrict their westward ex- tension by a Royal Proclamation prohibiting settlements west of the Alle- ghanies.
" Under the effect of this proclamation Ohio remained a wilderness for twenty years, until. in 1753, another treaty of Paris annihilated British do- minion within its limits, and transferred its possession to the American Re- public, then first acknowledged as an Independent member of the Communi - ty of Nations.
" A new era was now to begin its course. Anglo-Saxon civilization and Republican institutions were now to take the place of savage barbarism. Plans of emigration and settlement were promptly devised and adopted. At the mouth of the Muskingum, between the Miamis, and on the borders of Erie, the noble old pioneers of the west, many of them distinguished officers and soldiers of the revolution, commenced the work of subduing the willer- ness. Regular institutions of government were organized under the ordin- ance of 1757, and that grand career of development and progress, which has so far outstripped anticipation, was fully inaugurated.
" Another twenty years passed away. and Ohio was a state of the Ameri- can Union. Her first public act recognized the inviolability of personal rights: the sacredness of private obligations : the absolute freedom of con - science, and the indispensable necessity to good government, of religion, morality and knowledge. Upon these stable foundations she has built wisely and prosperousty. I need not recite her recent history ; you know it well. Not need I remind you of her great works of improvement. of her liberal provision and organization of education. or of her noble charities. It is enough to say that . a century . has passed and the prophetic anticipation of Franklin is more than fulfilled.
" Permit me now to turn from this brief retrospect of our general history to that which forms the special interest of this occasion.
" Forty-five years ago the spot on which we now stand was covered by the primeval forest. The general assembly of 1811-12. ordained the establish- ment upon it of the seat of government for the state.
" The foundations of the old State House were laid the next year. Three years later it was ready for occupancy, and was actually occupied by the legislature which assembled in December, IS16.
" In that edifice for thirty-five years, the general assembly, invested not only with the whole power of legislation but with the whole power of appoint-
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ment also, directed the government of the state. The new constitution was adopted in the fall of 1851, and six months later, the old State House, as if unwilling to survive the old constitution, perished by fire. -
"Of the stone tablets which were inserted in the wall over each door of entrance, two have been preserved. The inscriptions upon them curiously illustrate the honest manliness and straightforward principles of the pioneers.
" The inscription over the western entrance was this :
". General good the object of Legislation, perfected by a knowledge of man's wants, and Nature's abonnding means applied by establishing principles opposed to Monopoly.""-LUDLOW.
"Over the southern and principal entrance, were inscribed several lines by the poet of the Colmbiad, perhaps, copied from that very patriotic but most unreadable epic, the sentiments of which will be admitted to be ex- cellent, whatever may be said of the poetry :
"'Equality of Right is Nature's plan, And following Nature is the march of inan. Based on its rock of right your empire lies, On walls of wisdom let the fabric rise ; Preserve your principles ; their force unfold ; Let nations prove them, and let Kings behold. EQUALITY, your first firm grounded stand ; Then FREE ELECTION ; then your FEDERAL BAND :
This holy triad should forever shine,
The great Compendium of all Rights Divine. Creed of all schools. whence youths by millions draw Their themes of Right, their decalognes of law ;
Till men shall wonder (in these codes innred)
How wars were made. how tyrants were endured.""-BARLOW.
"It seems that our sturdy fathers thought that the word ' Federal' was liable to misconception : for they caused it to be erased by painting over it the word . Union.' In process of time. however. the paint washed off-what a warning this to politicians !- and the word . Fetteral ' reappeared, as orig- inally engraved.
" With the OLD STATE HOUSE, and the Old Constitution. terminated an epoch in the history of our state, to which her children will ever look back with patriotic pride. Even now there seem to pass before me the forms of the noble men who made it illustrions. There moves Putnam, honored with the confidence of Washington ; there Harrison, magnanimous in thought and heroic in deeds ; there Worthington, the friend of Jefferson ; there Burnet, wise in legislation and npright in magistracy ; there the honest and unselfish Morrow ; there Vance, faithful to every trust ; there the generous and elo- quent Lytle, too early lost; there the accomplished Hamer, spared by the sword, but felled by disease in a foreign land ; there Morris, the fearless tribune of the people; there Sherman, exchanging, before life's noon. the
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ermine for the shroud ; there Hitchcock, clear in judgment and inflexible in integrity ; and there -- but I must break off the enumeration. Time would fail me were I to attempt to name even half of those whose elevation of character, purity of purpose, sagacity in council and vigor in action distin- guished that period. Happy shall we be if we prove ourselves worthy suc- cessors of such men."
Those who remember the clear and oft admired tones of the old capitol bell, will not regret the insertion of the following appropriate dirge, taken from one of the Columbus papers, as an appendix to this book :
ยก For the Elevator.[
DIRGE OF THE STATE HOUSE BELL.
BY J. M. D.
Columbus, farewell ! no more shall you hear,
My voice so familiar for many a year- Those musical sounds which you recognized well.
As the clear-sounding tones of your State House Bell.
Ere the red man had gone, I was mounted on high, When the wide-spreading forest which greeted mine eye, Gave forth from its thickets the panther's wild yell, As he heard the strange sounds of your State House Bell.
Unaccompanied, unanswered, I sounded alone, And mingled my chime with its echo's deep tone ; Till spire after spire, rising round me, did swell Their response, to the sound of your State House Bell.
I called you together to make yourselves laws, And daily my voice was for every good canse ; When aught of importance or strange was to tell, You were summoned full soon by your State House Bell.
As a sentinel, placed on the watch-tower's height, Columbus. I've watched thee by day and by night- Though shmb'ring unconscious, when danger befell, You were roused by the clang of your State House Bell.
But while I watched o'er you, the Fire King came. And enveloped my tower in his mantle of flame; Yet, true to my calling, my funeral knell Was tolled, on that night, by your State House Bell.
Your sons of the Engine and Hose. ever brave. And prompt at my call. quickly hastened to save ; But alas! their best efforts were fruitless to quell The flames that rose over your State House Bell.
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When my Cupola trembled, I strove but to sound One peal of farewell to your thousands around ; But you lost, as 'midst timbers and cinders I fell, The last smothered tone of your State House Bell. COLUMBUS, February 10, 1852.
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NO. 2.
THE TIFFIN PAPERS-JOURNAL OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION-FIRST MESSAGE OF THE FIRST GOVERNOR TO THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF OHIO-MESSAGE OF 1803-MESSAGE CONCERNING THE ARREST OF THE BURR -BLANNERHASSET EXPEDITION-TIFFIN IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE-ELECTION OF SPEAKER OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF OHIO.
THE TIFFIN PAPERS.
T' HIE following records, papers and documents pertaining to the life and public services of Governor Tiffin, were collected with great care. They are so full of historic data and record so many interesting events, that, while the careless reader may treat them lightly. the author feels sure that the thinker and lover of history will value them highly, and for his especial benefit has called them the " Tiffin Papers."
THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF OHIO.
In July, 1787, the congress of the United States, acting under the provi- sions of the " Articles of Confederation," enacted the widely known " Ordi- nance of 17-7," for the government of the territory of the United States lying to the northwest of the Ohio ; and this may be said to have been the first movement towards the establishment of civil goverment within that vast region.
For the purpose of carrying that ordinance into effect and of organizing a territorial government, on the 5th of October, 1787, congress appointed Gen- eral Arthur St. Clair governor and Winthrop Sargent secretary of the terri- tory : and a few days thereafter, Samuel Holden Parsons, John Armstrong and James Mitchell Varnum were appointed its judges.
During the summer of 1785, without respecting the opinions prevailing at that time, when the states, as such, were supposed to possess more dignity and more political rights than belonged or could possibly belong to an unor- ganized community, even when acting under supposed Federal authority, the governor and two of the judges of the territory assembled at Marietta, and commenced what they conceived to be their duty of legislating for the resi- dents of the territory, but their enactments were disallowed by congress, because they had been framed without warrant in law by those who pos- sessed no power to enact a law.
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The organization of a new administration under President Washington was followed soon after by a re-organization of the government of the north- western territory, General St. Clair and Messrs. Sargent and Parsons having been re-appointed, and Messrs. Symmes and Turner called to the bench as judges.
In July, 1790, the secretary, then acting as governor, with Judges Symmes and Turner, met at Vincennes, and repeated the folly of the previous gov- ernment by enacting other laws for the government of the inhabitants of the territory, none of which, however, were approved by the congress, be- cause they had been enacted as original laws, and had not been adopted from the existing codes of states under the provision of the " Ordinance of 1787," which was the organic law of the territory.
In the summer of 1795 a code of laws was adopted unanimously from the codes of the several states, and in 1799, under the provision of the ordinance, and the territory, having five thousand white male inhabitants, the first general assembly of the territory was convened at Cincinnati.
In 1800 the territory was divided, and soon after, measures were taken to organize a state in the eastern portion of it, not, however, without so strong an opposition, both in the general assembly and in various parts of the ter- ritory, that the overthrow of the scheme would have been complete and emphatic, had those who promoted it, for their own purposes, submitted the proposition either to the territorial assembly or to the body of the inhabi- tants. An aet was crowded through the congress, however, notwithstand- ing the general opposition which was known to exist both in the assembly and amongst the people, " to enable the people of the eastern division of the territory, northwest of the river Ohio, to form a constitution and state gov- ernment, and for the admission of such state into the Union, on an equal footing with the original states, and for other purposes ;" and on the Ist of November of that year, the convention which that act assumed to authorize met at Chillicothe and framed and enacted the first constitution, all of which was done in defiance of the known will of those it was designed to govern, and was thrust upon them by force, withont their consent, in order that those who plotted it might be spared from the shame, which its inevi- table and contemptuous rejection by "the people " would have brought upon them.
Edward Tiffin was the member from Ross and the speaker of that assem- bly.
The " Journal " of that convention has been considered one of the rarest. 'as it is one of the most interesting tracts connected with the history of the west ; and there is but one copy of it, and that is in the state library at Columbus, Ohio. It is a thin octavo of forty-eight pages, shabbily printed, and bears the following title :
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