USA > Ohio > Ross County > Chillicothe > Ohio centennial anniversary celebration at Chillicothe, May 20-21, 1903 : under the auspices of the Ohio State Archaelogical and Historical Society : complete proceedings > Part 4
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Aaron Burr expedition, which resulted in the flight of Burr and the breaking up of the conspiracy. His vigorous and prompt measures on this occasion called forth a public letter of thanks from President Jefferson. In 1807 he was elected United States senator from Ohio. While in the Senate he was the means of securing much valuable legislation for the new state. Appro- priations for the Ohio River, and for surveying the public lands were obtained by him, and much of the same kind of practical work which characterized him as governor marked his senatorial term. He resigned in March, 1809, owing to the death of his wife. It so affected him that he determined to retire from public life. Returning to his once happy home in Chillicothe, it was his intention to spend his remaining days in peace, but notwith- standing his desires his fellow-citizens elected him to the Legis- lature, where he was unanimously elected speaker of the House. He was afterwards appointed commissioner of the Land Office ; being the first to hold that office, he systematized the claims and surveys of the public lands. He was in Washington in 1814 when it was burned by the British. President Madison, his cabinet and the heads of the departments fled like cowards in the panic and all the public records of the American Republic were destroyed except the records of the Land Commissioner's office. Edward Tiffin stayed and saved the complete records of his department. So complete, compact and systematic were they maintained, and so cool and level-headed was their custodian that they were removed to a place of concealment in Loudon County, Virginia, ten miles out of Washington. All the other depart- ments lost all their records; Edward Tiffin saved all of his. He closed his life as surveyor-general of the West, which position he held during the administration of Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams and into Jackson's. He died here in Chillicothe amidst the people who loved and honored him for more than a third of a century, after a remarkable life of usefulness and dis- tinction.
This was the Edward Tiffin that confronted Arthur St. Clair in the great contest for statehood which resulted in the conven- tion, the century of which we celebrate to-day. And Tiffin had a foeman worthy of his steel. Arthur St. Clair. the first and only
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governor of the Northwest Territory, was one of the most bril- liant and distinguished military characters of the Revolutionary War. A contemporary writer calls him "the great St. Clair," and while in the gubernatorial chair of the Northwest, Judge Burnet marked him as "unquestionably a man of uprightness of purpose, as well as suavity of manners." Courtly, scholarly and honest, he was a fitting representative of the government in a new land. St. Clair, as his name indicates, was of French origin although his ancestors had for centuries lived in Scotland, where he was born in 1734. He received his education at Edinburgh University, and was indentured as a student of medicine. He disliked this, and purchasing his time, he entered the English army in 1757. He was in the French and Indian War, and served under General Wolfe at Quebec, where his conduct was gallant and effective. He resigned from the English army in 1762 and settled down to civil life in Pennsylvania, where he filled many positions of trust, honor and importance. When the colonists rebelled against Great Britain, St. Clair threw his entire fortune and enthusiasm on the side. of his country. In 1775 he was sum- moned to Philadelphia by a letter from John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, which was then in session. His record from thence is a part of the history of the Republic. He was the assistant and confidant of Washington; he was a mem- ber of his military family and shared the hardships of Valley Forge, together with the victories of many hard fought battles. St. Clair, after the Revolution, retired to civil life. His fortune was gone in the whirligig of war. He started into the Revolu- tion a rich man; when peace was declared the riches had flown. In 1786 he was in Congress from Pennsylvania, and as a hero of two wars and a distinguished patriot he was elected its president in 1787. This Congress formulated and passed the Ordinance of 1787, under which St. Clair was nominated to the governor- ship of the Northwest Territory, which occurred October 5. Governor St. Clair accepted his new honor with misgivings. He says in his letters that it was forced upon him by his friends, who expected that there was more pecuniary compensation attached to it than events proved. It was supposed that the opportunities for land speculation would be so great that St. Clair would make
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money out of his advantages of position. But he was not so. inclined, nor did he expect such a result. He was satisfied with and frankly stated, that he had the "ambition of becoming the father of a country and laying the foundation for the happiness of millions then unborn." His unfortunate career as governor showed that he thwarted in every way his expressed ambitions. When Edward Tiffin entered upon the scene of action in the Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair was an old man, worn with the campaigns of war and the conflicts of politics. There was little save its dignity to show that the classic face was that of the handsome Ensign St. Clair, who used to wield the accom- plishments of the drawing-room among the Bowdoins and Bay- ards of Boston thirty years before.
The entrance of the followers of Thomas Jefferson into the Northwest Territory was the commencement of a political war against Governor St. Clair that for persistency and bitterness was equal to the famous controversy of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Edward Tiffin had as his chief associates and lieu- tenants Nathaniel Massie, Thomas Worthington, Jeremiah Mor- row and Return J. Meigs, Jr., all men of the highest character and inspired by noble ambitions. They believed in the people ; they were not only opposed to the Federalistic principles of St. Clair, but resented the arbitrary and offensive methods of his administration. The Scotch governor knew of but two ways to. control or govern men; they were to pull them or drive them. The Virginians would stand for neither method. So their oppo- sition to St. Clair went not only to his principles, but to his. methods. His exercise of the veto power invited the strongest opposition. He was an advocate of strong government. He did not believe in conferring on the citizen the fullest powers and responsibilities of American citizenship. He favored property qualification for electors. He got into a controversy with the Legislature over his own powers and prerogatives. He claimed and exercised the power of locating county seats and erecting new counties. This the Legislature denied, and attempted to enact laws on this subject which he promptly vetoed. In his contest with the Virginians he was supported by other able Fed-
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eralists in the persons of General Putnam, Dr. Cutler and Judge Jacob Burnet.
It is not essential to our purpose to go into the details of the controversy that waged in the territory from 1799 to 1802. There were acts of Congress, of the Territorial Legislature, and of the governor, that furnished food for the bitterest contests. The Virginians were playing for the greatest stake in American politics - a state of the Union. The Federalists were making their last stand, struggling for power both in the East and the West. It was almost pathetic to see the noble compatriot of Washington bending beneath the new storm that was arising. The reign of the people was abroad in the Northwest. Whatever virtue of Washington's, Hamilton's and St. Clair's Federal views as to concentrated power had in the then populous East, they were not respected by the yeoman of Ohio. The settler who fought his way into the heart of the Great West believed that he should have a full share in its government. And this was why the position of Tiffin was popular with the voters of his day. In the face of almost insuperable impediments, Tiffin won his fight for statehood.
The enabling act of Congress providing for the erection of the new state was approved April 30, 1802. It fixed the bound- aries and provided for holding the constitutional convention on the first Monday of the following November. Edward Tiffin was very naturally elected to that body, and was as naturally selected as its president. His belief in the people is prevalent upon nearly every page of the organic law. The very first ques- tion of criticismn that always arises in a consideration of this convention and of the constitution which it produced is that rela- tive to the fact that that instrument was never submitted to the people for adoption or inspection. How did it develop that these men who made such a magnificent struggle for popular rights failed to submit their work to the people? A single reference to the enabling act will show the reason for the apparent dere- liction. The fifth section provides that the convention shall first determine whether it is expedient to form a state constitution and government. This it did on the third day by a vote of 32
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to I. The only opposing vote being Ephraim Cutler of Wasn- ington County.
Such a conclusion being arrived at, the act specifically au- thorized the convention "to form a constitution and state govern- ment." It required no approval of the people. There was no legal machinery provided to secure such expression. It was the evident intent of the framers of the act in question to commit the whole and exclusive duty of forming the first constitution of Ohio to the convention. The theory on which the convention was formed was that under the act of Congress it (the conven- tion) was a strictly representative body, acting for and in the name of the sovereign people, and that it possessed by actual transfer all the inherent power of the sovereign, limited only by the constitution of the United States. In other words, it was. a virtual assemblage of the people, of whom, by reason of their great numbers and remoteness from each other, an actual con- stitutional convention was impossible. They met clothed with all the power the sovereign would have if gathered together. The convention might say what Louis XIV said: "We are the State." The soundness of this position is strengthened when we search the records on the adoption of the constitutions of other states. The result shows that the following submitted their first constitution to the people for expression: California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Min- nesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin, fifteen in number. The states which did not submit their first constitution to the people are as follows : Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Illi- nois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont; in all twenty- one states whose conventions, with that of Ohio, regarded them- selves as the sovereign source of power. So far as this feature of the first constitutional convention is concerned, it may be re- garded as settled that it was neither extraordinary, nor without dignified and patriotic precedent.
The spirit of the contest which culminated in statehood seemed to run through the constitution. The executive branch of
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the state government was stripped of all authority. It left the name of "governor" to apply to an office that had more honor and dignity than power. The men who controlled the convention did not believe in dividing legislative power, and therefore gave to the General Assembly sole power of making laws. They did not propose that the governor should interfere by means of the veto power. And it can be truthfully said as a tribute to these views of Tiffin and the men of 1802, that after a hundred years , there has not developed a sufficiently different public sentiment to change the active veto principle of their organic law. Next year the people of Ohio vote on an amendment to their constitu- tion expressly granting the governor the right of veto. The total absence of property qualifications for office is another in- dication of the antagonism of the convention to the views of St. Clair. They seemed determined to outlaw every element of aristocracy. This provision has also stood test of two subse- quent constitutional conventions, and stands firmer in our or- ganic law than ever.
In apportioning the sovereign power of the people among their official agents the convention gave by far the greatest power to the Legislature. The right to make all the laws without any limitation but constitution itself has been carried up to modern times. The money of the state was committed wholly to the Legislature and that is where it is to-day.
The general provisions of the bill of rights and the specific powers of the state government have been practically those under which the people of Ohio have lived for one hundred years. The second constitution of Ohio adopted in 1851 by a vote of the people followed throughout substantially the government lines laid down by the first constitutional convention. The changes introduced were the result of the advanced progress of the state rather than a difference of constitutional ideas.
When Thomas Jefferson expressed his opinion to Jeremiah Morrow in 1803 on the constitution he approved it generally, except the provision relating to the erection of the judiciary, which he thought was too restricted for the future wants of the state. He said, "They had legislated too much." Whatever was
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done by the men of the first convention their descendants followed them in 1851, for the same restrictions are apparent in the second constitution.
The satisfaction which the original constitution gave the people of the state is illustrated by their refusal to change it for fifty years. When Thomas Worthington was governor in 1817, he recommended the holding of a convention to form a new constitution. Afterwards, in 1818, Governor Ethan Allen Brown made a similar recommendation, and in 1819 the question of a second constitutional convention was submitted to the people of Ohio, and in a total vote of 36,302 was rejected by a majority of 22,328 votes.
The principal objection to the original constitution was the fact that the judiciary and state officers were appointed by a joint ballot of both houses of the General Assembly. Jefferson saw this would give trouble in the future. Its operations as after- wards developed, caused scandal, contention and disgrace, and hence the demand of Governors Worthington and Brown for an opportunity to change.
This conflict between the judiciary and the Legislature com- menced in 1818 and lasted for several years to the great dis- turbance of the proper administration of law. It appears that in 1805 the Legislature gave justices of the peace jurisdiction with- out a jury to the amount of fifty dollars. As the constitution of the United States guaranteed trial by jury to the suits in which over twenty dollars was involved the Supreme Court very properly in a case before it, decided the law void and unconstitutional, for the constitution of Ohio provided that "the right of trial by jury shall be inviolate." The judicial decision was constructed as an insult by the Legislature. As a result resolutions of im- peachment were preferred in the Sixth General Assembly against Judges Huntington and Tod of the Supreme Court, and Judge Pease, presiding judge of the Third Circuit. Nothing was done at this session. While these articles of impeachment were pend- ing Judge Huntington was elected governor, and of course re- signed the judgeship. But the efforts at impeachment went on. Charges, however, were not made against Governor Huntington, but were preferred against Judges Tod and Pease.
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Their answer to the charges of impeachment was the con- stitutions of the United States and the state of Ohio. The result was an acquittal in both cases. Another incident growing out of the legislative power conferred by the first constitution was the sweeping resolution passed in 1819. This resolution passed in January swept out of office every judge of the Supreme Court, and the Court of Common Pleas, the secretary of state, the au- ditor, the treasurer of state, and also all the justices of the peace throughout the state. This resulted in interminable conflict and confusion, but it was the exercise of the power of the Legis- lature.
If it were not for this single feature which caused these vio- lent party strifes there is every probability that we would be living under the constitution of 1802 to-day. Indeed, a reference to the political literature of the time preceding the holding of the con- vention of 1851, will show that the election of the judiciary and other state offices was the most potent argument used in favoring a new constitution.
This convention that laid the political foundations of the state of Ohio so heavy and deep that, substantially, they have never been changed, was formed of strong men. Out of the thirty-five all but two of them were from southern and south- eastern Ohio. The Western Reserve played little part in this great work. She opposed both the territorial government and the state government. It is to the men who came from Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New York that the credit for the founding of Ohio must be given. They were the characters that dominated the first convention. It was their ideas of gov- ernment that were injected into the first constitution, and for the first fifty and the last fifty years of the state those ideas have prevailed. And the one man who conducted all, who influenced all, who executed all, was the minister, physician, parliamen- tarian, governor, senator and honest man - Edward Tiffin, of Chillicothe.
UNVEILING OF A MEDALLION TO GOVERNOR EDWARD TIFFIN.
The celebration of the centennial of the organization of Ohio as a state, opened at the Ross County Court House, Chillicothe, at 9 o'clock, Wednesday morning, May 20. At this session a medallion portrait of the first governor of Ohio, Edward Tiffin, was presented to Ross County by Mr. W. H. Hunter. The por- trait in relief was placed in a niche above the judge's bench. The medallion of the historic governor was the work of Charles P. Filson, of Steubenville, Ohio, the painter and sculptor, and great-nephew of John Filson, the pioneer surveyor, artist, histo- rian and one of the founders of Losantiville, the first settlement of Cincinnati. The medallion is thirty inches in diameter and is an excellent likeness of Ohio's first governor at the age of forty, when he was in the zenith of his activities. Besides the artist, who was present to enjoy the manifest appreciation of his mas- terpiece, there were in the assembled audience descendants and. distant relatives of former governors of the state, among whom were Edward Tiffin Cook, Mrs. Mary Manly, Miss Diathea Cook and Miss Eleanor Cook, grandson and grand- daughters, and Hon. R. W. Manly, Miss Anna Cook and Miss Martha. Cook, great-grandson and great- granddaughters of Governor Tiffin.
Hon. J. C. Douglas, judge of the Common Pleas Court, presided. He briefly stated the object of the ses- sion, and introduced Rev. R. C. Gal- braith, D. D., who offered a fervent prayer.
Mr. Hunter, after a few words of W. H. HUNTER. praise for the artist, who, he stated, painted the magnificent portrait of Senator Ross now on the
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GOVERNO
FIRST G CF OHIO
EDWARD TIFFIN
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wall of the Chillicothe Library, introduced Miss Anna Cook, who gracefully removed the silken flag, which up to this time, obscured the counterfeit features of the illustrious founder of the state.
Judge Douglas then introduced Hon. Archibald Mayo, who, he stated, represented Mr. Hunter. Mr. Mayo spoke as follows :
ADDRESS OF HON. ARCHIBALD MAYO.
Commissioners of Ross County and Fellow-Citizens of Ohio:
The thought that one hundred years ago Ohio became a state is an abstraction. It is only when, peering through the haze of years, we perceive, with increasing distinctness, the men of that time with their surroundings and the events, before and after, which link themselves to Ohio's birth, that interest awakens and enthusiasm grows apace.
Our esteemed fellow-citizen, Wil- liam H. Hunter, has done much to aid us in that respect. He came here re- cently from Jefferson County, whose annalist he is, and being a member of the State Historical Society and stu- dious of all things concerning the Northwest, he found a congenial at- ARCHIBALD MAYO. mosphere in the associations of his new home. His interest in them led him not long since to present to us a fine portrait in oil of that United States senator of Pennsylvania after whom this county was named. And now he presents to you, the commissioners of Ross County in trust for the people of the county and, in a larger sense, of the state, a plastic portrait of Edward Tiffin, our first governor, who on the day we celebrate marked the triumph of free institutions over autocratic ideas and breathed into the perfected organization of a new republic the breath of life. The gift is to adorn the walls of this court house, which stands on the site of the one built by the territorial county of Ross in
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the year eighteen hundred and one, where sat the constitutional convention over which the future first governor presided and where the first and many succeeding General Assemblies of Ohio enacted laws for the young commonwealth. Mr. Hunter's gifts are so liberal, impartial and appropriate, so sure to be valuable and interesting to us and to those who come after us, that I consider it a privilege to be present and, at his request and that of the centennial executive committee, to accompany his gra- cious offering by some remarks concerning the life and times of Governor Tiffin.
After General Anthony Wayne's victory at "Fallen Timbers" and the Greenville treaty had brought Indian warfare to an end and the Ohio settlements began to receive an influx of Revolu- tionary officers and soldiers and of educated young men in search of opportunity and fortune, Edward Tiffin and his wife's brother, Thomas Worthington - both destined to high place in State and Nation - came to Chillicothe. Worthington's friend and cor- respondent, Nathaniel Massie, the able and intrepid pioneer, had established the town two years before. It was within the limits. of the land known as the Virginia Military District, which Vir- ginia, in ceding her claims in the Northwest to the United States, had reserved for bounty to her Revolutionary sol- diers. Tiffin, Worthington, their wives, Tiffin's parents and their other children, a number of laborers and mechanics and some of their former slaves, made up quite a party which reached. here in April, 1798, when Tiffin was about thirty-two and Worth- ington about twenty-five years old. Worthington was a man of some fortune, and Tiffin had accumulated means. The former at once began the erection of Adena, which was finished in 1805, while he represented Ohio in the United States Senate; whose furnishings were in part imported and brought across the moun- tains from the coast. It is a substantial residence, still standing on the elevated land northwest of the city, and was in its day deemed the finest mansion west of the Alleghanies.
The latter built a comfortable stone house on Water street. near High, on a four-acre lot which extended on High street beyond the residence of the late James B. Scott - Tiffin's father and mother being buried on what afterwards became the Scott.
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homestead - and on Water street to a brook where runs a street now known as Park but formerly as Deer Creek street. Beauti- ful terraced gardens extended along the Water street front of the place. This was his home during the remainder of his life. Dr. Tiffin brought with him skill and experience in the profession of medicine and surgery, for which he had great aptitude and which he had successfully practiced for twelve years in what was then Berkeley County, Virginia. He had in youth received a fair education; he was of exemplary character and habits firmly established ; and, above all, he and his wife had been "converted" in the great revival of religion which under Methodist auspices had swept over Virginia a year or two before they left that state. In consequence, Dr. and Mrs. Tiffin and Thomas Worth- ington and wife, becoming troubled in conscience because of slav- ·ery, had manumitted their slaves. They were attracted by the fact that under the Ordinance of 1787, passed for its government, the territory lying northwest of the Ohio River, had been forever ·dedicated to freedom as well as by the fame of its wonderful fertility and beauty. General Arthur St. Clair was then the gov- ·ernor, appointed by the President, of that great Northwest Terri- tory out of which Ohio and states west and northwest of her were subsequently formed. General Washington sent to him a letter introducing Tiffin and recommending him for the fine character in private and public life manifested by him in their long ac- quaintance and stating also, that Tiffin had by diligent study acquired a good knowledge of law.
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