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 9
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men, nearly all of whom were without discipline. On the fourth of November, 1791, in what is now Mercer County, he suffered the worst defeat that was ever inflicted by the Indians. Just after the retreat, Colonel Darke, who had served with Braddock, said the defeat he had witnessed in his youth was not to be compared with the disaster that had befallen St. Clair's army.
In this crisis, General Anthony Wayne, the hero of Stony Point, was assigned to the command, and in June, 1792, he came to Pittsburg, and began to enlist recruits. The nicknames "Mad Anthony" and "Big Wind" suggest rashness and impetuosity, yet in his preparations he seemed to some of his subordinates provokingly slow. At Legionville, twenty-two miles below Pitts- burg, he drilled his little army all winter, and it was not until April, 1793, that he moved to Cincinnati. He remained at Fort Washington all summer. He knew that, in order to meet success- fully an enemy united, inspired and guided by British officers, he must have an army and not a mob, a force so united through persistent drill that no sudden assault would throw it into con- fusion. In October, as his army moved northward from Fort Washington, à march of ten miles a day was found to be a severe one. With the utmost care to close up the column, it would extend five miles along the narrow track through the wilderness. The army had not gone far before a party of the savages had broken through the lines and made off with a drove of horses, but so well were the soldiers drilled, so full of the spirit of their bold commander, that a party was soon in hot pursuit of the raiders, and the Indians barely escaped with a small part of their booty. The march of the column had not been hindered by the incident. As Wayne moved forward, he care- fully. fortified strategic points, and left them in command of trusted lieutenants. One of the important duties in the summer was to collect hay for the cattle and horses belonging to the garrison. In the summers of the long campaign many hundreds of tons were collected by the soldiers, who wielded the scythe and rake while their comrades kept guard with rifle and bayonet. In December, 1793, eighteen months after he had assumed com- mand, he built a fort at Greenville. There was no rushing into the enemy's country, no haste to make an attack. On the con-
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trary, there was a constant effort to avoid battle, and, if possible, to secure peace through negotiation.
In this policy he was following the wishes of Washington, whose purpose was to delay hostilities until a real peace could be secured with England, but Wayne and Putnam, even after the latter had concluded a treaty with the tribes about Vincennes, were convinced that the only way to teach the Delawares, Shawa- nees and their allies a lesson in peace was by defeating them in battle. Long before this Putnam had asked for a fort at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. "I would build," said he, "a strong post which 200 men would be able to hold against all the Indians in the world." To this suggestion Secretary Knox had replied, "We are in a delicate situation, politically, with respect to the British government. The President has, therefore, judged it prudent to keep at a distance from the lakes at present." After two years of preparation and careful advance, Wayne fought the first battle of the campaign, and even that was not of his own seeking. Little Turtle with a large force attacked the Americans at Fort Recov- ery on the thirtieth of June, 1794, but he was soon repulsed by a general who was never surprised, and who, when offering peace, was always prepared for war. Having received reinforcements, which increased his army to three thousand men, Wayne moved forward and built Fort Defiance and Fort Deposit. All his offers of peace having been spurned, he himself advanced to the attack on the thirtieth of August, and, after a fierce battle, utterly routed the combined forces of Canadians and Indians and chased them beyond the British fort. Thus it happened that the war with England, which begun with the bloody battle of Point Pleasant in I774, was almost ended twenty years later by Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers. It is true that at least two settlers were killed on the Muskingum in 1795, and about the same time there was a skirmish near the Scioto with a party of irreconcilable Indians, but the chief duty now was negotiation. Jay had at last secured a treaty with England, a treaty bitterly denounced by many patri- otic Americans, yet probably the best that could be secured in our condition of national weakness, and, while Wayne waited at Greenville, the savages slowly learned that they could no longer receive aid and comfort from the British, and they, too, were
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ready for peace. They made a treaty with Wayne at Greenville, August 3, 1795, in which they gave up the right to all land lying east and south of the Cuyahoga River, and a line extending to the Tuscarawas River, down the Tuscarawas to Fort Laurens, thence to Loramie's store, and thence to the Ohio River opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River. Parts of this line can still be seen in the northern boundaries of Tuscarawas and Knox Counties, and in township lines of Morrow, Marion, Union, Logan and Shelby.
After the conclusion of the Greenville treaty, Wayne tarried on the frontier to receive from the British the posts they still held in American territory. This task he accomplished early in 1796, and he then started to Philadelphia to answer charges pre- ferred against him by enemies who are no longer remembered ex- cept as the slanderers of the hero of Stony Point and Fallen Timbers. He died on the voyage across Lake Erie, but he left no stain upon his reputation. He is not the only successful com- mander who has been pursued by the malice of the envious. The same fate befell Commodore Perry and General Jackson, and his- tory has repeated itself in more recent times.
At this distance, it is hard for us to realize how slowly the colonies grew in that time of war. Six years after the beginnings at Marietta, the entire population of actual settlers along the Ohio, including the French at Gallipolis and the frontier post es- tablished at Manchester by Massie, probably did not exceed two thousand. In an agricultural sense, the real settlement of Ohio began after Wayne's victory. Before this event many of the pioneers were cultivating rented land near the forts; they now began to clear their own land.
The census of 1800 tells a significant story of the rapid changes which occurred in the first five years of peace. In that time, Washington County, which then extended from the Tus -. carawas to Gallipolis, and westward across the Hocking, had in- creased from one to five thousand. Eastern Ohio had received ' eight thousand immigrants, and there were thirteen hundred pioneers on the Western Reserve, but the greatest increase had been in the Virginia Land District and the Symmes Purchase. Each of these now had a population more than twice as numer-
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ous as the older settlement about the Muskingum. The immi- gration for the next three years had made the disparity in popu- lation still greater. In a free country it was inevitable that the power should pass to the control of the greater number. A new form of government was necessary, and that form had been provided for in the Ordinance of 1787. For the first ten years,. there had been in the territory a provisional government, which: has been imitated at other times when new territory has suddenly come into our possession. The first government established in Louisiana by Jefferson, and the commission in the Philippines are examples. A governor and three judges appointed by Congress had power to adopt such laws of the original states as they might deem necessary. Thus, for ten years, all the functions of territo- rial government were performed by four men; but in each county the people had a measure of home rule. In three years after the return of peace, it was supposed that five thousand free male in- habitants at least twenty-one years old resided within the terri- tory. Governor St. Clair, therefore, ordered an election of terri- torial representatives. When this election was ordered (in 1798), there were in the territory nine counties, erected by proclamation of the governor, five of which, Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson and Ross, were within the present limits of Ohio, or at least nearly so. Wayne County had jurisdiction over parts of what are now Ohio and Indiana, but its population was chiefly confined to the vicinity of Detroit. The first duty of the twenty- two representatives was to select ten persons from whom the President was to select five, who were to constitute a legislative council, or senate. This duty having been performed at Cin- cinnati, in February, 1799, the two houses met for legislative purposes at the same place on the sixteenth of September. Grad- ually the lines were drawn between the Federalists and Republic- ans, but for a long time not very strictly. William Henry Har- rison, a supporter of Jefferson, was elected the first delegate to Congress. Mr. McMillen, a Federalist, succeeded him ; and he, in turn, was succeeded by another Federalist, Mr. Fearing. In this legislature appeared Thomas Worthington, Nathaniel Massie, and Edward Tiffin, men destined to become leaders in Ohio for
O. c .- 6
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many years. They had scruples that would hardly trouble the "worker" of later times. Because they were exerting themselves to secure the removal of St. Clair, they thought it unbecoming that any one of them should be appointed his successor. Massie, in particular, let it be known that he would not accept the ap- pointment if it were tendered him. Of Worthington, even the letters of his opponents, written in the time of intense excitement, bear witness to their respect for his character. They dubbed him Sir Thomas, but they did not deny him true knightly qualities. In later years, he and General Putnam were engaged in the same work for the moral and religious enlightenment of the people. Both were officers in the American Bible Society. Dr. Tiffin, phy- sician, statesman and clergyman, was a pioneer preacher in the Methodist Church. The first two years in the nineteenth century mark the climax in a peaceful revolution in political and social ideals, a revolution whose extent we can hardly appreciate after the lapse of a century. Statements now accepted as axioms of political science by all parties were bitterly disputed at the close of the eighteenth century as heresies from the Jacobin clubs of Paris.
Even the decimal system of money, so convenient to us now, was very troublesome to those who had lived in colonial times, and they continued to keep their accounts in pounds, shillings and pence. For example, when a worthy magistrate imposed a fine of sixty ninetieths of a dollar he was thinking of five shillings of the old Pennsylvania currency. The act is typical of the old school of thought. Men of that school could not frame their speech to the shibboleths of the new democracy. The early rec- ords of the courts refer to two classes, the "yeomen" and the "gentlemen." Such distinctions could not long survive among a people, who, as a Colonel Worthington said, "must live by the sweat of their brows." Among the hardy pioneers the word gen- tleman acquired a new and more honorable meaning.
The political strife which marked the closing years of the territorial period was embittered by personal and sectional dis- putes, which we can now discuss freely since we have become one people in feeling and purpose. Governor St. Clair and Col- onel John Cleves Symmes could not agree about the location of the
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land to be donated for educational purposes, and each was so sure in his own opinion that he could hardly believe the other honest. When the friends of Jefferson began to seek the removal of St. Clair, their efforts were heartily seconded by Symmes, who longed to see the territory freed from the "tyranny" of "that aristocratic old sinner." Racial distinctions also marked the set- tlements which were made soon after Wayne's treaty. As the German and the Scotch-Irish, when they first came to America, finding the coast occupied by the Puritan, the Quaker or the Cav- alier, had pushed into the Appalachian region, again in the west- ern country they sought the unoccupied territory. The Yankee had occupied the mouth of the Muskingum and of the Cuyahoga, the Virginian had gone far up the Scioto and the Miamis. The other classes moved forward in direct lines, and made their homes in the interior.
On the fourth of July, 1800, all the territory west of the treaty line and the meridian of Fort Recovery was organized into Indiana Territory, and William Henry Harrison became the first governor. Three representatives and one member of the council went with the new territory. The members from Detroit kept their seats in the old Legislature. We sometimes hear of Ohio Territory, but its full official title was "The Eastern Division of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio,". and the seat of government was fixed by act of Congress at Chillicothe.
The long military service of General St. Clair had not fitted him for dealing harmoniously with a representative body. He had had some dispute with the judges in the provisional government, but this was slight in comparison with the storm that beset him when he confronted the Legislature. So fully had the disputes impressed upon the minds of the leaders in 1802 the danger of executive usurpation that the constitutional convention gave no veto power to the governor of Ohio. The Second Territorial Legislature met in Chillicothe, November 21, 1801, and ad- journed, after a very stormy session, to meet in Cincinnati in No- vember, 1802, but ere that date the movement for statehood was well under way, and the second session of that Territorial Legis- lature was never held. Of the disputes in the last Territorial Leg-
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islature at Chillicothe, Mr. Burnet, a Federalist from Hamilton County, has said: "There was an unreasonable warmth and jeal- ousy of motive on both sides." The representatives from Wash- ington, Trumbull and Jefferson Counties were supported by the Detroit members, and in part by those from Hamilton. This combination the Scioto and Miami members could break up by excluding the inhabited part of Wayne County from the new state. They were determined that the "tools of Arthur the First" should not be in the majority. The Washington representatives then proposed that the eastern division be divided into two states with the Scioto as a partial boundary. This would have made two states, each of which would have been larger than Mary- land, New Jersey, or Massachusetts, but, fortunately, we say, for, when Ohio points to her famous sons, who is there who would divide them into two groups, and separate Grant from Sherman, or Hayes from Garfield? By virtue of the Enabling Act of Congress approved April 30, 1802, thirty-five members, representing nine counties, Trumbull, Jefferson, Belmont, Wash- ington, Fairfield, Ross, Adams, Clermont and Hamilton, on a basis of one member for twelve hundred inhabitants, elected in October, met at Chillicothe in November and framed the constitution of the state of Ohio. Soon after the convention met, Governor St. Clair was removed from office by President Jefferson, and the executive duties devolved upon the secre- tary, Charles Willing Bird. The veteran of three wars then returned to Pennsylvania and lived in retirement. That he had been needlessly arbitrary in the discharge of his duties, is prob- ably true. To the charges of corruption in office, it is only nec- essary to answer that, after so many years of public service, he retired a poor man - so poor, indeed, that almost his only sup- port in his old age was the small pension given him by the state of Pennsylvania.
There was such haste to secure a state government, and thus get rid of the "tools" of St. Clair, as they were called, that the convention would not refer the constitution they had made to the decision of the popular vote. It was a subject for ridicule among the opponents of statehood that a constitution that began with "We, the people," and was well bepeopled throughout, was not
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referred to the people at all, but was adopted by the vote of twenty-seven men, yet E. D. Mansfield, a very careful student, has pronounced it the best constitution he ever saw, "for the rea- son that it had the fewest limitations." The letters of the two parties in the contests of 1802-03, when read in the light of a cen- tury of practical experience, prove that no one on either side was an infallible prophet. The millenium had not begun because the Republicans had removed from office such "Tories" as St. Clair, who had spent the best part of his life in defense of his country, or as Putnam and his associates, who had fought from Lexing- ton to Newburg, and had afterwards given the best of their land to the defenders of the frontier. Nor was the state on the sure road to ruin because such "Jacobins" as Worthington, Massie and ·Tiffin had come to the front. No amount of political mud can fix upon a person or party an inappropriate nickname. Hence Tory and Jacobin ceased to be useful names in practical politics.
The peaceful revolution that removed the politicai center from the Muskingum to the Scioto requires no philosophy, op- timistic or pessimistic, for its explanation. Twenty thousand peo- ple had more votes than five thousand, and, since the twenty thou- sand were as intelligent as any other group, it was but natural that they would elect men from their own midst. At first there was boundless elation among those who were girding on their harness, but the actual struggles gave little time for boasting over those who had put it off. The friends of Washington emphasized law as the shield of the oppressed; the friends of Jefferson were the champions of personal liberty. The experience of a century has taught us that both are necessary in a government by the people and for the people. We have all learned that there can be no true liberty unprotected by law, no law worthy of the name which does not respect the liberty of the individual.
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NOTES ON THE ABOVE.
From the Hildreth Collection of Manuscripts in Marietta College Library.
MAJOR HASKELL TO GRIFFIN GREENE.
HEADQUARTERS, MIAMI OF THE LAKE, August 29, 1794.
SIR :
The last time I wrote you was from St. Clair -the date I have forgot. In June last. I was relieved from that post and joined the 4th Sub-Legion, which I have commanded ever since. The 28th of July the Army moved forward consisting of about 1,800 regulars, and 1,500 militia from Kentucky, by the way of the Battle ground, now Fort Recovery, then turned more to the eastward and struck St. Marys in 20 miles where we erected a small fort and left a subaltern's command,. crossed the St. Marys, in four or five days' marching found the Oglaize, continuing down that river to where it formed a junction with the Miami of the Lake, 100 miles from Greeneville by the route we took. At this- place we built a garrison and left a Major in command. The army pro- ceeded down the river towards the lakes 47 miles from the garrison until the 20th instant in the morning about 9 o'clock, when we found the In- dians who had placed themselves for us. When the attack commenced we formed and charged them with our bayonets and pursued them two miles thro' a very bad thicket of woods, logs and underbrush, and with the charge of the cavalry, routed and defeated them. Our line extended in length two and a half miles, and it was with difficulty we outflanked them. The prisoner (a white man), we took says they compute their numbers to 1,200 Indians and 250 white men, Detroit militia, in action .. Our loss in the engagement was two officers killed, four officers wounded,. about 30 soldiers killed, and 80 wounded. The Indians suffered much ; perhaps 40 or 50 of their killed fell into our hands. The prisoner was. asked why they did not fight better. He said we would give them no. time to load their pieces but kept them constantly on the run. Two miles advanced of the action is a British Garrison, established last spring,. which we marched around within pistol shot in the day time. It was. demanded but not given up. Our artillery not being sufficient, and the place too strong to storm, it was not attempted, but we burned their out- houses, destroyed all their gardens, cornfields and hay within musket shot of the fort and down beyond them 8 or 9 miles without opposition. The 27th instant we arrived here, where a fort is, and are to halt a few days. to refresh. About 60 miles we have marched thro' the Indian villages. and settlements, and have destroyed several thousand acres of corn, beans,. and all kinds of vegetables, besides their houses, with furniture, tools, etc. A party has gone in to Fort Recovery for a supply of provisions for us.
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It is said when they return we go up the Miami sixty miles to where St. Marys forms a junction with the St. Joseph and destroy all the corn in that country.
In great haste I am, Gentlemen,
Your humble servant,
J. HASKELL.
Griffin Greene, Esq., and Mr. B. I. Gilman.
COL. ROBERT OLIVER TO GRIFFIN GREENE.
(This bears no postmark, but it was evidently written at Chilli- cothe. )
December 29, 1801.
We have passed a law declaring the assent of the Territory to an alteration of the original boundary lines for States. This has offended the counties of Ross, Adams and part of Fairfield and we had like to brought an old house over our heads. The grand jurors of the county of Adams has presented the Governor and Council as nuisances in the Territory. However this is not all, for on Christmas Eve, Mr. Baldwin was preparing to burn a barrel of tar before the house where the Gover- nor and a large number of the members of both houses who gave their voice in favor of the above bill lodged, and to burn the Governor in effigy, and if any opposition was made to whip them that made it. However Col. Worthington and some other men prevented, but on Saturday night last, which you may remember was the night after, a number of men being half drunk were, as we believe, determined to abuse some of the members down at their quarters, but three of them, a little drunker than was necessary, came down before the others (as we believe), were ready. Mr. Schifflin (Scheiffelin of Detroit), a member from the county of Wayne, being some irritated from what he had heard, gave them some warm words, so that one collared him, but Schifflin drew his dirk and I have reason to believe, had it not been for Capt. Gregg, he would have put it into him up to the hilt. They were immediately separated, but all the arms in the house were soon loaded and we were determined to defend the house.
GOV. ST. CLAIR TO PAUL FEARING.
(The blanks in the following indicate places that have become illegible ).
CHILICOTHEY, 15th January, 1802.
Mr. Worthington and Baldwin must have been at Washington for some time. Mr. McMillan will not set out to meet them till the 25th, and it seems to be uncertain whether Mr. Tod will go or not. I believe
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there are two reasons for that uncertainty. One is that Mr. Meigs is already gone from Marietta, and declared himself favorably to the divi- sion * * * wished that the people might petition for that measure, and that the presenting the petition might be committed to him * another is that there would be some difficulty in raising the money necessary for a special agent. I am sorry for it * * * . not that I think the business would be in bad hands if committed to Mr. Meigs, but that sending some person from Trumbull would be the means of uniting different interests and giving both a weight they could not separately have. But the idea of putting the petitions into any hands but yours was never entertained by those who prepared the measure.
I have good reason to think that new efforts will be made by the agents from this place to work my removal, and from their conduct on the way to Washington (for I have heard of them from several places on their way) no falsehood or calumny that malice can invent will be spared. I trust in the integrity of my conduct, and in the good offices of those few who know me, to counteract them; and yours, I trust, will not be refused.
The riotous and unlawful assemblies at this place, with intention to insult and maltreat the Governor and certain members of the Legisla- ture is an article of news, and as it will be first announced by the agent above mentioned, will receive its coloring from them, and one of them, Baldwin, was a principal actor, take the story as it really happened.
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