USA > Ohio > Ohio in the time of the Confederation > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
In contrast to the arbitrary line idea is that of General Washington's, outlined in a letter to James Duane three months later -September 7, 1783.14 A careful student of geography and frontier transportation, Washington was partic-
14 Doc. xii.
xxviii
Introduction
ularly interested in the relation of the boundary question to that of Indian relations ; he drew the new State along the lines of Pickering and Put- nam with one exception. He inclined toward making the Miami and Maumee River valleys the western line, with an extension or "gore" to in- clude a strip of land along the St. Clair and De- troit Rivers to include the site of Detroit; this projection, however, he affirms to be illogical and favors throwing Detroit over into the next State to be formed to the westward.
Five months later, February, 1784, we find David Howell, the Rhode Island jurist and mem- ber of Congress, outlining a new plan of state- building 15-a matter which he considered of equal importance with any then demanding the attention of Congress. Howell strikes a new note when he affirms in a letter to Jonathan Arnold that the republicanism of the trans-Allegheny pioneer -"the gods of the mountains"-will be the sheet-anchor of the young Republic when the people of the "eastern shores" shall become "rich and luxurious and ready to yield their lib- erties into the hands of a tyrant."
The basic idea of the new plan seems to be an attempt to check the possible power of a "ty- rant," or the overpowering influence of one sec- tion, by the use of a balance-of-power scheme to
15 Doc. xiv.
xxix
Introduction
play off one section against another. The Union was to be divided into three tiers of States; the most westerly tier was to lie between the Missis- sippi River and a meridian drawn through the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville) from the Gulf of Mexico to upper Lake Michigan; the next tier was to be bounded on the east by a meridian drawn from the North Carolina line to Lake Erie through the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and on the south and north by the Carolina line and the Great Lakes, respectively; the eastern tier embraced the remainder of the Union south of the Carolina line and east of the Great Kana- wha meridian. Fourteen new States were to be erected in the two westerly tiers, containing two degrees of latitude each, the meridians to deter- mine their longitude. The first State was to be bounded by the Great Kanawha meridian, the Pennsylvania line, the Ohio River and Lake Erie.
Howell, taking the debates of Congress at Princeton as mentor, outlines for the first time the progressive stages through which these dis- tricts shall move before attaining full Statehood. In the first stage they are to complete a local or- ganization, choose a constitution of one of the old States, pay taxes and have a "sitting member" in Congress. On attaining a prescribed number of inhabitants the second heaven is entered and a constitution of their own making shall be al-
XXX
Introduction
lowed. When the population of the district is equal to any of the original States such district shall be admitted to the federal union on sub- scribing to certain stipulations. These included a renunciation of the right of ceding from the Union, the payment of their proportional part of the national debt, the abandonment of slavery after 1800, the surrender of any hereditary title on the part of any citizen on penalty of forfeit- ure of citizenship.
A review of this discussion of over a decade of years, if only the arguments of the most impor- tant men are considered, makes it possible for one to estimate accurately the origin of the famous Ordinance of 1784 which now followed.16 While in some particulars it introduces new elements and ideas, hardly a fundamental proposition is found in it that was not suggested in these years of discussion and debate. It is only by recog- nizing the seedlings as scattered by these real "Fathers" of the West and noting what were good and brought forth fruit and what were not of value and cast aside, that we can feel and know that these great documents were human in all senses of the word. By knowing something of the maze of alternatives that confronted the Con- gress that passed the Ordinances of 1784, 1785, and 1787, by knowing that its members chose
16 Doc. xv.
xxxi
Introduction
with rare judgment wheat from chaff, it becomes possible for us to give honor where it is due and be impressed as never before by the earnestness and fidelity and foresight of those who labored in behalf of a territory in the making. No more important precedent was established in our his- tory than the precedent of the creation of the "Territory North West of the River Ohio"; it was to make itself felt in every word of legisla- tion passed concerning every foot of land that lay between the Alleghenies and the Pacific.
The Ordinance of 1784 followed the general lines of the discussions as outlined by Howell; it was written by Thomas Jefferson, who, with Chase of Maryland and Howell, completed the committee which reported the bill. Its original draft contained the prohibition of slavery pro- posed by Timothy Pickering, but, in the vote on the final draft, this was stricken out; had not Mr. Monroe been absent on account of illness the slavery proviso would have been retained.
This Ordinance has been loosely called "in- operative"; by this it should be understood that it provided no actual plan for the disposition of the western lands by Congress. This problem was taken up the year following by the appoint- ment of a committee consisting of three members from Southern States, Jefferson, Williamson, and Read, and two members from the North, Gerry and Howell. How far the Ordinance
xxxii
Introduction
which they finally reported reflected the ideas of Webster, Pickering, and Putnam, may be seen by comparing the ideas of those men here- in reproduced with "An Ordinance for Ascer- taining the Mode of Disposing of Lands in the Western Territory," commonly known as the Land Ordinance of 1785.17 The northern township system and survey-before-sale plan was unanimously adopted. The first lines were to, be run by the Geographer of the United States, Thomas Hutchins, from the crossing place of the Pennsylvania line on the Ohio Riv- er, straight north and west. These lines were to be the eastern and southern boundaries of seven ranges of townships, each six miles square. Already by the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, dated January 21, 1785, the Indian title to this region had been quieted.18
Many of the documents relating to the military phases of these important years of 1785, 1786, and 1787, from the Harmar Papers and the files of the War Department, have been published.19 The material here presented, with exception of a few quotations from these sources, relates to the surveys of the Seven Ranges from the Papers of the Continental Congress 20 and fills the gap in
17 Doc. xvii.
18 Doc. xvi.
19 W. H. Smith, The St. Clair Papers, ii, 1-22.
20 Docs. xviii-xlvii.
xxxiii
Introduction
the record of the territory in the making up to the passing of the Ordinance of 1787 which was immediately endorsed and made legal by the first Congress under the Constitution. Thomas Hutchins with his corps of surveyors began the first survey of the Northern line of the Seven Ranges September 22-October 23, 1785, when the Indians compelled him to desist. Taking up the work again in July, 1786, more than four ranges were surveyed before the end of February, 1787. The papers here reproduced, many from Hutchins's hand, portray the diffi- culties of this undertaking. Their very miscel- laneous character illustrate the temper of the In- dians, the difficulties of surveying so far beyond settled limits and give us a glimpse into the for- ests of old Ohio not found elsewhere. A reading of them proves what a virgin field lies open to the historians of Ohio who will make use of all the materials extant.
The picture shows on the one hand a large body of eager lusty pioneers, supreme in their disdain of the surly Indians, unique in their strong sense of democracy, crowding the Ohio's shores; hun- dreds boldly cross the river, build homes, elect magistrates and call on their fellows far and wide to elect delegates to meet at the mouth of the Scioto to form a State convention and adopt a constitution.21 On the other hand we see the sur-
21 Doc. xxi.
-
XXXIV
Introduction
veyors under the lead of the Geographer of the United States taking their stand where the Penn- sylvania line crosses the Ohio and lay down the first of that great net-work of lines that shall stretch to Oregon and California and around Kentucky to the last sandy dune of the Floridan peninsula, creating the township system. These surveyors are protected by that kernel of troops which shall become the United States army. These troops nail to the Ohio trees the proclama- tion of Congress 22 that no trespassers will be al- lowed on the land, burn the cabins of the embit- tered vanguard but fail to eradicate them. And on the confines of the scene lurk the banditti of Mingoes and Cherokees who dispute the author- ity of the Delawares, Wyandots, and Chippewas who signed the Treaty of Fort McIntosh ceding these lands.23
No thinking person can read the documents which hint at, rather than describe, these doubly critical days in the Old Northwest without being impressed anew and more poignantly with the great wisdom with which "the Fathers" handled this enormously important theme, their sturdi- ness of purpose and steadfast refusal to allow the "tomahawk claim" system to break across the Ohio. A precedent was here set of immeasur- able importance and it should be remembered to
22 Doc. xxvii.
23 Doc. xvi.
XXXV
Introduction
the honor of the Congress that is so often char- acterized as a "weakling," a government "by supplication." The actors in this trans-Alle- gheny episode - the surly borderers, the recal- citrant savages and the alert but fearful survey- ors -did not recognize it as such !
The concluding pages of the volume are given up to the one detailed account in existence of the daily routine and experiences of the surveyors who were running the lines of the Seven Ranges. This is the Journal of John Matthews. Its sim- ple descriptions of forest and meadowland prob- ably exerted a greater influence on the New Eng- land imagination than came from any other source. The document was presented to Dr. Samuel P. Hildreth by the Reverend William Harris, Treasurer of Princeton University, in 1886 and forms a part of the "Hildreth Collec- tion" in the Marietta College Library.
ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT Camp Travis, San Antonio, Texas April 7, 1918
PART ONE
THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE ORDINANCE OF 1784 1
I SILAS DEANE ON WESTERN LANDS (1776)2
From these and other considerations, on which I need not be minute, emigrations from Eu- rope will be prodigious immediately on the estab- lishment of American independence. The conse- quence of this must be the rise of the lands already settled, and a demand for new or uncultivated; on this demand I conceive a certain fund may now be fixed. You may smile, and recollect the sale of the bearskin in the fable, but at the same time must be sensible that your wants are real; and if others can be induced to relieve them, it is indifferent to you whether they have a consideration in hand or in prospect.
I trace the river Ohio from its junction to its head; thence north to Lake Erie, on the south and west of that lake to Fort Detroit, which is in the latitude of
1 The reprint of the succeeding documents supplements Prof. Pay- son J. Treat's antecedents of the Land Ordinance of 1785 (The National Land System, 29-40) and Jay A. Barrett's antecedents of the Ordinance of 1787 (Evolution of the Ordinance of 1787).
2 Extract from a letter to the Secret Committee of Congress, dated at Paris, December 1, 1776 - from American Archives, fifth series, iii, 1020-1021.
2
Marietta College Historical Collections
Boston; thence a west course to the Mississippi, and return to the place of my departure. These three lines, of near one thousand miles each, include an immense territory in a fine climate well watered and by accounts exceedingly fertile; it is not inhab- ited by any Europeans of consequence, and the tribes of Indians are inconsiderable, and will de- crease faster than the lands can possibly be called for, for cultivation. To this I ask your attention, as a resource amply adequate, under proper regula- tions, for defraying the whole expense of the war, and the sums necessary to be given the Indians in purchase of the native right. But to give this land value, inhabitants are necessary. I therefore pro- pose, in the first place, that a grant be made of a tract of land at the mouth of the Ohio, between that and the Mississippi, equal to two hundred square miles, to a company formed indiscriminately of Europeans and Americans, which company should form a distinct State, confederated with and under the general regulations of the United States General of America. That the Congress of the United States shall out of such grant reserve the defraying or dis- charging the publick debts or expenses, one-fifth part of all the lands, mines, etc., within said tract, to be disposed of by the Congress in such manner as good policy and the publick exigencies may dictate ; the said one-fifth to be sequestered out of every grant or settlement made by the company, of equal goodness with the rest of such grant or settlement; the company on their part shall engage to have in seven years after the passing such grant [blank] thousand families settled on said grant, and civil
3
Ohio in the Time of the Confederation
government regulated and supported on the most free and liberal principles, taking therein the advice of the honorable Congress of the United States of North America. They shall also, from and after their having one thousand families as above said, contribute their proportion of the publick expenses of the continent, or United States, according to the number of their inhabitants, and shall be entitled to a voice in Congress as soon as they are called on thus to contribute.3 The company shall at all times have the preference of purchasing the Continental or com- mon interest thus reserved, when it shall be offered to sale. The company shall consist, on giving the patent or grant, of at least one hundred persons.
These are the outlines of a proposed grant, which you see contains more than twenty-five millions acres of land, the one-fifth of which, if a settlement is car- ried on vigorously, will soon be of most prodigious value. At this time a company might be formed in France, Germany, etc., who would form a stock of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, to defray the expense of this settlement. By such a step you in the first place extend the circle of your connection and influence, you increase the number of your in- habitants, proportionably lessen the common ex- penses, and have in the reserve a fund for publick exigencies. Further, as this company would be in a great degree commercial, the establishing com- merce at the junction of these large rivers would immediately give a value to all the lands situated on
3 It is to be noted that Deane in a shadowy way here outlines the "progressive" idea afterward adopted for the western territories which automatically advanced from a state of probation into a full federated condition.
4
Marietta College Historical Collections
or near them, within the above extensive descrip- tion; and further grants might admit of larger re- serves, amply sufficient for defraying the expenses of the war, and possibly for establishing funds for other important purposes,
It may be objected, this is not a favorable time for such a measure. I reply, it is the most favorable that can happen. You want money, and by holding up this early view a certain fund, on which to raise it, even the most certain in the world, that of land security, you may obtain the loan and engage the moneyed interests of Europe in your favor. I have spoken with many persons of good sense on this subject, which makes me the more sanguine.
I will now dismiss this scheme. .
only adding, or rather repeating, what I have in a former letter wrote, that a large and generous al- lowance ought immediately be made for the officers and soldiers serving in the present war. . This will make the Army consist literally of a set of men fighting for freehold; and it will be a great encour- agement to foreigners, with whom five hundred or a thousand acres of land has a great sound.
II
THOMAS PAINE ON WESTERN LANDS (1780) 4
Another reason why the present time for separation from Great Britain is preferable to all others, is, that the fewer our numbers are, the more
4 Extract from "Common Sense" - Paine's Works (1878), 40 seq.
5
Ohio in the Time of the Confederation
land there is yet unoccupied, which, instead of being lavished by the king on his worthless dependents, may be hereafter applied, not only to the discharge of the present debt, but to the constant support of the government. No nation under heaven hath such an advantage as this.
Should affairs be patched up with Britain, and she remain the governing and sovereign power of America, (which, as matters are now circumstanced, is giving up the point entirely) we shall deprive ourselves of the very means of sinking the debt we have or may contract. The value of the back lands, which some of the provinces are clandestinely de- prived of, by the unjust extension of the limits of Canada," valued only at five pounds sterling per hun- dred acres, amount to upwards of twenty-five mil- lions Pennsylvania currency; and the quit-rents at one penny sterling per acre, to two millions yearly.
It is by the sale of those lands that the debt may be sunk, without burden to any, and the quit-rent re- served theron, will always lessen, and in time, will wholly support the yearly expense of government. It matters not how long the debt is in paying, so that the lands when sold be applied to the discharge of it, and for the execution of which, the congress for the time being, will be the Continental trustees.
5 The Quebec Act.
6
Marietta College Historical Collections
III THOMAS PAINE ON GOVERNMENT OF WESTERN TERRITORY (1780)6
The succession of the United States to the vacant Western territory is a right they originally set upon ; and in the pamphlet "Common Sense," I frequently mentioned those lands as a National fund for the benefit of all; therefore, resuming the subject where I then left off, I shall conclude with concisely re- ducing to system what I then only hinted.
In my last piece, the "Crisis Extraordinary," I estimated the annual amount of the charge of war and the support of the several governments at two million pounds sterling, and the peace establishment at three quarters of a million, and, by a comparison of the taxes of this country with those of England, proved that the whole yearly expense to us, to de- fend the country, is but a third of what Britain would have drawn from us by taxes, had she succeeded in her attempt to conquer ; and our peace establishment only an eighth part; and likewise showed, that it was within the ability of the states to carry on the whole of the war by taxation, without having recourse to any other modes or funds.
To have a clear idea of taxation is necessary to every country, and the more funds we can discover and organize, the less will be the hope of the enemy, and the readier their disposition to peace, which it is now their interest more than ours to promote.
I have already remarked that only the United 6 Extract from "Public Good" - Paine's Works (1894), ii, 61 seq.
7
Ohio in the Time of the Confederation
States, and not any particular state, can lay off new states and incorporate them into the Union by repre- sentation; keeping, therefore, this idea in view, I ask, might not a substantial fund be quickly created by laying off a new state, so as to contain between twenty and thirty millions of acres, and opening a land office in all countries in Europe for hard money, and in this country for supplies in kind, at a certain price.
The tract of land that seems best adapted to an- swer this purpose is contained between the Alleghany mountains and the river Ohio, as far north as the Pennsylvania line, thence extending down the said river to the falls, thereof, thence due south into the latitude of the North Carolina line, and thence east to the Alleghany mountains aforesaid. I more readily mention this tract, because it is fighting the enemy with their own weapons, as it includes the same ground on which a new colony would have been erected, for the emolument of the crown of England, as appears by the letters of lords Hillsborough and Dartmouth, had not the revolution prevented its be- ing carried into effect.7
It is probable that there may be some spots of private property within this tract, but to incorporate them into some government will render them more profitable to the owners, and the condition of the scattered settlers more eligible and happy than at present.
If twenty millions of acres of this new state be patented and sold at twenty pounds sterling per
7 The Vandalia Company - see G. H. Alden, New Governments West of the Alleghenies Before 1780, 23-28.
8
Marietta College Historical Collections
hundred acres, they will produce four million pounds sterling, which, if applied to continental expenses only, will support the war for three years, should Britain be so unwise as to prosecute it against her own direct interest and against the interest and policy of all Europe. The several states will then have to raise taxes for their internal government only, and the continental taxes, as soon as the fund begins to operate, will lessen, and if sufficiently productive, will cease.
Lands are the real riches of the habitable world and the natural funds of America. The funds of other countries are, in general, artificially construct- ed; the creatures of necessity and contrivance; de- pendent on credit, and always exposed to hazard and uncertainty. But lands can neither be annihilated nor lose their value; on the contrary, they universal- ly rise with population, and rapidly so, when under the security of effectual government. But this it is impossible for Virginia to give, and therefore, that which is capable of defraying the expenses of the empire, will, under the management of any single state, produce only a fugitive support to wandering individuals.
I shall now inquire into the effects which the laying out a new state, under the authority of the United States, will have upon Virginia. It is the very circumstance she ought to, and must, wish for, when she examines the matter in all its bearings and consequences.
The present settlers beyond her reach, and her supposed authority over them remaining in herself, they will appear to her as revolters, and she to them
9
Ohio in the Time of the Confederation
as oppressor; and this will produce such a spirit of mutual dislike, that in a little time a total disagree- ment will take place to the disadvantage of both. But under the authority of the United States the matter is manageable, and Virginia will be eased of a disagreeable consequence.
Besides this, a sale of the lands, continentally, for the purpose of supporting the expense of the war, will save her a greater share of taxes, than the small sale which she could make herself, and the small price she could get for them would produce.
She would likewise have two advantages which no other state in the Union enjoys; first, a frontier state for her defense against the incursions of the Indians; and the second is, that the laying out and peopling a new state on the back of an old one, sit- uated as she is, is doubling the quantity of its trade.
The new state which is here proposed to be laid out may send its exports down the Mississippi, but its imports must come through Chesapeake bay, and consequently Virginia will become the market for the new state; because, though there is a navigation from it, there is none into it, on account of the rapid- ity of the Mississippi.8
There are certain circumstances that will produce certain events whether men think of them or not. The events do not depend upon thinking, but are the natural consequence of acting, and according to the system which Virginia has gone upon, the issue will
8 This argument is reëchoed four years later by Jefferson but in favor of Virginia's refusing to cede land east of the Great Kanawha meridian - Jefferson to Washington, March 15, 1784, Old South Leaf- lets, vi, 16.
10
Marietta College Historical Collections
be, that she will get involved with back settlers in a contention about rights, till they dispute with their own claims; and, soured by the contention, will go to any other state for their commerce;9 both of which may be prevented, a perfect harmony established, the strength of the states increased, and the expenses of the war defrayed, by settling the matter now on the plan of a general right; and every day it is de- layed, the difficulty will be increased and the advan- tages lessened.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.