USA > Ohio > Ohio in the time of the Confederation > Part 4
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But there is another objection more forcible, which, I suppose, will be pretty readily made to my scheme, viz. all the benefits of this scheme are future, are a great way off ; but we want present supplies, to relieve the present necessities of our country. This was Esau's argument when he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and is certainly a very good one, when really grounded on fact; for no doubt a man
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had better give his whole fortune for one meal of victuals, than starve to death for want of it; but I think wise men will examine this fact very closely, and be very decidedly convinced, that the supposed present necessity is really great enough to induce us to forego all the fore-mentioned advantages for the sake of the pittance, the trifle of money which those lands would now bring, attended with all the shock- ing and mortifying disadvantages of giving any for- eigners a footing in our country, and a claim upon our most essential and central interests.
But I think the objection itself is grounded on an error; for I think the present advantages resulting from my plan greater than could arise from any kind of mortgage or alienation of these lands; for I con- sider them like a rich, valuable, and sure reversion, which never fails to give the owner a great estima- tion, credit, and respectability in the eyes of his neighbors, tho' he receives no permenancy of present profits; but if this reversion was sold or mortgaged for a trifle, and soon dissipated (as doubtless would be our case) the owner would appear in a light more contemptible, and in every view much more disad- vantageous, than if he had never owned the right.
It cannot be too often repeated, that we are not capable of being saved, or even helped, by the im- portation of foreign money; it will destroy our in- dustry, it will introduce luxury; the increase of quantity and ease of acquirement will depreciate it, and thereby defeat its own uses.
This is as true as the diurnal rotation of the earth, but, like it, not obvious to the perceptions of every kind. Unhappy for us! the nature of money, and the
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radical essence of the public finance, depend on prin- ciples too latent for easy comprehension; and what makes the matter more dangerous, like many delu- sive appearances in the natural world, is, they seem to be perfectly easy and obvious, when they are least understood; and therefore it has been observed in all ages, that they work like magic under the direc- tion of unskillful men, ever producing effects the least expected, as well as failing of those most san- guinely computed upon.
Their operations, like other doctrines which de- pend on an affinity of relations, are governed by so many co-operating causes, that their delineation is very difficult, and their demonstration intricate, and not to be understood without a long and deep atten- tion.
They make a part of the great law of proportions, which nature never fails to regulate and adjust with perfect exactness, but which the greatest and strong- est intellects, with the most nervous attention, can but imperfectly comprehend.
Therefore, in this, as in all other branches of phys- ical knowledge, our safest cue and surest principles must be drawn from experiment. But to return to my subject-
I do not apprehend the actual permenancy of prof- its from our western lands, when disposed of accord- ing to my plan, so very distant as many may imagine. The argument of analogy, from what has been to what will be, is generally allowed to be a good one. If, therefore, upon this rule of reasoning, we may suppose that the increase of population in our coun- try shall continue the same in time to come as we
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have experienced in time past, viz. that the number of souls double once in 25 years, it will appear very probable that our own eyes may live to see the com- mencement of a great demand and rapid sale of our western territory. The number of souls in the Thirteen States in 1775, was generally computed at 3,000,000. (Some people of great observation were of opinion, this number was much exceeded.) On the aforesaid scale of computation, the number of souls in these states, at the end of the next century, will amount to 96,000,000; enough to extend over the whole territory of our Commonwealth, and more than Spain, France, Germany, and Italy now contain.
7. I will here subjoin one thing more, which may perhaps be thought worthy of some consideration, viz. that in surveying and granting the western lands, all saltlicks, and mines of metallic ores, coals, minerals, and all other valuable fossils (in all which the country greatly abounds) may be reserved and sequestered for public use: a great revenue may grow out of them: and it seems unreasonable that those vast sources of wealth should be engrossed and monopolized by any individuals. I think they ought to be improved to the best public advantage, but in such manner, that the vast profits issuing from them should flow into the public treasury, and there- by inure to the equal advantage of the whole com- munity.
The foregoing considerations open to view such great objects, such prospects of vast population and national wealth, as may at first sight appear chimer- ical, illusory, and incredible. A great minister of state was formerly so astonished at the very mention
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of the vast supplies predicted by the prophet Elisha, that he, with amazement mixed with unbelief, ex- claimed, "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be!" But I mean to subject this Essay to the most rigid examination. Please to review every proposition, and closely examine every argument and inference I make, and if they do not justify the conclusion, reject them; but if you find the facts alleged, true, the propositions just, and the inferences fairly drawn, do not start at your own good fortune, or shrink from the blessings which Heaven pours on your country. The boundaries herein described, by which the contents of our ter- ritories are computed, are taken from Mitchel's map, published in 1755, at the request of the Lords Com- missioners of Trade and Plantations, and is chiefly composed from draughts, charts, and actual surveys of different parts of the English colonies and planta- tions in America, great part of which have been late- ly taken by their Lordships' orders, and transmitted to the plantation-office, as is certified by John Pownal, secretary of said office, and is perhaps a map of the best authority and greatest accuracy of any extant. The facts are of public notoriety. The computations are all made on obvious principles, and may be corrected by any body, if wrong. The senti- ments are my own, and are cheerfully submitted to the most rigorous scrutiny that can consist with truth and candor. The subject is very large; I do not pretend to exhaust it, or that this Essay is a fin- ished piece ; it is a sketch only, a draught of outlines, which, I hope, will be allowed to deserve at least a candid attention. I wish it might be sufficient to
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produce a full conviction, that it cannot be the in- terest of the United States either, 1st. to suffer such vast and valuable blessings to be ravished from us by our enemies; or, 2d. to consent to their being sold and alienated to foreigners, for any little, trifling present considerations; such foolish bargains must originate in very narrow views of the subject, and terminate in shame and loss, and in every stage be marked with mortification, disputes, and embarrass- ment.
I will conclude by just observing, that this Essay is wholly confined to one branch only, to one single resource, of our public revenue ; only one item of our national wealth: an income vast indeed, not drawn at all from the purses of the people, but capable of being so conducted, that every individual who chooses to be interested in it, may find a good profit resulting from the concern. I do not doubt but if the whole great subject was properly surveyed by a mind capable of such reflections, many other sources of revenue might be found, of vast utility to the public, and in no sense injurious, but highly profitable, to individuals. So to graft the revenue on the public stock, so to unite and combine public and private in- terests, that they may mutually support, feed, and quicken each other, is the secret art, the true spirit of financiering; but we must never lose sight of this one great truth, viz. that all resources of public wealth and safety are only materials put into our hands for improvement, and will prove either profit- able or hurtful according to the wisdom or folly with which they are managed. Ruin may grow out of na- tional wealth, as well as from national poverty. Per-
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haps it may require more great and good talents to support an affluent fortune than a narrow one. Affluence has at least as many dangers as indigence. All depends on the characters of the men who man- age them. The happiness and wretchedness of na- tions depend on the abilities and virtue of the men employed in the direction of their public affairs. And I pray God to impress a due sense of this great and most important doctrine on the minds of all electors, and others concerned in the appointment of public officers.
VII
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AND THE PRE-REVOLU- TIONARY LAND COMPANIES (1781) 28
The delegates of Virginia representing to Con- gress, that the committee to whom were re-commit- ted the territorial cessions of Virginia, New York and Connecticut, with a memorial signed J. Wilson, by order of the United Illinois and Wabash com- panies, and the memorial of William Trent, in be- half of himself and other members of the Indiana Company, had given them notice that they should, on Saturday last, confer with the agents of the said companies, on the subject of their several memori- als; that the said delegates conceiving that no claim ought to be received from the said companies ad- verse to the cession of Virginia, or any other State, because if the lands to which pretensions made by those companies lie within the limits of such State,
28 From Journals of the Continental Congress, xxi, 1057-1058.
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by its authority alone can the merits of their claims be enforced, because the jurisdiction of Congress in territorial questions, being confined to an adjust- ment of confronting claims of different states, if the lands claimed by those companies lie without the limits of Virginia, or any of the other states, Con- gress are interdicted by the Confederation from the cognizance of such claims, and because it derogates from the sovereignty of a State to be drawn into contest by an individual, or company of individuals, and therefore that it was not the intention of Con- gress to authorize the committee to confer with the said agents in such manner as to receive from them claims adverse to the cessions of any of the states abovementioned; the said delegates did request the committee to forbear such conference until the sense of Congress on the subject should be known, and pro- posing that the question be now taken:
Whether it was the intention of Congress to au- thorize the committee to receive claims, and hear evidence in behalf of the said companies, adverse to the claims or cessions of Virginia, New York or Connecticut. The yeas and nays being re- quired the previous question was lost.
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VIII
PROPOSITIONS FOR SETTLING A NEW STATE BY SUCH OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE FEDER- AL ARMY AS SHALL ASSOCIATE FOR THAT PURPOSE (1783) 29
1. That the United States purchase of the natives that tract of country which is bounded by Pennsyl- vania on the east, the River Ohio on the south, a meridian line drawn thirty miles west of the mouth of the River Scioto on the west-this meridian to run from the Ohio to the Miami River, which runs into Lake Erie-and by this river and Lake Erie on the north.
2. That, in the first instance, lands be assigned to the army to fulfill the engagements of the United States by the resolutions of the 16th of September, 1776, August 13th and September 30th, 1780, to wit:
To a major-general .
1,100 acres.
To a brigadier-general
850
To a colonel
500
To a lieutenant-colonel
.
450
To a major
400
To a captain
300
66
To a lieutenant
200 66
To an ensign or cornet
150
29 April 7, 1783, in a letter to Richard Hodgdon, Timothy Picker- ing "enclosed . a rough draft" for "a new State westward of the Ohio" in his own handwriting. On its being read to Col. Pickering's school-fellow, Stephen Higginson, he exclaimed, "This is Pickering, I swear." From Octavius Pickering, The Life of Tim- othy Pickering, i, 546-549. This is known variously as the "Picker- ing" or "Army" plan.
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To a non-commissioned officer and soldier . 100 66
To a director of the military hospitals 850
66 To chief physician and purveyor, each 500 66 To physicians, surgeons, and apoth- ecary, each . 450 66
To regimental surgeons and assistants to the surveyor and apothecary, each 400 66 To hospital and regimental surgeon's mates, each . 300 66
3. That all associators who shall actually settle in the new state within one year after the purchase shall be effected, and notice given by Congress or the committee of the associators that the same is ready for settlement (such notice to be published in the newspapers of all the United States), shall receive such additional quantities of land as to make their respective rights in the whole to contain the follow- ing number of acres, to wit:
A major-general 2,400 acres.
A brigadier-general
2,200 66
A colonel .
2,000 66
A lieutenant-colonel
1,800 66
A major
1,600
66
A captain
1,400 66
A lieutenant
1,200 66
An ensign or cornet
1,000 66
A sergeant
700 66
Other non-commissioned officers and
600 66 soldiers, each
And fifty acres more for each member of a family besides the head of it.
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4. That the rights of the officers in the medical department be increased in like manner on the same condition.
5. That all officers in the other staff departments, who shall actually settle in the new State within the time above limited, shall receive rights of land in the proportions last stated, on an equitable compari- son of their stations with the ranks of the officers of the line and the medical staff.
6. That this increased provision of lands shall extend to all officers of the line and staff, and to all non-commissioned officers and soldiers, who during the present war have performed in the whole three years' service, whether in service or not at the close of the war, provided they present their claims and become actual settlers in the new State by the time above limited.
7. These surplus rights being secured, all the surplus lands shall be the common property of the State and disposed of for the common good; as for laying out roads, building bridges, erecting public buildings, establishing schools and academies, de- fraying the expenses of government, and other pub- lic uses.
8. That every grantee shall have a house built and - acres of land cleared on his right within - years, or the same shall be forfeited to the State.
9. That, to enable the associators to undertake the settlement of the new State, the United States: defray the expenses of the march thither, furnish. the necessary utensils of husbandry, and such live: stock as shall be indispensably requisite for com-
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mencing the settlement, and subsistence for three years, to wit, one ration of bread and meat per day to each man, woman and child; and to every soldier a suit of clothes annually; the cost of these articles to be charged to the accounts of arrearages due to the members of the association respectively.
10. That for the security of the State against In- dians, every officer and soldier go armed, the arms to be furnished by the United States and charged to the accounts of arrearages. Ammunition to be sup- plied in the same way.
11. That a Constitution for the new State be formed by the members of the association previous to their commencing the settlement, two-thirds of the associators present at a meeting duly notified for that purpose agreeing therein. The total exclusion of slavery from the State to form an essential and irrevocable part of the Constitution.
12. That the associators, so assembled, agree on such general rules as they shall deem necessary for the prevention and punishment of crimes, and the preservation of peace and good order in the State; to have the force of laws during the space of two years, unless an Assembly of the State, formed agreeably to the Constitution, shall sooner repeal them.
13. That the State, so constituted, shall be ad- mitted into the confederacy of the United States, and entitled to all the benefits of the Union, in com- mon with the other members thereof.
14. That, at the above-mentioned meeting of the associators, delegates be chosen to represent them in the Congress of the United States, to take their seats as soon as the new State shall be erected.
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Ohio in the Time of the Confederation
15. That the associators, having borne together as brethren the dangers and calamities of war, and feeling that mutual friendship which long acquain- tance and common sufferings give rise to, it being also the obvious dictate of humanity to supply the wants of the needy and alleviate the distresses of the afflicted, it shall be an inviolable rule to take under the immediate patronage of the State the wives and children of such associators who, having settled there, shall die, or, by cause of wounds or sickness, be rendered unable to improve their plantations, or follow their occupations, during the first twenty-one years ; so that such destitute and distressed families shall receive such public aids, as, joined with their own reasonable exertions, will maintain them in a manner suitable to the condition of the heads of them; especially that the children, when grown up, may be on a footing with other children whose par- ents, at the original formation of the State, were in similar circumstances with those of the former.
1890890 IX
FINANCIER'S OR BLAND'S PLAN FOR ORGANIZATION OF WESTERN TERRITORY (1783) 30
Whereas, It has pleased the Almighty Disposer of human affairs to put a period to a long and bloody war, which has terminated in the establishment of independence to these United States, and whereas it is the duty as well as the wish of congress to remove
30 Motion of Theodoric Bland in Congress, June 5, 1783. - George Bancroft, History of the Constitution of the United States, i, 312-314.
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as speedily as possible every cause which might dis- turb the tranquility and harmony of these states, so happily united in one great political interest, as well as to reward the brave and virtuous who have by their valor and perseverance established that inde- pendence and strengthened that union, and to pro- vide for the future government and prosperity of these states -
Resolved, Therefore, that congress will and do hereby accept the cession of territory made to the United States by the act of the assembly of Virginia, having date the [blank] day of [blank], 178[blank], on the terms therein stipulated; except so far as re- lates to a specific guarantee of the remaining terri- tory reserved by the said state.
Resolved, That, if the aforesaid acceptance shall be agreeable to the said state, and they shall be will- ing to withdraw the said stipulation, and if the con- sent and approbation of the army of the United States shall be signified to the following act of the United States in congress assembled, then and in that case the following ordinance shall begin to take effect and be in full force for all and every the pur- poses herein mentioned, viz:
It is hereby ordained by the United States in con- gress assembled, that, in lieu of the commutation for the half pay of the army, and in lieu of the arrear- ages due to the officers and soldiers of the armies of the United States, and of all other debts due to the said officers and soldiers who now constitute the said army, or who have served therein for a term not less than three years during the war, and for the repre- sentatives of such officers and soldiers who shall
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have died in the service, that there shall be assigned and set apart a tract of unlocated or vacant terri- tory laying within the boundaries of the United States, as ceded by the preliminary articles between Great Britain and America, and bounded as follows, viz,: (here insert the boundaries) ; that the said ter- ritory shall be laid off in districts not exceeding two degrees of latitude and three degrees of longitude each, and each district in townships not exceeding [blank] miles square; that the lines of the said dis- tricts shall be run at the expense of the United States by surveyors appointed by the United States in congress assembled, and amenable to congress for their conduct; that each of the said districts shall, when it contains 20,000 male inhabitants, become and ever after be and constitute a separate, independent, free and sovereign state, and be admitted into the union as such with all the privileges and immunities of those states which now compose the union; that each officer and soldier now in the army of the United States shall be entitled to and shall have a grant for thirty acres of the said land for every dol- lar which shall appear to be due to such officer or soldier from the United States for his services in the army, over and above the bounty promised by an act of congress of the [blank] day of [blank], 1776. And, moreover, that every officer and soldier who shall make it appear that he has served three years in the army of the United States, shall be en- titled to receive a grant of the said lands equal to the bounties promised to officers and soldiers serv- ing during the war, in lieu of all debts due for their services, half pay, etc. Where the said debts have
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been liquidated, they shall be entitled to receive a grant of thirty acres for every dollar ascertained to be due to them in like manner as the officers and soldiers whose commutation and arrearages have been liquidated. And be it further ordained, that out of every hundred thousand acres so granted there shall be reserved as a domain for the use of the United States ten thousand acres, each of which ten thousand acres shall remain forever a common property of the United States, unalienable but by the consent of the United States in congress as- sembled; the rents, shares, profits and produce of which lands, when any such shall arise, to be appro- priated to the payment of the civil list of the United States, the erecting of frontier forts, the founding of seminaries of learning, and the surplus after such purposes (if any) to be appropriated to the building and equipping a navy, and to no other use or pur- pose whatever. And be it further ordained, that the said lands so granted to the officers and soldiers shall be free of all taxes and quit-rents for the space of seven years from the passing this ordinance.
X
GENERAL RUFUS PUTNAM'S "THOUGHTS ON A
PEACE ESTABLISHMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" [1783]31
America is by no means to place her principle se- curity in Walled Towns and the Multitude of her Fortresses; nor is she in time of peace to be at the
31 From an original manuscript of the author in the Library of
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expence of an Reguler Army sufficient for defence of every Part of her Extensive Teritorys should they be invaided-yet unless her Harbours, at least the principle ones, are secured by Fortresses and Small Garisons, her seaports are liable to be surprised plundered and Burnt or laid under Contribution by a few Ships of War, and if aided by land forces an enemy might in Some of them So establish him Self in a very short time as to render it Very Difiquelt to Dislodge him -her Frontears should also be So Se- cured by Forts and garisons as at least might retard the opperation of an Enemy till the Forces of the Country could be collected to oppose him
among the Seports; New york Claims the first at- tention No Spot on the Continent in the possession of an enimy can So much Injure the United States as that, yet in my opinion, with a very little expence compared to the Importance of the object it may be rendered parfectly Secure against any Surprize or Insult from the most formidable Fleat that ever yet was in its Harbour
Falmouth in the provence of Main is the next Har- bour eastward that ought to Claim the attention of Congress, it is in the very Neighbourhood of Halli- fax have Severel Tribes of Indians on the North & the Country but thinly Setteled the Harbour is deep and spacious, the Town on a peninsula and Should an Enemy Establish him self their the whole Eastern Country would be greatly Indangered
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