USA > Ohio > Ohio in the time of the Confederation > Part 6
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the Petition of the Officers at Newburg given in these Collections, i, xxvi-xxviii. With the background of his keen analysis of the mili- tary needs of the West given in preceding pages in mind, his presen- tation of a western state along the lines of the Pickering or "Army" plan is very interesting, particularly as he goes all other participants one better in forecasting the troubles with Spain on the Mississippi and the second war with England. - Cutler, Manasseh Cutler, i, 167- 172.
33 Chairman of the Newburg petitioners. The reasons for Put- nam's selection we have noted, i, xxv.
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tion is taken up, Congress, or their committee, may be informed on what principles the petition is grounded. I am, sir, among those who consider the cession of so great a tract of territory to the United States in the western world as a very happy circumstance and of great consequence to the Amer- ican Empire. Nor have I the least doubt but Con- gress will pay an early attention to securing the al- legiance of the natives, as well as provide for the defense of that country, in case of a war with Great Britain or Spain.
One great means of securing the allegiance of the natives, I take to be, the furnishing them such neces- saries as they shall stand in need of, and in exchange receiving their furs and skins. They are become so accustomed to the use of firearms, that I doubt if they could gain a subsistence without them, at least they will be very sorry to be reduced to the disagree- able necessity of using the bow and arrow as the on- ly means for killing their game, and so habituated are they to the woolen blanket, etc., that an abso- lute necessity alone will prevent their making use of them. This consideration alone is, I think, to prove the necessity of establishing such factories as may furnish an ample supply to these wretched creatures; for unless they are furnished by the sub- jects of the United States, they will undoubtedly seek elsewhere, and like all other people form their attachment where they have their commerce, and then in case of a war, will always be certain to aid our enemies.
Therefore, if there were no advantages in view but that of attaching them to our interest, I think
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good policy will dictate the measure of carrying on a commerce with these people; but when we add to this the consideration of the profit arising from the Indian trade in general, there can not, I presume, be a doubt that it is the interest of the United States to make as early provision for the encouragement and protection of it as possible. For these and many other obvious reasons, Congress will, no doubt, find it necessary to establish garrisons at Oswego, Niagara, Michilimackinac, Illinois, and many other places in the western world.
The Illinois and all the posts that shall be estab- lished on the Mississippi may undoubtedly be furn- ished by way of the Ohio with provisions at all times, and with goods whenever a war shall interrupt the trade with New Orleans. But in case of a war with Great Britain, unless a communication is open be- tween the River Ohio, Lake Erie, Niagara, Detroit, and all posts seated on the Great Lakes will inevi- tably be lost without such communication, for a naval superiority on Lake Ontario, or the seizing on Ni- agara, will subject the whole country bordering on the lakes to the will of the enemy. Such a misfor- tune will put it out of the power of the United States to furnish the natives, and necessity will again oblige them to take an active part against us.
Where and how this communication is to be open- ed shall next be considered. If Captain Hutchins 34 and a number of other map makers are not out in their calculations, provisions may be sent from the settlements on the south side of the Ohio by the
34 Thomas Hutchins, New Map of the western parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. . . London, 1778.
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Muskingum or Scioto to Detroit, or even to Niagara at a less expense than from Albany by the Mohawk, to those places. To secure such communication (by the Scioto, all circumstances considered, will be the best), let a chain of posts be established.35 These forts should be built on the bank of the river, if the ground will admit, and about twenty miles distant from each other, and on this plan the Scioto com- munication will require ten or eleven stockaded forts, flanked by blockhouses, and one company of men will be a sufficient garrison for each, except the one at the portage, which will require more attention in the construction and a larger number of men to garrison it; but, besides supplying the garrisons of the great lakes with provisions, etc., we ought to take into consideration the protection that such an arrangement will give to the frontiers of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. I say New York, as we shall undoubtedly extend our settlements and garrisons from the Hudson to Oswego. This done, and a garrison posted at Niagara, whoever will in- spect the maps must be convinced that all the In- dians living on the waters of the Mohawk, Oswego, Susquehanna, and Alleghany Rivers, and in all the country south of the Lakes Ontario and Erie, will be encircled in such a manner as will effectually se- cure their allegiance and keep them quiet, or oblige them to quit their country.
Nor will such an arrangement of posts from the Ohio to Lake Erie be any additional expense, for
35 It was by means of such a chain of forts northward from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) that the conquest of the Northwest was accomplished, 1790-1794.
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unless this gap is shut, notwithstanding the garri- sons on the Lakes and from Oswego to the Hudson, yet the frontier settlers on the Ohio by Fort Pitt to the Susquehanna, and all the country south of the Mohawk, will be exposed to savage insult, unless protected by a chain of garrisons, which will be far more expensive than the arrangement proposed, and at the same time the protection given to these states will be much less complete; besides, we should not confine our protection to the present settlements, but carry the idea of extending them at least as far as the Lakes Ontario and Erie.
These Lakes form such a natural barrier that, when connected with the Hudson and Ohio by the garrisons proposed, settlements, in every part of the states of New York and Pennsylvania, may be made with the utmost safety, so that these states must be deeply interested in the measure, as well as Virginia, who will, by the same arrangement, have a great part of its frontiers secured and the rest much strengthened; nor is there a state in the Union but will be greatly benefited by the measure consid- ered in another point of view, for, without any ex- pense except a small allowance of purchase money to the natives, the United States will have within their protection 17,500,000 acres of very fine lands to dispose of as they may think proper.
But I hasten to mention some of the expectations which the petitioners have respecting the conditions on which they hope to obtain the lands-this was not proper to mention in the body of the petition, especially as we pray for grants to all members of the army who wish to take up lands in that quarter.
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The whole tract is supposed to contain about 17,418,240 acres, and will admit of 756 townships of six miles square, allowing to each township 3,040 acres for the ministry,36 schools, waste lands, rivers, ponds, and highways; then each township will con- tain, of settlers' lands, 20,000 acres, and in the whole, 15,120,000 acres. The land to which the army is entitled by the resolves of Congress referred to in the petition, according to my estimate, will amount to 2,106,850 acres, which is about the eighth part of the whole; for the survey of this they ex- pect to be at no expense, nor do they expect to be under any obligation to settle these lands, or do any duty to secure their title to them; but, in order to induce the army to become settlers in the new gov- ernment, the petitioners hope Congress will make a further grant of lands, on condition of settlement, and have no doubt but that honorable body will be as liberal to all those who are not provided for by their own states as New York has been to the officers and soldiers who belong to that state, which, if they do, it will require about 8,000,000 of acres to com- plete the army, and about 7,000,000 acres will remain for sale. That the petitioners, at least some of them, are much opposed to the monopoly of lands, and wish to guard against large patents being grant- ed to individuals, as in their opinion such a mode is very injurious to a country, and greatly retards its settlement, and whenever such patents are ten- anted, it throws too much power into the hands of a
36 This is the first public advocacy of reservations in the West in favor of the ministry. This idea was embodied in the Land Ordi- nance of 1785 and created the "ministerial lands" reservations.
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few. For these and many other obvious reasons, the petitioners hope no grants will be made but by townships of six miles square, or six by twelve, or six by eighteen miles, to be subdivided by the pro- prietors to six miles square, that being the standard on which they wish all calculations may be made, and that officers and soldiers, as well as those who petition for charters on purchase, may form their associations on one uniform principle, as to number of persons or rights to be contained in a township, with the exception only that, when the grant is made for reward of services already done, or on condition of settlement, if the officers petition with the sol- diers for a particular township, the soldiers shall have one right only to a captain's three, and so in proportion with commissioned officers of every grade.
These, sir, are the principles which gave rise to the petition under consideration; the petitioners, at least some of them, conceive that sound policy dic- tates the measure, and that Congress ought to lose no time in establishing some such chain of posts as has been hinted at, and in procuring the tract of country petitioned for of the natives, for the mo- ment this is done, and agreeable terms offered to the settlers, many of the petitioners are determined, not only to become adventurers, but actually to remove themselves to this country; and there is not the least doubt but other valuable citizens will follow their example, and the probability is that the country be- tween Lake Erie and Ohio will be filled with inhabi- tants, and the faithful subjects of these United States so established on the waters of the Ohio and
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the lakes as to banish forever the idea of our western territory falling under the dominion of any Euro- pean power, the frontier of the old states will be effectually secured from savage alarms, and the new will have little to fear from their insults.
I have the honor to be, sir, with every sentiment of respect, your Excellency's more obedient and very humble servant,
(Signed)
RUFUS PUTNAM.
GEN. WASHINGTON.
XII
WASHINGTON ON THE ARMY PETITION (1783) 37
HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURGH, June 17, 1783.
Sir :- I have the honor of transmitting to your Excellency, for the consideration of Congress, a petition from a large number of officers of the army, in behalf of themselves and such other officers and soldiers of the continental army as are entitled to rewards in lands, and may choose to avail them- selves of any privileges and grants which may be obtained in consequence of the present solicitation. I inclose also the copy of a letter from Brig .- Gen- eral Putnam, in which the sentiments and expecta- tions of the petitioners are more fully explained, and in which the ideas of occupying the posts in the western country will be found to correspond very
37 Washington's letter to the President of the Continental Con- gress accompanying the Officers' Petition received by him from Gen- eral Putnam. - The original is found in W. C. Ford, Writings of Washington, X, 267.
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nearly with those I have some time since communi- cated to a committee of Congress, in treating of the subject of a peace establishment. I will beg leave to make a few more observations on the general ben- efits of the location and settlement now proposed, and then submit the justice and policy of the meas- ure to the wisdom of Congress.
Although I pretend not myself to determine how far the district of unsettled country, which is de- scribed in the petition, is free from the claim of every state, or how far this disposal of it may in- terfere with the views of Congress, yet it appears to me that this is the tract which, from local position and peculiar advantages, ought to be first settled in preference to any other whatever; and I am perfect- ly convinced that it can not be so advantageously settled by any other class of men, as by disbanded officers and soldiers of the army, to whom the faith of government hath long since been pledged, that lands should be granted at the expiration of the war in certain proportions, agreeably to their respective grades.
I am induced to give my sentiments thus freely on the advantages to be expected from this plan of colonization, because it would connect our govern- ments with the frontiers, extend our settlements progressively, and plant a brave, a hardy, and re- spectable race of people as our advanced post, who would be always ready and willing (in case of hos- tility) to combat the savages and check their incur- sions. A settlement formed by such men would give security to our frontiers; the very name of it would awe the Indians, and more than probably
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prevent the murder of many innocent families, which frequently, in the usual mode of extending our set- tlements and encroachments on the hunting grounds of the natives, fall the hapless victims to savage barbarity. Beside the emoluments which might be derived from the peltry trade at our factories, if such should be established, the appearance of so for- midable a settlement in the vicinity of their towns (to say nothing of the barrier it would form against our other neighbors) would be the most likely means to enable us to purchase, upon equitable terms, of the aborigines, their right of pre-occupancy, and to induce them to relinquish our territories, and to re- move into the illimitable regions of the west.
Much more might be said of the public utility of such a location, as well as of the private felicity it would afford to the individuals concerned in it. I will venture to say it is the most rational and prac- ticable scheme which can be adopted by a great pro- portion of the officers and soldiers of our army, and promises them more happiness than they can ex- pect in any other way. The settlers being in the prime of life, inured to hardship, and taught by experience to accommodate themselves in every sit- uation, going in a considerable body, and under the patronage of government, would enjoy in the first instance advantages in procuring subsistence, and all the necessaries for a comfortable beginning, su- perior to any common class of emigrants, and quite unknown to those who have heretofore extended themselves beyond the Appalachian Mountains. They may expect, after a little perseverance, compe- tence and independence for themselves, a pleasant
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retreat in old age, and the fairest prospects for their children.
I have the honor to be, with great consideration,
Your Excellency's most obedient servant,
(Signed) GEORGE WASHINGTON.
HIS EXCELLENCY, THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
XIII
WASHINGTON ON A WESTERN STATE (1783) 38
From the best information and maps of that [western] country it would appear, that the terri- tory from the mouth of the Great Miami River, which empties into the Ohio, to its confluence with the Mad River, thence by a line to the Miami fort and village on the other Miami River, which empties into Lake Erie, and thence by a line to include the settlement of Detroit, would, with Lake Erie to the northward, Pennsylvania to the eastward, and the Ohio to the southward, form a government sufficient- ly extensive to fulfil all the public engagements, and to receive moreover a large population by emi- grants; and to confine the settlement of the new State within these bounds would, in my opinion, be infinitely better, even supposing no disputes were to happen with the Indians, and that it was not necessary to guard against these other evils that have been enumerated, than to suffer the same num- ber of people to roam over a country of at least five
38 Extract from a letter to James Duane dated Rocky Hill, Sep- tember 7, 1783. - Original in W. C. Ford, Writings of Washington, x, 310.
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hundred thousand square miles, contributing noth- ing to the support, but much perhaps to the embar- rassment, of the federal government.
Were it not for the purpose of comprehending the settlement of Detroit within the jurisdiction of the new government, a more compact and better shaped district for a State would be, for the line to proceed from the Miami fort and village along the river of that name to Lake Erie; leaving in that case the set- tlement of Detroit, and all the territory north of the rivers Miami and St. Joseph's between the Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron, and Michigan to form here- after another State equally large, compact, and water-bounded.
At first view it may seem a little extraneous, when I am called on to give an opinion upon the terms of a peace proper to be made with the Indians, that I should go into the formation of new States. But the settlement of the western country, and making a peace with the Indians, are so analogous, that there can be no considerations of the one, without involv- ing those of the other; for, I repeat it again, and I am clear in my opinion, that policy and economy point very strongly to the expediency of being upon good terms with the Indians, and the propriety of purchasing their lands in preference to attempting to drive them by force of arms out of their country; which, as we have already experienced, is like driving the wild beasts of the forest, which will return as soon as the pursuit is at an end, and fall perhaps upon those that are left there; when the gradual extension of our settlements will as certainly cause the savage, as the wolf, to retire; both being animals
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of prey, though they differ in shape. In a word, there is nothing to be obtained by an Indian war, but the soil they live on, and this can be had by purchase at less expense, and without that bloodshed and those distresses, which helpless women and children are made partakers of in all kinds of disputes with them.
XIV
DAVID HOWELL ON WESTERN STATES (1784) 39
There are at present many great objects before Congress, but none of more importance, or which engage my attention more than that of the Western territory
The western world opens an amazing prospect as a national fund, in my opinion; it is equal to our debt. As a source of future population and strength, it is a guaranty to our independence. As its inhab- itants will be mostly cultivators of the soil, repub- licanism looks to them as its guardians.
When the states on the eastern shores, or Atlantic, shall have become populous, rich and luxurious, and ready to yield their liberties into the hands of a tyrant, the gods of the mountains will save us, for they will be stronger than the gods of the valleys. Astraea will take her flight from the tops of the Alle- ghany when she leaves the New World.
It is proposed to divide the country into fourteen new states, in the following manner. There are to
39 Extract from a letter written by David Howell to Jonathan Arnold, dated Annapolis, February 21, 1784. - W. R. Staples, Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, 478-482.
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be three tiers of states :- One on the Atlantic, one on the Mississippi; and a middle tier. The middle tier is to be the smallest, and to form a balance be- twixt the two more powerful ones. The western tier of states is to be bounded eastwardly by a meridianal line drawn through the lowest point of the rapids of the river Ohio, and the eastern tier is to be bounded westwardly by a meridianal line drawn through the west cape of the mouth of the great 40 from Lake Erie to the north boundary of South Carolina, where the middle tier of states ends, and permits South Carolina and Georgia to run west to the first mentioned meridianal line, as their Atlantic coast falls off west.
The new states are each of them to contain two degrees of latitude, and what lies above the forty- seventh degree is to be added to the state adjoining south. The district lying east of the meridian of [blank] and west of Pennsylvania, is to make a state by itself. If you trace the aforegoing lines on a map, the whole scheme will readily appear.
The mode of government, during the infancy of these states, has taken up much time, and was largely debated at Princeton last summer. On this head the committee have agreed to report in substance, as follows :-
As settlers will always readily know in which of the states they are, for the states are to be named as well as numbered, when a number of settlers shall have planted themselves in any particular state, either on their petition, or the order of Congress, they are to hold a general meeting of all the free
40 Great Kanawha.
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males, and to chose, out of all the constitutions of the present thirteen states, one constitution, and to adopt the laws of such state also, which are to be subject to alterations by their ordinary legislature. They are also, in this first and general meeting, to divide the State into counties or towns, for the choice of their legislature; and this government is to be originated among them. From this period they are to be subject to pay a quota of taxes by the same rule as the other states, and they are to have a setting member in Congress, with a right of debating but not of voting. This is the first stage. After the settlers in any such state shall consist of [blank] souls, the free males shall have a right to call a con- vention, and to form a constitution for themselves, which is to be permanent, of the republican form, and agreeable to the spirit of the Confederation. This is the second stage.
After the settlers in any such state shall consist of a number of souls equal to the least numerous of the thirteen original states, such state shall be ad- mitted as a member in full of the Federal Union, and vote as well as debate, on subscribing to the Articles of Confederation.
The committee have also agreed to report that the new states be laid off under the following express stipulations or perpetual covenants betwixt them and the present states :-
1. They shall always remain within the United States and be considered as part thereof.
2. They shall assume on themselves a propor- tional part of the national debt at the time, and be bound, in due time, to subscribe to all the Articles of
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Confederation, as they may then be, and to become members of the Federal Union.
3. After the year 1800, there shall be no slavery in any of the said states, nor involuntary servitude other than as punishment for crimes.41
4. No citizen thereof shall hold any hereditary title, nor shall any person holding such title, or or- der, be capable of becoming a citizen of any such state without a previous renunciation thereof.
About the most elegible mode of disposing of these lands, there are various opinions. It has been the custom of the southern states to issue warrants from a land office. The person taking the warrant has to look for unlocated lands to cover with his warrant, of which he makes a return. In this way the good land is looked out and seized on first, and land of little value and in all shapes, left in the hands of the public. But this, I am told, soon rises in value, and is bought by the holders of the adjacent good lands, in their own defence. In the eastern states as you well know, the custom has been to sell a township by bonds, or certain lots taken flush, good and bad together, and to pass out settlements in compact columns.
The measure to be finally adopted on this head must be the result of mutual concession; and what they will be remains quite uncertain. Whether our general land-office ought to be opened-one in each state-is a question undecided, there being different opinions among the members present. But the prices
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