Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio, Part 3

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 898

USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > Zanesville > Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio > Part 3

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The pioneers of the Northwest Territory were not all poor men seeking food and shelter in the forest, and content with that small share of this world's goods. The Ohio and Scioto Companies were crude and primitive forms of syndicates and trusts, and the only difference between them and the powerful combinations of the present day is the more subtle methods, refinement and finesse of the current period.

Speculation was rife and infected everything. and the Governor was severely criticised by those whose schemes he would not promote by official authority ; counties were created as rapidly as his judgment dictated they were demanded. but he resisted the clamors of numerous localities for the creation of counties where the only benefit would accrue to the land speculators, and when the Territorial legislature met the subject became a disturbing element between it and the Execu- tive.

Several acts were passed creating new counties, or changing the boundaries of existing ones, six

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

of which he vetoed ; the legislature insisted that when the Governor had laid out the country into counties and townships, as he had done, his ex- clusive authority ceased and the General Assem- bly had authority to alter, divide or multiply at pleasure, subject to his approval. He would not agree to change or alter, and contended that in some of the proposed counties the number of in- habitants was inadequate to sustain the expense of such a government, as there were not to exceed one hundred male inhabitants. His biographer says : "The greed which characterized the trans- actions in lands actuated those who were specula- tors to seek to control the establishment of new county towns ; they hoped to increase the value of their lands, as the public improvements in the way of buildings and roads, and superior advan- tages incidental to a county seat would attract the better class of settlers to such neighbor- hoods.'

An illustration of the speculative methods is given in Howe's Historical Collections, volume I, page 228, under head of Adams County :

"The first court in this county was held in Man- chester. Winthrop Sargent, the Secretary of the Territory, acting in the absence of the Governor, appointed commissioners, who located the county seat at an out of the way place a few miles above the mouth of Brush Creek, which they called Adamsville. The location was soon named, in derision, 'Scant.' At the next session of the court its members were divided and part sat at Adamsville and part at Manchester ; the Gover- nor, on his return to the Territory, finding the people in great confusion, and much bickering be- tween them, removed the seat of justice to the mouth of Brush Creek, where the first court was held in 1798. Here a town was laid out, by No- ble Grimes, under the name of Washington. A large courthouse was built, with a jail in the lower story, and the Governor appointed two more of the 'Scant' party judges, which gave them the majority. In 1800, Charles Willing Byrd, Secretary of the Territory, in the absence of the Governor, appointed two more of the Man- chester party judges, which balanced the par- ties, and the contest was maintained until West Union became the county seat."

Before the adjournment of the first session of the legislature the Governor addressed the mem- bers :

"I am truly sensible, gentlemen, of the incon- veniences that follow from a great extension be- ing given to counties ; they cannot, however, be constructed while the settlements are otherwise, and the inconveniences are not lessened, but rather increased, by being made very small, with respect to the number of inhabitants.

"The expenses which necessarily attend the es-

tablishment of counties, fall light when divided amongst a number, but become a heavy burden when they must be borne by a few, and the in- conveniences of attending the courts as jurors and witnesses, which are sometimes complained of, are increased nearly in the same ratio as the counties are multiplied within the same bounds.

"There is yet another reason, gentlemen, why these acts were not assented to. It appears to me that the erecting of new counties is the proper business of the Executive. It is indeed pro- vided that the boundaries of counties may be al- tered by the legislature; but that is quite a dif- ferent thing from originally establishing them. They must exist before they can be altered, and the provision is expressed that the Governor shall proceed, from time to time, as it may become necessary, to lay them out. While I shall most studiously avoid encroaching on any of the rights of the legislature, you will naturally expect, gen- tlemen, that I should guard with equal care, those of the Executive."

St. Clair's opponents insisted that he was un- willing to erect new counties because of fear that with a larger number in the legislature his politi- cal influence would be diminished and the senti- ment against him was so strong that steps were taken to curtail his authority, and before the sec- ond session of the legislature assembled Congress had been induced to pass an act, which was ap- proved May 7, 1800, to take effect July 4, 1800, by which the Northwest Territory was divided by a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, and thence due north to the territorial line. The portion west was erected into the Territory of Indiana, with St. Vincennes, on the Wabash, as the seat of government, and the eastern part was continued as the Territory Northwest of the river Ohio, with practically the area afterwards organized as the state of Ohio, with the seat of government at Chillicothe, on the Scioto. This had the effect of cutting down the representation, and when the second session met at Chillicothe, November 3, 1800, and remained in session until December 9, 1800, there were the former counties of Washington, Hamilton, Wayne, Adams, Jefferson and Ross, with the new county of Trumbull, which the Governor had formed by proclamation July 10, 1800.

The Ordinance required that electors should own land in fee simple and the surveys contem- plated the sale by government in larger tracts than actual settlers of small means could secure. Delegate Harrison's first act in Congress was to offer a resolution to subdivide the surveys and permit the sale of small tracts ; this was vigor- ously opposed by the large landowners but the measure passed over their protests and every in-

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

dustrious man was enabled to secure his own home, on easy terms, and liberal extensions were made in the payments for those who had pre- emption rights.

The census of 1800 revealed that the Ohio ter- ritory had a population of 42,000, and although the number was insufficient to establish a state under the Ordinance, the people were ambitious to form a state government, and made applica- tion to the Federal authority for the purpose. Both Federalists and Anti-Federalists schemed for the advantage and to have the boundaries coincide with their political majority. St. Clair was a Federalist and advocated a state extending only to the Scioto river on the west, as the ma- jority of the voters in that territory were Feder- alists. Jefferson had become President after a se- vere struggle by a narrow margin and by the per- sonal interposition in his favor of his old enemy. Alexander Hamilton, and the party knew it was essential to have a new Republican ( Demo- cratic) state before the election in 1804. In the boundaries, as proposed by the Ordinance of 1787, the majority was Anti-Federalist and as Congress was of that political school the action taken by the Ohio legislature consenting to a re- duction of area was not approved, and the boundaries named in the Ordinance were left in- tact.

The second legislature, first session, convened at Chillicothe, November 23, 1801, and remained in session until January 23. 1802 ; the second ses- sion was never held as the action taken to form a state rendered it unnecessary. Three addi- tional counties had been formed since the pre- ceding session ; Clermont, by proclamation dated December 6, 1800, and taken off Hamilton ; Fair- field, formed from about equal portions of Wash- ington and Ross and proclaimed December 9. 1800; and Belmont, made from the northern part of Washington and the southern part of Jeffer- son, September 7. 1801. None of these three coun- ties sent representatives to the session, which contained 21 members : 7 from Hamilton, 4 from Ross, 3 each from Jefferson and Wayne, 2 from Washington, and i each from Adams and Trum- bull.

January, 1802, a census was taken of the east- ern territory and 45,028 persons, of both sexes, were enumerated : application was made to Con- gress for leave to call a convention to establish a state government, which was referred to a com- mittee which reported to the House of Repre- sentatives on March 4, 1802, that while the num- ber of inhabitants, by census, was insufficient to comply with the statute, the immense sales of land in the limits of the territory, and the pro- gressive increase of population since the census would give the necessary population "before all

the measures necessary for the formation of a constitution, putting into operation a state gov- ernment and its admission into the Union can be effected."

April 30, 1802, an act was approved prescrib- ing the present limits and directing that all male citizens of the United States, of full age and who had resided in the Territory for at least one year and had paid county or territorial tax, and all who were otherwise qualified to vote for repre- sentatives in the Territorial legislature, should be qualified to vote for representatives to a conven- tion to meet at Chillicothe, on the first Monday in November, to determine, first, whether it was expedient to form a state government and if a ma- jority should so declare the convention had au- thority to frame a constitution and form a state government. Representation was fixed: Trum- bull, Belmont, Fairfield and Clermont, 2 each ; Adams, 3; Washington. 4; Jefferson and Ross, 5 each : Hamilton, 10; in all 35.

November 1, 1802, the convention met at Chil- licothe, John McIntire, of Zanesville, being a delegate from Washington county, and a resolu- tion, "That it is the opinion of the convention that it is expedient, at this time, to form a con- stitution and state government." was adopted by a vote of 32 to I, the negative being cast by Ephraim Cutler, of Washington county. The convention remained in session until November 29. and on the question of submitting the con- stitution to the people for approval, Washington and Jefferson counties voted solidly, with 7 votes. for submission, but the remaining 27 were cast against. Ohio was selected as the name for the new state and on the last day the constitution was signed by the members and became the law by that act.

The struggle for political supremacy was strenuous. St. Clair was 65 years of age and the Federalist leader, and his supporters were mostly men of mature age with a few active, young men, while the opposition was mostly young, active, shrewd, irrepressible men. The scheming was far reaching on both sides, and was often deep and treacherous, so that personal violence was not infrequent ; efforts were made, by filing charges, to secure the removal of St. Clair, but even President Jefferson, the reputed father of the spoils system, would not act until the latter part of 1802.

Howe, in Historical Collections of Ohio. in chapter on Warren county, quotes from a series of articles in the Western Star, at Lebanon, to the effect that St. Clair was removed and Gen. Harrison appointed in his stead : as Harrison did not succeed St. Clair and the other alleged facts are not well sustained the entire statement must be accepted with some distrust. The venerable

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

contributor stated that a mob assembled one night in the streets of Chillicothe, and next morn- ing Gen. St. Clair, in the presence of three prom- inent gentlemen, expressed contempt for the weakness of the theory upon which the govern- ment was being conducted, and declared that a stronger form, such as had made England the model of nations, would have to be adopted. Gen. St. Clair's strong Federalist principles were well known, and one of the party's most prominent theories was a strong central government, so that a declaration of this character was not an un- known or unfamiliar utterance, and the Governor had made similar ones many times before.

A more probable reason for the removal of the Governor is found in the statement that in an ill-advised speech, made in a private capacity be- fore the constitutional convention, November 3, 1802, he expressed opinions which caused the fol- lowing frigid letter to be written :

"WASHINGTON, November 22, 1802. "Arthur St. Clair, Esq.,

"SIR-The President observing. in an address lately delivered by you to the convention held at Chillicothe, an intemperance and indecorum of language toward the Legislature of the United States, and a disorganizing spirit and tendency of very evil example, and grossly violating the rules and conduct enjoined by your public station, determines that your commission as Governor of the Northwest Territory shall cease on the re- ceipt of this communication. I am, etc.,

The letter was signed simply "James Madi- son," and its decidedly low temperature recalls a similar letter written a century later to an old soldier who had fallen under the disfavor of the administration. Secretary Byrd became acting Governor until Edward Tiffin assumed the office upon the erection of the state.

February 19, 1803, an act was approved which stated that the people of Ohio had, on the 29th day of November, 1802, formed a state govern- ment and provision was made for the operation of the United States' courts therein.

When the Federalists had been defeated in the effort to have a small state, they opposed the pro- posed one : not having secured what they desired they preferred none ; when the act passed calling a convention and leaving it to the body to deter- mine whether there should be a state, it became important for each side to secure as many dele- gates as possible. Political excitement ran high, the Federalists claiming that the number of rep- resentatives from the several counties adverse to them was unfair, and that Wayne county was omitted because it was opposed to the new state, but this was not a true representation of the facts as the portion of Wayne in Ohio was an Indian reservation and was unsettled by whites.

CHAPTER II.

THE FORMATION OF THE STATE, COMPRISING THE ADMISSION TO STATEHOOD, CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS, THE BUCKEYE STATE, REPRESEN- TATIVES IN CONGRESS, STATE SENATORS AND STATE REPRESENTATIVES.

ADMISSION TO STATEHOOD.

It is singular that the date of the admission to the Union, of a state of the area, prominence and influence of Ohio, should be uncertain and a mooted question, but seven dates have been given, only two of which have supporting arguments in their favor.

April 28, 1802, is named in Harris' Tours, in 1805, but no act or reason is given and none is known.

April 30, 1802, is given in a note in United States Statutes at large volume 1, page 2, but this is the date of the passage of the enabling act, and the people of Ohio had not yet complied with the conditions.

June 30, 1802, is given in the report of the IX census, volume 1, page 575, but no act or reason is given and as Congress was not then in session it must be disregarded.

November 29, 1802, is the date the constitution was adopted by the convention, but a state gov- ernment was not in operation for three months thereafter.

February 19, 1803, is named in Caleb At- water's History of Ohio, 1838; E. D. Mansfield, in his Political Manual; and G. W. Paschal, in Annodated Constitutions, but it is the date of the approval of an act extending the jurisdiction of the United States courts to Ohio.

These five are obviously incorrect and March I and 3, 1803, remain for consideration.

The enabling act of April 30, 1802, and the adoption of a constitution November 29, 1802, have been held as making the people of Ohio a body politic, but there was no state because the constitution provided for the election of a Gover- nor, members of a General Assembly, sheriffs and coroners, which was to occur on the second Tues- day in January ( II), 1803, and that the first ses- sion of the General Assembly should convene on the first Tuesday in March ( Ist.), 1803.

November 29, 1802, the day the Constitutional Convention closed its labors, a proposition was adopted for presentation to Congress, which re-

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

cited the action of Congress in providing for the organization of the state, and agreed to accept the Congressional term "provided the following ad- dition to and modification of the said proposition shall be agreed to by the Congress of the United States." The modification referred to the ap- propriation of public lands for schools and road purposes, and Thomas Worthington was ap- pointed a special agent to lay the proposition be- fore Congress and endeavor to secure its assent thereto. December 23 he presented the proposi- tion to the House and January 7, 1803, to the Senate, the latter body's action being significant, as follows :

"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to in- quire whether any, and if any, what legislative measure may be necessary for admitting the state of Ohio into the Union, or for extending to that state the laws of the United States."

January 19 the committee reported that every- thing had been done properly by the state and that it was "now necessary to establish a District Court within said state." The report was con- sidered on the 21st and the committee was di- rected to bring in a bill, which was done on the 27th and passed February 7th; February 12 the bill passed the House and was approved on the 19th.

In the collection of Charters and Constitutions, compiled by order of the United States Senate, 1877, the constitution of a state follows the en- abling act, and that by the date of admission. As no formal act of admission was passed in the case of Ohio, this collection gives February 19, 1803.

That Congress did not recognize Ohio. as a state by reason of the adoption of the constitution is attested by the inquiry, made in the House of Representatives, whether the Delegate from the Territory Northwest of the Ohio was entitled to a seat in Congress, as the convention had adopted a state constitution, November 29, 1802, and Jan- uary 31, 1803, the House decided that Ohio was not yet a state and that the delegate held his place from the Territory Northwest of the Ohio.

It appears that Ohio was not a state, at least until February 19, 1803, but local conditions and provisions made it impossible on that date. The Governor and legislature had been elected but no provision had been made for assuming the func- tions of office until March 1, 1803, upon which dlate the General Assembly met, an organization was effected, rules were adopted and at IT a. m., March 3. 1803, a joint convention of the houses was held to open and declare the result of the - deemed desirable for the deliberations. The sec- ballot for Governor, when it was found that Ed- ond session continued until March 10, 1851, when the constitution was adopted as a whole and was ratified by the people June 17, 1851. ward Tiffin had received 4,564 votes, and none opposed, and was declared duly elected ; at I p. m. the joint convention again assembled and the Gov- ernor-elect took the oath of office. As the consti- tution provided that the speaker of the Senate

should exercise the office of Governor in case of a vacancy, and as the Senate organized on March I, there was an acting Governor on that date.

However, Congress had not yet agreed to the proposition submitted by the constitutional con- vention, although it is reasonable to assume that an agreement was promised, and perhaps had been given on or before March I, as the act con- curring in the request of Ohio was approved March 3, 1803.

March 1, 1803, is the most reasonable date to accept as the one on which Ohio became a state ; its legislature was fully organized ; the presiding officer of its Senate was virtually Governor and all the functions. of a state government were in operation ; in addition to these conclusions Con- gress has so decided. The Territorial judges did not conclude their business of the courts until April 15, 1803, and asked pay to that date ; under advice of counsel the Treasury officials refused payment after November 29, 1802, when the con- stitution was adopted ; application was then made to the state of Ohio and the legislature declined payment and referred the petitioners to the United States; February 21, 1806, Congress passed an act to pay the judges to March 1, 1803. when the state government became a fact, and this seems to be conclusive.

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS.

Three Constitutional Conventions have con- vened in Ohio; the first assembled at Chillicothe. November 1, 1802, and formed the constitution under which Ohio became a state of the Union. Muskingum was then a part of Washington county, and John McIntire was a delegate from that county representing the district now known as Muskingum county ; the convention remained in session until November 29, when the document was formally completed and signed, and was not submitted to popular vote for ratification.

At the forty-eighth legislative session. held 1849-50, provision was made for a convention to revise the constitution, and the hall of the House of Representatives was designated as the place of assembly. At an election held in 1850 delegates were chosen, those from Muskingum county be- ing David Chambers and Richard Stillwell, and the body thus chosen met May 6, 1850, and ad- journed July 9, to meet at Cincinnati, December 2, 1850, as the legislature would then be in session and some other place than the capital city was

At the fifty-ninth session of the General Assem- bly the third convention to revise the constitu- tion was provided for, and in 1872 delegates

PAST AND PRESENT OF

were elected to sit at Columbus, May 14, 1873. Charles C. Russell and Daniel Van Voorhis rep- resented Muskingum county, but the proposed new constitution was rejected, in 1874, by a large majority.

BUCKEYE STATE.

Various derivations have been given of the universally recognized sobriquet of "Buckeye," applied to the State and the citizens of Ohio. The commonly expressed solution of the origin of the term is that the buckeye tree is indigenous to Ohio, and not being found elsewhere it applies logically to the state and its people. This con- clusion is formed from false premises, as the tree appears in the borders of Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, where the soil is similar to the rich valleys of the Ohio, Scioto, Miamis, Hock- hocking and Muskingum. The pioneers found the tree in great abundance, and the beauty of its foliage and fruit, and the softness and ready adaptation of its wood for their uses, made it exceedingly popular among them.

The Indian name was "hetuck," meaning the big eye of the buck, because of the resemblance of the fruit, in color and shape, and the peculiar spot on it, to that organ of their favorite game, but the more practical and abbreviated phrase- ology of the English transformed it into "buck- eye." Not only is the word of Indian origin but its application to the white man was first made by the Indian, and as an expression, spontaneous and sincere, of the highest respect and admiration.

The organization of a government at Marietta was known to the Indians and a large number had gathered there to make treaties when the ceremonies, attending the opening of the first court in the Northwest Territory were conducted, September 2, 1788. A formal procession of the civil and military officers and dignitaries was a prominent feature of the occasion, and the In- dians were profoundly impressed with Col. Eben- ezer Sproat, high sheriff, who led the proces- sion, carrying a drawn sword. He was a man of more than six feet stature, fine physical propor- tions, dignified bearing and commanding pres- ence, and the Indians' love of ceremony was grat- ified by the display of costume and formality, and especially by the towering form of the sheriff. and their comment was "Hetuck." or "Big Buck- eye," a nickname which was subsequently at- tached to him.

The reputed virtue of the buckeye as a charm for rheumatism, if carried on the person, caused many persons from the east to send them to friends in that section, and travelers carried them back, so that the people east of the mountains be- came familiar with them, but it was not until the great political campaign of 1840 that the term became attached to the state and its people.

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Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio, Part 3

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846- Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 898

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 898