USA > Ohio > The Ohio country between the years 1783 and 1815 : including military operations that twice saved to the United States the country west of the Alleghany Mountains after the revolutionary war > Part 9
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From 1795-1798
forts subject to his orders-Fort Lernoult at De- troit, Fort Miami near the foot of the Maumee Rapids, and Fort Michilimackinac; but the Colo- nel had not received orders to do so from his superior officer, and could not comply with the demand. The British, however, had been building a fort at Malden, near Captain Matthew Elliott's estate, and at the present Amherstburg, on the left bank and near the mouth of the Detroit River or Strait.
The first of June having passed without a move- ment of the British to vacate the forts, the Secre- tary of War, with General Wayne as councillor, decided to make one more formal demand for their compliance with the late Jay Treaty. Ac- cordingly Captain Lewis was sent from Philadel- phia direct to Lord Dorchester, Governor of Canada. This demand from headquarters was received with civility, and orders were given the Captain, commanding the officers in charge of the forts, east and west, to vacate them to
"such officer belonging to the forces of the United States as shall produce this authority to you for that purpose, who shall precede the troops destined to garrison it by one day, in order that he may have time to view the nature and condition of the works and buildings. . . "
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Upon his return Captain Lewis handed the or- ders for the eastern forts to Captain Bruff at Al- bany, New York, and those for the western ones to General Wayne in Philadelphia, who immedi- ately dispatched them to General Wilkinson at Greenville, and he, in turn, sent them to Colonel Hamtramck, who also acted with promptness. Fort Miami was evacuated July 1Ith, and was at once garrisoned by Captain Marschalk and his command. Fort Lernoult at Detroit was also evacuated the same day, and was immediately occupied by Captain Moses Porter, and, after two days, by Colonel Hamtramck with a considerable garrison.
Thus was possessed, after a further struggle of thirteen years by the young Republic with the loss of much blood, what Great Britain was obli- gated to at once surrender at the close of the Revolutionary War, according to the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
During the summer of 1796 there was great scarcity of provisions at Detroit for the three hundred American soldiers, as well as for the large number of Aborigines who from habit continued to gather there. Samuel Henley, Acting Quarter- master, went southward to hasten forward sup- plies by way of the Ohio River to Fort Washington.
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From 1795-1798
He wrote, on August 13th, to General Williams, Quartermaster-General, at Detroit, that:
"The Commissary General gave thirty dollars for the transportation of one barrel of flour from Fort Washington to Fort Wayne.1 ... I am well convinced that our public wagonmasters are a poor set of drunken men."
General Wayne, on his return from Philadel- phia, arrived at Detroit August 13, 1796, prob- ably by the sloop Detroit from Presque Isle, the present Erie, Pennsylvania. He was received with demonstrations of great joy by all persons, in- cluding the twelve hundred Aborigines there as- sembled according to the habit formed by the teachings of the British. He remained at Detroit until November 17th, when he again started for Philadelphia on a small sloop. On this voyage over Lake Erie his system was much irritated and fatigued by the tossings of the storms, and the disease from which he had for some time suffered (understood as gout) made great progress. It could not be allayed after his arrival at Fort Presque Isle, and he there died December 15, 1796,
1 The form of money most in use here at this time was "York Currency" issued by the Provincial Congress, New York. A few Spanish silver dollars were in circulation, and they were the most valuable of all money seen, being rated at ten shillings each.
.
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aged fifty-one years, eleven months, and fourteen days.1
General Wayne served his country well, and with much patriotic fervor. He was a thorough disciplinarian, brave, impetuous, and irresistible in battle; and was successful in inspiring his sol- diers at will with these requisites. He was also thoughtful and conservative in planning and equally successful in strategy and assault, as dem- onstrated on different battle-fields, north and south, during the Revolutionary War. These characteristics were prominent also during his wilderness campaign west of the Allegheny Moun- tains; and the success and value of this campaign were equalled only by the success and value of his diplomacy in drawing the Savages to Fort Greenville the next year, away from the British, and to the most important of treaties. These last, and greatest, acts of his life should ever be re- spected as invaluable to his countrymen inasmuch as they settled, favorably to the Union, the first very grave crisis attending the country west of the Allegheny Mountains.
1 In 1809 his son Colonel Isaac Wayne removed his re- mains from Presque Isle (Erie, Pennsylvania) to his early home at Radnor, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where the Society of [the Cincinnati of this State erected a modest marble monument to mark his grave.
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From 1795-1798
On the 15th of August, 1796, Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Northwestern Territory, pro- claimed at Detroit the organization of Wayne County, which included, in addition to the present State of Michigan, the country west of the Cuya- hoga River and north of a line extending from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the south part of Lake Michigan, thence in a northwesterly direction to embrace the Aborigine settlements on the western borders of this lake and its bays.
Thus was brought under the jurisdiction of the United States for the first time this extensive and important country which previously had been (ex- cepting the limited influence of General Wayne's forts) actually under the jurisdiction of County Kent organized in Canada in 1792; but during this time, as previously, it was practically sub- ject to the commandant of the garrison at Detroit, regardless of the Treaty of Paris. The United States Congress contributed to this lamentable condition by its weak efforts for protection; from the trade considerations of some of its members, and, as previously mentioned, from the opinion of many that this invaluable region could not be gov- erned from so great distance from New York or Philadelphia.
The United States, with their western terri-
1
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The Ohio Country
tories, were, however, not yet free from trouble. The Jay Treaty with Great Britain was considered by France as an alteration and suspension of her treaty of 1778 with the United States; and on August 19, 1796, a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was concluded between France and Spain. This at once led to some overt acts by France against the United States on the high seas and to agents of Spain and France again becoming active to alienate these Northwestern and South- western Territories from the East. The idea of a Western Confederacy was again advocated by a few persons in Kentucky.
There was again sent northward from the Span- ish Governor-General of Louisiana a special emis- sary in the person of Thomas Power, a versatile Irishman possessing a practical knowledge of the English, French, and Spanish languages, who had previously been in Kentucky and in the Ohio settlements to advance the interests of Spain in the Mississippi Basin. In June, 1797, he again proceeded to Kentucky and addressed influential persons on proposals that were, "in the present uncertain and critical attitude of politics, highly imprudent and dangerous to lay before them on paper," but which were, in effect, that if they would "immediately exert all their influence in
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From 1795-1798
impressing on the minds of the inhabitants of the western country a conviction of the neces- sity of their withdrawing and separating them- selves from the Federal Union, and forming an independent government wholly independent of that of the Atlantic States," they would be well rewarded.
"If a hundred thousand dollars distributed in Kentucky would cause it to rise in insurrection, I am certain that the minister, in the present circum- stances, would sacrifice them with pleasure; and you may, without exposing yourself too much, promise them to those who enjoy the confidence of the people, with another sum, in case of necessity; and twenty pieces of field artillery."
The Spanish forts in American territory by the Mississippi had not been surrendered to the United States according to the treaty of 1795; and it was reported to the Secretary of State by Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Northwest Territory, June 3, 1797, that General Howard, an Irishman commissioned by Spain as Commander- in-Chief, had arrived at St. Louis with upwards of three hundred men, and begun the erection of a formidable fort; that a large party of Aborigines (Delawares) on their way to reinforce the Spaniards had passed down the White River, tributary of the
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The Ohio Country
Wabash, the first week in May bearing a Spanish flag. Further, that the Spanish had, on the Mis- sissippi above the mouth of the Ohio, several galley boats with cannon.
Thomas Power also traversed the Maumee Val- ley in August, on his way to Detroit to meet Gen- eral Wilkinson, General Wayne's successor, and other influential men. He was accompanied, or soon followed, by the agents of France, Victor de Collot and M. Warin, who sketched maps of the rivers and country. In a letter from Detroit to Captain Robert Buntin at Vincennes, dated Sep- tember 4, 1797, Wilkinson mentions having re- ceived a letter from the Spanish Governor,
"stating a variety of frivolous reasons for not de- livering the [American] posts, and begs that no more troops be sent down the Mississippi. I have put aside all his exceptions, and have called on him in the most solemn manner to fulfill the treaty. . Although Mr. Power has brought me this letter it is possible it might be a mask to other purposes; I have therefore, for his accommodation and safety, put him in care of Captain Shaumburgh who will see him safe to New Madrid by the most direct route. I pray you to continue your vigilance, and give me all the information in your power."
France refused to receive the American Minister and permitted many unwise acts of her citizens
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From 1795-1798
while the government instigated others. Congress also was now deeply stirred to action, and adopted measures of defence and retaliation; authorizing the formation of a provisional army, about twelve regiments of which were to gather at Fort Washing- ton where boats were to be built to transport them down the Mississippi; commercial inter- course with France was suspended; an act was passed for the punishment of alien and secret en- emies of the United States; and for the punish- ment of treason and sedition. These prompt actions allayed the gathering storm.
The Spaniards of the Mississippi feared an in- vasion by the British, and President John Adams ordered General Wilkinson on February 4,1798, to oppose all who should presume to attempt a vio- lation of the laws of the territory of the United States by an expedition through it against their enemies. This implied that the British had de- signs on the Spanish colony, by way of the Mau- mee River or the Illinois.
CHAPTER XIII ADVANCEMENT OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND EXTENSION OF THE WEST
Mississippi Territory Organized-General Washington again at the Head of the Federal Army-Spanish Surrender their Forts in United States Territory-First Legislature of Northwestern Territory Convenes-Indiana Terri- tory Organized-Public Lands-Connecticut Cedes her Claims to the United States-Religious Missionaries- Population-Continued British Usurpations-Evidences of the Rising Power of the United States-Treaty with France-Louisiana Territory Purchased-Development of Communication-Military Posts-Ohio Admitted as a State-The Aborigines-Additional Treaties with them-Fort Industry Built-Michigan Territory Organ- ized-Aaron Burr's Last Scheme.
T THE Territory of Mississippi was formed by Congress April 7, 1798, and Winthrop Sargent was nominated and approved as its Governor. The vacancy of Secretary of the Northwestern Territory thus made, was filled June 26th by the appointment of William H. Harrison, a competent and rising young man. -
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From 1798-1807
Ex-President Washington, July 2, 1798, was chosen Lieutenant-General and Commander-in- Chief of the armies raised and to be raised for the service. There was little to be done, however, that he could not readily delegate to his sub- ordinates.
During this summer, the Spanish vacated their forts on American territory, and, the 5th of October, General Wilkinson took up headquarters at Loftus Heights, where Fort Adams was soon built, on the eastern bank of the Mississippi about six miles north of the 3Ist degree of north lati- tude, the then dividing line between the United States and Spanish territory. The prompt action of the United States against intriguers and possi- ble emergencies west of the Alleghenies showed renewed interest in this region, and a spasmodic readiness for its protection, and the danger threatening it was again obviated for a time.
The first Legislature for the Northwestern Terri- tory convened in 1799; and William H. Harrison was chosen the first Delegate, or Representative, of this Territory to the United States Congress.
The difficulties attending the organization and maintenance of government for a vast extent of country, remote from officers and the seat of government, had long been felt, and now became
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the subject of inquiry by Congress. A committee reported March 3, 1800, that:
"In the three western counties [each then equal in size to a present State] of the Northwest Territory there had been but one court having cognizance of crimes in five years; and the immunity which offenders experience, attracts as to an asylum the most vile and abandoned criminals, and at the same time deters useful and virtuous persons from making settlements in such society."
Thereupon provisions were made for the organization of Indiana Territory. William H. Harrison was appointed its Governor, and the Ordinance of 1787 was to apply for its government.
Four Public Land Offices were established in Ohio Territory, May 10, 1800. The desirability of the United States patent for settlers' lands and more compactness of jurisdiction became more apparent to settlers in Connecticut's Western Reserve. Early in the year 1800, the seekers of homes therein numbered about one thousand, mostly near Lake Erie. On May 30th, the Con- necticut Assembly transferred all their claimed rights of jurisdiction to the United States, which action placed all of Ohio Territory upon a uniform land-title basis. This further conduced to the increase in the former Connecticut Reserve of
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From 1798-1807
settlements, which now extended westward, and occupied the eastern part of lands of the Abo- rigines, they receiving payment therefor from the Connecticut Land Company.
Civil organizations ensued; and the second Protestant religious missionary in northern Ohio was sent by the Connecticut Missionary Society to this region during the latter part of the year 1800. He found, however, no township containing more than eleven families.
Near the close of the year 1796, the number of white people within the present limits of Ohio was recorded as about five thousand, mostly settled along the Ohio River and its tributaries within fifty miles. The second United States Census, for the year 1800, showed the population of Ohio Territory, the jurisdiction of which then included what is now eastern Michigan, to be 45,365.
The commandant of the British garrison, after its removal from Detroit to its new Fort Malden, in 1796, continued to ignore the line of United States territory, detachments of soldiers being sent across it at the pleasure of the officials. As late as October 20, 1800, one of the British officers went to Detroit, broke into a private house, and arrested Francis Poquette, using such
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The Ohio Country
violence that the victim soon died of the injuries he then received. The British also endeavored to retain their former influence over the American Aborigines.
The rising power of the United States was ap- parent, however, in the organization, develop- ment, and control of this western country. The courage and promptitude more recently exhibited by the government in meeting the many in- trigues and aggressions of the Aborigines, the French, Spanish, and of the unduly ambitious Americans, had allayed visionary and chimerical schemes, and given impetus and more stability to the western settlements.
The threatened war with France was happily allayed, and, September 30th, 1800, a treaty with that power was consummated. The ambitions held by Spain for a number of years to possess this region were also defeated, and on October Ist, 1800, she secretly ceded Louisiana back to France after an ownership of thirty-eight years.
Nor did Napoleon's idea of a New France pre- vail; but rather that wise decision of President Jefferson and Congress for the purchase by the United States, April 30, 1803, of that vast do- main styled the Louisiana Purchase. Thus was removed by one master act all objections to
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From 1798-1807
Americans navigating the Mississippi River and trading throughout its course. This purchase also quieted the long-continued agitations, both do- mestic and foreign, for a western republic, in- tended by its instigators as an easier means for foreign possession of the country.1
Attention was now given to roads, that is the cutting of roadways; to post-offices, and to better means of communication.
In the United States "Estimate of all Posts and Stations where Garrisons will be expedient, and of the Number of Men requisite," made December 3, 1801, but three military posts were mentioned for the territory northwest of the Ohio River, viz .: Michilimackinac, one company of artillery and one of infantry; Detroit, one com- pany of artillery and four of infantry; Fort
1 Eastern legislators, remnants of the Federalists, who were lukewarm about, or opposed to, protecting the Ohio Country, and at times even in favor of giving it away, were much ex- cited by the suggestion of purchasing Louisiana. Plumer, of New Hampshire, warned the Senate in this wise: "Admit this western world into the Union, and you destroy at once the weight and importance of the eastern States, and compel them to establish a separate independent empire. " Griswold, of Connecticut, argued in the House that "The vast un- manageable extent which the accession of Louisiana will give to the United States, the consequent dispersion of our population, and the distribution of the balance which it is so important to maintain between the eastern and western States, threatens, at no very distant day, the subversion of our Union."
II
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The Ohio Country
Wayne, one company of infantry. In the Act of Congress, March, 1802, for Reduction of the Army, Fort Wayne was styled a "frontier post with garrison of sixty-four men." In the year 1803 this fort had garrison of fifty-one men, viz .: one captain, one surgeon's mate, one first and one second lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, four corporals, three musicians, and thirty-five privates.
Since the opinion on March 4, 1802, was that Ohio Territory contained a population of at least sixty thousand people, and the Congressional Committee on this Territory having reported favorably, Congress, April 30th, voted to call a con- vention of representatives of the Territory meeting November Ist, to frame a Constitution for the proposed State of Ohio. The Constitution was agreed upon and signed with commendable promptness, being completed November 29th; and on February 19, 1803, Ohio was admitted to the Union as a State, the fourth under the general Constitution, and the seventeenth in general number.
After the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, the Aborigines, for a short time, remained reasonably contented with the United States annuity pay- ments to them, and with the amount they received
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From 1798-1807
for the peltries obtained by their hunting and trapping. They also received many gratuities from the white settlers among whom they wan- dered, entering dwellings at will and without ceremony; and they were generally treated with kindly consideration by the white people not- withstanding their want of regard for individual rights in property desired by them. It became more and more apparent, however, that British influence was yet being exerted among them and causing discontent to be fostered among the several tribes, notwithstanding their continued trading of furs to the British, and their spending the money received from the United States freely with them.
Governor Harrison, who was also Superin- tendent of Aborigine Affairs for Indiana Terri- tory, completed at Fort Wayne, June 7, 1803, the- treaty that was begun September 17, 1802, at Vincennes, in which the Eel River, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Miami, Piankishaw, Pottawotami, and Wea tribes formally deeded to the United States the lands around Vincennes which had previously been bought of the other tribes; and this act was further confirmed at Vincennes the 7th of August by yet other chiefs. On August 13th the Illinois tribes deeded to the United States
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The Ohio Country
a large portion of the country south and east of the Illinois River.
On August 13, 1804, Governor Harrison pur- chased for the United States the claims of the Delawares to the land between the Wabash and Ohio rivers. He also purchased of the Pianki- shaws their claims to lands deeded to the United States by the Kaskaskias in 1803. Also by treaty and purchase, the claims of the several tribes to large areas of lands farther west were extinguished.
Fort Industry was built in 1804 on the left bank of the lower Maumee River, at the mouth of Swan Creek, for protection in various ways, and for the convenience of the commissioners who, July 4, 1805, there effected an important treaty with the chiefs and warriors of the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Munsee, Delaware, Shawnee, and Pottawotami tribes, and those of the Shaw- nees and Senecas who lived with the Wyandots at this time, all of whom ceded to the United States their entire claims to the Western Reserve of Connecticut, for, and in consideration of, an annuity of one thousand dollars, in addition to sixteen thousand dollars paid to them by the Connecticut Land Company and the proprietors of the half million acres of Sufferers' Lands (Fire- lands, lands granted to those who suffered by fire
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From 1798-1807
in Connecticut by acts of the British during the Revolutionary War). The small stockade com- posing Fort Industry was abandoned by the United States soon after this treaty,
Further, a treaty with, and an annuity to, the dissatisfied Pottawotami, Miami, Eel River, and Wea Aborigines near Vincennes, August 21, 1805, induced them to relinquish their claims to the southeastern part of Indiana, which was also bought from the Delawares by the United States on August 18, 1804. These several treaties and purchases, of 1803, '04, '05, including yet another with the Piankishaws on December .30, 1805, extinguished several times over all alleged right of claim to these lands by the Aborigines, not to mention in this connection the purchases and payments of the eighteenth century.
Michigan was organized into a separate Terri- tory by Congress January 1I, 1805, the new government to go into effect June 30th. General William Hull was appointed its Governor.
Aaron Burr journeyed, and rejourneyed, through the West and Southwest during the years 1805 and 1806, and rumors became rife of his preparations to invade and conquer Mexico, and to create a western republic of which the country west of the Allegheny Mountains was to form a part. The
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The Ohio Country
Legislature of Ohio ordered, the first part of December, 1806, the seizure of fourteen boats and supplies at Marietta, on the Ohio River, which were about ready to start down the rivers in aid of Burr's scheme. Burr was arrested January 17, 1807, and was released on bail, which he forfeited. He was again arrested while endeavor- ing to escape, was subjected to trial at Richmond, Virginia, and was acquitted. Thus failed the fourth and weakest effort to wrest this western region from the United States.
During these years of scheming by restless, designing persons, and of apprehension by the government, there was considerable strengthen- ing by the United States of the garrisons of Forts Washington, Wayne, and Detroit; and prepara- tions were made for their active service. The increasing aggressions of the British, and the conduct of Aaron Burr, were reasons for this military activity.
CHAPTER XIV
CONSPIRACY OF THE BRITISH, TECUMSEH, AND THE PROPHET
Further Treaties with, and Payments to, the Aborigines -The British Continue Meddlesome-Reservations- United States Settlers by the Lower Maumee River- Land for Highways Treated for-Illinois Territory Organized-Another British-Savage Trouble Gathering -Trading Posts for the Aborigines Established-Re- ports of Gathering Trouble from United States Military Posts-The British Continue to Trade Intoxicating Liquors to American Aborigines in Opposition to Law.
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