USA > Ohio > The biographical annals of Ohio, 1902-1903. A handbook of the government and institutions of the state of Ohio. Vol. 1 > Part 12
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1
THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
T HE Ordinance was adopted by the Congress, July 13, 1787, and the first officers for the territory northwest of the River Ohio were elected by the same body in October. They were: Governor, Major General Arthur St. Clair, elected October 5 (Pennsylvania) ; Sec- retary, Major Winthrop Sargent, elected October 5; Judges, General Samuel Holden Parsons, elected October 17 (Connecticut) ; General James Mitchell Varnum, elected October 17 (Rhode Island) ; Colonel John Arm- strong, elected October 17 (Pennsylvania) ; Lieutenant Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., elected February 19, 1788.
Colonel Armstrong declined the post tendered to him by the Con- gress and did not come to Ohio. Judge Meigs was elected to fill the vacancy.
Although these officers were appointed in the fall and winter of 1787-8, there was no settlement of the new country until the arrival of the Mayflower with a party of forty-six New England emigrants, at the mouth of the Muskingum river, on the seventh day of April, 1788. In the absence of the constituted authority, Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, father of the judge of that name, drew up a code of rules on a sheet of ordinary foolscap, which he published by tacking them to the trunk of a large oak tree on the site of the infant settlement. This was the first legislation in the territory, and it is said that the code was rigidly adhered to by the pioneers of that country. The late Gencral Manning F. Force, in an historical sketch in "Bench and Bar of Ohio" (1897), is authority for the statement that "history has recorded no infraction of these reg- ulations which were read and approved by all."
Governor St. Clair, who had been occupied since his appointment in continuous efforts to conciliate the Indians of the territory, and in preparing for the needs of the infant settlement, arrived at Marietta with his official family on Wednesday, July 9, and on Tuesday, July 15, in public ceremonies held in the three-months-old town of Marietta, entered upon the discharge of his official duties. The Ordinance of 1787 was read to the settlers by Secretary Winthrop Sargent, after which the commissions of the Governor, Secretary and the Judges were publicly read, and the Governor addressed the people briefly.
The territorial government thus set up consisted of the following officers who were present and participated in the ceremony : Governor, Arthur St. Clair; Secretary, Winthrop Sargent; Judges, Parsons and Varnum,
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125
THE BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF OHIO.
The First Legislative Council of the Northwest Territory (1788).
This group of officers comprised the First Legislative Council of the Northwest Territory, and during the summer and fall of the year pub- lished at Marietta laws on the following subjects:
(1788), July 25-Regulating and establishing the Militia.
(1788), August 23-Establishing General Courts of Quarter Ses- sions, Common Pleas, and for the appointment of Sheriffs.
(1788), August 30-Establishing a Court of Probate.
(1788), August 30-Fixing the terms of the General Court.
(1788), September 2-Prescribing the forms of oaths of office.
(1788), September 6-Respecting crimes and punishments.
(1788), November 23-Regulating marriages (age for male 17, female 14, with consent of fathers of parties).
(1788), November 23-Fixing monthly fines for failure of recruit in militia to provide himself with the proper equipment.
(1788), December 21-Creating the office of Coroner.
(1788), December 28-Limiting the times of civil actions and for instituting criminal prosecutions.
Each of the above laws was undersigned by Messrs. St. Clair, Par- sons, and Varnum, on the dates given, the signature of Judge John Cleves Symmes appearing on the law of August 30,-establishing a Court of Probate-but on no other. His arrival in the colony is thus fixed at a much earlier day than that given in most authorities .- (Territorial Laws.)
Governor St. Clair withheld his approval to a proposed law relating to estates held in common; he also, on July 30, called the attention of the judges to the provision of the ordinance which empowered them to "adopt" the laws of the older states, and expressed it as his opinion that they were overstepping their authority in forming new laws in any case; "And when we do," he adds, "the necessity of the case only can be our justification." This opinion of the Governor was fully borne out, when, at a later period, the council found it wise to repeal by wholesale laws of their own making which had no foundation in the code of the older states, and adopt others which conformed to this requirement in their stead .- (St. Clair Papers).
Judge Varnum died in 1789.
THE SECOND LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. (1789.)
T HE ratification of the Constitution of the United States by a suffi- cient number of states having occurred during the latter part of the year 1784, and President Washington having assumed the reins of government thereunder, it was construed to be the duty of the Executive to appoint such officers whose commissions, having been is- sued by the Congress under the old form of government, were held to have expired with that government. In pursuance of this conception of his duty, the President, in a letter dated New York, August 18, 1789, nominated for the officers of the Northwest Territory : Arthur St. Clair, for Governor, and Messrs. Samuel Holden Parsons, John Cleves Symmes, and William Barton (vice Varnum, deceased), Judges. The nominations were confirmed by the Senate of the United States, but Mr. Barton declining the appointment, the President nominated Mr. George Turner, who was confirmed on the eighth day of September.
There is no public record of the acts of the council during the year 1789. In November of this year, Judge Parsons, who was the Chief Justice of the court, was drowned in a ford in the Muskingum valley, while returning to the seat of government from a treaty council with the Indians of the Western Reserve.
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THE THIRD LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
(1790.)
T HE year 1790 was marked by the sitting of the Council in the farther west, at the town of Vincennes (more generally known at that day by the name of "au Post"). Winthrop Sargent, Secretary and act- ing Governor, sat with Messrs. Symmes and Turner, Governor St. Clair being absent in the eastern states, and no successor sitting in the room of Judge Parsons, who had been succeeded by General Rufus Putnam, Jr., of Marietta. This council, in its meeting at Vincennes, published the following laws, which were afterwards disapproved and ordered to be repealed by the Congress, as having no foundation in the older laws to which the territorial council was confined by the Ordinance of 1787.
July 19-An act prohibiting the giving or selling of intoxicating liquors to Indians.
July 26-An act restricting the sale of intoxicating liquors to sol- diers, and to prevent the pawning or selling of arms, ammunition, cloth- ing and accoutrements.
August 4-An act suppressing gambling and making void all con- tracts and payments made in consequence thereof.
Removing to the town of Cincinnati, the council passed, in Novem- ber-Governor St. Clair having resumed his attendance with the body, and Secretary Winthrop Sargent retiring-the following laws:
November 4-An act to alter the terms of the General Court.
November 5-An act to augment the terms of the County Courts.
November 6-An act to authorize the Courts of Quarter Sessions to divide the counties into townships, and to appoint constables, overseers of the poor, and township clerks.
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THE LAWS OF 1791.
T HE body to which has been given in this volume the designation of the Third Legislative Council, was permitted to serve with no change in its official membership, except that in the absence of the Governor his seat was occupied by the Secretary as Acting Governor, from the appointment of Judge Putnam in the winter of 1790 to 1796, when Judge Putnam resigned his seat on the bench and in the council to accept the office of Surveyor General of the United States, to which he had been appointed by President Washington.
Messrs. St. Clair, Symmes and Turner affixed their signatures to the following laws in the year 1791, and caused the same to be published at Cincinnati :
June 22-An act supplementary to the act of September 6, 1798, respecting crimes.
June 22-An act for the punishment of persons who deface pub- lications set up by authority.
June 22-An act creating the office of clerk of the legislature.
June 22 An act making the records of the courts of the United States evidence in the courts of this territory.
June 22-An act abolishing the distinction between murder and petit treason.
June 29-An act regulating the enclosures of ground; and on
July 2-An act to amend the militia laws of 1788 as to days of muster, and fines for disobedience.
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THE LAWS OF 1792.
T HE session of the council for the year 1792 seems to have been held in Cincinnati prior to the first day of August, and including that day, Messrs. Winthrop Sargent (acting Governor), Symmes, and Putnam signing and publishing the following bills :
August 1-Granting licenses to merchants, traders, and tavern- keepers.
August 1-An act creating the office of Treasurer General and of county treasurers.
August 1-An act directing the manner of raising money to defray the expenses of the several counties.
August 1-An act regulating the opening and care of Highways. August 1-An act directing the building of a court house, jail, pil- lory, whipping post and stocks in every county.
August 1-An act regulating prisons.
August 1-An act regulating strays.
August 1-An act repealing so much of the law creating the office of clerk of the legislature, as required him to furnish certain public officers with manuscript copies of all acts of the territorial council. (Congress having provided for the printing of the territorial laws in Philadelphia.)
August 1-An act supplementary to the law of November 23, 1788, regulating marriages.
August 1-An act to regulate the admission of attorneys.
August 1- An act to empower the judge of the Probate Court to appoint guardians to minors.
August 1-An act prescribing forms of writs and mode of pro- cedure in civil cases.
August 1-An act establishing the fee of judges of the Probate Court, of the Common Pleas Court, clerk of the Common Pleas, Probate, Orphans' and Sessions' Courts, of the Court of Quarter Sessions, Gen- eral or Supreme Court, clerk of the same, attorneys, attorneys for the United States, witnesses, constables, coroners, sheriffs, criers, jailers, grand jurors, etc.
These laws are found in a published volume of the date of 1792, Philadelphia, and certified by Winthrop Sargent, Secretary.
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9 B. A.
THE LAWS OF 1795.
T HE council sitting in 1795, in the town of Cincinnati, devoted the months of June, July and August to a careful revision of the code laws then in use in the territory, and by an act of repeal (See law of July 14 in list below) eliminated those laws to which, as exceeding the authority of the council, the Congress had objected, at the same time putting into operation new laws in their stead, which, by a careful cita- tion of the authority of some one of the original states, attested the propriety of such act by council.
The sitting members of the council at this time were Governor St. Clair and Judges Symmes and Turner, who certified, and caused to be published at Cincinnati, on the dates mentioned in each case, the fol- lowing, which, being printed by William Maxwell, printer of Cincinnati, came to be known as "The Maxwell Code."
Cincinnati, June 1, 1795-An act subjecting real estate to execu- tion for debt. Effective August 15. Signatures: St. Clair, Symmes and Turner.
Same day and same signers-An act allowing domestic attachments. Effective August 15. An act regulating domestic attachments. Effect- ive August 15.
June 3-A law for the easy and speedy recovery of small debts. Effective October 1.
June 3-A law concerning defalcation. Effective October 1.
June 5-A law for the trial and punishment of larceny under a dol- lar and a half. Effective August 15.
June 5-An act to prevent unnecessary delays in causes, after issue is joined. Effective August 15.
June 6-Establishing courts of judicature. Effective August 15.
June 10-For the limitation of actions. Effective October 1.
June 11-Prescribing form of affirmation for those opposed to the common form of oath. Effective October 1.
June 11-For the recovery of fines and forfeitures. Effective August 25.
June 16-Ascertaining and regulating fees of the officers and per- sons named. (From New York and Pennsylvania Codes.) Effective October 1.
June 16-A law for establishing orphans' courts (Pennsylvania). Effective October 1.
June 16-A law for the settlement of intestates' estates (Pennsyl- vania). Effective August 15.
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THE BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF OHIO.
Laws of 1795.
June 17-A law to license and regulate taverns (Pennsylvania). Ef- fective August 15.
June 18-Establishing the recorder's office (Pennsylvania). Effect- ive August 1.
June 19-Raising county rates and levies (Pennsylvania). Effective October 1.
June 19-For the relief of the poor (Pennsylvania). Effective Oc- tober 1.
June 19-Concerning the probate of wills (Pennsylvania). Effective October 1.
June 25-Regulating enclosures (Pennsylvania). Effective October 1.
June 26-As to the order of paying the debts of persons deceased (Pennsylvania). Effective one year from date.
June 26-Concerning trespassing animals (Pennsylvania). Effective in one year.
June 26-Directing how husband and wife may convey their estates (Pennsylvania). Effective August 15.
July 14-For the speedy assignment of dower (Massachusetts). Ef- fective in one year.
July 14-Giving remedies in equity (Massachusetts). Effective Oc- tober 1.
July 14-Against forcible entry and detainer (Massachusetts). Ef- fective September 1.
July 14-Annulling the distinction between petit treason and murder (Massachusetts). Effective in one year.
July 14-Declaring what laws shall be in force (Virginia). Effective October 1.
"Common law of England, acts of Parliament prior to the fourth year of King James I," not local in character, etc.
(This led to endless confusion in the territory, from the fact that no one had the English acts, and all were at sea as to the real nature of the laws put in force by this enactment. )
July 14 To prevent trespass in the cutting of timber (Pennsylvania). Effective August 15.
July 14-An act of general repeal of earlier territorial laws. Ef- fective August 14.
This law repeals so much of the militia law as required the assembling on Sunday with arms, at the usual place of worship; the law respecting clerk of probate; fixing terms of the General Court; for the trial of lar- ceny under a dollar and a half; appointing coroners; limiting the times of commencing civil actions; the acts of 1790 at Vincennes; to alter the
132
THE BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF OHIO.
Laws of 1795.
terms of the General Court; to augment the terms of the county Courts of Common Pleas, relating to the appointment of township clerks; creating the office of clerk of the legislature; abolishing the distinction between the crimes of murder and petit treason; enclosures of grounds; granting licenses to merchants, etc .; creating the office of treasurer gen- eral; directing the manner of raising money to defray the charges in the counties ; so much of the act regulating and opening highways as relates to bridges; for the disposition of strays; amending the clerk of the legislature act; to regulate the admission of attorneys; empowering the judges of probate to appoint guardians for minors; prescribing the forms of writs and the mode of procedure in civil cases, and the act establishing the fees of the several officers and persons named therein.
July 15-A law respecting divorce (Massachusetts). Effective Oc- tober 1.
July 17-A law for the partition of lands (New York). Effective Oc- tober 1.
July 15-A law allowing foreign attachments (New Jersey). Ef- fective October 1.
July 16-Concerning the duties and powers of coroners. (Massa- chusetts). Effective August 15.
July 18-For continuing suits if judge is unable to attend, in the General and Circuit Courts (Virginia). Effective October 1.
July 16- A law to suppress gambling (Virginia). Effective October 1.
July 17-As to proceedings in ejectment, etc. (Pennsylvania). Ef- fective October 1.
August 15-Limiting imprisonment for debt, etc. (Pennsylvania). Ef- fective October 1.
RESOLUTIONS BY THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES.
August 7-Ordering certain printing.
August 13-Authorizing the Governor to establish ferries, in the Territory, at his discretion.
August 18-Declaring that commissions issued by the Governor to Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, are subject to revocation at his pleasure.
August 20-Directing the Governor to dissolve the District of Prairie du Rocher, and divide the said district between the district of Kahokia and the district of Kaskaskia.
THE FOURTH LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. (1797.)
IN December, 1796, Judge Putnam, who had been appointed a brigadier general by President Washington in May, 1792, while a member of the territorial court, was again honored by the President and nom- inated for surveyor general of the United States. This appointment led to the resignation of Judge Putnam, who was succeeded on the bench by Joseph Gilman, of Point Harmar.
This council has left no record of new legislation in this year.
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THE FIFTH LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. (1798.)
J
UDGE TURNER, who had served the territory with distinguished
zeal since his appointment (September 8, 1797) to succeed to the chair made vacant by the death of Chief Justice Parsons, resigned in the winter of 1797-8 and was succeeded by Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., of Marietta. The council, as thus formed, met in Cincinnati April 23, 1798, and on the first day of May published the following new laws for the territory :
May 1-A law concerning corporations of bodies politic (Pennsyl- vania).
May 1-A law for the punishment of maiming or disfiguring (Ken- tucky).
May 1-Vesting certain powers in justices of the peace, in criminal cases (Massachusetts).
May 1-For the equal division and distribution of insolvent estates (Connecticut).
May 1-To provide for the improvement of the breed of horses (Kentucky).
May 1-Directing the mode - of proceeding in civil cases (Massa- chusetts).
May 1-An addition to the law ascertaining the fees of certain officers.
May 1-Method of taxing all unsettled and unimproved parcels of land (Kentucky).
May 1-Rendering the acknowledgment of deeds more easy (Con- necticut).
May 1-Establishing a land office (Kentucky).
May 1-Repealing the 28th section of the law regulating fees; and so much of the law raising county rates and levies as relates to the duties of justices as to wild animals killed.
These laws are severally signed by Winthrop Sargent, acting Gov- ernor, John Cleves Symmes, Joseph Gilman, Return Jonathan Meigs, Junior, and their correctness attested by Winthrop Sargent, Secretary.
This was the last legislative act of the Territorial Council.
.
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THE FIRST SESSION OF THE FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.
N the year 1798, Governor St. Clair, having by personal visits to the several settlements, became satisfied of the presence of the necessary five thousand white male inhabitants in the territory, issued his proc- lamation to the people calling for the election of representatives to a general assembly to be convened at Cincinnati on the fourth day of Feb- ruary, 1799. This general assembly, under the ordinance of 1787, must consist of a House of Representatives, together with_a Legislative Council of five members to be appointed by the President of the United States, from a list of ten names to be submitted to him by the House of Representatives when so elected. The representatives were chosen in accordance with the proclamation of the Governor, and on assembling at Cincinnati on the day named in the proclamation, February 4, nominated the members of council and adjourned to meet in Cincinnati on the sixteenth of the following Sep- tember, in order that the President would have an opportunity to act. Of the ten names submitted for his inspection and approval, the President nominated to the United States Senate as members of the Territorial Council (or upper house) : Jacob Burnet and James Findlay of Cincinnati ; Henry Vanderburgh of Vincennes; Robert Oliver of Marietta, and David Vance of Vanceville.
These nominations were promptly confirmed by the Senate and trans- mitted to Cincinnati, where they were announced to the people by procla- mation of the Governor.
On the sixteenth day of September, 1799, the First Territorial Leg- islature met in Cincinnati, the two houses being composed of the following gentlemen :
IN THE COUNCIL (APPOINTED).
Jacob Burnett, of Cincinnati.
James Findlay, of Cincinnati.
Henry Vanderburgh, of Vincennes.
Robert Oliver, of Marietta.
David Vance, of Vanceville.
Mr. Vauderburgh was elected President of the Council.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (ELECTED).
Benham, Robert, of Hamilton County (Cincinnati).
Bond, Shadrack, of St. Clair County.
Chobert de Joncaire, Charles F., of Wayne County (Detroit). Caldwell, Aaron, of Hamilton County (Cincinnati).
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136
THE BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF OHIO.
The First Session of the First Territorial Legislature.
Darlington, Joseph, of Adams County.
Edgar, John, of Randolph County.
Fearing, Paul, of Washington County (Marietta).
Findlay, Samuel, of Ross County (Chillicothe).
Goforth, William, of Hamilton County (Cincinnati).
Ludlow, John, of Hamilton County (Cincinnati).
Langham, Elias, of Ross County (Chillicothe). McMillan, William, of Hamilton County (Cincinnati).
Martin, Isaac, of Hamilton County (Cincinnati).
Massie, Nathaniel, of Ross County (Chillicothe).
Meigs, Return Jonathan, Jr., of Washington County (Marietta) .
Pritchard, James, of Jefferson County.
Sibley, Solomon, of Wayne County (Detroit).
Small, John, of Knox County ( Vincennes).
Smith, John, of Hamilton County (Cincinnati).
Tiffin, Edward, of Ross County (Chillicothe).
Viscar, Jacob, of Wayne County (Detroit).
Worthington, Thomas, of Ross County (Chillicothe).
The two houses having met and organized by the election of their officers, on the sixteenth of September, on the following day Governor St. Clair addressed the legislature in eloquent terms, congratulating the body and the Territory on the new form of legislative government in which the people now had a direct voice in the conduct of affairs. Jacob Burnet, a member of the council, writing after the lapse of a half cen- tury, says in his "Notes on the Northwest Territory" (Cincinnati, 1847) :
"He laid before them a full and faithful view of the condition and the wants of the Territory, and recommended to their attention such measures as he believed were proper to advance the prosperity and happi- ness of the people" (p. 300).
Governor St. Clair had been in active discharge of the duties of the chief executive of the Territory continuously since he had supervised the dispatch of the first settlers to the then unsettled west in 1788; he had joined the first colony at Marietta within three months of its arrival (July, 1788), and had been one of the legislators for the colonies up to the time of the meeting of this first territorial assembly; out of the experience of over eleven pioneer years, the governor spoke to the leg- islators of the work before them, as no better equipped man could speak, for there was no man of better equipment for the duty. Of Governor St. Clair's influence at this time Mr. Burnet says (p. 378) : "And it may be said with great truth, that at the time he addressed the First Territorial Legislature in 1799, he possessed as great, if not a greater share of the confidence and respect of the people of the Territory than any other individual residing in it."
137
THE BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF OHIO.
The First Session of the First Territorial Legislature.
This being the first session of any representative legislative body in the Territory, the transition from the first to the second grade of gov- ernment involved a general revision of the laws in force; new laws to meet the changed conditions; new officers and new duties for those already estab- lished; and a plan must be conceived by which to meet the increased ex- penditures of a semi-independent government. Many of the members being inexperienced in legislative matters, the active work of the session fell on a few of the men who had been most closely identified with the previous history of the settlements.
On the third of October the two houses in joint session elected William Henry Harrison as delegate from the Territory in the Congress of the United States, his election being contested by Arthur St. Clair, Jr., who was beaten by one vote. Captain Harrison was secretary of the Territory at the time of his election, Mr. St. Clair, son of the Governor, being its attorney. Mr. Harrison resigned his position as secretary and at once proceeded to his duties in the Congress.
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