USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 10
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In 1816 Congress chartered the bank of the United States, and the same year were established, in the principal cities of each State, branches of this bank. For Ohio, branches were opened in Cincinnati and Chillicothe, and, while receiving freely and holding in large amounts for redemption in coin and notes of banks chartered by the State-then, in contradistinction, called State banks-they freely issued their own notes. The demand for coin made by these branches upon the State banks not being met,
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the notes of the latter became less and less current, until those of many of them were held absolutely worthless. While yet, however, confidence in the State banks was unshaken, the Legislature of Ohio, at the session of 1815-16, passed a law creating several new banks in the State, and extending the char- ters of those already in existence. The object of this law was to obtain State revenue from the banks. The requirement of the law was that each bank should place to the credit of the State one-twenty-fifth part of its capital stock, from which regular dividends should be paid into the State treasury, and on the expiration of the bank charter and final winding up of the bank's affairs, the State should be enti- tled to that amount of the bank property. The consideration for this stock was the charter of the bank, and the payment for it was to be provided for by the bank each year setting apart such a per centum of its profits as would, by the end of the period the charter had to run, be adequate to that purpose .. All the charters were to expire in 1843, the banks were to be exempt from all State taxation, and the engagement was implied, rather than expressed, that until after that year no other banks would be chartered. Some of the banks accepted and others refused to comply with the terms of the act; but the whole scheme failed by the general failure of the banks, several years before their charters expired, in the financial crash of 1836-37.
In 1814 a free grant of lands having been offered for the State buildings at Columbus by the three proprietors of the tract of woodland lying on the east side of the Scioto River, opposite Franklinton, in Franklin County, on an agreement to fix the seat of government there, the offer was accepted by the Legislature, and the erection of the necessary buildings was begun. In 1816 they were ready for occupancy, and the Legislature assembled in the new state-house, a frame structure, for the first time. During the course of that session an appropriation was made, to be placed at the disposal of the Gov- ernor, to meet contingent expenses ; and with a part of it Governor Worthington took the responsibility to purchase books, and commence the collection of a State library.
In 1819 a rather serious difficulty occurred between the United States and State authorities. The conduct of the branches of the United States Bank toward the State banks greatly embittered the com- munity. As intimated, the former would collect a large amount of the notes of the latter, and present- ing, demand their redemption in coin, or its equivalent, when coin was not to be obtained. In this manner the United States Bank came to be regarded as an enemy, and in 1819 the Legislature resolved to impose a tax upon its two branches in Ohio. Much public discussion followed the announcement of this intention ; and, while the right of Congress to create the bank was but by a few doubted, the policy of organizing such a scourge of State banks was denounced, and the right of the Legislature to tax its branches within the State boldly asserted, and almost unanimously concurred in. Thus supported, the Legislature imposed an annual tax of $50,000 on each branch of the United States Bank in Ohio by law, and prescribed the manner in which to collect the same. Under this authority, the officer directed to do so entered the. branch at Chillicothe, and, in despite of the solemn protest of its officers, levied the whole tax of $100,000 upon its specie and bank notes, and deposited the same in the State treasury at Columbus. Upon process, issued from the United States Circuit Court of Ohio, at the suit of the bank, the State officers concerned in the operation were arrested and imprisoned, and a bill in chancery filed in the same court to obtain the restoration of the money was followed by a writ of injunction ad- dressed to all the defendants, restraining them from removing or making any disposition of the money, or any part of it. By a subsequent agreement between the counsel for the State and the bank, a decree of the United States Circuit Court was taken to restore all the money, except sufficient to support an appeal of the State to the Supreme Court of the United States. The State Treasurer having refused to comply with this decree, it was enforced by writ of sequestration, under which the Marshal of the United States Circuit Court entered the State treasury, and removed the money. The whole State was in a fer- ment. Nevertheless, great causes, like great bodies, move slowly, and it was not until the February term of 1824 of the Supreme Court that this cause was heard on appeal. Although argued for the State with great ability by a distinguished lawyer of Cincinnati, the decree was affirmed, and Ohio acquiesced in the decision. Human nature, however, though bowing to the decision of the high arbiter, could not repress the desire to retaliate within constitutional limits. At the next session the Legislature passed a law to deprive the United States Bank of the aid of State courts and officers in the collection of its claims, and efforts were made to deprive the United States Circuit Court for the State of jurisdiction in
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the matter of such claims in Ohio; but sober, second thoughts led to the repeal of this law, and those efforts at State legislation failed to accomplish any permanent result.
Ohio was at this time almost exclusively an agricultural State, as but few manufactories had been established within her borders. Grain-growing and the raising of stock and cattle, with hog and sheep breeding, was the business of the large majority of her people. The great markets for these products of her fruitful soil were in the Middle and Eastern States, and the modes of conveyance limited. In 1817 the subject of a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River was first introduced in the Legislature by a message from the Governor, who accompanied it with a letter on the subject from DeWitt Clinton, then Governor of the State of New York. In 1819 the subject was again introduced to the notice of the Legislature ; but nothing was done until the following year, when the Governor, Ethan Allen Brown, communicated all the information he had obtained by personal observation and otherwise, and suggested a mode of procuring money to prosecute the enterprise. At this time an act was passed to appoint three Canal Commissioners, who were authorized to employ a competent engineer and assistants to sur- vey the line of the proposed canal. Their action, however, depended upon the grant to the State by Congress of public lands lying in the route of the proposed canal. This restriction delayed the opera- tions of the Commissioners two years, so that nothing was accomplished. At the session of 1821-22 the subject was referred to a committee of the House, which reported, with a recommendation that an engineer be appointed. Thereupon the Commissioners were authorized to appoint such engineer, and direct him to examine and report upon four different routes, starting from as many points, namely : From Sandusky Bay; from the mouth of the Maumee River; from the mouth of the Cuyahoga, or Black River, by the Muskingum; and from the mouth of Grand River, by the Mahoning, to the Ohio River. James Geddes, of New York, a civil engineer of much ability, was employed to make the ex- amination and surveys, to be paid out of an appropriation of $6,000 which the Commissioners were authorized to draw from the State treasury. At the next session the Commissioners reported that all of the routes were found practicable ; and then the Legislature by an act directed the Commissioners to apply for donations of land for the canal, and thus ascertain which route would be best supported by the people. They did not report until the session of 1823-24, and then recommended the route which was adopted ; namely, from the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, through the upper part of the Mus- kingum, Licking, and lower part of the Scioto Valleys, to Portsmouth, with a connection with Columbus by a navigable feeder. They stated that while anxious to have the lower extremity terminate at Cincin- nati, the heavy stone ridge between the Scioto and Miami Valleys prevented; and to connect the Miami Valley with the lake by canal could be done with small comparative expense, and greatly to the advan- tage of Dayton and Cincinnati.
Strengthened by this and other encouragement, the Legislature in February, 1824, appropriated money for and reappointed the Commissioners, who, during the following Summer, had the lines surveyed for two canals ; namely, one extending from the mouth of the Scioto to Coshocton, and thence by three different routes to the lake ; and the other from Cincinnati to the foot of the Maumee Rapids. Being first carefully surveyed by competent engineers, these surveys were revised by an expert, educated as an engineer on the New York and Erie Canal, who then estimated the cost of each. That from Cincinnati to the Maumee he put at $2,502,494, while, according to whichever line might be chosen from Coshocton to the lake, the estimate for the Cleveland and Portsmouth Canal varied from $2,626, 571 to $2,934,024.
The way being thus opened for intelligent action, in February, 1825, the Legislature passed an act "to provide for the internal improvement of the State by navigable canals." By it the Board of Canal Commissioners were to be increased to seven, one of whom should be president, and commence the construction of canals from the mouth of the Scioto to the lake, and from Cincinnati to. Dayton on the Cincinnati and Maumee line. The bill also provided for the creation of a fund to be called "the canal fund," to consist of all property, money, and lands that might be in any manner obtained or provided, to be managed by a Board of "Commissioners of the Canal Fund," to consist of three members, who were empowered to borrow money and disburse it, this board to report annually to the Legislature. Provision was likewise made for the regular payment of the interest and ultimate redemption of the canal stock sold. So satisfied were the Senators with the provisions of this bill that, every member
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being in his seat, it passed by a vote of thirty-four to two, while the vote in the House was fifty-eight to thirteen. .
Under the provisions of this act money was easily borrowed, and the work engaged in energetically. The canal from the Ohio to the lake received the name of the "Ohio Canal," and that from Cincinnati to Dayton was called the "Miami Canal." The line of the former, from Coshocton to Cleveland, was fixed, and work on both begun in 1825. The terms upon which loans were obtained became gradually more easy, from the careful conduct of the Commissioners of the fund. Congress also granted for the benefit of the canals 840,000 acres of the public lands of the State. In 1833 the Miami Canal was completed from Dayton to where it crossed Main Street in Cincinnati, and was subsequently finished with locks to the Ohio River. Not until 1844 was it finished to Toledo, having a total length of 293 miles, including cuttings for feeders and reservoirs, the largest of which are at Lewistown and St. Mary's, at a total cost of $7, 500,000. That portion from the foot of Maumee Rapids to Toledo, which was to some extent subsequently abandoned, did not enter into the original plan; but money was easy to obtain in 1842, and its construction was engaged in. The Ohio Canal was completed in 1833. The total length of main line, feeders, and side-cuts is 331 miles, and the total cost $4, 700,000. As usual, the cost of both those works far exceeded the engineer's estimates. In 1836 a third canal, from Roscoe to Walhonding, in Coshocton County, was begun, and finished six years afterward. It is called the Walhonding Canal, is twenty-five miles in length, and cost $610,000. It is a useful feeder for the Ohio Canal. During the same period the Hocking Canal, fifty-six miles long, between Carroll, in Fairfield County, and Athens, the seat of Athens County, was constructed at a cost of nearly $1,000,000. During those years, also, the Muskingum improvement, so called, being a navigable water-course, with locks and dams, following the line of the Muskingum River, from Dresden, in Muskingum County, to Marietta, ninety-one miles, was constructed at a cost of $1,630,000. And, finally, a feeder for the Miami Canal, known as the Warren County Canal, from Franklin, on the line of the former, to Lebanon, the county seat, was begun and abandoned, after about $250,000 had been expended upon it.
The large amount of money these works scattered among the people of the State during their con- struction was but one of the advantages occasioned by them. After they were completed, the means they afforded of cheaply conveying to market the freights offered along the line of their course stimu- lated business in a wonderful manner. Luckily the main lines were completed before the minds of the people were occupied by railroads, the construction of which so engrossed public attention shortly after- ward. Writing before any of the canals were completed, Chief-justice Chase said of them: "They have afforded to the farmer of the interior an easy access to market, and have enhanced the value of his farm and its products. They have facilitated intercourse between different portions of the State, and thus have tended to make the people more united, as well as more prosperous. They have furnished to the people a common object of generous interest and satisfaction. They have attracted a large accession of population and capital, and they have made the name and character of Ohio well known throughout the civilized world."
Notwithstanding the subject of education had attracted the earnest attention of the first settlers, and public land was set apart for that purpose then, and subsequently by the State constitution adopted in 1802, no school system was adopted until 1825. In that year the friends of education and internal improvements made common cause of both subjects, and passed an act to tax all real property half a mill on the dollar for the support of schools, and to provide for their establishment in every township. This was superseded in 1829 by a better law, that increased the tax to three-fourths of a mill, required the trustees of townships to divide them into convenient school districts, and the householders to elect annually three school directors, a clerk, and a treasurer. Under certain restrictions, these householders could impose taxes for the erection of school-houses, but not to pay teachers. Examiners of the latter had to be appointed by the Courts of Common Pleas. The schools were free to all white children, but the children of negroes and mulattoes were excluded, and the property of their parents exempted from tax. A school fund was to be derived from school lands in part, and in part from the tax men- tioned. In Ohio the whole area of land granted by Congress for the benefit of schools exceeds 700,000 acres, while the quantity set apart in 1825 was ascertained to be 500,000 acres, and appraised at some- thing less than $1,000,000. A portion of these lands was, by authority of an act of Congress, sold,
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and the residue leased for different periods to sundry persons. The two entire townships of the Ohio Company's purchase set apart for educational purposes were by the territorial Legislature recognized, and, supported by them, the Ohio University, first called the American Western University, was estab- lished. In Symmes's Purchase, a township set apart for an academy was never located by the patentee, and after Ohio became a State another township in lieu of it was granted by Congress, and formed the foundation of the Miami University. In 1826 Bishop Philander Chase, by previous solicitation in this country and in England, founded Kenyon College, at Gambier; and subsequently a large number of high-schools, seminaries, and colleges were established by State and municipal authority, by individ- uals, and by the leading denominations in Ohio.
The northern boundary of the State was defined by Congress in 1802 as "an east and west line drawn through the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, running east, after intersecting the due north line from the mouth of the Great Miami, until it shall intersect Lake Erie on the territorial line, and thence with the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line." As thus described, the matter stood until the Territory of Michigan was organized in 1808. Then the boundaries of the Territory were defined as "the territory that lies north of a line drawn east from the southerly bend of Lake Michigan until it shall intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States." As the southern boundary of Michigan, this did not correspond with the line stated by Congress in 1802 to be the northern boundary of Ohio, but infringed upon that line. A due east line from the extreme southern bend of Lake Michigan would deprive Ohio of the harbor of Toledo, at the mouth of the Maumee River, and of land to include a very considerable strip of the Western Reserve. As there could be no doubt that Congress intended Ohio to have access to the entire shore of the lake within the limits of her territory, there was also no doubt that neither the original nor the later definition of her northern boundary gave her such access.
Since the organization of the Territory of Michigan, her authorities had exercised jurisdiction over this region, and until February, 1835, they were not interfered with. Then, however, agreeably to the prayer of a petition from the inhabitants settled at what is now Toledo, the Legislature of Ohio passed a law taking it into the State. A few days previous, the territorial Legislature of Michigan passed a law visiting with heavy fine and imprisonment any person who, unauthorized by that body, should exer- cise official functions in the disputed territory. The people of it were perplexed by these conflicting laws, when, March 3Ist, 1835, Governor Lucas, of Ohio, with his staff of officers and boundary com- missioners, arrived at Perrysburg, supported by a military force of six hundred men, fully armed and equipped, who encamped at old Fort Miami. About the same date, Governor Mason, of Michigan, with a force of about a thousand men, hastened to Fort Swan-then so called, now Toledo-and blood- shed seemed imminent ; when, just at the critical moment, two commissioners arrived from Washington to forbid hostilities, and, after much persuasive exertion, induced the antagonistic parties to allow the inhabitants to obey either jurisdiction until the next Congress should settle the boundary question. Andrew Jackson, then President of the United States, sought counsel of his law adviser, who replied that the President had no power to annul a law of a territorial Legislature, and that the act of Ohio was such a violation of constitutional law as authorized executive interference. At the next session of Con- gress Michigan applied for admission as a State, and was informed that not until she should agree to be governed, as to territory, by Congress would she be admitted, but that she should, as an equivalent for the narrow strip of Ohio and Indiana that she had claimed along her southern border, be put in posses- ยท sion of the upper peninsula, lying along the shores of Lakes Superior and Michigan. This she agreed to, and largely profited by the exchange.
From 1803 until 1826 real estate only was taxed for State purposes. The lands were divided into three qualities, and taxed respectively, in 1803, sixty cents for each hundred acres of the first, forty cents for the second, and twenty cents for the third quality, the whole quantity taxed being 7,069,629 acres, of which 101,709 acres were first quality, and the total amount of the tax $22,923.09. A similar classification in 1825 gave 13,025,073 acres, with the rates raised to $1.50, $1.1212, and 75 cents on each hundred acres. The quantity of first-class land was 178,998 acres, and the total amount of tax $200,405. 25. In that year the change was made in the manner of taxation on realty and personalty
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that continued until 1849, and placed on the grand duplicate lands and town lots, buildings, horses, cattle, pleasure carriages, and merchants' and brokers' capital, to which was added, under the act of March 14th, 1831, money loaned at interest and manufacturers' capital. Under the last mentioned act, and that of 1825, which took effect March Ist, 1826, the taxes on the duplicate had gradually increased from $392,783 in 1826 to $1,755,539 in 1840. Of this last amount, taxes were collected on realty valued at $85, 287, 261, and upon personalty valued at $27,038,895, or a total value of taxable property $112, 326, 156.
The first territorial delegate elected to the Sixth Congress in 1799 was General W. H. Harrison. After serving during one session, he resigned in 1800, to accept the office of territorial Governor of Indiana, and William McMillan, of Hamilton County, was elected to his seat. For the Seventh Con- gress, Paul Fearing, of Washington County, was the delegate elected in 1801. He served during the term, and in 1803, the Territory having become a State, Thomas Worthington, of Ross-subsequently elected Governor-and John Smith, of Hamilton County, were elected Senators, and Jeremiah Morrow, of Warren County-also subsequently elected Governor-was elected the Representative. These Sena- tors served until the close of the Ninth Congress, when Edward Tiffin resigned his office of Governor, to which he had been re-elected, to take his seat in the Senate, vice Worthington, whose term had expired. John Smith having resigned after being re-elected, Return J. Meigs-subsequently elected Governor-was elected to his seat. For the eleventh Congress several changes took place in the Sena- tors, and no less than five different persons occupied the seats representing Ohio from 1809 to March 4th, 1811, while but two were returned during the Twelfth Congress, from 1811 to 1813. During all this time, from 1803 to March 3d, 1813, inclusive, Jeremiah Morrow served as the only Representative to Congress. In 1813 the State was divided into Congressional districts, and an election returned nine Representatives for six districts, all of whom served in the Thirteenth Congress. In 1823 another arrange- ment of districts made fourteen, with one member from each, who served in the Eighteenth Congress. This condition continued for ten years, when, in 1833, the State was divided into nineteen districts, and as many - Representatives served in the Twenty-third Congress. Beyond this the districts were not in- creased until 1843, when a new arrangement added two more to the number; and this continued until 1863 when the addition was stricken out, and so remained until 1873, when twenty, the present number, was fixed upon, the first two comprising the people of Hamilton County, and the twentieth those of Cuyahoga County.
As early as 1831 applications were made to the Legislature for railroad charters, and, June 5th, 1832, the first charter, that for the Cincinnati, Sandusky and Cleveland Railroad, was granted; March 9th, 1835, a charter was granted for the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad; March 11th, 1836, one for the Little Miami, and, three days afterward, one for the Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati Rail- roads. The Little Miami Railroad was surveyed in 1837, and work commenced on it in 1840. Work was begun upon the others about the same time ; but not for several years afterward were any of them, beyond a few miles, in operation.
The conduct of the United States Bank officers had succeeded in greatly exasperating those of the various State banks, not only in Ohio, but in all the other States, and in December, 1832, President Jackson recommended Congress to authorize the removal of the Government money from it, and to sell such stock of the bank as was owned by the Government. This, Congress refused to do; and when the session ended, the President, who had nursed this refusal as a private grievance, took the responsi- bility to order the Secretary of the Treasury, W. J. Duane, to withdraw the public funds from the United States Bank, and to deposit them, about $10,000.000, with certain State banks. The Secretary refused, and the President at once removed him from office, and put in his place a subservient instrument, Roger B. Taney, then Attorney-general, and subsequently Chief-justice, who obeyed the order. Beginning in October, 1833, in the course of nine months the whole amount was removed. During those months the operation produced great public excitement and much commercial distress. When it began, the United States bank had out loans of over $60,000,000, and so entangled was the business of the bank with that of the whole country, that, by its action, deemed necessary for its own existence, it paralyzed the business of the country. Strange to say, instead of having any intelligent idea of this fact as a matter of cause and effect, General Jackson saw in it proof positive that the bank was a dangerous institution,
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