USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 8
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" WHEREAS, Mankind, in every stage of informed society, have consecrated certain portions of time to the particular cultivation of the social virtues, and the public adoration and worship of the common Parent of the universe; and whereas, a practice so rational in itself, and conformable to the divine pre- cepts, is greatly conducive to civilization, as well as morality and piety; and whereas, for the advance- ment of such important and interesting purposes most of the Christian world have set apart the first day of the week as a day of rest from common labor and pursuits, it is therefore enjoined that all service or labor, works of necessity and charity only excepted, be wholly abstained from on said day .. "
When the first territorial Legislature met at Cincinnati, it reaffirmed the laws for the punishment of offenders which had been enacted by the Governor and the judges, and provided for continuing them in force. At the time when these laws were enacted, the country had just emerged from colonial vassalage to Great Britain. The severe punishments inflicted were mainly drawn from English statutes. The Constitution, forbidding cruel and unusual punishments, was interpreted by these laws; but the death penalty was not imposed, except in case of murder. The common laws of England and the acts of Parliament made in aid of the common law, prior to the fourth year of the reign of James the First, being those of a general nature and not local to that kingdom, were adopted as the rule of decision, and were to be considered as binding until repealed by legislative authority or disapproved of by Congress.
Mention has been made of the animosity existing against the Moravian Indians by both the British and Americans during the Revolutionary War. Even after peace was concluded between his British majesty and the colonies the feeling towards these Indians on the part of the Ohio settlers was not amicable, and the small remnant who had escaped destruction in the Tuscarawas Valley had established their habitations outside of the State. In the Summer of 1786 a small colony returned and made a set- tlement on the east bank of the Cuyahoga River, about twelve miles from the present site of Cleveland. This was named Pilgerruh, or "Pilgrim's Rest," and was intended to be only a stopping-place for a year or two, with the expectation of effecting an early removal to their former localities in the Tuscarawas Valley. Some huts were built and corn was planted before the end of June, and a chapel was erected, and dedicated on the 10th of November.
A resolution was adopted by Congress on the 24th of August, 1786, inviting the remainder of the exiled Moravian Indians to return to their old homes on the Tuscarawas, guaranteeing them the protection of the government, and tendering to them at the same time a quantity of corn, with blankets, axes, and hoes, as a donation. But the opposition of certain Indian tribes was so great that they did not deem it prudent to go back to their former villages, but determined to establish a new village in what is now the township of Milan, Erie County, in the Spring of 1787. Here they enjoyed some
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degree of prosperity. In 1790 it numbered two hundred and twelve souls ; but an impending Indian war rendered the condition of the mission precarious, and they removed, in April, 1791, to the Canada side of the Detroit River.
By several acts of Congress, dated May 20, 1785, July 27, 1787, and September 3, 1788, lands in the Tuscarawas Valley were promised to the Moravian brethren to aid in the work of Indian civilization and evangelization. It was not, however, until 1798 that the Moravian Indians returned to those local- ities. The colony that entered upon this enterprise was under the direction of their missionaries, and was composed mostly of the Christian Indians from the Fairfield mission on the river Thames in Canada. The missionaries Heckewelder and Edwards located themselves and a part of the colony on the site of Gnadenhutten, where Mr. Heckewelder had a house built, which was finished and occupied September 9th, 1798. The missionaries Zeisberger and Mortimer, with the remainder of the colony, arrived in October, and established themselves in the present township of Goshen, Tuscarawas County, about two miles below New Philadelphia. By an act of Congress dated June Ist, 1796, twelve thousand acres were surveyed for the Indians, of which four thousand were made to include the old Schönbrunn village site, four thousand to include Gnadenhutten, and the remaining four thousand to embrace Salem. These lands were under the superintendence of Rev. John Heckewelder, who, as agent, leased and managed them in the interest of the Tuscarawas mission, embracing the two stations of Goshen and Gnadenhutten, from 1798 to 1810.
As the white settlements grew up around these reservations, the Indians were gradually exposed to the cupidity and vices of the whites, ardent spirits were introduced among them, and their missionaries grew old, and in a measure lost their influence among the younger members of the community. The number of the Indians diminished by deaths, removals to the West took place, and few remained out- side of the villages. The mission finally became extinct, April 1, 1824, when the Moravian Indians ceded their lands to the general government, and the small remnant that was left of them received lands in exchange in the far West, to which they were removed.
The population of Ohio rapidly increased, the Indian tribes within its borders were subdued, schools and churches were built, and the foundations of a mighty empire were well laid by the heroic pioneers. The new constitution provided that an election for governor, members of the assembly, sheriffs, and coroners should take place on the second Tuesday of January, 1803, and the Legislature should meet on the first Tuesday of the following March. The elections having taken place accordingly, Edward Tiffin, who had been president of the constitutional convention, was elected the first governor, and, the Legislature having convened March Ist, on the 3d of March, 1803, he was inaugurated the first governor elected by the people of Ohio. His opponent, Governor St. Clair, polled but a very small vote, that fairly indicated his unpopularity.
The history of the Northwestern Territory exhibits in a clear light the invariable result of the con- test between the opposing forces of barbarism and civilization. Where the two come together, the latter dominates. But civilization is itself a struggle ; if that struggle ceases, it loses its power, and barbarism prevails. Thus it was when the barbaric hordes of the North overran the Roman Empire. But the Ohio settlers were precursors of a mighty race continually struggling for better conditions. When one of them fell by the tomahawk of the savage, a dozen came in to take his place. Civilization grew, barbarism dwindled; and the few spasmodic efforts of the latter to gain supremacy only showed its weakness. Henceforth the record is not that of struggle, but of success; not of the conquests of war, but the victories of peace.
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PERIOD III. THE STATE GOVERNMENT. 1803-1840.
S DID the Constitution of the United States, so that of Ohio conferred the elective fran- chise on every white male resident of the State, twenty-one years old. It otherwise made the usual distribution of State power in three departments-executive, legislative, and judicial. The Governor, elected for two years, could be re-elected continuously to serve for three terms, and after being out of office for the period of one term, would again be eligible. This privilege, however, has not been known to have ever been exer- cised to the full extent of its limits. The arbitrary conduct of Governor St. Clair was so generally recognized by the delegates that, in the preparation of a constitution, they resolved to divest the office of Governor of all privileges which by their exercise might to the slightest extent prove unsatisfactory to the people. The veto power was removed, and while making it the Governor's duty to communicate such information to the Legislature and recommend such measures as he might think expedient, on extraordinary occasions to convene the Legislature, and, in case of disagreement between the two houses as to the time of adjournment, adjourn them, with the business of legislation he should have nothing to do. As commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the State he could control the arming and equipment of the same; except in cases of impeachment, he might grant reprieves and pardons; and he could fill vacancies in State offices which occurred during the recess between two sessions of the Legislature, by granting commissions which should expire at the close of the next occurring session ; but beyond the exercise of these privileges, he was rendered powerless.
The legislative power was committed to a General Assembly, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Senate was to have not less than one-third nor more than one-half of the members allowed to the House. While the members of the latter were to be not less than seventy-two nor more than seventy-six in number, and be chosen annually, and apportioned among the several coun- ties, according to the legal voters in the same, the members of the former were chosen biennially. No judge or clerk of any court, or member of Congress, or person holding office under the United States, or any lucrative office, except in the militia, or as justice of the peace under the State, could be a mem- ber of the Legislature. Bribery rendered the person elected by its aid ineligible for that office for two years. The qualifications for members were, that they should be United States citizens, free from the disqualifications mentioned, inhabitants of the State, and resident within the district from which they might be chosen, and tax-payers ; also Representatives to be not less than twenty-five years, and Senators not less than thirty years of age. No property qualification was necessary. Property, as such, the Legislature did not represent, nor regard in the distribution of political power. By joint ballot the Legislature appointed Judges and State officers, civil and military, and fixed their salaries and com- pensation. Each house might choose its own officers, establish rules for its proceedings, punish its members for misbehavior, expel the same if a two-third vote concurred, and punish contempts com- mitted against its dignity by persons not members. Bills could originate in either house, subject to alteration, amendment, or rejection by the other. The power to impose taxes to raise a revenue, though not expressly recognized by the constitution, could be exercised as a power necessarily implied. Each house was to sit with open doors, unless secret session was necessary, such necessity to be decided by a two-thirds vote. The Governor and all other civil officers were, for misdemeanors in office, liable to impeachment by the House of Representatives, and subject to trial by the Senate, sitting 6
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as a high court for that purpose ; but no conviction could ensue unless by a two-thirds vote of the Sen- ators sitting as such court. No punishment beyond removal from or disqualification for office could follow conviction ; but, whether acquitted or convicted, the person was subsequently liable to indictment and might be tried, with judgment and punishment according to law. No money could be drawn from the treasury except by legislative appropriation, and an accurate account of receipts and expenditures should be annually published with the laws.
The judicial power was vested in a Supreme Court, Courts of Common Pleas, in justices of the peace, and any other manner of courts the Legislature might establish and prescribe. The Supreme Court con- sisted of four Judges, and by all, or by any two of them, a court should be held once a year in each county. Each Common Pleas Court should consist of a President and Associate Judges. The State was divided into circuits, the number of which might be increased with the increase of the population. For each circuit one President Judge, and for each county not less than two nor more than three Associate Judges should be appointed. Each of these circuit courts had original and appellate jurisdiction "in common law, chancery, and criminal cases." The Court of Common Pleas had "jurisdiction of all probate and testamentary matters, granting administration, and the appointment of guardians." All the Judges should be appointed for the term of seven years, and, except the associates, were compensated with salaries. They were forbidden to hold any other office of profit or trust, or receive fee or perquisite for the performance of their duties. Each court could appoint its own clerk. The justices of the peace were elected by the townships, one to each, to serve three years. Sheriffs and coroners to be elected biennially, but no election of the same person to the former office for a third term was permitted. Offi- cers of towns and other township officers to be chosen annually, and the Legislature authorized to designate the manner of filling all public offices not specially mentioned in the constitution.
In addition to these matters of power, the great doctrines established by the Ordinance of 1787, were, in a more solemn manner, stated and confirmed. The people were recognized as the original source of power, with the right of the citizen under the requirement of law, to speak, write, or print as he might think proper, and making him liable for the abuse of that right. All prisoners should be humanely treated, granted a speedy and impartial trial, and punished proportionately to the nature of the offense committed. Imprisonment should be restricted to certain conditions, involving fraudulent intent. Poll taxes should be prohibited and the Legislature denied the liberty of granting any hered- itary privileges. Finally, it provided for the incorporation of associations to be regularly formed within the State, on application to the Legislature for that purpose by private bill; and that amendment or revision of the State constitution should only be had by a convention to be elected whenever a majority of the people, on the recommendation of two-thirds of the General Assembly, might vote for the same. To this constitution was affixed a schedule, providing that the territorial laws should remain in force until repealed by the Legislature of the State ; the first election was to be held in January, and the first General Assembly required to convene at Chillicothe on the first Tuesday of March, 1803.
Having thus given the points of this constitution, a review of it will show that the Legislature was made the principal embodiment of authority-both of the other departments being subject to it; and thus was recognized the people as the fundamental source of all power-both branches of the Legislature being elected by them. The total absence of property qualification left the poorest, equally with the richest, the privilege of election to any office in the State for which in the opinion of the electors he might be qualified by education ; but, notwithstanding that freedom was guaranteed to every human being within the State, that regard for the rights of property in slaves, recognized by the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, denied the elective franchise to all but white men.
On the assembling of the Legislature, March Ist, 1803, Nathaniel Massie was elected President of the Senate, and Michael Baldwin Speaker of the House of Representatives. Laws were passed to organize the State courts and abolish those of the Territory. The tax laws were modified. Judges for the different courts, and a Secretary, Auditor, and Treasurer of the State were appointed, and the latter charged with the business of receiving from the United States Treasury three per cent of the proceeds of the public lands within the State (all of such lands remaining the possession of the general govern- ment), as agreed upon. . Two United States Senators were elected, and the manner determined of
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electing the one member of Congress, to which the State by population was entitled. After the passage of a few other laws, the first session of the Legislature of the State of Ohio adjourned
December 5th, 1803, the second General Assembly convened at Chillicothe, with Nathaniel Massie President of the Senate, and Elias Langham Speaker of the House, and during the session twenty-nine laws were enacted. All the territorial laws governing the militia were repealed and replaced by State laws. Laws were enacted for the incorporation of townships and election of county commissioners; to divide the State into counties, with no new county to have less area than four hundred square miles; to enable aliens to hold lands within the State and enjoy the same proprietary rights as citizens of the United States ; to appropriate the three per cent fund receivable from the United States treasury to the construction of roads, the same to be divided into small sums and applied under the direction of road commissioners in different parts of the State ; and to simplify and improve the manner of raising a State
revenue. The land being the principal source of revenue, the- burden of the tax was chiefly borne by non-residents, who had no property but land in the State. The tax-collectors were required to pay tivo- thirds of their collections into the State treasury, and one-third into their respective county treasuries ; while county commissioners and township trustees were also authorized to assess taxes for certain pur- poses within their respective limits ; and the authority and duty of justices and constables were defined. But, with all the effort to change the territorial to State laws, many of the former yet remained in force, and, at the third session of the General Assembly, a strenuous effort having been made to revise the whole system, the result was a very complete code of statute law.
The first difficulty affecting the Constitution of the United States occurred in 1805, and slavery was the cause of it. Massachusetts proposed, as an amendment, that representation in Congress should be apportioned among the States in the ratio of their free population, and submitted this proposition of her "General Court," or Legislature, for the consideration and action of the Legislatures of the various States. Ohio disapproved, on the ground that the Constitution of the United States was the result of compromise, and interference with its provisions by any of the States would be productive of discord. In the same year another proposed amendment originated with the Legislature of Kentucky, proposing to take from the Supreme Court of the United States such part of its jurisdiction as related to contro- versies between citizens of different States, and between a State and its citizens, and foreign States and their citizens. Ohio refused to concur, on the ground that so much of the Constitution as secured to citizens of different States adjudication of claims before an impartial tribunal and free from the influence of any particular State, was one of its most important provisions ; while the report added the expression of the fear that " frequent alterations might tend to unsettle the great principles upon which the Consti- tution itself was founded." A third proposed amendment came before the Legislature of Ohio from that of North Carolina, requiring that the power to interdict the importation of slaves should be vested in Congress immediately. To this Ohio answered that, although concurring in sentiment with North Carolina as to slavery and the slave-trade, she refused to assent to this proposed amendment, on the ground that, by the Constitution of the United States, a time was fixed when Congress alone should have this power, and until that time arrived nothing should be done, and when it arrived nothing need be done.
In 1805 the Indian claim to the Western Reserve and "Fire Lands," so called, was by special treaty released, and secured to the State of Connecticut. These "Fire Lands," amounting to 500,000 acres, had been, by act of her Legislature, donated by Connecticut to certain sufferers by the invasion of Connecticut by the British troops in the Revolutionary War, particularly persons then resident at New London, on the Thames River, at Fairfield and at Norwalk. These lands included the five west- ernmost ranges of the Western Reserve townships. Lake Erie, with its more southern indentation of Sandusky Bay, projected so far southwardly as to leave the space of but six tiers of townships and some fractions of land above the forty.first parallel of latitude, or a tract thirty miles from east to west, and twenty-seven miles from south to north. This land was, after its release from Indian possession, sur- veyed into townships of about twenty-five square miles, each of which was divided into four parts, and. for individual convenience of purchase, subdivided into farm tracts of from fifty to five hundred acres, as the purchaser desired.
In 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul, sold to the United States the territory called Louis-
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iana, and which, by a secret treaty, France had but a short time previously obtained from Spain. The price paid by the United States for this immense territory, bounded on the east by the Mississippi River from its sources to its mouth, was $15,000,000, and when the bargain was completed Bonaparte is reported to have said: "This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United States ; and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride." As Spain was highly indignant at the result of the negotiation, which grew out of the fact that the Governor of Louisiana in 1802 closed the port of New Orleans against our shipping, it was believed that the inhabitants of Louisiana, being principally French and Spanish, would not submit to American rule. Spain, in defiance of the purchase from France, and the right of the latter power to sell, maintained her right to possess New Orleans and all the country east of the Lower Mississippi, but at length peaceably transferred such possession, as well as her claim to the territory which subsequently became the State of Florida. These events had greatly agitated the public mind, and one ambitious adventurer resolved to take advantage of them. Aaron Burr had been placed on the Presidential ticket in 1800, and received the same number of votes as Thomas Jefferson. As the Constitution then prescribed that of the persons voted for the one who had the highest number of votes should be President, and the one having the next highest should be Vice-president, and as Jefferson and Burr had the same number, the election went into the House of Representatives. After a protracted contest, Jefferson received the largest number of the State votes, and was declared President, and Burr was elected Vice-president. In 1804 he had in a duel shot Alexander Hamilton, and in consequence became an outcast from the society he had moved in. Hence, being but tolerated by his political party, he was not renominated with President Jefferson, and, smarting under the stings of this and other public neglect, he was ready to hatch any plot that promised sufficient satisfaction to his ambition. Learning that a rich Irish gentleman had purchased an island in the Ohio River, and was living there, he resolved to approach him on his way to New Orleans; and, giving evasive and deceptive reasons to his friends in the East for his journey, he proceeded to Wheeling, and from there he embarked in an open boat, rowed by one man, for Blennerhassett Island, about sixty miles below. Having arrived, he introduced himself to the proprietor, and spent several days with his host and hostess, who, it would seem, in a very credulous manner, entered heartily into his plans. From there he proceeded by the rivers to Nashville, where he spent some time with General Jackson, who had arranged for him there a public reception ; and thence he went to New Orleans, where he gained the good-will of General Wilkinson, the commandant there of United States troops. By the sea he returned home to the East. A second trip West was made, and this time he made Blennerhassett Island the seat of his operations for the rendezvous of a flotilla to carry the men whom he had enlisted in his project to the lower country. The government, having been advised of these proceedings, took the alarm, and in December, 1806, communicated with Governor Tiffin, who presented the matter to the Legislature then in session, and an act was at once passed authorizing the arrest of persons engaged in unlawful enterprises, and the seizure of their goods. Under this act, the island was occupied by a force sufficient to execute the law, and ten large keel-boats, with a considerable quantity of arms, ammunition, and pro- visions belonging to Burr's expedition were seized. Mr. Blennerhassett escaped with Burr down the rivers, and reached New Orleans in safety. His property was destroyed in the most wanton manner by the militia, and his wife and family subsequently reached Natchez, refugees from their luxurious home. Burr was arrested in February, 1807, near Fort Stoddart, in Alabama, by Lieutenant (afterwards Major- general) E. P. Gaines. He was taken to Richmond, and there tried for treason; but as the evidence was insufficient to prove that his design was a disseverance of the Union, rather than an invasion of and attempt to set up a foreign government in Mexico, he was acquitted. This was the only extraordinary event that occurred during the administration of Governor Tiffin, who showed the utmost vigor in putting an end to the proposed expedition.
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