VIII. CHAPTER ed with Congress to decide, in the first place, how many states, whether one or more, should be formed out of 1796. the Territory, and that, although the entire territory might have a population of 60,000, no right of admis sion into the Union accrued until it had first been decided by Congress to embrace the whole in a single state. Since such seemed to be the disposition of the inhabitants, it was proposed, first, to ascertain their numbers by authority of Congress, and a bill for that purpose was brought in and passed. This method of procedure would have delayed the admission till the next session of Congress, if not, indeed, for a longer period. Meanwhile, the senators elect from the new state presented their credentials and claimed their seats. They were admitted to the floor, but only as "spectators," till the matter should be decided. The Senate bill was so amended in the House as to recognize and admit the new state at once; and in that shape, after a conference between the June 1. two houses, it finally became a law on the last day of the session. The senators elect from the new state thereupon again claimed their seats; but this was refused by the Senate on the ground that their credentials were of a date prior to the act admitting the state into the Union. The new state, like the territory from which it had been formed, consisted of two detached settlements, the one on the head waters of the Tennessee, in the val leys of the Allegany chain, the other in the district about Nashville, the two together embracing hardly a fifth part of the area within the nominal boundaries of the state, and entirely separated from each other by intervening tracts of Indian territory. It was not alone on the southwestern frontier that population and settlement were making rapid progress. The same was the case in Vermont, the upper part of VIII. New Hampshire, and the District of Maine. The peo- CHAPTER ple of that district still entertained the project of being constituted as a separate state, a privilege to which they 1796. considered themselves as much entitled, both by population and resources, as either Kentucky or Tennessee. But Massachusetts, and an influential body of the inhabitants themselves, were as yet unwilling, and the separation was delayed for a quarter of a century longer. A college had recently been established in Maine, at Bruns- 1794. wick, on the Lower Androscoggin, named Bowdoin, after the late distinguished patriot of that name, who had contributed to endow it. The school in Western Massachusetts, endowed by Colonel Williams, who had fallen. during the French war in the battle of Lake George, had also been erected into a college, and named after its benefactor. The building of expensive bridges across the Merrimac and Connecticut, attempts to render those rivers boatable by canals and locks around the falls by which they were impeded, and a canal undertaken on a larger scale to connect the Merrimac with Boston harbor, the first enterprise of the sort in America, evinced the increase of wealth consequent on the rapid extension of foreign commerce-a result still more apparent in the flourishing growth of the New England sea-ports. This increasing prosperity had given rise to some remarkable changes of political sentiment. The western counties of Massachusetts, some twelve years before the seat of Shays's rebellion, and at first strongly anti-Federal, now zealously supported the federal government, and at the late election for governor had given a decided majority for Sumner, the Federal candidate, who, however, had been again beaten by Samuel Adams. The strength of the opposition, calling themselves Republicans, was in CHAPTER Boston and its vicinity, and in the District of Maine, the VIII. prejudices of the sea-faring people being constantly in 1796. flamed, and the recollections of the past revived by collisions with British cruisers. Convinced by experiment of the benefits of the Federal Constitution, and sharing largely in the rich harvest of commerce, Rhode Island had become decidedly Federal. Her state creditors, formerly paid off in depreciated paper money, had obtained, under the assumption of the state debts, the balance of their dues. New Hampshire, notwithstanding the influence of Langdon, who threw all his weight into the opposite scale, was also decidedly Federal. Vermont, in which recent settlers greatly predominated, inclined to the opposition; but the Federalists were gaining strength there. Connecticut, distinguished for the general intelligence as well as for the republican equality of her citi zens, was a very warm and steady supporter of Washington's administration. The tract on Lake Erie, east of Pennsylvania, reserved by Connecticut out of her cession of Western claims, had been lately sold to a company of speculators for the sum of $1,200,000, the 1795. state giving a quit-claim deed, including her right of jurisdiction as well as her title to the lands. Half a million of acres of these lands had been previously granted to the sufferers by British depredations during the Rev. olutionary war. The Indian title to a part of the reservation being extinguished by Wayne's treaty, surveys had been commenced, and preparations were making by the new company for sale and settlement. The money received by the state, after some dispute as to its appro priation, had been constituted into a fund toward the support of common schools. It had been proposed to apply a part of it toward the support of the ministers, but that was given up. These ministers, an educated VIII. and able body of men, placed in a state of independence CHAPTER by settlements for life, and enjoying the respect and affection of the great body of their parishioners, possessed, 1796. as well in this state as in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, a powerful political influence, thrown, with very rare exceptions, into the Federal scale. Exceeding all her sister states in density of population, but as yet without manufactures, except in a household way, and from want of good harbors not greatly interested in commerce, Connecticut furnished a large body of emigrants. As lawyers, physicians, teachers, editors, and traders, they found their way into every state in the Union; the stream of the agricultural emigration, hitherto directed toward Vermont, had begun to pour itself into the fertile region of Western New York. The withdrawal of the British garrisons from the posts on the lakes removed some impediments which had hitherto existed. Indeed, hitherto the British commander at Niagara had taken it upon himself absolutely to prohibit any settlements on the south shore of Lake Ontario. The Oneidas and Onondagas of that region had recently made an additional cession, including the famous salt springs near Lake Onondaga, which thus passed into possession of the state. By a treaty with the Cagnawagas, or French Mohawks, settled on the St. Lawrence, near the northern boundary of New York, and lately associated with some other neighboring tribes, as the Seven Nations of Canada, the Indian title had been extinguished to the whole region between Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence. barren district, as well as the fertile tracts south of Lake Erie, were already in the hands of speculators, by some of whom fortunes were made, though this was very far from being the case with all of the original purchasers. The new population thus poured into New York began This VIII. CHAPTER to make itself felt in the politics of that state, and Federalism, supported by the Rensselaers, by Jay, and by Ham1796. ilton, gained somewhat over the influence of Clinton, the Livingstons, and Burr. In 1790, a proposition in the Assembly of New York to establish public schools had been hardly noticed; in 1795, an appropriation was made for this purpose of $50,000 for each of the following five years, an additional amount of half that sum to be raised by the townships. Such was the commencement of the New York Common School system, though many years elapsed before it attained its present extension. A new college, under the influence of Presbyterians and other anti-Episcopalians, called Union, from the co-operation of several sects in its establishment, had lately been instituted at Schenectady. A new attempt had been made at the recent session of the New York Legislature to abolish slavery, a measure which had in its favor the warmest wishes of Governor Jay. But on the question of compensation, which the slave-holders insisted upon, the bill failed in the House by a vote of thirty-two to thirty. A curious dispute had arisen as to the appointing power under the Constitution of New York. That power was vested in the governor and a council of four members, one chosen from each of the four Senate districts. Governor Clinton had always claimed the right of nomination; but a Federal majority in the Council of Appointment had insisted upon making Egbert Benson a judge of the Supreme Court, notwithstanding Clinton's refusal to nominate him; and this controversy had been kept up till the end of Clinton's administration. Jay asked the Legislature to pass a declaratory law on the subject, though an amendment of the Constitution would seem to have been the true method. But neither party |