568 Canal and School Laws passed. 1825. elections were in consequence such as to ensure the success of the two bills which were to lay the foundation of so much physical and intellectual good to Ohio.* The subject of civilizing the Indians was taken up as early as July, 1789, and were kept constantly in view by the United States Government from that time forward; in 1819, ten thousand dollars annually were appropriated by Congress to that purpose, and great pains were taken to see that they were wisely expended.† In March of this year a report was made by Mr. McLean, of Ohio, upon the proposition to stop the appropriation above named; against this proposition he reported decidedly, and gave a favorable view of what had been done, and what might be hoped for.‡ 1825. Upon the 4th of February a law was passed by Ohio, authorizing the making of two canals, one from the Ohio to Lake Erie, by the valleys of the Scioto and Muskingum; the other from Cincinnati to Dayton; and a canal fund was created: the vote in the house in favor of the law was 58 to 13, in the senate 34 to 2.|| Upon the day following, the law to provide for a system of common schools was also passed by large majorities.§ These two laws were carried by the union of the friends of each, and by the unremitting efforts of a few public-spirited men. See the names of the members of the Ohio Assembly for 1824-5, and their votes in Atwater, 363. +See American State Popers, vols, v. and vi. indexes.-See particularly vi. 646 to 654. American State Papers, vi. 457 to 459. Ohio Canal Documents, 158 to 166.-Chase ii. 1472. Chase ii. 1466. In 1804 General Harrison purchased from the Sacs and Foxes, at St. Louis, an immense extent of country west of the Mississippi, as we have already stated. This purchase, some of the chiefs said, was unauthorised by the proper persons among the Indians; and when settlers began to press upon them, enmity, as in all such cases, sprang up in the bosoms of the red men. No trouble of consequence occurred, however, until after the United States government, in 1825, acted as mediator between the Sioux on the one hand, and the Sacs and Foxes, the Chippeways, and the Ioways on the other. This led the whites in 1827, to interfere between the contending tribes, in a manner which roused the hostility of the natives, and caused the murder of several Americans, and an attack upon two boats carrying United States stores. General Atkinson thereupon marched into the Indian country and seized the culprits, who were tried and a part condemned, and executed in December, 1828. Among those discharged was Blackhawk,‡ a Sac chief belonging to a leading family of that tribe, and at that time sixty years old. Two years, later, in July, 1830, a treaty was made at Prairie du Chien by which the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States all their lands east of the Mississippi; to this cession Blackhawk objected as unfair and illegal, and refused to vacate the lands upon which he and his party were living-the old Sac village at the mouth of Rock river. This led to a declaration by Governor Reynolds of Illinois, upon the 28th of May, 1831, that the State was invaded by a hostile band of savages; he thereupon ordered out the militia, and called upon General Gaines for regular troops; these troops, in June 1831, took possession of the disputed ground without opposition; the Indians crossed to the west side of the Mississippi, and a treaty was made.§ In 1832, however, Blackhawk again crossed into See A. D. 1804. Brown's Illnois, 357. † American State Papers, vi. 608. Life of Blackhawk, dictated by himself, (Cincinnati, 1833,) pp. 13—104. § Life of Blackhawk by himself, 102 to 107.-Drake's Life of Blackhawk, 102 to 117. 570 Blackhawk War. 1832. Illinois, notwithstanding he was warned against doing so by General Atkinson, who commanded at Fort Armstrong in Rock Island.* Troops, both regular and militia, were at once mustered and marched in pursuit of the native band. Among the troops was a party of volunteers under Major Stillman, who, on the 14th of May was out upon a tour of observation, and close in the neighborhood of the savages. On that evening, having discovered a party of Indians, sent, Blackhawk says, with a friendly message, Stillman seized some of them and killed others. This done, the whites galloped forward to attack the remainder of the savage band, but he was met with so much energy and determination, that he and his followers took to their heels in utter consternation. Such was the issue of the first action in the Blackhawk war, the whites being 200 in number, the red men from 40 to 80. The attack by Stillman's party made longer peace hopeless; and although Blackhawk had with him but a few warriors of his own tribe, the majority still adhering to Keokuk, who was a friend of the whites, and had made the sale at Prairie du Chien,||—and though he had no hope of aid from the other Indian nations,—he could not retreat. On the 21st of May a party of his warriors, about seventy in number, attacked the Indian Creek settlement in La Salle county, Illinois, killed fifteen persons, and took two young women prisoners; these were afterwards returned to their friends late in July, through the efforts of the Winnebagoes.§ On the following day a party of spies was attacked and four of them slain, and other massacres followed. Meanwhile 3000 Illinois militia had been ordered out, who rendezvoued upon the 20th of June, near Peru; these marched forward to the Rock River, where they were joined by the United States troops, the whole being under the command of General Brady. Six hundred mounted men were also ordered out, while General Scott, with nine companies of artillery, hastened from the seaboard by the way of the lakes to Chicago, moving with such celerity, that some of his troops, we are told, actually went 1800 miles in eighteen days; passing in Built in 1816. (Drake's Blackhawk, 92.) + Life of Blackhawk by himself, 113 to 118.-Drake's Blackhawk, 146. Brown, 363, note. Report carried the number up to 1500. Blackhawk says forty. See Blackhawk's Life by himself, 118 to 124; Brown, 361; Drake 147 to 156. See Drake's account of Keokuk in his Life of Blackhawk, 128 to 142. § The narrative of one of them, Mrs. Munson, may be found in Brown's Illinois, 382. -See Blackhawk's Life by himself, 129, 1832. Close of Blackhawk War. 571 that time from Fort Munroe on the Chesapeake to Chicago. Long before the artillerists could reach the scene of action, however, the western troops had commenced the conflict in earnest, and before they did reach the field, had closed it. On the 24th of June, Blackhawk and his two hundred warriors were repulsed by Major Demont with but one hundred and fifty militia: this skirmish took place between Rock river and Galena. The army then continued to move up Rock river, near the heads of which it was understood that the main party of the hostile Indians was collected ; and as provisions were scarce, and hard to convey in such a country, a detachment was sent forward to Fort Winnebago, at the portage between the Wisconsin and Fox rivers to procure supplies. This detachment, hearing of Blackhawk's whereabouts, pursued and overtook him on the 21st of July, near the Wisconsin river and in the neighborhood of the Blue Mounds. General Henry, who commanded the party, formed with his troops three sides of a hollow square, and in that order received the attack of the Indians; two attempts to break the ranks were made by the natives in vain; and then a general charge was made by the whole body of Americans, and with such success that, it is said, fifty-two of the red men were left dead upon the field, while but one American was killed and eight wounded.† Before this action Henry had sent word of his motions to the main army, by whom he was immediately rejoined, and on the 28th of July the whole crossed the Wisconsin in pursuit of Blackhawk, who was retiring toward the Mississippi. Upon the bank of that river, nearly opposite the Upper Ioway, the Indians were overtaken and again defeated, on the 2nd of August, with a loss of one hundred and fifty men, while of the whites but eighteen fell. This battle entirely broke the power of Blackhawk; he fled, but was seized by the Winnebagoes, and upon the 27th was delivered to the officers of the United States, at Prairie du Chien. General Scott, during these months of July and August, was contending with a worse than Indian foe. The Asiatic cholera Lawrence, at Detroit had just reached Canada; passing up the St. Brown's Illinois, 373, + Blackhawk gives a very different account; see his Life, 131.-Drake suggests that the writer of Blackhawk's own life, misinterpreted him.-See Drake's Life of Blackhawk, 159. See Drake, 166, &c; Brown, 369, &c.: both give the official account. Blackhawk says that he and his men wished to surrender, but the whites fired on his flag of truce.: (His Life, 134-135:) Throcmorton's letter (Brown, 370-Drake, 163) confirms the chief's statement. 572 Cholera, and Flood in Ohio. 1832. it overtook the western-bound armament, and thenceforth the camp became a hospital. On the 8th of July, his thinned ranks landed at Fort Dearborn or Chicago, but it was late in August before they reached the Mississippi. The number of that band who died from the cholera must have been at least seven or eight times as great as that of all who fell in battle.* In September the Indian troubles were closed by a treaty which relinquished to the white men thirty millions of acres of land, for which stipulated annuities were to be paid. To Keokuk a reservation of forty miles square was given, in consideration of his fidelity; while Blackhawk and his family were sent as hostages to Fort Monroe in the Chesapeake, where they remained till June, 1833. The chief afterwards returned to his native wilds, where he died. Blackhawk cannot rank with Pontiac or Tecumthe; he fought only for revenge, and showed no intellectual power: but he was a fearless man, and devoid of cunning and deceit. The same disease which decimated General Scott's troops, during the autumn of this year and the summers of 1833 and 1834, spread terror through the whole West, though during the last year it was comparatively mild. We have room to notice only three facts in relation to it; the first is, that other diseases diminished while it prevailed;-the second, that many points which were spared in 1832, (as Lexington, Ky.) were devastated in 1833;— the third, that its appearance and progress presented none of the evidences of infection or contagion. A visitation less fatal than the cholera, but for the time most disastrous, had come upon the valley of the Ohio in the preceding February. A winter of excessive cold was suddenly closed by long continued and very heavy rains, which, unable to penetrate the frozen ground, soon raised every stream emptying into the Ohio to an unusual heighth. The main trunk, unable to discharge the water which poured into it, overflowed its banks and laid the whole valley, in many places several miles in width, under water. + Full accounts are given in Drake's Life, 200, &c; Brown's Illinois, 376; and in the Chief's autobiography. |