Ohio, had increased to about five thousand souls of all ages. These were chiefly distributed in the lower valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto and Miami rivers, and on their small tributaries, within fifty miles of the Ohio river. With this progress of settlements, the end of the Indian war by the treaty at Greenville, and the delivery of the northern posts by the British, under Jay's treaty, all apprehension of danger on the part of the whites ceased, and friendly intercourse with the natives succeeded. Such disaffected Indians as persisted in their feelings of hostility to the Americans, retired into the interior of the northwestern wilderness, or to their allies in Canada. Forts, stations, and stockades, became useless, and were abandoned to decay. The hardy pioneer pushed further into the forest, and men of enterprise and capital in the older settlements became interested in securing claims and titles to extensive bodies of fertile lands, and sending out colonies for their occupation. Settlements were made and towns and villages planted in western Virginia and Kentucky.

When Winthrop Sargent, the secretary of the Northwestern Territory, in 1798, was appointed to the charge of the Southwest Territory, William Henry Harrison was appointed in his place. He held this position until elected to congress. The Northwestern Territory, as may be seen by a reference to the ordinance of 1787, was to have a representative assembly as soon as its inhabitants numbered five thousand. Upon the 29th of October, Gov. St. Clair gave notice by proclamation that the required population existed, and directed an election of representatives to be held on the third Monday in December. The representatives, when assembled, were required to nominate ten persons, whose names were sent to the president of the United States, who selected five, and with the advice and consent of the senate, appointed them, for the legislative council. In this mode the country passed into the second grade of a territorial government.

The representatives of the Northwest Territory, elected under the proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, met at Cincinnati on the 22d of January, 1799, "and under the provisions of the ordinance of 1787," says the writer from whom we last quoted, "nominated. ten persons whose names were sent to the president of the United

States. On the 2d of March, the president selected from the list of candidates, the names of Jacob Burnet, James Findlay, Henry Vanderburgh, Robert Oliver, and David Vance, and on the next day the senate confirmed their nomination as the legislative council of the Northwest Territory.

The territorial legislature again met at Cincinnati on the 16th of September, but for want of a quorum was not organized until the 24th of that month. The house of representatives consisted of nineteen members, of whom seven were from Hamilton county, four from Ross, three from Wayne, two from Adams, one from Jefferson, one from Washington, and one from Knox.

After the organization of the legislature, Gov. St. Clair addressed the two houses in the representatives' chamber, and recommended such measures to their consideration as, in his judgment, were suited to the condition of the country, and would advance the safety and prosperity of the people.

Congress made Chillicothe the capital of the Northwestern Territory, and on the 3d of November, 1800, the general assembly met there. On this occasion, Gov. St. Clair remarked: "My term of office and yours, gentlemen of the house of representatives, will soon expire. It is, indeed, very uncertain whether I shall ever meet another assembly in the character I now hold, for I well know that the vilest calumnies and the greatest falsehoods are insidiously circulated among the people, with a view to prevent it. While I regret the baseness and malevolence of the authors, and well know that the laws have put the means of correction fully in my power, they have nothing to dread from me but the contempt they justly merit. The remorse of their own consciences will, one day, be punishment sufficient. Their arts, may, how ever, succeed. Be that as it may, of this I am certain, that be my successor who he may, he can never have the interests of the people of this territory more truly at heart than I have had, nor labor more assiduously for their good than I have done; and I am not conscious that any one act of my administration has been influenced by any other motive than a sincere desire to promote their welfare and happiness."

However, St. Clair was reappointed governor, in 1801. From 1799 to 1803, the territorial legislature met annually, though it

made but few laws, owing to the extensive powers conferred upon the governor by the ordinance of 1787, and the very arbitrary manner in which he vetoed every bill passed that seemed to cross his line of thought. He erected new counties at his pleasure, fixed county seats, and issued divers proclamations, enacting laws by his own authority. From these and other like acts the gov ernor became extremely unpopular.

The territorial progress of Ohio was surprisingly rapid. Without going into the dry details of legislative history, we find the people of the territory, early in 1802, in convention at Chillicothe, preparing a constitution, which was accepted by congress, and on the 30th of April, 1802, Ohio was admitted into the Union as a sovereign state.

CHAPTER XVIII.

TERRITORIAL HISTORIES INDIANA.

Willliam Henry Harrison — Land Office — Indian Troubles — Tecumseh and the Prophet Indian Complications - The Battle of Tippecanoe - Territorial Affairs - Legislation.

IN 1800, when the territorial government of Indiana was organized, although a few places in the state had been settled for over fifty years by whites, yet the country was a wilderness.* Its numerous rivers were not disturbed except by an occasional canoe loaded with furs, which the Indians and half-breeds propelled with oars. Its scattered settlements were filled with scenes and incidents of border life, many of which were full of romantic situations. In the meanwhile, however, a considerable traffic was carried on with the Indians by fur traders at Vincennes, Fort Wayne, and at different small trading posts which were established on the borders of the Wabash river and its tributaries. "The furs and peltries which were obtained from the Indians,' says Dillon, "were generally transported to Detroit. The skins

*Tuttle's History of Indiana.

were dried, compressed and secured in packs. Each pack weighed about one hundred pounds. A pirogue, or boat, that was suffi ciently large to carry forty packs, required the labor of four men to manage it on its voyage. In favorable stages of the Wabash river, such a vessel, under the management of skillful boatmen, was propelled fifteen or twenty miles a day."

Soon after the organization of the territorial government of Indiana, William Henry Harrison, the governor of the territory, turned his attention to making treaties with the Indians, relinquishing their claims to the territory. He entered into several treaties with the natives, by which, at the close of the year 1805, the government of the United States had obtained about forty-six thousand square miles of territory, including all the lands lying on the borders of the Ohio river, between the mouth of the Wabash river and the western boundary of Ohio. After passing to the second grade of government, in 1807, the territorial statutes were revised, and under the new code, treason, murder, arson and horse stealing were each punishable by death. The crime of manslaughter was punishable by the common law. Burglary and robbery were each punishable by whipping, fine, and in some cases by imprisonment "not exceeding forty years." Riotous persons were punishable by fine and imprisonment; the crime of larceny by fine or whipping, and in some cases by being bound to labor for a term not exceeding seven years. Forgery was punishable by fine, disfranchisement, and standing in the pillory. Assault and battery, as a crime, was punishable by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars. Hog stealing was punishable by fine and whipping. Gambling, profane swearing and Sabbath breaking were each punishable by fine. Bigamy was punishable by fine, whipping and disfranchisement. The code provided for the punishment of disobedient children and servants by the following section: "If any children or servants shall, contrary to the obedience due to their parents or masters, resist or refuse to obey their lawful commands, upon complaint thereof to a justice of the peace, it shall be lawful for such justice to send him or them so offending to the jail or house of correction, there to remain until he or they shall humble themselves to the said parent's or master's satisfaction. And, if any child or servant shall, contrary to

his bounden duty, presume to assault or strike his parent or master, upon complaint and conviction thereof, before two or more justices of the peace, the offender shall be whipped not exceeding ten stripes." By the act of congress of 1804, three land offices. were opened for the sale of lands in Indiana territory. One of these was located at Detroit, another at Vincennes, and another at Kaskaskia. By an act of congress approved 1807, a fourth land office for the sale of Indiana lands was opened in Jeffersonville, Clark county. This town was first laid out in 1802, agreeably to the plans suggested by Mr. Jefferson, who was then president of the United States.* "In his annual message to the territorial legislature, in 1806, governor Harrison congratulated the people upon the peaceful disposition of the Indians. He was inclined to the opinion that they would never again have recourse to arms, unless driven to it by a series of injustice and oppression. They did, as we shall see, again resort to arms, and it is not improper, even at this late day, to make the inquiry as to whether or not they were not driven to do so by the very policy which governor Harrison pointed out as dangerous in 1806. In the same message the governor remarked that they were already making complaintscomplaints far from being groundless. The laws of the territory provided the same punishment for offenses committed against Indians as against white men, but, unhappily, there was always a wide difference in the execution of those laws. The Indian was, in all cases, the sufferer. This partiality did not escape their observation. On the contrary, it afforded them an opportunity of making strong comparisons between their own observance of treaties and that of their boasted superiors. All along, from 1805 to 1810, the Indians complained bitterly against the encroachments of the white people upon the lands that belonged to them. The invasion of their favorite hunting grounds, and the unjustifiable killing of many of their people were the sources of their discontent. An old chief, in laying the trouble of his people before governor Harrison, remarked: You call us your children; why do not make us as happy as our fathers, the French, did? They never took from us our lands; indeed, they were in common between us. They planted where they pleased, and they cut wood *History of Indiana.

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