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The increased emigration to the Northwest,
the extent of the domain, and the inconvenient modes of travel, made it
very difficult to conduct 'the ordinary operations of government, and
rendered the efficient action of courts almost impossible. To remedy this,
it was deemed advisable to divide the territory for civil purposes. Congress,
in 1800, appointed a committee to examine the question and report some
means for its solution. This committee, on the 3d of March, reported that:
"In the three western countries there has been but one court having
cognizance of crimes, in five years, and the immunity which offenders
experience attracts, as to an asylum, the most vile and abandoned criminals,
and at the same time deters useful citizens from making settlements in
such society. The extreme necessity of judiciary attention and assistance
is experienced in civil as well as in criminal cases. * * * * To minister
a remedy to these and other evils, it occurs to this committee that it
is expedient that a division of said territory into two distinct and separate
governments should be made; and that such division be made by a line beginning
at the mouth of the Great Miami River, running directly north until it
intersects the boundary between the United States and Canada."
The report was accepted by Congress, and, in accordance with its suggestions,
that body passed an Act extinguishing the Northwest Territory, which Act
was approved May 7. Among its provisions were these:
"That from and after July 4 next, all that part of the Territory
of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, which lies to the westward
of a line beginning at a point on the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the
Kentucky River, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north
until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States
and Canada, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute
a separate territory, and be called the Indiana Territory."
After providing for the exercise of the civil and criminal powers of
the territories, and other provisions, the Act further provides:
"That until it shall otherwise be ordered by the Legislatures of
the said Territories, respectively, Chillicothe on the Scioto River shall
be the seat of government of the Territory of the United States northwest
of the Ohio River; and that St. Vincennes on the Wabash River shall be
the seat of government for the Indiana Territory."
Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison was appointed Governor of the
Indiana Territory, and entered upon his duties about a year later. Connecticut
also about this time released her claims to the reserve, and in March
a law
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was passed accepting this cession. Settlements had been made
upon thirty-five of the townships in the reserve, mills had been built,
and seven hundred miles of road cut in various directions. On the 3d of
November the General Assembly met at Chillicothe. Near the close of the
year, the first missionary of the Connecticut Reserve came, who found no
township containing more than eleven families. It was upon the first of
October that the secret treaty had been made between Napoleon and the King
of Spain, whereby the latter agreed to cede to France the province of Louisiana.
In January, 1802, the Assembly of the Northwestern Territory chartered
the college at Athens. From the earliest dawn of the western colonies,
education was promptly provided for, and as early as 1787, newspapers
were issued from Pittsburgh and Kentucky, and largely read throughout
the frontier settlements. Before the close of this year, the Congress
of the United States granted to the citizens of the Northwestern territory
the formation of a State government. One of the provisions of the "compact
of 1787" provided that whenever the number of inhabitants within
prescribed limits exceeded 45,000, they should be entitled to a separate
government. The prescribed limits of Ohio contained, from a census taken
to ascertain the legality of the act, more than that number, and on the
30th of April, 1802, Congress passed the act defining its limits, and
on the 29th of November the Constitution of the new State of Ohio, so
named from the beautiful river forming its southern boundary, came into
existence. The exact limits of Lake Michigan were not then known, but
the territory now included within the State of Michigan was wholly within
the territory of Indiana.
Gen. Harrison, while residing at Vincennes, made several
treaties with the Indians, thereby gaining large tracts of lands. The
next year is memorable in the history of the West for the purchase of
Louisiana from France by the United States for $15,000,000. Thus by a
peaceful mode, the domain of the United States was extended over a large
tract of country west of the Mississippi, and was for a time under the
jurisdiction of the Northwest government, and, as has been mentioned in
the early part of this narrative, was called the "New Northwest."
The limits of this history will not allow a description of its territory.
The same year large grants of land were obtained from the Indians, and
the House of Representatives of the new State of Ohio signed a bill respecting
the College Township in the district of Cincinnati.
Before the close of the year, Gen. Harrison obtained
additional grants of lands from the various Indian nations in Indiana
and the present limits of Illinois, and on the 18th of August, 1804, completed
a treaty at St. Louis, whereby over 51,000,000 acres of lands were obtained
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aborigines. Measures were also taken to learn the condition
of affairs in and about Detroit. C. Jouett, the Indian
agent in Michigan, still a part of Indiana Territory, reported as follows
upon the condition of matters at that post:
"The Town of Detroit.—The charter, which is for fifteen miles
square, was granted in the time of Louis XIV. of France, and is now, from
the best information I have been able to get, at Quebec. Of those two
hundred and twenty-five acres, only four are occupied by the town and
Fort Lenault. The remainder is a common,, except twenty-four acres, which
were added twenty years ago to a farm belonging to Wm. Macomb.
* * * A stockade incloses the town, fort and citadel. The pickets, as
well as the public houses, are in a state of gradual decay. The streets
are narrow, straight and regular, and intersect each other at right angles.
The houses are, for the most part, low and inelegant."
During this year, Congress granted a township of land for the support
of a college, and began to offer inducements for settlers in these wilds,
and the country now comprising the State of Michigan began to fill rapidly
with settlers along its southern borders. This same year, also, a law
was passed organizing the Southwest Territory, dividing it into two portions,
the Territory of New Orleans, which city was made the seat of government,
and the District of Louisiana, which was annexed to the domain of Gen.
Harrison.
On the 11th of January, 1805, the Territory of Michigan was formed,
Wm. Hull was appointed governor, with headquarters at
Detroit, the change to take effect on June 30. On the 11th of that month,
a fire occurred at Detroit, which destroyed almost every building in the
place. When the officers of the new territory reached the post, they found
it in ruins, and the inhabitants scattered throughout the country. Rebuilding,
however, soon commenced, and ere long the town contained more houses than
before the fire, and many of them much better built.
While this was being done, Indiana had passed to the second grade of
government, and through her General Assembly had obtained large tracts
of land from the Indian tribes. To all this the celebrated Indian, Tecumthe
or Tecumseh, vigorously protested, and it was the main
cause of his attempts to unite the various Indian tribes in a conflict
with the settlers. To obtain a full account of these attempts, the workings
of the British, and the signal failure, culminating in the death of Tecumseh
at the battle of the Thames, and the close of the war of 1812 in the Northwest,
we will step aside in our story, and relate the principal events of his
life, and his connection with this conflict. |