Ohio History Journal

ADDRESS OF JUDGE JOSEPH COX.

 

THE BUILDING OF THE STATE.

 

THE first settlement in this State, at Marietta, and

organization of the Northwest Territory, under the

Ordinance of 1787, were the most notable events in the

history of our country, and deserve to rank among the

greatest of the civilized world. The Territory having

been wrested from the domination of foreign nations by

the combined strength of the American Colonies after the

eight years' struggle of the Revolutionary war, it became

at once a subject of intense interest as to what disposition

should be made of it. The soldiers of the Revolution,

who had periled their all in defense of the country,

claimed it as the common inheritance of all the Colonies,

and to be disposed of by a central government. Virginia,

New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts also made

claims of different kinds to it, and it was not until 1786

that these conflicting contentions were settled, and it was

agreed by their relinquishment that the land should be the

property of the United States, then existing under the

"Articles of Confederation," to be formed into States, and

to be admitted into the Union when so formed, upon equal

footing in all respects with the original States, and the land

disposed of for the common benefit of all the States, the

manner and conditions of sale to be regulated exclusively

by Congress.

Consider the vastness of the territory thus to be con-

trolled, embracing nearly 240,000 square miles, or 150,-

ooo,ooo acres! A land not then fully explored by white

men, but so far as known, considered to be one of

boundless forests, immense swamps, extensive prairies,

impassable rivers, rough and barren hills, yet rich in all

the possible resources for future habitations, but filled

with wild beasts alert in pursuit of their prey  roving

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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.        151

 

bands of savages numbering, as was supposed, nearly

sixty thousand warriors, claiming title to the soil, and

jealous of every encroachment on their hunting grounds

by their enemy, the white man.    This wilderness, thus

beset with hardships and danger, if settled, must be by

men and women reared in the civilization of the Eastern

States, abandoning their long-cherished homes and all the

comforts and refinements to which they had been accus-

tomed, and taking a long and toilsome march over the

Alleghany mountains.   The hostile Indian must be ap-

peased by treaty or kindness; these failing, by war, ere

their new homes or lives were safe.  The wolf, and bear,

and panther must be kept from the door by long and

weary watches; the wilderness must be cleared by hard

and exhaustive toil before bread could be raised, and all

this, with the sickness, incident to a new country, wearing

their strength and lives away.

All this aboriginal rudeness and savagery lurked at the

western border of the old States, a standing menace to all

peace and security. No treaty had thus far been sufficient

to prevent this. The independence of the colonies having

been achieved and acknowledged, the eyes of the world

were turned to America as the paradise of nations, where

man could be the arbiter of his own destiny, and there was

every probability that the available lands along the eastern

stretch of the Alleghanies to the Atlantic Ocean would be

rapidly filled by the incoming hosts from foreign lands.

National needs, as well as national security, required that

the vast Western territory should no longer be the sole

homes of savages, but should be reclaimed and converted

into homes for civilized men.

But who shall be equal to this great task?  Where are

the men with sufficient nerve and muscle to face these

dangers and conquer them? With a rich and powerful

government behind them to protect and aid, the demand

might easily have been filled.  But a long and exhaustive

war had depleted the Treasury, left the nation almost hope-

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152  Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

lessly involved in debt to its citizen soldiery, its bonds and

obligations for millions outstanding unpaid, with no re-

sources by which to redeem them, and to add to this, the

land filled with counterfeited scrip and bills, almost impos-

sible to be distinguished from the genuine. What, there-

fore, could be expected from the government? In this

emergency there stepped forward nearly three hundred

soldiers who had borne the heat and burden of a long cam-

paign of eight years, under Washington, who had left their

wives and children at home to eke out a scanty living as

best they might while the husbands and fathers were fight-

ing for their country's independence, and now with broken

fortunes and health, and tattered clothes, but with hearts

overflowing with patriotism, they presented themselves to

the Congress by their leader, General Rufus Putnam, and

said: "Ten years ago, when war was proclaimed against

the Mother Country, you promised bounties in land to the

soldiers of the Revolution who should continue to the close

of the war, or until discharged, and to their representa-

tives, should they be slain by the enemy, where the

remainder of their days might be passed on their own

lands, in the enjoyment of that freedom for which they

periled their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

We have faithfully performed our duty, as history will

record. We come to you now and ask that in redemption

of your promise you give us homes in that Western

wilderness, and our stout arms will cope with the sav-

ages if need be; we will hew down the forests, and therein

erect temples to the living God, raise and educate our

children to serve and love and honor the Nation for which

their fathers fought, cultivate farms, build towns and cities,

and make that wilderness the pride and glory of the

nation. All we ask is that it shall be consecrated to us

and our children forever, with the blessings of that Decla-

ration which proclaimed to the world, and sustained by our

arms, established is self-evident that all men are created

equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer-

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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.         153

tain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure these

ends governments are instituted among men, deriving

their just power from the consent of the governed."

It is not necessary that I should here repeat the long

struggle and many endeavors of Washington, General Put-

nam, Manasseh Cutler, and others, to surmount the diffi-

culties in their path, but which were ultimately successful,

in the grant to the Ohio Company and the adoption of

that wonderful Ordinance of 178₇ for the government

of the Northwest Territory.  I call it wonderful, for the

clearness of its enunciation of principles of government,

based on the true rights of man, not only for that time,

but for all time, has had no equal in history.  It is some-

times said of great events " that men build wiser than

they know." But that can not be said of this instrument.

It was not framed in the dark or by guesswork. It was

the work of wise, thoughtful men who were framing, as

they believed, an instrument on which depended all the

future fortune and happiness of themselves and their

posterity to remote generations, and the history of its

birth shows that every part was carefully scanned, and

every principle it contains tenaciously adhered to, until

success crowned their efforts. How few there are who

fully comprehend its great importance and the in-

valuable guarantees it gave!  By the general mind, it

is referred to as only an ordinance, which provided

that slavery and involuntary servitude should never exist

in the Territory.  This, it is true, is one of its great

features. But it contained infinitely more than that. Its

principles are greater than those of Magna Charta wrested

by the English barons from King John. It was the first

fruits of the Declaration of Independence-the first crys-

talization of its principles into organic law. It fixed rights

and obligations which are of the very essence of the nat-

ural and inherent rights of man. It provided for the pro-

tection of personal property and freedom of conscience of

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154   Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

every man. It declares that the estates of residents and

non-resident proprietors in the Northwest Territory dying

without wills should descend to and be distributed among

their children and the descendants of a deceased child,

or grandchild, to take the share of their parents in equal

parts among them; and when there shall be no children

or descendants, then in equal parts to the next of kin, in

equal degree; and among collaterals the children of a

deceased brother or sister of the intestate shall have, in

equal parts among them, their deceased parent's share;

and there shall be in no case a distinction between the

kindred of the whole and of the half blood, saving in all

cases to the widow one-third part of the real estate for life

and one-third part of the personalty; thus striking down

with one blow the old English law of primogeniture, by

which the first-born alone inherited the estate-a law which

has been the curse of that and every other country where it

has been adopted.

It gave the proprietor the right to devise his property by

will to whomsoever he chose-to convey it by lease or bargain

and sale, thus giving him the absolute ownership of all the

property he might accumulate.

It proclaimed absolute freedom in religion by providing

that no person should ever be molested on account of his

mode of worship or religious sentiments; that all should

be entitled to the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus to

test the legality of detention or imprisonment, and should

be also entitled to trial by jury; and all should be protected

by judicial proceedings according to the course of the

common law; that all should be bailable, except for capital

cases, when the proof should be evident or the presump-

tion great; fines for offenses should be moderate, no cruel

or unusual punishment inflicted; no man to be deprived

of his liberty or property but by the judgment of his peers

or the law of the land; if the public necessity demanded

that his property be taken for the common benefit or his

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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.         155

own services so required, that full compensation be paid;

and that no law ought ever to be passed which shall in

any manner whatever interfere with or affect private con-

tracts or engagements bona fide and without fraud pre-

viously formed.

It declared the fundamental principles of civil and relig-

ious liberty to form the basis whereon these Republics,

their laws and constitutions are founded, and that this

ordinance was to fix and establish these principles as the

basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments which

forever hereafter shall be formed in said Territory. And

that religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to

good government and the happiness of mankind, schools

and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

That the utmost good faith should be observed toward

the Indian; his property shall not be taken without his

consent, and they shall never be invaded or disturbed

unless in just or lawful war, authorized by Congress; and

it provided for a Governor, Executive officers, Legislative

Assembly, and Courts of Justice; for the formation of not

less than three, nor more than five, States in the territory,

under constitutions to be republican, and in conformity to

the principles contained in these articles; and that such

States might be admitted, so far as might be consistent

with the general interest of the Confederacy, with a num-

ber of free inhabitants less than 60,000. And it declared

that these articles shall be considered articles of compact

between the original States and the people and States of

said territory, and forever unalterable, unless by common

consent.

Looking over this whole Ordinance, section by section,

who can point to any previous one which so clearly de-

fined and so fully provided for the protection of all the

rights of persons and property?

Armed and protected with this charter and pledge of

their government, a portion of this brave remnant of the

soldiers of the Revolution, in the dreary midwinter of

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156     Ohio Archeaological and Historical Quarterly.

1787-8, bade farewell to all the cherished endearments

of the homes of their birth and childhood, and took their

solitary way over fields made gory by the blood of their

slain kinsmen in many a hard-fought battle, crossed rough

and inhospitable mountains, waded through snow and

streams, scantily clothed and poorly fed, and, after many

weary weeks, on the seventh of April, one hundred years

ago, landed on yonder point beneath the shadows of those

monuments of a race long since swept from the face of

the earth, their homes melted away and their sites recov-

ered with the forests of ages, and their name and history

unwrit and forgotten. That memorable seventh of April,

1788, should never be forgotten, or passed over in silence,

by any one who venerates the heroic character of the

grand men who first planted their feet on this soil on

that day.

Here on that day, on the broad and true foundation of

the Declaration of Independence and the Ordinance of

1787, these brave men began the work of the building of

this State. But in that great work they were not to be

left unaided. Reports of the vast resources of the West-

ern territory, its fine climate, its great possibilities for

agriculture, manufacture and commerce, its great lakes,

noble rivers and the free character impressed on it by the

government, spread through all classes of society, and ap-

plication was made to Congress for the sale of other por-

tions and its opening to settlement by other associations,

similar to that of the Ohio Company. A portion in the

south-western part of the State had been reserved by Vir-

ginia for the soldiers from that State who had fought for

their country, and another by Connecticut in the central

part for those of her citizens who had suffered by fire from

the incursions of the British in that State, and these were

beginning to be occupied. Judge John Cleves Symmes,

of New Jersey, who had been a Delegate in Congress and

was now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that State,

on the 29th of August, 1787, made application to the Pres-

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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.        157

ident and Congress for the purchase of lands lying at the

mouth of the Big Miami (now the southwestern end of the

State), thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Little

Miami so as to embrace about a million of acres.

After many negotiations with the Commissioners and

frequent changes in terms (owing, as in that of the Ohio

Company, to the difficulty of obtaining government scrip,

because it had risen rapidly as soon as it was seen that the

government would take it in payment for land), Judge

Symmes, supposing his contract agreed upon, started in

July, 1788, with a train of fourteen four-horse wagons and

sixty persons, to locate on his new purchase.

He came, as did the Ohio Company, over the Alleghany

mountains, and by way of Pittsburg and Wheeling in flat-

boats, stopping a brief time at Marietta to confer with the

inhabitants there, a portion of whom, with Manasseh Cut-

ler, he had seen at Bedford, Penn., on their route, and on

the 22d of September landed at the mouth of the Little

Miami river, above Cincinnati, and explored a portion of

the country in the rear. But he made no permanent set-

tlement then, but returned to Limestone (now Maysville),

Kentucky. The Indians had become restive under the

now apparent determination of the whites to make large

permanent settlements in the territory, and, under pre-

tense that former treaties made with some of their tribes

had been with persons unauthorized to act for whole

tribes, made frequent incursions on all the white settle-

ments, stealing property, burning cabins, and killing the

inmates.  Repeated attempts had been made to hold

definitive treaties with persons acknowledged as author-

ized by all the tribes, but in vain.

In October, 1786, General Clark had invited all the sav-

ages of the Northwest to meet him in council in November,

but they replied it was too late in the season, and the meet-

ing was postponed until April, 1787. Nothing had been

done, however, until July, when the Superintendent of

Indian Affairs was ordered to proceed to Vincennes and

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158  Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

hold a council with the Wabash and Shawnees. It was

finally determined that a treaty should be held early in '88

with these tribes, by the Governor of the new Territory,

and troops to preserve peace were stationed at Venango,

Fort Pitt, Fort McIntosh, the Muskingum, Miami, Vin-

cennes and Louisville, Ky., and the militia of Kentucky

were held in readiness for any emergency. But these

preparations had no effect; the Indians were neither over-

awed, conquered, nor satisfied, and all further proceedings

were continued until January, 1789, when the meeting was

held at Fort Harmar.

But, notwithstanding these difficulties, the settlers went

on with their improvements, guarding as well as they

might against the incursions of the savages. When

Symmes returned to Limestone from the Miamis, Major

Benjamin Stites went down with twenty-six persons and

built a block-house near the mouth of the Little Miami,

on the 2₅th of November, 1788, and established the town

of Columbia, now a part of Cincinnati.

During all this time the Indians were lingering about

the settlements at Marietta and the Miamis, evidently hos-

tile, but apparently friendly, until satisfactory treaties could

be made.

At Marietta the settlement increased and went on pros-

perously. The inhabitants were watchful and industrious.

Houses were built to shelter them, new improvements pro-

jected, a church and school-house erected, and now it con-

tained one hundred and thirty-three men, fifteen of whom

had families. That all might be protected under some

kind of law, the Governor not having yet arrived to pro-

mulgate any, the people met together and framed such as

were necessary for their temporary security, and that all

might became acquainted with them they were publicly

nailed on a large oak tree on the Point, the most public

place in the village, and Return Jonathan Meigs was ap-

pointed to administer them. As a strong evidence of the

good habits of the people, it is said that during the three

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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.        159

months of their existence but one difference arose, and

that was compromised. This well justified the assertion

of Washington that "no colony in America was ever set-

tled under such favorable auspices as that which has

just commenced at the Muskingum. Information, prop-

erty and strength will be its characteristics. I know many

of the settlers personally, and there never were men better

calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."

On the second of July, 1788, the village was publicly

christened Marietta, after the unfortunate French Queen,

Marie Antoinette, it having before that borne the name of

Adelphia. On the fourth, a celebration of the anniversary

of independence was held, Judge Varnum delivering the

oration, and on the ninth, General Arthur St. Clair, who

had been appointed Governor, arrived. The first law

regulating the militia was published, and on the twenty-

sixth the Governor issued a proclamation creating all the

country which had been ceded by the Indians east of

the Scioto into the county of Washington. On the second

of September, 1788, the first Court was opened with appro-

priate ceremonies. The description, as given by the his-

torian, is one worthy of the pencil of the greatest of

painters, and I well remember when, as a boy, I first read

it, the enthusiastic feelings it raised in me. Never was a

court established with a more becoming sense of the

great importance of that tribunal, which should ever sit

as the representative of God dispensing justice on earth.

I love still to read that description, and fancy myself one

of the interested spectators.

The procession was formed at the Point, where most of

the settlers resided, in the following order:

1. The High Sheriff (Colonel Ebenezer Sproat) with

drawn sword. He is described as a man of uncommonly

tall, portly person and commanding figure, who at once

attracted the attention of the Indians, who styled him the

Big Buckeye. He had been conspicuous in the battles of

Trenton, Princeton, Monmouth and many others in the

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160       Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

Revolutionary war. He was a man of bold and dauntless

courage, and bore that sword of sheriff for fourteen years.

2. The citizens! What a grand company of citizens!

Generals and colonels, majors, captains, inferior officers

and private soldiers who had passed through the blood,

fires of the Revolution, now marching in the quiet garbs

of citizens to enthrone a court of justice, which should in

peace be the arbiter of all their rights of life, person and

property.

3. Officers of the garrison of Fort Harmar, composed of

the same class of men, but yet in the military service to

protect the colony.

4. Members of the bar, now transferred from the fierce

arena of war to the calm contention of mind with mind.

5. The Supreme Judges, General Samuel H. Parsons

and General James M. Varnum, both distinguished officers

of the Revolutionary army, and eminent lawyers and

statesmen.

6. The Governor, General Arthur St. Clair, distinguished

also in the same war and as President of the Continental

Congress.

7. The newly-appointed Judges of the Court of Com-

mon Pleas, Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper,

both also distinguished in that war, and also as the fathers

of the new colony and its most active promoters. This

august procession marched up a path that had been cut

and cleared through the forest to Campus Martius (the

stockade), when the whole countermarched and the Judges

took their seats. Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, one of the

most eminent clergymen of the time, a chaplain in the

Revolutionary army, a member of Congress afterward, and

one of the most active and intelligent in forming the

Ohio Company, then invoked the Divine blessing, and the

sheriff solemnly proclaimed that a Court is now open for

the administration of even-handed justice to the poor and

rich, to the guilty and the innocent, without respect of

persons, none to be punished without a trial by their



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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.          161

 

peers, and then in pursuance of the law and evidence in the

case. As witnesses to this spectacle was a large body of

Indians from the most powerful tribes in the entire West,

who had assembled for the purpose of making a treaty.

The court of justice of the State then so solemnly opened

has, in all these hundred years, never been closed; but is

still open to all classes who seek redress for wrongs. The

Territorial government, having been now established, with

General St. Clair, Governor; Winthrop Sargent, Secretary;

Samuel H. Parsons, John C. Symmes (in place of John

Armstrong, resigned,) and James M. Varnum began the

duty of legislating for the Territory, and continued in

session until December, enacting a number of laws, which,

however, were not approved by Congress, on the ground

that the Governor and Judges had authority only to adopt

existing laws from the codes of the original States, but

not to enact laws of their own formation. On July 2,

1788, Congress was informed officially that a sufficient num-

ber of States had ratified the new constitution of the

United States, and measures were taken to put it in

force.

On January 9, 1789, at Fort Harmar, a treaty of peace

was made with the Indian tribes. With the Iroquois, con-

firming the previous one at Fort Stanwix in 1784; another

with the Wyandottes, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas,

Pottawattamies and Sacs, confirming and extending the treaty

of Fort McIntosh of January, 1785.

The first Congress under the new constitution of the

United States assembled at Federal Hall, Wall street, New

York, in April, 1789, and installed George Washington as first

President of the United States, and one of its first official acts

was to confirm the treaty made at Fort Harmar.

The terms of Territorial officers having expired on the

adoption of the new constitution, President Washington

appointed General St. Clair, Governor; Winthrop Sargent,

Secretary; Samuel H. Parsons, John Cleves Symmes and

William Barton, Judges of the General Court. William

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162   Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

Barton declined, and George Turner was appointed in his

stead. Judge Parsons died shortly after, and General Rufus

Putnam was appointed in his place.

While affairs were thus progressing at Marietta, active

steps were being taken in the Miami Purchase. On the

24th of December, 1788, Israel Ludlow, Matthias Denman,

Robert Patterson, Joel Williams and twenty-three other

men left Limestone, and on the 28th of December, amid

floating ice that filled the Ohio from shore to shore, landed

at Losantiville, now Cincinnati. This party proceeded at

once to lay out, survey and make a plat of the new town.

By the close of the year eleven families and twenty-four

unmarried men were residents. On the 9th of August

Captain Strong, with Lieutenant Kingsbury and Ensign

Hartshorn and a company of seventy men left Marietta,

and on the 11th Captain Ferguson and Major Doughty fol-

lowed, for the purpose of clearing ground and laying out a

new fort for the protection of the settlers in Symmes' Pur-

chase. After reconnoitering for three days from the Little

to the Big Miami for an eligible site, he at length fixed on

that opposite the mouth of the Licking river, which he

represented as high and healthy, abounding with never-

failing springs, and the most proper position he could find.

On the 26th of September, 1789, he began the building of

Fort Washington, in Cincinnati on the square bounded by

Third and Fourth and Broadway and Ludlow street, on a

reservation of fifteen acres made by the government. On

the 24th of December, 1789, General Harmar left Fort

Harmar with a small fleet of boats and three hundred men,

and on the 28th landed at, and took command of, Fort

Washington. Major Doughty returned to the command of

Fort Harmar, and thenceforth for a number of years Fort

Washington was the headquarters of the United States army

in the West.

In this settlement, as well as at Marietta, was felt the

necessity of religious services and educational privileges.

On the twenty-fourth of January, 1790, the Baptist Church

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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.          163

 

was organized at Columbia, with Rev. Stephen Gano as

pastor, and shortly after an academy, with John Reilly

as teacher; and in 1791 Rev. James Kemper was installed as

pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Cincinnati, and a

church erected in 1792, on the corner of Fourth and Main,

where the present church stands, and on the same lot the

Cincinnati College Building.

On the second of January, 1790, Governor St. Clair arrived

at Cincinnati and organized the County of Hamilton, and

changed the name of the town from Losantiville to Cincinnati,

after that of the society organized by the officers of the

Revolutionary army, of which he was a prominent mem-

ber. William Goforth, William Wells, and William Mc-

Millan were appointed Judges of the Court of Common Pleas,

I. Brown, Sheriff, and Israel Ludlow, Prothonotary or

Clerk, and officers of the militia were appointed.  As

at Marietta before Governor St. Clair arrived, the people

had been governed by laws of their own making, with

Israel Ludlow appointed by them as Sheriff to execute

them. But after the Governor arrived Courts began to

sit regularly, and the community came easily under the forces

of law and order. A celebration was held on the fourth of

July, with a salute of thirteen guns and a military parade.

The original settlers of Cincinnati were like those of Marietta,

mostly composed of officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary

war.

But now the depredations of the Indians became more

frequent and alarming  No settlement was safe from attack

by day or night. The Indians threw off all restraints

of tactics, and seemed bent on annihilating every settlement

with the torch, tomahawk, and scalping-knife. It was then

determined that General Harmar should march to the

Indian towns at the head of the Miami of the Lakes,

and inflict such chastisement upon them as would protect

from further depredations. His command consisted of 320

regular troops from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and

1,133 drafted militia from  Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

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164   Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

He proceeded on his toilsome journey through the wilder-

ness and the great swamp, and on the 30th of September,

1790, arrived at the Indian towns on the Maumee, and in

the neighborhood of Fort Wayne, Ind., and, after destroy-

ing a number of them and laying waste their corn-fields,

he was attacked at different points by large bodies of

Indians, and, after suffering great loss of men, was com-

pelled to retreat with the remnant of his forces to Fort

Washington, which he left shortly after for Philadelphia,

being succeeded in command by General St. Clair. Re-

peated attempts were made after this to induce the Indians

to cease their depredations, but in vain, and the situation

at every point became more alarming. General Putnam,

writing to the President, January 2, 1791, reported an

attack on Big Bottom, forty miles up the river, in which

eleven men, one woman and two children were killed, three

men missing and six escaped. "Thus," he says, "the war

which was partial before the campaign of last year is in all

probability become general. Our situation is truly criti-

cal. * * * Several settlements are broken up * * * and

unless Government speedily send a body of troops for our

protection we are a ruined people."

Similar complaints and appeals were made by Judge

Symmes and others. The government became aroused to

a true appreciation of the real danger and determined to

take the most active measures. From the high character

of General St. Clair in the army, Washington appointed

him Major-General of all the troops to be employed on the

frontier, and he was directed to proceed to the Indian

country and attempt to establish a just and liberal peace

with all the Indian tribes; but, if all lenient means failed,

to use such coercive measures as he should possess. Under

these orders he proceeded to organize his army at Ludlow

Station, now in the northern part of Cincinnati, and on the

17th of September, 1792, with 2,300 men, exclusive of

militia, he moved forward twenty-five miles to the Great

Miami river and erected Fort Hamilton on the site of the

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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.           165

 

present city of Hamilton; thence forty-four' miles and

erected Fort Jefferson, six miles south of where Greenville,

in Darke county, now stands, and on the 24th of October

marched northward through the wilderness. The roads

were heavy and wet, the militia began deserting, the com-

mander was enfeebled by disease, when, on the morning of

November 4th, near what is now Fort Recovery, in Mercer

county, just at daylight, they were attacked by an over-

whelming force of Indians and terribly defeated (over six

hundred killed) and the army straggled back bleeding and

torn to Fort Washington. This defeat sent a thrill of horror

through the nation.

The Indians, triumphant and instigated by British traders,

were truly on the war path. Every attempt to mollify

them utterly failed, and it was determined to send a new

force against them under a new commander. The selection

was a difficult one: two brave and distinguished Gen-

erals had already failed. Generals Morgan, Scott, Wayne,

Henry Lee and Colonel Darke were suggested. Wash-

ington finally selected General Anthony Wayne, to the

extreme disgust of all orders, it is said, in the Old Dominion,

as Governor Lee then wrote him. But Washington was

inflexible in his choice; and it was well, for it inspired

everywhere confidence in the desponding. The old soldiers

of the Revolution remembered him at Brandywine, Mon-

mouth, Valley Forge, and at Stony Point, where, when

leading his forces and falling, as was supposed, mortally

wounded, he yet cried out to his men: "March on! Carry

me into the fort, for I will die at the head of my col-

umn!" Never was confidence better warranted. On the

15th of August, 1794 with an army of 2,600, he started

on his March from Fort Washington to the Indian country.

Victory perched on his banner at the battle of The Fallen

Timbers, on the Maumee. His name became a terror to

the Indians as Mad Anthony. They sued for peace, and

the treaty at Greenville, in 1795, followed, giving peace to

all the Territory for seventeen years. The remnant of his

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166   Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

victorious army returned in triumph to Fort Washington

and was disbanded.   The gallant General shortly after

retiring to Erie, Penn., in broken health, where he died

the following year, leaving an honored name for bravery

and patriotism, which can never be forgotten by the peo-

ple of these States. Conspicuous on his staff in all this

campaign was a young officer, who but a year or two

before had come from Virginia, and whom he afterward

placed in command of Fort Washington as Captain, Will-

iam Henry Harrison, the son of the President of the Con-

gressional Committee of the Whole when the Declaration of

Independence was adopted, and whose name is appended

to that instrument, and who was three times elected Gov-

ernor of Virginia. The history of the son is too well

known to more than name his career as first Delegate

in Congress from this Territory, Governor of Indiana

Territory, United States Senator, Commander-in-Chief of

the Western forces at Tippecanoe, River Rasin, and the

Thames, Minister to Columbia, and President of the United

States.

And now, with peace once more restored, the people

returned to all the peaceful avocations of life which had

so long been invaded by war. All the old States poured

the men and women of their best and bravest blood into

the Territory. A new impulse was given to trade and

agriculture. Forests were rapidly felled, towns sprang up

as if by magic, all the hopes of the early pioneers were fast

blossoming into fruit.

In 1798 the territory contained 15,000 white male inhab-

itants, and it was, therefore, entitled to enter on the

second grade of the Territorial government. The gov-

ernment accordingly called the people to elect representa-

tives to the first General Assembly, and required the

members elected to meet at Cincinnati in convention, to

nominate ten persons, to be returned to the President of

the United States, out of whom five were to be selected

by him, with the consent of the Senate, to be commis-

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Address of Judge Joseph Cox.          167

 

sioned as a Legislative Council.  The representatives

were chosen, and on the fourth of February, 1799, nomi-

nated ten names, out of which were commissioned Jacob

Burnet and James Findlay, of Cincinnati; Henry Vander-

burgh, of Vincennes; Robert Oliver, of Marietta, and David

Vance, of Vanceville.  A Legislative body was selected,

composed of the most substantial men of the country.

Both branches assembled at Cincinnati September 16,

1799, and elected their officers. On the 3rd of October in

joint session they elected William H. Harrison as the first

Delegate to Congress. He had been acting as Secretary

of the Territory, but immediately resigned and went to

Philadelphia and took his seat in Congress.  His first act

was to offer a resolution to subdivide the surveys of public

lands and have them offered for sale in small tracts. This

he succeeded in having passed, although resisted by land

speculators.  This was a most beneficent measure.    It

put it in the power of every industrious man, however

poor, to own his own home.   He also obtained liberal ex-

tension for the payment of those who had acquired pre-

emption rights. At the same session Congress divided the

Northwest Territory by establishing the new Territory of

Indiana, and Harrison was appointed Governor and Super-

intendent of Indian Affairs, which he accepted and resigned

his seat in Congress. The new Legislature applied itself

assiduously to the work of reorganizing the laws of the

Territory, and the subject of education engaged their most

serious attention, and Congress was urged to secure to the

Territory the title of lands promised for the support of

schools and colleges, including section 16 in every township.

During the session a memorial was presented by officers

of the Virginia line in Continental service in the Revolu-

tionary war praying for toleration to remove with their

slaves to the military bounty lands.  As the Ordinance of

1787 prohibited it, the body had no other alternative but

to reject it.  "But," said Judge Burnet, a member of the

body, (and the author of most of the early laws of the

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168    Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

State,) "the public feeling on the subject of admitting

slavery into the Territory was such that the request would

have been denied by a unanimous vote of the Legislature

if it had the power of granting it." The next session was

by act of Congress removed to Chillicothe, when William

McMillan was elected delegate to Congress to fill the place

of Mr Harrison till March 4th and Paul Fearing, of Mari-

etta, for the two years thereafter. The Legislature met in

Chillicothe in 1801, and sat from November to January,

1802, and adjourned to meet in Cincinnati in November

following. In January, 1802, a census was taken of the

eastern division of the Territory, which was found to con-

tain 45,028 persons of both sexes, and application was

made to Congress for leave to call a convention to establish

a State government. This was granted, and on the 1st of

November, 1802, the convention met at Chillicothe and

remained in session till the 29th, when the constitution

was ratified and signed by the members, and thus became

the fundamental law without any submission to the people.

The entire proceedings of the convention are contained in

a pamphlet of forty-nine pages.

Its provisions were in accordance with the fundamental

principles of the Ordinance of 1787 and Ohio then became

one of the States of the Union, on equal terms with the

other States, and under it our fathers proceeded to build

up this great State. Although many thought the forma-

tion of the State was premature, yet it really proved the

wisest course. It gave a spirit of ambition and independ-

ence to the people, which became visible in every avoca-

tion. This constitution remained in force fifty years, when

a new one was adopted to suit the growing necessities of

the people.  Under that constitution new emigration set

to the State, and soon the active industry of the farmers

produced more food than supplied their necessities, and

they began to seek market for it.  But there were no rail-

roads or turnpikes or canals, and the only available route

for iransportation was by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers

• 19
 

Address of Judge Joseph Cox.          169

 

to the markets of New Orleans or the sea. This had, to

some extent, been used by flat-boats, and in 1801 a ship was

built at Marietta and successfully passed down to the ocean.

But as Spain owned Louisiana, she put obstructions in

the way of navigating these waters until her overthrow by

Napoleon, who in 1803 conveyed the whole territory to

the United States for eighty million of francs, or about

$15,000,000, thus giving an unvexed way through the whole

route to the sea.

Under all these favorable circumstances the State grew

rapidly. The building of vessels began at Marietta, by

that brave veteran seaman of the Revolution, Commodore

Whipple, which carried the produce of the valley to New

Orleans, England and Russia. Population rapidly increased,

and peace spread all over our border, till in June, 1812,

the incursion of the Indians on our northern and western

borders, aided by the. British traders, and the claim of

Great Britain of the right to impress our seamen on the

high seas, made it necessary for the United States to

declare war against Great Britain, The Northwest Territory

and Ohio were the principal theatres of the war. We

met with defeat and disaster at first from the combined

efforts of the British and Indians under command of Proctor

and Tecumseh, but these were wiped out by the splendid

achievements of Colonel Croghan's defense of Fort Stephen-

son, Perry's victory on Lake Erie, the total defeat of the

allied British and savages on the Thames by General

Harrison, and the closing triumph of General Jackson at

New Orleans.

In all these contests the men of Ohio had a large share,

and performed feats of valor worthy of their heroic

ancestors.

Nor did this stay the onward progress of the State.

In 1800 Ohio was the seventeenth State in population; in

1810, the thirteenth; in 1820, the fifth; in 1830, the

fourth; in 1840, the third. In 1790 her population was

3,000; in 1800, 45,365; in 1820, 581,484; in 1830, 935,872;

• 20
 

170   Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

in 1840, 1,519,467; in 1850, 1,980,408; in 1860, 2,339,511; in

1870, 2,665,260; in 1880, 3,198,239; an increase possibly in

1888 to 3,600,000, nearly equal to the population of the whole

United States at the time of the Revolutionary war.

Its religious progress is marked by over ten thousand

churches of all denominations.

In education-¹²,703 public school-houses, value, $28,467,-

409; 24,620 teachers; number of pupils in daily attendance,

577,844; annual expense, $10,123,897. Besides these there

are 320 incorporated colleges and academies, and 270 incorpor-

ated literary and library associations.

We have 9,363 miles of railroads, value $91,264,178, paying

an annual tax of $1,504,093; 697 miles of canals, innumerable

turnpikes, stretching over every one of the eighty-eight

counties, most of them without toll to travelers; and the great

swamps of the Northwest are drained by thousands of miles

of ditches, making them the most fertile lands on the

continent.

The State contains 25,535,846 acres of land of the value

of $712,436,424; this is divided into 240,000 farms. The

chattel property in the duplicate is $509,913,568, making

a total value of chattel and real property of $1,670,079,568,

on which is paid an annual tax of $31,167,510. Of the

land 9,805,305 acres are cultivated as farms, and 6,214,862

acres as pasture.  Over these farms and pasture roam

1,665,223 cattle, 4,295,839 sheep, 746,366 horses, 24,818

mules, 1,606,936 hogs. In 1886 we raised 40,366,868 bushels

of wheat and 112,192,744 bushels of corn. We had 595,524

milch cows, from which were churned 45,769,819 pounds

of butter.  While the hens, partaking of the general

industrial activity, laid 32,620,451 dozen of eggs. Of cheese

38,420,451 pounds were made, and 3,588,248 pounds ex-

ported from the State. Of wool we clipped 23,558,070

pounds.

We have 588 coal mines, employing 19,704 men, and

produce 7.816,017 tons of coal, while the product of the

numerous oil and natural gas wells simply defies all arith-

• 21
 

Address of Judge Joseph Cox.        171

 

metical computation. In the last twenty-two months 6,694,-

539 barrels of oil have been produced. In every town

in the State are numerous manufactories with steam engines,

roaring and hammering, cutting and sawing out all articles

of usefulness for other manufactories, for the farmers

and for every useful avocation at home, and shipping

machinery and manufactured articles to all parts of our

own and foreign countries. The Chief Inspector of Factories

and Workshops, reports his inspection in 1887 of 3581

factories and workshops in thirty towns, as employing

168,570 persons. Connecting all parts of the State and

our own and foreign lands by instantaneous communica-

tion, there are 473,642 miles of telegraphic wire, and

innumerable newspapers, daily and weekly, in nearly every

city and town, to convey to every house the news from

all the world. This is but a small fraction of the census

of a State first settled one hundred years ago, and which,

when admitted into the Union eighty-six years ago, John

Randolph denominated "a mere geographical diagram beyond

the Ohio River of vast deserts of woods inhabited by the

Aborigines."

The mind staggers on an examination of the figures

showing our vast resources and productions. And let it be

remembered that all this has been accumulating amid the

convulsion of many wars and financial difficulties. The

war of 1812 drew thousands of men from industrial pur-

suits, but others kept the plow of agriculture going in the

furrow. The Mexican war drew largely on our men and

means, while the great rebellion, raging for four years, had

in its ranks, marching and fighting to maintain the Union,

nearly 400,000 Ohio soldiers, thousands of whom laid down

their lives in the battle-fields, the swamps, prison-houses,

and hospitals. Notwithstanding this great depletion, her

farms were all the while being tilled to furnish food. All

articles of useful machinery were being made, gun-boats

built on her rivers and cannon at her foundries, and the

humming of thousands of sewing-machines was heard,

• 22
 

172    Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

propelled by wives and daughters in making clothing for the

patriot soldiers. But, greater than all the physical wealth of

the State is the constantly maintained high standard of

industrial, moral, religious and intellectual wealth of char-

acter. She has been richly blessed with

"Men, high-minded men,

With powers as far above dull brutes endued

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude;

Men who their duties know,

But know their rights and knowing, dare maintain."

The valor of the Revolutionary hero, the stern, religious

character of the Pnritan, the lofty character of the Cava-

lier, have been mingled with the blood of all, the best

representatives who from foreign lands have here sought

freedom from oppression. Enterprise, skill in all branches,

education, religious teachings, law, statesmanship, oratory,

military genius have here had representatives, the equal

of any in the world. Ohio has had four Presidents of the

United States, and has numerous other possibilities for the

future; two Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the

United States, and has been otherwise ably represented on

that bench; three Generals of the army by special act of

Congress for greatest distinguished ability, Grant, Sher-

man, and Sheridan, an honor before that conferred alone

on Washington; and well does this quartet wear the distinc-

tion of being first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts

of their countrymen. We have been represented in the

Senate, Cabinet, Foreign Ministers and every important pub-

lic position until it would seem that wherever great ability was

desired there was a call for the Ohio man.

The hardy, adventurous, emigrant character which marked

the men and women who first settled her soil is strongly

inherited by their descendants, for we find them going

out from her borders to populate all the Western and

Southern States, and even to revive the lagging ener-

gies of the East. In 1870 she had, of her native-born

children, 806,983  resident in  other states.  The   Ohio

• 23
 

Address of Judge Joseph Cox.          17₃

 

man as farmer, mechanic, professional man, governor or

judge, is in every State from  her western border to the

Rocky mountains, and climbing over the summit in the

mines and vineyards, ranches and cities of California to the

Pacific Ocean. He seems to be ubiquitous, and to permeate

the land like the atmosphere.

Such is a meager sketch of our State for the past cen-

tury. Slowly but surely has the building of it gone on,

and to-day it stands before the world with its solid founda-

tion of religion, morality, education, freedom, equality

before the law and protection to the rights of all persons

and property, all the more strongly cemented by those

years. As a State of the Union she has ever maintained

the highest position in peace and in war, and her obliga-

tions to that goverment formed by the people and for the

people have been most religiously performed. To that

Union she owes her existence, and to sustain it she has

poured out her richest blood and treasure, and will again in

the future if occasion requires.

While we recognize the wisdom and toils of our fathers

in all this wonderful growth, let us now, in the spirit of

that religion which sustained and cheered them through it

all, not forget that God, who was their Father and Leader,

and guided them as by a pillar of cloud by day and of fire

by night, who rules over the armies of heaven and the in-

habitants of the earth in righteousness, in whose hands

are the destinies of all men and nations; and let our hearts

go up to Him in thankfulness, for His hand hath wrought

it all, and those men and women were but His ministers.

May they who stand here at the end of another century

look upon this temple of our State, still strong and stable,

its foundation sure and steadfast, its towers, and columns

captivating by their beauty the eyes of the world, its people

happy, united and prosperous in a government, the union

of whose States shall be one of both hands and hearts, and

the sun of religious liberty shining its pure and untarnished

rays into every heart and home.

• 24