Ohio History Journal

OHIO

Archaeological and Historical

 

QUARTERLY.

 

 

JUNE, 1887.

 

 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM

OF THE UNITED STATES.1

THE formation of this society comes at an opportune mo-

ment. In a little more than three years a century will have

elapsed since the first permanent white settlement was made

within the limits of the great region Northwest of the River

Ohio. That settlement was the beginning, not only of this

good State of Ohio, but also of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,

and Wisconsin, which have all been formed from that North-

west Territory. It was not an accidental settlement that was

made on the 7th of April, 1788, at the mouth of the Mus-

kingum, nor was it any fortuitous collection of men that first

planted themselves on the soil of Ohio. It was the result of

careful deliberation by wise and prudent and patriotic men.

The decade in which that settlement was made was the era of

a greater number of important events affecting the interests

of the United States than any other decade in our National

history. And these events were almost all closely connected

with the founding of the State of Ohio.

Among these events were the adoption of the Articles of

Confederation between the thirteen States; the provisional

treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1782, and the definitive

 

1 An address delivered before the Ohio Archaeological and Historical So-

ciety at its first public meeting, March 12th, 1885.

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2     Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

treaty in 1783; the petition, in the latter year, of a large

number of officers of the army of the revolution, that their

bounty lands might be located between Lake Erie and the

Ohio; the cessions of four States claiming large tracts in this

Northwest Territory; the passage of the ordinance for survey-

ing public lands in 1785; the formation of the Ohio Company

of Associates in 1786; the passage of the celebrated ordinance

in 1787 for the government of the territory Northwest of the

river Ohio; the purchase by the Ohio Company in 1787 and

the planting of the colony in the next year; the framing of

the Constitution by the Convention in 1787, its ratification

the next year by a sufficient number of States to secure its

adoption, and the full establishment of all the departments

of the government with the inauguration of Washington as

the first President in 1789. All these events, save those per-

taining to the new Constitution, were directly connected with

the Ohio region, and most of them also, with its first settle-

ment at Marietta.

The action of the Continental Congress, July 4th, 1776,

declared the freedom and independence of the United States,

and the army of the revolution under the direction of Con-

gress made good that declaration. But what were the limits

of the United States? The Atlantic ocean was our boundary

on the East, but what was it on the West and North?

Boundary lines between nations are settled by treaties. We

wanted the largest area; Great Britain would confine us to

the smallest.  King George and his ministers contended

strenuously for the Ohio river as the dividing line. And

France, whose troops had fought so valiantly for our in-

dependence, was really more anxious for the same line than

for one farther North. Spain, too, which was also at war with

Great Britain, was determined to keep us to the south of the

Ohio and as near as possible to the base of the Alleghenies.

Three treaties were in negotiation at the same time by Great

Britain; with the United States, with France, and with Spain.

Questions of territory entered into them all; for France had

formerly claimed the whole valley of the Mississippi from

the Rocky Mountains to the Alleghenies, and Spain was at

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Beginnings of Our Colonial System.       3

 

that time in possession of all west of the Mississippi, and

all Florida, reaching west to that river. The latter power,.

indeed, advanced a claim to the Illinois region, because of

the conquest in the winter of 1781, of the English Fort St.

Joseph, near the source of the Illinois river. The narrower

the limits within which France and Spain could succeed in

confining the United States, the better terms of territory

could they probably secure for themselves.

Then, unfortunately, our commissioners were hampered

by the resolutions of Congress that required them to be

guided, in negotiating the treaty, by the advice of the French

Government.   But when Mr. Adams and Mr. Jay became

convinced that both "France and Spain intended either to

secure the western country to themselves, or yield it to

Great Britain for an equivalent elsewhere, they determined to

act for themselves and conclude the treaty without consulting

the French Court or its ministers." (Pitkin, Vol. II, p. 148.)

The American commissioners certainly in this disregarded

their instructions, but they did what they believed the best

interests of their country imperatively demanded, and were

willing to take the responsibility. I refer to these negotia-

tions because they were concerned with the ownership of the

very territory where we now dwell, and to show that the ex-

istence of Ohio and these other northwestern States hung

upon the firmness of those American commissioners at Paris

in the autumn of 1782.

The French minister was not a little disturbed by the inde-

pendent action of our commissioners, and wrote a note to

Dr. Franklin which was certainly embarrassing even to that

skillful diplomatist. But Franklin's candid admission that

they had "been guilty of neglecting a point of bienseance,"

and his protestation that it "was not from any want of re-

spect for the King, whom we love and honor," and his hope

"that the great work which has hitherto been so happily

brought to perfection, and is so glorious to his reign, will not

be ruined by a single indiscretion," mollified the Count de

Vergennes, and the terms of the provisional treaty of 1782

remained unchanged in the definitive treaty of 1783.

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4      Ohio Arckaeological and Historical Quarterly.

By this treaty the claims of Great Britain, France and

Spain to the territory northwest of the Ohio were virtually

withdrawn. But there was a question of ownership among

the States. Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Con-

necticut claimed it in whole or in part. It was these conflict-

ing claims that caused the delay in ratifying the Articles of

Confederation.  Maryland and some other States insisted

that this territory belonged to the Nation and not to indi-

vidual States.  "Territory wrested from England by the

common efforts and sacrifices of the people should belong,"

they said, "to the whole and not to a part."  Congress, un-

willing to decide between them, urged all the claimants to

yield their claims. New York led the way in the matter of

cessions. On the first of March, 1781, her delegates made

an absolute surrender of her claim. On the same day the

delegates of Maryland signed the Articles of Confederation,

thus making the Union formally complete.

The other cessions followed, though not as rapidly as was

hoped, nor were all made without conditions, as was that of

New York. That of Virginia was early in 1784. She ceded

her claim to any territory north of the Ohio, reserving, how-

ever, the region between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers

as bounty lands for her soldiers, and a tract in Illinois for

George Rogers Clarke and his associates. The next year

came the cession of Massachusetts, absolute like that of New

York; and the year following that of Connecticut. Like

Virginia's, the cession of Connecticut was coupled with a res-

ervation.

These two reservations, making a pretty large fraction of

the State of Ohio, were excepted from the operation of that

great system of surveys which the Continental Congress initi-

ated by the Land Ordinance of 1785. It would have been

desirable if the system of uniform ranges, townships, and

sections, which commenced with the seven ranges in the

summer of 1786, could have been carried out over the whole

surface of the State; avoiding the confusion of the five-mile

system of the Western Reserve, and the no-system of the

Virginia Military District.

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Beginnings of Our Colonial System.       5

We have seen how great was the importance attached to

this western territory from the very beginning of our national

existence. It required great firmness on the part of our com-

missioners to hold it against England, France and Spain. It

required great wisdom by the Continental Congress to secure

it as a national domain, when the most powerful of the States

were pressing their claims to it. As soon as there was a

probability that these conflicting claims would be settled, the

veteran officers of the army turned their eyes to this region

as a place of settlement.  After the provisional treaty with

Great Britain had been made, and before the definitive treaty

had been signed, a large number of these army veterans

asked Congress to give them their bounty lands in the region

between Lake Erie and the Ohio. There were lands for sale

in Maine, and in central New York, now so densely populated,

but the Ohio country had a stronger attraction for them.

Though their application was unsuccessful, they did not

abandon their purpose, but three years later, under the

leadership of General Rufus Putnam, an association was

organized to purchase lands in the same locality.

Meanwhile, a "plan for a temporary government of the

western country," as it was then called, had been adopted by

Congress, but the plan was open to objection, and when the

Ohio Company of Associates, in May, 1787, sent one of their

directors to New York to purchase of Congress a tract of

land for settlement, a new plan for the government of the

territory was under consideration by that body. Indeed, the

proposed ordinance had been read twice, and its third read-

ing had been ordered for the next day, when the agent of

the company presented himself. "Of a sudden," says Mr.

Bancroft, "the further progress of the ordinance was

arrested." The third reading did not take place the next

day; in truth, that ordinance was never read the third time.

It is difficult for us to realize the effect produced on Congress

by this simple proposition from a number of army veterans

to purchase a large tract of land in the West for the purpose

of settlement. In the words of Mr. Bancroft: "It interested

every one. For vague hopes of colonization, here stood a

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6      Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

band of hardy pioneers, ready to lead the way to the rapid

absorption of the domestic debt of the United States; selected

from the choicest regiments of the army; capable of self-

defense; the protectors of all who should follow them; men

skilled in the labors of the field and artisans; enterprising

and laborious; trained in the severe morality and strict ortho-

doxy of the New England villages of that day. All was

changed. There was the same difference as between sending

out recruiting officers and giving marching orders to a regular

corps present with music and arms and banners."

It was the 9th of May when General Samuel H. Parsons,

a director of the Ohio Company, presented their memorial.

After the 11th, it happened that there was no quorum till the

4th of July, and General Parsons had returned to Connec-

ticut. On the 5th of July another director came to New

York-- Manasseh Cutler. He conferred with the committee

already appointed on the purchase.  He became acquainted

with the members of Congress. He looked over the ground

as well with reference to the government under which the

settlers were to live as to the terms on which the land should

be purchased. On the 9th of July the report, which was to

have been read the third time on the 10th of May, was

referred to a new committee, of which Edward Carrington, of

Virginia, was chairman.  He was a new member, as was

Richard Henry Lee, also of Virginia, and Mr. Kean, from

South Carolina. The former members were Mr. Dane, from

Massachusetts, and Mr. Smith, from New York. Two days

later they reported an ordinance, which was read the first

time. The second reading took place the next day, and on

the day following it was read the third time, and was passed

by the unanimous votes of the States then present. The

great statute forbidding slavery to cross the river Ohio was

enacted by the votes of Georgia, South Carolina, North

Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and

Massachusetts. Thus the celebrated ordinance of '87 was

reported by a committee composed of two members from

Virginia, one from South Carolina, one from New York and

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Beginnings of Our Colonial System.      7

one from Massachusetts, and was enacted by the votes of five

southern and three northern States.

In his history of the Constitution, Mr. Bancroft turns

aside to give a chapter on what he terms "The Colonial

System of the United States." The Constitutional Conven-

tion was in session at Philadelphia in the summer of 1787,

while the Continental Congress was in session at New York.

Mr. Bancroft thus opens his chapter: " Before the Federal

Convention had referred its resolutions to a committee of

detail, an interlude in Congress was shaping the character

and destiny of the United States of America. Sublime and

humane and eventful in the history of mankind as was the

result, it will take not many words to tell how it was brought

about. For a time wisdom and peace and justice dwelt

among men, and the great ordinance, which could alone give

continuance to the Union, came in serenity and stillness.

Every man that had a share in it seemed to be led by an in-

visible hand to do just what was wanted of him; all that was

wrongfully undertaken fell to the ground to wither by the

wayside; whatever was needed for the happy completion of

the mighty work arrived opportunely, and just at the right

moment moved into its place."

This "interlude in Congress" was the passage of the

ordinance of 1787, which itself was brought about by the

projected colonizing of a portion of the Ohio Valley. For

some years a plan for the government of the western terri-

tory had been on the statute book, as we have seen, but

under it no settlement had taken place. Various efforts to

improve it had been made, but it remained substantially as

it was adopted in 1784. But the application by the Ohio

Company to purchase land and plant a colony changed every-

thing. The eloquent language of Mr. Bancroft is none too

strong. It was comparatively an easy thing for Manasseh

Cutler in July, 1787, to convince the Continental Congress

that the colony which the Ohio Associates proposed to found

was just what was wanted to begin under the most favorable

auspices the settlement of the great region Northwest of the

Ohio. Nor was it difficult for him to show that such a

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8      Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

colony would need assurances of a wise, humane and efficient

government before planting new homes in that western

wilderness. Thus it came that the new committee, appointed

after Dr. Cutler reached New York, prepared in an incredibly

brief time a new ordinance, than which no other human

enactment has received higher commendation.

It is clear that the ordinance, the purchase, and the settle-

ment were parts of one great whole.   This invests with

dignity and importance the movement resulting in the settle-

ment of 1788. The great ordinance was occasioned by the

proposed purchase, and it was enacted for that colony. It

was a movement in which the national government and the

nation itself were deeply interested. Mr. Bancroft interjects

into his history of the Constitution a chapter on "The

Colonial System of the United States," but the chapter is

wholly occupied with this colony and its antecedent circum-

stances.  No other is mentioned. This was the Colonial

System of the United States. Most civilized nations have

sent out colonies, which have remained colonies. Not so the

United States. In 1787 they made ready to send out their

first colony; not across the ocean, but across the Ohio; yet

into a region as new as if it had been a thousand miles away.

It was not to remain a colony, but to be the germ of a State

- of many States. Never in the history of the world has

such a colony been founded before or since; never one for

which such preparation had been made, and from which

such great results have come.

Almost a century has completed its round since those army

veterans, after a long and tedious journey, landed from their

Mayflower at the mouth of the Muskingum. The govern-

ment which Congress had provided in anticipation was im-

mediately established, the first law for the Northwest Terri-

tory having been promulgated at Marietta on the 25th of

July. Other groups of immigrants came later; new centers

of civilization are established, and within a decade and a half

the new State of Ohio takes her place in the great sisterhood,

to be followed by two others in another decade and a half,

and presently by a fourth and a fifth.

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Beginnings of Our Colonial System.      9

It is fit that the occupation of the territory which had not

only been the center of interest to the greatest States of the

American Union, but which the most powerful nations of

Europe had combined to prevent our occupying; that the

planting on the seventh of April, 1788, of the colony for

which such preparation had been made and for whose benefit

the Continental Congress, with a unanimity unparalleled, had

provided a plan of government which has been the admira-

tion of the world - it is fit, I say, that the centennial of that

event should receive suitable commemoration, not merely by

the descendants of those noble pioneers, but by the citizens

of this great State and of all the States of the old Territory

of the Northwest.

I. W. ANDREWS.

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