Ohio History Journal

OHIO'S BIRTH STRUGGLE.

 

BY WM. T. M'CLINTOCK, CHILLICOTHE, O.

 

[The story of the controversy between General Arthur St. Clair, the

Governor of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the

River Ohio, and the young Jeffersonian Republicans of that Territory,

in 1799-1803, which resulted in the birth of a new state to the Federal

Union.]

There is no part of the history of the U. S. Territory north-

west of the Ohio River more interesting than the story of the

controversy between its Governor, General Arthur St. Clair

and his friends, and that group of able, ambitious, enthusiastic and

untiring young men who crossed the Ohio River as emigrants in

the last five years of the eighteenth century, and who found, or

fancied they found, their interests opposed and thwarted by the

Governor and his supporters. The story has all the excitement

of a drama. The plot moves on step by step; the scenes shift;

the actors' parts are distinct and picturesque and the interest of

the spectator constantly increases until he beholds the creation of

a new State and the addition of the seventeenth star to the flag of

the Union.

The part of the Governor has been repeatedly told, and in

such manner as to excite public sympathy and induce a ready

assent to the account of the supposed wrongs and injustices which

he suffered at the hands of his opponents, and which culmin-

ated in his downfall and removal from office in the winter of

1802-1803.

The biographers of St. Clair have set forth these wrongs

and the public has given their statement of them a ready accept-

ance. As late as the year 1897, a writer in "The Nation," one

of the ablest and best known newspapers of our country, has

assumed and boldly stated that his opponents were prompted

principally by motives of self-interest and personal ambition, while

the Governor was actuated only by the motives of the most patri-

otic character.

(44)

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               45

 

On the other hand, the parts of his opponents in that to him,

disastrous struggle, have only been partly and imperfectly set

forth. The sources of knowledge respecting them are limited,

and it is now difficult to find the material for a fair representation

of what actually occurred.

The result has been that a cloud of reproach more or less

thick and gloomy, has been allowed to cast its shadow upon the

character of those who ventured to oppose the man they regarded

as having outlived his usefulness and to whom they did not hesi-

tate to apply the name of "tyrant."

The friends of St. Clair, including the late writer in "The

Nation," to whom reference has been made, claim that the gov-

ernment of the Territory under the Ordinance of 787, bore

heavily on no interests except on those of speculators in lands,

and that there was no tyranny or oppression of which any one had

just cause for complaint.

It cannot be denied, however, on a full and impartial review

of the events of that time, that both parties had personal interests

to subserve; the one, in the preservation of the rights and emolu-

ments incident to official position, and the other in the profit to be

derived from the survey and location of lands for themselves, or

others, within the territorial limits, as provided with the compact

with the State of Virginia and the laws of the United States. In

many instances, notably in the case of Worthington and Tiffin,

and other emigrants from Virginia and Kentucky, the motive of

pecuniary advantage was supplemented by a large hearted desire

to give freedom to their slaves, which could be done only by

bringing them into a territory where slavery was forbidden by

law.

So far is it from being true that the Territorial Government

bore heavily on no interests except those of speculators in lands,

it may be said, on the contrary, that the seeds of dissension and

controversy were implanted in that very "Ordinance of 1787"

to which we justly give so much credit as a remarkable embodi-

ment of wisdom and foresight, under which Ohio and the other

states afterward created within the bounds of the old Northwest

Territory, have made such rapid and wonderful growth.

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46       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

This feature may indeed be considered as adding force to the

eulogy that this Ordinance approached as nearly to perfection as

anything in the history of legislation the world over.

It is certain that the form of government, like "the swaddling

bands of infancy" was not "friendly to liberty." It was arbitrary

and Colonial in the extreme. The native tribes of Indians were

not only to be governed without their consent, but were to be

whipped into subjection. The people of the states emigrating to

the Territory had no voice or concern in its business. All power,

legislative, judicial and executive, was vested in a Governor, a

Secretary, and three Judges, all of Federal appointment, and

responsible only to a distant Federal head.

The Governor had the sole power to appoint magistrates

and other civil officers throughout the Territory, and to lay out

counties and townships, a matter of much interest to the people,

and emphatically legislative in character. He claimed also from

this, by implication, the power to fix the location of county seats

and to change them at pleasure, without any right of interference

on the part of the local Judges or magistrates, or of the people.

He, and the Judges of Federal appointment, determined what

laws should be adopted, how they should be construed and how

executed, and from their decision there was no appeal to the

people.

Provision was made for the compensation of these officers by

the Federal Government, but the general expenses of the Territo-

rial government were met by assessments upon the several coun-

ties, or by fees, exacted from the people and payable to every

officer concerned in the administration of justice, from the Judges

of the General Court down to the humblest Justice of the Peace.

It is seen that such a government was paternal in the last

degree, and was at all times, even in the hands of the best of men,

liable to abuse, because of the limitations upon human intelligence

and the imperfections of human reason.

Upon the authority of Mr. Nathan Dane who was a member

of the special committee in the Congress of the Confederation

which framed the Ordinance, it was thus "made unfriendly to

liberty" in order to induce the early formation of states to become

a part of the Federal Union.

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               47

The Government worked well from the time of its organi-

zation in 1788 down to and after Wayne's Treaty with the Indians

at Greenville, in 1795. Up to that time there were only a few

settlements of whites, at Marietta, Cincinnati, Vincennes and

Detroit, and the chief business of the Government was to protect

these from hostile attacks of the Indians, and reduce the latter to

a state of subjugation; but after the making of that treaty, the

flood of emigration rapidly increased and many new settlements

were made, so that by 1798, eight counties had been organized,

and by a census then taken, it was ascertained that there were

5,000 free male inhabitants of full age, within the Territory.

It was provided by the "Ordinance" that on proof of this fact

to the Governor, these 5,000 free male inhabitants were to receive

authority, with time and place named, to elect representatives

from their counties or townships to represent them in a General

Assembly.

These representatives were elected during the fall of 1798

and the Governor designated Cincinnati, February ₄th, 1799, as

the place and time for their meeting.

Their only duty at this first meeting was to nominate ten

freeholders, from whom the President of the United States was to

select five, as a Legislative Council, with a five years term of

service. (The term of the Assembly men being two years only.)

This first duty performed, the Assembly adjourned to meet again

at the same place on September 16, 1799.

From the freeholders so nominated, the President of the

United States, the elder Adams, by and with the advice and con-

sent of the Senate, appointed five, as the Legislative Council, and

these two bodies, the Legislative Council, and the General As-

sembly, with the Governor, constituted the Legislature, with au-

thority to make laws not inconsistent with the Ordinance of 1787,

or the Federal Constitution.

This opened the second stage in the progress of the Territory

provided by the original Ordinance. It is probable that the im-

portance of the change was not fully appreciated by the Governor,

or the people. The latter gained the right of placing men of

their own choice in the new Assembly, and through them to elect

a representative in Congress, and the Judges of the Territory

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48       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

were limited to the exercise of judicial functions. On the other

hand, the Governor retained his general executive authority and

his full appointing power to minor offices, and gained the new

right to convene and prorogue or dissolve the General Assembly

at pleasure, with an absolute veto upon any and all legislative acts.

None were of any force without his formal assent. His power

was more absolute than before, being altogether independent of

the people and subject to no control except that of public opinion,

which operates indirectly and is often unseen, or unheeded.

It has been thought singular that the free male inhabitants

of the Territory, of voting age, should desire such a change in

their form of government, especially as the influx of population

was largely from Virginia and Kentucky, the two states in which

Democratic Republican ideas had taken deepest root. It was,

however, one of the steps which the ordinance had provided for,

and we are forced to the conclusion that the framers of that in-

strument purposely tightened the chains of the Territorial Gov-

ernment in order to induce the speedy introduction of new states

into the Federal Union.

Up to this time the Northwest Territory was strongly favor-

able to the National Administration, both under Washington and

the elder Adams. St. Clair's appointment to office in 1788, was

for three years only. He was reappointed in 1791-1794 and 1798

without a breath of opposition.

Winthrop Sargent had been appointed Secretary of the Ter-

ritory contemporaneously with the Governor in 1788. In 1789

Congress gave the Secretary power to exercise the functions of

Governor, in the absence of the latter. This led to occasional

fault-finding, but St. Clair and Sargent had managed to main-

tain a strong personal friendship and in the main had been faith-

ful to each other.

In the summer (July or August) of 1798, Sargent resigned

the office of Secretary, in order to become Governor of the Mis-

sissippi Territory, to which he had been appointed by President

Adams. He was succeeded by Captain William Henry Harri-

son, a young man, only twenty-five years of age, who had already

acquired distinction as an officer in the U. S. Army, on the staff

of General Wayne in the Indian campaign of 1794-5. His sub-

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.              49

 

sequent career, including his election as President of the United

States in 1840, was only the fulfillment of the prophecy of his

youth.

St. Clair's biographer and eulogist, William Henry Smith,

says, "There were no ties of sympathy between the Governor and

the new Secretary. They belonged to opposite schools. The one

was growing gray and was accustomed to deference from others.

* * * The other, young and ambitious, was ready to sympa-

thize with any movement that had for its object the changing of

the old for a new order of things. Hence it soon came to pass

that the Secretary formed plans about which he did not consult

the Governor."

In the meantime, local causes, arising out of the rapid set-

tlement of the Territory, began to operate against the Governor

in the exercise of his claim to absolute authority. The owners

of land, the founders of towns, and the people in the several coun-

ties, desired to fix or change the county seats to suit their own

views and convenience. The Governor claimed this power as be-

longing only to himself, and in the summer of 1798 he asserted

this claim in the case of Adams county, in opposition to the

wishes and interests of Col. Massie and of the people in that

county.

The Assembly having adjourned at its first meeting in Feb-

ruary, 1799, to meet again on September 16th of that year, in

order to allow, in the meantime, of the selection and appoint-

ment of the Legislative Council, again met in Cincinnati, but it

was not until September 24th that a quorum was obtained, and

the two houses, the Council and Assemblymen, were organized

and ready for business.

These two houses did not, however, constitute the Legisla-

ture, for the Ordinance provided that it should "consist of the

Governor, legislative council and house of representatives." The

Governor was a sort of Third House, a veritable autocrat, with

power to convene, prorogue and dissolve the other branches of

the Legislature at pleasure, and to veto absolutely any bills which

they might adopt.

Vol. XI-4

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50       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

On the second day of the meeting of the Council and As-

semblymen, the Governor addressed them, expressing, among

other things, his conviction that the system of government which

had just been superceded was "full of wisdom and benignity,'

yet congratulating the people and their representatives on their

being withdrawn from under a law making power in which they

had no voice, and that now the laws to direct their conduct and

protect their property were to be made by their own representa-

tives.

The hidden sarcasm of this congratulation was not developed

until later in the session.

In the main, the recommendations of the address rose to the

importance of the occasion. It was cordially responded to, and

the business of the Session proceeded in apparent harmony and

without regard to any political divisions.

In that valuable contribution to the history of the Territory

Northwest of the River Ohio, known as "Burnet's Notes," the

author says of this first Territorial Legislature, that "the people

in almost every instance selected their strongest and best men."

Of the twenty-one members in the House, the greater part

were Federalists and friends and supporters of St. Clair, as were

also all the members of the Council. He names McMillan, Sib-

ley, Meigs and Fearing as lawyers of distinction and ability, and

gives especial credit to Darlington, Massie, Worthington, Tiffin,

Samuel Findley, Langham, Benham, Edgar, and Smith.

We have not been able to ascertain with certainty, the names

of all those who were Democratic Republicans, but it may be

stated that Goforth and Smith, of Hamilton County, Darlington

and Massie, of Adams, Worthington, Tiffin, Findley and Lang-

ham of Ross, and Pritchard of Jefferson, were followers of Mr.

Jefferson.

At that time, however, there was little attention paid within

the Territory to National politics. The states were greatly agi-

tated by party strife, but the people of the Territory, having no

voice in electing the officers of the general government, and there

being but little patronage to distribute among them, were not so

much interested in National affairs.

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               51

Governor St. Clair up to this time had retained the respect

and confidence of the people, but his popularity began to wane

during the first session of the Legislature in 1799. During this

session and in anticipation of it, in 1798, he manifested, accord-

ing to the admissions of his own friends, a strong desire to en-

large his own powers, and to restrict those of the Assembly. His

forced construction of some of the provisions of the Territorial

Ordinance have already been alluded to, by which he claimed the

exclusive right to create new counties and townships by the di-

vision and alteration of existing counties, although his power in

that respect was limited to the district in which the Indian title

had been extinguished, as to which he had exhausted his authority

prior to the meeting of the Legislature, and although the power

to make such alterations was expressly committed to the Legis-

lature by the provisions of the Ordinance itself.

The Legislative Council and the House of Representatives in

the course of the Session passed thirty odd bills. Of these he

returned nineteen, from time to time, with his approval, but he

held the remainder without expressing approval or disapproval,

and when the two houses requested him to return such bills as

he could not approve, before the close of the session, with his ob-

jections, so that they might make an effort to remove the objec-

tions by amendments, he refused to do so, but retained them in

his hands until the end of the Session, when he sent a communi-

cation to the Assembly remonstrating in offensive language

against their proceedings as an usurpation of power, and intimat-

ing in strong terms a want of confidence in the judgment and dis-

cretion of the Assembly. Some of these bills, in the judgment

of his own friends, were supposed to be of much importance and

all of them calculated to advance the public interest. Some he

rejected because they related to the establishment of new coun-

ties; others, because he thought them unnecessary or inexpedient.

The result was that a third of the fruit of the entire session was

lost by the exercise of the arbitrary power of a single man.

In order to make this power more sensibly felt, he proceeded

immediately to create and organize new counties, out of old ones,

on a plan different from that adopted by the Assembly, and to es-

tablish them by proclamations, without consulting the Legislature.

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52       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

At the close of the Session, a complimentary address to

President John Adams was adopted, having so little of party spirit

in it that only five members voted against it. Mr. William Henry

Smith, in his "St. Clair Papers" alludes to this vote as "the leaven

that changed the politics of the Territory and in due season sent

the Governor back to the hills of Pennsylvania."

In view of all the facts, it would seem to be the better opinion

that this dissenting vote was given because of personal bias, and

had little political significance. The true leaven was the arbi-

trary use of the Governor's veto, the assertion of exclusive power

in himself for the erection of new counties and the location of

county seats, and in the offensive language used by him in his

public message to the Assembly.

The action of the Governor provoked the adoption of a re-

monstrance, addressed to Congress, against the unqualified veto

given to the Governor, and against the exclusive right claimed by

him of dividing and subdividing counties, not only in their first

creation as provided by the Ordinance, but continuously afterward.

An important duty of the Session was to elect a delegate to

represent the Territory in Congress. This seems to have been the

only function of the Legislature which did not require the assent

of the Governor, for it was provided that the Council and House,

assembled in one room, should exercise this authority.

The history of the period shows that if Jacob Burnet, a young

but distinguished lawyer residing in Cincinnati, and a member of

the Legislative Council, would have accepted the office, he would

have been elected without opposition, although a strong Federal-

ist in his politics. On his refusal to be a candidate, public opinion

had settled upon two candidates, one of them being the new Sec-

retary, Captain Harrison, the other, Arthur St. Clair, Jr., the son

of the Governor, and by the latter's appointment, the Attorney

General of the Territory. Harrison, on October 3, 1799, was

elected by a majority of one vote, and at once resigned his office

as Secretary, proceeded to Philadelphia, where Congress was then

in session and took his seat in that body. He retained that office

but a single session, but in that time secured much legislation of

great advantage to his constituents. His position as delegate en-

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               53

 

abled him to discover the trend of events toward the overthrow

of the Federal party and the triumph of Mr. Jefferson and his

fellow Republicans.

The Session of the Territorial Legislature was prorogued by

the Governor on December 1₉th, 1799, to meet again on the first

Monday of November, 1800.

The struggle for supremacy between the Federalists in the

Territory and their Republican opponents now became very much

in earnest. Foremost, on the Federal side, stood their leader,

Governor St. Clair, described by his biographer as a man of ripe

experience and thorough education. Prior to the War of the

Revolution, he had been an officer in the British army, under Gen-

eral Wolf; then a trusted agent of the Proprietors of the Prov-

ince of Pennsylvania, and a magistrate over an extensive district,

after it became a State. During the Revolutionary War he was a

Major General, a friend and associate of Lafayette, and honored

also by the friendship of Washington. He served as the Presi-

dent of the Continental Congress. In private life he was a favor-

ite in the drawing room, brilliant in conversation, handsome in

form and dignified in bearing, a leader by nature, calculated to

win the hearts of all. This was, however, when he was in his

prime. But at the time of which we are now speaking, his long

journeys from one part of the old Northwest Territory to another,

during which he often slept on the ground or in open boats, and

lived on coarse, irregular and uncertain fare, made up a series of

hardships which had severely wrenched his constitution and

brought on attacks of gout, which constantly became more fre-

quent and aggravated. What wonder that his campaign against

the Indians in 1791 resulted in disaster? After this, in the winter

of 1794-5, a malignant fever brought him almost to the very door

of death. The exigencies of his office required perpetual personal

attention. The burden was too great for his years. What won-

der that such a man, of a stiff and uncompromising disposition,

brought up in the habit of military command, accustomed to have

his own way and to be implicitly obeyed, now finding himself beset

and puzzled by the activities, ambition and energy of a group of

young men, mere boys to him, should become impatient, it may be

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54       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

arrogant, and should seek by all means at his command to thwart

their efforts and to retain for himself and his friends the places of

power so long held without dispute or opposition.

It must be remembered, however, that the Governor's mental

strength had not diminished in proportion to his physical disable-

ment. He was but sixty-five years of age, and had lost none of

his strength of will and obstinacy of purpose. His supporters

were chiefly men of mature years, such as Cutler and Putnam, of

Marietta; McMillan of Cincinnati, Sibley of Detroit, and others

of like calibre and experience in public affairs. Some young

men were also of his party, notably Jacob Burnet of Cincinnati,

and Charles Hammond of Wheeling, Va., recently admitted to

the practice of law within the Territory, subsequently reaching

great elevation in his profession and in politics, and identified with

much of the history of Ohio and its legislation.

On the side of the young Republicans, the acknowledged

chiefs were Nathaniel Massie, Thomas Worthington and Edward

Tiffin. Judge Burnet speaks of them "as qualified to exert an

influence in any deliberative assembly."

Massie, a native of Virginia, was among the earliest and

most enterprising adventurers into the Territory, and shared

largely in the dangers and privations attending its first settle-

ment. He occupied a high place in the estimation of the people.

He was a surveyor and locator of Virginia Military Land War-

rants in the District between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers,

reserved in the deed of session from Virginia for the compensa-

tion of her officers and soldiers on the continental establishment,

during the Revolutionary War. In this business he made ac-

quaintances and friends both within and without the Territory,

which his talents and acquirements, and his polished and agree-

able manners, enabled him to retain to the end of his life. He

was now about 36 years of age.

Worthington, like Massie, was the descendant of an old Vir-

ginia family, tracing its lineage to an ancient and honorable family

of England, established at their manor in Lancashire from the

days of Henry the Second, some of whose descendants at a later

period found a home in Virginia. His father was an ardent

supporter of the war of the rebellion of the Colonies against the

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               55

 

Mother Country and died in that service. Thomas was his

youngest child, born July 16, 1773. At the age of fourteen, Major

General William Darke, a distinguished soldier of the Revolution

and a prominent politician, became his guardian. General

Darke, as an officer of the Revolution, had a large holding of Vir-

ginia Military Land Warrants. He was now an old man. His

only son had been killed at St. Clair's defeat by the Indians in

1791. He now asked his former ward to join a party of young

Virginians, chiefly sons of Revolutionary officers, who were about

to locate warrants for their fathers beyond the Ohio River, and

to do a like service for him.

This party, in the spring of 1796, reached the then hamlet

of Chillicothe, which had been laid out in April of that year by

Massie, and was as yet only a collection of log huts.

Worthington having located the warrants of General Darke,

returned to Virginia, and was married in December, 1796, to Miss

Eleanor Sweringen. These two young people, occupying a high

social position and both possessing considerable wealth, a large

portion of which consisted of negro slaves, determined to free

these slaves. This was after the passage of the law of Virginia

which made it obligatory to remove emancipated slaves from the

state. They therefore determined to give them a home in the

settlement of the new Territory. Mr. Worthington had purchased

from General Darke the lands which he had located near Chilli-

cothe, and in company with his friend and brother-in-law, Dr.

Edward Tiffin, left Virginia on May 1, 1797, reaching Chillicothe

on the 17th of that month. During this visit, he and Dr. Tiffin,

although they had come only to seek homes for their emancipated

slaves, became so enamored of Chillicothe and the lands in its

vicinity that they determined to remove their families from Vir-

ginia, and make the Territory their own abiding home.

Accordingly, in the latter days of March, 1798, the party set

forth from Shepherdstown, Va. It consisted of Thomas Worth-

ington, his wife and infant daughter; his brother, Robert, and

his family, Mrs. Worthington's young brothers, Thomas and

Samuel Van Sweringen; Dr. Tiffin, his wife, his parents, two

sisters, two brothers, a few skilled mechanics, and a small army

of emancipated slaves. They reached Chillicothe April 17, 1798.

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The next year both Thomas Worthington and Edward Tiffin were

elected to the Territorial Legislature, which met in Cincinnati.

Edward Tiffin was born in Carlisle, England, June 19, 1766,

and came with his parents to America in 1784. In 1789 he mar-

ried the sister of Thomas Worthington. Both he and his wife

were devoutly religious, being members of the Methodist Epis-

copal Church, and he, one of the licensed preachers of that body.

It is said the determination of Mr. and Mrs. Worthington to free

their slaves was largely influenced by the opinions of Dr. and

Mrs. Tiffin, who felt, in conscience, bound to free those they

themselves owned and to give them a home in the free territory of

the Northwest. Dr. Tiffin, after reaching Chillicothe, as a physi-

cian, and as a preacher in the Methodist Church, soon rose to a

high position in the esteem of all who knew him. His talents and

acquirements readily indicated his fitness for the speakership of

the assembly, to which he was elected on the organization of that

body in September, 1799.

These three, Massie, Worthington and Tiffin, were the ac-

knowledged leaders of the Republican or Virginia party. Others

were scarcely less distinguished and able.

It has been already noted that the office of Secretary of the

Territory became vacant on the election of Captain William H.

Harrison as delegate in Congress, on October 3d, 1799. The va-

cancy was not filled until December 30th of that year, when

Charles Willing Byrd, credited to Virginia, but in reality a resi-

dent of Kentucky, since 1794, was appointed to that office. He

took the oath of office before Governor St. Clair on February 26th,

1800, at Cincinnati, to which place he had removed at about that

time from the State of Kentucky. He was not yet thirty years

of age. On completing his education, and before reaching his

majority, he studied law and was admitted to the bar, and a few

years afterward emigrated to Kentucky, as the agent of Mr. Rob-

ert Morris (who owned a large body of land in that State), where

he acquired celebrity as a lawyer and ranked high for ability and

probity. The distinction of his Virginia ancestry, the influence

of his wealthy relatives and friends in Philadelphia, which was

then the seat of the Federal Government, united to his own merit

and reputation, secured his appointment to succeed Captain Har-

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               57

rison. His identification with the Republican party was manifest

from the first. He was a brother-in-law of Col. Nathaniel Massie.

His personal interests and associations, as well as his political

opinions, naturally inclined him to a decided opposition to the

Governor's opinions and policy. It will be remembered that in

the absence of the Governor from the State, which often hap-

pened, the Secretary became the acting Governor. Mr. Byrd did

not hesitate to use this ad interim authority, to further the inter-

ests of his friends and party. This fact and his recognized vigor

of intellect and legal learning gave him prominence as one of the

leaders of the opposition to the Governor, and made him another

actor in that exciting territorial drama.

About this time (1799) Col. Massie received a letter from a

friend in Philadelphia, introducing a young man from the State

of Connecticut who had it in contemplation to establish himself

in the Territory N. W. of the Ohio, should he meet with due en-

couragement. This was Michael Baldwin. He had finished a

liberal course of education and obtained a license to practice law

in Connecticut, and was recommended to the notice and friendly

attention of Col. Massie, as a young man of "talents, good morals

and good disposition." His four or five brothers occupied dis-

tinguished positions as Representatives or Senators in Congress,

Judges of the higher courts, or as men of wealth and prominence

in as many different states. He at once joined the young Vir-

ginians and soon compelled recognition by his energy, learning

and sparkling intellectual gifts. It is said he soon distanced all

his competitors at the bar, and for several years had a large prac-

tice. In the early part of the State's history he filled several re-

sponsible offices, and had it not been for his too intimate friend-

ship with old John Barleycorn, he might have vied with his dis-

tinguished brothers in the attainment of fortune, fame and high

office, instead of finding an early and now unknown grave in the

little old cemetery once existing near the intersection of Riverside

and Bridge streets, in Chillicothe, all vestige of which has long

since been effaced.

The one person, in Chillicothe, who kept up with Baldwin in

the legal profession, was William Creighton, Jr., also a college

graduate, who had studied law and removed from Berkley County,

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58       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

Va., to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1797, or early in 1798, before he had

completed his twentieth year. He too belonged to the young

Democracy, and afterward became the first Secretary of State

for the new state of Ohio, and later a distinguished member of

Congress, and a Judge of the U. S. District Court.

Another of the group was Jeremiah Morrow. He was born

near Gettysburgh, Pa., in October, 1771, and emigrated from that

State to what is now Warren County, Ohio, in 1796. He taught

school for a while, was a competent surveyor, and soon acquired

the respect of his fellow pioneers. He was a member of the Ter-

ritorial Legislature, also of the Constitutional Convention of 1802;

and of Ohio's first General Assembly. He was the first, and for

ten years the sole representative of the State in the lower house

of Congress; six years a member of the U. S. Senate, served two

terms as Governor of Ohio, and in his old age, at the earnest

solicitation of his friends, served them again in Congress and the

Legislature. He was a steady and unflinching supporter of the

party in opposition to St. Clair.

Add to these the name of Return J. Meigs, Jr., of Washing-

ton County, and we have about completed the list of that extraor-

dinary group of young men who had come west to establish homes

and fortunes, and to carve out careers which should reflect honor

upon themselves and their posterity.

These, and others like them, were the chief actors in that

grand conflict, to whom were added a multitude of humbler peo-

ple unknown to fame, but gifted with voices and votes, and whose

separate thoughts in the aggregate, made up that great force

called "public opinion." Many of them, both among leaders and

people, were devoutly religious. Tiffin and Worthington were

Methodists, Morrow and others were Scotch Presbyterians.

As soon as the Governor threw down "the gage of battle"

it was promptly taken up, and the struggle began.

The Governor forsaw the plans of his opponents, and in-

fluenced in part by personal hostility to some of the more promi-

nent members of the opposition, particularly Col. Massie, Sec-

retary Byrd, Judge Symmes and his son-in-law, Harrison, also

by the natural desire to defend himself against attacks which he

regarded as persecution, but chiefly because of his zeal to uphold

• 15
 

Ohio's Birth Struggle.               59

 

and continue in power the political party in National politics to

which he belonged, determined at once on measures to defeat

them.

The fifth "article of compact" in the ordinance of 1787,

had provided for the formation of not less than three nor more

than five states within the Territory, and fixed the boundaries

for three of such prospective states, the most easterly of which

had for its boundary a direct line due north from the mouth of

the Great Miami River to the northern boundary of the Terri-

tory. When either of these divisions should have a population

of 60,000 free inhabitants, it was entitled to admission into the

Federal Union, on an equality with the original states, and at

liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government,

republican in form and in accord with the principles of the Ordi-

nance. There was, however, a further provision that such ad-

mission might be allowed, although there might be less than

60,000 free inhabitants within the limits of the proposed state,

but this, only "so far as it might be consistent with the general

interest of the Confederacy."

Here was a chance for the creation of a new state, and the

leaders of the two great National parties, Federalist and Re-

publican, soon appreciated the importance of this fact. If it could

be made of Federalist material, it would strengthen that party,

but the contrary if of Republican timber.

As parties in the States then stood, it was not likely that a

new state northwest of the Ohio River could be formed so as to

add strength to the Federal party. It was therefore obviously

the policy of the Governor and his Federal friends to postpone

the creation of a new state as long as possible. Accordingly, he

at first in a letter to the Secretary of State at Washington, Mr.

Pickering, advised a division, with the Scioto River as the line

of separation. This he thought would make the upper or east-

ern division surely Federal, and that the opposing local inter-

ests of those whom he regarded as unfriendly to the General

Government, in the western division, would so balance each other

that they would not be able to unite in any scheme adverse to

Federal strength. But on reflection, he thought the eastern divis-

ion so proposed too thinly inhabited and that the design he had

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60       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

in view would be too evident. He therefore immediately on the

adjournment of the Legislature in December, 1799, wrote to

his Federal friend, Mr. Ross, of the U. S. Senate, suggesting

a division by a line due north from the mouth of Eagle Creek,

a point on the Ohio River in which is now Brown county, a

short distance above where Ripley, Ohio, now stands. Such a

division he thought would keep what he called the "multitude of

indigent and ignorant people" of the Territory, who were "with-

out fixed political principles," in "a colonial state for a good

many years to come." He represented the leaders of the oppo-

sition as holding sentiments opposed to the general government

and likely to favor a state government "democratic in form, but

oligarchic in execution, and more troublesome and more opposed

to the measures of the United States than even Kentucky." He

wrote that he was persuaded Col. Worthington's business in

Philadelphia at that time, Congress being then and there in

session, was to press the passage of a bill for a division on a

line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, which

would please the people of Ross county by giving consequence

to Chillicothe, but that their leaders had other views, looking to

the formation of a new state, the expected power of which would

come into their hands as Democrats, and enable them to mould the

state as they pleased, which in his judgment would be as un-

friendly to the United States as possible. In the same letter he

speaks of Worthington as wanting in candor and as a very de-

signing man; shows his hostility to Judge Symmes and delegate

Harrison, in unmistakable terms, and recommends his trusted

supporter, McMillan, for a Judgeship.

He follows this with a letter in February, 1800, to delegate

Harrison; and as his (Harrison's) interests and those of Judge

Symmes were identified with Cincinnati, he endeavors to con-

vince him that any division of the Territory into only two parts,

would ruin that city. He therefore recommends a tripartite di-

vision, opposing the Great Miami line, as making the eastern

division too large and recommending the Scioto as the west bound-

ary of that division; a line due north from the mouth of the

Kentucky River, as the west boundary of the middle division,

and all the country west of that, to the Mississippi, to constitute

• 17
 

Ohio's Birth Struggle.               61

the third, with Marietta, Cincinnati and Vincennes as the re-

spective seats of government.

In the meantime, the Governor's opponents were not idle.

In that same month of December, 1799, their dissatisfaction with

the Governor's reasons for vetoing eleven out of the thirty odd

bills which had been passed by the Council and House of Rep-

resentatives, knew no bounds. They conceived the plan of pro-

curing a division of the Territory into two districts at the then

session of Congress in Philadelphia, with the expectation that

the next meeting of the Legislature for the Eastern Division

would be in Chillicothe. They sent Col. Worthington to Phila-

delphia, and to carry out this plan was, as the Governor had

suspected, the real object of his visit there. Massie had gone

off on his wedding trip, but was expected to write to his friends

in Congress, and to co-operate with Worthington and other citi-

zens of Ross county. The movement was successful.

On May 7, 1800, Congress passed an act dividing the North-

west Territory into two parts, separated by a line beginning on

the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River, where

Carrollton, Ky., is now located, some twenty-five or thirty miles

west of the present west boundary of Ohio, thence by a line

a little east of north, to Fort Recovery, which is on that west

boundary, and thence due north until it intersected the boundary

line between the United States and Canada. The eastern di-

vision was to remain under the then existing territorial govern-

ment, and the seat of government was to be at Chillicothe until

it should be otherwise ordered by the Territorial Legislature

(1 Chase Stat. 70).

To Mr. Harrison, the delegate in Congress, aided by Mr.

Worthington, the passage of the act was mainly due. It was

in the teeth and eyes of St. Clair's project for a division into

three parts. Harrison was made Governor of the West or In-

diana Division, but with a declaration on his part that if his

friends on the Ohio River, and at Chillicothe, should express a

wish for him to resign that office, he would do so. He wrote

that he would be in Chillicothe at the meeting of the Legislature.

Now the parties, Federalist and Republican, after a short

pause to take breath, renewed the struggle. The then term of

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62       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

service of Governor St. Clair was to expire in December, 1800.

As early as July or August of that year, his friends circulated

petitions in Cincinnati and elsewhere, asking for his continu-

ance in office and for censure upon the inhabitants of Ross county

for their alleged misrepresentation of his conduct. In September,

it was reported that a scheme was on foot to secure the ruin

of Chillicothe by having the members of the Legislature from

Hamilton county in the west unite with those from Washington

county in the east, to elect one of the delegates of the latter to

a seat in Congress to succeed Mr. Harrison, in return for which

favor, the Washington county members were to unite with those

from Hamilton county in the passage of an act to remove the

seat of government from Chillicothe to Cincinnati, and afterward,

through the influence of their delegate in Congress, and the

Governor's friends, to continue the Governor in office, and effect

another and different division of the territory so as to procrasti-

nate the formation of a new state as long as possible. What

happened afterward proved this report to be a pretty distinct

"shadow of a coming event."

Congress at the same session at which it passed its original

act for the division of the Territory into two parts, also passed

an act directing the census of the eastern part to be taken under

the direction of the Territorial Secretary.

In the meantime the opponents of the Governor and of his

policy had organized a committee, of which Dr. Edward Tiffin

was the head. This committee issued an address to the inhabi-

tants of the Northwest Territory who resided east of a line drawn

due north from the mouth of the Great Miami River, calling their

attention to the act for taking the census, and expressing the

belief that it would appear that the number of inhabitants re-

quired by the Ordinance of 1787 in order to entitle them to a

state government, would be reached, or nearly so. They there-

fore recommended their fellowcitizens to take into consideration

the propriety of forming a state government, and to instruct their

representatives at the next meeting of the General Assembly to

govern themselves accordingly; but to keep in view the additional

expense a state government would involve, as well as the supe-

rior advantages to be derived therefrom.

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               63

 

Secretary Byrd was busy taking the required census.

The Legislature met on November 5, 1800. It was a short

session. Mr. Chase, referring to it, in his sketch of the History

of Ohio, says that at this session "the increasing unpopularity

of Governor St. Clair was evidenced by the debates and votes

upon the answer to his speech. An argumentative remonstrance

relative to the erection of new counties and his mode of exer-

cising the veto power, was presented to him on behalf of both

houses, to which he returned a long and labored reply, but con-

ceded nothing." Some of the best friends of the Governor, in-

cluding Mr. Burnet, regarded the reasons set forth in the reply

"as more plausible than solid," and as reflecting unnecessarily

upon the judgment or intelligence of the Assembly. At this

point the Legislature retired from the controversy, and many of

its members now began to anticipate statehood as the only way

to escape from what they regarded as a harsh, oppressive and

arbitrary rule.

The scheme of the St. Clair party to unite the Washing-

ton and Hamilton county members, took form by the election of

Mr. McMillan, a warm St. Clair partisan from Hamilton county,

as delegate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the appointment of

Harrison as Governor of Indiana, until the 4th of March, then

next, a period of about three months, while Major Paul Fearing,

of Marietta, another Federalist, was elected for the full term of

two years.

At this period, "the old man," as his opponents invariably

called the Governor, introduced a little strategy, borrowed from

the art of war, with which he was familiar in his earlier life.

He knew that his term of office would expire on December 9.

1800, a fact which was not generally known, and he determined

to make use of this knowledge in such a way as to defeat any

plan for the sitting of the Assembly after his term should expire,

with Secretary Byrd as Acting Governor. St. Clair held the

opinion that the case of a vacancy in the office by reason of the

expiration of the term thereof, was not one provided for by the

Act of Congress, during which the Secretary should act in the

Governor's place. He knew that the Assembly and the Secretary

were of a contrary opinion, but he knew also that he had the

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64       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

power to prorogue and dissolve the Assembly at pleasure. He

determined to exericse this latter power at a time when it would

be too late to confer with the Secretary (whose home was in

Cincinnati,) and too late to arrange for completing the public

business that might be then pending. He concealed this deter-

mination in his own bosom. In the latter part of November a

rumor that the Governor's term would expire on December 9,

having reached the Secretary's ears, he considered it a trick to

prevent the forwarding of petitions to the President by him and

his friends, against St. Clair's reappointment, inasmuch as in the

event of the expiration of the term at that date, such reappoint-

ment would likely be made, before the petitions, etc., could reach

Washington City. Secretary Byrd, however, wrote to Col. Massie

to know when in his opinion the session would be closed, intend-

ing to go to Chillicothe with the view to act in the Governor's

place, and continue the sitting of the Assembly. But before any

word could reach him, the Governor developed his scheme. On

December 2 he sent a message to the Assembly declaring that on

the ₉th its session must end, as on that day his term would expire,

and also declaring that a vacancy so occurring was not a case pro-

vided for by law, in which the Secretary could become acting

Governor.

Mr. Burnet says it was the prevailing opinion that the Gov-

ernor should have given notice of his view of the powers of

the Secretary and of his intention to prorogue the Legislature,

in his address at the opening of the session, and that his best

friends were apprehensive that he did not do so for the express

purpose of preventing the interference of the Secretary until it

would be too late for such interference to be of any service.

The development of this piece of strategy acted like the

Hudibrastic gun which "kicked back and knocked its owner over."

It wakened the good opinion of the Governor's friends as to his

candor and fairness, as well as to his wisdom and judgment,

while it aroused the indignation and wrath of his opponents.

St. Clair was speedily reappointed by President Adams.

The contest was continued with renewed activity and much bit-

terness. The development of events, led to the adoption of plans,

not seriously thought of at the beginning. The opponents of

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               65

 

the Governor at first sought from Congress a bare modification

of the veto power; next came charges against the Governor and

the effort to remove him from office, and finally the creation of

a new state with a Governor of their own choice.

It was not until February, 1801, that Mr. Jefferson's elec-

tion as successor to President Adams was assured. That event

inspired new hopes in the minds of the democratic Republicans

of the Territory, and was a warning to the Governor's party to

proceed with caution, but the warning was unheeded.

The citizens of Marietta early in 1801, at a public meeting

appointed a committee of five to report an address to the citizens

of their own and other counties. That address was reported to

an adjourned public meeting, and carried, after debate, by a large

majority. It charged the opponents of Governor St. Clair, as

being designing characters, aiming at self-aggrandisement and

willing to sacrifice the right and property of the citizens of the

Territory at the shrine of private ambition, and deprecated the

domestic tempest thus created, as only equaled by the dangers

of a foreign war. It disclaimed and opposed the idea of forming

a state government as involving an expense beyond the power

of the people to support.

All through the summer of 1801 the struggle went on. The

spirit of National politics entered largely into the controversy.

The election held in October, 1801, for members of the

second General Assembly, now confined to the counties of the

newly created Eastern Division resulted in a majority favorably

inclined to the Governor. They convened in Chillicothe on No-

vember 23, 1801.

The project for changing the boundaries prescribed in the

Ordinence of 1787 for the states within the Territory, which

had been a part of the scheme formed by the Governor and

his friends at the Session of 1800, but postponed at that time, was

now resumed, and a Bill declaring the assent of the Territory to

an alteration of the Ordinance of 1787, by Congress, so as to

change the boundaries as desired, was the first act of legislation

at that session. It was approved by the Governor on December

21st, 1801.

Vol. XI-5

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66       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

The whole course of the majority indicated strongly the

carrying out of an agreed plan to unite the upper and lower por-

tions (on the Ohio River) of the Eastern Division of the Terri-

tory, against the middle portion.

St. Clair, himself, wrote to delegate Fearing, at Washing-

ton, "you cannot imagine the agitation this legislation has created

among the people here."

The minority, embracing the leading republicans, Tiffin,

Worthington and Langham, of Ross; Massie and Darlington,

of Adams, and Dunlevy and Morrow of Hamilton, united in a

strong protest against it. A public meeting was held at Chilli-

cothe and a Committee appointed to draft and forward a petition

to Congress asking it to refuse its assent to the proposed measure

for division. This was put in circulation for subscription by the

people and agents were sent out to procure aid in all parts of

the Territory. Messrs. Worthington and Baldwin were appointed

to go to Washington in person, to advocate the cause of the peti-

tioners against the proposed division, which was styled "a con-

spiracy of the representatives of the upper and lower parts of the

Territory to ruin the middle part."

As an evidence of the local agitation to which the Governor

referred, caused by the passage of this Boundary Act, and by the

threat of certain members of the Governor's party to remove

the capitol back to Cincinnati (among whom was Mr. Scheifflein,

of Wayne county, now Michigan, who had spoken very freely on

the subject of the removal from Cincinnati, and the agency of

the people of Chillicothe in bring it about), we cite a disgraceful

event. For two evenings, Christmas eve and the evening before,

unruly and unlawful assemblages of certain men of the baser

sort, led by that young man of "talents, good morals and good

disposition," according to his letter of introduction to Col. Massie,

Michael Baldwin, broke into the boarding house, where the Gov-

ernor and many of the members of the Assembly lodged, with

great and riotous uproar. Mr. Worthington on that occasion

seized Baldwin and threatened him with death if he did not

desist. Scheiffein met the mob with a brace of loaded pistols

and drove them back into the street. The Governor in recounting

the affair, says one of the members was actually collared, but being

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.               67

 

armed with a dirk instantly drew it, but fortunately was pre-

vented from putting his assailant to death. The sight of this

weapon made the mob quit the room. Under the expostulations

of the Governor, and with the aid of Mr. Worthington and

a deputy sheriff, the rioters were quieted and the riot ended

without serious injury to any one on either side, but as a result,

it hastened the very thing the rioters desired to prevent, for the

legislature on the first day of the new year, passed the act for the

removal of the capitol to Cincinnati, as expressive of their feelings

on this occasion.

Before this was done, Worthington and Baldwin had left on

their mission to Washington City. Worthington, on the 31st of

December, was in Zanesville, waiting for Baldwin, inveighing

against him as the worst traveller he had ever met with, having

broken down his horse by bad treatment, and threatening to

cane him on sight; but after their arrival in Washington, he

reports Mr. Baldwin as acting with "great prudence and sobriety."

Messengers were also sent to Washington in behalf of the

Governor's party, and the contest there was carried on with

wonderful energy and perseverance on both sides, aided by

constant correspondence with parties in the Territory. St. Clair

seems from his letters to have been the most active and per-

sistent of any one on his side. His old friends of the Federal

party and of the old army, proved friends indeed.  Senator

James Ross, of Pennsylvania, for whom Ross County, Ohio, had

been named by Governor St. Clair, stood by him to the last.

The mission of Worthington and Baldwin was simply to

defeat the change in the boundaries of the Territory, as was

then proposed by the Legislature, and to secure the removal of

St. Clair. It was not long, however, before they and other

Democratic Republicans in the Territory and at Washington

City, developed a plan to procure the passage of an act to

authorize a convention of delegates elected by the people of the

Territory, to declare whether they wished to form a state gov-

ernment, and if so, to adopt a constitution for that purpose.

This act was passed by Congress on April 30th, 1802, by a large

majority, and this practically settled the controversy.

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68        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

The effort to remove Governor St. Clair was not lost sight

of. Charges were filed against him by Secretary Byrd, and

counter charges against the Secretary, by the Governor, in the

office of the Secretary of State at Washington, where they are

still on file. Col. Worthington also informally filed charges of

his own, promising to follow them by formal charges to be pre-

pared and forwarded by Col. Massie and the Committee at Chil-

licothe, and to be sustained by proofs of the Governor's mis-

conduct, his abuse of power, his unfitness for the office, and

his lack of devotion to the cause of equal rights. All these

remain on file at Washington City, in the office of the Secretary

of State, and recent publications have brought many of them

to light. The effort to remove him failed on the charges filed,

but later, an ill advised speech which he was permitted to make,

not as Governor, but as a citizen to whom some courtesy was

due, before the Constitutional Convention, which met in Chilli-

cothe on November 1, 1802, was considered by President Jef-

ferson sufficiently reprehensible to warrant his removal from

office. This was done November 22, 1802, and thereafter the

functions of his office devolved on Charles Willing Byrd, the

Secretary of the Territory, who continued to discharge them

until Dr. Tiffin's inauguration as Governor of the new State,

on March 3, 1803, when he, by virtue of an appointment by Pres-

ident Jefferson, became United States District Judge for the

District of Ohio.

In reviewing the controversy, it is apparent that no one

man among the opponents of Governor St. Clair is entitled to

the appellation of leader in the movement which led to the

Governor's downfall and the formation of the new State. In

reading an account of the part taken by any one of them, we are

apt to say, "this was the leader, and the rest were followers."

Young Harrison, with Judge Symmes at his back, as the

first Territorial delegate to Congress;

Secretary Byrd, who from his official position was able to

exert a powerful influence in direct antagonism to the Governor.

John Smith, of Hamilton County, whose native talents and

mental energy, and whose ambition to excel, urged him to con-

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Ohio's Birth Struggle.                69

 

stant application and soon raised him to a standing among the

influential leaders of his day;

Dr. Edward Tiffin, that admirable presiding officer over po-

litical bodies, great in ability and in steady adherence to his

convictions of right and duty;

Col. Massie, as the earliest and most influential of the pio-

neers, with large interests at stake, and with singular ability to

maintain them; not ambitious of political preferment, but giv-

ing most valuable aid and counsel in advancing the cause he

espoused;

Col. Worthington, as second to none in mental vigor, alert-

ness, and shrewdness; untiring and persevering to the last

degree, giving up the comforts of home during prolonged ab-

sences at Philadelphia and Washington, watching every turn in

the prolonged controversy, spurring up the tardy, incessant in

action until the result is reached and then announcing that result

in a brief letter to Col. Massie from Washington on April 30th,

1802, in these words: "I do myself the pleasure to enclose you

a copy of the act for the admission of the Territory into the

Union as a state. I leave this place in an hour."

When we take these, with Morrow and others, that might

be named, all into one view, we perceive that while each was

entitled to a conspicuous position, all were one in spirit, purpose

and high ambition. We must write on their joint escutcheon, the

motto; "E Pluribus Unum."

But who can refrain from dropping a tear of pity over the

sad misfortunes of St. Clair. His services to his country in

the days which tried men's souls, his high qualities of head and

heart, command our admiration. Ah! we say, if he had only

seen the trend of events, their inevitable progress toward equality

of rights, and the abolition of the distinctions which separate

the few from the many! If he had only realized on that fatal

day of dissent from the will of the people, that "he who spits

against the wind, spits in his own face !" If he had only yielded,

as far as he might without violating conscience, by giving up

or modifying the exercise of his absolute negative on the will of

the people as expressed by their representatives, and been con-

tent to guide the ship of State amid the sea of new opinions

• 26
 

70        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.   upon which it had been launched, he might have ranked for all time, as he did at first, along with the heroes of his age. The actors of that eventful period are all in their graves, and as Judge Burnet, one of their latest survivors, said of them, "a retrospect of their actions will show that at times, unreason- able warmth and jealousy of motive, existed on both sides." Let us join with him in the wish that "Whatever of abuse, or re- proach, may have been cast then, by either party on the other, may now be covered by the mantle of oblivion."

• 27