Ohio History Journal

12       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

only weapons were tongues and pens, but they were directed by

men who for brains and bravery are worthy of every tribute of

admiration and respect that the people of Ohio can to-day bestow

upon them.

Six years prior to 1802, there came into the Scioto Valley a

young Virginian named Nathaniel Massie. He had served in the

Revolutionary War from his native State at the age of seventeen,

and at nineteen started to Kentucky to pursue his vocation of sur-

veying the public lands and placing warrants for soldiers of the

Revolution.  He founded Manchester in Adams county, and

in 1796 penetrated the Scioto Valley, which was then a beau-

tiful but savagely wild territory. He located in the region about

us to-day and laid out Chillicothe. It is easy to understand how

he was attracted to this glorious land, which, then, as now, bore

all the evidence of the richnes of nature.

One of his companions in his tours of surveying and explor--

ation was John McDonald, afterward of Poplar Ridge in this

(Ross) county, and sixty-two years ago he wrote a description

of the land about Chillicothe as he saw it with Massie in 1796. His

little volume -"McDonald's  Sketches"--is now   exceedingly

rare and on that account I take the liberty to repeat in his plain

style what he wrote. His description of the surroundings of the

site selected by Massie for his town, and the condition of the same

territory to-day shows a wondrous transformation from a land of

savagery to the garden spot of a commonwealth of the highest

civilization. Here is his picture of the Scioto Valley in the spring

of 1796; "About four or five miles above the mouth of Paint

Creek, the river (Scioto) suddenly makes a bend, and runs a

short distance east, thence southeast to the mouth of Paint Creek.

That stream, the largest tributary of the Scioto, for four or five

miles above its mouth, runs almost parallel with the Scioto. Be-

tween these two streams there is a large and beautiful bottom,

four or five miles in length, and varying from one to two miles in

breadth, and contains within the space upwards of three thousand

acres. This bottom (as also the bottoms of the Scioto and Paint

Creek generally), is very fertile; the loam of alluvial formation

being from three to ten feet in depth. These bottoms, when first

settled, were generally covered by a heavy growth of timber, such

Centennial Celebration.               13

as black walnut, sugar tree, cherry, buckeye, hackberry and other

trees which denote a rich soil. A portion of them, however, were

found destitute of timber, and formed beautiful prairies, clothed

with blue grass and blue sedgegrass, which grew to the height of

from four to eight feet, and furnished a bountiful supply of pas-

ture in summer and hay in winter, for the live stock of the set-

tlers. The outer edges of these prairies were beautifully fringed

around with the plum tree, the red and black haw, the mulberry and

crab apple. In the month of May, when those nurseries of nature's

God were in full bloom, the sight was completely gratified, while

the fragrant and delicious perfume, which filled the surrounding

atmosphere, was sufficient to fill and lull the soul with ecstacies of

pleasure. The western boundary of this valley, between the two

streams, is a hill two or three hundred feet in height. Its base to

the south is closely washed by Paint Creek, and where this stream

first enters the valley, it terminates in an abrupt point, and then

extends up the valley of the Scioto, in a northwest and north

course, for many miles, and forms the western boundary of the

bottoms along that stream.   From  the point where the hill

abruptly terminates at Paint Creek, running north-northeast at

the distance of about one mile across the valley, you reach the

bank of the Scioto, at the sudden bend it makes to the east. The

valley between this bend of the Scioto and Paint Creek, immedi-

ately below the point of the hill, was selected as a site for the

town. This part of the valley was chosen, as it consisted of

high and dry land not subject to the floods of the river, which

frequently inundated the valley towards the mouth of Paint

Creek."

It was amid these natural surroundings that Massie selected

the site that was to be the standing point, of a great, powerful,

wealthy and patriotic State.

The territory of the Scioto Valley had for centuries been the

selected living place of divers races of men. In the very dawn of

human knowledge it was populated by the mysterious race of

mound-builders and was the seat of their cities, camping places,

fortifications and altars. Attracted, doubtless, by the magnificent

soil, beautiful scenery and natural resources, both of the animal

and vegetable kingdom, they filled this valley in great numbers

14       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

until driven away or destroyed by a succeeding race. After them

came the Shawnees, famed for their bravery and numbers, and

occupied for perhaps centuries the land along the Scioto river

in their populous towns. They too, lived in this elysium of nat-

ural bliss, receiving from bounteous nature all that forest and

chase could give. The very beauty and richness of the land made

them guard it with such jealous spirit, that when Massie first

entered it, it was a great and expansive territory of danger and

death to the white man.

Chillicothe, in the very heart of the Virginian Military Dis-

trict, at once attracted immigration from Virginia. It was in

the midst of a great domain reserved by that State for the use

and settlement of her loyal sons that served in the war for inde-

pendence. The influx of settlers commenced as soon as the town

was laid out and even before the winter of 1796 it had stores and

taverns and shops for mechanics. The influence of civilized life

soon began to unfold and within a few years a substantial town

was in full operation, with a population of one thousand.

In the spring of 1798 there came to Chillicothe from Berkley

county, Virginia, one whose life and actions influenced the history

of Ohio in a greater degree than any man in its history. This

was Edward Tiffin. He played such an important part in subse-

quent events, including the first constitutional convention, that we

may well pause in our labors to-day to view a full length portrait

of his remarkable career. It will help us to understand his

power and the wonderful work he accomplished. He appeared

upon the scene of action in the Northwest Territory in its creative

period, when the work of moulding the destinies of a future

commonwealth was committed to the care of very few men. Head

and shoulders above them all stood Edward Tiffin. His subse-

quent official life displayed a greater general average of states-

manship than any of his contemporaries. He met successfully

all the opportunities and responsibilities of his life, which is the

best indication of ability. His work in creating, advancing and

developing Ohio has not been equalled by any man in its history.

His boyhood was spent in the city of Carlisle, England, where

he was born June 19, 1766. He emigrated to this country when

eighteen, and after an excellent medical education obtained in

Centennial Celebration.               15

the University of Pennsylvania, settled in Berkley county, Vir-

ginia. There amid the scenes and lives of the early Virginians

he spent several years as a quiet and successful physician. When

he came to Chillicothe he was still a physician, practicing with

marked success financially and professionally. In the sparsely

settled Scioto Valley his labors carried him over many miles of

travel, and he formed, the friendships that explains much of his

popularity in after years. He had decided views on politics; the

principles of Jefferson were adopted by him early in his Virginian

life, and his anti-Federal proclivities were well-known in his new

home.

In 1799 the people of the Northwest Territory assumed the

legislative form of government and under the provisions of the

Ordinance of 1787, they elected a legislature, there being at that

time five thousand male voters in the territory. Dr. Tiffin was

sent as a representative from Chillicothe and upon the assembling

of the first Territorial Legislature at Cincinnati he was unani-

mously elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, which

position he held until Ohio became a State. He was a man of

strong religious and moral convictions. In his early life he was

an Episcopalian; in 1790 he associated himself with the Meth-

odist church and was consecrated by Francis Asbury, the mis-

sionary bishop, as a local preacher. Thus he brought into the

new territory beyond the Ohio, with his professional skill, the

still greater influence of the spiritual physician. In both capaci-

ties he firmly held the confidence of his fellow citizens throughout

his life. Upon his entry into the church he manumitted his

slaves, and his subsequent record shows how sincere were his

convictions on this subject. As President of the first Constitu-

tional Convention he won still greater honors and established his

reputation as a man of unquestioned ability; indeed so pro-

nounced and universal was this that he was elected Governor of

the new State in January, 1803, without opposition. He was re-

elected in 1805, without opposition, and in 1807 declined a third

term which public sentiment was ready to confer upon him. Dur-

ing his second term he summarily arrested the participants in the

Aaron Burr expedition, which resulted in the flight of Burr and

the breaking up of the conspiracy. His vigorous and prompt

16       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

measures on this occasion called forth a public letter of thanks

from President Jefferson. In 1807 he was elected United States

Senator from Ohio. While in the Senate he was the means of

securing much valuable legislation for the new State. Appro-

priations for the Ohio river, and for surveying the public lands

were obtained by him, and much of the same kind of practical

work which characterized him as Governor marked his Senatorial

term. He resigned in March 1809, owing to the death of his

wife. It so affected him that he determined to retire from public

life. Returning to his once happy home in Chillicothe, it was

his intention to spend his remaining days in peace, but notwith-

standing his desires his fellow-citizens elected him to the Legis-

lature, where he was unanimously elected Speaker of the House.

He was afterwards appointed Commissioner of the Land Office,

being the first to hold that office, he systematized the claims and

surveys of the public lands. He was in Washington in 1814

when it was burned by the British. President Madison, his

Cabinet and the heads of the departments fled like cowards in

the panic and all the public records of the American Republic

were destroyed except the records of the Land Commissioner's

office. Edward Tiffin stayed and saved the complete records of

his department. So complete, compact and systematic were they

maintained, and so cool and level-headed was their custodian that

they were removed to a place of concealment in Loudan county,

Virginia, ten miles out of Washington. All the other depart-

ments lost all their records; Edward Tiffin saved all of his. He

closed his life as Surveyor General of the West, which position

he held during the administration of Madison, Monroe, John

Quincy Adams and into Jackson's. He died here in Chillicothe

amidst the people who loved and honored him for more than a

third of a century, after a remarkable life of usefulness and dis-

tinction.

This was the Edward Tiffin that confronted Arthur St. Clair

in the great contest for statehood which resulted in the convention,

the century of which we celebrate to-day. And Tiffin had a foe-

man worthy of his steel. Arthur St. Clair, the first and only

Governor of the Northwest Territory, was one of the most bril-

liant and distinguished military characters of the Revolutionary

Centennial Celebration.              17

War. A contemporary writer calls him "the great St. Clair,"

and while in the gubernatorial chair of the Northwest, Judge

Burnet marked him as "unquestionably a man of uprightness of

purpose, as well as suavity of manners." Courtly, scholarly and

honest, he was a fitting representative of the government in a

new land. St. Clair, as his name indicates, was of French origin

although his ancestors had for centuries lived in Scotland, where

he was born in 1734. He received his education at Edinburgh

University, and was indentured as a student of medicine. He

disliked this, and purchasing his time, he entered the English

army in 1757. He was in the French and Indian War, and served

under General Wolfe at Quebec, where his conduct was gallant

and effective. He resigned from the English army in 1762 and

settled down to civil life in Pennsylvania, where he filled many

positions of trust, honor and importance. When the colonies

rebelled against Great Britain, St. Clair threw his entire fortune

and enthusiasm on the side of his country. In 1775 he was

summoned to Philadelphia by a letter from John Hancock,

president of the Continental Congress, which was then in session.

His record from thence is a part of the history of the Republic.

He was then assistant and confidant of Washington; he was a

member of his military family and shared the hardships of Valley

Forge, together with the victories of many hard fought battles.

St. Clair, after the Revolution, retired to civil life. His fortune

was gone in the whirligig of war. He started into the Revolu-

tion a rich man; when peace was declared the riches had flown.

In 1786 he was in Congress from Pennsylvania, and as a hero of

two wars and a distinguished patriot he was elected its president

in 1787. This Congress formulated and passed the Ordinance

of 1787, under which St. Clair was nominated to the governor-

ship of the Northwest Territory, which occurred October 5th.

Governor St. Clair accepted his new honor with misgivings. He

says in his letters that it was forced upon him by his friends, who

expected that there was more pecuniary compensation attached

to it than events proved. It was supposed that the opportunities

for land speculation would be so great that St. Clair would make

money out of his advantages of position. But he was not so

inclined, nor did he expect such a result. He was satisfied with

2 Vol. XII

18       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

and frankly stated, that he had the "ambition of becoming the

father of a country and laying the foundation for the happiness

of millions then unborn." His unfortunate career as governor

showed that he thwarted in every way his expressed ambitions.

When Edward Tiffin entered upon the scene of action in the

Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair was an old man, worn

with the campaigns of war and the conflicts of politics. There

was little save its dignity to show that the classic face was that

of the handsome Ensign St. Clair, who used to wield the accom-

plishments of the drawing-room among the Bowdoins and Bayards

of Boston thirty years before.

The entrance of the followers of Thomas Jefferson into the

Northwest Territory was the commencement of a political war

against Governor St. Clair that for persistency and bitterness was

equal to the famous controversy of Alexander Hamilton and

Aaron Burr. Edward Tiffin had as his chief associates and lieu-

tenants, Nathaniel Massie, Thomas Worthington, Jeremiah Mor-

row and Return J. Meigs, Jr., all men of the highest character

and inspired by noble ambitions. They believed in the people;

they were not only opposed to the Federalistic principles of St.

Clair, but resented the arbitrary and offensive methods of his

administration. The Scotch governor knew of but two ways to

control or govern men; they were to pull them or drive them.

The Virginians would stand for neither method. So their oppo-

sition to St. Clair went not only to his principles, but to his

methods. His exercise of the veto power invited the strongest

opposition. He was an advocate of strong government. He did

not believe in conferring on the citizen the fullest powers and

responsibilities of American citizenship. He favored property

qualification for electors. He got into a controversy with the

Legislature over his own powers and prerogatives. He claimed

and exercised the power of locating county seats and erecting

new counties. This the Legislature denied, and attempted to

enact laws on this subject which he promptly vetoed. In his

contest with the Virginians he was supported by other able Fed-

eralists in the persons of General Putnam, Dr. Cutler and

Judge Jacob Burnett.

Centennial Celebration.         19

It is not essential to our purpose to go into the details of

the controversy that waged in the Territory from 1799 to 1802.

There were acts of Congress, of the Territorial Legislature, and

of the Governor, that furnished food for the bitterest contests.

The Virginians were playing for the greatest stake in American

politics-a state of the Union. The Federalists were making

their last stand, struggling for power both in the East and the

West. It was almost pathetic to see the noble compatriot of

Washington bending beneath the new storm that was arising.

The reign of the people was abroad in the Northwest. Whatever

virtue of Washington's, Hamilton's and St. Clair's Federal views

as to concentrated power had in the then populous East, they

were not respected by the yeoman of Ohio. The settler who

fought his way into the heart of the Great West believed that

he should have a full share in its government. And this was

why the position of Tiffin was popular with the voters of his

day. In the face of almost insuperable impediments, Tiffin won

his fight for statehood.

The enabling act of Congress providing for the erection of

the new state was approved April 30, 1802. It fixed the bound-

aries and provided for holding the constitutional convention on

the first Monday of the following November. Edward Tiffin

was very naturally elected to that body, and was as naturally

selected as its president. His belief in the people is prevalent

upon nearly every page of the organic law. The very first ques-

tion of criticism that always arises in a consideration of this

convention and of the constitution which it produced is that

relative to the fact that that instrument was never submitted to

the people for adoption or inspection. How did it develop that

these men who made such a magnificent struggle for popular

rights failed to submit their work to the people? A single refer-

ence to the enabling act will show the reason for the apparent

dereliction. The fifth section provides that the convention shall

first determine whether it is expedient to form a state constitu-

tion and government. This it did on the third day by a vote of

32 to 1. The only opposing vote being Ephraim Cutler of

Washington county.

20       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

Such a conclusion being arrived at, the act specifically author-

ized the convention "to form a constitution and state govern-

ment." It required no approval of the people. There was no

legal machinery provided to secure such expression. It was the

evident intent of the framers of the act in question to commit

the whole and exclusive duty of forming the first constitution

of Ohio to the convention. The theory on which the convention

was formed was that under the act of Congress it (the conven-

tion) was a strictly representative body, acting for and in the

name of the sovereign people, and that it possessed by actual

transfer all the inherent power of the sovereign, limited only by

the constitution of the United States. In other words, it was

a virtual assemblage of the people, of whom, by reason of their

great numbers and remoteness from each other, an actual con-

stitutional convention was impossible. They met clothed with

all the power the sovereign would have if gathered together.

The convention might say what Louis XIV said: "We are the

State." The soundness of this position is strengthened when

we search the records on the adoption of the constitutions of

other states. The result shows that the following submitted

their first constitution to the people for expression: California,

Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Min-

nesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, West

Virginia and Wisconsin, fifteen in number. The states which

did not submit their first constitution to the people are as follows:

Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey,

New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Illi-

nois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire,

Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont; in all twenty-

one states whose conventions, with that of Ohio, regarded them-

selves as the sovereign source of power. So far as this feature

of the first constitutional convention is concerned, it may be

regarded as settled that it was neither extraordinary, nor without

dignified and patriotic precedent.

The spirit of the contest which culminated in statehood

seemed to run through the constitution. The executive branch of

the state government was stripped of all authority. It left the

name of "governor" to apply to an office that had more honor

Centennial Celebration.              21

and dignity than power. The men who controlled the convention

did not believe in dividing legislative power, and therefore gave

to the general assembly sole power of making laws. They did

not propose that the governor should interfere by veto power

of the people. And it can be truthfully said as a tribute to these

views of Tiffin and the men of 1802, that after a hundred years

there has not developed a sufficiently different public sentiment

to change the active veto principle of their organic law. Next

year the people of Ohio vote on an amendment to their constitu-

tion expressly granting the governor the right of veto. I do

not believe there will be any change from the original idea intro-

duced in the first constitution. The total absence of property

qualifications for office is another indication of the antagonism

of the convention to the views of St. Clair. They seemed determ-

ined to outlaw every element of aristocracy. This provision has

also stood test of two subsequent constitutional conventions, and

stands firmer in our organic law than ever.

In apportioning the sovereign power of the people among

their official agents the convention gave by far the greater power

to the Legislature. The right to make all the laws without any

limitation but constitution itself has been carried up to modern

times. The money of the state was committed wholly to the

legislature and that is where it is today.

The general provisions of the bill of rights and the specific

powers of the state government have been practically those under

which the people of Ohio have lived for one hundred years. The

second constitution of Ohio adopted in 1851 by a vote of the

people followed throughout substantially the government lines

laid down by the first constitutional conventions. The changes

introduced were the result of the advanced progress of the state

rather than a difference of constitutional ideas.

When Thomas Jefferson expressed his opinion to Jeremiah

Morrow in 1803 on the constitution he approved it generally,

except the provision relating to the erection of the judiciary,

which he thought was too restricted for the future wants of the

state. He said, "They had legislated too much." Whatever was

done by the men of the first convention their descendants followed

22      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

them in 1851, for the same restrictions are apparent in the

second constitution.

The satisfaction which the original constitution gave the

people of the state is illustrated by their refusal to change it for

fifty years. When Thomas Worthington was governor in 1817,

he recommended the holding of a convention to form a new

constitution. Afterwards, in 1818, Governor Ethan Allen Brown

made a similar recommendation, and in 1819 the question of

a second constitutional convention was submitted to the people

of Ohio, and in a total vote of 36,302 was rejected by a majority

of 22,328 votes.

The principal objection to the original constitution was the

fact that the judiciary and state officers were appointed by a

joint ballot of both houses of the General Assembly. Jefferson

saw this would give trouble in the future. Its operations as after-

wards developed, caused scandal, contention and disgrace, and

hence the demand of Governors Worthington and Brown for an

opportunity to change.

This conflict between the judiciary and the legislature com-

menced in 1818 and lasted for several years to the great dis-

turbance of the proper administration of law. It appears that in

₁805 the legislature gave justices of the peace jurisdiction without

a jury to the amount of fifty dollars. As the constitution of the

United States guaranteed trial by jury to the suits in which over

twenty dollars was involved the Supreme Court very properly

in a case before it, decided the law void and unconstitutional,

for the Constitution of Ohio provided that "the right of trial by

jury shall be inviolate." The judicial decision was constructed

as an insult by the Legislature. As a result resolutions of

impeachment   ere preferred in the Sixth General Assembly

against Judges Huntington and Tod of the Supreme Court, and

Judge Pease, presiding judge of the Third Circuit. Nothing was

done at this session. While these articles of impeachment were

pending Judge Huntington was elected governor, and of course

resigned the judgeship. But the efforts at impeachment went

on. Charges, however, were not made against Governor Hun-

tington, but were preferred against Judges Tod and Pease.

Centennial Celebration.              23

Their answer to the charges of impeachment was the Con-

stitutions of the United States and the State of Ohio. The result

was an acquittal in both cases. Another incident growing out of

the legislative power conferred by the first constitution was the

sweeping resolution passed in 1819. This resolution passed in

January swept out of office every judge of the Supreme Court,

and the Court of Common Pleas, the secretary of state, the

auditor, the treasurer of state, and also all the justices of the

peace throughout the state. This resulted in interminable con-

flict and contusion, but it was the exercise of the power of the

legislature.

If it were not for this single feature which caused these vio-

lent party strifes there is every probability that we would be living

under the constitution of 1802 today. Indeed, a reference to the

political literature of the time preceding the holding of the con-

vention of 1851, will show that the election of the judiciary and

other state offices was the most potent argument used in favoring

a new constitution.

This convention that laid the political foundations of the state

of Ohio so heavy and deep that substantially, they have never

been changed, was formed of strong men. Out of the thirty-five

all but two of them were from Southern and Southeastern Ohio.

The Western Reserve played little part in this great work. She

opposed both the territorial government and the state government.

It is to the men who came from Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania

and New York that the credit for the founding of Ohio must be

given. They were the characters that dominated the first con-

vention. It was their ideas of government that were injected

into the first Constitution, and for the first fifty and the last fifty

years of the state those ideas have prevailed. And the one man

who conducted all, who influenced all, who executed all, was the

minister, physician, parliamentarian, governor, senator and honest

man -Edward Tiffin, of Chillicothe.