Ohio History Journal
ORATION OF HON. GEORGE F. HOAR.
THERE are doubtless many persons in this
audience who
have gathered here as to their Father's
house. They salute
their Mother on her birthday with the
prayer and the con-
fident hope that the life which now
completes its first cen-
tury may be immortal as liberty. If we
were here only to
do honor to Marietta-to celebrate the
planting of this
famous town, coeval with the Republic,
seated by the beau-
tiful river, her annals crowded with
memories of illustrious
soldiers and statesmen-this assemblage
would be well
justified and accounted for.
But there is far more than this in the
occasion. The
states which compose what was once the
Northwest Terri-
tory may properly look upon this as
their birthday rather
than that upon which they were admitted
into the Union.
The company who came to Marietta with
Rufus Putnam
April 7, 1788, came to found, not one
State, but five, whose
institutions they demanded should be
settled, before they
started, by an irrevocable compact.
These five children,
born of a great parentage and in a great
time, are, as we
count the life of nations, still in
earliest youth. Yet they
already contain within themselves all
the resources of a
great empire. Here is the stimulant
climate of the tem-
perate zone, where brain and body are at
their best. Here
will be a population of more than
fifteen millions at
the next census. Here is an area about
equal to that of
the Austrian Empire, and larger than
that of any other
country in Europe except Russia. Here is
a wealth more
than three times that of any country on
this continent ex-
cept the Republic of which they are a
part-a wealth a
thousand times that of Massachusetts,
including Maine, a
hundred years ago; one-third larger than
that of Spain;
equal to that of Holland and Belgium and
Denmark com-
bined; equal now, I suppose, to that of
Italy; already
half as great as that of the vast empire
of Russia, with its
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 17
population of more than a hundred
millions, whose posses-
sions cover a sixth part of the
habitable globe. Below the
earth are exhaustless stores of iron,
and coal, and salt, and
copper. Above, field, and farm, and
forest, can easily feed
and clothe and shelter the entire
population of Europe, with
her sixty empires, kingdoms and
republics.
The yearly product of the manufacture
of these five
States is estimated by the best
authorities at from twelve
to fifteen hundred millions of dollars.
Everything needed
for a perfect workshop in all the
mechanic and manufac-
turing arts has nature fashioned and
gathered here,
within easy reach, as nowhere else on
earth. These states
had, in 1886, forty-one thousand eight
hundred and
ninety-three miles of railway; equal,
within two hun-
dred miles, to that of Great Britain
and France com-
bined; nearly three times that of
Austria or Russia, and
about twice that of Germany; while
mighty rivers and
mightier lakes already bear along their
borders a commerce
rivaling that of the ports of the Old
World, to fair cities
and prosperous towns, each one of which
has its own won-
derful and fascinating story. And above
all this, and better
than all this, man, the noblest growth
this soil supplies,
descended of a great race, from which
he has inherited the
love of liberty, the sense of duty, the
instinct of honor, is
here to relate and celebrate his
century of stainless history.
Whatever of these things nature has not
given is to be
traced directly to the institutions of
civil and religious lib-
erty the wisdom of your fathers
established; above all, to
the great Ordinance. As the great
jurist and statesman of
Ohio said more than fifty years ago:
"The spirit of the
Ordinance of 1787 pervades them
all." Here was the first
human government under which absolute
civil and re-
ligious liberty has always prevailed.
Here no witch was
ever hanged or burned. No heretic was
ever molested.
Here no slave was ever born or dwelt.
When older states
or nations, where the chains of human
bondage have been
broken, shall utter the proud boast,
"With a great sum
Vol. 11-2
18
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
obtained I this freedom," each
sister of this imperial group
-Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois,
Wisconsin-may lift
her queenly head with the yet prouder
answer, " But I was
free-born."
They were destined, also, to determine
the character and
decide the fate of the great Republic
of which they are a
part, and, through that, of
constitutional liberty on earth.
In saying this I speak with careful
consideration of the
meaning of the words. I wish, above all
things, on this
occasion, to avoid extravagance. I hope
that what is said
here may bear the examination of
students of history in
this most skeptical and critical age,
and may be recalled on
this spot without a blush, by those who
shall come after
us, for many a future centennial.
There is no better instance than this
of the effect of
well-ordered liberty on the fortune of
a people. Nature is
no respecter of persons in her bounty.
The buried race
who built yonder mound dwelt here for
ages, under the
same sky, on the bank of the same
river, with the same
climate and soil. We know not who they
were. Their
institutions and government, their arts
and annals have
perished in a deeper oblivion than that
which covers the
builders of the Pyramids-which moved Sir
Thomas
Browne to his sublimest utterance:
" History sinketh be-
neath her cloud. The traveler, as he
paceth amazealy
through these deserts, asketh of her,
'Who builded them? '
and she mumbleth something, but what it
is he heareth
not." The Indian and the Frenchman
dwelt here, but
could not hold their place. The growth
of city and town
and country, the wealth of the soil and
the mine, the com-
merce of lake and river, the happiness
and virtue of the
fireside, the culture of the college,
the three million chil-
dren at school, the statute book on
whose page there is no
shame, are due to the great and wise
men who gave you,
as your birthday gift, universal
liberty, universal suffrage,
equal rights and inviolable faith.
There is no obscurity in the date or in
the transaction.
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 19
History pours upon the event its blazing
sunlight. We see
it, in all its relations, more clearly
than it was seen by
those who took part in it; more clearly
than we behold
the events of our own time. No passion
disturbs our
judgment, leading us either to
exaggerate or depreciate.
There is room for no feeling in our
bosoms to-day but an
honorable pride in our ancestry and an
honorable love of
our country. "It is a tale brief and
familiar to all; for the
examples by which you may still be happy
are to be found,
not abroad, men of Athens, but at
home."
History furnishes countless examples in
every age of
heroic achievement and of great
enterprise, in war and
peace, wisely conducted to successful
issue. But the
events which men remember and celebrate,
which become
the household words and stirring
memories of nations, the
sacred Olympiads by which time is
measured, and from
which eras take their date, are those
which mark the great
advances of Liberty on to new ground
which she has held.
Such, by unanimous consent of the race
to which we be-
long, are the enactment of Magna Charta,
the compact on
board the Mayflower, the Declaration of
Independence,
the adoption of the Constitution of the
United States, and
later, in our own day, the Proclamation
of Emancipation.
I believe the event which you celebrate
is not behind any
of these, whether in good fortune as to
time, in the char-
acter of the actors, in the wisdom which
guided them, or
in the far-reaching beneficence of the
result.
I am speaking to men who know their own
history.
I can but repeat-we gather on such
occasions but to
repeat - familiar stories -
"Our lips must tell them to our
sons,
And they again to theirs."
You know better than I do the miracle of
history
which brought the founders of the
Northwest to this spot
at the precise time when alone they
could bring with
them the institutions which moulded its
destiny. A few
20 Ohio Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly.
years earlier or a few years later and
the great Ordinance
would have been impossible.
Look for a moment at the forty-eight men
who came here
a hundred years ago to found the first
American civil gov-
ernment, whose jurisdiction did not
touch tide-water. See
what manner of men they were; in what
school they had
been trained; what traditions they had
inherited. I think
you must agree that of all the men who
ever lived on earth
fit to perform that "ancient,
primitive, and heroical work,"
the founding of a state, they were the
fittest. Puritanism,
as a distinct, vital, and predominant
power, endured less
than a century in England. It appears early in the reign
of Elizabeth, who came to the throne in
1558, and departs
at the restoration of Charles II, in
1660. But in that brief
time it was the preserver, and may
almost be called the cre-
ator, of English freedom. The Puritans
created the modern
English House of Commons. That House,
when they took
their seats in it, was the feeble and
timid instrument of
despotism. When they left it, it was
what it has ever since
been, the strongest, freest, most
venerable legislative body
the world had ever seen. When they took
their seats in it,
it was little more than the register of
the King's command.
When they left it, it was the main
depository of the na-
tional dignity and the national will.
King, and minister,
and prelate, who stood in their way,
they brought to the
bar and to the block. In that brief but
crowded century
they had made the name of Englishman the
highest title
of honor upon earth. A great historian
has said " the dread
of their invincible army was on all the
inhabitants of the
Island." He might have added, the dread of their invin-
tible leader was on all the inhabitants
of Europe.
Puritanism had not spent itself as a
force in England
when it crossed the sea with Bradford
and Winthrop.
What a genius for creating the
institutions of liberty and
laying deep the foundations of order was
in that handful of
men who almost at the same instant
framed the first written
constitution that ever existed, and
devised the New Eng-
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 21
land town, that unmatched mechanism of
local self-gov-
ernment, which has survived every
dynasty in Europe and
existed for two centuries and a half
almost without a
change.
The forty-one men who landed from the
Mayflower at
Plymouth and the forty-eight men who
came down the
Ohio in the Mayflower to Marietta were
of the same race
and the same faith. It was one hundred
and sixty-eight
years from the planting of the Puritan
Commonwealth to
the founding of the great Northwest,
destined so soon to
become, and, as it seems, forever to
remain, the seat and
center of empire on this continent. But
in the meantime
that faith had been broadened, and
softened, and liberalized.
The training of the race in that mighty
gymnasium had
changed the spirit of English
Puritanism into the spirit of
American liberty.
To Americans there is no more
delightful and instructive
study than to trace the hand of a
divine Providence in that
agelong development of the capacity to
take their full and
leading part in the achievement of
independence, in build-
ing the states, in laying the
foundation of empire in the
little English sect, contending at
first only for bare tolera-
tion. See how the Power which planted
the coal, whose
subtle chemistry gets ready the iron
for the use of the new
race, which dismisses the star on its
pathway through the
skies, promising that in a thousand
years it shall return
again true to its hour, and keeps his
word, gets his children
ready that they shall not fail in the
appointed time for the
fulfillment of his high design.
First. The history of the men who
founded Ohio and
of their ancestors since they landed at
Plymouth and Salem
was essentially a military history. It
was a training which
developed, more than any other, the
best quality of the in-
dividual soldier, whether for command
or for service. There
never was West Point education like
that of this military
school. Lord Chatham declared to the
House of Lords in
1777: "America has carried you
through four wars, and
22 Ohio
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
will now carry you to your death. I
venture to tell your
Lordships that the American gentry will
make officers fit
to command the troops of all the
European powers."
To many of them it was a life under
arms. Every boy
was a sharp-shooter. The Indian wars,
where, as Fisher
Ames said, heroes are not celebrated,
but are formed; the
great struggle with France, from whose
glory and victory
your fathers were never absent, of which
a continent was
the prize; the great wars of William and
Mary, and of
Queen Anne; Fort Edward; William Henry;
Crown Point;
Martinique; the Havana; twice captured
Louisburg, which
they took the second time with its own
cannon; Quebec,
where they heard the shout of triumph
which filled the
dying ear of Wolfe, and where, at last,
the lilies went down
before the lion, never again, but for a
brief period in Louis-
iana, to float as an emblem of dominion
over any part of
the American continent-these were the
school-rooms of
their discipline. Whatever share others
may have taken,
the glory of that contest is your
fathers' glory that victory
is your fathers' victory. Then came
twelve years of hollow
and treacherous truce, and then -the
Revolution.
Second. It was not to the school of war
alone that God
put these, his master-builders of
States. For a century
and a half every man played his part
where the most im-
portant functions were those managed
most directly by the
people, under a system which, in all
domestic affairs, was
self-government in everything but name.
They introduced
all the great social changes, which
prepared the way for
the Republic, and made it inevitable. As
has already been
said, they adopted the first written
social compact, and de-
vised the town system. They also
abolished primogeni-
ture, which act, Mr. Webster declared,
"fixed the future
frame and form of their
government." De Tocqueville
says: "The law of descent was the
last step of equality.
When the legislator has regulated the
law of inheritance
he may rest from his labor. The machine
once put in
motion will go on for ages and advance,
as if self-guided,
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 23
toward a given point." They
established universal educa-
tion. They incorporated into their State
the ancient cus-
toms of Kent, by virtue of which every
child was born free
and the power asserted to devise estates
free from all feudal
burdens. They also abolished entails.
Third. During the whole time the
resources of a skillful
statesmanship were taxed to the utmost
to maintain their
free institutions against the power of
England, where every
dynasty in turn-Stuart, Cromwell,
Hanover-looked jeal-
ously upon the infant Commonwealths. The
Massachusetts
charter conferred upon the colony the
power only of mak-
ing laws not repugnant to the laws of
England, and re-
served a veto to the crown. The Puritan
magistrates
shrewdly resisted the desire of their
people for a code, and
contrived that these great changes
should, as far as might
be, be introduced as customs, so as not
to be submitted to
the authorities in England. The
Massachusetts Body of
Liberties was sent about from town to
town in manuscript,
and was never printed until 1843. There
was never a time
when the mighty power of England was not
a menace to
our ancestors, from the first settlement
throughout the
whole of that long strife, which did not
really come to an
end until Jay's treaty and Anthony
Wayne's victory on the
Maumee, in 1794.
Fourth. They had a religious belief
which held that the
law of God was the supreme practical
rule in the conduct
of States. However narrow and bigoted at
times in its
application, we find throughout their
history a conscien-
tious and reverent endeavor to govern
their Commonwealth
by this rule. Thus the theological
discussions in which
they delighted, the constant
consideration of the relation
of man to his Creator and to the supreme
law of duty,
became blended with that of their
natural rights and their
rights under the charter and the British
Constitution, and
of the true boundary which separates
liberty and authority
in the State. So, when the time for
Independence came,
they had decided the Revolution in their
great debate
24
Ohio Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly.
before a gun was fired. It is said the
cannon of the Union
armies in the late war were shotted with
the reply to
Hayne. The ammunition of the Continental
soldiery in
their earlier war for freedom came from
the discussion of
the pulpit and the farmer's fireside.
Fifth. There would have been at best but
a provincial
and narrow character had New England
alone furnished the
theater on which the scene was to be
acted. The great
drama of the Revolution brought her
people under an in-
fluence to which they owe more than they
have always
acknowledged. I mean that of their
allies and compatriots
of the other colonies, who were their
associates in that
mighty struggle, especially that of
Virginia. John Jay
and Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin
Franklin and Gouver-
neur Morris, John Dickinson and Luther
Martin were new
and powerful teachers to the little
communities, who, with
every faculty of intellect and heart,
were studying the
fundamental principles of political
science under Otis and
the Adamses. But there now rose upon
their sky the great
Virginia constellation. If Virginia were
held to the Union
by no other tie she is forever bound to
it by that tie, ever
strongest to a generous spirit, the
benefits she has conferred
upon it. We shall see how her example of
self-denial made
possible the event we celebrate, and how
the wisdom of
her statesmen gave the event its
character of far-reaching
and perpetual beneficence. The teachers
of New England
now brought their pupils from the school
where they had so
well learned the principles of natural
right and civil liberty
to the great university where they were
to take their degree
in the building of states and framing
constitutions under
Washington and Jefferson, and Patrick
Henry and Madison,
and the Lees and Marshall. Within twelve
years before
the settlement at Marietta eleven of the
thirteen States
formed their constitutions. The
convention that framed the
Constitution of the United States was in
session when the
Ordinance of 1787 was passed.
Sixth. This is by no means all. There is
something
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 25
more than the love of liberty-something
more than the
habit of successful resistance to
oppression and the courage
and power to assert the rights of
mankind-needed to fit
men to construct great states on sure
foundations. The
generation which was on the stage when
the Northwest
was planted had received another lesson.
They had been
taught the necessity of strengthening
their political insti-
tutions, so that they should afford due
security for property
and social order and enable government
to exert promptly
the power needed for its own protection,
without which it
cannot long endure. Shays' insurrection
in Massachusetts
in 1787 was inspired mainly by the
desire to prevent the
enforcement of debts by the courts. To
it was doubtless
due the clause in the Ordinance of
1787,-inserted also in
the Constitution-forbidding the passage
of any law im-
pairing the obligation of contracts. The
disrespect with
which the Continenal Congress is
sometimes spoken of is
unjust. Its want of vigor was due to the
limitation put
upon its powers by the States, and to no
want of wisdom
or energy in its members. That body will
ever hold a
great place in history-if it had done
nothing else-which
declared Independence, which called
Washington to the
chief command, which began its labors
with the great
state papers which Chatham declared
surpassed the master-
pieces of antiquity, and ended them with
the Ordinance of
1787. But the States, jealous of all
authority but their own
refused to confer on Congress the
essential power of tax-
ation and the means to enforce its own
resolves. The effect
of this short-sighted jealousy, in
increasing and prolonging
the burden of the war and in lowering
the national
character with foreign nations after it
was over, the people
had learned, to their great cost.
From all this experience there had come
to the men
who were on the stage in this country in
1787 an aptness
for the construction of constitutions
and great permanent
statutes such as the world never saw
before or since.
Their supremacy in this respect is as
unchallenged as
20
Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly.
that of the great authors of the reign
of Elizabeth in the
drama.
Governor Stoughton said, in 1668, that
"God sifted a
whole nation, that he might send choice
grain over into
this wilderness." The quality of
the grain continued to
improve under his care. Never did the
great Husband-
man choose his seed more carefully than
when he planted
Ohio. I do not believe the same number
of persons fitted
for the highest duties and responsibilities
of war and
peace could ever have been found in a
community of the
same size as were among the men who
founded Marietta
in the spring of 1788, or who joined
them within twelve
months therafter. " Many of our
associates," said Var-
num, on the first 4th of July,
"are distinguished for
wealth, education, and virtue; and
others, for the most
part, are reputable, industrious,
well-informed planters,
farmers, tradesmen, and
mechanics." "No colony in
America," said Washington, "
was ever settled under such
favorable auspices as that which has
just commenced at
the Muskingum. Information, property,
and strength
will be its characteristics. I know
many of the settlers
personally, and there never were men
better calculated to
promote the welfare of such a
community." "The best
men in Connecticut and
Massachusetts," writes Carring-
ton to James Monroe, "a
description of men who will fix
the character and politics throughout
the whole territory,
and which will probably endure to the
latest period of
time." "I know them
all," cried Lafayette, when the list
of nearly fifty military officers, who
were among the pio-
neers, were read to him in Marietta, in
1825, the tender
memories of forty years thronging his
aged bosom-"I
know them all. I saw them at
Brandywine, Yorktown,
and Rhode Island. They were the bravest
of the brave."
Washington andVarnum, as well as
Carrington and Lafay-
ette, dwell chiefly, as was
Washington's fashion, upon
the personal quality of the men, and
not upon their pub-
lic offices or titles. Indeed, to be
named with such com-
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 27
mendation, upon personal knowledge, by
the cautious and
conscientious Washington, was to a
veteran soldier better
than being knighted on the field of
battle. They were
the very best specimens of the New
England character
that could be found. They were among the
most stead-
fast, constant, liberty-loving men that
ever lived. Self-
government had become to them a prime
necessity of
life; but it was that self-government,
the sublimest thing
in the universe except its Creator, by
which a human will
governs itself in obedience to a law
higher than its own
desire. They were men of a very sincere
and simple
religious faith. The belief in a
personal immortality,
that hope's perpetual breath, without
which no gift of
noblest origin ever cometh to man or
nation, was to them
a living reality. The scene which Burns
describes in
the Cotter's Saturday Night, from which
he says, " Old
Scotia's grandeur springs," was of
nightly occurrence in
the cabins of these soldiers and
Indian-fighters.
The little company contained many
military officers of
high rank, men who had performed
important exploits in
war, friends and associates of Washington
and Lafayette,
and statesmen who had been leaders of
the people in the
days before the Revolution. If that
assembly had been
called, in the Providence of God, to
assert the rights of
Englishmen, as did the barons of Magna
Charta; or to
make an original social compact, as did
the men on board
the Mayflower; or to found towns and
create a body of
liberties and customs, as did the men of
from 1620 to
1650; or, to state the case between the
fundamental rights
of human nature and King George, as did
the men of the
Declaration in 1776; or to conduct and
lead and plan a
great defensive war, or to fashion a
constitution for state or
nation, they would have been equal to
the task.
There are many names that rise to the
lips to-day.
The settlers are not here; but their
children are here. The
men who knew them, or who have heard
their story from
the lips of fathers and mothers who knew
them, are here.
28 Ohio
Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
Your hearts are full of their
memories. The stately
figures of illustrious warriors and
statesmen, the forms of
sweet and comely matrons, living and
real as if you had
seen them yesterday, rise before you
now. Varnum, than
whom a courtlier figure never entered
the presence of a
Queen-soldier, statesman, scholar,
orator,-whom Thomas
Paine, no mean judge, who had heard the
greatest Eng-
lish orators in the greatest days of
English eloquence, de-
clared the most eloquent man he had
ever heard speak;Whip-
ple, gallant seaman as ever trod a
deck,-a man whom Far-
ragut or Nelson would have loved as a
brother; first of
the glorious procession of American
naval heroes; first to
fire an American gun at the flag of
England on the sea;
first to unfurl the flag of his own
country on the Thames;
first pioneer of the river commerce of
the Ohio to the
Gulf; Meigs, hero of Sagg Harbor, of
the march, to
Quebec, of the storming of Stony
Point,-the Christian
gentleman and soldier, whom the
Cherokees named the
White Path, in token of the unfailing
kindness and inflex-
ible faith which had conveyed to their
darkened minds
some not inadequate conception of the
spirit of Him who
is the Way, the Truth, and the Life;
Parsons, soldier,
scholar, judge, one of the strongest
arms on which Wash-
ington leaned, who first suggested the
Continental Con-
gress, from the story of whose life
could almost be written
the history of the Northern war; the
chivalric and ingen-
ious Devol, said by his biographer to
be " the most perfect
figure of a man to be seen amongst a
thousand;" the
noble presence of Sproat; the sons of
Israel Putnam and
Manasseh Cutler; Fearing, and Greene,
and Goodale,
and the Gilmans; Tupper, leader in
church and state, -
the veteran of a hundred exploits, who
seems, in the qual-
ities of intellect and heart, like a
twin brother of Rufus
Putnam; the brave and patriotic, but
unfortunate St.
Clair, first Governor of the Northwest,
President of the
Continental Congress; - the mighty
shades of these heroes
and their companions pass before our
eyes, beneath the
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 29
primeval forest, as the shades of the
Homeric heroes be-
fore
lysses in the Land of Asphodel.
But no fable
mingles with their story. No mythical
legend of encoun-
ter wun monster or dragon or heathen god
exaggerates
their heroism. There is no tale of
she-wolf nurse, whose
milk blended with the blood of their
leader. The foe
whose war-whoop woke the sleep of the
cradle on the
banks or the Muskingum needed no epic
poet to add to
his terrors. The she-wolf that mingled
in your father's
life was a very real animal. These men
are in the full
light of history. We can measure them,
their strength
and their weakness, with the precision
of mathematics.
They are the high-water mark of the
American character
thus far. Let their descendants give
themselves up to the
spirit of this great patriotic occasion
and to the contem-
plation of their virtues, to form a
reservoir of heroic
thought and purpose to be ready when
occasion comes.
It is said the founders were deceived
and did not select
the best place for their setttlement.
But it seemed a par-
adise to men from New England. Drowne,
in the first
anniversary oration, on the 7th of
April, the day which the
founders resolved should be
"forever observed as a day of
public festival in the territory of the
Ohio Company,"
declared that "then this virgin
soil received you first, allur-
ing from your native homes by charms
substantial and
inestimable;
"A wilderness of sweets; for Nature
here
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at
will
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more
sweet,
Wild above rule or art; the gentle gales
Fanning their odoriferous wings,
dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they
stole
Those balmy spoils."
The exuberant eloquence of Varnum also
failed him.
He, too, could find nothing less than
Milton's picture of
Eden to express his transports.
As I have read the story of these brave
men-of some
of them for the first time-in the sober
pages of Hildreth,
30 Ohio Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly.
the historian of the Pioneers, I could
not help applying to
Ohio the proud boast of Pericles
concerning Athens:
"Athens alone among her
contempories is superior to the
report of her. Of how few Hellenes can
it be said, as of
them, that their deeds, when weighed in
the balance, have
been found equal to their fame."
But what can be said which shall be
adequate to the
worth of him who was the originator,
inspirer, leader, and
guide of the Ohio settlement from the
time when he first
conceived it in the closing days of the
Revolution until
Ohio took her place in the Union as a
free State, in the
summer of 1803? Every one of that
honorable company
would have felt it as a personal wrong
had he been told
that the foremost honors of this
occasion would not be
given to Rufus Putnam. Lossing calls him
"the Father of
Ohio." Burnet says "he was
regarded as their principa
chief and leader." He was chosen
the superintendent at
the meeting of the Ohio Company, in
Boston, November
21,
1787, "to be obeyed and respected
accordingly." The
agents of the Company, when they voted
in 1789 "that the
7th of April be forever observed as a public
festival," speak
of it as "the day when General
Putnam commenced the
settlement in this country." Harris
dedicates the docu-
ments collected in his appendix to Rufus
Putnam, "the
founder and father of the State."
He was a man after
Washington's own pattern and after
Washington's own
heart; of the blood and near kindred of
Israel Putnam, the
man who "dared to lead where any
man dared to follow."
He was born in Sutton, Massachusetts,
April 9, 1730.
Like so many of the ablest men of his
time, he was his own
teacher. His passion for knowledge,
especially mathe-
matics and engineering, overcame the
obstacle of early
poverty. He was a veteran of the old
French war, where
his adventures sound like one of
Cooper's romances. He
was made Lieutenant-Colonel of a Worcester county regi-
ment at the outbreak of the Revolution
and joined the
camp at Cambridge just after the battle
of Lexington. His
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 31
genius as an engineer was soon
disclosed. He was, as
Washington expressly and repeatedly
certified, the ablest
engineer officer of the war, whether
American or French-
man. He was soon called by a council of
generals and
field officers to direct the
construction of a large part of the
works on which the position of the army
besieging Boston
depended. He told Washington he had
never read a word
on that branch of science. But the
chieftain would take
no denial.
He performed his task to the entire satisfaction
of his commander, and was soon ordered
to superintend
the defenses of Providence and Newport.
One evening in the winter of 1776 Putnam
was invited
to dine at headquarters. Washington
detained him after
the company had departed to consult him
about an attack
on Boston. The general preferred an
entrenchment on
Dorchester Heights, which would compel
Howe to attack
him and risk another Bunker Hill
engagement with a dif-
ferent result, to marching his own
troops over the ice to
storm the town. But the ground was
frozen to a great
depth and resisted the pick-axe like
solid rock. Putnam
was ordered to consider the matter, and
if he could find
any way to execute Washington's plan to
report at once.
He himself best tells the story of the
accident-we may
almost say the miracle-by which the
deliverance of Mas-
sachusetts from the foreign invader, a
veteran British army
eleven thousand strong, was wrought by
the instrumental-
ity of the millwright's apprentice:
"I left headquarters in company
with another gentle-
man, and on our way came by General
Heath's. I had no
thoughts of calling until I came against
his door, and then
I said, ' Let us call on General Heath,'
to which he agreed.
I had no other motive but to pay my
respects to the gen-
eral. While there, I cast my eye on a
book which lay on
the table, lettered on the back
'Muller's Field Engineer.'
I immediately requested the general to
lend it to me. He
denied me. I repeated my request. He
again refused,
and told me he never lent his books. I
then told him that
32 Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
he must recollect that he was one who, at Roxbury, in a
measure compelled me to undertake a business which, at
the time, I confessed I never had read a word about, and
that he must let me have the book. After some more ex-
cuses on his part and close pressing on mine I obtained
the loan of it."
In looking at the table of contents his eye was caught
by the word " chandelier," a new word to him. He read
carefully the description and soon had his plan ready. The
chandeliers were made of stout timbers, ten feet long, into
which were framed posts five feet high and five feet apart,
placed on the ground in parallel lines and the open spaces
filled in with bundles of fascines, strongly picketed together.
thus forming a movable parapet of wood instead of earth,
as heretofore done. The men were immediately set to
work in the adjacent apple orchard and woodlands cutting
and bundling up the fascines and carrying them with the
chandeliers on to the ground selected for the work. They
were put in their place in a single night.
When the sun went down on Boston on the 4th of March
Washington was at Cambridge, and Dorchester Heights as
nature or the husbandman had left them in the autumn.
When Sir William Howe rubbed his eyes on the morning
of the 5th he saw through the heavy mists the entrench-
ments, on which, he said, the rebels had done more work
in a night than his whole army would have done in a
month. He wrote to Lord Dartmouth that it must have
been the employment of at least twelve thousand men.
His own effective force, including seamen, was but about
eleven thousand. Washington had but fourteen thousand
fit for duty. "Some of our officers," said the Annual
Register--I suppose Edmund Burke was the writer-
"acknowledged that the expedition with which these
works were thrown up, with their sudden and unexpected
appearance, recalled to their minds the wonderful stories
of enchantment and invisible agency which are so fre-
quent in the Eastern Romances." Howe was a man of
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 33
spirit.
He took the prompt resolution to attempt to dis-
lodge the Americans the next night
before their works
were made impregnable. Earl Percy, who
had learned
something of Yankee quality at Bunker
Hill and Lexing-
ton, was to command the assault. But the
Power that
dispersed the Armada baffled all the
plans of the British
general. There came "a dreadful
storm at night," which
made it impossible to cross the bay until
the American
works were perfected.
We take no leaf from the pure chaplet of
Washington's
fame when we say that the success of the
first great mili-
tary operation of the Revolution was due
to Rufus Putnam.
The Americans, under Israel Putnam,
marched into Bos-
ton, drums beating and colors flying.
The veteran British
army, aided by a strong naval force,
soldier and sailor,
Englishman and Tory, sick and well, bag
and baggage,
got out of Boston before the strategy of
Washington, the
engineering of Putnam, and the courage
of the despised
and untried yeomen, from whose leaders
they withheld
the usual titles of military respect.
"It resembled," said
Burke, "more the emigration of a
nation than the break-
ing up of a camp."
But it is no part of our task to-day to
narrate the mili-
tary service of General Putnam, although
that includes
the fortification of West Point, an
important part in the
capture of Burgoyne, and an able plan,
made at the request
of Washington, for putting the army on a
peace establish-
ment and for a chain of fortified
military posts along the
entire frontier. We have to do only with
the entrench-
ments constructed under the command of
this great
engineer for the constitutional fortress
of American liberty.
Putnam removed his family to Rutland,
Worcester
county, Massachusetts, early in 1780. His house is
yet
standing, about ten miles from the
birthplace of the grand-
father of President Garfield. He
returned himself to
Rutland when the war was over. He had
the noble pub-
lic spirit of his day to which no duty
seemed trifling or
Vol. 11-3
34
Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly.
obscure. For five years he tilled his
farm and accepted
and performed the public offices to
which his neighbors
called him. He was representative to
the General Court,
selectman, constable, tax collector, and
committee to lay
out school lots for the town; state
surveyor, commissioner
to treat with the Penobscot Indians, and
volunteer in put-
ting down Shays' rebellion. He was one
of the founders
and first trustees of Leicester Academy
and, with his
family of eight children, gave from his
modest means a
hundred pounds toward its endowment.
But he had larger plans in mind. The
town constable
of Rutland was planning an empire. His
chief counsellor
in his design was his old leader and
friend, George Wash-
ington. Washington had been interested
in the settlement
of the Northwest, and in connecting it
with the Atlantic
by land and water routes, almost from
boyhood. His
brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, were
members of the
first Ohio Company, in 1748. He was
himself a large
land-owner on the Ohio and the Kanawha.
Before the army broke up a petition of
two hundred and
eighty-eight officers, of which Putnam
was the chief pro-
moter, was sent by him to Washington, to
be forwarded to
Congress, for a grant of lands north and
northwest of the
River Ohio to the veterans of the army
in redemption of
the pledges of Congress; and, further,
for sales to such
officers and soldiers as might choose
to become purchasers.
on a system which would effectually
prevent the monopoly
of large tracts. A year later Putnam
renews his urgent
application to Washington for aid in
his project, to which
he says he has given much time since he
left the army.
He asks the general to recommend to him
some member
of Congress with whom he can directly
correspond, as he
does not like even to hint these things
to the delegates
from Massachusetts, though worthy men.
She is forming
plans to sell her eastern lands. Washington
answers
that he has exerted every power with
Congress that he
is master of, and had dwelt upon
Putnam's argument
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 35
for a speedy decision, but Congress had
adjourned with-
out action.
In 1785 Congress appointed General
Putnam one of the
surveyors of northwestern lands. He
says, in his letter
accepting the office, that "a wish
to promote emigration
from among my friends into that
country, and not the
wages stipulated, is my principal
motive." He was com-
pelled by his engagements with
Massachusetts to devolve
the duty upon General Tupper as a substitute.
Tupper
could not get below Pittsburgh in the
season of 1785. He
came back to Massachusetts in the
winter with such
knowledge of the country as he had
gained, and reported
to Putnam at Rutland, on the 9th
of January, 1786. The
two veterans sat up together all night.
At day-break they
had completed a call for a convention
to form a company.
It was to all officers and soldiers of
the late war, and all
other good citizens residing in
Massachusetts, who might
wish to become purchasers of lands in
the Ohio country.
It was to extend afterward to the
inhabitants of other
States "as might be agreed
on." The convention was
held at the Bunch of Grapes, in Boston,
March 1, 1786;
chose a committee, of which Putnam was
chairman, to
draft a plan for their organization,
and so the Ohio Com-
pany was begun. The year was spent in
obtaining the
names of the associates. They were men
of property and
character, carefully selected, who
meant to become actual
residents in the new country. They were
men to whom
the education, religion, freedom,
private and public faith,
which they incorporated in the
fundamental compact of
Ohio, were the primal necessaries of
life. In 1787 the di-
rectors appointed Putnam superintendent
of their affairs.
In the winter everything was ready.
Putnam went out from
his simple house in Rutland to dwell no
more in his
native Massachusetts. It is a plain
wooden dwelling, per-
haps a little better than the average
of the farmer's houses
of New England of that day. Yet about
which of Europe's
palaces do holier memories cling?
Honor, and Fame, and
36
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
Freedom, and Empire, and the Fate of
America went with
him as he crossed the threshold. The
rest of his life is, in
large part, the history of Marietta and
of Ohio for more
than thirty years. "The impress of
his character," says
his biographer, "is strongly marked
on the population of
Marietta, on their buildings,
institutions and manners."
The wise and brave men who settled
Marietta would
have left an enduring mark, under whatever
circum-
stances, on any community to which they
had belonged.
But their colony was founded at the
precise and only time
when they could have secured the
constitution which has
given the Northwest its character and
enabled it, at last,
to establish in the whole country the
principles of freedom
which inspired alike the company of the
first and second
Mayflower. The glory of the Northwest is
the Ordinance
of 1787. What share of that glory
belongs to the men
who founded the Northwest? Were your
fathers the arch-
itects and designers, as well as the
builders, of their State?
Was the constitutional liberty, which
they enjoyed them-
selves and left to their children, their
own conception and
aspiration, or was it conferred by the
Continental Congress?
"A gift of that which is not to be
given,
By all the blended powers of earth and
Heaven."
What was it that applied the spur to the
halting Con-
gress whose action the whole power of
Washington had
failed to overcome ? The researches of
historical scholars
have, within a few years, opened to us
for the first time
this most interesting chapter of
American history.
The firmness and foresight of Maryland
forbade her
delegates to ratify the articles of
confederation until the
claims of individual States to the lands
north and west of
the Ohio River were abandoned for the
common benefit.
New York set the example. The cession of
Virginia was
the most marked instance of a large and
generous self-
denial. It not only gave to the United
States a resource
for a large payment on the public debt
and a large pro-
vision for veteran soldiers, but gave
the country its first
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 37
strictly common and national interest
and the first subject
for the exercise of an authority wholly
national.
The necessity was felt for an early
provision for a survey
and sale of the territory and for the
government of the
political bodies to be established
there. These two sub-
jects were, in the main, kept distinct.
Various plans were
reported from time to time. Ten
committees were ap-
pointed on the frame of government and
three on the
schemes for survey and sale. Fourteen
different reports
were made at different times; but from
September 6, 1780,
when the resolution passed asking the
States to cede their
lands, until July 6, 1787, when Manasseh
Cutler, the envoy
of the Ohio Company, came to the door,
every plan adopted
and every plan proposed, except a motion
of Rufus King,
which he himself abandoned, we now see
would have been
fraught with mischief if it had become
and continued law.
March 1, 1784, the day
Virginia's deed of cession was de-
livered, Jefferson reported from a
committee of which he
was chairman an ordinance which divided
the territory
into ten States, each to be admitted
into the Union when
its population equaled that of the smallest
existing State.
He thought, as he declared to Monroe,
that if great States
were established beyond the mountains
they would sepa-
rate themselves from the confederacy and
become its
enemies. His ordinance, when reported,
contained a pro-
vision excluding slavery after 1800. This was
stricken
out by the Congress. It is manifest, from subsequent
events, that, under it, the territory
would have been occu-
pied by settlers from the South, with
their slaves. It
would have been impossible to exclude
the institution of
slavery if it had once got footing. With
or without his
proviso, the scheme of Mr. Jefferson
would have resulted
in dividing the territory into ten small
slave-holding
States. They would have come into the
Union with their
twenty votes in the Senate. Their weight
would have
inclined the scale irresistibly. The American Union
would have been a great slave-holding
empire. This pro-
38
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
posal, so amended, became law April 23,
1784, and con-
tinued in force until repealed by the
Ordinance of 1787.
It contained no republican security
except a provision
that the government of the States should
be republican.
March 16, 1785, Rufus King, at the
suggestion of Tim-
othy Pickering, offered a resolve that
there should be no
slavery in any of the States described
in the resolve of
1784. This was sent to a committee of
which he was
chairman. He reported it back, so
amended as to conform
to Jefferson's plan for postponing the
prohibition of slavery
until after 1800, and with a clause
providing for the sur-
render of fugitive slaves: but it was
never acted on.
May 7, 1784, Jefferson reported an
ordinance for ascer-
taining the mode of locating and
disposing of the public
lands. This was recommitted, amended,
and finally adopted.
Congress rejected the proposition to
reserve lands for re-
ligious purposes, but retained a
provision for schools. It
contained also a clause that the lands
should pass in de-
scent and dower, according to the custom
of gavelkind,
until the temporary government was
established.
In 1786 a new committee was raised to
report a new plan
for the government of the territory.
This committee made
a report, which provided that no State
should be admitted
from the Western territory until it had
a population equal
to one-thirteenth of the population of
the original States
at the preceding census. This would have
kept out Ohio
till 1820, Indiana till 1850, Illinois
till 1860, Michigan till
1880, and Wisconsin till after 1890. The seventh
Con-
gress expired while this report was
pending. It was re-
vived in the eighth. The clause which
would have so
long postponed the admission of the
States was probably
stricken out, though this is not quite
certain. But there
was little of value in the whole scheme.
It contained no
barrier against slavery.
This was the state of things when
Manasseh Cutler
came into the chamber on the morning of
July 6, 1787,
bearing with him the fate of the
Northwest. He had left
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 39
Boston on the evening of June 25, where
on that day he
records in his diary- -
"I conversed with General Putnam,
and settled the
principles on which I am to contract
with Congress for
lands on account of the Ohio
Company."
He was probably the fittest man on the
continent, ex-
cept Franklin, for a mission of
delicate diplomacy. It was
said just now that Putnam was a man
after Washington's
pattern, and after Washington's own
heart. Cutler was a
man after Franklin's pattern, and after
Franklin's own
heart. He was the most learned
naturalist in America, as
Franklin was the greatest master in
physical science. He
was a man of consummate prudence in
speech and con-
duct; of courtly manners; a favorite in
the drawing-room
and in the camp; with a wide circle of
friends and corre-
spondents among the most famous men of
his time. Dur-
ing his brief service in Congress he
made a speech on the
judicial system, in 1803, which shows
his profound mas-
tery of constitutional principles.
It now fell to his lot to conduct a
negotiation second
only in importance in the history of
his country to that
which Franklin conducted with France in
1778. Never
was ambassador crowned with success
more rapid or more
complete.
On the 9th of July the
pending ordinance was com-
mitted to a new committee-
Edward Carrington, of Virginia;
Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts;
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia;
John Kean, of South Carolina;
Melancthon Smith, of New York.
They sent a copy of the ordinance which
had come over
from the last Congress, to Dr. Cutler,
that he might make
remarks and prepare amendments. He
returned the ordi-
nance, with his remarks and amendments,
on the loth.
The ordinance was newly modeled and all
Cutler's amend-
ments inserted, except one relating to
taxation, "and that,"
40
Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly.
he says, "was better
qualified." It was reported to
Con-
gress on the 11th. The clause
prohibiting slavery, which
had not been included because Mr. Dane
"had no idea the
States would agree to it," was, on
Dane's motion, inserted
as an amendment, and on the 13th the
greatest and most
important legislative act in American
history passed
unanimously, save a single vote. But one
day intervened
between the day of the appointment of
the committee and
that of their report. Cutler returned the copy of the old
ordinance with his proposed amendments
on one day.
The next, the committee reported the
finished plan. But
two days more elapsed before its final
passage.
The measure providing for the terms of
the sale to the
Ohio Company was passed on the 27th of
the same July.
Cutler was master of the situation
during the whole
negotiation. When some of his conditions
were rejected
he " paid his respects to all the
members of Congress in
the city, and informed them of his
intention to depart that
day, and, if his terms were not acceded
to, to turn his
attention to some other part of the
country." They urged
him " to tarry till the next day
and they would put by all
other business to complete the
contract." He records in
his diary that Congress " came to
the terms stated in our
letter without the least
variation."
From this narrative I think it must be
clear that the
plan which Rufus Putnam and Manasseh
Cutler settled in
Boston was the substance of the
Ordinance of 1787. I do
not mean to imply that the detail or the
language of the
great statute was theirs. But I cannot
doubt that they
demanded a constitution, with its
unassailable guaranties
for civil liberty, such as Massachusetts
had enjoyed since
1780, and such as Virginia had enjoyed since 1776, instead
of the meagre provision for a government
to be changed
at the will of Congress or of temporary
popular majorities,
which was all Congress had hitherto
proposed, and this
constitution secured by an irrevocable
compact, and that
this demand was an inflexible condition
of their dealing
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 41
with Congress at all. Cutler, with
consummate wisdom,
addressed himself, on his arrival, to
the representatives of
Virginia. Jefferson had gone to France
in July, 1784, but
the weight of his great influence
remained. King was in
Philadelphia, where the Constitutional
Convention was
sitting. It was Carrington, of
Virginia, who brought
Cutler on to the floor. Richard Henry
Lee had voted
against King's motion to commit his
anti-slavery proviso,
but the first mover of the Declaration
of Independence
needed little converting to cause him
to favor anything
that made for freedom. William Grayson,
of Virginia,
early and late, earnestly supported the
prohibition of
slavery, and,.when broken in health, he
attended the Vir-
ginia Legislature in 1788, to secure
her consent to the
departure from the condition of her
deed of cession, which
the Ordinance of 1787 effected. Some of
the amendments
upon the original ordinance now
preserved are in his hand-
writing. To Nathan Dane belongs the
immortal honor of
having been the draftsman of the
statute and the mover
of the anti-slavery amendment. His
monument has been
erected, in imperishable granite, by
the greatest of Ameri-
can architects, among the massive
columns of the great
argument in reply to Hayne. But the
legislative leader-
ship was Virginia's. From her came the
great weight of
Washington, in whose heart the scheme
of Rufus Putnam
for the colonization of the West
occupied a place second
only to that of the Union itself. Hers
was the great influ-
ence of Jefferson, burning with the
desire that his country
in her first great act of national
legislation should make
the doctrines of the Declaration of
Independence a reality.
From her came Carrington, chairman of
the committee;
Lee, its foremost member; and Grayson,
then in the chair
of the Congress, who, Mr. Bancroft
says, "gave, more than
any other man in Congress, efficient
attention to the terri-
torial question, and whose record
against slavery is clearer
than that of any other Southern man who
was present in
1787."
42
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
And let us remember with gratitude, on
this anniver-
sary, that when, in 1824, the plan to
call a convention in
Illinois to sanction the establishment
of slavery there was
defeated by a majority of sixteen
hundred votes, it was to
Governor Edward Coles, a son of
Virginia, the old friend
of Jefferson and Madison, that the
result was largely due;
and when, in 1803, the
convention of the Indiana Terri-
tory petitioned Congress for the repeal
of the sixth clause
of the Ordinance of 1787, it was a
Virginian voice, through
the lips of John Randolph, whose name
and blood are so
honorably represented here to-day, that
denied the
request.
The Ohio Company might well dictate its
own terms,
even in dealing with the far-sighted
statesmen of 1787.
The purchase and settlement of this
large body of the
public lands removed from their minds
several subjects of
deepest anxiety. It afforded a provision
for the veterans
of the war. It extinguished a
considerable portion of the
public debt. It largely increased the
value of the rest of
the public domain. It placed the shield
of a settlement
of veteran soldiers between the
frontiers of New York,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia and the most
dangerous and
powerful Indian tribes on the Continent.
It secured to
American occupation a territory on which
England, France,
and Spain were still gazing with eager
and longing eyes-
in which England, in violation of treaty
obligation, still
held on to her military posts, hoping
that the feeble band
of our Union would break in pieces. It
removed a fear,
never absent from the minds of the
public men of that
day, that the western settlers would
form a new confeder-
acy and seek an alliance with the power
that held the out-
let of the Mississippi. The strength of
this last apprehen-
sion is shown in the confidential
correspondence of Wash-
ington. He twice refers to it in his
farewell address-
once where he warns the West against
"an apostate and
unnatural connection with any foreign
power," and again,
where he urges them "henceforth to
be deaf to those ad-
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 43
visets, if such there are, who would
sever them from their
brethren and connect them with
aliens."
Congress had nowhere else to look for
these vital advan-
tages if the scheme of Putnam and his
associates Railed.
They, on the other hand, would buy all
the land they
wanted of New York or Massachusetts on
their own terms.
It is no wonder, then, that the
Congress which in seven
years had got no further than the
Jefferson statute of 1784,
and which had struck out of it the
anti-slavery proviso,
came in four days to the adoption of
the Ordinance of '87
with but one dissenting vote.
It will not be expected that I should
undertake, within
the limits of this discourse, to dwell
in detail upon the pro-
visions of the Ordinance of 1787 and
the benefit they have
conferred upon the region over which
they have extended.
Known throughout this country wherever
American his-
tory is known, wherever men value
constitutional liberty,
they are familiar as household words to
the men who are
assembled here. They are, in some
important respects,
distinguished above all the other great
enactments which
lie at the foundation of human
societies. If there be any-
thing for which Daniel Webster is
distinguished among
great orators, it is the discretion and
moderation of his
speech. He never sought to create an
impression or give
an emphasis by overstatement. It was
well said of him
by another native of New England, whose
fame as a great
public teacher equals his own: "
His weight was like the
falling of a planet; his discretion,
the return of its due and
perfect curve." Mr. Webster
declared, in a well-known
passage: " We are accustomed to
praise the lawgivers of
antiquity; we help to perpetuate the
fame of Solon and
Lycurgus, but I doubt whether one
single law of any law-
giver, ancient or modern, has produced
effects of more
distinct, marked, and lasting character
than the Ordinance
of 1787."
The founders of the Northwest and the
framers of the
Ordinance meant to put its great
securities beyond the
44
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
reach of any fickleness or change in
popular sentiment
unless by a revolution which should
upheave the founda-
tions of social order itself. They made
the six articles
" Articles of compact between the
original States and the
people and States in the said Territory,
to forever remain
unalterable unless by common
consent." They were to
have the force which the philosophers of
that day at-
tributed to the original social compact,
to which they
ascribed the origin of all human
society. Three parties,
the original States, the new States, and
the people, made
the compact. This compact was to attend
these commun-
ities forever, unalterable save by the
consent of all three,
under whatever new constitutional
arrangements they
might come. There is the highest
contemporary authority
for the opinion that these articles
would never be affected
by ordinary constitutional changes in
the States. "It
fixed forever," said Mr. Webster,
"the character of the
population in the vast regions northwest
of the Ohio by
excluding from them involuntary
servitude. It impressed
on the soil itself, while it was yet a
wilderness, an incapac-
ity to sustain any other than freemen.
It laid the inter-
dict against personal servitude in
original compact, not
only deeper than all local law, but
deeper, also, than all
local constitutions" These great
and perpetual blessings
your fathers found awaiting them when
they took posses-
sion of their new homes, beneficent as
the sky, or the
climate, or the soil, or the river, to
endure so long as the
sky shall send down its influence or the
Ohio continue
to flow.
While a portion of the second article
reaffirms the great
securities which are of English origin,
and are found in
Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights, the
larger part are
originally and exclusively American. The
student of con-
stitutional law will find there all he
will need for an ample
and complete understanding of the
difference between the
genius of the limited monarchism of England and the
genius of American liberty.
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 45
For the first time in history the
Ordinance of 1787 ex-
tended that domain from which all human
government is
absolutely excluded by forbidding any
law interfering with
the obligation of good faith between man
and man. This
provision, adopted afterward in
substance in the Constitu-
tion of the United States, and thereby
made binding as a
restraint upon every State, is the
security upon which rests
at last all commerce, all trade, all
safety in the dealings of
men with each other. To-day its
impregnable shield is
over the dealing of sixty millions of
people with each
other and with mankind.
I have described very imperfectly the
education, extend-
ing over two centuries, which fitted
your fathers for the
great drama to be enacted here. Equally
wonderful is the
series of events which kept the soil of
the Ohio territory
untouched until they were ready to
occupy it. France, in
1755, rejected an offer made her by
England that Eng-
land would give up all her claim west of
a line from the
mouth of French Creek twenty leagues up
that stream
toward Lake Erie and from the same
points direct to the
last mountains of Virginia which should
descend toward
the ocean. France was to retain Canada
and her settle-
ments on the Illinois and Wabash. If
this offer had been
accepted, the French, who always so
skillfully managed
the Indians, would have filled the
territory with their
colonies, and, under whatever
sovereignty it had ultimately
come, would have impressed their
character and institu-
tions on it forever. King George, too,
in 1763, at the close
of the French war, forbade his governors
in America " to
grant any warrants of survey or patents
for any lands be-
yond the heads or sources of any of the
rivers which fall
into the Atlantic ocean from the west or
northwest." This
shut out the people of Virginia, with
their slaves, from all
the territory that now forms Ohio.
Again, the controversies between the
States as to title
prevented its settlement during the
Revolution. The fear
of Indian hostilities prevented its
settlement during the
46 Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
period Mr. Jefferson's ordinance of
1784 was in force,
The votes of the Southern States defeated Mr.
Jefferson's
proviso, under which slavery would
surely have gained a
footing, and so left the way open for
the total exclusion
of slavery three years later.
We are not here to celebrate an
accident. What oc-
curred here was premeditated, designed,
foreseen. If
there be in the universe a power which
ordains the course
of history, we cannot fail to see in
the settlement of Ohio
an occasion when the human will was
working in har-
mony with its own. The events move
onward to a
dramatic completeness. Rufus Putnam
lived to see the
little colony, for whose protection
against the savage he
had built what he described as the
strongest fortification
in the United States, grow to nearly a
million of people,
and become one of the most powerful
States in the con-
federacy. The men who came here had
earned the right to
the enjoyment of liberty and peace, and
they enjoyed the
liberty and peace they had earned. The
men who had help-
ed win the war of the Revolution did not
leave the churches
and schools of New England to tread over
again the thorny
path from barbarism to civilization, or
from despotism to
self-government. When the appointed hour
had come, and
"God uncovered the land
That he hid of old time in the west,
As the sculptor uncovers the statue
When he has wrought his best,"
then, and not till then, the man also
was at hand.
It is one of the most fortunate
circumstances of our
history that the vote in the
Continental Congress was
substantially unanimous. Without the
accompaniment
of the Ordinance the Constitution of the
United States
itself would have lost half its value.
It was fitting that
the whole country should share in the
honor of that act
which, in a later generation, was to
determine the fate of
the whole country.
We would not forget to-day the brave men
and noble
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 47
women who represented Connecticut and
Rhode Island
and New Hampshire in the band of
pioneers. Among
them were Parsons, and Meigs, and
Varnum, and Greene,
and Devol, and True, and Barker, and
the Gilmans.
Connecticut made, a little later, her
own special and im-
portant contribution to the settlement
of Ohio. But
Virginia and Massachusetts have the
right to claim and
to receive a peculiar share of the
honor which belongs to
this occasion. They may well clasp each
other's hands
anew as they survey the glory of their
work. These
two States- the two oldest of the sisterhood -the State
which framed the first written
constitution, and the
State whose founders framed the compact
on the May-
flower; the State which produced
Washington, and the
State which summoned him to his high
command;
the State whose son drafted the
Declaration of Independ-
ence, and the State which furnished its
leading advocate
on the floor; the mother of John
Marshall and the mother
of the President who appointed him; the
State which
gave the general, and the State which
furnished the larg-
est number of soldiers to the
Revolution; the State which
gave the territory of the northwest,
and the State
which gave its first settlers -may well
delight to remem-
ber that they share between them the
honor of the
authorship of the Ordinance of 1787. When the
reunited
country shall erect its monument at
Marietta, let it bear
on one side the names of the founders
of Ohio, on the
other the names of Jefferson, and
Richard Henry Lee, and
Carrington, and Grayson, side by side
with those of Nathan
Dane, and Rufus King, and Manasseh
Cutler, beneath the
supreme name of Washington.
Representatives of Vir-
ginia and Massachusetts, themselves in
some sense repre-
sentatives of the two sections of the
country which so lately
stood against each other in arms, they
will bear witness
that the estrangements of four years
have not obliterated
the common and tender memories of two
centuries.
This, also, is one of the great events
in the world's his-
48 Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
tory which marks an advance of Liberty on the new
ground which she has held. We would not undervalue
military achievements. Such a paradox, ridiculous any-
where, would be doubly unbecoming here. We stand by
the graves of great soldiers of the war of Independence.
This is the centennial of the State within whose borders
were born Grant, and Sherman, and Sheridan, and Gar-
field. The men of the Revolution fought that the princi-
ples of the Ordinance of 1787 might become living realities.
The great captains of the later war fought that the compact
might be kept and forever remain unalterable. The five
States of the Northwest sent nearly a million soldiers into
the war for the Union, every one of them ready to die to
maintain inviolate the fourth article, which declares: "The
said territory and the States which may be formed therein
shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the
United States of America, subject to the Articles of Con-
federation, and to such alterations therein as shall be con-
stitutionally made, and to all the acts and ordinances of
the United States in Congress assembled conformable
thereto." These purposes inspired them when they drew
their swords. They laid down their swords when these
purposes were accomplished.
It is this that makes the birthday of Ohio another birth-
day of the nation itself. Forever honored be Marietta as
another Plymouth. The Ordinance belongs with the Dec-
laration of Independence and the Constitution. It is one
of the three title deeds of American constitutional lib-
erty. As the American youth for uncounted centuries
shall visit the capital of his country--strongest, richest,
freest, happiest of the nations of the earth-from the
stormy coast of New England, from the luxuriant regions
of the Gulf, from the Lakes, from the prairie and the
plain, from the Golden Gate, from far Alaska-he will
admire the evidences of its grandeur and the monuments
of its historic glory. He will find there rich libraries and
vast museums, and great cabinets which show the product
Oration of Hon. George F. Hoar. 49
of that matchless inventive genius of
America, which has
multiplied a thousand fold the wealth
and comfort of human
life. He will see the simple and modest
portal through
which the great line of the Republic's
chief magistrates
have passed at the call of their country
to assume an
honor surpassing that of emperors and
kings, and through
which they have returned, in obedience
to her laws, to
take their place again as equals in the
ranks of their
fellow-citizens. He will stand by the
matchless obelisk
which, loftiest of human structures, is
itself but the im-
perfect type of the loftiest of human
characters. He will
gaze upon the marble splendors of the
Capitol, in whose
chambers are enacted the statutes under
which the people
of a continent dwell together in peace,
and the judgments
are rendered which keep the forces of
states and nation
alike within their appointed bounds. He
will look upon
the records of great wars and the
statues of great com-
manders. But, if he know his
country's history, and
consider wisely the sources of her
glory, there is nothing
in all these which will so stir his
heart as two fading and time-
soiled papers, whose characters were
traced by the hands
of the fathers a hundred years ago. They
are original
records of the acts which devoted this
nation forever to
equality, to education, to religion, and
to liberty. One is
the Declaration of Independence, the
other the Ordinance
of 1787.
Vol. 11-4