Auglaize County, Ohio - Chapter 8: Territorial Events from 1791 to 1812, 1905

Chapter 8: Territorial Events from 1791 to 1812

After the Indian War commenced Governor St. Clair gave his attention to mobilizing an army, and the management of his campaign. During that year and for a few years afterward, very little was done in the way of civil government. His defeat, and' his arrogant manner in the conduct of the civil affairs of the territory, alienated his friends, and resulted in much bitter opposition to his official acts.

For eleven years the people of the Northwestern Territory were governed by laws made by the governor and judges, or by proclamations of the governor. St. Clair claimed the right, under the act of Congress which created the territory, to organize counties, to create offices, and to fill them, to license keepers of taverns and ferries, to license attorneys at law, and commissionall the military officers. For every license and every commission he exacted large fees from those who received them. With this despotic administration of the civil affairs of the territory, the people became greatly dissatisfied. At times they were almost at the point of open rebellion. Especially so was it the case when he created the office of attorney general, for the whole territory, and appointed his son, Arthur St. Clair, junior, to that office. This officer, and the clerk of the supreme court, went around the territory, from county to county, holding courts. But this despotic form of government received a check in 1799, when the population of the Northwest Territory became sufficiently great to enable the people to elect a territorial legislature. A census having been taken, Governor St. Clair, on the 29th day of October, 1798, issued a proclamation, directing the electors to elect representatives to a general assembly, the assembly to b.e held at Cincinnati, on the 22d day of January, 1799.

Much interest was manifested in the election, and the representatives assembled at Cincinnati, in conformity to the time prescribed in the proclamation.

nati on , Monday the 16th day of September, 1799, by electing Henry Vanderburg President of the Council, and Edward Tiffin Speaker of the House.

This first legislature of the Northwestern Territory represented a territory that included what are now the states of Ohio,. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

After being fully organized, both Houses were addressed by Governor St. Clair, in a speech, in which he presented his peculiar views of governing the territory. This legislature continued to sit until the 19th of December, when the Governor, in true British style prorogued them. ''During the term of three months they passed about thirty public acts, many of them long and complicated ones."

"As soon as the governor's proclamation made its appearance, the election of a delegate to Congress excited general attention. Before the meeting of the legislature, public opinion had settled down on William Henry Harrison, and Arthur St. Clair, Jr., who were eventually the only candidates. On the 3d of October, the two houses met in the representatives' chamber, according to a joint resolution, and proceeded to the election. The ballots being taken and counted, it appeared that William Henry Harrison had eleven votes, and Arthur St. Clair, Jr., ten votes ; the former, therefore, was declared to be duly elected. The legislature, by joint resolution, prescribed the form of a certificate of his election ; and having received that certificate,, he resigned the office of Secretary of the territory - proceeded forthwith to Philadelphia, and took his seat, Congress being then in session."

During the one year that he sat in Congress, he rendered an important service to the Territory by securing from Congress, in spite of opposition from land speculators, a law subdividing the surveys of the public lands, and offering them for sale in small tracts. The law was hailed as the most beneficent act that Congress had ever done for the territory. It put it in the power of every industrious man, however poor, to become a freeholder, and to lay a foundation for the future support and comfort of his family. "At the same session, he obtained a liberal extension of time for the pre-emptioners in the northern part of the Miami purchase, which enabled them to secure their farms, and eventually to become independent, and even wealthy."

The great extent of country lying northwest of the Ohio river, made the ordinary operation of government uncertain, and the efficient action of courts almost impossible. A committee of Congress was appointed to investigate these judicial deficiencies, and to formulate plans for the better administration of justice in the territory.

On the 3d of March, 1800, the committee presented a lengthy report, from which the following extracts are taken : "The committee would suggest, that the law of the 3d of March, 1791, granting land to certain persons in the western part of said territory, and directing the laying out of the same, remains uneecuted ; that great discontent, in consequence of such neglect, is excited in those who were interested in the provisions of said law, and which require the immediate attention of this legislature. To minister a remedy to these evils, it occurs to this committee that it is expedient that a division of said territory, into two distinct and separate governments should be made ; and that such division be made, by a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, running directly north, until it intersects the boundary between the United States and Canada/'

In accordance with the spirit of this resolution an act was passed, and approved upon the 7th of May, from which the following provisions are taken :

"That from and after the 4th day of July next (1800), all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north, until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory, and be called the Indiana Territory.

"And be it further enacted, that nothing in this act contained, shall be construed so as in any manner to affect the government now in force in the territory of the United States, northwest of the Ohio river, further than to prohibit the exercise thereof within the Indiana Territory, from and after the aforesaid fourth of July next; Provided, That whenever that part of the territory of the United States which lies to the eastward of a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, and running thence, due north, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall be enacted into an independent State, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently the boundary line between such State and the Indian Territory, anything in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding.

"And be it further enacted, That until it shall be otherwise ordered by the Legislatures of the said territories, respectively, Chillicothe, on the Scioto river, shall be the seat of the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river; and that St. Vincennes, on the Wabash river, shall be the seat of the government for the Indiana Territory/'

As has already been stated, St. Clair was unpopular, and the citizens of the territory had become weary of his arbitrary manner of doing business. By the census of 1800, it was shown that there were forty-two thousand inhabitants in the territory. Application was, therefore, made at the next session of Congress for admission into the Union as a state. The application, for partisan reasons, met with serious opposition. But by the influence of President Jefferson, DeWitt Clinton and Breckenridge in the Senate, and Giles in the House, an Act of Congress was passed, April 30th, 1802, authorizing a convention of delegates to be elected in September, by the votes of that part of the North-west Territory bounded east by Pennsylvania, south by the Ohio river, west by a line drawn from the mouth of the Great Miami river due north to an east and west line passing through the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, and by this line and the Canadian line through Lake Erie to the west line of Pennsylvania.

"A condition of peculiar form was annexed. If the convention would provide, in a manner irrevocable except by the consent of Congress, that all public lands in the new state should be exempt from all tax for five years after they should be sold. Congress offered to give it section sixteen in every township for schools; also, all the reservations of salt springs; and, besides all this, one twentieth of the net proceeds of all sales of public lands in the state, to be applied by Congress in making roads between tide-water and the Ohio river in the state/'

The utter disregard by the convention, of St. Clair's views, filled him with irritation. He watched with anger the movements of the "delegates, and in the bitterness of his feelings declared, within the hearing of unfriendly listeners, that republican institutions no longer gave him confidence ; that without a stronger form of government anarchy seemed inevitable. When these words were reported to President Jefferson, St. Clair was at once removed from office.

As already stated, the North-West Territory was divided in the spring of 1800. Soon after the passage of the law, President Adams appointed William Henry Harrison governor of the western division, known as Indiana Territory.

The population of Indiana territory, at the period when Harrison was appointed governor, did not exceed five thousand and was in the main confined to three settlements - the first on Clark's grant, near the falls of the Ohio, the second at Vincennes ; and the third on the Mississippi river, extending from Cahokia to Kaskaskia. The region to the north and northwest of these points were either occupied by the Indians, or constituted their hunting grounds. Notwithstanding the treaty of Greenville, a spirit of restless hostility toward the United States prevailed among the Indian tribes, which was constantly fomented by British agents, who visited their villages, and did not hesitate to misrepresent the policy of the American government; and, by presents of merchandise and spirituous liquors, to stimulate the Indians to annoy the white settlements, and resist their further extension to the northwest. Such were the limits of the Indiana Territory, and such the temper of the Indians residing within, when Governor Harrison entered upon his duties.

The powers conferred upon Governor Harrison were about the same as were conferred upon Governor St. Clair. Governor Harrison, however, exercised his authority with such judgment and skill that he avoided the censure that fell upon the head of St. Clair. His authority was extensive and without much limitation. The people had no voice in the management of their affairs. The duty of organizing all the civil institutions belonged to the governor. With the advice of the judges, he was em- powered by Congress to adopt and publish the necessary civil and criminal laws. He was charged with the appointment of magistrates and other civil officers, also, all military officers below the rank of general. The duty of dividing the territory into counties and townships was also assigned to the executive, and being ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs, he was compelled to keep up a laborious and extensive correspondence with the general government.

"I nominate William Henry Harrison, of Indiana, to be a commissioner to enter into any treaty or treaties which may be necessary, with any Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio, and within the territory of the United States, on the subject of boundary or lands.

That Governor Harrison should have been four times appointed to this office, - first by Adams, twice by Jefferson, and finally by Madison, is sufficient evidence that he possessed the wisdom, discretion, and integrity necessary for the performance of such high duties.

Between 1802 and 1811, his duties as superintendent of Indian affairs were difficult and of grave responsibility. The question of great contention between Governor Harrison and the Indian tribes of Indiana Territory, dates from the time of the treaty of Fort Wayne, June 7th, 1803.

Agreeable to a promise made by sachems and war chiefs of different tribes of Indians at Vincennes on the 7th of September, 1802, the sachems and war chiefs of the tribes, for certain considerations, made a conveyance to the United States of their right to a large part of the Illinois country south and east of the Illinois river.

In the year following (August, 1804), a series of treaties was made by Governor Harrison, at Vincennes, by which the claims of several Indian nations to large tracts of land in Indiana and Illinois were relinquished to the United States, for due consideration. The Delawares sold their claims to a large tract between the Wabash and Ohio rivers ; and the Pianke-

In an interview with Governor Harrison, at Vincennes in 1804, Tecumseh is represented as saying: "We have no intention of making war against the whites ; but we do desire to unite all the tribes, in the resolve to allow no more of our lands to be disposed of without the consent of all. Those chiefs who have recently ceded to the Americans vast regions of our hunting grounds, which did not belong to them, all deserve to be put to death. We can not accept that treaty. It has no foundation in justice. The Indians, though divided into many tribes, are one people, and their interests are one." These statements were followed by a very impassioned recital of the wrongs which had been inflicted upon the Indians by the white man. These accusations, accompanied by very vehement gestures, made the governor angry. During the time of the delivery of Tecumseh's address, the governor's attention was directed to the forty Indians on hearing General Gibson say to Lieutenant Jennings : "Those fellows mean mischief ; you had better bring up the guard." At that'moment the followers of Tecumseh seized their tomahawks and sprang to their feet, with their eyes turned upon the governor. "For a few moments there was great danger of an awful scene of carnage, in which probably every Indian would have been slain. Fortunately the first blow was not struck. The governor, much displeased with the haughty bearing of the chieftain dismissed the council, saying to Tecumseh : "I shall, have no further communication with you. You are a bad man.. You may now go. But you must immediately leave the village.^ Other interviews followed in which nothing was accomplished. They were terminated suddenly by an indiscreet statement of Harrison, "that the right of the United States would be supported by the sword, if need be." "So be it," was the stern reply of the haughty chieftain, and soon afterward drifted down the rivers in his birch-bark canoe to visit thq tribes in the southwest and to persuade them to join in a great uprising against the encroachments of the white man.

When he went south he left the affairs of the north in the hands of his brother, the one-eyed Prophet, who was a medicine man and had great influence over the tribes on account of sorceries and incantations he successfully practiced. On leaving,. Tecumseh charged his brother to preserve friendly relations with the whites and not on any account to allow an outbreak of hostilities during his absence, but to strengthen their cause by inducing other tribes to unite with them in the effort to drive the white people from the northwst territory.

He left feeling confident that his instruction would be followed. But a number of white people having been murdered by the Indians, and reports having reached Governor Harrison of an uprising of many of the tribes led by the Prophet, and rumors of a proposed massacre at Vincennes, he marched with a force of about eight hundred men to the mouth of Tippecanoe river, where the Prophet's town was located. Before making an attack Governor Harrison sent messengers to the Prophet, offering him an opportunity of entering into a treaty of peace. In viola-

A night attack was made by the Indians at four o'clock A. M. on the 7th of November. The attack was so sudden and unexpected that it threw the army into confusion, but by the skillful exertions of the officers of the American forces order was restored before daylight. As soon as it became light enough to see distinctly, a severe engagement ensued, in which the Indians were defeated and driven from the Prophet's town. This battle crippled the confederacy before it was fully prepared for war. When the great chief returned from the south and found his hopes ruined by this untimely battle, his disappointment and rage were so great that he threatened to kill the Prophet, and never indeed forgave him.

"In the following June, he sought an interview with the Indian agent at Fort Wayne ; disavowed any intention of making war on the United States, and reproached Governor Harrison for having marched against his people during his absence. The agent replied to this in fitting terms, to which Tecumseh listened with frigid indifference, and after making a few general remarks, with a haughty air, left the council house, and departed for Fort Malden, in Upper Canada, where he joined the British standard."

During the latter part of the year 1811 and the early part of the year following, the Indians, instigated by British agents, continued their depredations on the northwestern frontiers, notwithstanding their signal defeat at Tippecanoe. This led the governors -of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana to take measures to place their states and territories in a state of defense, and the raising of volunteers for border operations. On the 18th of June, 1812, a new aspect was given to the affairs of the West by the declaration of war, made by the United States against Great Britain.

And Auula1Ze County

Early in the spring of 1812, Governor Hull, of Michigan, received orders from the War Department to proceed to Ohio to recruit and organize an army, to be held in readiness to invade Canada in the event of war with England. The movement contemplated the taking possession of Detroit, crossing the Detroit river into Canada, and a march upon Quebec. Return Jonathan Meigs was then governor of Ohio. By great exertion, he raised three regiments of volunteers for three months. These troops assembled at Dayton in April and May, and early in June moved to Urbana where they were joined by the 4th United States Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel James Miller - veterans who fought at Tippecanoe, and who afterwards, under this gallant commander, charged the British batteries at Lundy's Lane.

By the middle of June the army numbered about twenty-five hundred men. The first regiment was commanded by Colonel Duncan McArthur; the second, by Colonel James Finley; and the third, by Colonel Lewis Cass.

About the 15th of June General Hull took command and commenced the march, through the unbroken forest, towards Detroit. After a toilsome march of twenty-four miles, they came to a spot, about six miles southwest of where Kenton is situated, and erected a block-house which was named Fort McArthur, in honor of Colonel McArthur, commander of the First regiment. Making this a depot for the deposit of stores, they proceeded fifteen miles further, when they encountered the Scioto Marsh. After floundering along through mire and water for a few miles, they found a spot of solid ground, where they built another fort of logs, which was called Fort Necessity. After resting a few days, and the weather becoming more favorable, the march was continued, and in three days the army reached Blanchard's Fork at the present site of the city of Findlay. Colonel Findlay had been dispatched ahead of the main army to build a fort and stockade on Blanchard river. When General Hull and his army reached the river, to their surprise, they found that the fort and stockade were completed and ready for their reception. The fort and stockade were named Fort Findlay, in honor of Colonel Findlay, and were located on the north bank of Blanchard river, west of the present iron bridge.

The fort was garrisoned by a company under the command of Captain Arthur Thomas, who lived at King's Creek, three miles from Urbana. So far as known, no battles were fought at Fort

Cincinnati, left Fort Meigs, on the Maumee river, about eight o'clock on a dark and stormy night, during the war, in company with a Kentuckian, on an errand of importance to Fort Findlay. They had preceeded but a short distance on their perilous journey, when they unexpectedly came upon an Indian camp, around the fires of which the Indians were cooking their supplies. So near had they got to the camp, that the noise of their approach alarmed the savages, who at once sprang to their feet and ran towards them. Oliver and his companion reined their horses into the branches of a fallen tree. The horses, as if conscious of danger, as were their riders, remained perfectly quiet, and the Indians passed around the tree without discovering them. At this juncture, the daring messengers put spurs to their horses and dashed forward into the woods, through which they passed to the fort, where they arrived safely, but with the loss of their clothing, which had been torn from them by the brush through which they had passed - their bodies bruised and lacerated. Nor were they a moment too soon in their arrival, for the Indians, enraged at their escape, had pursued them so closely, that Oliver and his companion had scarcely been admitted into the fort, when their pursuers made their appearance on the opposite side of the river. After giving vent to their disappointment at the loss of the scalps of the pale faces, in hideous yells, they retraced their steps toward the Maumee, on the lookout for some unsuspecting but less fortunate white man."

On the 28th of June the army left Fort Findlay and by slow marches reached the Maumee river at the point where Perrysburg is situated. The river was crossed at the foot of the rapids, and the army continued its march to Detroit, which point was reached on the 5th of July. On the 12th of July Hull crossed the Detroit river to reconnoiter the strength of the enemy there, and to collect provisions. He soon saw, as he thought, indications that the British, having gained the alliance of nearly all of the warriors of the northwestern tribes, were vastly superior to him in force. He therefore recrossed the river on August 7th and took shelter beneath the walls of his fortress at Detroit.

was given it was so unexpected by the army that it fell upon it like a thunderbolt. All confidence in the commander-in-chief was lost, in an instant, and the men with difficulty obeyed their own officers. On the 14th, General Brock, the British command-in-chief, took a position opposite Detroit, and began to fortify it by erecting batteries. O11 the next day he summoned Hull to surrender, which he utterly refused to do, in reply. Brock opened his batteries and threw bombs during the night, for the purpose of diverting Hull's attention from an attempt that was being made to land troops at Springwells. When the day dawned, to the surprise and chagrin of Hull and his officers, it was discovered that the enemy had crossed the river in the night. Having thus landed in safety, and without opposition, the British forces at 10 o'clock A. M. marched in columns twelve deep to attack the American garrison. The fort, or as our soldiers used to call it, 'the sheep pen,' was so situated, that the enemy could approach within two hundred yards of it before the guns of the garrison could injure therm A detachment of the American force, however, was sent out, and judiciously posted to prevent the advance of the enemy. But at the very moment, when every American in the army except its commander was ready and. anxious to begin the mortal combat, with an enemy of inferior numbers, consisting mostly of either raw militia, or of Indians, what were the emotions of our army, when they were ordered into the fort, and to lay down their arms. They reluctantly obeyed, and a white flag was raised on the fort."

" Without shedding a drop of blood, without firing a single gun, the forthwith all its cannon, taken with Burgoyne at Saratoga from the British, with a vast amount of powder, lead, cannonballs and all the munitions of war - all were surrendered, unconditionally surrendered to the enemy. The enemy himself must .have doubted his own senses on that occasion. Let us see ; twentyfive hundred men with all their arms ; twenty-five pieces of iron cannon, and eight brass ones; forty barrels of powder - all were surrendered without firing a gun, to about one thousand militia and a few Indians."

Two years afterward, Hull was tried by court-martial, for treason and cowardice. He was acquitted of treason, but was convicted of cowardice, and was sentenced to be shot. President Mad-

However brave he may have been personally, he was, as a commander, a coward ; and moreover, he was influenced, confessedly, by his fears as a father, lest his daughter and her children should fall into the hands of the Indians.

"In truth, his faculties seemed to have been paralyzed by fear ; fear that he should fail ; fear that his troops would be unfair to him ; fear that the savages would spare no one, if opposed with vigor ; fear of some undefined and horrid evil impending. McAfee accuses him of intemperance, but no effort was made on his trial to prove this, and we have no reason to think it a true charge ; but his conduct was like that of a drunken man, without sense or spirit/^

The foregoing history of Hull's deportment at Detroit, quoted from the histories of the campaign by Atwater and McAfee, written three-quarters of a century ago, is not wholly reliable. Time and a careful investigation of the facts and circumstances that led to the surrender, go a great way towards disproving many of the charges that were heaped upon him. As an example of the change of opinion that has taken place within the last few years, the following from James Freeman Clark's Campaign of 1812 is presented : "General Hull had been in many battles of the Revolution. He led a column of Wayne's troops at the taking of Stony Point, and for his conduct in that action received the thanks of Washington, and promotion in the service. He was in the midst of the battle of White Plains, and was there wounded. He was in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He fought at Ticonderoga, Bemis Heights, Saratoga, Monmouth, and other places, and led regiments and batallions in most of these battles. * * * Is it likely, therefore, that he should have been the only man in his army disabled by fear from fighting General Brock? What, then, were his reasons as given by himself? General Hull was now in the position in which, as he stated to the administration before the war, Detroit must fall. His communications with Ohio were cut off by the Indians in the woods ; his communications by the lakes were cut off by the British vessels ; and he had no co-operation at Niagara. If he should fight a battle, and defeat the British army, his fate would not be less inevitable, for a victory would not re-open his communications. Beside this, his forces were vastly inferior to those of the enemy, his provisions were nearly exhausted, and there was no possibility of obtaining a supply from any quarter. If he were to fight, he would save his own reputation, but could not save the army or territory, and he would be exposing the defenseless inhabitants of Michigan to all the horrors of Indian warfare, without a reason or an object. Under these circumstances, it would be the part of a selfish man to fight. It was the part of a brave and generous man to hazard the sacrifice of his own reputation as a soldier, and his' own selfish feelings, to his duty as a governor and a man. General Hull did the last, and never regretted it for a moment. He was asked, on his deathbed, whether he still believed he had done right in the surrender of Detroit, and he replied that he did, and was thankful that he had been enabled to do so."

After the capitulation, the militia were permitted to return home on their parole of honor not to serve in the war until they were exchanged. They were landed at different points along the southern shore of Lake Erie, and made their way home as best they could.

"General Hull and the regular officers, and soldiers were reserved for the triumphal entry of the British officers, into Montreal and Quebec. Thither they were taken, and Hull himself, seated in an old, ragged, open carriage, was drawn through the streets of Montreal, and thus exhibited as a rare show, to the natives there assembled."