Transactions of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio [2, 1]

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TRANSACTIONS OF THE

HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

OF OHIO.. -

PART SECOND. >v

VOL. L kto**^****

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PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY.

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—

815664 ADVERTISEMENT. The Ohio 1822.

Its

Historical Society

was incorporated

common to

purpose was that

the preservation of documents, traditions,

and other matters

als

west generally.

it

year

maps, pictures, med-

History of Ohio, and the

illustrative of the

Never,

in the

similar associations,

all

would seem, was a land more

favorably situated for the collection of historical materials,

than the Valley of the Mississippi; particularly for the collection of those

a

%

i

vS

of

its

still

living,

which would

Some

story.

of

its

t

may,

We

all,

the

many more

may

Our

be supposed extant.

original materials

now

at

the

presented them.

of truth and knowledge, will not

trust that the friends

suffer

settlers are

very naturally be surprised

therefore,

of

scantiness

American portion

and the most ample and authentic records of the

characters and acts of

readers

illustrate the

very earliest American

years to pass, without contributing enough

3

of curious and original matter to the Historical Society of

Ohio, to enable us to put forth another volume of deeper

and more permanent value.

interest

The t

history of the

periods:

—

French;

(

first,

Ohio Valley includes three

that of the discovery

distinct

and settlement by the

second, that of the discovery and settlement

the English, including the

war of 1756;

—

by

third, that of *the

American dominion, commencing with the Revolution.

Of

the

first

period, if

we

except the journals of the discov-

any materials accessible

there are scarcely

erers,

in

this

many remain that deserve to be drawn from obscurity; and we cannot but hope, that some of our many travelers will make the effort to procure country; but in France, probably,

access to them. i

Of

the second period,

States,

more may be learned

though an examination of the British

only thing that can put us regarding

it,

that

we

ought

in

in the

United

offices, is the

possession of the knowledge

to have.

.

ADVERTISEMENT.

4

But of the

among

third portion of our story,

us, written

traditions.

ample materials

and unwritten; papers,

letters,

Let us once more beg our fellow citizens

us in the collection of these. the history of the

Ohio Valley

If they feel interest to join us,

to

we do

not ask this;

knowledge and be that

we

we shall receive them with we ask only a contribution of

in the

documents,

if

in

and bear a part of

they have any.

It

joy; their

may

cannot publish these materials as yet, but a great

step will have point, and

their

help

enough

our burdens and expenses, but

exist

journals and

made

been taken when they are collected useful to those students

dark for information.

who

are

now

at

one

groping

ERRATA.

read — read — 4 from bottom — read 14 from bottom — were, read was. 4 from top — began, 10 from bottom — cession read

Page 10,

line 4

Page 12,

line

Page 47,

line

Page 82,

line

from bottom

for vice,

for labos,

that.

vices.

labors.

for

Page 104,

line

Page 135,

line

Page 161,

line 14

Same

for this,

18 from bottom

after

insert to.

for

cessions.

from bottom— tor persons, read individuals.

page, line 12 from boltom-for individuals, read persons.

Page 29,

line 5

from bottom

—

for actions, read action.

'

.

1 •

:

-

I

CONTENTS. Letters relating to the Early Settlement of the North-

—contained

Western Territory

in a series addressed

Delafield, Jr. Esq., during the years 1837-8

to J.

—By

J.

Burnet:

Letter

i.

-

Letter

ii.

-

Letter

iii.

-

Letter

iv.

Letter v. Letter

vi.

Letter

vii.

9 -

-

-

-

-

48

-

67

82

-------'

-

108

-

135 158

Annual Discourse, delivered before the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society

December, 1837

A

Columbus, on the 23d

Walker, Esq.

181

Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the

Ohio

— By Gen. William

Appendix

A

at

—By Timothy

Henry Harrison.

217

-

260

to the Discourse.

Discourse delivered before the Ohio Historical So-

—

ciety By James H. Perkins, Esq. An Essay on the Origin and Progress

-

-

-

268

of Political

Communities, delivered before the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society, December 22, 1837

By James T. Worthington,

A

Esq.

— 286

-

Fragment of the Early History of the State of Ohio an Address delivered at Marietta, on the

—

48th Anniversary State

of the

— ByARiusNYE,

first

settlement

of

the

Esq.

306


n;

for-

therefore, as a state,

1

§

looking

life, alid

the leveling disposition will

be above them; and in

10

O'

instead of here and

glaring out from the midst of

elevate themselves, rather than pull

re

lie

of rights

theoretical equality

r

[ment

fail

But

here,

it

unmixed republicanism.

If the experi-

can succeed nowhere,

in pursuing this chain of causes

[exemption from slavery

is

and

effects,

not to be overlooked.

I

our

total

am aware

200

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

how

inflammable

aware that citizen

this topic

am

I

also

“every

has an indisputable right to speak, write or print,

upon any

as

subject,

he thinks proper, being While, therefore,

abuse of that liberty.”

Ohio

has recently become; but

in the noble language of our constitution,

and stand

will ever be loyal to the Union,

the federal compact, in this, as in

for the

liable

the citizens of faithfully

by

other matters; while

all

they will never sanction the slightest interference with slavery in the states

where

it

exists,, because

is

it

their

domestic concern; yet they will not hesitate opinions respecting other subject.

it,

as

by

it

far the wisest

best provision of that incomparable instrument, to

say so on

now

of slavery

who

all

proper occasions.

for the first time

and

it

becomes

Were the among

a people

started,

question

hold liberty to be the great original birthright of

mankind,

I

presume

that throughout the

American population, not one in

upon any

freely and fearlessly as

they regard the absolute prohibition of

lasting congratulation; if they think

them

exclusive

express their

the ordinance of 1787, as ground for deep and

by

slavery,

If

own

to

its

favor.

declared to

millions

solitary voice

all

of our

would be raised

But when the conscript fathers of the revolution the world, “ that all men are born free and equal,”

slavery had already acquired the strength of a long established institution;

and therefore, of necessity, that was tolerated as

an existing and apparently ineradicable

evil,

which, under

any other circumstances, would have been guarded against by all

possible precautions.

after,

these

same

Accordingly,

spotless patriots

were

when

eleven years

for the first time legis-

lating for the north-western territory, and the question

whether slavery should be suffered this

virgin soil,

they

did

unqualified condemnation of

to

not hesitate it,

as a

new

ing a clause of perpetual exclusion.

and

I trust

strike to

this

by

their insert-

they deserve,

Not only have they

caused our history to commence with a high tribute principles of eternal justice, but on the

was

roots into

pronounce

question,

For

have, our lasting gratitude.

its

to the

mere score of worldly

walker’s discourse.

economy, they have thus secured cannot be overrated.

interest in

to

us advantages which

unhesitatingly believe, that

the

if

had been performed by slaves, having no

of Ohio

labor

I

201

instead of freemen toiling for themselves,

its fruits,

our population and resources would not have been the half of

what they now

There might have been larger

are.

the aggregate of wealth,

have been nothing

compare the

—

I

and strength, and comfort, would

to the present.

would ask

What

no invidious spirit— but the absence of

its

presence there, can explain the immense

good

as

them

this, let

in

in the progress

Kentucky has

any doubt

If

Ohio and Kentucky.

actual condition of

slavery here, and difference

planta-

mansions, and more luxurious proprietors; but

tions, costlier

of these two neighboring states?

citizens,

much

as rich soil, as

of

it,

was

Yet the growth

settled twelve years earlier than Ohio.

of Ohio has been

all

Such a

but double.

fact is

world of arguments against the economy of slavery.

an

we have

offset for this,

in high

quarters,

liberty.

None, we are

have nothing

to

lately heard the doctrine

slavery serves as

that

are

told,

do but

But

who have

as

advanced

handmaid of

the

their slaves;

truly appreciate their liberty, as they

who

and noue so

the contrast of

Such language would

always before their eyes.

slavery

worth a

so truly free, as they

command

a

and

better climate, equal natural facilities for transportation,

sound well in the mouth of a despot, but

it falls

grace from the lips of a professed republican.

with an

The

truth

ill

is,

that leaving the slaves themselves out of the question, all the

tendencies of slavery are the free;

insomuch

aristocracies of districts,

slaves;

anti-republican, even as respects

that a tolerably accurate idea of the landed

Europe may be gathered from our

composed of immense

where the few subsist

labors of the

thought.

The

many.

I

in ease will

agricultural

cultivated

by

and splendor, on the

not pursue this train of

paradox, which makes slavery ancillary to

liberty, is too glaring to toiling for

But

plantations

do harm.

The

free laborers of Ohio,

and depending on themselves, can never be per-

26

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

202

suaded that they do not prize liberty as dearly, and worship her as sincerely, as the wealthiest slave-holder in It

among

people of Ohio stand conspicuously

much

has

Much,

been given.

What,

required of them. talents

committed

her charge?

to

It is

by

herds, to be estimated that

for

may

be

whom justly

not enough to say that

human

fifty

years, to

some

beings are not like

We

the head.

that the

Ohio done with the

then, has

hundred thousand;

more than

the land.

those, to

therefore,

her population has grown in the course of thirteen

all

from the foregoing observations,

clearly results,

demand something

they should have multiplied rapidly.

If the

we might, perhaps, The question be compelled to yield the palm to the Chinese. is not, how many inhabitants have we to the square mile, but what have we done to merit praise or censure. census were to be the criterion of a

To answer

this question fully,

history of Ohio.

but

facts;

first

omit

They

me

indulge

to

to

to write the entire

in a preliminary

own

for

remark.

When

they almost univer-

this country,

make allowance

take their

would be

can barely touch upon some leading

I

European writers speak of sally

state,

our comparative infancy.

civilization for the standard

by which

measure ours, and then gravely censure the Americans,

because they have not reached, in two centuries, what Euro-

peans have been growing

to in

twenty.

This

is

as unrea-

sonable as to require in a child the maturity of a man. just course

would be

to

speak of the

he has done well for his age,

A

similar mistake

is

Ohio with her elder

plain comforts

who,

We

of

him

On

the

contrary,

cultivate

them, because

ability to

do

so,

we

comparing

bound, have attended

before thinking of

do not undervalue “those polished

mankind.”

if it.

We claim in the outset, that our We demand to be judged of as

as in duty

life,

The and

the full credit of

likely to be committed, in

sisters.

youthfulness be considered. a recent people;

to give

child, as a child;

we

arts

its

to the

adornments.

which humanise

are just

beginning

to

are just beginning to feel our

with a due regard to prudence.

The extreme

walker’s discourse. poverty of our early days

past,

is

203

and we can now safely

something for the more refined embellishments and

spare

charities of social this respect,

Still

life.

some of

return, then, to the question,

In the

first

place,

cleared the dense

we do

the older and

affluent states.

To

what has Ohio done?

answer

I

not profess to equal, in

more

Ohio have

that the people of

from some ten millions of acres,

forest

reclaimed the soil from the dominion of nature, covered

it

the various garniture of civilization, and subjected

it

with

all

to a

course of such profitable husbandry, as

supply a

to

quantity of our agricultural staples, sufficient for the wants of

perhaps ten times their number. Again, built

up

at

every convenient point, they have laid out and

which

thriving towns,

are already beginning to look

and which deservedly

like cities;

attract the

admiration of the

traveler, not less at their neatness, than their frequency.

we

We

never shall have, any very large

have not yet, and

I trust

cities in this part

of the country; for they will, as a matter

of course,

make up

in

number, what they want in

size;

and

the convenience of the surrounding country will thus be far better promoted, than

each other.

by

Commerce

a few overgrown cities remote from is

thus brought

home to every man’s

door; and I regard this as one of the most interesting aspects

which

this region presents.

principle,

It is

carrying out the republican

even in the distribution of our population.

Again, they have

connected

all

these

places

by

roads,

which, considering the circumstances, deserve great praise.

Our

soil is too rich of itself to

make good

roads; gravel can

rarely be found for this purpose; and stone for macadamising, often has to be brought from a great distance.

Yet notwith-

standing these disadvantages, the public spirit of our citizens,

combined with liberality

—

the liberality of Congress

— even though

that

has not always been improved to the best advantage

has already furnished

many hundred

miles of

macadamised road; and arrangements are making hundred more.

I

first rate

for

many

should not have adverted to this subject,

I

204

TRANSACTIONS, etc.

but for the consideration, that the public spirit of a people

very

fairly

by

indicated

made

complaints have been sometimes

have not

we

is

the condition of their roads; and

who

of ours, by those

under which

sufficiently considered the difficulties

labor.

But there

There

may

it

be said that

which there

course,

is

these things are matters of

all

little

merit in having done, although

would be much disgrace is,

having neglected them.

in

however, one achievement, from the merit of which,

no such deduction can be made; our immense canals. ty-third year of

its

That

the

existence,

mean

I

Ohio

the construction of

legislature, in the

twen-

should have formed the bold

design of uniting lake Erie with the Ohio river, not by one canal only,

miles,

which of

by two

ing, but is

That we had

vast undertak-

making an aggregate of

which speaks volumes

a fact

people.

would have been a

itself

canals,

credit in

hundred

six

for the enterprise of this

Europe,

sufficient to

borrow

the millions necessary, in addition to the donations of gress, to carry

on these works

mation; and that our bonds are

any American stocks

To

now fall

say nothing, then,

Con-

approaching consum-

at as

high a premium as

European market,

in the

our reputation abroad, does not mation.

to their

behind our of other

are proofs that

own

self-esti-

now

canals

in

progress, of the slack-water navigation created in our interior rivers, or of the

are already tion, that

internal

many

rail-roads projected,

commenced,

we have

if

already completed a greater amount of

improvements than any one of the nations of Europe,

and that only two of our

and among the oldest as

some of which

not finished; the single considera-

much

tinction,

—

sister states,

in the

this single

and those the largest

Union, have done any thing near

consideration places our claim to dis-

on the score of public enterprise, beyond

all cavil;

and makes even boasting respectable, because well founded. If

Napoleon, with the resources of a mighty empire

single will, acquired

more

Simplon, than by

his victories,

all

true glory

by

at

his

his road over the

what meed

is sufficient

for

walkers’ discourse. greater works, projected

still

wills,

In

drawn upon

drafts

posterity?

mind, the contemplation of such achievements excites

emotions kindred people

And

by the concurrence of so many

and executed by means of

my

205

to the sublime.

the anticipations are even

Let a like public

reality.

I feel that

the voice of the

indeed, in one exalted sense, the voice of God.

is,

changed would be

its

more glorious than the present

spirit

aspect!

pervade the earth, and

how

In a few generations, the pre-

sent inhabitants, could they revisit

it,

would scarcely recognise

the scene of their mortal pilgrimage; so

much more commo-

whole surface be made

for the residence of

dious would civilised

its

man.

—

And then, look at our benevolent institutions what encomium is equal to their merit? It is little, that we have made ample provision for our poor, for they are scarcely known among us. But we have the insane, the blind, the deaf and dumb; and yonder noble

edifices attest the munificence

which we have provided for each of these Of all our public expenditures, these classes. tionably the most deserving of commendation. the givers, as much human government

as they bless the receivers.

so

much resemble

causing the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the the maniac to reason, and

ail

express a higher eulogy?

I

to the list of full

oners are

discipline, until I

On I

is,

that

imprisonment

themes like these,

must pass

I

it

dumb

to speak,

I

saw

never conceived the

it

there.

If our pris-

by our system of punishments,

not improved

And as may come

nothing can improve them. fear

when

institutions are

even add our penitentiary

benevolent institutions.

meaning of

Never does

and how can words

to rejoice;

may

are unques-

They honor

the divine, as

These

uses power to relieve the wretched.

with

unfortunate

to their comfort, to

should never

my only

be regarded as a boon.

tire

of expatiating; but

to others.

In this view of what has been done for our physical condition, I

have

laid

no

stress

upon our manufactures; because,

although considerable, they are not what our manufacturing

206

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

Our commerce can never touch upon any great

resources require they should be.

we nowhere

be very great, because

But with our

point of foreign importation or exportation.

exhaustless mines of coal and iron, for the creation of steam

power

— of

to the

almost unlimited water-power of our rivers and canals,

we may

themselves a fortune to any state

—

in addition

we

increase our manufactures to any point

choose.

we

Doubtless our agriculture alone will sustain us where

are,

and will gradually increase as our vacant land becomes appropriated.

But

we

if

of the past,

are to

grow

our agriculture there

To

to

like the ratio

also a limit, in our interior position.

is

Nor can

the world.

accumulates,

it

advantages,

I

doubt that as our capital

will take this direction.

facilities will

were invited

manufacturing pursuits, by

to

we

We

are that people.

cannot be that

It

For

not be improved.

if

all

ever a people

possible natural

might compel the iron

nerves of mechanism to accomplish for us, what cles

We

could never do.

motion, and thus fine,

we

matter,

make

might

nature herself do

by compelling matter

among

its

own

moment

to

derful engine

let

much

what

Would you be

to the

Taking

in

a single application of

constitutes

its

it

of

won-

crowning ornament,

steam engine alone at least

that

has

list

way backward on

view the whole Mississippi

safe to say, that the

number of

satisfied

power of mechanism,

machinery be stripped of

which now

performing the work of that

In

to art.

do our work, while mind

and you turn the hand more than half

it

homage

Let steam be stricken from the

already done for us.

prime moving forces;

to

creations.

do not ascribe too

advert for a

dial.

human mus-

myriads of wheels in

set

might almost complete the triumph of mind over

expatiates that I

To

our manufactures, I can see no limit, except in the de-

mands of such

any thing

a limit, in the extent of our surface.

is

our commerce there

But

in future, in

must be through manufacturing industry.

it

valley, I

is at this

our

deem

moment

one million of men, and twice

horses; and this, with a constitution which

walker’s discourse.

knows

207

not sickness or fatigue, which never hungers or thirsts

and which bids defiance a pamphlet

wind and

to

tide.

I

have heard that

yet extant, in which the probability that the

is

western waters would one day be navigated by steam, was ,

urged as a motive for commencing settlements here, before

one had yet been made.

If so,

instance of bold prediction

more than

And

new momentum.

not go where steam

is

verified.

not working

its

Uphill and downhill

Remotest points are brought

no longer of consequence.

into

Cities are every

close proximity.

first

now you canmiracles. Time and

yet even

space are, in a measure, annihilated. are

Full half of

had elapsed, when we

the brief period of our history

acquired this

only furnishes another

it

where springing up

by enchantment, and every thing wears the aspect of intense activity. We seem to live at a more rapid rate than as

if

Society

formerly.

unknown before. I come then to

itself

sweeps forward with a velocity

the question,

what has Ohio done

The

intellectual condition of her people?

for the

ordinance of 1787

gave a pledge, on the subject of education, in this noble language: sary

— “ Religion,

to

morality, and knowledge, being neces-

good government and the happiness of mankind,

schools and the means of education shall forever be encour-

This pledge

aged.” far

it

is

repeated in our constitution; and thus

has been faithfully redeemed.

the original entire

endowment

stances.

But

much

it is

to

soil

itself,

only say,

that, in general, all

our common schools, that

Congress

by consecrating one

forever to their support.

managed from

I shall

as could be expected in our circum-

the proudest satisfaction. the

colleges, towr ards

of which, Congress contributed three

townships of land,

are flourishing as

Of our

Had

the beginning,

it

this

the loss of a few paltry dollars,

we

look with

thirty-sixth part of

it,

fund been judiciously

might now have amounted

perhaps three millions of dollars.

the support of schools,

we

laid their foundation in

But

I will

when, by levying a tax

can give the

to

not complain of for

most conclusive

I

208

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

evidence of the high value

we

attach to them.

same year which witnessed

rejoice that the

will rather

I

the adoption of

our plan for internal improvements, also saw the corner-stone

Had

of our free school system laid.

the grand idea of pro-

viding the elements of education, for every child in the state, at the

public expense, originated here,

in contending for

paternity, with as

its

contended for the birthplace

cities

we should be justified much zeal as the seven

of

Homer; because

it is

the one thing wanting to render the republican theory perfect.

But the idea first

example of taxation

for general

of the earliest resolutions

But

next

merit

the

to

the merit of imitating

adopted of

setting

a is

if,

who

here, there be one person

in the

It

set the

was one

the pilgrim fathers.

example,

great

ours.

system in actual operation; and

free school

England

education.

by

This merit

it.

be the fault of legislation,

heard

New

not original with us.

is

We

is

have the

I trust it will

not

next generation, born

cannot read and write.

I

have

suggested that the ability to read and write ought to

it

be made the criterion of the right of suffrage; that no one should be permitted to vote, ballot,

and read

it

at the polls.

one doubts that ignorance

most cause

to

to fear.

It

Our theory

citizens.

know

means

could not write his

But however the

my

makes good

slaves, but very

civil

poor

man

elementary education, but that they should

it

will

will enlighten a It is

the

few;

many

I

may

not dwell

hesitate to declare

American Experiment

owe more

shall

ultimately

to the institution of free schools,

than to any other single institution.

many

no

functions; and, therefore, the

make such provision. momentous subject; but I do not

belief that if the

rule.

be,

not that* some of the states should have provided

for universal

prevail,

own

his rights and duties, and to be capable of dischar-

is,

this

may

enemy which freedom has

have neglected to

upon

this

of government, presupposes every

ging the most important

wonder

is

who

Colleges and academies

but in this country these few do not

that hold the reins of

power; and these

will only be enlightened by a system of education as

walker’s discourse.

Equality, therefore, in the

universal as the right of suffrage.

means of knowledge, ought

much

be as

to

209

the aim of repub-

licanism, as equality in the elective franchise; for without the

may

former, the latter

Who all

prove a curse, instead of a blessing.

of us would not shudder at the thought of submitting

he holds dear in

life, to

the control of a majority that could

Yet

neither read nor write?

this is

only a strong statement

of the actual condition of things, where no public provision is

made

Without adverting,

education.

for

what our common schools, yet done,

I

would point

for;

man, the

and

this

intellectual,

thus settled the shall

far the

Man,

our legislature. provided

great

be compelled

in

the animal,

was not

«

Man

“

And

is

to

to

it

We

have

every

man

be neglected. in Ohio,

principle, that

something

to

the enlighten-

we

only remains that

order to render the aggregate

Ohio, as productive as her

soon be able

was already abundantly

law gave a cheering assurance that

to contribute

physical resources; and shall

incorporated them

first

most important ever enacted by

ment of every other man; and to this principle,

which

to the laAv

by

into our system, as

therefore, to

in their infancy, have already

if

make

Already

soil.

we go on

as

we

we

act

up

mind of

boast of our

have begun,

we

the far higher boast, that

the noblest growth our clime supplies,

souls are ripened by our northern skies.”

But, speaking in this legislative hall,

I

am reminded

that

perhaps the best indications of the character of a people are to

be found in the aggregate of their legislation.

have established a superior system of

civil polity,

If

they

they have

given the most authentic evidence of superior wisdom, which

And

a body politic can give.

it

must be confessed,

that there

never has been a fairer opportunity than existed here. hereditary rubbish

was

to

be

first

No

cleared away; no time-hal-

lowed customs had acquired the

force of law;

no vested

rights could be interfered with; no preconceptions encountered.

27

210

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

Elsewhere, laws have been the gradual growth of ages.

Commencing with the smallest by step, to meet the

creased step

beginnings, they have in-

no time could a complete system be devised

Each new

creating a civil revolution.

must accommodate

upon

at

once, without

addition, therefore,

which went

itself to that

the entire system, not framed

At

exigencies of society.

before;

and thus

a preconceived model, but

composed by piecemeal, resembles commenced in former centuries, but

those

ancient

castles,

gradually enlarged

by

their successive

owners, until their different parts exhibit the

style of every

age.

The dawning mind pressions, than

was

But here no such obstacles of infancy

first

it

therefore,

we

to

evils or abuses,

is

no apology

Our laws,

as a

for

we

system have

If the relics of the feudal

been planted here, there this is not the fact.

The

be created anew from the beginning.

have perpetuated ancient

are without excuse.

im-

The

Nothing was

an unsullied sheet.

be demolished, nothing repealed, nothing modified.

whole system was If,

existed.

not more open to

this region, to receive its first laws.

ordinance of 1787, found to

is

But happily

it.

body, are more truly and

exclusively American, than those of the original states could

possibly be, on account of pre-existing institutions.

common law, it is true, modifications. I may not illustrate adopted the

ence to particulars. is

I will

We have

but with very numerous position

this

by

a refer-

only say, that our law of persons

pre-eminently the law of liberty, from the absence of those

minute and vexatious regulations, elsewhere in force, which serve only to fetter and constrain the free action of individuals, in

been so

their private concerns; that our far simplified, that it

law of property has

can be written in perhaps one-

third of the space required for the corresponding department

of English law; and that our law of crimes and punishments,

being wholly statutory, and independent of the

common

law,

has never been excelled in the two great qualities of simplicity and humanity.

But while

acter of our legislation, I

I

claim thus

much

would be understood

for the char-

as referring to

walker’s discourse.

211

general spirit and tendency, rather than to the particular

its

excellence of

all its parts;

would view

I

it

as the

commence-

ment of an improved system, rather than its completion. For while its great outlines deserve all praise, there are some striking faults,

In the

afford freely to acknowledge.

we have had

passed

at the instance,

of particular persons. this respect,

and

degraded,

is

abounds with

not that

we

I

proud height which overlooks the whole, wishes of particular individuals.

been

To

far too fluctuating.

made

are worse, in

know that the high funcwhen it thus stoops from the

than other states; but

tions of legislation

legislation for

promote the convenience

to

know

I

much

statutes

far too

Every volume of our

individuals. acts

which we can

place,

first

to

consult the

Again, our legislation has

say nothing of the petty charges

every year, in subordinate matters,

we have had

a gen-

I

whole

eral revision of our

Now if

five years. i

ved

stability is not

But

improvements.

improvement.

were even considerably impro-

am

it

may well be

more than an

doubted whether

such

offset for all

unable to perceive any very decided

If I take the last

volume of our revised laws,

and the arrangement of subjects

and

careless,

acts

and parts of first

volume.

Indeed, after

all

I

may

that has

is

the only authentic

at this

moment,

But

I

do not think

medium through which

people utter their sovereign voice; and the general

in

as

been done, the

be told that these are minor

and hardly worth scrutinizing.

Legislation

in the different

and confused,

probably as imperative

ever has been.

faults,

as incongruous

acts,

call for a revision is it

I

once every

the omissions as numerous, the phraseology as loose,

I find

as

the law

each of these revisions,

at

the want of

the

statute law, as often as

I

so.

the

should be sorry

mind of Ohio were not capable of

if

better things.

Jewels so precious as the principles of our law, certainly deserve a better casket.

And

in this connexion, permit

sideration.

system,

it

According

to the

me

to advert to another con-

beautiful

theory of our social

devolves upon our legislature to provide the laws

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

212

A

necessary for our government.

stranger, therefore, might

naturally expect to find in our statute-book, a

pointed, when,

body of law

But how sadly would he be disap-

our wants.

for

sufficient

upon making

the examination, he should find

there perhaps not one-fiftieth part of the entire law which

governs us; nay, not the entire law on any one single subject; but instead thereof, only here and there a straggling provision, to

up the chinks and crevices made by time,

fill

of law never enacted

by any

legislature!

wide discrepancy between theory and

this

Ohio; but in matters of this

to

make

fact, is

common

sort,

in a

system

am aware

that

not peculiar

error does not

right.

would not be considered

I

I

who

one of those enthusiasts,

as

suppose that a perfect code of statute law can be made at

But I know

once. as to

embrace

that in

answer

where can to

it

that our statutes could easily be so extended

at least

an outline of our social regulations; so

what

to the question,

be found?

— we might

is

the law of Ohio? and

refer the enquirer proudly

our statute-book, for a well considered, well expressed, and

well

as

Numberless

arranged system of written law.

would doubtless be omitted, now,

for

to judicial discretion

supplied

by

frame-work would be there, in proportions; and

would

that administration,

common

under the

future legislative

details

which recourse must be had, provision; but its

still

law, until the noble

harmonious and majestic

constitute a glorious

which should cause

it

to

monument

be reared.

I

of

can

think of no other benefaction to our state so great as this.

We

should

make

the experiment under the most favorable

auspices, from having so all

little

to

undo; and

when

achieved,

our past glories would shine dimly by the side of

When more derful

this.

Napoleon, “the desolator desolate,” having nothing to

hope, sought for solace in a retrospect of his won-

life,

France.

“

he found I shall

it

in

go down

the code he to posterity

hand!” was his triumphant declaration. the historian

of Ohio, after recording

had furnished for

with that code in In like manner, all

my

when

her other doings,

walker’s discourse.

young

shall be able to add, that

213

as she was, she gave the first

American theory, by furnishing

great example of the

a

systematic code of statute law, he will have set forth her highest claim to imperishable renown.

This will cap the

climax of her internal improvements, in the best sense of these words.

And what

summation?

Already the

is

there to hinder so desirable a con-

ice of ancient prejudice

upon

tiously,

we

Already have

undermined.

maxims

the

innovated boldly, yet cau-

of other times, because they do

And shall we stop we shall not. I

not suit our times and circumstances.

midway feel

has been

Already the strong holds of prescription have been

broken.

grand enterprise?

in the

I trust that

almost sure, that ere another half century closes upon

now so meagre and imperfect, we may tell him who would

our history, our legislation,

will be our proudest boast; that

appreciate the general

and

that

he

who

mind of Ohio,

shall then stand

the people of

gratulate

to

where

seek I

now

Ohio upon having

rights as distinctly ascertained

it

in her code;

do,

may

con-

their subordinate

by written laws,

as their funda-

“ While

mental rights

now

the vain

of the victories of Justinian are crumbled into

titles

name

the

dust,

are,

a

written constitution.

of the legislator

everlasting monument!’’ legislator,

by

is

inscribed on a fair and

Thus Gibbon speaks

may our historian then Then sovereign law,

and thus

our legislators.

uttered will of our people, will for the

of the

Roman

be able to speak of the

first

and

collected

time rise and

sit

enthroned, triumphant over discretionary power; and the only uncertainly respecting our rights, will be that which belongs to the

imperfection of

all

human

things.

There they

will

stand recorded, in a luminous and comprehensive code, where all

who wish may

study them, and

all

who know,

will respect

and guard them.

But

We

I

may

not further indulge in anticipations like these.

came here

has been done the past.

to consider, not

—not

And we

what may be done, but what

to forestall the future, but to

reckon with

have, however imperfectly, surveyed our

214 past

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

— our

but

brief,

crowded past

— crowded

which prophecy would not have ventured in events over

menced

which patriotism may rationally

this retrospect

would cally.

I trust that I

close

by

reiterating

it,

if

possible,

I

to I

more emphatidid not brag

now

have

have been compelled

I

And

good.

why we

order to approach the truth.

latives, in

com-

a citizen of a neighboring state,

of our achievements,

scarcely been told.

it

still

But you, who hear me, know

much.

I

Ohio holds up

now made

Perhaps strangers might think

more? too

have

was once asked by

I

when speaking

prolific

philosophy instructed mankind by

useful examples, than the history of

the world.

—

exult.

with the strong assertion, that never,

in the annals of time, has

more

with facts

to predict

that the

bragged half has

to deal in super-

For

if

there be one

upon which the wish that it had been

half century in the history of any people,

mind may It

dwell,

such

different,

I

with scarcely a

regard the

first

half century of our history.

does not, indeed, embrace the hallowed recollections of the

revolution; for,

upon

that

grand drama the curtain had

fallen,

But

while Nature yet reigned here on her throne of solitude. it

does comprehend that more wonderful series of events, by

which our present glorious Union was created out of crumbling fragments of the of 1787 federal

undergoing

its

prior to the signing of the

ordeal in the conventions of the states, the falling

beneath the axe of the pioneer;

when Washington assumed gratefully

children of the west. is

the

ordinance

and while that sacred instrument was

Ohio were

name was

The

confederacy.

was adopted two months constitution;

forests of

so that

first

the presidential chair, his

and reverently

But

in a

uttered,

still

more

by

his far-off

gratifying sense,

our era, the era of the formation of the Union; since, as

already seen, our very soil was the subject of a concession*

without which that Union could not have been formed. ancients

would have erected magnificent temples

events like this.

and

lifeless

And

marble.

so in fact have

Our temples

we

— but

in

The

honor of

not of cold

of concord, are the

new

215

walker’s discourse. states

added and adding

the old

thirteen

to the

Already the centre

population.

Already they equal

Union.

number, and will soon exceed them in

in

American power has

of

crossed the Alleghany ridge, and, while the Union endures,

must be

moving westward.

still

originally given

up

Already the

for the sake of the

which was

soil

Union, has become

great central support; and thus the prediction of

its

Berkley,

made with

reference to the whole American continent, has

been almost

literally verified in the

United States:

“ Westward the Star of Empire takes

The The

four

first

fifth shall close

the

Meantime

at the

head of the

“ by the

her last.”

is

new

Great she

coming on of time.”

at the

to

who

end of her

is

Looking forward

as

far

as

exceed

“ to the

we now

what Ohio may become,

Few

century?

far

refer us eagerly

shall fix limits to

first

past, justifies

already, but greater

Her promises

all-hail hereafter.”

what she has yet performed; and look backward,

thirteen, our own Ohio

and the experience of the

bright hopes of the future. still

way,

drama with the day;

Time’s noblest offspring

proudly stands;

its

acts already past,

of us can hope, then,

be here; but our doings will then be matters of history.

We

are to prepare that future for another generation,

our eyes be not permitted to behold lived to

little

purpose,

if

we do

it.

And we

though have

shall

not carry our state onward in

her thus far wonderful career.

was

It

the proud boast of a

Roman emperor, that he found Rome brick, and left it marble. The fathers of Ohio did more. They left civilization, where they found barbarism

— blooming gardens, fair cities,

—

where they found penury

affluence,

where they found a cheerless waste

where they found only wigwams

where they found only

desolation.

worthy sons of such worthy

sires;

great legacy they have left us,

improved, no easy task

is

—

a

palmy

—

state,

And if we would prove if we would transmit the

not only

before us.

unimpaired,

but

Let us not be contented

216

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

with merely preserving the materials of our past history, but

remember, history.

also,

that

we

are to

make

materials for future

Either for imitation or warning, for our glory or

we set, will be recorded by our sucwho will compare what we leave, with what we And thrice happy will be our lot, if they, who may found. look back to us, as we have now looked back to our predeour shame, the example

cessors,

cessors, shall be able to pronounce over us, that true, hearty,

and emphatic well done, which the fathers of Ohio claim our hands.

at

i

A DISCOURSE ON THE ABORIGINES OF THE VALLEY OF THE OHIO-^-BY WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON*

Gentlemen of the Historical Society:

—No

opinion

has been more generally entertained in every civilised com-

munity, than that which asserts the importance of the study

And

of history, as a branch of education.

who would

are few, if any,

scarcely be denied, that there

We

neglected.

much

although there

controvert this proposition, is

no study

at this

high standing

which require profound study and deep

professions

research,

will

much

everywhere meet with men possessed of

intelligence, great scientific attainments,

in those

it

day, so

who have

neglected to inform themselves, not only

of the circumstances which influenced the rise and progress, the decline and

who

quity, but

the

fall

of their

histor

of the most celebrated nations of anti-

are extremely deficient in the

own

country.

If

we

knowledge of

search for the

causes wluch have produced this state of things, one, perhaps the

most

efficient,

works of

liction,

will be found in the

great increase

they have been clothed, by the great geniuses

employed upon them.

It

is

I

am

of the

man

who have been

the perusal of these,

occupies the attention of the wealthy, and

moments

of

and the fascinating character with which

fills

which

the leisure

of business.

loathe to give another reason for this decline in the

taste for historical reading,

in patriotism.

I allude

because

it

indicates, also, a decline

to the inordinate desire for the accu-

mulation of riches, which has so rapidly increased in our country, and which,

if

not arrested,

will

ere long effect a

deplorable change in the character of our countrymen. basest

of

passions,

28

this

This

“ meanest of amors,” could not

218

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

way

exhibit itself in a

be more destructive of republican

to

by exerting an influence on

principles, than

The

education adopted for our youth.

effects

the course of

upon

the moral

condition of the nation would be like those which would be

produced upon the verdant valley of our inimical to vegetable

of the magnificent river It is

through

by which

it is

must be sown, which

No

life.

some

state, if

quality

be imparted to the sources

to

adorned and

fertilised.

and in early youth, that the seeds of that

in youth,

patriotism

were

life,

one ever began

to continue

is

to

to

must be lighted up when the mind

age; that holy fire

bloom

be a patriot in advanced best

is

suited to receive, with enthusiasm, generous and disinterested

impressions.

bosom,

it

If

it

not then the “ruling passion” of the

is

will never be at an age

result of cool calculation,

when every

action

is

the

and the basis of that calculation too

This has been the pre-

often the interest of the individual.

vailing opinion with every free people throughout every stage

of civilization, from the roving savage tribe, to the numerous

and polished nation; from the barbarous Pelasgi

to the glorious

Cimon, or the more refined and luxuBy all, the same means rious age of Pericles and Xenophon. era of Miltiades and

were adopted. their

With

was

it

them with

ancestors, to inspire tion

all,

the

custom

present to

to

youth the examples of the heroic achievements of their

to

the

argument,

it

the

same ardor of devo-

As

of their country.

welfare

matters not whether the history

it

regards the

was written or

unwritten, whether in verse or prose, or

how communicated;

whether by national annals,

had access; by

tations in

practised

and other

at

all

the

by

tribes of

amongst the Celts

in the speeches of the

the

our

reci-

Olympic and other

in the songs of bards, as

and Scandinavians; or

was

which

solemn assemblies, as

games of Greece;

as

to

aged warriors,

Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees,

own

country.

Much

fiction

was, no

doubt, passed off on these occasions, as real history; but as it

was believed

to

be

true,

that

was

sufficient to

kindle the

219

Harrison’s discourse.

among

of emulation in the cause of patriotism

spirit

whom

those to

these recitations, songs, and speeches were addressed. it is by no means my intenwhich have been derived from

In the remarks I have made, tion to

deny the good

some of

effects

the

works of

“To

raise the genius,

fiction,

and that they have greatly

assisted

But

result

this

Amongst

and

better

is

to

mend

the heart.”

by

effected

the former of these, the

authentic

history.

Telemachus of Fenelon

stands almost unrivalled for the beauty of the narrative, the purity of the morals

it

inculcates, the soundness of

the principles of government

manner

in

it

it

and

But

virtue.

I

will not be contended that these lessons, excellent as

they are, can have as beneficial an effect as ratives to be found in real history.

The

of

which the passions of youth are subdued and

brought under the control of wisdom think

many

advances, and the masterly

The

many

reason

of the naris

obvious.

youth, for instance, for whose special benefit the book I

have mentioned was written, knowing that

it

was a

fiction,

might very readily persuade himself that the task of forming his conduct

too

much

upon

for

acter being

that attributed to the son

him

drawn, not from nature, but from the imagination

of the author.

On the contrary, how many thousands of youth

have been encouraged true

glory

of Ulysses, was

or any one else to accomplish, the char-

by

to

pursue a career of usefulness and

the examples to be found in the history of

Greece and Rome.

The manner

in

which Telemachus

is

made

to sacrifice his

love for Eucharis, for the accomplishment of the pious object

of his travels, forms a beautiful lesson; and his deep contrition and regret for having given

way

passions in his contest with Ilippias,

to the violence is still

of his

a better one.

But authentic history furnishes examples of forbearance, matters of this kind, which are infinitely preferable.

in

220

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

In relation to the

may

control of the temper,

of Scipio Africanus and

the cases

first,

Alexander the Great,

And

be quoted.

where

its

as

it

regards the

unrestrained violence might

produce great mischief, Grecian history furnishes us with

one of more value than to

be found in

all

the

all

of a similar character

works of

ters to the present day.

fiction,

which are

from the origin of

I refer to the

w ell known r

let-

anecdote

recorded of Themistocles in his difference with Eurybiades, the*

Spartan admiral and commander-in-chief of the

immediately preceding the tion of

battle of Salamis.

no writer can conceive an

effect

Take from

the anecdote the intended

often might

that of

insult, as

this occasion.*

rior refinement of

how

imagina-

so great, to be pro-

duced by dignified forbearance, under gross Themistocles on

allied fleet,

The

blow which the supe-

modern manners would not

it

prove a useful example

inferior stations in a republic,

to

and

tolerate,

men

holding

meet the passionate

to

vio-

lence of those in power, with moderation and firmness, and thus avert from their country an impending calamity, having its

origin either in mistaken policy or designed usurpation of

power.

The works

of fiction which have had the greatest effect in

fixing the love of country in the youthful

tionably those in

bosom, are unques-

which the characters and the leading features This

are taken from real history.

is

the case with most of

the ancient tragedies, as well as most of those of Shakspeare;

and

it is

effects

doubtless from this circumstance, that the beneficial

upon mankind

attributed to

them by Mr. Pope,

prologue to the tragedy of Cato, have been produced. beautiful production (the tragedy)

portion of the interest which

not

know from undoubted

feelings of

Cato were such

would

is felt

in

in his

That

itself lose the greater its

perusal, if

we

did

history, that the sentiments and as

he

is

there

*See note A, in the appendix.

made

to utter,

and

221

Harrison’s discourse. his actions such as are

there

described.

All well calcula-

ted to

“ Make mankind in conscious virtue bold.”

The

however, which Mr. Pope

effect,

in changing the

“savage natures” of

attributes to tragedy

tyrants, is not so appa-

Miserable indeed, would be the situation of mankind,

rent.

were

if that

their reliance to escape oppression.

But

ceive that the operation, as well of tragedy as history is

more

when it

direct.

shall

I

con-

itself,

Instead of palliating and lessening the evil

have existence, their great object

certainly their effect) to prevent

its

is

occurrence.

(and such

is

Instead of

softening the hearts of tyrants, to harden those of the people against

all

tyrants and usurpers, whatever

may

be the degree

of usurpation or the character of the tyranny, and to warn

them of

the insiduous

means by which

their confidence

is

obtained, for the purpose of being betrayed. truly estimate the

If I

value of a knowledge of history,

gentlemen, by the citizens of a republic, you will unite with

me

deploring the existence of any circumstances which

in

would have a tendency

to stipercede

which was once paid

to

and more especially

if

in

it

or lessen the attention

our seminaries of learning,

one of the causes should be found in

the increasing love of riches, rendering our youth impatient

of studies which are not essential to enable them to enter

upon

the professional career

means

which they have chosen,

of obtaining that wealth which

is

as the

so universally sought

after.

As your

association, gentlemen,

was formed

for the pur-

pose of procuring and preserving materials for the history of

our

own

state, rather

than to encourage attention to that of

other countries, these remarks I shall, therefore,

ceed

maybe

considered a digression;

add nothing more on that subject, but pro-

to present to

you some notices and remarks more

in

222

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

accordance with the wishes expressed in your invitation to prepare this paper. It

is

somewhat remarkable

Union before

that Ohio, admitted into

ahead of either in point of population, and having

whence

its

position

them and the European

precisely intermediate between onies, from

the

either of the other north-western states, so far

the emigration

to

of them

all

col-

came,

should have been the last that was settled. Fifty-five years ago, there

was not

a Christian inhabitant

within the bounds which

now compose

And

to that period, a traveler

if

passing

a

few years anterior

down

the magnificent river

it

He

was not always

that the country

—

certainly not a

calculated for the res-

might, indeed, have seen indications that

His eye might have rested on some

thus.

stupendous mound, or lengthened lines traverses of earth

whole course of

its

human being

habitation, nor the vesitage of one,

idence of man.

had been

which forms our southern

boundary, he might not have seen in eleven hundred miles, a single

the state of Ohio.

still

of ramparts,

and

of considerable elevation, which proved

had once been possessed by a numerous and

laborious people.

But he would have seen,

evidences that centuries had passed

had been occupied by those

for

away

also, indubitable

since these remains

whose use they had been

Whilst ruminating upon the causes which had occa-

reared.

sioned their removal, he would not

fail to

arrive at the con-

they did depart) must have

clusion, that their .departure,

(if

been a matter of necessity.

For no people,

civilization,

endeared

to

in

any stage of

would willingly have abandoned such a country;

them

as

it

must have been, by long residence

and the labor they had bestowed upon

Unless, like the

it.

descendants of Abraham, they had fled from the face of a tyrant,

and the oppressions of unfeeling task-masters.

they had been made gallant people,

to yield to

a

what country had received

what has become of the conquerers? forced to fly before a

If

more numerous or more the fugitives? and

Had

they, too, been

new swarm from some

northern or

Harrison’s discourse. southern hive?

Still

would the question

And why had

their fate?

223

what had been

recur,

so large a portion of country, so

beautiful and inviting, so abounding in all that is desirable, in

the rudest as well as the

most advanced

been

state of society,

a haunt for the beasts of the forest, or as an occasional

left as

arena for distant tribes of savages to mingle in mortal conflicts?

To

aid us in

in

answer

recorded

any thing like

we

For every thing

which

are

still

else,

a satisfactory conclusion

possess only a solitary

we must

before us, for

search amidst

we wish

all that

to

of the history and character of this ancient and name-

less people.

may

to

those questions,

fact.

the remains

know

coming

to

And

although the result of such an examination

be far from satisfactory,

information.

We

learn

first,

it

will not be entirely barren of

from the extensive country cov-

ered by their remains, that they were a numerous people.

Secondly, that they were congregated in considerable

from the extensive works with which several tions

are covered.

cities,

favorite situa-

Thirdly, that they were essentially an

agricultural people; because, collected as they

were

in great

numbers, they could have depended upon the chase but for a small portion of their subsistence; and there

is

no reason

to

believe that they were in the possession of domestic animals, as the only one arrival

by nature

The

known

to the

American continent before the

of the Europeans (the lama of Peru) was unsuited to

endure the rigors of a winter in

impossibility of assigning

the greater number, and

many

this latitude.

any other purpose

to

which

of the largest of these remains

could be applied, together with other appearances scarcely to

be misunderstood, confirm the national religion; in the

fact

that they

celebration of which,

possessed a all

that

was

pompous, gorgeous, and imposing, that a semi-barbarous nation could devise, was brought into occasional display.

That there were a numerous priesthood, and altars often smoking with hecatombs of victims. These same circumstances, also indicate, that they had

made no

inconsiderable

progress in the art of building, and that their habitations had

224

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

been ample and convenient,

if

not neat or splendid.

in every age and nation has provided for his

own

Man

defence

against the elements, before he even designates any peculiar

spot for the worship of his God.

In rigorous climates the

hut will always precede the uncovered

and the well

built city before the

altar of earth or stone,

temple

made

is

to shoot its

spires to the skies.

Thus much do

these ancient remains furnish us, as to the

condition and character of the people

have persuaded myself that

some

who

which is

first

I

to

remark, that the

have alluded, that

erected them.

have gleaned from them,

interesting facts in their history.

proper

fate,

I

It

I

also,

may, however, be

solitary recorded fact to

to enable us to

determine their ultimate

which has been furnished

to us

by

the histori-

ans of Mexico.

The

pictural

to the Astecks,

in

records of that nation, ascribe their origin a people

Mexico about

who

are said to have arrived

the middle of the seventh

first

An

century.

American author, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Madison, of Virginia, having with

much

labor investigated this

his conviction that these Astecks are one

ple with those

The

who

probabilities

Adopting

itj

subject, declares

and the same peo-

once inhabited the valley of the Ohio. certainly

are

in favor of this

and knowing by

therefore,

arrival

on the north-west

to the

works they have

frontier of

left us, to

it

opinion.

the date of their

Mexico, we

refer again

gain what knowledge

we

can of the cause and manner of their leaving the Ohio valley.

For the reasons formerly were compelled people.

No

to fly

stated, I

assume the

fact that

they

from a more numerous or more gallant

doubt the contest was long and bloody, and

that the country, so long their residence, to their rivals until their

continue the contest.

was not abandoned

numbers were too much reduced-

Taking

into consideration

all

the

to

cir-

cumstances which can be collected from the works they have left

on the ground,

I

have come

to the

conclusion that these

people were assailed both from their northern and southern

harrison’s discourse. frontier;

made

recede from both directions, and that their

to

was made on

last effort at resistance, I

have adopted

their works,

225

which

the banks of the Ohio.

opinion, from the different character of

this

are there found, from those in the interior.

Great as some of the

latter

and laborious as was the

are,

Newark,

construction, particularly those of Cifcleville and

am On

pursuaded they were never intended

upon the Ohio

the contrary, those

The

designed for that purpose.

I

for military defences.

river

were evidently

three that I have examined,

those of Marietta, Cincinnati, and the mouth of the Great

Miami,

particularly

the

have a military character

latter,

The

stamped upon them which cannot be mistaken. work, and that

by

the

same people,

number of gateways,

square, at the latter place, has such a as

seem intended

attack

And

it.

manded by

the

than defend

it.

to facilitate the entrance of those

both

and the

it

circle

mound, rendering

The

The

intended for military purposes.

if

latter

never could have been erected

at Circleville,

who would

were completely com-

an easier matter to take,

it

engineers, on the contrary,

who directed known the

the execution of the Miami works, appear to have

And

importance of flank defences. as perfect, as to form, as

those

bastions are not

if their

which

are in use in

modern

engineering, their position as well as that of the long lines of curtains, are precisely as they should be.

jecture as to this

Miami

fortress.

I

If the

have another con-

people of

whom we

have been speaking were really the Astecks, the direct course of their journey to Mexico, and the

facilities

which

that

mode

of retreat would afford, seems to point out the descent of the

Ohio

as the line of that retreat.

This position, then, fortified

(the lowest

which they appear

to

have

on the Ohio,) strong by nature, and improved by

the expenditure of great labor, directed

degree of

skill,

would be the

and the scene of

last

their last efforts to retain possession of the

country they had so long inhabited.

every one

feels,

29

by no inconsiderable

hold they would occupy

who

visits

The

this beautiful

interest

which

and commanding

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

226 spot,

would be greatly heightened,

my

self of the reasonableness of

have to

That

stated.

he could persuade him'

if

deductions, from the facts I

this elevated ridge,

ity,

possessed by a people in the

liberty,

like

and

all

those of

enemy’s

that peace

enjoyment of peace and

and liberty can give, whose matrons,

have never seen the smoke of an

Sparta,

most horrid form, where blood cies of the field

made up by it was here

That

“ remnant of mighty

is

the slaughter of innocence and that a feeble

band was collected

make

fought in vain,” to

battles

its

the object, and the deficien-

a last

country of their birth, the ashes of their ances-

effort for the tors,

fertil-

once presented a scene of war, and war in

fire,

imbecility.

full

now

from which are

be seen flourishing villages, and plains of unrivalled

and the

altars

That the

of their gods.

crisis

was met

with fortitude, and sustained with valor, need not be doubted.

The

ancestors of Quitlavaca and Gautimosin, and their devo-

But

ted followers, could not be cowards. vain,

and

flight or

their efforts

were

Whatever

death were the sad alternatives.

might ^be their object in adopting the former, whether, like the Trojan remnant, to seek another country,

“ and happier

walls,” or like that of Ithome, to procure present safety and

we have

renovated strength, for a distant day of vengeance,

no means of ascertaining. believe, that they

But there

is

every reason to

were the founders of a great empire, and

that ages before they

assumed the more modern and

distin-

guished name of Mexicans, the Astecks had lost in the more

mild and uniform climate of Anhuac,

banks of the Ohio.

But whatever

our peculiar interest in them ceases the Miami.*

have been their

fate,

after their departure

from

In relation to their conquerors,

say, and perhaps, that I

remembrance of the

all

may

little

I

deny the occupation of the banks of the Ohio,

before

its

discovery by the Europeans,

indubitable

marks of

*See note B,

in the

its

have

not very satisfactory.

I

little

to

Although

for centuries

think that there are

being thickly inhabited by a race of

Appendix.

Harrison’s discourse

men,

the authors of

inferior to

been considering,

many

after the

places, remains

other articles,

But

people.

workmanship

to those

fact to offer,

my opinion.

better evidence of

I

When

that city stands,

embankments.

it

I

was

I first

saw

doing

so.

The number and

to

the upper plain on

to attend

which

General Wayne,

examine them.

variety of figures in

Many

W'e

a day, in August, 1793, in

were drawn, was almost endless, and,

almost covered the plain.

which furnishes

have before mentioned

in an excursion to

were employed the greater part of

lines

are

covered with low lines of

literally

had the honor

two years afterwards,

which

of the former

occupied by the more

Cincinnati as one of the positions civilized people.

Upon

latter.

of pottery, pipes, stone hatchets, and

have one other

I

works we have

the great

departure of the

found in great abundance,

are

evidently of inferior

still

227

,

which these have

as I

said,

so faint, indeed, as scarcely

be followed, and often for a considerable distance entirely

by

but

obliterated,

examination,

careful

direction, they could be again found.

and following the

Now,

if

these lines

were ever of the height of the others made by the same people,

(and they must have been, to have answered any valuable

purpose,) or unless their erection the others, there attrition to their

of the rain (for

then

cultivation.

was many ages

anterior to

must have been some other cause than the

And

a dead level) to bring

it is

That cause

state.

as the people

I

them down

take to have been continued

who

erected them,

would not

themselves destroy works which had cost them so

much

labor, the solution of the question can only be found in the

long occupancy, and cultivation of another people, and the probability

is,

were the conquerors of the

that that people

To

original possessors.

the question of the fate of the for-

mer, and the cause of no recent vestige of settlements being

found on the Ohio,

which appears first

to

I

me

can offer only a conjecture; but one to

be

far

settlement of the Ohio

visited

by two unusually

from improbable.

by

Since the

the whites, they have been

destructive

freshets,

one

in

1793,

TRANSACTIONS, ETC*

228 .and the feet

The latter was from five to seven The latter was produced by a

other in 1832.

higher than the former.

simultaneous

fall

The

surface.

of rain, upon an unusually extensive frozen

learned Dr. Locke, of Cincinnati, calculated

number of inches of

the

rain that

fell,

and as

far as

it

could

be ascertained, the extent of surface which was subjected to it,

and his conclusion was, that the height of the water

Cincinnati,

etc., for all the

same

fall

water that

In other words, that with the

fell.

of rain, other circumstances concurring, the fresh

might have been some have combined

Now

feet higher.

main trunk more nearly

and thus produce a height of water equal

to

chief, (to

which he

General Wilkinson,

And which,

said

ten,) at least,

higher than that of 1832.

such a flood,

when

the banks of the

numerous Indian towns and to a

off,

fall

feet,

The

of 1792. (eight or

occurrence of

Ohio were occupied by

villages, nearly all

was well

by

he was an eye witness,)

Cincinnati, in the

at

together,

to that described

must have been several

if true,

have been swept

these causes might

time to pour the waters of the

another

at

tributary streams into the

an Indian

at

did not account, after allowing for evaporation,

which must

calculated to determine them

removal, not only from actual suffering, but from the

suggestions of superstition; an occurrence so unusual, being

construed into a warning from heaven, to seek a residence

upon

the smaller streams.

Before the remembrance of these

events had been obliterated

would become an unusual

by

the abandoned region

time,

resort for

game, and a common

hunting ground for the hostile tribes of the north and south,

Thus

and, of course, an arena for battle. it

was

first visited

Having given

by

all

it

remained when

the whites.

the facts

which

I

could collect, and some

of the conjectures I have formed in relation to ancient people to

who

have inhabited our

make some remarks upon

the tribes

state,

I

the most

next proceed

who were

our imme-

diate predecessors.

From

our long acquaintance with these

tribes,

extending

229

harrison’s discourse.

commencement

considerably beyond the

of our revolutionary

war, and from the intimate connection which has subsisted

between them and 1795,

may

it

since

us,

the treaty of

we are as be, when our

be presumed that

with their history as

we

could

and

placed on their statements,

reliance

traditions, or

which could be

those with the few facts

Greenville,

in

well acquainted

must be

by comparing

collected from other

sources.

The the

tribes

when

resident within the bounds of this state,

white settlement commenced, were the Wyandots,

first

Miamis, Shawanees, Delawares, a remnant of the Moheigans,

(who had united themselves with

may

the Delawares,) and a band

of the Ottowas.

There

some bands from

the Seneca and Tuscaroras tribes of the

have been,

also

time,

at this

Iroquois or Six Nations, remaining in the northern part of

But whether resident or

the state.

some

not, the country for

distance west of the Pennsylvania line, certainly belonged to

them.

From

this, their

western boundary, (wherever

and Wyandots commenced.

The

south than the dividing ridge between

and Sandusky

Auglaise;

whilst the

rivers,

to

extend further

the waters

nor further west

Miamis and

Miamis

claims of the latter were

very limited, and cannot well be admitted

Scioto

might

it

be, but certainly east of the Scioto,) the claims of the

the

kindred tribes are

their

conceived to be the just proprietors of

of the

than

the remaining part

all

of the country north-west of the Ohio, and south of the

southerly bend of lake Michigan and the Illinois river.

aware that

this

that a contrary

is

men

commonly

I

received opinion,

am and

one was promulgated more than eighty years

ago, and sustained

guished

not the

by

the efforts of

of our country.

A

some of

subject

the

most

distin-

which has engaged

the attention of our immortal Franklin, and into the discussion

of which,

we

are told, “ the late

De Witt

Clinton, of

New

York, entered with much ardor,” will certainly not be deemed unworthy our attention on this occasion; even if it did not form a part of the history of the country which

we have

TRANSACTIONS, RTC.

230 embraced

our plan.

in

The

proposition against which

contend, asserts the right, at the period of which ing, of all the country

watered by the Ohio,

I

I

am speak-

to the Iroquois,

or Six Nations, in consideration of their having conquered

the tribes it

which originally possessed

This confederacy,

it.

possessed “at once the ambition of the

is said,

and their martial

for conquest,

that celebrated ancient people,

Like

they manifested, in the

too,

hour of victory, “a moderation equal displayed in

Romans

talents for securing it.”

to the valor

which they

the conquered nations being always spared,

it;”

and either incorporated

in their confederacy, or subjected to

so small a tribute as to amount merely to an acknowledgment

That under the

of the supremacy of their conquerors.

dance of this

spirit,

and

this policy,

gui-

they had extended their

conquest westward to the Mississippi; and south to the Carolinas,

and the confines of Georgia, a space embracing more

than half of the whole territory of the Union, before the acquisition of Louisiana and Florida.

shall

I

have nothing

to

do,

time, with the conquests in other directions, but

at this

endeavor

to

I

prove that their alleged subjugation of the

north-western tribes, rests upon no competent authority; and that the favored region

as that possessed

has been for

“

I

neither

many

centuries as

The land

it

now

of the free and the

deny the martial

magnanimity of subdued;

which we now

call

our own, as well

by our immediate contiguous western

spirit

their policy to

home

fair field for

of the brave.”

of the Iroquois, nor the

some of

both are well established.

whilst they had a

sisters,

is,

whom

they

contend,

that

the tribes

But

I

the exercise of

all

that they

possessed of the former, in a war with an ancient tribe of

Ohio, they had no opportunity for the display of the

latter,

from the indomitable valor of the comparatively small nation

which had dared power.

That

to

oppose

itself to

the extension of their

a portion of the country

was subdued, both

Harrison’s discourse.

231

parties admit; as they do, also, that if the termination of this

war enabled

somewhat

the Iroquois

their empire, they

found

it

adopt into their nation, or a female

phant returns

to exhibit in their trium-

to their villages.

now proceed

I will

extend the limits of

to

a desert, without a warrior to

grounds upon which

to state the

rest

the claims of the Iroquois, to be considered the conquerors of

and between the Ohio and

the country to the Mississippi,

the lakes.

The

was written

history of the Iroquois, or Six Nations,

New

by Cadwallader Colden, Esq., of

member

of the king’s council,

York, who was a

and surveyor-general of the

province, twenty-five or thirty years before the revolutionary

war.

I

have never seen

use the account of

of conquests

its

made by

quoted by

this

work, and

be obliged

shall

by Mr.

the Iroquois, as given

Kentucky.

in his recent history of ities

this

to

contents, as far as relates to the claims

According

Butler,

to the author-

gentleman, the position occupied by the

when the first French Canada, was “on the banks of the

Iroquois,

was made

settlement St.

in

Lawrence, above Que-

and that from thence they extended their conquests on

bec,

both sides of the lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron.

In this

career of conquest, with a magnanimity and sagacious spirit,

worthy of the ancient Romans, and superior temporary

tribes,

to all their con-

they successively incorporated the victims

of their arms with their

own

confederacy.”

He

goes on

to

condensing the account given in a work printed by Dodsley, in 1755, entitled “ Present State of North America,”

say,

as follows:

conquered river,

— “In 1673,

these tribes are represented as having

the Ollinois,

and they

or Illinois, residing on the Illinois

are, likewise, at

conquered and incorporated

Shawanons,

To to

whom

the

the

same time,

Satanas,

said to have

Chawanons

or

they had formerly driven from the lakes.

these conquests they are said

by

the

same high

authority,

have added the Twightwas, (Tewietewes), as they are

called in the journal of

Major Washington.

About the same

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

232 time, they

arms

carried their victorious

to

the Illinois

the year 1711, they incorporated the Tuscaroras,

“ The

from Carolina.”

Pownal,

and

About

Mississippi, westward; and to Georgia, southward.

when driven

tribe in question,” says

Governor

in his administration of the British colonies,

“about

the year 1664, carried their arms as far south as Carolina,

and as

far

west as the Mississippi, over a vast country which

extended twelve hundred miles in length, and about six hundred in breadth,

when they destroyed whole nations, of whom among the English. The

there are no accounts remaining

hunting lands of Ohio, meaning

to the

rights of these tribes

may

the river of that name,

be

fairly

proved by the conquest

they made in subduing the Shawonoes, Delawares, Tiwicte-

wees, and Ollinois, as they stood possessed thereof peace of Ryswick, in 1697.”

at the

In support of these preten-

he further quotes a paper from the pen of Dr. Franklin,

sions,

who, upon the authority of Lewis Evans, a gentleman who

was said by the Doctor to be possessed of great American knowledge, asserting that “ the Shawonoes, who were formerly one of the most considerable nations of these parts of

whose

America;

seat extended

ward

to the Mississippi,

rate,

or Six Nations,

But

property.”

it

and the country since became

seems

assertions of the above at a council

from Kentucky south-west-

have been subdued by the confede-

that,

named

notwithstanding the

authors,

it

their

bold

became necessary,

held in the year 1744, to apply to the Six Nations

themselves, to

know the extent of their claims. That it was may be reasonably supposed. Their par-

favorable enough, ticular

At another treaty with

answer will be quoted below.

the Six Nations, held at FortStanwix, in

were again called upon

the Indians their claims

upon the Ohio.

in the following

Johnson:

that

we have

1768,

the extent of

This they are said

to

have done

words, addressed to their agent, Sir William

— “You, who know

that our rights

New York, in

to state

all

our

affairs,

must be sensible

go much further south than the Kenhawa, and a very

good and clear

title,

as far south as the

233

Harrison’s discourse.

Cherokee

river,

which we cannot allow

any other Indians, without doing wrong

to

be the right of

to

our posterity, and

acting

unworthy of those warriors who fought and conquered

it.”

Upon

the strength of this declaration, the

of the

title

£1 0,476

Iroquois to the valley of the Ohio was purchased for 13s. 6d. sterling, for the crown. It will

at

once be perceived, that the mass of testimony in

upon

favor of the extensive conquests of the Iroquois, rests

own

their

own history.

endeavor ities

fair offset to

them

will be found in

which the north-western Indians have given of

the account their

A

assertions.

But before

I

which have been adduced

The

of the Iroquois.

have recourse to

way by examining

to clear the

first

the only

this, I will

two author-

in support of the pretensions

and most important

is to

be found

the authority, he says, of certain

That author, upon ancient French authors,

declares, that in 1672, the Iroquois

had conquered the

in Colden’s history of the Six Nations.

nois, or Illinois, the

Chowetans, or Shawanees,

had formally driven from the lakes, and

in

Oilli-

whom

they

1685, thirteen

Mr. Butler,

in the

introduction to his history, gives an account of the

early

years

after, the

Tiwictewees, or Miamis.

voyages, of discovery, to the west of Lake Michigan, made

Under the governor of Canada.

by Father Marquette.

great river of the west, of

by accounts whether

it

poured

its

igan; and

in the

was

it

was made

to find the

often heard, but

a matter of dispute,

mighty mass of water

into the

Gulf of

This father proceeded with a party, year 1673,

coasting

it

(Green Bay,) ascended

to the

southwardly to the

Fox

nicating with the Wisconsin, and sissippi.

of these

Mexico, or into the Atlantic ocean, on the

coast of Virginia.

two canoes,

first

which they had

so uncertain, that

California, that of

The

His principal object was

in

west side of Lake Michto the

Bay

des Puans,

river the Portage,

down

commu-

the latter to the Mis-

Pursuing their voyage on that river as low down

as the Arkansas,

whence they returned up

the river, and,

by

some of

the

a fortunate circumstance, under the guidance of

30

234

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

natives, entered the Illinois river; (of the existence of

they had no previous knowledge,) and ascending the southerly

bend of Lake Michigan, and returned

Bay by

a better and shorter route.

It

that the

French of Canada appear

have

to

was on

Green

to

this

voyage

heard of the

first

And

Illinois river or the Illinois Indians.

which

reached

it,

yet

it is

that previously to this year, their near neighbors,

asserted,

whom

with

they had an intimate and every-day intercourse, had pene-

which, was the principal

trated to the great river, to search for

and upon

object of the voyage,

banks had subdued a

its

powerful nation; which, from information credible eye-witness to

many

There were two other

possess four thousand warriors.

routes than that taken

by Marquette, by which

might have reached the

ghany

river,

from a

I received

years afterwards, were estimated

By

Illinois.

which flowed through

the Iroquois

descending the Alle-

their

then by the Ohio to the Mississippi.

own

country, and

But one more

direct

and easier was furnished by the ascent of the Miami of the Lake,

and the descent of the Wabash

Tippecanoe, the head navigation of which

from Lake Michigan, or the

either

to the

French of Canada, and

it

mouth of

not very distant

Illinois

expedition of this kind had taken place,

known

to the

is

river.

If

any

must have been

that route

would have

been taken by Father Marquette, rather than the comparatively difficult

and circuitous one of Lake Michigan, the Fox and

Ouisconsin rivers.

The above account

of the conquests of

the Iroquois, fixes that of the Tiwictewees, a tribe of the

Miamis, in the year 1685; that conquest of the story

Illinois

is,

tribes of

would have been more

thirteen years after the

the

same

nation.

This

credible if the periods of these

,

conquests had been reversed, and that of the Tiwictewees,

{

assigned to the earlier era, as

it is

well

known

that that tribe

of the Miamis was always the most easterly of their nation,

and hence they must have been put out of the their brothers of the Illinois could

quotation, the conquest of the

be struck.

Shawanoes

is

way

r

„

before

p,

In the above

lr|

said to have

f)(

235

hahrison’s discourse.

happened simultaneously with there

is

that of the

nothing said of their location

the construction of the sentence in the narrative,

be intended to convey the idea that expedition that

it

was

effected,

But

Tiwictewees.

From

at that period.

it

it

and that the

seems

to

the

same

tribes

were

was upon

contiguous or rather upon the same line of operation, (one of

them being

first

another period that

which

is

And such

conquered, and then the other.)

was precisely the

fact as

— but

to the

that period

position of these tribes

was one hundred years

given by the supposed French writer.

at

after

The

other authority to which I referred, as sustaining the Iroquois pretensions,

the admission

is

made by

the Cherokees,

These

attended the treaty of Stanwix, in 1766.

represented to have laid

men

some skins

who

chiefs are

of the head

at the feet

of the Iroquois, saying, “that they were theirs, as they

had killed the animals from which they were taken, on this This “ big river,” the author who

side of the big river'

1

Haywood,

records the anecdote, (Judge

in his

history of

Tennessee,) asserts to be the Tennessee, “as that was the

way

which the Cherokees were accustomed

in

Now if all

it.”

the statements here

to designate

made be true, and I doubt

not that they are, so far from admitting the inference to be correct, I

think the very reverse would be the construction

put upon what they said, by every person

with the method of speaking peculiar

who

is

acquainted

to the Indians.

It

was

a remarkable peculiarity of these people, before their manners

and mode of expression were somewhat modified by intercourse with the whites, to refer to either

even

if

men

that they

or things

by

their appropriate

they were acquainted with them.

describe a man, or a river, or a town,

their

were always averse

They

names,

preferred to

by some

quality or

remarkable feature, rather than designate the object by a

name.

When

alluding to one of their

own

nation,

in

presence, they would say, instead of his name, “that

with a pipe in his mouth,” etc., etc.

If a hunter,

—“

that

man with

his

man

a lame leg,”

encamped upon a branch of

the Scioto*

236 had

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

upon

killed a deer

that river,

asked, that he had killed

same phrase would be used Scioto, near to

mouth,

its

event occurred,

it

if

the question

the deer

And

the

was asked on

the

river.”

had been

killed

on the

was referred

therefore, a big river

marking the spot where any particular

the purpose of

to, for

if

When,

banks of the Ohio.

he would say, upon being

upon the “big

it

must be always understood

mean

to

Having crossed the Ohio on

largest river near to them.

the

their

route to Fort Stanwix, they never could have intended to

Tennessee as the “big river,” when they must known that it was a tributary to the former. now proceed, gentlemen, to give you a condensed

refer to the

have well I will

account of the information I received, in the course of a long intercourse with the north-western tribes, treaty of Greenville,

the grounds

in 1795,

upon which

I restrict the

No

which

at the

conquest of the Iroquois

in the valley of the Ohio, to a line, at

Scioto.

commencing

and which constitutes one of

any

of the

rate, east

better opportunity could be afforded than that

possessed, to obtain correct information in relation to

I

the ancient history, and the territorial claims of the several tribes

and nations, because

councils,

where

it

conflicting

encouragement given

was derived from discussions parties

to elicit a full

exposure of

was no motive ment

to

I will add,

too,

in support that there

that could influence an agent of the govern-

countenance the unjust pretensions of any

reject those

the facts

all

and circumstances which could have any influence of their respective pretensions.

in

were represented, and

which were

better founded.

All of

tribe,

placed themselves

under the exclusive protection

United States, and

all

had bound themselves

to

and

them had of

the

make no

sale

of any part of their lands to any other civilised power. Rejecting, then, the accounts

which have been given by

the pens of a few individuals, (more intent

upon exalting the

fame of a particular nation, than upon giving a true history,)

who

assert the

early conquest of the half-civilised nation

which once inhabited Ohio, by the united

efforts of the

Leni

—

habrison’s discourse.

Ming we

Lenapes, or Delawares, and

237

or Iroquois, on their

passage from the north-west part of our continent, to the shores of the Atlantic;

when

the position of

commence

I all

my

narrative at the time

the great tribes or nations

have ever advanced any claim

and

to the fair

fertile

between the lakes the Ohio and Mississippi, was

The chronology

I

cannot precisely

but

fix,

by

centuries after the possession of the country

of the ancient works which

we have

as follows:

was

it

which

countrv

at

a period,

the authors

mentioned, or those

who conquered

them, as the then possessors had not the least

knowledge or

tradition relative

There

are circumstances,

somewhere about

the time

At

century.

that time,

one or the other.

the

to

however, which induce the middle

then, the

of the

Mingwe,

me

to fix

seventeenth

or far-famed Iro-

quois, remained in their original seats, compressed between

the inhospitable region of Labrador, (or, as

we

call

on the south.

and the great Lenape

them, Delaware) nation, which confined them

Westwardly, they had made some conquest,

and with the sagacity, which has caused them to

the conquerors of the world; in the

their progress, they

confederacy.

Lenapes

I

am

to

be compared

commencement of

adopted the conquered tribes into their

ignorant of the northern boundary of the

at this period.

by

siderably pressed in

It

is

probable that

the Iroquois.

possessed the greater part of

New

it

They

York,

had been constill,

New

however,

Jersey, and

Pennsylvania.

Ascending the lakes and leaving the Iroquois

the

Wyandots, or Hurons, presented themselves.

territory,

A

large portion of this nation were, at that time, north of

Lake Erie, but the greater part occupied the country from the Miami bay, eastwardly, along what is now denominated the Western Reserve, and extending acros's the country southWestward of this territory commenced wardly, to the Ohio. that of the

Miami

nation, or rather confederacy, possessing

a larger number of warriors, at .hat period, than could be furnished

by any of

before or since.

the aboriginal nations of North America,

Their

territory

embraced

all

of Ohio, west

TRANSACTIONS, E^C.

238

—

of the Scioto >

Fox

of the

all

of Indiana, and that part of Illinois, 30 ut?i

and Wisconsin, on which

river,

frontier they

were intermingled with the Kickapoos and some other small

Of

tribes.

immense

this

territory, the

Numerous

was unoccupied.

villages

Scioto and the head waters of the two

on the Miami of the Lake, and

most beautiful portion

were

be found on the

to

Miamis of

southern

its

throughout the whole course of the Wabash, as

its

Ohio rolled

beautiful

“ amber

its

and

at least as

low

now

Chippecoke, (the town of Brush Wood,)

But the

tide

”

tribute to the “father of waters,” through an

At

itude.

that time, before,

were without a town or a

and

the Ohio;

tributaries,

Vincennes.

until

for a century after, its

an appearance should have presented

aware of his

situation,

well

knowing

dell,

and that the

by

lighted river

that

it

it

paid sol-

banks

even a single cottage,

village, or

smoke of whose chimneys would give of comfort and refreshment to a weary traveler.

the

the curling ise

it

unbroken

itself to

would have been the

prom-

If such

one

who was

signal of flight,

must proceed from some sequestered

fire

from which

a party of warriors,

it

proceeded had been

who, having interposed the

between themselves and those who might have commen-

ced a pursuit on the line of their

might consider

retreat,

themselves safe in indulging in the luxury of a cooked meal,

and a dry couch,

No

would seek the

in

description, consistent with their

success and safety, were enjoined discipline.

and protracted march,

after a laborious

which privations of every

by

traveler, acquainted

hospitalities of

the rigid rules of their

with the Indian character,

such a

fire-side.

Whatever

might have been the result of

their expedition, the interview

would prove

If

fatal

appetite for blood

and

to him.

it

had been

successful, the

would be inflamed, rather than

satisfied,

otherwise, the scalp of an unfortunate stranger might

if

be substituted for the similar trophy, which their bad fortune or bad

head of

We

management had not permitted them their acknowledged enemy.

left

the

Mingwe,

or Iroquois,

to tear

strengthened

from the

by the

Harrison’s discourse. incorporation, tribes,

into

their confederacy,

239

of

some conquered

but not yet able to burst through the impediments

which opposed

their progress to the

west and south.

We

their utmost hopes.

war waged with

to

possess none of the details of the

the Lenapes, but

we know

in the entire submission of the latter,

them

further interruption from

Their

was soon equal

success, however, in the latter direction,

and that

that

it

resulted

to prevent

in their extensive

any

schemes of

conquest, they adopted a plan to humble and degrade them, as novel as

it

was

To

effectual.

who

those

are acquainted

with the general character of the American Indians, and to

who know command of

those particularly

the conduct of the Delawares,

when under

the

their

renowned Bocanghelas,

in

wars against the United States, and that of the gallant

Nicoming,

men

the

who commanded

a

band of

forty of his country-

war of 1813, it will seem almost which I am about to relate, can be

in our service in the

impossible that the fact

But the best authority can

supported upon good authority.

be adduced in support of the parties

seem, then,

who were it

since

it,

it

concerned in

is it.

acknowledged by Singular as

it

nevertheless true, that the Lenapes,

is

all

may upon

the dictation of the Iroquois, agreed to lay aside the character

women. This fact is more different than the manner in which it was brought

of warriors, and to assume that of undisputed, but

nothing can be

account which

given of the

is

about, and the motives for adopting

Lenapes.

The

latter assert that

the artifices of the Iroquois,

honor which was

to

it,

on the part of the

they were cajoled into

who

it

by

descanted largely upon the

be acquired by their assuming the part of

peace-makers between belligerent

tribes,

and which could

when done in the character of the make war. The Lenapes consented, and

never be so effectual as sex which never

agreed that their chiefs and warriors from thenceforth should

be considered as women.

The

given by the Iroquois,

that they

apes were

made

is,

to yield

version of this transaction, as

demanded, and the Len-

to this humiliating concession, as

240 the

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

The

only means of averting impending destruction.

Rev. Mr. Heckwelder, in a communication

to the

Historical

Society of Pennsylvania, labored, with more zeal than suc-

Delaware account.

cess, to establish the

But even

if

he had

succeeded in making his readers believe that the Delaw ares, r

when they

submitted to the degredation proposed to them by

were influenced, not by

their enemies,

fear,

but by the benev-

olent desire to put a stop to the calamities of war, he has

established for

them the reputation of being

most egregious

the

This

dupes and fools that the world has ever seen.

They

often the case with Indian sachems. ards, but

more

still

not

is

are rarely

cow-

rarely are they deficient in sagacity and

discernment to detect any attempt to impose upon them.

I

wmrthy German,

in

sincerely wish I could unite with the

removing intimate

stigma upon the Delawares.

this

knowledge of them,

friends, has left

upon

in peace

my mind

the

A

long

and

and war, as enemies and

most favorable impressions

of their character for bravery, generosity, and fidelity to their

engagements.

The

Iroquois being thus freed from any apprehension of

an attack, from their ancient enemies, upon their southern border, prepared to force

opposed

their

the

barrier

which had so long

This was not a barrier of

westward progress.

mountains —- not a rampart of earth or stone, but one similar to that

which protected

of Sparta

—

and in the love of state, field.

for ages, the

open

streets

and avenues

a rampart of warriors’ bosoms, equal in bravery* their country, to

any which

that far-famed

or either of her distinguished rivals, ever sent to the

From

rons, or

the position

Wyandots,

celebrated

tribe.

chronology of

it

There

many

which

I

have ascribed

to the

Hu-

will be perceived that I allude to that is

much

difficulty in

of the most important

fixing the

events

in the

now refer. There are no means by which we can ascertain when the war between the Iroquois and the Hurons commenced, or how long

history of the Indians, at the period to which I

it

lasted.

Whether

it

was

carried on before they

were both

Harrison’s discourse. furnished with

European arms,

24 i

or after they had

become

acquainted with the use of them, and both had been supplied

by

the

European

which they severally adhered,

nation, to

There

cannot be correctly ascertained.

however, which induce

me

to

fought with weapons of their great battle

own

which terminated the

it

must have been

Previously to

was made more

contest,

after the

arms.

fire

If that

event,

that

was

year 1701, which was

between the English and the

the epoch of the alliance quois.

had long

manufacture; but that the

bloody and disastrous from the use of the ease,

are circumstances,

believe that they

Iro-

French had been

the

extremely cautious in placing the destructive arms of the

Europeans, in the hands of the Indians.

But, as

by means

few years, become

of the English, the Iroquois had, in a

completely armed, the French authorities were obliged

change their policy in the Huron's

that

terms equal as

was

were enabled

to

to

was through them

it

meet the Iroquois upon

to

arms, although the disparity of numbers

greatly in favor of the latter.

the last great battle

and

this respect,

was fought

The Wyandots

in canoes

assert that

upon Lake Erie, and

that all, or nearly all, the warriors of both nations perished.

Although the actual loss of the two nations, in said to

being so.

The

smaller

again to bring into the bers, could bear

and weaker party,

field,

a force,

which

any reasonable proportion

After standing at

bay

for

some

retired to the shores of

remarkable

tribe is

from

far

were unable

in point of to

num-

their enemies.

time, they yielded to the

storm which they had not the physical force

They

this battle, is

equal, the consequences were

have been

Lake Michigan.

The

to resist,

and

history of this

not ended with this change of situation.

returned after

in all the subsequent ifest their superiority

some

years, to their original seats, and

wars of

this country,

continued

to

man-

over the other tribes, who, upon every

occasion, yielded to them the palm of bravery.

The

display of martial courage and high

31

patriotic feeling,

242

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

on the part of the youth of a nation, has frequently been the which, ceasing

result of fortuitous causes, effect is to

Such was

former level.

its

to operate, their

soon dissipated, and the national character again sinks

By

the case with Thebes.

Epaminondas and Pelopidas,

the example and precepts of

the

bosoms of the Theban youth were lighted with unwonted fires,

which rendered them

these great

men, the

presence of the sacred band victory.

With

spirit, that

But with the death of

invincible.

spirit of the nation

Sparta,

it

,

again sank, and the

was no longer

was otherwise.

the signal of

That unbending

proud superiority, which the Spartan youth

dis-

played in every situation, and which induced him to seek a death in the service of his country, as the most enviable distinction,

was

upon the mind

the result of impressions fixed

in the earliest periods of life,

and continued through the stages

Other lessons might occasionally be taught,

of minority.

but this being always present to the

mind of

the youth, the

love of country, and the obligation to die whenever her service required the sacrifice, suppressed or

other passion of the soul, and

it

weakened every This

reigned triumphant.

accounts for the uniform character of the Spartan warriors,

through a long lapse of ages.

And

this, too,

was

the source

of the bravery which I have assigned to the Wyandots, in the commencement of the eighteenth century, and which I knew them to possess at its close. To die for the interest or honor of his tribe, and to consider submission to an enemy the lowest degradation, the

were daily lessons impressed upon

dawning reason of the

the stages of

youth.

child,

Facts, in

and continued through support of what

is

all

here

asserted, will be given in a subsequent part of the narrative.

The

departure of the Wyandots, gave the long wished for

opportunity to the Iroquois* to advance into Ohio.

they did advance as far as the Sandusky, either or

some time

after, is

admitted.

But there

And

at that

is

that

period

no evidence

whatever, to show, that they made a conquest of the Miamis, other than

their

own

assertions,

and that of the English

harrison’s discourse.

among them, who

agents, residing

from the Indians themselves.

243

obtained their information

Whilst the want of

such

acknowledgments on the part of the Miamis, a number of facts, susceptible

of proof, and with

the

all

inconsistencies

and, indeed, palpaple absurdities, with which the Iroquois

accounts abound, form such a mass of testimony, positive, negative, and circumstantial, as should, I think, leave no rea-

sonable doubt that the pretensions of the

con-

latter, to the

quest of the country from the Scioto to the Mississippi, are entirely groundless.

In the accounts which the Miamis gave

of themselves, there was never any reference to a war with the Iroquois, whilst they declared that they had been fighting

with the southern Indians, (ChSrokees and Chickasaws,) for so

many

there

ages, that they had no account of

was peace with them.

at all the

subsequent

their title to

treaties,

any period when

At the treaty of Greenville, and

made

the extensive tract

for the

which

I

extinguishment of

have assigned to

them above, no suggestion was made of any claim of the Iroquois to any part; and there were, occasions, those present,

upon most of those

who would have

eagerly embraced

the opportunity to disparage the character of the Miamis,

exhibiting these as a conquered and degraded people.

Iroquois were not represented

previously to

Wayne,

its

at the treaty

by

The

of Greenville, but

being held, they took care to inform General

that the

Delawares were

had conquered them and put

their subjects

—

that they

upon them.

petticoats

But

neither claimed to have conquered the Miamis, nor to have

any

title to

any part of the country

in the

occupancy of the

latter.

The French had

establishments in the Illinois country in

the latter part of the 17th century, and

upon the authority

of the learned and Rev. Dr. Brute, present bishop of Vincennes, Mr. Butler, in his recent history of Kentucky, asserts that

Vincennes was a missionary post, so early as the year

1700;

at that

period the

French accounts

as

Miami

nation

is

represented

by

all

very numerous, and in the undisputed

244

TRANSACTION'S, ETC.

have claimed for them.

1

have myself seen a very old and respectable citizen of

St.

possession of

Louis,

who

all

the country

when

recollected

I

the five tribes of the nation

went under the appellation of

Illinois tribes,

the field four thousand warriors, and yet they did not

which was

the strength of the nation,

the banks of the

doubt

far into

Wabash and

its

captain in the French army, found

whole of the Wabash, and

compose

be found strung along

to

tributary streams, and

no

M. De Vincennes,

In the year 1734,

Ohio.

who

could bring into

them

a

in possession of the

their principal

town occupying

Wayne, which was actually the key of the This officer was the first Frenchman who country below. followed the route of the Miami of the Lake, and the the site of Fort

Wabash,

from Canada

in passing

and in doing

so at this

chronology of some of the events

Long

western settlements,

to their

some

time, throws

which

to

upon the

light I

before this period, the French must have

have referred.

known

of the

shorter and easier route, and no reason can be assigned for their never

having used

on some portion of

This war

I

suppose

but from

it,

its

which rendered

it,

to

being the seat of war it

unsafe.

be that between the Wyandots and

would

fix its

termination earlier by

some years than the expedition of

De

Vincennes, yet being

an experiment,

it

Iroquois, and although I

ascertain

its

it is

entire

probable that

safety, nor is

it

required

at all

some time

to

impossible that the

Tiwictewees (always the most eastern of the Miami

tribes)

were not upon the most friendly terms with the Iroquois. Indeed, the probability

is,

that there

but not of a decisive character, and

made, or any part of the it

must have been of

was war between them, if

any conquests were

territory of the

trifling

Miamis conquered,

extent; if victories

had been

gained, their effects were evanescent and of no use to the

conquerors.

Miamis)

De

Vincennes,

in

1734,

in the possession of the entire

found

them

Wabash, and

(the

in 1751,

the Tiwictewees were visited at their towns, on the Scioto,

one hundred and

fifty

miles from the mouth, by Mr. Gest,

245

Harrison’s discourse.

of Virginia, whose journal has been lately published by Mr.

Mr. Gest remarks,

Sparks, amongst the Washington papers. that they

were there “in amity with the Six Nations,” and

that they “ appeared to

adds,

people”

their

to

him

to

supposed conquerors.

be a very superior

Amongst

the incon-

who

sistencies to be found in the declaration of those

support

the pretension of the Iroquois on this side of the Ohio, I shall at

this

time mention but one.

After broadly asserting the

claim of conquest to the Mississippi,

who

Colonel Croghan,

is

it

seems

that in

1781,

represented to have been an agent

with the Iroquois, for the thirty years preceding, limited their right

“on

the south-east side of the Ohio, to the Cherokee

(Tennessee)

river,

and

to the

Even

north-west side.”

Big Miami, or Stony

this

within one state, will not be admitted, as

Tiwictewees were in

that the

river,

on the

reduced claim to the territory

full

has been shown

it

possession of the Scioto,

upwards of one hundred miles above the Miami, where they were

visited

by Mr. Gest, and presenting nothing

a conquered people. to extensive

I

to indicate

have no doubt that their pretensions

conquests on the south-east side of the Ohio, Dr. Franklin assorts, that at a treaty

are also untenable.

held in 1744, the chiefs of the Six Nations, upon being questioned as to their

knew

that

title,

made

this reply,

“ that

all

the world

they had conquered the nations living on the

Susquehanna, the Cohongoranto, (now Potomac,) and back of the

upon

Virginia mountains.”

had been published trade

The Doctor

further asserts,

the authority of Mitchell, the author of a

work which

at the solicitation of the British

board of

and plantations, “ that the Six Nations had extended

their territories ever since the year 1672,

when

they subdued

and were incorporated with the Shawanoes, the native proprietors of those countries.” Besides which “ they claim a right of conquest over the Illinois and far as

they extend.”

I

all

the Mississippi, as

have already disposed of the

portion of these pretended conquests, and that the

I

will

Illinois

now show

whole account of the subjugation of the Shawanoes

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

246

by

the Iroquois,

No

more

is still

clearly destitute of foundation.

the Indian tribes,

fact, in relation to

who

our north-west frontiers for a century past,

have resided on is

known,

better

than that the Shawanees came from Florida and Georgia

They passed way

about the middle of the eighteenth century.

through Kentucky (along the Cumberland river) on their to the is

Ohio.

But

was

that their passage

principal chief, (with

whom I

treaty of Greenville,)

was born

of his tribe.

He

rather a rapid one,

Black Hoof, their

proved from these circumstances.

three or four years ago.

As

I

do not

know

that they

names on

were

at the

town which

age, at the

his I

am

not able to

But it

with precision the date of the emigration.

known

removal

in Florida, before the

died at Wapocconata, in this state, only

time of his leaving Florida, nor at his death, fix

late

had been acquainted since the

still

is

well

bears their

below the mouth of the

the Ohio, a few miles

Wabash, sometime before the commencement of the revolutionary war; that they remained there some years before they removed

to the Scioto,

Dunmore, ida,

when they were found by Governor That

in the year 1774.

was a matter of

their

necessity, and

removal from Florprogress from

their

thence, a flight, rather than a deliberate march,

evident

is

from their appearance, when they presented themselves upon the Ohio, and claimed the protection of the Miamis. are represented the

by

They

the chiefs of the latter, as well as those of

Delawares, as supplicants for protection, not against the

Iroquois, but against the Creeks

other southern tribe,

who had

they are said to have been culottes.

time that

and Seminoles, or some

driven them from Florida, and literally

sans provat

As during this rapid flight, was the Shawanees had ever been

the in

first

et

sans

and only

Kentucky, the

story of their having been conquered, and their right to the

country obtained by the Six Nations, in consequence of that conquest, nearly a century before, must be considered an entire

fabrication.

brought forward

This history of the Shawanees

at a council

was

held at Vincennes, in the year

237

Harrison’s discourse.

1810, to resist the pretensions advanced by the far-famed

Tecumthey

an interference with the Miamis in the disposal

to

However

of their lands.

galling to this chief, the reference

might have been, he was unable

to these facts

to

deny them,

by an examination of the proceedings of

as will be seen

this

council, preserved in McAffee’s history of the western war.

These

facts

acquire a

prove most clearly, that the Six Nations never did

title to

it

was when

subsequent place.

If

the country between the

by

the Tennessee,

that tribe to the

it

Kentucky

river

and

the subjugation of the Shawanees, unless

was passing through it nearly

period in which

it

a century

said to have taken

is

should be asserted that the Shawanoes might

have occupied the country in question before the year 1674,

and have been then driven

by

off

the Iroquois, and sought

whence they again returned

refuge in Florida, from

lapse of seventy or eighty years, the answer

is,

after a

that they

give no such account of themselves, nor are there any traces in the country

by

the

show

itself, to

that

Shawanees or any other

before the period fixed for

it

had been occupied either

tribe,

for

some ages

at least

conquest by the Iroquois.

its

the early voyagers on the Ohio, and

the

all

Kentucky, represent the country as being

first

All

emigrants to

totally destitute of

Mr. Butler, in his history text, that “ no Indian towns,

any recent vestiges of settlement. of Kentucky, remarks in the

within recent times, were either in

Kentucky or

known

to exist

within this territory,

the lower Tennessee;” but in a note

he says, “ there are vestiges of Indian towns near Harrodsburg, on Salt river, and at other points, but they are of no recent date.” this interjacent

The same

author, and

all

others .assert, “that

country, between the Indians of the south,

and those north-west of the Ohio, was kept as hunting ground or

field of battle, as the

common

resentments or

incli-

nations of the adjoining tribes prompted to the one or the

other.”

The

a date as

late as the

sive

testimony

total

absence of

all

vestiges

of settlement, of

period of the alleged conquest,

against

it.

The

is

conclu-

process by which nature

248

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

restores the forest to is

its

extremely slow.

original state, after being once cleared,

In our rich lands,

is,

it

indeed, soon

covered again with timber, but the character of the growth

and continues

entirely different, tions

of men.

upon

the farm

first

so,

many

through

is

genera-

In several places on the Ohio, particularly

which

occupy, clearings were made in the

I

settlement, abandoned, and suffered to

Some

grow up.

of them,

now

to be seen, of nearly fifty years

made

little

progress towards attaining the appearance of

so

growth, have

the immediately contiguous forest, as to induce any reflection,

to

determine, that at least ten times

would be necessary before

The

effected.

find

same appearance

on them,

works on the Ohio, preas the circumjacent forest.

of trees, which

that beautiful variety

all

This

gives such unrivaled richness to our forests. ticularly the

case,

on the

fifteen acres included

mouth of

walls of the work, at the

The

first

more homogenious

—

vated, yellow locust, in If

it

the Great Miami, and

to nature,

often stinted to

most three kinds of timber. as garden peas.

par-

growth on the same kind of land,

once cleared, and then abandoned is

is

within the

of the different kinds of timber, are

the relative proportions

about the same.

of

years

complete assimilation could be

sites of the ancient

sent precisely the

You

its

man

fifty

many

If the

on the contrary,

one, or two, or at

ground had been

places, will spring

up

as

culti-

thick

has not been cultivated, the black and

white walnut will be the prevailing growth.

The

rapidity

with which these trees grow for a time, smothers the attempt of other kinds to vegetate and

grow

in their shade.

more

thrifty individuals

soon overtop the weaker of their

kind,

which sicken and

die.

as

many

this

left as

which serve them

—

it

is

soon only

the earth will well support to maturity.

time the squirrels

remain,

In this way, there

The own

may

for food,

and by neglect suffer them

will be in vain; the birds

the external pulp of

All

plant the seed of those trees

may

which have contributed

to

drop the kernels, to their nourish-

ment, and divested of which they are in the best state for

249

Harrison’s discourse. germinating,

may

still it

will be of

no

winds of heaven

avail; the

waft the winged seeds of the sycamore, cotton-wood and

maple, and a friendly shower

depth in the loose and

The

may bury them

fertile soil

— but

to the

necessary

without success.

still

below rob them of moisture, and the canopy of

roots

limbs and leaves above intercept the rays of the sun, and the

dews of heaven:

the

young

giants in possession, like another

kind of aristocracy, absorb the whole means of subsistence,

and leave the mass

to perish

This

their feet.

at

things will not, however, always continue.

of nature

state of

If the process

slow and circuitous, in putting down usurpation

is

and establishing the equality which she loves, and which the

great characteristic

The

effectual.

ceases with

its

of her principles,

preference of the soil for the maturity.

It

or

by

may

is

first

is

and

sure

growth,

admits of no succession, upon

The

the principles of legitimacy.

of the forest

it

long undisputed masters

be thinned by the lightning, the tempest,

whenever

diseases peculiar to themselves; and

this is

the case, one of the oft-rejected of another family, will find

between

decaying roots, shelter and appropriate food; and

its

springing into

vigorous growth, will soon push

foliage to the skies, through the

its

green

decayed and withering limbs

blasted and dying adversary

—

the soil

yielding

of

its

it

a more liberal support than any scion from the former

occupant. it

It will easily

will require for a

be conceived what a length of time

denuded

tract of land,

slow,

again to clothe itself with the

foliage

which

is

itself,

by

a process so

amazing variety of

the characteristic of the forests of this region.

Of what immense

age, then,

must be those works, so

referred to, covered, as has been supposed

often

by those who have

the best opportunity of examining them,

with the second

growth after the ancient forest state had been regained?

But

setting aside all that has

been advanced adverse

to the

claims of the Six Nations, to be the extensive conquerors that they have

so long been considered, there are,

insuperable arguments to be found against

32

it,

I

think,

drawn from

the

250

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

man in

nature of

were

mans

every age, and from the state in which they

They have been compared

that period.

at

— but

what did the resemblance

in

to the

Ro-

Like that

consist?

celebrated people, they might have been ambitious of extend-

ing their influence, and, like them, constant in adhering to a

But there the

parallel

ingredient in the composition of a

Roman

course of policy adapted to secure

The

must end. army,

to

which

all

it.

their conquests are justly attributed, they

which they were

did not, and in the state of society to

advanced, they could not have possessed.

I allude to that

bond by which an army of many thousands

are brought to a

harmony and unity of one

spirit

were possessed of

action, as if they

Without

and one mind.

no distant foreign

this,

conquests ever have been or ever can be made. considerable collection of

men

in arms,

society, the elements of faction, disunion

are always to be found.

and

In every

every

in

state

of

final dissolution

If the warriors of the Iroquois did

not possess this spirit in a superior degree, they greatly differ

from the kindred

between

To

an army of

it,

requisite.

How

The game

of the forest

and the

many

I

have

thousands would have been

would an army of flies

that size be supported?

before the

march of an army,

which these Indians were

state in

whom

have conquered the numerous tribes

and the Mississippi, in the short period

their frontier

assigned to

with

tribes of this country,

been acquainted.

at that time,

being

without beasts of burden (and having a natural horror of exercising that quality of the

would be unable

to

The power

the wants of another. to be efficient,

away

was

their

soldiers themselves) they

to

move men

one of the highest evidences of

of making

The manner Indians,

is

Roman

apply the superabundance of one day to

war amongst

different.

totally

the

in masses, civilization.

North American

They endeavored

to

wear

enemy, by surprising and butchering, now

a

family, less frequently a hunting camp, but rarely a village. If the hostile parties

Foxes, and the

were

Illinois

in juxtaposition, as the Sacs

and

Miamis, a few years would determine

harrison’s discourse.

But

the contest.

unoccupied

251

they were separated by a large tract of

if

territory, as the north-west

and southern Indians,

ages might pass over without any thing decisive being effected.

An

erroneous opinion has prevailed in relation to the character

By many,

they are sup-

willingly encounter

deprivations.

of the Indians of North America.

posed

who

be stoics,

to

The very

reverse

the fact;

is

which prevailed

classes of philosophers

Rome,

of Greece and

they belong

if

it

ages

in the declining

For no

Epicureans.

to that of

is

to either of the

Indian will forego an enjoyment or suffer an inconvenience,

he can avoid for instance,

even the

he

is

stimulated

by some strong passion he

gratification of this,

whenever

its

accomplishment

is

were always feeble

between, and

encounter

But

if

Hence

“ the

their military ope-

expeditions few and far

number abandoned without an

from whim,

caprice,

or

an aversion

the Indian will not, like Cato, throw from

him

— when

stings

come which he cannot

evils

him “the

avoid,

and arrows of outrageous fortune” will

he

call

bosom, and meet his

Roman

to

difficulties.

upon him, then his

their

the greater

ever ready to postpone,

and pleasures,” with which his good fortune

pomps nishes

much

stroke,

efficient

—

— but

attended with unlooked for

is

danger, or unexpected hardships. rations

if

But under peculiar circumstances: when,

it.

fate,

With

of them all.”

up

all

however hard,

all

fall

like

thick

man

the spirit of the

fur-

when into

“the best

these facts before me, I can-

not persuade myself, that the Six Nations ever extended their

conquests in the manner that has been stated. to

conquer the numerous and warlike

sippi,

would have been rendered

ways mentioned tion to

Spain:

would be

in the

— “If

Their attempts

on the Missis-

abortive, in one of the

apothegm of Henry the IV., small

a

army should be

defeated: if a larger one,

extensive conquests

tribes

made by

it

sent,

would starve.”

I

they

The

the shepherds of Scythia, during

the middle ages, both in Asia and Europe, oppose

ment against the theory

two

in rela-

have attempted

to establish.

no argu-

There

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

252

no point of comparison in the

is

situation of a people

who,

an abundance and variety of the domestic animals which

to

add the possession of the horse,

furnish food and clothing,

superior to any of them, and equally useful in peace as in

war, and those

who have none

of these aids.

At the general peace of Utrecht,

made

acknowledge the Iroquois

to

sive protection of Great Britain.

which the

strength rival, the

in 1712, the as being

As

French were

under the exclu-

a counterpoise to the

with these tribes brought to their

alliance

former power soon employed themselves in securing

the friendship of the

tribes.

But although

parties in the

war which was

more western

these great rival powers

became

kindled in Europe, upon the death of the

Emperor Charles

the VI., their subjects in the interior of the American continent, as well as the Indian tribes, quiet.

But

were suffered

which was commenced

in that

remain in

to

1755, both

in

parties claimed the assistance of their respective Indian allies.

The Six Nations gave

their powerful aid to the

English,

whilst the north-western Indians ranged themselves on the

and contributed largely, by

side of the French,

their assist-

ance, to the defeat of General Braddock, and to procrastinate the

fall

Du

of Fort

The w ar between France

Quesne, and other western posts.

peace of Paris, in 1763, terminated the

and England, and the

entire

dominions in North America,

cession

r

of

to the latter

all

promise a lasting peace with the Indians.

was not

the case.

frontiers,

Such, however,

One year of bloody war,

had gained possession of

all

and the important

French

the

power, seemed to

after the

English

the western posts, desolated the

fortress of Michillimackinac

was

taken, and Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Niagara, had nearly suffered a like fate.

the

In these enterprises, the Indians of Ohio,

Wyandots, Delawares and Shawanees, acted a conspicu-

ous part.

A

treaty of peace

was

at length effected,

the instrumentality of the Six Nations. ever, kept with

good

faith

by

the Indians,

commit occasional depredations upon the

It

was

who

through

not,

how-

continued to

frontiers of

Penn-

Harrison’s discourse.

253

sylvania and Virginia, throughout the ten following years, until the year 1774, a grand expedition under the

governor of Virginia,

titled

command

against the Indians

resulted in the celebrated battle of

Kenhawa, by

of the

Ohio,

of

the

wing

left

of the army, whilst that under the immediate orders of the governor, penetrated to within a short distance of the Shawa-

when

nee towns on the Scioto,

a precipitate treaty was con-

cluded, and the governor hastened to his capital to provide against a storm of a different character,

of the approach of

which he had seen evidences which could not be misunderIn the year 1775, Great Britain determined to compel

stood.

her colonies

to

recklessness of able,

was

submit

means

to

her arbitrary mandates, with that

for

which she has ever been remark-

whenever a purpose of aggrandisement, or vengeance, to

be secured by the influence of the traders, by large

donations, and larger promises, engaged

all

the north-western

Indians in her cause, with a view to the devastation of the

Attempts were made by Congress

frontiers.

by convincing

calamity,

to

and that the wiser path, was

in the quarrel,

avert this

the Indians that they had no interest to

observe a

Nothing can show the anxiety of Con-

perfect neutrality.

gress, to effect this object, in stronger colors than the agree-

ment entered concluded

into

with the Delaware

at Pittsburg, in

1778.

By

an

tribes,

at

a

treaty

article in that treaty,

the United States proposed that a state should be formed, to

be composed of the Delawares and other to

admit them,

the Union.

when

But

this,

so formed, as

it

as

tribes,

and contracted

one of the members of

might perhaps have been

wards considered, enviable distinction weighed but the eyes of the Indians,

compared

after-

little

in

to the present advantages

of arms and equipments, clothing and trinkets, which were profusely distributed

not

my

by

the agents of Great Britain.

war, or that which immediately followed the revolution, and in

It

is

design to detain you with any of the details of this

1795

—

the

which continued latter

to the

either belongs

to

war of

the

peace of Greenville, the history of

the

254

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

adjacent States

or

states,

—but

the

to

general

to give a general

history of

the

United

have been once the residents and proprietors of our abstracted

No

much

as

doubt can be entertained,

acknowledge the

distant period

No

subjection.

that,

own

it

state,

history.

although constrained to

independence of the United

government of Great Britain

some

from our

possible

as

who

idea of the Indian tribes

States, the

indulged the hope, that

still

would be able again

to

at

reduce them to

other reason can be assigned for the close

connection which they continued to keep up with the tribes within our territorial boqndary, and their constant and liberal

supply to them of the means of committing depredations

upon our

settlements.

For the

first

few years, the military

equipments were more cautiously supplied. failure of the expedition

defeat of our

But

after

the

under General Harmar, and the

total

army, in November, 1791, under the command

of General St. Clair, the government of Great Britain believed the propitious to

wipe

moment had

off the stain

arrived, so ardently

which had been feed upon

wished

renown, in the former war with America, and again

diadem of

in the

their sovereign,

to replace

what was denominated by

the greatest of her statesmen, “ the brightest jewel that

The mask was

contained.” off.

not,

had

it

however, entirely thrown

For, in the spring of 1793, Great Britain tendered her

services as a mediator of peace with the hostile tribes. offer

for,

their military

was accepted, and

three of our

The

most distinguished

cit-

izens were commissioned, under the guarantee of safety, the British, to the Lake.

meet the Indians

at the rapids

of the

by Miami of

This conference resulted in a conviction of the

insincerity of the British, and that there effecting a peace

was no hope of upon any honorable terms, but by first con-

vincing the Indians of our military superiority.* this sort

was

in preparation for their use,

of one of the heroes of the revolution.

*

See note C, in Appendix.

A

lesson of

under the auspices

The

delay of a

harrison’s discourse.

255

second summer, produced by the abortive negociation, was

employed by him

to

make

its

success

more

On the own state,

certain.

20th of August, 1794, within the bounds of our

and within view of the scene of the council, of the previous year, the eyes of the Indians British promises,

and

were opened

to the fallacies of

their entire inability to resist

to

American army, when properly

an

The

aid furnished

open and palpable,

fully sufficed

directed.

them by the

British, being

show but was

behind their promises, and the expectations of

to

their entire disregard of the principles of neutrality, still

the Indians.

opposition of

In despite of the

the British

commaning general This being granted, was followed, in the for an armistice. The tribes which had succeeding year, by a general peace. been united in the war against the United States, were the Indian chiefs applied to the

agents, the

Shawanees, Chippewas,

Wyandots, Delawares,

Potowatomies, Miamis, Eel River

Ottowas,

and Weas.

tribes,

The

three last constitute, indeed, but one tribe, but, in consideration of the country

which was ceeded by the

treaty, being

really their property, this division of their nation

ted

by General Wayne,

them

was admit-

the commissioner, in order to give

a larger share of the annuities

which were

stipulated to

be paid by the United States.

The above mentioned into the field

during the

more than

ten years

Indian tribes could not have brought three thousand warriors at

preceding the treaty of

any time,

Greenville,

although a few years before, the Miamis alone, could have furnished more than that number.

our frontier, had deprived them of but the ravages of the small-pox, this great decrease of their

ever, a

body of

The many

was

numbers.

constant

war with

of their warriors,

the principal cause of

They composed, how-

the finest light troops in the world, and,

had they been under an

efficient

system of discipline, or pos-

sessed enterprise equal to their valor, the settlement of the

country would have been attended with than was encountered in accomplishing

much it,

greater difficulty

and

their final sub-

256

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

jugation delayed for

some

calumet, the symbol

The Wyandots,

years.

the leading

and that in whose custody the great

tribe of the confederacy,

of

their

union, was entrusted,

had

authority to call a council of the chiefs of the several tribes,

upon

consult

to

But there was no mode of

their affairs.

enforcing their decision, and the execution of any plan of operations, entirely

might have been determined on, depended

that

upon

the

At one time

it.

good pleasure of those who were it

was thought, indeed,

that they

to execute

had adopted

the very judicious plan of cutting off the convoys of the

army, by a constant succession of detachments.

And under

however, soon abandoned.

This was,

the influence of the

confidence which they had acquired, as well in their valor as their tactics,

mined

to

from

commit

their repeated success, they again deter-

the fate of themselves and their country, to

This was

the issue of a general battle.

by

the

By

American commander.

was wanted

that

all

this

fatal

determination

they had already prepared the wreath of laurels which was adorn his brow, by their complete and

to

The

which had been adopted

tactics

had been devised with a reference those of the Indians were well

total

for the

discomfiture.

American legion,

to all the subtleties,

known

to possess.

It

which united

with the apparently opposite qualities of compactness and flexibility,

and a

and in any

ces,

of expansion under any circumstan-

facility

which rendered

situation,

utterly abortive the

peculiar tact of the Indians, in assailing the flanks of their adversaries. this plan,

The

correctness of the theory,

was proved

in the trial,

the sententious motto

of

Indians are the enemies: It

may

be proper that

the character of the

for

many

years

I

now

which so long and so after,

a

—“

which

dictated

and confirmed the truth of

military

society,

even where

Scientia in bello, pax.”

should say something more as to scattered and almost extinct tribes

successfully resisted our arms, and

who

stood in the relation of dependants,

acknowledging themselves under our exclusive protection. Their character as warriors, has been already remarked upon.

harrison’s discourse.

257

Their bravery has never been questioned, although there was certainly a considerable difference between the several tribes,

With

in this respect.

but the Wyandots, flight in battle,

all

when meeting with unexpected with

it

no disgrace.

And

It

resistence, or obstacle, brought

was considered

maybe

rather as a principle

having

of

tactics.

its

source in that peculiar temperament of mind, which they

I

think

it

fairly considered as

any

often manifested, of not pressing fortune under

sinister

circumstances, but patiently waiting until the chances of a

With

successful issue appeared to be favorable. dots

it

was otherwise.

any thing

enemy,

Miami Rapids, of

it

Wyan-

In the battle of

as disgraceful.

thirteen chiefs of that tribe

present, one only survived, and he badly

As

the

to consider

had the appearance of an acknowledgment of

that

the superiority of an the

Their youth were taught

who were

wounded.*

regards their moral and intellectual qualities, the

ference between the tribes

was

still

Delawares, and Miamis, were

members of

the

among them,

much

confederacy.

I

dif-

The Shawanees,

greater.

superior to the other

have

known

individuals

of very high order of talents, but these were

The

not generally to be relied upon for sincerity. Turtle, of the

Miami

tribe,

was one of

a Shawanee Tecumthey possessed more

this

Little

description, as

was the Blue Jacket,

chief.

that

integrity than

any other of

distinction; but

he violated a

the chiefs,

who

attained to

much

I

think

it

probable

solemn engagement, which he had freely contracted, and there are strong suspicions of his having formed a treacher-

ous

design,

which an accident only prevented

in the conduct of

civilized nations.

terbalanced acter,

by

him from

Sinister instances are, however, to be found

accomplishing.

the

which were

great

men,

in the history of almost all

But these instances

number of to

are

more than coun-

individuals of high moral char-

be found amongst the principal, and

secondary chiefs, of the four tribes above mentioned.

*See note D, in Appendix.

33

This

258

was

TRANSACTIONS, ETC. particularly the

with Tarhe, or the Crane, the

case

grand sachem of the Wyandots, and Black Hoof, the chief of the Shawanees.

Many

show

on the part of these men, of an uncom-

mon

the possession,

instances might be

adduced, to

degree of disinterestedness and magnanimity, and

strict

performance of their engagements, under circumstances which

would be considered by many

But

as justifying evasion.

one of the brightest parts of the character of those Indians, is

their

sound regard

the

to

A

obligations of friendship.

pledge of this kind, once given by an Indian of any character,

becomes the ruling passion of

was made

to yield.

obligation.

And

He

the

life

fair field

of his duty as a warrior. the late

war with Great

it

who had

taken

Knee, of the Seneca Richard Butler,

tribe,

even

at

if it

event might have occurred in

Britain,

aud their

who had been

who had

fallen

which a

allies, in

this principle

In the autumn of 1793,

been exhibited.

it,

of battle, and in the performance

An

most striking exemplification of

eral

as superior to every other

of his friend would be required

the hands of him, (or his tribe,)

had occurred in a

which every other

his soul, to

regards

would have

the chief,

Stiff

the friend of

Gen-

on the

fatal

4th

of

November, 1791, joined the army of General Wayne, for the purpose of avenging his death. The advance upon the

enemy having been

arrested,

and the troops placed

in

from the lateness of the season,

cantonments for the winter, impatient

of delay, the chief earnestly solicited the general to be per-

mitted to go with a detachment to attack one of the positions

of the enemy. satisfy

This request was, of course, refused.

him, and

to

prevent his going alone,

the

To

general

informed him that an ample opportunity of vengeance would

be offered in the spring.

To

not brook this delay.

But the soul of the warrior could the officer with

whom

he lodged,

he expatiated upon the unsupportable weight by which his

mind was oppressed, bution for the death stantly calling

at the

postponement of the day of

of his brother,

on him

for

whose

vengeance.

spirit

Upon one

retri-

was conof these

!

259

Harrison’s discourse.

occasions, he said, that, denied an opportunity of performing this sacred obligation,

friend

how

readily he

nothing remained but

would have died

to

convince his

for him,

and before

arm could be caught, he plunged a poignard

his

in

his

bosom.

am

I

how

satisfied that this

United

far the

is

States

imposed upon them by

not the proper time to enquire

have

their

fulfilled

assuming,

the at

the

obligations treaty of

Greenville, the character of sole protectors of the tribes

were

parties to

But

treaties.

if the duties

it

it,

I will

the

take this opportunity of declaring, that

imposed, were not faithfully executed, during

the administration of as

who

a stipulation often repeated in subsequent

Mr.

power vested by

Jefferson, and

the laws in

Mr. Madison,

the Executive

as far

would

permit, the immediate agents of the government are responsible, as

the directions given to them were clear and explicit,

not only to gations, but

fulfil

upon

with scrupulous all

fidelity, all the treaty obli-

occasions, to promote the happiness of

these dependant people, as far as attention and expenditure

of

money

could effect these objects.

,

APPENDIX. NOTE

The

object

of

A. Themistocles was to induce the council of war to strait which which would prevent

adopt his opinion of fighting the Persians, in the narrow separates the island of Salamis from the main,

them from being surrounded by the immensely superior fleet of the The commander of the Spartan squadron, and those of the other states within the isthmus of Corinth, were desirous to retreat to the shores of Peloponnesus, in the vicinity of which the army of the Peloponnesian Greeks had been assembled, for the purpose of guarding the isthmus, which afforded the only land entrance to that portion of latter.

Themistocles endeavored to convince the council, that

the country.

they abandoned the favorable position which the afforded,

and attempted a

straits

of

if

Salamis

retreat to the coast of Peloponnesus,

they

would be pursued by the Persians, and obliged to fight in the open sea, which would enable the enemy to surround their comparatively small force, and that defeat would be inevitable. The Grecian fleet being destroyed, the Persians would be enabled to turn the position of the army, which would be deprived of all the advantages in defending it. He was, also, afraid that the fleet would separate, each squadron repairing to the harbor of the state to which it belonged, preferring (as is the case in all confederacies, where there is no common head in the government, with power to enforce obedience to its decrees,) the interest of The the individual member to which it belonged, to the common good. debate became warm; and the Spartan commander losing his self-command, raised his staff to strike his opponent. The noble Athenian, full of confidence in the measures he had recommended, for the destruction of their common enemy, and of enthusiasm in the cause of liberty and civilization,

attempted neither to avert the blow, or resent the indignity.

His remark, «

strike,

but hear me,” seemed rather to invite

price of the attention of his enraged

commander,

to

it,

as the

arguments which

he knew could not be answered. Eurybiades, awed by the indomitable firmness of the Athenian, calmed his passion, submitted himself to the mighty genius of his rival

and Greece was saved.

NOTE The

B.

circumstances which militate most against the supposition of the

identity of the Astecks, with the authors of the extensive ancient

works

261

Harrison’s discourse. in Ohio,

is

the admitted fact, that the latter entered the valley of

huac, from the north-west, that

is,

from California, which

A

of the direct route from the Ohio to Mexico. favor of

it, is

is

Ana-

much

the similarity of the remains which are found in

region, (California,) as well as in

of the Ohio.

am

I

Mexico

itself,

out

strong argument in that

with those in the valley

not informed whether there are any such in the

intermediate country, between the lower Mississippi and California.

But

if

there are none,

it

will serve rather to confirm

and strengthen

my

opinion, that the fugitives from the Ohio were, like those from Troy, a

mere remnant, whose numbers were too small to erect works of so much labor, as those they had left behind had required, but after their strength had been increased, by a residence for some time in California, the passion for such works had returned with the ability to erect them. The similarity, in point of form and mode of construction, between

now to be seen in all the countries I have mentioned, (Ohio, Mexico, and California,) prove that they must have been erected by the same, or a kindred people, derived from the same stock, and if the the works

latter,

the separation took place after the custom of such erections

had

commenced. If the opinion is adopted, that the

had pursued the

Astecks were never in Ohio, but

from Asia, (whence

direct route

it is

believed they

all

came,) to California, along the coast of the Pacific ocean, and that the authors of the Ohio erection were from the same continent and stock, the questions

Was

it

may

continent?

— Where

be asked:

before they

left

did the

separation

take place?

upon the American those in Ohio, Mexico, and

Asia, or after their arrival

Are there any works similar

to

California, to be found in the north-east of Asia, or

between the Pacific

and the Rocky Mountains, or on the route which that branch of the nation would have pursued, which bent their course towards the valley If these questions are answered in the negative, it will of the Ohio? thus go far to prove that the practice of constructing such works origi-

nated in the

who

latter,

and that those who erected them, were the same people

afterwards sojourned in California, and finally settled in the valley

of Anahuac, or Mexico.

If

we

adopt the opinion that they were totally

a distinct people, or were different branches of the same original Asiatic stock,

we must

believe, also,

that they

each

fell

into the practice of

same form, and of the same materials, be practised by any other people,) without guide them, and without any intercourse.

erecting extensive works, of the (in a manner not known any previous knowledge

This, to say the least of

to to it,

is

very improbable.

were not the authors of the Ohio works, we can only the ultimate fate of those who were, by supposing that they

If the Astecks

account for

were

entirely extirpated, preferring, like the devoted

buried under the ruins of their

minious I find

Numantians,

own

walls, to seeking safety

facts

mentioned in the

to be

by an igno-

flight.

no

difficulty

from the

text, in

adopting

262

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

who were

the opinion, that these people were conquered by those civilised

than themselves.

upon

tutions are founded

own

An

enlightened nation, whose military

scientific principles,

who have made

barbarians

upon

its

progress in civilization. They may be many battles, as was the case when the of Gaul and Germany, who first broke through the boundaRoman republic, and in our day and nation, when the north-

beaten in a

ries of the

relies

be subdued by savages, nor by

citizens for protection, will never

those

and which

less

insti-

little

battle, indeed, in

western Indians defeated our armies in two successive campaigns, as

But their triumphs which produce them are ascer-

they had previously done those of Great Britain. will be terminated as soon as the causes

tained,

and a change

effected in the plan of operations, or in the

mode

of

meet the exigency, as was the case in the former, under the direction of Caius Marius, and in our own, under the direcBut it is quite otherwise with those who tion of Anthony Wayne.

forming the troops,

to

have made such small progress in civilization, as to be unable to make war upon fixed and scientific principles. I have assigned to the nameless nation of

our valley, the character of an agricultural people, and

in which a by those who still depend upon the chase for food, or who have advanced still farther, and draw their subsistence from flocks and herds of their own rearing. The labors of agriculture serve to form the body to endure the toils and hardThere is something, too, in that kind ships incident to a military life. of employment which serves to kindle a spirit of independence in the bosom, and nurture the feelings of patriotism. Hence, it has happened, that agricultural nations, which had engrafted a system of military this is precisely

nation

is

the state (without military institutions)

most weak, and most

easily conquered,

instruction, with the ordinary education of youth,

most renowned in war, and most

difficult to

have always been the

be conquered.

Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini, Hpnc Remus etfrater; sic Fortis Etruria crevit,

“

rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma, Septemq; una sibi muro circumdedit arces.” Scilicet et

2d.

Georgics.

But whilst the occupation of the husbandman furnishes the best matemaking good soldiers, as well from the qualities it imparts to the mind, as the strength and activity which the body receives from constant rials for

exercise,

The

and nutritive aliment,

hunter, on the contrary,

vidual qualities can

is

make him

it

teaches nothing of the military

already a soldier, as

so.

But

the poets have furnished, the pictures

the pastoral

drawn from

art.

far, at least, as indilife,

(not that which

their

own

imagina-

tions,

but that which authentic history describes,) furnishes, not only

men

suited

to

war, by their personal qualities, but armies which have

acquired, from their congregated

mode

of

life,

a degree of discipline,

and

Harrison’s discourse.

263

knowledge of the most important operations of war. There is nothing the employment of the agriculturist, or artisan, which bears any resemblance to military duty. The citizens employed in such labor,

si

in

and the agricultural, or manufacturing which adopts no system of military instruction, for its youth, must depend upon the employment of mercenaries for its protection, or The German, or Scythian, it will become a prey to the first invader. hordes which obtained, from the fears, or the weakness of the Roman (exclusively,) cease to be soldiers,

nation,

emperors, settlements within their borders, were unable, after a few years, to resist the

new swarms from

and which adhered

same

the

to their original

hives,

mode

of

which pressed upon them, and manners. But the

life

most extraordinary instance of the superiority of savages, in war,

to

an

who neglect military institutions, is furnished by our own parent isle, in the applications of the Britons for a Roman emperor, after the abandonment of their island,

agricultural people,

the history of assistance, to

by the troops of the latter.

impossible for language to convey, at once,

It is

more dastardly spirit, and consciousness of extreme imbecility, than “The Caledonian that used by the British deputies, on this occasion. savages,” say they, “ drive us to the ocean, and the ocean again repels a

us back upon our enemies.”

The

fate of

our predecessors, in the occupancy of our fine country,

was, no doubt, long procrastinated by their patience of labor, and knowl-

edge in the

By

art of fortification.

similar means,

and by the applica-

tion of a chemical discovery, to the purposes of their defence, the totter-

ing fabric of the lower Roman Empire, was for many ages sustained, and long after the* “ naked and trembling legions” had declined to meet their barbarous adversaries in

an equal

field.

The Ohio fortresses were The size of their

not erected for defence against a casual invasion.

and the

walls,

solidity of their construction,

was

they were intended to avert, their persons

were

might behold, from

The

their

behind bulwarks impregnable to savages, they summits, the devastation of their ripened

fields.

seed time, indeed, as well as that of the harvest, might be marked

by a gifts

safe,

shows that the danger which But whilst

of constant recurrence.

crafty foe;

and thus the hopes of reaping even a portion of the

of autumn, be destroyed by want of opportunity to perform the

indispensable labors of spring. It

appears,

impending

however, that no exertion was omitted to avert their

The work

fate.

the Great Miami,

was a

to

which I have referred, at the mouth of more elevated than the Acropolis of

citadel,

Athens, although easier of access, as

it is

not like the

latter,

a solid rock,

but on three sides as nearly perpendicular as could be, to be composed of large space of the lower ground, was, however, enclosed by earth.

A

walls,

*

uniting

it

with the Ohio.

Their defensive armor was

Gratian.

The

foundation of that, (being

laid aside in the reign of the

Emperor

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

264

well as those

as

of stone,

defence, is

period of

its

of the citadel,)

very visible where

still

must have discharged

erection,

down than it now does. eastern w all of this enclosure,

lower

T

but

was such

with the

least labor, there could

from seventy

cultivation,

der such as

but

ment of

it

was

direction from the citadel to

to

not have been less than three hundred

land, at this day, will produce under the best acre. Unwould be much

one hundred bushels of corn per

then, probably, bestowed

contribute

still

if its

to discover the

should have been, to embrace the largest space,

The same

acres enclosed.

less,

as

Ohio much

itself into the

have never been able

I

the Ohio,

forms the western

that

crosses the Miami, which, at the

it

much

people, remarkable

to the

beyond

upon

it,

there

support of a considerable

all

settle-

abstemiousness in

others, for

their diet.*

we had

If

the

means of

investigating closely the causes

which

the disasters of this nation, one, not the least in effect, would,

I

led to

think,

be found in their abominable religion, which taught the propitiation of

by the

and herds, which, Maker, in gratitude for blessings received, or to obtain others which he sought, but by the immolation by man of his fellow man; that only creature of all the Deity, not

being the

that

sacrifice of the firstlings of flocks

God

of

gift

to

whom

were created,

man, he might again

to his

offer

the Creator reserved for himself, to

fulfil

his

purposes, and minister his glory. It is

state)

a

little

remarkable, that whilst the savages (those in the hunter

throughout the American continent,’should acknowlede the super-

intendence of the world by one God, and that a

who were

those

a

little

God

who drew their produced by their own patient

together in cities and villages, and fruits

of the earth,

the god or gods are only to

whom

of mercy and love;

who

farther advanced in civilization,

congregated

subsistence from the labor, should clothe

they worship, with attributes and passions, which

be appeased by a sacrifice of blood, and that blood poured

out from the bosoms of their fellow men.

would seem, then,

It

that the

first

advances in

civilization,

were

equally unfavorable to liberty, and to the proper understanding of the obligations due from

man

to his

Maker.

In the

first

stages of society,

the political institutions are few and inefficient, and whatever force they

may

possess, are applicable, rather to their foreign, than their domestic

Each

transactions.

acquiring from

it

individual

the guardian of his

is

own

a high idea of his personal independence,

respect the equal claims of others.

rights,

is

and

willing to

If the social ties are few, they are

proportionally strong: and the scene of attachment to the tribe or nation to

which he belongs, *

When

tality

is

never

felt

in greater force in

any future stage of

the Spaniards, under Cortes, were subsisted by the hospi-

of the Mexicans, and other South American Indians, they com-

plained that one Spaniard would suffice ten Indians.

consume more

in

one day, than would

harrison’s discourse.

An

civilization.

265

injury offered to any individual belonging to

it,

from

would be considered his own, and his life would be His ideas of religion are derived willingly risked to redress or avenge it. from the spark which God has furnished to every bosom, and from the great book of nature, which is constantly spread before him. As these one of another

tribe,

lights are in possession of

all,

he

is

willing that

ments, so universal in the hunter

men

seem soon

state,

begin to congregate in towns, and especially

vidual property

is

all

But these

opinions from them, to suit themselves.

should form their

and

feelings

to disappear,

when

senti-

when

the idea of indi-

In such a state of society, disputes and

established.

and

becomes necessary that the hithsome portion of his rights, But in his inexthe more certainly to secure those which he reserves. perience, the guards with which he attempts to protect the latter, are too feeble to resist the assaults which are made upon them. By one set of his former equals, whom he has contributed to elevate to power, the

collisions will constantly arise,

it

erto independent individual, should surrender

whole of

his political rights are usurped,

another, his conscience

Strange, but

is

and he becomes a

taken into keeping, and he

true as strange, that as

men

slave;

by

a monster.

is

progress in the arts, which

enable them to live with more ease and comfort, they should lose the dignity of character and independence the earlier

stages of society.

which had distinguished them in who were once jealous of

they,

should become the willing instruments for enslaving

their liberties,

others:

That

who had

seen, in the operation of nature’s god, nothing but

love to mankind, and the grant of equal

pretensions of

men

like themselves, to

to claim the right to

than

all,

to clothe

power

to all, should

punish supposed breaches of his

him with

admit the

speak in the name of the Creator, will;

and worse

the forms, the cruelty, and ferocity of the

most savage monsters of the desert. But such was the condition of the Mexicans, when first visited by the Europeans, and such, no doubt,

was

that of the Astecks in the valley of the Ohio.

The

temples of Cir-

Grave Creek and Newark, no doubt, annually streamed with the blood (if not of thousands, like those of Cholula and Mexico,) of hundreds of human beings.

cleville,

At

the period of the arrival of the Spaniards in Mexico, the profu-

sion of victims

demanded

for sacrifice,

was supplied by

prisoners taken

Dr. Robertson objects to the account given by

in war.

all

the early

Spanish historians, as to the number of these victims, upon the ground He adopts the opinion of of the effect it would have upon population. Las Casas, that if there had been such a waste of the human species, the country never could have attained that degree of populousness for

which to

it

was remarkable.*

This reasoning

overthrow the positive assertion of so

For many years before the

not, however, sufficient

arrival of the Spaniards, the

Vol.

34

is

many cotemporary

;

ii.,

page 198-9.

historians.

Mexicans had

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

266

it was the inviolable practice number might have reached, for several of Cortes, even the highest number which

been engaged in successful wars; and as to sacrifice every prisoner, the

years preceding the arrival the historians referred

to,

have mentioned, without conflicting with

F or,

assertions, as to the populousness of the country.

the

latter,

these writers

must have

referred not to the

conquered nations,

who had

but to the conquerors, or those, the Tlascalans for instance, submitted to the Mexican power.

human

the islands of the Pacific ocean; and that

all

not

asserted by Captain Cook, in

It is

his third voyage, that the practice of sacrificing

vaded

their

in relation to

it

victims per.

produced a very

The want of prisoners of war, decided effect upon the population.* was supplied from their own people. When this distinguished naviThe party attached gator was last at Otaheite, a civil war was raging. to the

head chief or king, had been unsuccessful.

sacrifices of this

One

results.

After each disaster,

kind were offered to their god, to obtain more favorable

of the chiefs,

upon being questioned upon

defended the propriety of the practice, because, as he said, the deity,

who

it

the subject, propitiated

“ fed upon the souls of the sacrificed,” and repelled the

charge of inhumanity, “ because the victim was selected from the poorest of the people,” the very class which forms the strength of every nation;

and protects its independence. But for the which we have upon this subject, it could scarcely be believed, that the rulers of any people, could ever adopt a practice, at once so cruel, and so destructive in its consequences producing the necessity of a double draft upon their population, to supply the losses of the battle field, and the demands of their own priesthood. Such, no doubt, was the practice with the Mexicans, and the nation of whose history I have attempted to present some gleanings, and it will serve to strengthen my conjecture, that the fate of the lattter, was hastened by their laboring under the double curse of an arbitrary government, and a cruel, bigoted, and bloody religion.

which

fights its

battles,

indisputable evidence

—

NOTE The ultimatum

of the Indians,

C.

was

make

to

the

Ohio the boundary

between the United States and themselves.

NOTE When he sent told

him

for the

General

for

Wayne assumed

the position of Greenville, in 1793,

who commanded

Captain Wells,

that “ he wished

D.

him

to

go

to

a company of scouts, and Sandusky and take a prisoner,

purpose of obtaining information.”

taken from Kentucky *

when

Wells, (who, having been

a boy, and brought

Cook’s Voyage,

vol.

i.,

up amongst the Indians,

page 348.

267

Harrison’s discourse, was

perfectly acquainted with their character,)

take a prisoner, but not from Sandusky.”

dusky?” said the General. are

only

“For

Wyandots

“

answered that “ he could

And why

there.”

“Well, why

Wyandots do?” Wyandots will not

will not

the best of reasons,” said Wells, “because

be taken alive.”

not from San-

“ Because,” answered the Captain, “there

A DISCOURSE DELIVERED BEFORE THE OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY JAMES H. PERKINS.

BY

President and Gentlemen of the Historical Society:-— I

meet you

evening with very great pleasure,

this

not yet a

member

subjects

which

your purpose

it is

although

to pursue,

and rejoice in

That success, perhaps, has not thus

your success.

equaled your hopes, but

some

tlemen: that

for,

of your body, I take a deep interest in the

far

not that fact dishearten you, gen-

interest is felt in

your pursuits, the audi-

many may join your who do nothing, and care nothing for it,—-though your numbers may be but few, and your results unseen for a

ence before

me

let

testifies,

and though

society,

while, there

no cause

is

for despair in all this.

It is

one of

the great sins of our day, that immediate and striking effects are

demanded whenever an exertion

little faith;

we need entering

we need

to feel that

few and feeble

as

would,

also,

is

mustard-seed;

we may

gentlemen, thank you in the

—Tor the patience, far

may you

long labor, and with success,

and

to

name

are not of

have thus

for the writer,

when

of those

your num-

perseverance and energy which you

May

shown.

be,

to fear if the

One working with us

who, though fellow-laborers with you, ber,

made; we have too

upon a good work, we have no reason

work be indeed good, for there whose ends will be brought about. I

is

to realise the parable of the

awake

your industry continue unabated;

in all

to

collect materials

an interest iu the study of

history.

An interest,

I

say, in

all.

For who,

of being interested in history?

in truth, is not capable

History

is

but the tale of the

269

perkins’ discourse.

world’s doings, and refers no less to those of the hamlet, the

workshop and the meadow, than senate-chamber, and the tory, is that spirit to

to those of the capitol, the

The Genius of hissummon

of battle.

field

whom power

has been given to

them walk before

the old dead from their graves, and bid as they

walked before our

alone that

fathers;

and

it

may

call her,

Bunker

his bidding the battle of

us,

not the scholar

—

man

in

and she will come, and

at

privileged to call this spirit,

is

the chimney-corner

is

Hill,

the old

or the bold

march of

Clarke through the western wilderness, or the quiet and sunny

own young

scenes of his

days,

—

his village frolics,

his vil-

lage quarrels, his mother’s death, his wedding, his emigra-

— any,

tion,

or

of these will rise as readily and truly as

all

The whole

a scholar spoke.

past

is

lives but daily plays the historian.

woods, her

if

and not the man

The mother

of the back-

years since, as she drew her children closer to

fifty

when

history,

the winter-storm shrieked about her cabin, and

cheered their

by

hearts

little

them how Boone, and when hope seemed over,

telling

—

Harrod, and Logan had fought

and how even feeble

women had

foiled the savage

more than

I

once,—-she was an

We

daily?

the legislature, the

cation convention

we

and

relate history.

coming together of which

soon matter of history. a word,

Indeed, what

historian.

live history,

do not an

becoming present again,

this society, the edu-

will soon open,

We act, is

is it that we do The meeting of

draw not a

—

all

these will be

breath,

we utter

not

but goes into that past which,

history.

And

of what does most

of our conversation consist, but a continual summoning of this past to live

what

is

once more?

Everywhere we in

monuments,

owe

the

A

relating or bringing back of

gone? find this interest in the past; in daily talk,

in writings.

mounds and

ested in history.

That race

to

whose

labors

we

walls of this and other lands, were inter-

They would, had

they been able, have

written out their battles, and laws, and social customs for our reading; they could not thus write them, but they

made

their

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

270

mark, and we, wrapped in the past

decpyher

also, are still seeking to

it.

what has been done;

All then, I believe, are interested in in the

past: but in

And why

interested.

common

our

this?

is

is

It

more or

man

man, and he

they are not

loves to look into

wrapped

is

man more

less as that reveals

it

because few care for

is

and places, and proper names;

dates,

the past, because there dwelt

story

records of

in its

There

or less.

something in the struggles, and sufferings, and triumphs of

our fellow beings, which takes hold of us with a mysterious

power, so that our breath

you

talk about life

what

for

if

we

It is

tell

child will hear

a horse, or a dog, or Jack-the-

or puss-in-boots, that he

you would

The

listen.

the hour together, but he cares nothing

not living.

is

giant-killer,

and

by

and our knees tremble, and

fails,

our very finger-ends tingle, as

him of

loves to

hear about;

you must

the stars, or the sea,

speak of the planets as journeying, and of the waves as leap-

The young and

ing and living.

they endow brute matter with

the rude always personify;

vital

and individual

force; the

and the sailor of his ship, and the boy “ She went oyer the as “ she.” machine, his mechanic of or “ she works to a the waves bravely,” she met fence,” “or talks of his foot-ball,

charm;” and from these everyday expressions, up of the psalmist,

who

bids the

the hills be joyful together, is life

that

man

we

waves clap

and

same tendency.

find the

loves to watch, and hear of;

mystery of our universe,

to those

their hands,

that perpetual

life,

It

that great

revelation of the

Almighty.

Novels are read, days wasted and nights spent over them, because they picture the

life

of man; they open, as history

The

cannot, the motives and the progress of every act.

love

of fictitious writings, I regard as a strong proof of the interest

which men take

it is

in

what has been done.

not the fiction which

fiction if there

is

liked; truth is

be but the same

life

in

For, be

it

noted,

always preferred

it;

there

is

wonderful interest in the actual, merely as the actual.

to

indeed a

A boy

PERKINS reads a true, it

and

tale,

he reads

it

you

true before, and

it

tell

him

that

is

done, that

he

feels that

new

notes, in

in a periodical is

we

and that

fact;

“founded on

whereon they

truths

work

Or, on the other hand, take a popular that is read with interest titious,

and

it

Who

a false one;

if

improbable,

its

are based?

it

its

be

fic-

would be but a

it is,

wonderful points would then be

anecdotes would be unmeaning; but

young and

or supposed to be, and

to

as chaff; the life of Marion, full

of vitality and incident and variety as

poor story

his last

of history, one

by thousands, and prove

would be dry

long

fact, ’’and

by

interest given to Scott’s novels

which he gives the

he

Miss Edgworth’s works

goes and goes where mere fiction would never reach.

has not had

it is

he thought

or, if

false,

it is

in

mentioned as being a

is

271

when he new zest;

Here and there

A sketch

remember.

him,

tell

over again with

has been a loser.

some anecdote

you

if

DISCOURSE.

old can read

it

it is

true,

again and

again.

There

is

then, I say, a very general and very deep interest

in history; in the record ’of past life, in the record of

But, be

has actually been.

it

noted, there

history, or to the

mass of men

and deader dates

are nothing.

tedium

to

battle, for

nothing

it is

I

must be

may

life

— dead

listen

with

what in the

events infinite

one man’s account of a merry meeting, or a pitched he will but give

me

the fact that

laughed, and danced, or that two parties

who

while to another,

women, and how

shall paint

me

men and women

fell

to

and fought;

the very

men and

one was dressed, and that one held her

this

head, and the other stepped off with a partner having a cork

who

leg, or

shall

make me

see the red-coated soldiers, and

hear the swearing sergeants, and watch the cool yeomanry, holding their

eyes

—

.

they can see the white of their enemies’

fire till

to this

man

I

could listen

if I

had not

slept for forty-

eight hours.

You

are all acquainted with the biography of Johnson,

Boswell, and

know

kind extant.

Why

that is

it

this?

is

by

thought the best work of the

IIow did

that

weakest of weak

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

272

that laughing-stock of his generation, succeed

men,

wise and learned have

He

failed?

did

where the

by painting

it

to the

not a foible, not a cross word, not a broad insult, not a

life;

disgusting habit, not a

roll,

nor a puff, nor any other living

part of his subject is omitted.

You

have

heard of Froissart, whose history,

all

hundred years,

at this

is

moment

after five

in course of republication,

adorned and illustrated in the choicest style of the modern English press.

Why

this?

is

Countless other historians

have, since he wrote, risen and gone into invisibility again,

why

does this one loom forth so?

Because men walk, and

horses rear, and ladies laugh, in his

pages;

it is

busy

all

life.

And very faults all

lately a

work has been published which, be

what they may,

mean

I

alive;

is full

of the deepest interest, for

Carlyle’s French Revolution.

its

is

it

He, unlike

our modern writers, gives you a picture instead of a

state-

ment; the storming of the Bastile in the pages of Thiers, or Alison, or Scott,

Carlyle

it is

as Sir Walter’s

Bceuf’s castle in

hewing

wholly dead event

a long past and

is

—

in

as living, as passing, as full of exciting interest

at the

own

picture of the

Ivanhoe.

storming of Front de

Louis Tournay, with his axe

chain of the draw-bridge,

is

as real in the his-

tory, as the black knight with his battle-axe battering at the

barbican

is

in the novel.

olution, lightly touched ing;

it

was when the

There was another scene on by most writers, but

constitution

was

France, and the people of France,

from the workmen

who were

to

full

be sworn

of meanto

preparing the

field

all

is

by most

of

Mars

more

for

scene, so full of character, so

slighted; but Carlyle gives

the freshness of the next day’s

gives

all

worked them-

pointedly the result of that strange temper which then

France,

by

of enthusiasm, took

the ceremony, their spades and barrows, and selves like day-laborers; this

in that rev-

full

it

to

filled

us with

newspaper; and thereby

insight into the spirit of the time, the feeling of

273

Perkins’ discourse. the people, than

the abstract disquisitions of a hundred

all

historians.

And

these writers are thus vivid and powerful,

by what

Merely by seeing and preserving from memory,

means?

in

the cases of Boswell and Froissart, and in that of Carlyle,

from

records

the

home

else bring a past scene

Now,

memoirs of the day,

and journals and

those minute touches, those living

traits,

which more than

all

to us.

gentlemen, the scant records of the west, are

these minute touches, these living

full

of

We have published

traits.

or unpublished the journals, memoirs, letters, autobiographies,

of almost if

all

men

the prominent

and

in western life thus far,

these are collected and preserved, in a permanent form, the

may

future historians of the west

which

write

to

works

To

pleasure and improvement.

gentlemen, should be, and

Let

great objects.

me

become his

—

and

interest

and preserve these,

doubt not will be, one of your

I

acts,

and ways should

most unimportant points

all

to the actor,

be

may

The man sitting for beam of light that is without that beam of light,

all-important to the recorder.

portrait

reflected

unconscious

is

from his eye, and

the painter

thing

the

collect

only repeat, that minute, personal and

seemingly unimportant events, preserved

have ample materials from

that all will read with

of the yet,

could never make

which gives

life

the eye living; and so the very

to the picture of an event,

been, in the event, the smallest

When

may have

trifle.

Clarke’s troops were marching to the conquest of

St. Vincent,

up

to their arm-pits

in water,

the

wilderness

about them, battle before them, and starvation behind, few

perhaps could even

look up

at the

little

drummer, who,

—

among them and seated upon yet, that slight circumstance, preserved in Bowman’s journal, Or gives a vividness to the scene, which nothing else could. besieged the that Clarke fort when he known merely had we his drum-head, floated along

reached little life

it,

and sent

in the fact;

35

in a

but

summons, and so

when we

on, there had been

learn that the British coni'

274

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

mander, Hamilton, and his prisoner, Captain Helm, were

brewing a

mug

of apple-toddy together

suddenly a

rifle

cracked, and the clay mortar from the chim-

by

Helm jumped up

ney-top came rattling into the mug, and

and

said,

it

was Clarke, and

and he’d have them

was

a merciful

dead events,

he did

to spoil his drink,

it

prisoners, and Hamilton asked “if he

all

man”—-we

to

that

the fireside, and

have living flesh and blood, not

mug

deal with: and yet, this

of toddy, and

moment

these exclamations must have seemed at that

small

matters, scarce worth noting.

When

Kenton was taken by

Montgomery, was

rade,

killed,

the Indians in 1779, his

and he observed

com-

he came

as

from his night quarters, his friend’s scalp drying upon a

hoop by a wigwam door,

me

it

was

to

him a

slight point; but to

that drying scalp reveals a picture; the hut

the morning sun, the birds and flowers, and

common

amid the all

things throng in at the mention of

it,

forest,

the thousand

and

I

stand

where Kenton stood. Seeing that such collection,

What be

to

full

us

of meaning.

and useless

key

the case, do not, gentlemen, in your

is

place

to

all

unmeaning,

is

habit of

tier

the

fail

life,

A

however

come

insignificant. after us

may

point of costume, a woodland fron-

a form of speech, any single fact familiar

to us,

may, by and by, become

You may

to a revelation.

sian dinner-party, and carry

and of the people, but to

details,

to those that

if

away

all-important

—

read an account of a Rusa

most barren idea of

it,

the writer mention a familiar thing

him, that before dinner, as a whet, they took raw turnips

and brandy, you have something western

man

had omitted the grating of corn on the have

failed to give

distinctive.

that is

of old had told us of his

life

If a

and doings, and

tin lanthern,

he would

one of the most marked features of the

household.

And, though of volumes of such and there a line

may be

not which those lines

details,

no more than here

of use to the future historian,

may

be,

we know

and must send down

to

him

275

PERKINS’ DISCOURSE.

the whole, or run the risk of losing the very words which

From many hundreds

he wants.

of volumes, Carlyle has

had

his three, but those he never could have written

drawn

not the hundreds been in existence.

To

you, gentlemen,

committed

it is

to

be the great agent,

drawing together and preserving those documents and

in

accounts wherein the

life

of western history lies hidden.

Something has been done, but much more remains to be done. The journal of the first Englishman of whose visit to Ohio

we have any and

script,

account, Christopher Gist,

Washington, by accident came upon that

it

it, it

whose hands

Esq., of Virginia, in to

sleeps in

manu-

was not known even

This journal Chas. Fenton Mercer,

was inexistence.

enough

still

Sparks, in the course of his enquiries respecting

till

it

is,

has been

and next year

promise for publication,

I

kind

hope

you may have it among your records. Indeed, it would be well, could you have a full account among your archives, of that old

pany,

Ohio company, whose agent Gist was. any

scarce

researches.

But

thing

little,

was known,

in truth, is

the other great land companies

Of

this

com-

Mr. Sparks’

until

known even now; and

of

of those days, the Walpole

company, the Vandalia company, and the Indiana company, still less is to be learned; and yet, a full knowledge of them is essential,

to

any complete history of the west while under

British power.

Coming lower down, how incomplete our knowledge the frontier wars, and those that tion of the Indian

Then

as

to

journals are

towns

waged them;

in this state, is

the settlements in Ohio, still

of

the very posi-

doubted and disputed.

Symmes’

letters

and

in manuscript; the writings relative to the

Marietta colony are unpublished; and volumes upon volumes

unwritten in the brains of those

lie

still

living,

and

all

about

us.

And which

this leads

exists for

me, gentlemen,

to

preserving the true

living traits of the past;

a history

speak of the necessity traits,

no

less than

the

which gives us men and

276

TRANSACTIONS, ETC,

movement

must be

history,

read of Romulus, and

Remus,

will rouse and interest

all,

but

it

not fiction; true, not false.

When we

were

at school,

we

and Fatius, the Sabine King, and Numa, with his mysterious adviser,

had been,

as of those that

— but

the

German

critic,

with his searching eye and unflinching hand, has cut away these beings and their acts from the living

and excresences,

history, as being warts

body of Roman fables,

and not

In like manner, Grecian, yes, German and British

truths.

history

And though we may

must be freed from falsehood.

regret that

we have come

to see that

such things are them: the

shall not hesitate, seeing that, to reject

false,

will not receive a lie for a truth; as a picture of the truth

may his

look

at

as the Briton looks

it,

king with pleasure; but

on the

In our history

is

we have no

we

ments not a few

look

The

to

we

image of

come up, and every

against him.

mistletoe-like, taken root

the old world; but

theatrical

seek to usurp truth’s

let the lie

place, let a pretender to the throne itself

honest hand and heart

we

human mind

fables akin to those

which have,

on every branch of the annals of

have, gentlemen, errors and misstateafter.

story of Fernando de Soto,

who

is

said to have discov-

ered the Mississippi in 1541, has been of late brought into notice ters

by Bancroft,

the

upon American

most finished and pleasing of

published two good sized volumes, giving

De

and yet there

Soto’s course;

that a large

all

wa-

history; and one of the Irving family has

is

all

the details of

great reason

part of that traveler’s adventures

to think

were but the

inventions of Garcilaso dela Vega, and his other chroniclers.

Mr. Sparks, one of our most thorough and learned scholars, assured

me

convinced him

was mostly

ination he

is

it

about

to

that an examination of the fable.

The

historical

whole matter

results of his

exam-

publish in his American biography.

So

much for the first visitor to our great river. The next traveler to the west, Marquette, deserves full faith; but when we come to the great enterprise of La Salle, a man

perkins’ discourse.

who was

second, says John Q. Adams, only

perseverance, courage, energy,

come be,

him we have

to

277 to

for

— when

we

most meagre record

the

though two volumes were published soon

which have been received

Columbus

farsightedness,

that can well

after his death,

and even in our national

as genuine,

diplomacy, made the basis of claims.

One

of these volumes was written

by Louis Hennepin, a and was sent by

Franciscan monk; he was with

La

him from Fort Crevecoeur, upon

the Illinois river, to explore

Salle,

the sources of the Mississippi; he

was gone upon

about a year, and then returned

to

volume dedicated

lished a

to

this

mission

France, where he pub-

Louis XIV., and called his

“Louisiana,” because he so named in honor of his king, the

which he had discovered

great country

volume, he gave an account of his

down

the Illinois,

and up the Mississippi

as high as the falls of St.

which he

honor of

named,

also

in

volume he published

La

among them in

Salle

latter

Salle returned to France,

many months.

to its

its

This publi-

having, in April, 1683,

mouth.

For some cause,

and Hennepin did not agree; probably because the

spread

it

directed to go

mouth

for

1683, and very soon after

gone down the Mississippi

La

Anthony,

Anthony of Padua; he

St.

had been taken by the Indians, and had been

stated that he

retained as a prisoner

cation,

In this

in the west.

trip

abroad, that he had in fact gone

up the great

river,

La

Salle.

three years before

finally left

years, that

France and went is,

in

to

1697, after

down when

and had discovered

At any

rate,

its

Hennepin

Holland, where, after fourteen

La

he published

Salle’s death,

another volume dedicated to King William of England, in

which he gave in

the journal of his trip

1680, with the reasons

before,

— which were, La

afraid of

Salle.

why

down

the Mississippi

had not been published

that

he went against orders, and was

The

authenticity of this

been always doubted, and yet lished

it

it

journal has

has been copied and re -pub-

by our antiquarian societies, and never wholly disproved

so far as

I

know.

During the past summer,

I

was

led

to

278

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

look into this matter, and to compare the

first

with the second

published journal, believing that discrepancies must exist,

At

the last were fable.

of the second work, and upon reading that

upon the

companions

if

took the English translation

I

first

it,

found

there stated

it

day of February, 1680, Hennepin and his

last

started to

go

down

the Illinois; that

of March, they were close to

upon the 7th

mouth, that the

ice

in the

Mississippi detained them until the 12th of March,

when

its

they entered that great river; then came the journal of the

down

passage

by

the river, prefaced

not been published before,

—

after

why

a statement

it

had

which we have the events

of the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th of March, during which days

he says he was sailing down the Mississippi, though just before he had said he

to the

was ice-bound

This looked suspicious.

12th.

mouth of

upward passage

I

which he

the river, from

on the

again,

in the Illinois until the

read on, and followed him

1st of April;

upon

started

upon

his

the 9th he

reached the Arkansas, and then his journal gives us accounts

and the

of the Indians,

rivers,

Following closely, however, date, that of his captivity,

the Illinois: and

of April: the

— upon

above

when he was 150 that date

at least

in all points the

and corrected French

I

same account of

at the

thought there must be some error

same;

original I

edition, but

French

volume which

edition,

and

even looked up a second found no change.

found the same journal

greater part of the

his

was? the 12th

one thousand miles

I

his leaving Fort

I

then

work pubwhich made up the

procured a copy of the “Louisiana,” the

the

leagues above

an hour, for sixty successive hours!

in the translation; so I got the

lished; there I

etc.

to another

having paddled a canoe up the Mississippi

This was so monstrous,

it

and animals,

the 9th he reached the Arkansas, and on

rate of seventeen miles

found

trees,

by and by came

what do you think

morning of the 12th, was it,

and

I

first

had examined;

I

found

Crevecoeur, the fact of

nearly reaching the Mississippi upon the 7th of March,

and that he was there ice-bound

till

the 12th.

Then came

PERKINS’ DISCOURSE. the journey up the river, and

gone one hundred and

fifty

upon

279

the 12th of April, he had

leagues, five leagues a day, a fair

day’s journey in a canoe, where the object was to

And

make

and probably true account

into the midst of this consistent

our reverend narrator dares

another by which

to interpolate

My

he performs the wonders already narrated.

next inquiry

was, as to the source whence Hennepin drew the names, of his forged journal, for so

considered in the

To

it.

Upon comparing

etc.

learn this,

same year

Hen-

that

1697, and professedly written by Fonti,

lieutenant.

Salle’s I

I

examined the journal published

I

nepin’s was,

dis-

headway; and then comes his capture.

coveries, rather than

La

with Hennepin’s,

this

found the most curious coincidences; for instance,

La

Salle

an Indian village near the Ohio, in 1683, and the

visited

Hennepin

inhabitants could not be found?

says, that in 1680

he visited the place, and the inhabitants could not be found. Again, in ’83, it,

La

Salle

came

to a deserted

Hennepin, three years before says it

was

deserted, but entering

had just been a

for there

it,

battle:

that

he visited

by

not given

Fonti.

Taking

battle.

this place,

and

he found dead bodies there, and so on.

nation named, nor an important fact given is

town, and entering

found dead bodies there, there having just been a

There

is

not a

by Hennepin,

that

these things together, I

all

could not but consider the want of authenticity in Hennepin as demonstrated.

Finding

it

so clear that

cross-questioning,

I

men had

determined

taken this writer without

to

look closer

This journal was, many years

journal.

at

Fonti’s

since, re-published

by the New York Historical Society, as genuine; and what was much more in its favor, John Q. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, at different times, relied upon it in their correspondence with the Spanish ministers relative

found that Charlevoix called tions

seemed

of them, little

I

to

found

me to

it

a

to

our western claims.

mere

fiction,

I

but his objec-

without weight, and the most important

be a mistake of his own; so that

of what he said.

At

last,

I

thought

however, in an old book of

280

TRANSACTIONS, ETC. found a reference

travels, I

himself, that he wrote the is

who

given by Charlevoix,

from whose

letter

to

two

volume says

by Fonti

distinct denials

in question:

one of these

was made

to Ibberville,

it

he probably quoted; the other

found

is

recorded in a letter written in 1712, by Marrest, one of the

who

founders of Kaskaskia,

volume

cite these cases,

I

says Fonti directly denied the

him.

to

gentlemen, to show

how much

is to

be

done by you toward ascertaining the true records of western history, for these lie at the outset,

them we have La

on the threshold.

Next

and of

Hennepin

Salle’s third voyage;

this

to

gave a second-hand account, which has been copied by writers as

genuine, though in some respects,

who was

from that given by Joutel;

whom we

have every reason

differs

it

entirely

with La Salle, and upon

to rely.

To

work

Joutel’s

I

have seen but a single reference by a western writer, and he

With regard

despatches his volume in six or eight lines. the settlements at Kaskaskia,

we have

error

upon

Cahokia and Vincennes,

error in our works.

For

instance,

to

also,

Volney

says Vincennes was settled in 1735, and Bishop Brute dates it

back

and

who

to 1700: but Vivier,

who names

all

who went

Charlevoix,

St. Vincents;

1725, makes no mention of in

a

wrote from

the western settlements,

it.

Illinois in

through the west about

in his text or

on his map; and

volume of memoirs upon the west, printed

1753, though the

Wabash

is

1750,

says nothing of

described, nothing

is

in Paris

in

said of St.

Vincents, or any place upon that river; but in a pamphlet of

1755, in

we

find an account of the settlement of St. Vincents,

1750 and 1754,

went

in

which

And had

there.

to errors of

more or

upon western

last year, three

hundred families

gentlemen,

might refer you

I time,

less

history.

I

importance in almost every writer It

is

true,

a writer erring in dates, facts,

we soon

may seem when we find

these dates

unimportant, and in themselves they are; but

begin to fear he will err in

and one falsehood, intentional or unintentional,

history,

is

in

a

a disease or a malformation in a living body, and

perkins’ discourse. is

281

important for the very reason that history should he alive

and not dead.

Chronology

is

but a naked skeleton, but

the

if

bones be awry, the muscles and movement will be awry. is

a

good

test that a history is full of living spirit, that

dates are

ugly:

tangled, and facts uncertain,

— you can cover

skin of a lion,

own bones Be

it

to the

It

where

becomes lame and

it

wooden clothes horse with the stuffed and make it look decent, but only the lion’s a

can be covered with his living muscles.

part of your labor, then, gentlemen, to give certainty

facts

of our western annals; let works be critically

scanned by you, and results carefully embodied; so that when, in the fulness of time, a

power

may

him those minute facts without which his power

find for

little traits

gifted

that

from on high with

march

it

again, he

he will want, those

will be vain;

whole and perfect as may

the great skeleton, I

man comes

dead past, and make

to raise this

have thus, gentlemen, briefly and feebly

— and

also

be. set forth

what

I

regard as two of the great objects of your society; the preservation of the minute details, the anecdotes and incidents, and illustrations of

western history; and next, the ascertainment of

the undoubted truth so far as that can be done.

But some may ask, answer enough, recalling past

the pursuit of

why

I think, to

The

life.

what

will do this, and do

all

this

say that

labor?

man

purest utilitarian contends but for

will give pleasure, it

better than

But

sought ravenously.

would be

It

takes pleasure in

I

am

many

— and

true history

things that are

give pleasure merely; and so I say, that to look at

has been,

may help

now

not content with what will

to purify, raise

man

and encourage us.

as

he

When

the renegade Girty gave every energy to the defence of his

old friend Kenton, he did that for the time, but

which not only ennobled him

which may ennoble us

too;

may make

think better of the criminal, and hope for more from the len.

When Kenton

he thought he had

fell

killed,

upon

the neck of the

us fal-

man whom

and wept to find that he was not a

murderer, he showed that a deep sense of right was acting

36

TRANSACTIONS, etc.

282

may often

within him, which if

man

up

to

wounded

the

bring us comfort

When

have such a sense.

when we doubt

Harrison gave his horse

British officer after the battle of ,the

Thames, he gave us an example of mercy and manliness

may

that

help every one of us in every week’s experience.

But the history of a country alone, but of it also: of

having a west,

life

of

Now

own.

its

not the account of

is

as a great social

it

central

self-rule;

is

its

men

political being,

the principle of

and in Ohio emphatically,

this principle as the

and

life

in the

nowhere had

one of the social and

political

unity called a state or people, been seen fully acting until

Ohio was social,

In the old world,

settled.

not been seen to this day; and in or less of the feudal spirit tion,

self-rule,

political

unembarrassed by feudal or servile habits of

nor are

all

our Atlantic

life,

states,

was ever found before

and has

more

the revolu-

marks yet gone; and through the whole south,

its

the servile element prevented the full operation of the princi-

man

ple of self-rule: no

that governs others as a lord, can be,

what he

socially speaking,

is

who

governs none but himself;

other faculties, other wishes, other views are brought out in the hereditary lord from those

true democratic socially equal

which come

In Ohio, then, was

independent man.

the habit of looking the opinions of the

up

man

—

all

political differences

So

to

first,

here w^ere

states;

first

arose in feudal times;

some family

or place, of following

I

springing from that family, or holding

on in certain beaten tracks of thought,

that place; of going

nent mark.

merely

founded a nearly

community; here men were from the

compared with the older

none of those many habits which

action, feeling,

forth in the

first

these things were not; and the slight

made by

that I

,

the ordinances, left no perma-

do not doubt that Ohio,

when she

became a state, was the truest democracy which had yet existed. as a state;

How

—

for

deeply interesting then, the record of her it is

a record of

men

uniting on a

new

life

central

i

principle to form a living people; and every fact, every law,

every demonstration of public feeling, every change of public j

283

perkins’ discourse.

opinion, in short, every exhibition of the living force which is

carrying this state, Ohio, on

deepest interest, the

last

good or

to

evil,

of the

is

We know' not the value

importance.

of these things, their very nearness hides their proportion to

our eye, and great and small seem alike,

— we do not

circumference and scope of any thing.

But,

see the

by and by,

the

proportions and relations of these things will be seen, and

it

should be our wish and aim to transmit to the future, true records of what has been, and daily state,

—

the

strong,

of the founders of our

is;

Putnam,

blunt

—

the

rash

hopeful,

Symmes; of the resistance of our people to the United States Bank in former days, of their acquiescence in the judgment of the United States Supreme Court; of the abolition excitement; the riots at Cincinnati in 1836; the demand for Mahan; the change of political parties from last to this year; short,

show

of every fact which goes to

—

in

the progress or

regress of this self-ruling people, the rise or decline of the

democratic principles.

We cannot

keep

it

too

much

gentlemen, that the history of this American Union centuries hence, be, in

man and

political

all

speculator; the

whole European world as each passes

state of tutilage to that of self-control,

and will ask

from year

to

their benefit.

how we

it

will turn

is

from the

its

eyes to

sped; let us be willing to lay

by

year our mite of knowledge and experience for

And

let

us not trust to newspapers to carry the

record of facts to the future, but files,

some

probability, the text-book of states-

moving toward self-government, and us,

in mind,

will,

may

each year add to your

gentlemen, written accounts of whatever acts and public

events of interest and importance have taken place within the year.

In times of great excitement,

journals, and

memoranda enough,

and quiet are about

it is

w e have memoirs and when peace, and plenty, r

us, that individuals cease to note the signs

and changes, and the year passes by

silently, leaving

no warn-

ing or cheering voice for the future. But, gentlemen, history

is

not written only to give us

pleasure, or to place before us instances of excellence, or to

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

284

teach political and social lessons to us and our followers;

has an office higher than any or the

ways

God

of

all

in the direction of

considered, history

is

—

of these,

human

slightly, but

when

it

it

reveals

affairs; rightly

the record of a revelation.

that in the events of this year, or this century,

His hand but

for

It is true,

we may

trace

a few centuries are gone, the

chaos will become order, and in the far-reaching, ever-heaving

mass of human

affairs,

—

as

in

and tumultuous

the wild

bow

thunder clouds which have rolled past us, the

A

Almighty will be seen. weather from day

might well doubt it

to

to day,

if

any

of the

being that should watch the

and

live

but a few spring weeks,

hand guided

father’s

and adapted

it,

man’s want; heat and cold, wet and dry, the clear sky

and the sweeping storm succeed each other without

visible

law or purpose; and yet the whole year shows us the seed-

summer and

time and harvest, season, and

all

we, in the great

for the

in its

And

social year of the world, are living but a

few spring days or hours;

when

coming

good of man.

winter, each

working together

—

the spring of that year

Christ came; there have been bitter

March winds

and drowning April showers, and even yet there and there a will roll

on and perfect

all tell

anemone peeping up; itself in

due time:

phenomena of our day,

to record the

will

or

violet

—

is

— but

let

it

came since,

but here that year

be our task

confident that they

our followers of their Almighty Father.

At pre-

we look too much in history, to second causes; unable, as we are, to explain the great mystery of human will and divine guidance, we turn our eyes from the divine guidance;

sent

and history, instead of revealing, hides the hand of God.

But

I

would urge

matter well;

whereby

it

upon every

we need

in this

Christian

man

to consider this

country to use every means

to preserve reverence, for if that fail,

be soon dead.

By

freedom will

our holidays, which should be in truth

holy days, and on which the virtues and nobleness of our great predecessors should be kept before us as incitements to

veneration

— and

the care of

God

be dwelt on for the same

285

perkins’ discourse. end; by the facts of such a

life

as that of

Washington, whose

time of birth, whose education, whose physical, intellectual, moral, economical, political and sectional position,

him it

for his place,

for seeing;

by

—

all

as clearly as the formation of the

the great mysteries

the whole course of past time;

us inculcate reverence,

fitted

eye

fits

of His rule, as seen in

by these and every means,

— reverence

for

God,

let

for truth, for

purity.

Each humble,

may

of us has his sphere, and in that sphere, however

may

be a teacher;

— and

have chosen a foremost post in

this great

you stand before the world, not merely

You, gentlemen,

work of as the

education;

collectors of

annals, the chroniclers of events, the recorders of dates; are

more than

this,

ministers of the lation.

Keep

— you

are, little

as

mind, and amid the

you

most of us heed

Most High, recorders of His perpetual

this in

we

acting one with another,

be teachers also, of the highest truths.

roll

it,

reve-

of business and

the shouts of political parties, and religious sects; amid the

sneers of the worldly, and the taunts of the ignorant, you

may go calmly on in a spirit of truth, love and faith, noting down those varying events which, in spite of man’s evil passions,

mark Him without

ground.”

whom

“not

a sparrow falleth to the

AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF POLITICAL COMMUNITIES, DELIVERED BEFORE THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO, DECEMBER 22 1837 BY JAMES T. WORTHINGTON. ,

Gentlemen, of the Historical and Philosophical Society:

— To

trace the progress of

from their small and feeble beginnings, tions of

globe

—

communities of men, to those vast

combina-

power and science which have overshadowed to

develop their secret springs of action

of their prosperity and decline

— and thence

which

for the guidance of states

—

the

the causes

to derive lessons

are running the

same

career;

these teachings are the province of history alone.

Her

periods,

to the geologist

compared with the spaces of time indicated

by

the records of the earth’s surface, dwindle

into insignificance;

and even, when closely scanned, bear not

that proportion to

man’s brief existence which her crowded

pages would

at first

seem

to indicate.

The

united ages of

three-score individuals, not greatly advanced in years,

reach nations

back of

crowded the

to

the earliest

Yet,

antiquity. fate

would

authentic history of the oldest

within that brief

space

are

of vast empires, nay, whole races of men,

who, obeying the universal law of progress which marks ,

the

works of the Creator subject

successfully rolled

onward

ever substantially the same It is

but too

common

to

human

observation, have

— ever — of advancement and

in their course

to neglect

varying, yet

decay.

and undervalue the lessons

of history, under the erroneous impression that the political

form of the government under which

we

live is so

different

from any heretofore existing; that conclusions drawn from the annals of other nations, and particularly of nations removed

by any considerable time

or space, are false and delusive.

—

Worthington’s essay.

To

287

the attentive student of history, however, the popular

customs and

spirit of society

among some

nations of very

remote antiquity, will present a closer parallel than any

phon of leader,

now

in existence.

to

our own,

In the account given by Xeno-

we

the retreat of the ten thousand,

whenever any important step

is to

find the

Grecian

be taken, appealing

manner much more own country, than those of the from which we derive our ancestry. Sim-

decision to the popular voice, in a

for

resembling the usages of our

European nations ilar

analogies

may

be found, during the periods of republican

ascendancy, in other of the Grecian In

fact, the

men,

members

as

appealed are

few

to, to

in

states,

great leading principles

and in Rome.

which operate upon

of political communities, and which are

preserve the coherence of political masses,

number, and every where essentially the same,

although infinitely varied in their combinations and results; the chief and absorbing ones being liberty, religion, and honor,

or the love of personal distinction.

These three great spirits have, from time immemorial, “ moved upon the face of the waters,” and directed the course and elevation of each succeeding

wave of human pop-

ulation.

By

attentive consideration of the operation

of these, the

we may draw

useful lessons

chief causes of political action,

from

past time, and learn the tendency of agents

all

work amongst

us, to

now

at

be identically the same they were thou-

sands of years ago, subject however, to that great law of progression, to which

God,

is

subject, in his

man,

as well as

moral and

the other

works of

intellectual, as well as

phys-

ical condition. It

the object of this essay, to endeavor, from the pages

is

of history, to develop the operation of this law of progress, in relation to the three great motives

which

I

have adverted.

my study to sustained

of political action to

In performing this task,

it

shall be

avoid drawing conclusions which are not entirely

by authentic

history, convinced

that

this

mode.

288

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

although liable to the objection of leaving voids in the connections I seek to sustain,

is far

by

theories not fully established

And

first I

would observe,

power of these

better than the substitution of historical facts.

as an evidence of the controlling

principles, that the wild and frantic excesses,

inducing crime, and misery, and bloodshed, into which communities of men, in

stages of civilization, from the rudest

all

j

most polished, and under

to the

from the most ted,

all

forms of government,

most despotic, have been

free to the

precipita-

have uniformly arisen from the over action of one or the

other of them, and the debasement and decay of states, have

been produced by the want of due

as uniformly

same

the

me

Let

tendency

be understood, also, as speaking of their

—

their influence

examine the operation,

by our Him, mid

upon masses of men.

for

which leads us

Creator,

adore

the form of government to

exhibited in history,

swaying the minds and

stood,

when used

wills of

when speaking

as

which

to

I

wish

to

and

tends, as

it

an engine of

state, for

their alle-

be under-

of the influence of the principles of

personal honor, in banding

liberty and

wish

reverence

to

men, and securing

In the same sense

giance to their rulers.

political I

example, of the sentiments im-

planted

it is

activity in

principles.

men

together in the

support of their government.

The want

of attention to the distinction between the prin-

ciple of action, and the form

power

to

accomplish

its

it

has assumed,

purposes, has led

when used by men of great

acquirements and philosophical minds, into grave and dangerous errors.

always tend

The

religious sentiment,

to purify

our nature from

when

evil,

by

left free to act

elevating our

thoughts and aspirations to a pure and perfect Being. indeed, the only one of these sentiments

independent of society, though eminently social in dency.

Its universal

social condition, has all

It is,

which can

existence in man, whatever

its

may

exist ten-

be his

been called in question by a few; yet ;

the records of history confirm the individual experience of

!

Worthington’s essay. ns

that

all,

versal.

it is

It is

which the savage

is

a stranger, nor an error of the savage,

man

civilised

distinguish this sentiment

have been reduced bold, bad

the basis of religion

by man

men used

name of their Creator. human life the most

—

ferocious destruction of

— have

when

religion as an engine of state, and dicta-

disgusting obscenities obligations

the

God,

against the laws of

to a system, and enforced as duties,

ted to their fellow creatures in the

The most

— from

cannot be denied that the great-

it

est crimes ever perpetrated

Yet must we

can free himself.

—

has assumed, for

it

indestructable and uni-

a sentiment innate,

neither the discovery of the civilised man, to

from which the

forms

289

all

—

the most daring violations of sacred

sought

only look to what India

its

holy sanctions.

We

need

now, and what has been the

is

history even of a great portion of the Christian world, to

The

confirm these truths.

sentiments of liberty and honor

have been equally abused and perverted, although they, too, are

among

the

most precious

gifts

of our Creator, and, next

most powerful agents

to the religious feeling, the

in

man’s

moral and intellectual elevation.

Let us

now endeavor

to trace the progress of these senti-

successfully assume in various

ments, and the form they

stages of society, and, in doing this, let us carefully distin-

guish the periods

at

which

certain forms first appear,

from

the claims to antiquity of innovators.

For

it

is

a principle of our nature to reverence

the venerable sanction of

new

time,

and those

who

what has introduce

doctrines, seek always the support of antiquity.

bonzes years

—

society disciples

of China the

count

their

modern philosopher

with subtleties he of

has

Mormon have

hundreds

The

of thousands

of

invests the earliest ages of

himself invented; and the

golden book of ancient

their

times. I

have already expressed

my

conviction that the feeling

of reverence for a superior Being irrepressible sentiment, the

37

is

germ of

innate in

his future

man.

This

improvement,

290 is

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

found even among the most barbarous

however, in his ignorance and grossness,

more elevated

Unable,

tribes.

comprehend a

to

object of worship, the imagination of the sav-

age invests a block of wood, a stone, a bunch of feathers, or

some other at

material substance, with those powers

which

are

once the object of his dread and his desire, and pays his

rude adoration to this his Manitoo.

This, the

own

denizens of our

first

and most

now found among the and among the least civilised of

imperfect form of religious worship, forests,

is

the tribes of Africa.

This, and not that pure

Supreme Being,

spiritual

worship of one

men, which

fanciful philoso-

and

the ruler over

all

phers have assumed as the religion of the savage,

utmost elevation to which his

the

is

faculties in their primitive

con-

dition can attain.

By

degrees, as the ties of family

become

family adopt the Manitoo of their chief.

whole

closer, the

One

step has been

taken, and an important one, in the social relations of

and traces of

this early

men,

form of religious worship are found,

We

long after a higher and better religion has succeeded. find them,

not only in the penates , or household gods

of

Greece, and those described in Genesis as the property of

Laban; but also in the banshee of Ireland, and the tutelary spirits

presiding over families, such as gave a foundation for

Walter Scott’s beautiful and Glas, and the

In the progress of society one nity of chief, and

or spirit ,

becomes the Manitoo of

by attaching the

feelings

The

man

its

is

elevated to the dig-

is selfish,

his tribe or nation.

but a great advance

Still, is

made

ideas of family and nations to a sentiment

purity and freedom, elevates and ennobles

and relations with which savage

shade

his Manitoo, or after his death, his

however, this worship

which, in

Bodach

thrilling creations of the

White Lady of Avenel.

still

it is

supposes the Manitoo of his

hostile to all other tribes,

and

to the

all

the

tribe to

be

connected.

Manitoos of other

tribes,

of which however he recognizes the existence, though sup-

.

Worthington’s essay.

291

posing them to be malignantly disposed towards himself and

This form of the religious sentiment, therefore,

his nation. is

still

and imperfect, though

selfish

Commencing

as

we have

sphere

its

is

enlarged

seen with the fetish of the African,

and the medicine-stone of the aboriginal American, the

which guards over

the individual alone,

session, to the exclusion of

endearing

to those

first,

all

ties

others,

who

its

holds

sphere

of family, the

first

is

it

idol

in pos-

extended*

communities

formed under the protection of household gods, and next,

is

interwoven with the feeling of patriotism or attachment

to

country and nation. I

do not assume that

this

is

always the exact advance of

the development of the religious sentiment, or that individuals

among savage better

tribes

may

not have glimpses of a purer and

form of religion, than that which surrounds them.

the early history, even of those nations

advanced in

civilisation,

those which

now

show

and an

which

impartial

are

Yet

now most

examination of

exist in a savage or barbarous state, will

that the advance of religious ideas, is almost

always

exact proportion to the other powers of the mind, where

in

reli-

gious colonies and missionaries have not intervened to accelerate

its

progress.

One remarkable tory.

the shepherd state, light abroad

its

exception, and one alone,

we

find in his-

There has been one people, but little advanced beyond which professed pure theism, and spread

among

other nations far more advanced than

themselves in civilisation.

That people was the Jews, and

the student of history will at once acknowledge,

by compar-

ing the religion they professed with that of other nations, in

corresponding

stages

of general

advance, in this respect,

any

is

intelligence,

that

their

so great as to bear no analogy to

other.

We

find,

however, that the disproportion which existed

between the pure theism professed by the Jews, and

their

imperfect civilisation, was the principal cause of the dissensions

which

agitated that people, and of the crimes

which

292

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

crowd

This

annals.

its

is

nominally

more

particularly remarkable during

even that portion which remained

the reign of her kings, faithful to the

worship of their

fathers.

After the separation of Israel and Judah, twenty kings

reigned in Judah and Benjamin, and of these, fourteen were

worshippers of

and, so far as

idols;

we

can learn, with the

complete assent of the majority of their people.

when

the

Jews were

faithful to their ancient

was only

worship, to which they were then

even when their masters commanded them

true,

upon

their imperfect civilisation caused

and rendered them insensible

idolatry,

to

At other times, the grossness of ideas

strange gods. ant

It

captives in foreign lands, that they were

them

serve attend-

to lapse into

to the precious deposit

confided to them, of the most perfect form of religion then

upon

existing

earth,

and which they were

to preserve for the

regeneration of other ages and distant lands.

Imperfectly as

they understood and practiced their religion, they the only nation which, in

its

early

theism; and those philosophers

are, I repeat,

stages, professed pure

who would

tear

down

the

existing forms of religious worship, for the purpose of substituting, in their

must

society,

stead, the

first

religion of the ruder

narrow the capacities of

civilised

stages

of

men, and

then render them selfish and brutal. *

It is a

was

common

delusion, with the builders of theories, and

particularly so about the close of the last century, to sup-

pose that the sentiment and practice of liberty are found in their greatest perfection in the savage state;

tion

is

made by them,

imperfect notions of

for the

mankind

advancing

civilisation.

The man,

assump-

to their

own

will

show

But here,

also, the universal

that both usually advance with

sentiment of liberty, as understood by the civilised that feeling

is

submit

this

the operation of this noble principle,

the sanction of former times. history of

— and

purpose of giving

to,

satisfied

which prompts man

to

demand, and

to

— being more; — and

an equality of rights with his fellow man;

with no

less,

and demanding no

to

293

Worthington’s essay. require unrestrained freedom in

those pursuits which do

all

—

not trench upon the well-being of others,

This

is the*

first

impulse

feeling as

it

exists

advanced

in

wishes of the individual, without regard natural impulse

happiness

is

is

man

followed until

best attained

—

civilisation

by consulting

and

to others,

learns that his

its

and

the selfish wants

the gratification of

is

the best exposi-

American independence.

tion extant being the declaration of

this

own

the good of others as

well as his own. In the savage

state,

man

which he has not learned

the plaything of the elements

is

to control,

which, in a more advanced

beasts,

and the prey of wild

state,

he

destined to

is

His animal wants, daily recurring and scantily sup-

subdue.

plied, control his will

with a despotism which the most refined

tyranny could not excel; and, to crown the whole, beyond

enemy everywhere

the limits of his tribe, he meets an

fellow-savage.

roam

to

death

Thus, even his physical

constrained and controled,

at will, is

—

the last and

most dreadful

sternest tyranny can enforce

This

by

is

the

first

and

authentic history.

on our

New

frontiers,

liberty, his

its

is

and in the

the terror of

by which

the

decrees.

which man

earliest state in

He

by

alternative

in his

freedom

found still

is

described

in this state in the forests

ruder stages of society in

Holland, where he roams the woods like a beast of prey,

without cultivating the earth, or subjugating domestic animals to his uses. It is, therefore,

a real step towards liberty ,

commence

when communi-

cultivating the earth,

although almost

always accompanied by domestic slavery.

In the earlier

ties

first

stage, before the tillage of the earth,

and the care of domestic

animals have taught the value of labor,

man

man

sees in his fellow

a destroyer of the produce of the forest, the scanty field

whence

his

means of existence

therefore, can be gained

are derived.

by making

the feelings of humanity are yet too

support an useless burden.

No

advantage,

enemy his captive, and weak to induce him to

his

But, as the value of labor in the

294

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

tillage

of the earth and the rearing of domestic animals, and

also the kindly feelings of

society, captivity

humanity, advance with advancing

and domestic servitude, instead of death, are

the lot of the vanquished.

As men congregate

whole

in larger masses, a

tribe

becomes

the captives of another, and political servitude, the hard but

necessary prelude to political liberty,

am

If I

established.

is

correct, then, in tracing the progress, in

dawn, of the feeling which secures rational liberty in a

more advanced

to

man

stage of society,

subdues the savage impulse of destruction in man, by

him

it first

teaching

to introduce into his family, as a slave, the captive

in earlier stages of society, to secure

is

first

its

the blessings of

who,

destroyed, and next impels

and enlarge the liberty of his

own tribe, by

him

the sub-

jugation of the tribes in his vicinity.

Low

—

may seem, unworthy man is capable, yet

and feeble as these advances

may

as they

are they substantial gains

upon

the

stages of savage

first

not, indeed, as seen in the fancies of poets

sophers,

—

be of the state of which

who

life;

and poetical philo-

seek the dim twilight of the rudest periods of

society to display the pictures of their heated imaginations,

but as they are uniformly exhibited by history, the teacher of

philosophy by

The

feeling

and examples.

facts

which prompts men

tion, is

not less imperfect in

indeed,

more nearly

feelings

purely

be

we have

selfish,

allied

to

it

impels

developments.

self than

and

considered,

though

seek honor and distinc-

to

its earliest

first

to society,

It is,

either of the other

developments are

where alone

it

can

gratified.

The

savage exhibits his tawdry finery, and the sculls and

scalps of the enemies he has slain, as

and disdains

to associate

his imaginary honors.

emblems of

any one, even

Though

his dignity,

his nearest relatives, in

his wife be a slave,

and his

children and his tribe in poverty and wretchedness, this derogates nothing in his estimation of self,

and, in him, the limit of this feeling.

always the centre,

—

Worthington’s essay.

An

my

instance in point

An

hearers.

is

no doubt already familiar

feasted to his heart’s

importance

to the

he dispensed,

cities,

admiring pale-faces, he

in the

his host

the table for a

closely.

will be recognised as such,

Family

pride,

is

the strongest from this,

which

This

of savage

not

man-

who have observed

some

instances, perhaps

Beyond

sentiment assumes.

this

and is

all

by

the next, and in

trait

who

honors,

his

in

an isolated instance, but a characteristic

and

which

food,

wife and children,

to his

street,

left

some broken

returned with great dignity, to resume his place.

ners,

of

where he was honored and

were allowed no nearer participation

them

many

After displaying his airs of

content.

few minutes, procured from i

to

Indian chief was recently invited to a public

entertainment in one of our

!

295

most of the nations of Europe have not advanced,

though the sentiment of honor has, perhaps, been the leading element in combining together nearly

The

nities of that continent.

all

the existing

commu-

glory of a long line of ances-

j

tors, the

coat-of-arms of sixteen quarterings, are considered

objects of sufficient importance to satisfy this sentiment in

modern Europe, and we must look

when

this feeling

noble and elevated form.

:

|i

rian,”

“lam

mere family

a citizen of

!

— “ Homo

Roman sum

puto,” was always hailed, ancient

which to i

race

“I am Rome.”

These

and not a Barba-

are titles to

The

nihil

when

humanum me

which

yet more

dramatist, including the

et

Rome, with shouts of a celebrated writer of

a Greek,

low and mean.

distinctions appear

noble sentiment of the

human

to ancient times, to see

took a wider range, and assumed a more

whole

alienum

uttered in the theatres of

applause;

— an

enthusiasm

England professes himself unable

understand, although he would have comprehended, with-

out difficulty, the emotion produced

appeal

to the effigies

by Chatham’s

celebrated

of a long line of ancestors, depicted on

the walls of the senate house. I

have endeavored

great motives of

to trace the usual progress of the three

human

action

—

religion, liberty

and honor

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

296 from their

when

appearance in communities, until the period

first

the history of a nation

To

native writers.

not considered the

usually

is

more clearness

give

me

to refer to

The

views,

— conquests,

modes of contact between

of civilisation.

my

I

have

produced by several disturbing

effects

causes which frequently intervene other

compiled by

first

to

colonies, and

nations in different stages

limits of a single essay will not allow

examples, which history offers in abundance,

of a most striking coincidence, in their modes of progression

and the forms they assume of advancement, even

—

when

in nations at the

same periods

separated by wide portions of

time and space.

Commencing with

which admits of no

a spirit of egotism

participation, they are gradually extended

and nation, or

relations of family

time,

may

political

tribe;

embrace the

to

and then,

for the first

communities be considered as being estab-

The

lished on a permanent and enduring basis.

power and cohesion

are

now

collected,

and on

nation and direction, depend the happiness of

elements of their

man

combi-

as a social

being.

Let us

now examine

their usual progress

In the early stage of society qualities of

body and 'mind

and tendency.

now considering, those which fit men for the primitive we

are

occupations of war and hunting, or the lofty pretensions of the magician to penetrate into futurity and to are

what

awe of Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, admiration and

attract the

ant multitude. tary law-givers,

who

appealed

to the

work

miracles,

the rude and ignorare

names of

soli-

sense of liberty, and

founded governments on the principles of justice and

an

number of

the

among any

equality of right, citizens,

while

we

have hosts of conquerors and prophets,

whose names have been

deified as the founders

and have established their It is a

considerable

own

curious inquiry to ascertain

ally the earliest in attaining

rous state; and

it

of empires,

arbitrary will as the law.

which of these

power among nations

will, perhaps,

are usu-

in a barba-

be found to depend rather

Worthington’s essay.

upon

297

auspices,

it is

and wise,

to

when

When

common

for the priesthood, as the

some

man

Ohio

we

river,

Tecumseh

—

ultimately entrusted collect, I

was

am

whom

—

induced

who

the master-spirit

all

the western tribes, from the

which overlook the

who hunt

the

on the boundless savannahs of Mexico and Texas.

buffalo

may

be, therefore, and probably

which we have undervalued,

ment of power among savages. established amidst

is is

its

one of the instances are

apt to do,) the

grosser form, as an ele-

When, however,

war and conquest, the

a govern-

principle of

cement of power, and many nations have

the chief

their fabulous

is,

we

(as

force of the religious sentiment in

honor

can

collected together, at a great reli-

sources of the Oregon, to the rude chivalry

ment

was

I

to believe that his brother, the prophet,

inhabitants of the snow-clad mountains

in

as the chief

the execution of the design

from the best information

yet,

gious festival, the chiefs of

This

thirty years to the east of

are accustomed to regard, to

even

state,

In the banding

warlike.

is

ago, with the object of driving the white

actor,

most learned

have the ascendancy, in the incipient

ultimate character

its

formed under peaceful

together of the western tribes of Indians,

the

upon any

the circumstances of the state formed, than

regular order of progression.

Hercules for a founder, although the religious

sentiment and the principles of liberty and justice are usually recognised, to tribe

which

The honor

some extent

establishes

its

at least,

among

object of the tribe, however, is

the warrior

also, the feeling

and conquest,

is

when removed by

or demi-gods of his tribe.

sentiment of honor,

times subordinate,

government.

—

It is,

38

a

power; the model of

To

the horrors of

him,

war

seek for happiness and justice, looks for death from the scene of

action, the feeling of veneration admits

The

members of

representative of power.

which prompts man, amid

to

protection; and

— the

the

dominion over others.

him among

— sometimes

predominant, some-

enters into the composition of

however, important

the deities

all

to consider

human

its

form

298

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

and tendency, as when operating as the controling power. It

assumes that there are a few only, in every nation, capable

of governing, and rallies the mass of a victorious tribe around a chief,

whose wisdom and

sessed

of those qualities which

He,

mand.

among

his

shown him

valor have fit

him

to

be pos-

supreme com-

for

in turn, as the fountain of honor, selects

those

subjects,

and attachment

whose

to his person,

in sustaining his

show them

from

and achievements,

talents

to

be most efficient

power, and the glory and strength of their

nation.

The most

perfect form this principle has ever

chivalric ages, pire.

Its

which succeeded the

natural tendency

aristocracy.

It

is

assumed was,

system, established during the early

probably, the feudal

the

most

is to

fall

of the

Roman em-

a monarchy, or a military

efficient

and enduring engine of

conquest ever employed by power, and

therefore,

is,

always

the governing principle of a warlike people, after the conquest

of nations inferior to them in energy rather than in numbers.

Then

whole race of conquerors

the

ranks of nobility.

constitute the various

In our sense of the word, there

is

no

people; and domestic or political slavery, or both, are the lot

of the vanquished.

Traces of

this are

years, the

Norman up

—

yet found in England,

ernment of Europe, where,

after a lapse of

mass of the nobility derive

conquerors.

to the revolution of

The same

the freest gov-

near a thousand

their ancestry

from the

division existed in France

1798, and the horrors of that bloody

drama were greatly aggravated, by the

fact that

the ancient

nobility claimed to be of a distinct race; and, in their

palmy

days, had boasted their descent from the conquering Franks, in distinction Italians,

who

from the descendants of ancient Gauls and constituted the tiers etat

—

the

mass of the

population. It

has already been observed, that the principle of honor

is

admirably calculated, as the basis of governments sustained

by

force.

It is,

therefore, suited to those conditions of society

Worthington’s essay.

where and

tribes differing in race, in language, in religion

in civilisation,

When

produced by a union under one

the jarring elements,

government of

299

can be reduced

to

order

by

force alone.

these elements of disorder exist, and have

come

into

actual collision, appeals to religion and equal rights are

no

of

and nothing but a consciousness of power on the

avail,

one part and weakness on the other, can produce peace and order; and out of peace and order alone, religion and liberty

A

can grow and flourish.

government founded upon the

principle of honor, requires the exclusion of the participation

descent,

in

power, which

in

the hands

is

perpetuated,

mass from

by hereditary

few, and sustained

of the

by

the

principle of honor in the governors, and fear in the governed.

Force, however,

is

but a rude engine of power; and, with the

advance of ideas in the mass, produced by peace and order, the defects of a form of government sustained

by

force are

soon obvious.

The the

support of -an aristocracy, in power and opulence, by of a whole nation,

toil

as a

is felt

and degrading; and the more

burden

at

once onerous

so, after hereditary succession

has transmitted the power of the state to individuals

unequal

to the task of

the state, is

when

the

government.

still,

A new

power

who

are

arises in

small voice of religion and justice

no longer drowned by the din of arms.

The power

representatives of the highest intellectual and moral in the state are the priesthood.

— sometimes by governed — sometimes by made,

and

often,

the governors

without an

the rulers

effort

on

is

appeals are

by

the

of contending nations,

their part, they are raised to

be the real arbiters of the destinies of

nominal power

To them

— sometimes states,

even

when

the

in other hands.

now examine the form and tendency of the sacerwhen the religious sentiment is used for sustaining the temporal power of the priesthood, and we shall Let us

dotal government,

again find a remarkable coincidence in the tenets held and the

300

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

may have been

practices adopted, whatever

the form of

reli-

gion and government.

assumes that the object of the world, and of

It

things,

is

rulers are

the accomplishment of the divine will;

created

—

that all

mere depositories of power derived from the gods,

and have a right

to the

obedience of their fellow-men, only

— and

so far as they themselves obey the divine will; that the only

true organs

who

the priesthood,

are

all

lastly,

and interpreters of the divine will from

derive their authority either

direct inspiration, like the priestess of Apollo, or

from being

the only true and infallible expounders of sacred writings, as

was claimed by

The

first

Rome.

the priesthood of the church of

of these assumptions appeals to a sentiment of

our nature, the most universal as well as the most ennobling gift

by

of our Creator, and

truth

its

is,

therefore,

acknowledged

all.

The

falsehood of the system lies in the concluding assump-

man assuming

tion, in

one

equals,

and establishing, on a sentiment which

frail

divine right to rule over his

pure and

is

holy, a system of fraud and imposture.

The tendency

of an ecclesiastical government invested with

supreme temporal command lute infallibility; lar sentiment,

—

it

which

is

to

frail

based on abso-

It is

fallible like their fellows,

restraint arising

w ith r

and

in the

from responsibility

to

It is

It

would

hands of

men

whole-

destitute of the

popular feeling,

soon produces a most shocking perversion of

right and wrong.

the popu-

intellect or morals, for that

condemn what preceded, and being

and

some it

obvious.

repressed as unholy and profane.

can allow of no progress in

be

is

admits of no compromise

all

ideas of

needless to multiply instances from

history of this tendency in ecclesiastical corporations invested

with temporal power.

Let us rather render them the justice,

so often denied them, of saying that they have often been the refuge of the

weak and oppressed, whom no

other

power

could save; and that, while keeping the mass in darkness

and ignorance, they have, among themselves, preserved and

Worthingtons’ essay.

sum

increased the

of

human knowledge,

301

as a light to lead to

improvement and happiness.

future

Rome,

This, is particularly true of the church of modern

which, of

all

whose

similar governments

history has been

recorded, has been productive of the most good and the least

—

evil;

would naturally be supposed, not only on account

as

than any other similar government, but also because the hier-

archy

not based upon lineal descent, but upon free election,

is

which allows the tiara

the dignities of the church, not excepting

all

itself, to

must

be borne by those

who

most

are selected as

many

worthy.

It

doctrines

and measures of the church of Rome, have been

also

be remembered, that

checked and rebuked, by the intelligence and

of the ultra

spirit of the

enlightened people of that portion of the earth where at all times,

it

has,

held but a divided empire.

Yet Rome has shown enough of the odious tendency of which must

the system of rule

man assumes

to

omnipotent and all-wise Creator,

when frail and erring men in the name of the

exist,

govern his fellow

to afford a

pretext to the

destructives of the eighteenth century for their doctrine, that

the religious sentiment

is itself

inimical to the liberty and hap-

piness of society.

A

more

injurious

principle , for

and

false substitution of the

abuse of a

The when men are

the principle itself, could not be made.

sentiment of reverence for an infinite and perfect Being, enlightened and

left free to act,

equal in His sight; and

it

holy promptings, that one

name It

is

teaches us that

all

only by doing violence

man assumes

to

dictate,

to its

in

the

of the Creator, to his fellow-creatures. is

not, then,

the absence of religion,

which, because

sometimes perverted, has been reviled as the handmaid of despotism, nor the introduction of a religion of state, and the elevation of the teachers of religion into places of temporal

power, but the presence and action of sentiment,

combined with

political

this noble

and elevating

and religious

liberty,

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

302

which can produce and sustain the moral and advancement of our

And

here

must express

I

intellectual

race.

my

College in one of our eastern

regret that a Professor* of a

cities,

to

government of

this republic, that

his pupils,

did recently, in an elo-

impute

quent address

it

it

as a reproach to the

interferes not in matters

of religious opinion; and that he should consider the contest perilous between truth and error, because the

choose.

to

mind

free

is left

could scarcely have conceived that these opin-

I

ions were seriously entertained, in our age and country, had

they not been enforced in the glowing language of sincerity

and conviction.

To

resume:

— The tendency of

more than any

other, to render

force to subvert

them

ecclesiastical

men base and

despotism

cowardly.

usually wanting at home; and, of

is

other governments, they have been

most enduring.

monarchy, the republic, the empire, of Rome, with events,

thrilling

are

crowded

into a small

is,

The all

The

all their

space of time,

compared with the endurance of her

still-existing ecclesias-

may

be said of the com-

government; and the same

tical

parative durability of the hierarchies of Egypt, and of south-

ern Asia.

Their

common

fate is, to

be destroyed by external force

sometimes by a handful of men, like those ico,

Peru and Modern

India,

who

overrun

and gave the law

—

Mex-

to the timid

and debased multitude.

But when the power of the priesthood had been thus des-

by

troyed,

the despotism of material force, nothing has been

gained for the present, and but

little

for the future, to the

mass of the population.

“An

Amurath, an Amurath succeeds,”

and the only advantage, perhaps, force

is

more

is

that the coarser engine of

easily broken, than the subtle

power which

enslaves the mind. * Professor

lege,

New

McVicar’s address, delivered before the Alumni Columbia ColYork, Oct. 4, 1837.

Worthington’s essay.

20 3

only in rare revolutions, like that effected by the Pro-

It is

testant reformers of

for themselves

made towards

modern Europe, by which the minds of

men

large masses of

and taught to judge

are disenthralled,

advance

is

Such an advance

is

in matters of religion, that a real

liberty

and happiness.

then perceptible, in a higher and wider range of the senti-

ments

we

are considering, although the forms of

government

should remain unaltered. I

how few

have already remarked,

which have been liberty

and

justice,

are the governments,

on those principles of

originally founded

which admit of an equality of

among any

considerable portion

explain this,

we need

of the

only to consider

society, those conditions

such a basis practicable.

rights

To

population.

how

rarely, in

human

meet which render a government on

A

race and language, deeply

community of men, of

the

imbued with a common

same

religion,

of nearly equal and considerably advanced intelligence, in

which both the divine and the hereditary

right to rule are dis-

carded, sufficiently armed with moral and physical force to

keep invaders

at

bay, allowing only temporary depositories of

power, and guarding with jealous vigilance against

all

its

encroachments. All these conditions are indispensable; no

ever existed where

two

races

distinct

either in physical structure or

of

community has men,

differing

moral or intellectual elevation,

have lived together on terms of equality; and the instinctive feelings of our nature, as well as the records of all past time,

teach us that the preservation of liberty and equal rights to all,

under such circumstances,

ditions,

The

impossible.

is

The

other con-

above named, are equally indispensable. celebrated Montesquieu,

who, although

far in

advance

of the age in which he wrote, had no existing example of a

government based upon equal

rights,

as a governing principle, fear; to

a republic, virtue; but

making

—

a

assigns to a despotism,

monarchy, honor; and

to

the latter a term, perhaps, too indefinite,

his high estimation of such a form of govern-

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

304

The

ment.

virtue pre-eminently necessary to

preserve a free government

Her

justice.

is

establish and

must be

scales

evenly and freely poised, or the basis of such a government is

The sword

destroyed.

of the warrior

one of the scales, and produce

may

earth; the fulcrum

destroyed.

stability

to the

it

to

make

a

— by both these means may be produced; — but equally rest;

liberty

Cease we, then,

the communities rights

be thrown into

pressing

be changed by fraud, so as

small portion outweigh the

permanency and

may

stability by'

to

is

wonder how few have been

of men, where justice and an equality of

how

have been recognized as the ruling principle,

imperfect has been the operation of this principle

when nominally adopted as In many short its duration.

the basis of society it

— even

— and

how

has been more partially recog-

many

nized, but with great restrictions and

exceptions, and

yet a corresponding advance has always taken place in the intellect

Let us recognize, however,

and morals of society.

in the adoption of other principles of

government, where a

people have been happy and contented, an adaption of an imperfect form of polity where a more perfect one would be impracticable?

For

it

better that a form of

is

government

should be adapted to the condition of a people, than that

it

should be abstractly right. It is also

necessary that

far as possible,

all

the disturbing causes should, as

be removed, so that harmony and symmetry

should prevail, and this in a republic other forms of

than in

is

even more necessary

Then

government.

the feeling of

honor can have no legitimate objects, except such as are sanctioned religion

by

the people of the

must be chosen by

piety and learning, render in

those doctrines

creed or

him capable of

useful.

dogma

—

—

is

whose

alike corrupting

without which a republic

is

The

instructing

establishment of any

either directly,

of the government, or indirectly, fessors

and the teacher of

them which the unrestrained popular sense,

recognizes as true and particular

state,

his fellow-men as one

by

the

by preference given

power

to its pro-

and destructive of that freedom,

but a disguised form of despotism

305

Worthington’s essay. have endeavored

I

to consider, in their origin, progress,

and developments, the most important of the

which govern the action of man, considered Unless

we

principles

as a social being.

can understand the operation and connection of

these, history is a

mere barren

of events, without

recital

order or consequence. If

the system I

correct, or least, that I

are

have

sought

even consistent, in

new and

to sustain

all

its

have suggested some subjects

for

me

hope,

at

enquiry which

important in their bearings.

Systems, theories,

pass,

away, but truth

moulders not with the lapse of time; and, the unsound portions of systems with it

be not entirely

parts,, let

remains, to assume

new and more

which

is

eternal.

after the it is

It

decay of

incorporated,

beautiful forms, in other

systems, founded on more accurate knowledge, produced by the constantly widening circle of

39

human

intelligence.

A

FRAGMENT OF THE

EARLY HISTORY OF

THE STATE OF

OHIO.

BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT MARIETTA, ON THE FORTY-EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY, (9tH APRIL, 1836,) OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE STATE; AND READ AT THE REQ.UEST OF THE CURATORS, BEFORE THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO, AT THEIR ANNUAL MEETING, IN COLUMBUS, DECEMBER, MDCCCXXXVI.

BY ARIUS NYE,

;

TO THE READER.

The

writer of the followng paper feels constrained to pro» by apprising

pitiate the indulgent consideration of the reader,

him

was not written in the expectation of publication, this mode; that having been originally writdelivery as a public address before a mixed assembly,

that

it

and especially in

ten for , it partakes, in the style of its composition and the arrangement of the parts, more of the character of such an address , and less of that of an historical memoir, than the writer could

have wished, upon its appearance in its present place and And, although, at the request of the curators, and to form. supply the absence of the regular annual address, it was read before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio at their annual meeting, 1836, the state of his engagements and of his health, has prevented him, in transcribing for the press, now, from recasting the paper throughout, into the more appropriate form of an historical memoir. Still, however, it consists principally, of historical facts for the accuracy of which, as being derived from the most authentic sources, in some instances living witnesses, he feels and holds himself responsible. To save the trouble of notes he has occasionally inserted explanations in brackets and parentheses. Marietta, December 1837. ,

—

,

,

ADD1LESS. Forty-eight years since, this day, (7th April, 1836,) at the spot which first

is

now

the

town of Marietta

the Anglo-American

,

landed upon the north bank of the Ohio river; to find,

here in the west, after the

independence, a

toils

and privations of the war of

new country and

7th day of April, A. D., 1788;fthe earth

impress of their footstep,

Here

a home.

and the vast

first

forest, at

on the

,

received the

whose verge

they moored their boats, echoed the voice and resounded to the axe of the bold and hardy adventurers from the north-east.

Here,

first,

whose con-

did that resistless instrument, the axe ,

quests were

to

dominion of the

subdue the almost boundless wild civilised

to

the

and christianised man, open a spot

to the enlivening rays of the sun; for a place of habitation for

themselves and their children, in a land previously devoted and consecrated,

by

a solemn national act, to the abode of free-

dom, guarantied and regulated by law . time,

was begun, by our

There, and

under the eyes and observation of some of founders and early members, and in a short

expanded

surviving

its

human

life,

has

and transcending the

into a powerful state, rivaling

states of their

at that

community which,

fathers, the civil

father-land in numbers, physical energy and

strength.

There

are

still

surviving, some,

who,

manhood, have witnessed the beginning, not bigger than a man’s hand”

and the present greatness of

name

,

the noble river

—

this

in the

as

till

the

of

the progress, expansion, civil

community; whose

which washes and beautifies

border, will perpetuate

fulness

“ a small cloud,

wreck of

all

its

extended

earthly and mortal

elements.

Of

the prominent events of this, our early history

—

a sketch

—

;

309

nye’s address. of which

am requested to essay before you; among us, who might, in a qualified

I

those living

—

—

there are

sense upon

the narration of them, say “ All that I saw, and part of which I was."

then, the untutored

If,

hand of an early native

a rough and (necessarily) hasty picture of the associated with the recollections of the

day

of the

first

settlement of Ohio,) should

the

and

spirit,

life

the truth and fidelity

in such a picture,

from the

By

life,

the fathers

—

you may supply

men and

from the

,

,

in attempting

men and scenes

(the anniversary

fail

to give to

them

which should be seen

the deficiency, and

draw

scenes themselves.

and pioneers of

this land,

the incipient

meeting of the directors and agents of the Ohio company, at “ Campus Martins ,” Marietta, begun on the state,

at a

3d day of December, 1788, seventh day of April

,

—

it

was “resolved, That the

be forever considered as a day of

public festival in the territory of the Ohio company, as their ,

commence on

settlements in this country

Let us, then,

that

fulfil

day.”

that

intention, in grateful

ment of the divine protection and goodness

acknowledg-

in the

past

in

thanksgiving for the bounty and beneficence of the present ;

and in humble invocation of His protection and guidance

in

the time to come. If,

with some license of the imagination,

we might

be

allowed to suppose an acute and comprehensive observer, from a populous region of an older quarter of the earth;

with the history, the

arts, the

moral characteristics of his

own

ignorant of those of our own;

which he could of Ohio as ,

take,

it is,

—

familiar

manners, and the physical and country, but comparatively

— occupying

a position from

with a coup d'eil a view of the state

we might

,

imagine that he would see one

of the finest portions of the globe, in a temperate zone, with

a meditim climate between tropical heat and northern cold;

having a territory of forty thousand square miles, or about twenty-five millions of acres of surface; lying in a compact

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

310

form, without mountain, or desert, or waste land; and yet, withal,

its

surface so undulated and varied, into hill and dale,

valleys,

river,

meadows,

as

elevated to

lands,

table

and natural

prairies,

present almost every desirable variety of

surface and soil; and so diversified as, at once, to beautify

its

aspect to the eye, and to stimulate and reward the industry of its

inhabitants; enjoying such general fertility of soil,

alternation of seasons

and temperature,

and

growth and

as to give

maturity to the greatest number of the most valuable products of the earth, and health, activity and vigor to

would see

it

its

He

people.

furnished by nature, with forests of various sorts

of timber, adorning and beautifying the portions which the

axe and the plough have not subdued, while they supply the

most abundant materials

would this

habitations

for

see, in the physical structure

indications

region,

and the

mineral resources

of

He

arts.

and position of parts of and wealth,

and rewarding the industry and

encouraging, promoting,

enterprise of a people, without unduly exciting their cupidity

and introducing extravagant adventure, vicious indulgence,

and the extremes of luxury and poverty; and, and of

soil,

other por-

We

with their correspondent benefits.

imagine his eye

American unite

might

meandering of the noble river

to frace the

which the red man of the

in

equivalent, though varied circumstances of formation

tions,

the native wilds, the European,

in calling

and “the beautiful riverf' and

which forms the eastern and southern border of the state for and should he not find there the near five hundred miles;

—

bold and mountainous scenery, the impassable cataracts, the rapid currents, of his ceive, in

own

would per-

or other countries, he

mild and equable flow, a

its

qualed for transporting upon

its

facility,

surface, the rich

almost une-

and immense

products of the soil and the commodities of the commerce of the countries rivers,”

and

whose waters

to the great

it

conducts to the “fathers of

southern outlet, the Gulf of Mexico;

and he might be equally surprised and delighted the steamer,

moving upon

its

current,

as

it

to witness

were “instinct

311

nye’s address.

with” and “ walking the water as a thing of

life,”

by means

of an all- conquering and almost invisible agent.

Into this

great natural thoroughfare would be seen descending tary rivers, and particularly the picturesque

“Elk's

Eye”

ducting

away

traversing a large portion of the

affording the

and from

to

means of mechanical power

manufactures which the inhabitants

On lake, is

commuand

various ports,

its

for

or

con-

state,

the surplus water, opening channels of

and transport

nication,

tribu-

its

Muskingum,

the various

may require.

its

northern border would be seen, an interior sea, or

of

some hundred miles

extent,

washing a shore which

indented, at various points, with inlets and rivers, affording

harbors for the vast commerce

upon

destined to float

its

bosom; connecting the trade of the northern section of the state

with the great chain of American lakes, with the British

possessions in northern America, with the

of outlet through

through

New

York, with the

channels

Lawrence, and

with the Atlantic ocean, and the whole world of

it,

And upon

navigation and commerce.

west

artificial

St.

rivers,

whose

the west and north-

valleys, with the aids of artificial channels

afford facilities for the transit of the products of their res-

pective regions.

Inhabiting this

fair

portion of the earth, he would find

twelve to fifteen hundred thousand people, speaking, generally, the English language, and the greater part of

blood;

—

active,

industrious,

them, a general diffusion of intelligence thriving and populous cities

—

the pride of other countries,

Anglo-American and among

and enterprising:

— congregated

and elegance

in large, bustling,

busy towns,

or seeking the greater quiet, the natural as well as

beauties of the less pretending village (an example of

most

attractive

the place

—

artificial

the rus in urbe

which might, possibly, catch

his

eye

union of varied scenery of nature and

where we have assembled;)

vast surface of the country th e proprietors of the soil

in

rivaling in beauty

or, diffused

which they claim which they

till

—

in the art,

of

over the

as their

— upturning

own it

—

with

312

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

the plough, in search of the true philosopher’s stone;

and'

finding their reward in the annual recurrence and prosecution

These,

of the pursuit.

all ,

though as yet wanting in a con-

siderable degree, the assimilation, the

of a more ancient and fixed people,

homogenious character

— having one

and predominant characteristic impressed, as

it

and apparent, upon the aggregate moving mass and individuals

by men

— action,

in all the forms

by which it

common

might seem,

is

its

several

displayed

in the pursuit of earthly good.

This people would be found in the enjoyment and exercise of political institutions, based upon the great principles of social liberty, declared

between the national Congress and

become

and which guarantied

upon

all

who

inhabitants of their country;

American

to

citizens, before

their

new

guaranties,

it

stitution of

them and

moment of their These

their fathers

and the immediate source,

and

valid authority in their government,

will;

tive, judicial, or

to

her care,

as well as the limit

whether

in legisla-

executive action; thus framing and designing

for themselves, their posterity all

and

and early founders

into a voluntary, written, organic law, or con-

tions

which

entrance

principles

government; the product of their united delibera-

of

all

should thereafter

(ordinance of 1787;)

the rights and securities of

at the

country and home.

would be seen,

had elaborated

civil,

and recognised in a solemn compact,

and successors, a rule of law, the very least as feeling

should “do homage

—

and the greatest as not exempted from her power.”

Further and other elements of this social system would be seen in the existence of legal provisions for the instruction of the children and youth of the land;

common in the

schools, academies and colleges, founded by public authority

or private munificence, to aid in higher attainments in intellectual fort,

and moral culture, and security,

improvement of

and its

eye of the observer,

in the general diffusion of

the means of

members. in

enjoyment

social

There might,

many sunny

comand

also, attract the

spots, rising towards the

heavens, the Christian temple, indicating the recognition of the Christian faith, and of

its

obligations

by

this people.

313

nye’s address.

This imagined observer might, moreover, be surprised and

work of human wit and or channel, of more

delighted to view that magnificent

energy, the Ohio canal: an

artificial river

than three hundred miles length, uniting this same beautiful river

Ohio

and that internal sea or lake, on the

at the south,

north; winding

way from

its

the southern shore of the latter,

towards the south; rising and overcoming, as

if

by magic,

a

height of near two hundred feet above the level of the lake, five

hundred above the Ohio,

(at its termination, at the

mouth

of the Scioto,) and nearly a thousand above the tide-water in the

Hudson; and, descending, passing

in

its

course, rivers,

valleys and plains, and the apparently insurmountable obstructions of natural objects, to the

ling with

same Ohio, meeting and ming-

waters, with those of the majestic Mississippi,

its

the great southern gulf, the broad Atlantic ocean.

Thus might

this

imagined observer be supposed

to see

—

a

country, situated in one of the most forward and attractive regions of the earth; of extent of England;

more than two-thirds

more than twice

the territorial

as large as the heredi-

tary dominions of the king of Prussia; already with a population nearly equal in

mencement

numbers

to

that country at the corn,

of the seven years’ war; and capable of sustain-

ing a population of eight to ten millions of people; with the

means and elements of

a great and powerful state,

which

might equal those of the second grade of Europe; whose and social

political

directed

by

cultivate; all

under

and

arrive, or

which

providence, its

be

people shall

be precipitated by the vices to which

states, the creations of humanity, have their peculiar ten-

dencies. art,

must,

destiny

the moral and social virtues

there

And is

over

all

this

seen a freshness

extended scene of nature and ,

so bright and vivid, that the

man upon it might seem but as of yesterday. What, then, it may be supposed, would be the first and eager inquiries of the observer for the first time, whose eye we handicraft of

,

have, in imagination, followed in leading features

of this scene,

40

its

rapid glance over the

— rudely

pictured, indeed, but

314 still

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

some resemblance

bearing

What

he ask?

How

they?

is

What would

to the original?

Whence came

the history of this people?

long have they occupied this land, and what

time have they expended in these works of their creative

What memorials

energies?

They

memory

living

companions of of their

rials

To

another

who

of the Nestors

is

steps

and early

committed

exists in the

and in written memo-

acts.

for a passing

hour the honor of

what he

reciting their traditionary story: lightly, the historian of this little

he comes

still

survive the leaders and

their migration hither;

first

They?

of their origin remain?

are of the present age: their history

,

shall omit, or pass

when

colony will supply,

and the time-honored name of the

to record the acts

fathers of this land.

Some

general historical facts are necessary to be recollected

and understood, while

which

it is

we

recall those

more minute events

our business, this day, to freshen in

memory and

snatch from oblivion.

A

war, of eight years, for national independence, which

terminated but a few years before the events to be particularly referred to,

survived

its

had exhausted privations,

its

all

the resources of those

dangers, and

indomitable spirit and their courage.

most of them, who looked were,

—

for sustenance

to

them,

and protection.

the country, indeed, were indebted to

money

its sacrifices,

who

but their

Families they had,

— war-worn

as

they

The government and

them

which

for services

could not compensate, or duly reward, though

it

was

necessary to their enjoyment of that independence and those rights for

which they had fought, and bled, and

suffered.

But

what was then the government? A mere confederation of independent states, which a common danger had united; the

whose Congress, unregarded, and hence,

resolves , merely, of

wholly

inefficient,

were

as

ties to

better than a rope of sand; without

and

destitute of the

power

to give being to the

unity of action ,

to raise the one,

other—- since

little

money and without credit, it

and of the means

exerted no action upon

315

stye’s address.

Hamilton had not then spoken national

the people. into being,

faith

by giving

and the demands of the revolutionary

;

the government, were

And what was the condition of down by the pressure its

lands.

Exhausted and

the country?

of the war:

commerce destroyed and

upon

patriots

valueless, except in western

borne

depressed,

credit

application and efficiency to the public

agriculture

its

crippled; while

its

people possessed but a limited measure of the arts of fabricating the products of their soil and mines into the subjects

of trade and exchange: while greatest sacrifices tion

many of

where the

the people,

had been made, were, from

accumula-

this

of evils, in that state of restiveness which gives rise to

discontents and commotion.

In this unpromising condition

of things, the Congress of that day passed the ordinance of 1785, for

a

survey of a portion of the western lands, in the

country north-west of the Ohio; her claim

ceded

At

to

which the

of Virginia, in the spirit of patriotism and union, had

state

to the confederated states,

this time,

the attention of

of that heroic army,

common

for their

some of

benefit.

the surviving officers

who had conquered

for their country,

under the lead of Washington a place and a name among the nations of the earth, was turned to these then western ,

wilds, to

which they had been

days of

their revolutionary

(actually) pointed, in the dark

struggle,

by

the

finger,

and

directed by the voice of their revered commander, as a last retreat:

here to recruit their exhausted fortunes; here to find

home

domestic comfort, personal independence and a

remnant of and here

man.

ised

their days,

and an abiding-place

to plant the standard of the civilised Little,

promised land.

however, was

The

known

for the

for their children;

and christian-

at that

time of this

O/wo, indeed, whose banks presented to

the eye the most luxuriant allusions, fringed with the beauties

of

its

rich foliage, and variegated with

vernal and autumnal hues,

— had been

sional emigrant of

Kentucky; by the

the

Mississippi;

outlet of

the

most

the

traversed, solitary

and by the

by

attractive

the occa-

adventurer to

patient, toiling,

316

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

French voyageur, in his perogue or barge, his

way,

a voyage of

in

“Fort DuQuesne ,” its

But the

current.

months along

its

— slowly winding banks, to the old

interior, to the north

and west, was the

hunting ground and the transient abode of the red forest,

down

(then Pitt ,) thence again floating

whose occupation was

man

of the

the chase ; his pastime war:

wdio pursued the buffalo, the elk, the moose, the deer, upon their native grounds, with the

by

the food supplied

by

coverings

bow and

their flesh,

arrow, or the

and who, lords of the

their skin;

rifle, for

and the apparel and tented forest,

and subdued the bear in his den, the panther

followed

in his lair

—

save that, in the deep recesses of the wilds which skirted the

Muskingum

river, the

Moravian

Christian missionary had, in

by-gone days, opened some two or three small spots light of the sun;

whence

the voices of the red

to the

men, whom,

in

primitive spirit, he had sought out and taught, ascended to the

“ Great

Spirit,”

now acknowledged and

adored by them, that

“light 'which shined from above,” as their Almighty Father

and Saviour .” In advance of the

settlement of this great

wilderness,

become vocal with the voice and the hum of millions of civilised men, a small military post, in the summer of 1785, was established on the lower point formed by the thereafter to

junction of the the then

first

Muskingum with

the

Ohio

river,

by a

part of

regiment of United States’ troops, under the

received

command of Major John Doughty, which the name of “ Fort Harmar ,” in honor of the

military

commander of

immediate

the United States’ troops at that time.

This post, with others of

overawe and keep of

whom

to those

in

character,

like

should migrate hither.

of the United States, at that time, as after-events fatally proved,

mand

was designed

check the Indians; several warlike

inhabited the country; and to afford

who

post chief

was

some

to

tribes

security

But the military force feeble in numbers, and,

wholly inadequate

to the

com-

of the country, and the subjugation of the restive and

hostile tribes;

one of which,

(to

be mentioned hereafter,) had

nye’s address.

become exasperated by an

317

act of perfidy of

some untamed

white men, in the murder of their great chief and his son,

who were

mouth of

detained as hostages at the

Kanawha.

In the early part of the same year,

attempt had been made,

a treaty at Fort McIntosh, to quiet

Wyandots, Ottowas, and Chippewas; occu-

the Delawares,

pying the

by

the Great

(1785,) an

central, eastern,

and northern portions of the north-

western territory; which would probably have been successful in restraining

those tribes from engaging in the subsequent

war, but for the influence of the alluded

to.

when

time

Such was its first

settlement

At the period of which in the

Shawanees,)

first

I

was about

am

to

commence.

speaking, 1785, there resided

western part of Massachusetts, in the village of Ches-

Hampshire county, General Benjamin Tupper

terfield,

the late revolutionary army; the

tribe, (the

the condition of this country, at the

who,

after

the

,

of

termination of

French war, (by the peace of 1763,) in which he had

served as a subaltern, had removed to his then residence from the eastern part of the

same

state;

and

who had

several grades, as a field officer,) throughout the

pendence.

Putnam,

By

the favor and friendship

served, (in

war of

of General

inde-

Rufus

of the county of Worcester, (more specially to be

mentioned hereafter,) General Tupper was appointed, from the state of Massachusetts, a surveyor,

pher, or surveyor-general Hutchins, to

under the geogra-

commence

the survey

of the country north-west of the Ohio, under the ordinance

of 1785: General Putnam, service, being then that year General

Tupper

as far as Pittsburg.

who was

first

otherwise engaged.

The

proposed In the

for that

summer

visited the western country;

of

coming

restlessness and turbulence of

bands

of the north-western Indians, interrupted and deferred the

execution of that work; which was afterwards begun with the seven ranges, east of the

Muskingum.

General Tupper

From

the

time of his retiring from the revolutionary army, he had,

fre-

returned from the west in the winter of 1785-6.

quently,

among

his family

and friends, intimated his intention

-

318 to

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

remove

whom

to those

he was scarcely deemed earnest in

that

first visit

seems ing,

western country; so bold, however,

to the

seemed such an adventure,

time,

to

His

proposal.

its

that

the country west of the Alleghany mountains,

to

have increased that inclination of his mind.

however, as

To

at

he addressed

yet,

was

Noth-

definitely resolved.

the village of Rutland, in the county of

Massachusetts, had retired, from the

toils

and

war-worn

revolutionary contest, another

Rufus Putnam; who had been

Worcester,

conflicts of the

veteran,

General

^distinguished for long-tried

and important military services

in that

These two

war.

Generals Tupper and Putnam, had, during

retired officers,

mutual service and intercourse in the Continental army,

their

formed and connected an intimate and reciprocal personal

he

to the west,

visited his friend

A

his residence in Rutland.

(how important pose of the

cherished hope and pur-

of General Tupper.

visit

at

dawn, a development,

at the

in its results,) to the

which appeared

first

General Putnam,

night of friendly offices and

conference between them, gave,

publication,

former from his

After the return of the

friendship.

journey

in

They

united in a

public papers of

the

New

England, on the 25th of January of that year, (1786,) headed

“ Information ,” dated at Rutland, Massachusetts, January “Rufus Putnam 10th, 1786; signed Benjamin Tupper;”

—

a part of which this

method

is

to in

in these

inform

all officers

served in the late war, and

Honorable Congress,

Ohio country; and

become adventurers

— — “ The words:

who

to receive

also,

all

are

subscribers take

and soldiers

by

,

who have

a late ordinance of the

certain tracts of land in the

other good citizens

who wish

to

in that delightful region, that from per-

sonal inspection together with other inc.ontestible evidences, ,

they are fully

much

satisfied, that the

better quality than

lands in that quarter are of a

any other known

to

New

England

people: that the climate, seasons, products, etc., are in fact

equal to the most flattering accounts which have ever been

published of them: that being determined to become purcha

;

;

319

nye’s address. settlement in this country,

and

desirous of forming a general association with those

who

and

sers,

prosecute a

to

entertain the

lowing plan,

same viz:

ideas, they

beg leave

propose the

to

fol-

That an association by the name of the

Ohio Company, be formed of

such as wish

all

purchasers, etc., in that country,

who

become common-

to

reside in the

wealth of Massachusetts only, or to extend

to the inhabitants

of other states, as shall be agreed on.

“That

in order to bring such a

subscribers propose, that the

company

persons

all

into existence, the

who

v/ish to

promote

scheme, should meet in their respective counties,

at

10

M., on Wednesday, the 15th day of February,

o’clock A.

next; and that each county meeting there assembled, choose

a delegate, or delegates, to meet at the Bunch-of-Grapes tavern, in Boston,

on Wednesday, the

first

day of March next,

10 o’clock, A. M., then and there to consider and deter-

at

mine upon

which

a general plan of association for said

company;

plan, covenant, or agreement, being published,

any

person, (under condition therein to be provided,) may, subscribing his name,

Here, then, begin observer

here you

become to

may

advanced and expanded,

member

a

be answered

of the

the

inquiries of our

see the “ small cloud,” till

it

by

company.” which has

has, under Providence,

show-

ered blessings upon this western clime, in the “ Ohio country;” the “grain of mustard-seed,” which, in

There

overshadowed the land! living,

who

is

growth, has

its

one citizen of Ohio, now

r

heard the announcement, of the result of that

conference, (in which important measures and events were first

conceived,) from the lips of his venerated father

whose

wise forecast and experienced eye, caught, even then, from the

shadow of coming

events, a glimpse of

what

is

now,

in

the broad light of the day, revealed to our senses. It

belongs rather to the historian, or memorialist, than to

the speaker of a fugitive address, to arrange and preserve, in detail, the

more minute

events, resolves, and doings of this

early as well as the later day of our history. ,

I

must pass

320

TRANSACTIONS, ETC,

lapidly over them,

lest,

instead of entertaining,

Did time, or

weary you.

my own

should

I

me

allow

ability,

to

do

otherwise, now, I could not expect to excite in others the interest that

is felt

by those most nearly

nected with them; and

who

which protected our

or defences,

and con-

related to

have seen the same small forts,

and

fathers

their families in

a five-years Indian war, as they existed in that day; and

have witnessed in this town, [Marietta,]

now

who

of the hither

west, the lofty port, the habits, the manners, and the carousel

man of these once unsubdued wilds. The address of the two individuals, already named, who first moved the ball of emigration to the west, resulted in the of the native

proposed meeting, and in the formation of a company since

known by

name given by

the

these

first

is

In the

proprietors.

proceedings of that meeting, an inducement

to the

measure

“ the very pleasing description of the western

stated in

country given by Generals Putnam and Tupper, and others.”

And it was said to be “ expedient to form a settlement there.” The second meeting of the company was at Boston, 8th Meantime events had occurred

March, 1787. setts

in

Massachu-

of an important and alarming character; which,

it

may

be presumed, contributed to increase the disposition in the

New

England

discontents,

states, to

seek in the west, a

which have been alluded

to,

new home.

had arisen

in

The

Massa-

chusets, in the winter of 1786-7, to actual and fearful civil

commotion;

which

headed by Shays.

ment of

precipitated

itself

in

The most imposing and

the people, engaged in which, headed

made upon

the

town of

were deposited, was

Springfield,

insurrection

by

that leader,

where the public

in that winter, repelled

brave men, volunteers on the side of the order,

the

threatening move-

by

stores

a handful of

government and

under the command of General Shepard, and more

immediate direction of General Tupper,

who had

then just

returned from a second journey to the western country, and

whose immediate neighborhood was deeply sedition.

Upon

infected with the

the occasion of the second journey of Gen-

;

nye’s address.

Tapper

eral

1788, in the prosecution of the

the west, in

to

321

surveys of the seven ranges, and preceding the second meeting of the incipient Ohio company, he visited fort Harmar, and

had an interview with Major Doughty officer; a

mouth of

to the

the

,

commanding

circumstance which probably attracted his attention

Muskingum

the

river,

—

so beautiful in

its

natural scenery and attractive as the site of a town.

At the second meeting, in Boston, March 8th, 1787, of the Ohio company, directors were appointed, “ with authority to

make

application to the Congress for a private purchase of

lands,

and under such descriptions as they should deem ade-

quate to the purposes of the company.”

At a

Cutler

,

who

appointed

with the

late

to negotiate a

meeting

third

Boston, August 29th, 1787, the the Rev’d.

in

Manassah

Major Winthrop Sargeant, had been

purchase, reported a contract for the

purchase, from the then government, of a tract of country,

bordered on the east by the western boundary line of the seventh range: south by the Ohio river; west by a meridian line

drawn through

river,

the western cape of the Great

and extending so

Kanawha

north that a due east and west

far

line,

from the seventh range of townships

line,

should include the lands which the company were to

to the said

meridian

purchase; then estimated at a million and a half of acres, but

This contract was

afterwards reduced to less than a million.

agreed

to;

and authority was given

ury board. tt

At

this

meeting

it

to close

it

with the Treas-

was among other

things,

resolved , That 5,600 acres of land, near the confluence of

the city

Ohio and Muskingum

and commons

rivers,

should be reserved for a

(a quantity afterwards reduced to 4,000

acres;) with the reservation of certain squares for public uses. It

be mentioned here, though not in the order of time, at the first meeting of the directors, and agents of the

may

that,

company, on the banks of the Muskingum, which commenced on the second day of July, 1788, the following resolution

was passed, “

that the city near the confluence of the

and Muskingum, be 41

called

Marietta:

that

the

Ohio

directors

TRANSACTIONS, ETC.

322

Count Monsiriers informing him of

write to the

,

naming the

tives in

would be advisable

it

mo-

their

and requesting his opinion whether

city,

majesty of France

present her

to

[Marie Antoinette] a public square.

At a meeting of the directors of the company,

on the twenty-third of November, 1787,

by twenty-two men, and

four surveyors , attended

four house-carpenters,

builders,

common workmen,

Boston,

at

was ordered

it

that

six boat

one blacksmith, and nine

should be employed, for the purpose of

carrying previous resolutions, respecting the survey and set-

tlement into

on the

ford,

The

effect.

Monday; and

the next

day of January, on

first

Of

kingum.

this

were

boat-builders

to proceed

on

the surveyors to rendezvous at Hart-

company

their

way

to

Mus-

the

the implements and baggage

transported in the company’s wagons, and

Each man was

furnished by the company.

They were

with arms and ammunition.

were

the subsistence

to furnish

himself

be “ under the

to

orders of the superintendcmt in military

commands,”

as in building boats, houses, etc., and

other service in pro-

The

moting the settlement. zer Sproat

Rhode

of

,

John Matthews

Meigs

,

Mr. Anselm Tupper

from Massachusetts, and

whom,

to

The meeting

be paid.

Island, in

kingum

With

river,

the

March, 1788,

on the

company of

Putnam was 2100 Mexican

of the directors and

was adjourned from Providence,

agents of the company,

Rhode

and

the business aforesaid;”

for the purposes of his appointment,

were

dollars

all

,

Colonel R. J.

General Rufus

appointed the “ superintendant of to

as well

surveyors were Colonel Elea-

Island,

from Connecticut.

,

all

first

to the settlement

Wednesday

on the Mus-

of July, thereafter.

laborers and artificers, General

Putnam

landed, in boats from the Monongahela, at the confluence of the

Muskingum with

the Ohio river ,

on the seventh day of

April 1788. ,

This event of that inroad

was

to

make

it is

which

upon its

is

commemorated

as the

beginning

the great forest of the north-west,

fall,

which

gradually before the axe of the hardy

nye’s address.

323

adventurers from the north-east, and to open

recesses to

its

the light and the vivifying influence of the sun, and

Here commenced,

the action of the plough.

to

its soil

forty-eight

years, (on the seventh of April, 1836,) by-gone, the state of

Ohio and here ,

history properly begins.

its

Inhabiting this country at the time of that adventurous

These

landing, were various tribes and nations of Indians.

native sons of the forest were to be pacified or encountered

by

They were men

the colonists of this western world.

daring, and, in their

fearful

summate

own modes

of

of warfare, of con-

Scarcely had the woodman’s axe laid open a

skill.

small spot to the light of the sun, and provided habitations for the earlier emigrants, before the most forward and impatient

among them,

fell,

upon

ror in the ear, first

like the

sound of their war-whoop of

ter-

When

this

the exposed adventurers.

landing for permanent residence was made, there were

no settlements of whites north-west of the Ohio, try

now comprised

and below Pittsburg, there were ments

—

at

Upon

in this state. a

Kanawha

few small ports or

— before

at the

settle-

mouth of

you reached Limestone,

in

the

Ken-

At Marietta, General Harmar occupied, with four

tucky.

companies of his regiment, the small point,

coun-

Charlestown, Wheeling, Belville, (thirty-five miles

below Marietta,) and Point Pleasant, great

in the

the Virginia shore,

fort,

upon

the lower

formed by the Muskingum and Ohio, which bore his

The

name.

first

Putnam and

business of General

under his command, was

to

erect,

,

or to

those

begin places of

defence and security; although, at that time, there were rea-

sons to hope that the treaties which had been made with

some of

the tribes occupying the territory, and further nego-

ciations proffered

by

the government,

of the infant settlements. habitations the stockade ,

by

that

men

name, was the

of military

skill

Of

upon

the spot

principal.

which

is

still

known

Designed and executed by

and experience,

formed a very respectable and

would secure the quiet

these places of defence and

this,

effective

when

fortress

completed, against the