vote for members of the convention, which was to meet at Chillicothe, on the first Monday in November, 1802. Should the act be accepted, the convention was authorized to form a State constitution, and set up a State government at once. At first it was given one representative in the Lower House of Congress.

As essential parts of the enabling act, the convention was to accept or reject the following propositions, to wit: That one section in every township should be granted to such township for schools; that the reserved salt springs should also be granted to the State; that one-twentieth of the net proceeds, accruing from sales of the public lands in the State, should be applied to the laying out and making of public roads, leading from the navigable waters of the Atlantic to the Ohio, to the said State, and through the same; such roads to be laid out under the authority of Congress. All this was to be the dowry of the new State, provided that she should, in return, exempt all government lands from taxation.

9

The convention met, as prescribed; a State constitution was framed and adopted; a general election held in January (1803) for State officers; and March 1, on the assembling of the newly chosen Legislature, the State of Ohio assumed full sovereignty, as one of the United States of America.10

1 WAYNE himself, after taking possession of Detroit for the United States, died at Presqueisle (Erie), Pa., December 15, 1796.

2 DAYTON. These settlers entered by permission of Governor St. Clair: Jona. Dayton, Israel Ludlow, and Gen. Wilkinson, who had bought of Symmes. After the collapse of Symmes's title, that of these purchasers was confirmed by the Government. The junction of Mad

River with the Great Miami here, pointed to Dayton as one of the important centres of the future.

3 CHILLICOTHE seems to have been the generic Shawnee term for any large town. Three or more are found at different points in Ohio. The settlement was notably increased (1798), by the arrival of some Virginians, among whom were Worthington, Tiffin, and Lucas-all subsequently governors of Ohio.

4 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. Of the two political parties of the day, the Federalists believed that the public moneys could be used for building roads, canals, etc., as well as for forts, etc., while the Republicans believed such use to be unconstitutional.

5 EBENEZER ZANE: refer back to p. 105.

6 THE MILITARY BOUNTY lands, "between the Reserve and the north line of the Seven Ranges and of the Ohio Company's lands, stretching across from Pennsylvania to the Scioto, brought in a large immigration of Pennsylvania Germans. A strong element of the ScotchIrish from the same quarter also entered this middle belt, and was gradually diffused through the State."-King's Ohio, p. 281.

7 MICHIGAN was, in fact, attached to Indiana until 1805, when a separate Territory was formed of it.

8 THERE was no provision here, as in the case of some States of later origin, requiring the submission of the State constitution to the Congress.

THIS APPARENTLY EXPLICIT language gave rise to warm discussion in the Congress of 1825.

10 ONE OF THE UNITED STATES. The new State constitution provided that the Territorial government should remain in force until superseded by the election and qualifying of the new State officers and Legislature. Congress recognized the State in form February 19, 1803; but it is clear that Congress could not forestall the acts of the people, as prescribed by itself, by a simple declaration.

INDIANA TERRITORY, 1800-1812

HARRISON had been appointed governor of Indiana in the year 1800. Leaving Michigan out, there were, perhaps, five thousand white people in the territory, divided about equally east and west of the Wabash. In the old French settlements some slaves continued to be held in violation of the Ordinance, but inasmuch as a majority favored slavery, so far from enforcing the Ordinance, Congress was being constantly prayed to set aside that unpopular requirement. But this the Congress could not lawfully do.1

The agitation upon this pregnant subject could have no other tendency than to check immigration. Those who desired slavery hesitated to take their slaves where they would be legally free; and those who detested slavery would not go where they feared it would be forced upon them, even against the law; so that Indiana

was not filling up as fast as Ohio had done. If we look at the interior, we find it practically a wilderness still. Settlements were few and far between; and what there were, had mostly grown up around the rim of the Territory, on its navigable waters, leaving a vast interior to its primeval solitude.2

Of the old settlements, Vincennes was still the important centre and capital. Of the new, Clark's Grant, at the Falls of the Ohio, was, perhaps, the most flourishing. North of Vincennes, watered by the Wabash, stretched the Indian Country to the lakes-congenial home of the mixed tribes, who had been fighting in retreat ever since the whites had first crossed the Ohio.

3

In 1803, Mr. Jefferson being then President, the United States bought all Louisiana from France, thus opening the Mississippi to the commerce of the West, and so confirming the unity of the whole country, by doing away with all those vexatious restrictions which designing men had used to draw the East and West apart.

For the purposes of government Upper Louisiana was attached to Indiana. Governor Harrison therefore took possession of it for the United States, at St. Louis, in 1804.

In 1805 Indiana elected her first territorial legislature; and in 1809 the next step was taken toward political unity by setting off Illinois, practically on the present boundaries. By the act of division, both the legislative council and the representative in Congress, as well as the assembly, were to be elected by the people.

4

Whatever their political differences might be, there was always one subject upon which all new settlers were fully agreed; and that was to get rid of the Indians. There was not even the excuse of being crowded. More

than ten thousand square miles of vacant lands was surely more than enough for the wants of twenty-five hundred people. But a strange sort of feeling had grown up on the frontier, that it was the Indians who were intruders; still more strange was the feeling that they were not to be dealt by as other men, but as something less than men. If the Indians would sell their lands on the white men's terms, well and good; if not a way would be found to make them do it. This cruel policy has been the one prolific cause of our Indian wars from first to last. Everybody has denounced it, but nobody has put a stop to it. In consequence, there there are few treaties with the Indians that will bear the scrutiny of honest men.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.

Most of them have been obtained either by fraud or force. When his lands were taken from him by conquest, the Indian bore it like a man of courage; but when he had been cheated of them, his one resource was revenge.

In common with other governors, Harrison had set about getting cessions of lands, first from one tribe, then from another, as one of his first duties. And in so do