CHAPTER III

Tiffin's Interest in Politics-Major-General Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Territory-His Quarrels with the Virginia Pioneers-Letter from George Washington commending Tiffin for Appointment to Office-Commissioned Clerk of Courts-Elected to Territorial Legislature.

WHILE Edward Tiffin lived in Virginia he seems to have imbibed the intense interest in political affairs and the desire to hold public office which is so generally characteristic of the inhabitants of that State.

In 1798 Major-General Arthur St. Clair was governor of the United States Territory Northwest of the Ohio River. He had been appointed to that office October 5, 1787, and had removed to the Territory and assumed the duties of his office as early as July 9, 1788, a few months after the first permanent settlement by white people in Ohio-that of the Ohio Land Company at Marietta, which occurred in April, 1788.

St. Clair was born a British subject at Caithness, Scotland, in 1734. His family was one which had

high social and political rank in Scotland, and has frequent mention in Scottish history and poetry. He was possessed of excellent intellectual endowments, was well educated, and polished by intercourse with the best civil and military society. He had held a royal commission as captain in the British army, and distinguished himself by gallantry at the capture of Quebec. In 1760 he married Miss Phoebe Bayard, of Boston, Mass., and in 1762 he resigned his commission in the British army. He had been a member of the Continental Congress, and a president of that body. In December, 1775, he was commissioned by John Hancock a colonel of the Colonial army. He served through the Revolutionary War as an American officer, and attained the rank of a major-general. Unquestionably he had become thoroughly Americanized and devoted to the interests of his adopted country. But unfortunately he was proud, aristocratic, arbitrary and stubborn, and consequently became unpopular, especially with the Virginians, when that class began to fill up the reservation. Subsequent events, and especially the course the governor pursued toward the Territorial Legislature when it met, rapidly deepened and widened the chasm between St. Clair and the Virginians; and the latter found some sympathizers and allies. among the New England settlers, and particularly among the New Jersey settlers who came to the

John Cleve Symmes' purchase in the Miami country.

As between St. Clair and the leaders of "the Virginia party" living in Chillicothe, we shall see that the quarrel soon grew to be "war, war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt."

In such conditions it was to be expected that much unwarranted abuse and misrepresentation would be heaped upon St. Clair's head, and it came to be often asserted, and very generally believed in southwestern portions of the Territory, that he was at heart disloyal to American theories of government by the people and in favor of an hereditary monarchy. This was not only utterly untrue of him; it was cruel and ungrateful.*

Dr. Tiffin brought with him from Virginia a letter written by George Washington and addressed to Governor St. Clair, which we copy in full because it constitutes a high tribute to the character of Tiffin from the very highest source in the world at the time, and is, so far as the author of this sketch is aware, the only letter of recommendation of an aspirant for official appoint

*Tardy justice, in part at least, has been done to the character, reputation, and patriotic services of St. Clair by the recent publication of his Papers, under an order and appropriation by the General Assembly of Ohio. They have been ably edited by William Henry Smith, of Chicago, Ill., and published by Robert Clark & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1882.

ment ever written by Washington in behalf of any person :

"January 4th, 1798.

"Sir:-Mr. Edward Tiffin solicits an appointment in the territory Northwest of the Ohio.

"The fairness of his character in private and public life, together with a knowledge of law, resulting from close application for a considerable time, will, I hope, justify the liberty I now take in recommending him to your attention. Regarding with due attention the delicacy as well as the importance of the character in which I act, I am sure you will do me the justice to believe that nothing but the knowledge of the gentleman's merits, founded upon a long acquaintance, could have induced me to trouble you on this occasion.

"With sincere wishes for your happiness and welfare, I am, etc., etc.

"GEO. WASHINGTON."

That this letter was duly delivered to St. Clair is evident from the fact that it has been until lately in the custody of Dr. W. H. St. Clair, of Effingham County, Ill.-Dr. St. Clair being a great-grandson of General Arthur St. Clair, to whom it was addressed. It is now in the State archives at Columbus, Ohio. Whether it bore

fruit by securing an office for Dr. Tiffin does not certainly appear; but the doctor was, within three or four months after his arrival in the Territory, appointed and commissioned prothonotary for Ross County, and his name appears, subscribed as such official, to the records of the first session of the first Territorial Court of Common Pleas, held "in and for the county of Ross," in December, 1798, and in many successive terms thereafter. He continued to hold the office of prothonotary and discharge all its duties until the beginning of the January term, 1803, notwithstanding that he, in the meantime, also continued the active practice of medicine, and to gather, organize, and regularly minister to Methodist Episcopal societies in all the surrounding country; and in the fall of 1799 successfully canvassed for election to the first Territorial legislature.

Indeed, the lines of his active employments were so numerous in these three or four years that it is difficult to tell the story of them connectedly and satisfactorily. Beside all else, he had been Speaker of the House of Representatives, President of the Ohio Constitutional Convention, and was the Governor-elect of Ohio before he ceased to be prothonotary of Common Pleas !

That Washington was correct in estimating him to possess a considerable knowledge of law is apparent from an examination of his records and