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the mouth of Connecticut River, and called it Saybrook. About the same time, (1636,) a number of people from Massachusetts Bay, came and began settlements at Hartford, Weathersfield and Windsor, on Connecticut River. Thus commenced the English settlement of CONNECTICUT.

Rhode-Island was first settled by Roger Williams, who was among those who came over to Salem, Massachusetts, among the first settlers at that place, and not agreeing with some of his brethren in certain religious opinions, was, in the wrong spirit of those times, banished from the colony, and went, in 1635, with twelve others, his adherents, and settled at a place which they named Providence. From this beginning arose the colony of RHODE-ISLAND and PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.

On the 20th of March, 1664, Charles the Second granted to the Duke of York, what is now called NEW-JERSEY, then a part of a large tract of country, which the Dutch emigrants had named NewNetherland. Some parts of New-Jersey were settled by the Dutch, as early as about 1615.

In the year 1662, Charles the Second granted to Edward, Earl of Clarendon, and seven others, almost the whole territory now comprised in the three Southern States, North and South Carolina and Georgia. Two years after, 1664, he granted a second charter, enlarging their boundaries. The proprietors, by virtue of authority vested in them by their charter, engaged the celebrated Mr. Locke to frame for them a system of laws for the government of their intended colony. Notwithstanding these preparations, no effectual settlement was made until the year 1669, (though one was attempted in 1667) when Governor Sayle came over with a colony, which he planted on a neck of land between Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Thus commenced the settlement of CAROLINA, which then included the whole territory between 29 and 36 degs. 30 min. north latitude, together with the Bahama Islands, lying between latitude 22 and 27 degs. north.

The royal charter for Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn, a distinguished member of the Society of Friends, on the 4th of March, 1681. The first colony came over the next year, and settled under the proprietor, who acted as Governor, from October, 1682, to August, 1684. The first assembly in the province of Pennsylvania was holden at Chester, on the 4th of December, 1682. Thus William Penn, justly celebrated as a great and good man, had the honor of laying the foundation of the present populous and respectable State of PENNSYLVANIA.

The proprietary government in Carolina, was attended with so many inconveniences, and occasioned such voilent dissentions among the settlers, that the parliament of Great Britain was induced to take the province under their own immediate care. The Proprietors (except Lord Granville) accepted of 22,5001. sterling,

from the crown, for the property and jurisdiction. This agreement was ratified by act of Parliament in 1729. A clause in this act reserved to Lord Granville, his eighth share of the property, and arrears of quit-rents, which continued legally vested in his family, till the revolution in 1776. Lord Granville's share made a part of the present state of North-Carolina. About the year 1729, the extensive territory belonging to the proprietors, was divided into North and South Carolina. They remained separate royal governments, until they became independent States.

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For the relief of indigent people of Great-Britain and Ireland, and for the security of Carolina, a project was formed for planting a colony between the rivers Savannah and Altamaha. Accordingly application being made to King George, the second, he issued letters patent bearing date June 9th, 1732, for legally carrying into execution the benevolent plan. In honour of the king, who greatly encouraged the plan, they called the new province GEORGIA. Twenty-one Trustees were appointed to conduct the affairs relating to the settlement of the province. The November following, one hundred and fifteen persons, one of whom was General Oglethorpe, embarked for Georgia, where they arrived, and landed at Yamacraw. In exploring the country, they found an elevated and pleasant spot of ground on the bank of a navigable river, upon which they marked out a town, and from the Indian name of the river which passed by it, called it Savannah. From this period we may date the settlement of GEORGIA.

The country, now called KENTUCKY, was well known to the Indian traders, many years before its settlement. They gave descriptions of it to Lewis Evans, who published his first map of it, as early as the year 1752. James Macbride, with some others, explored this country in 1754. Col. Daniel Boon visited it in 1769.

Four years after, Col. Boon and his family, with five other families, who were joined by forty men from Powell's Valley, begun the settlement of KENTUCKY,* which was erected into an independent state, by act of Congress, December 6th, 1790, and received into the Union, June 1st, 1792.

The tract of country called VERMONT, before the late war, was claimed both by New-York and New-Hampshire. When hostilities commenced between Great Britain and her Colonies, the inhabitants, considering themselves as in a state of nature, as to civil government, and not within any legal jurisdiction, associated and formed for themselves a constitution of government. Under this constitu

*This settlement was made in violation of the Treaty of 1768, at Fort Stanwix, which expressly stipulates, that this tract of country should be reserved for the western Indian nations to hunt upon, until they and the crown of England should otherwise agree. This has been one great cause of the enmity of those Indian nations to the Virginians. [Col. Morgan.]

tion, after a long controversy with New-York and New-Hampshire, they have ever since continued to exercise all the powers of an independent State. Vermont was not admitted into the Union with the other States, till March 4th, 1791; yet we may venture to date her political existence, as a separate government, from the year 1777, because, since that time, Vermont has, to all intents and purposes, been a sovereign and independent State. The first settlement within its limits was made at Bennington, as early as about 1764.

The extensive tract of country lying north-west of the Ohio River, within the limits of the United States, was erected into a separate territorial government by an ordinance of Congress passed the 13th of July, 1787.

About the middle of the last century, the Shawanee Indians, who lived on the Savannah River, in Georgia, removed and settled on the Cumberland River, near the present site of Nashville. They were not suffered, however, long to remain in this fine country; but were driven off by the more powerful Cherokees.

This country was included in the second charter granted by Charles II. to the proprietors of Carolina; and in a subsequent division it was made a part of North-Carolina.

Its situation was so remote from the sea-board, beyond the mountains, and inhabited by Indians, that no settlement of white people was attempted here, till near the commencement of the revolutionary war. The first settlers planted themselves on the Watauga River. Here they continued several years secluded and unnoticed by the government of North-Carolina, and under no laws but of their own enaction. Their military operations in the revolutionary war, were connected with those of the western settlers of Virginia.

The year 1776, was signalized by a formidable invasion by the Cherokees. The intention of these Indians was to depopulate the country, as far as Kanhawa, because the brave people inhabiting this territory had rejected, with a noble firmness and indignation, the proposals of Henry Stewart and Alexander Cameron, to join the British standard, and were almost unanimous in their resolution to support the measures of Congress. This invasion issued in a total defeat of the Indians. The first appearance of any persons from this district, in the public councils of North-Carolina, was in the convention that framed the constitution of that state, in 1776.

TENNESSEE became a distinct Territorial Goverement in 1790, and in 1796, was erected, in due form, into an independent State, making the 16th in the Union.

The whole country now embraced within the limits of OHIO, was originally included in the charters of Virginia and Connecticut. Virginia claimed all the country between the parallels of 36 deg. 30 min. and 41 deg. N. and Connecticut, that from 41 to 42.

In 1784, Virginia resigned to the Congress of the United States her whole jurisdiction north of Ohio; and her title to the soil within the

present limits of the State of Ohio, except the tract between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers.

In 1786, Connecticut ceded her claim to the soil and jurisdiction of that part of her territory, which lies west of a meridian line, 120 miles distant from the western boundary of Pennsylvania. This meridian line passes through the middle of Sandusky Bay, near the western extremity of Lake Erie.

In 1800, she relinquished her jurisdiction over the part which lies east of that meridian, but retained her claim to the soil. This tract

is called the Connecticut Reserve, or New Connecticut.

The first settlement made by the whites within the present limits of Ohio, was in 1788, by a party from New England, under the direction of Rufus Putnam, Esq. who made an establishment at the mouth of the Muskingum River.

For several years previous to 1795, an unhappy Indian war had checked the settlement of this territory. In August of that year, however, a treaty was holden with the hostile tribes at Greenville, and their differences amicably adjusted. From this period the increase of population and improvement has been incessant and unexampled. All the territory of the United States north-west of the river Ohio, including the present state of Ohio, from 1787 to 1800, was embraced under one territorial government. In 1800, OHIO was detached from the rest, and placed under a separate territorial government until 1802, when it was admitted into the Union, as an independent state. The name LOUISIANA was originally applied to the whole country west of the Mississippi, included within the limits of the present states of Louisiana and Missouri, and of the Arkansaw and Missouri Territories. Its boundaries for a long time remained a subject of much controversy.

This country was first discovered by Ferdinand de Soto, in 1541. The first French colony was planted by Mons. Iberville, of Canada,

in 1699.

In 1718 and 1719, while the exclusive trade of the country was in the hands of a company, a numerous colony of labourers, collected from France, Germany, and Switzerland, and allured by the most flattering promises and expectations, were conveyed to Louisiana, and settled in a district called Biloxi, on the island of Orleans; the miserable fate of this colony, who perished by hundreds, for a long time ruined the reputation of Louisiana; and this enchanting country was afterwards execrated, and its very name, for a while, was a reproach. It became the receptacle of the lowest and most profligate persons in the kingdom.

In 1762, France, by a secret treaty, ceded Louisiana to Spain. By the treaty of St. Ildefonso, of Oct. 1, 1800, confirmed by that of Madrid, on the 21st of March 1800, Spain ceded the country back to France.

In 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from France for about the sum of 15,000,000 of dollars.

Soon after the purchase, the present State of Louisiana was separated from the rest of the territory, under the name of the Territory of Orleans.

In 1811, the Territory of Orleans was made a state, and admitted into the Union, under the name of LOUISIANA.

In 1812, possession was taken of West Florida, by the United States, and the part west of Pearl River was incorporated with Louisiana.

Indiana, till January 1801, formed a part of the North-Western Territory. At that period it was, together with what now constitutes the State of Illinois, erected into a territorial government, under the name of the INDIANA TERRITORY. In 1809, Illinois was separated from it. In 1816 INDIANA became an independent state, and was admitted into the Union.

In Nov. 1811, a bloody battle was fought at Tippacanoe, 100 miles from Vincennes, between the troops of the United States and the Indians; the latter, of course, were the victors.

Until within a few years this country was almost entirely in the hands of the Indians. The French, previous to 1756, had some small settlements at Vincennes, Cahokia, and Kaskaskias. But the people were few in number, detached from each other, and lived by hunting, and Indian traffic, rather than by agriculture.

Since 1803, the United States have purchased, at various times, large tracts of land in this state, from the Indians, and but smalĺ portions of their former territories now remain in their possession.

ILLINOIS was a part of the Indiana Territory, till 1809, when it was erected into a separate territorial government. In 1818, it was admitted into the Union on the same footing with the original states. In 1773, Gen. Putnam, Capt. Enos, and Mr. Lyman attempted a settlement on the Lousa Chitto, in the present state of Mississippi, which failed.

In 1779, the British took possession of the Natchez country, which at this period was settling fast by emigrations from the northern states. In 1795, when this state, with Alabama, belonged to the State of Georgia, its legislature sold to four different companies about twenty-two million acres of its lands; which were afterwards purchased principally by gentlemen in the middle and eastern states. Serious disputes followed concerning these lands, which, after long controversy, have been adjusted between the purchasers and the United States.

In 1800, the western part of Georgia, which now forms the states of Mississippi and Alabama, was erected into a territorial govern

ment.

By treaty, in Dec. 1801, at fort Adams, the Choctaw Indians relinquished to the United States all the land in Mississippi, between the old line of demarkation, established by the British, and the Mississippi River, bounded S. by the 31st degree of lat. and N. by the Yazoo River.

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