doned it, and no man has since that stormy period, ever advo cated the proceeding. It will never be reacted in Ohio, Knowing all the actors, personally, with whom we never had any altercation about this or any other matter, we have had no private ill will to gratify, in saying what we have above. Nor was it our own wish to be thus particular in stating all the material facts connected with this matter, but the surviving actors insisted on a full statement, and we have complied with their wishes.

At this same session, the legislature removed the seat of government from Chillicothe to Zanesville.

Congress had granted a township of land for "an academy" in their contract with John Cleves Symmes, for the sale to him of the Lower Miami country. According to that grant, the township was to have been in the centre of the ceded lands. The legislature, at this session, located the Miami University, as they called it, on a township which they selected entirely out of the tract of land, in the centre of which, by the original grant, it was to have been located. All the acts of this session, were equally violent and unconstitutional-for madness ruled the hour."

They proceeded to appoint, commissioners to fix on a site for a permanent seat of government of this state.

Next session, these commissioners, James Findlay, Joseph Darlington, Wyllys Silliman, Reason Beall, and William McFarland, reported in favor, we believe of Dublin, a town on the Scioto river, some fourteen miles above Columbus. The year, 1810-11 passed quietly off, but at their next session, the legislature, accepted the proposals of Colonel James Johnson, Alexander McLaughlin, John Kerr and Lyne Starling, Esquires, who owned the land where Columbus is. The general assembly fixed the seat of government where it now is and will there remain. At this session of 1811-12 the legislature passed an act, removing the seat of government, back to Chillicothe, until 1816-17, after which time it was to be where it now is, at Columbus. In the meantime the public buildings were to be erected, on land then a dense forest.

WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

PERIOD FOURTH.

THIS PERIOD COMPRISES THE WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN OF

1812, IN OHIO.

THOUGH peace had been made on parchment between the United States, and England, in 1783, yet that peace, could scarcely be said, to have extended to this North Western Territory. The war with the Indians, continued from the 27th of April 1774, until the peace of Greenville, August 3d 1795. The British, constantly occupied their Indian posts within the limits of our territory until the first of June 1796. The Canadian Indian Department, continued to pay regular annuities to their savage allies, who lived within the limits of this Union, up to a very recent period; perhaps, they do, up to the moment, when this is written.

This conduct of our Canadian neighbors, kept up a hard feeling between us, and the English; and besides, that nation was constantly doing some act, which showed their ill will towards the United States. They were continually preying on our defenceless commerce, but not content with plundering our property on the high seas, under various pretexts, they impressed our sailors, into their naval service. This practice of impressment, kept up, and even increased the angry feelings of our nation, towards England. General Harrison, the governor of the Indiana Territory, had, in November 1811, fought a severe battle with the Indians, at Tippecanoe, and every thing portended war, between this nation and England, when,

in June 1812, war was actually declared, by congress, against Great Britain. In order to harass the enemy, we suppose, on the land, to punish him for plundering us, on the ocean; Mr. Madison's administration took steps to raise an army, during the session of congress commencing in December 1811 and continued until the summer of 1812. During that protracted session, congress authorised the increase of the regular army to thirty-five thousand troops, and they authorised the raising of a large force of volunteers, for twelve months. Early in the spring of 1812, Governor William Hull, of Michigan, was ordered into Ohio, to raise troops, with whom it would seem, he intended to cross over into Canada, opposite Detroit, and march downwards towards Quebec.

Canada, Upper and Lower, consists of a vast country, lying northwest of the United States, bounded by either lakes or their outlets, which separate those provinces from us. The settlements along these waters are narrow, and their population thin. These settlements extend fifteen hundred miles, in length, from the sea to Lake Superior. Had the war, on our part been conducted with the ability, that any common man, in private life, of the requisite geographical knowledge would have conducted it, we should have siezed, at once, on Kings ton' and Montreal. All the country above these points, in that case, would have fallen into our hands, as a matter of course. But so it was, General Hull was sent into Ohio to raise troops wherewith to attack, the weak settlements along lake Erie, on the Canadian side of it, and march, downwards in the direction of Fort Niagara. We propose to be brief indeed, on the war of 1812, for more reasons than we need give.

But little of that war, comparatively speaking, was carried on in Ohio, and its events are so recent, and so well known that we must be brief. That it was badly conducted by the then administration, is certain, for two reasons; the men at the helm, in Washington, were ignorant of the geographical situation of the country; and they knew little of the art of war. There were, at that time, two parties east of the mountains, in the nation; one party accused the other, of appointing ineffi

cient officers, merely because they happened to belong to their own party; and, the opposition were accused of throwing every impediment which they could, in the way of the, then, administration. Both these accusations were, but quite too well founded. Governor Hull, had served in the war of the revolution, as an aid, and in some minor appointments, perhaps, but, was never made to command, but, to execute, the commands of others. When young, he could have executed what an able general should have ordered him to do; but at the time of his appointment, on this frontier, he was too old, to belong to an army in any situation. All the little military knowledge, he ever had, was antiquated and useless, and even worse than useless, because he relied on it. The higher appointments, made by Mr. Madison, in the army of 1812, were mostly of the same stamp, such as Hull, Pinckney, Dearborn, Winchester, &c. &c. &c. They were too old, and they had not kept pace, with the age, in which they lived. Hence, all they did, was useless. They were directed by Dr. Eustis another worn-out, revolutionary, subaltern officer. Such disasters attended on all the movements, of these worn-out generals, that millions believed them, traitors. We have never, for a moment, believed them to be such, but, they were utterly incompetent for any of the duties of the field, at the time of their appointments. Ohio at the commencement of the war, had so few opposers of the administration in it, that they could not be, even called a party.

Under the aforesaid act of congress, Return J. Meigs, then governor of Ohio, raised three regiments of yolunteers, for twelve months. This was in April and May 1812. After electing their officers, at Dayton perhaps, where three regiments had rendezvoused; they were numbered first, second and third. The first, was commanded by Duncan McArthur, its Colonel; the second, by Colonel James Findlay; and the third, by Colonel Lewis Cass. Early in June, these troops marched up the Great Miami, to Staunton, where they were paid off-they then marched over to Urbana, where they were joined by Boyd's, or as it was called, the 4th regiment of regular

troops, who had been in the battle of Tippecanoe, in the autumn before. The latter regiment was commanded by Colonel Miller.

By about the middle of June, this little army, of about twenty-five hundred men, left Urbana, under the command of governor Hull, and proceeding northward, they encamped a short time, about twenty-four miles north of Urbana, and erected a block house, and called it McArthur's block house. This was done by the first regiment. After resting here a short time, they moved forward again, and got into a swamp, and, from necessity, encamped in it, and erected a block house there, which they called "Necessity." The second regiment, under Findlay, had got ahead of McArthur's regiment, and had encamped, and erected a block house, and called it Fort Findlay. The town of Findlay the shire town of Hancock county, stands, where this block house was erected. After the army reached McArthur's block house, until they struck the Maumee, where Perrysburgh now is, the whole country was covered with a dense forest, which had to be cleared away for the wagons and heavy baggage to pass along, in the rear of the army. These block houses were stations erected where the provisions could be stored, not wanted for immediate use. Like taverns, on our roads, they served as stations for travelers to stop at, as they were passing and repassing between the army, and the settled parts of the country. And as the army moved forward, the first block house, was erected twenty miles north of Urbana, the next in a swamp, some fifteen miles or more further north; and Fort Findlay was about fifteen or twenty miles north of Necessity. From thence through the "black swamp," it is about thirty-six miles, or less, due north, in a right line, to the Maumee, at Perrysburgh. Through this swamp, the army marched, followed by one hundred and six heavy wagons, thirteen of which, stuck fast in the mud and there remained scattered along in the route of the army, and served as guides, to show, where Hull's army had passed along on its march.

The army reached the Maumee on the thirtieth day of June,