While the convention at Philadelphia occupied themselves with the new constitution, the vast territory north of the Ohio River was formed, by the congress at New York, into a territorial government under the name of the North-Western Territory. Among other provisions of the government of this new territory was the carrying out of an important republican principle which some of the older states had not yet adopted; this was the equal division of all landed as well as personal property between the children of persons dying intestate. The fullest religious freedom was also insured; provision made for schools and for justice and humanity towards the Indians, and a strong protest entered against slavery, inasmuch as it was declared that there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than as punishment of crimes of which the party shall have been duly convicted.
Seventeen millions of acres on the northern bank of the Ohio were now in possession of the United States, in consequence of the already mentioned treaties with the Six Nations. These formerly powerful and warlike tribes now retained but a small hold upon the lands which had once been their own. They were beginning, like their more feeble eastern brethren, to pass away from before the white man. The entire Mohawk nation emigrated in a body into Canada, and other Indian nations followed their example.
The pressure of war being removed from the eastern states, their restless and adventurous sons now went forth to explore and establish peaceable settlements, with all the amenities of domestic life and civilisation, in the wilderness. The State of New York located her disbanded soldiers on the land-bounties which she had promised them, upon such western lands as she retained after resigning her larger claims to the Union; Pennsylvania followed this example. Occupation was thus given to the unemployed, and a source of vast wealth opened to the impoverished. In July of this same busy year, the Ohio Company was formed, for the settlement of portions of this great territory, with the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, Winthrop Sargeant, and other citizens of New England, at its head.
In September, the Kentuckians, now holding their fourth convention at Danville, once more applied to congress for admission into the Union; but though they had now advanced so far as to have a spokesman in congress, in the person of one of the Virginian delegates, a Kentucky lawyer, and were possessed of a newspaper, the “Kentucky Gazette,” printed and published at Lexington, they were again unsuccessful in their application.
General St. Clair was elected governor of the new territory north-west of the Ohio, and thither flowed the great tide of emigration from the New England states, which had hitherto poured into Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. All New England was now astir with the movement westward, and again we have chronicles of migration and early settlement, as in the days of the Pilgrim Fathers. Quaint and beautiful are the details which exist of these movements. The plans were drawn in Boston, and at Providence in Rhode Island, of great cities to be erected on the banks of rivers flowing as yet through the wilderness; the intending emigrants met to draw lots for their future homes in these cities, each “town-lot to be ninety feet front and 180 feet in depth;” the centre street of the city to be 150 feet wide. As in the old times, “the Mayflower” set sail with the pioneer settlers; and on the 7th of April, 1788, General Rufus Putnam, the leader of this party, landed at the mouth of the Muskinghum, opposite Fort Harmer. Nothing can be pleasanter than the records of these early Ohio settlements. Captain Pipes, the chief of the Delawares, with about seventy of his tribe, came down for the purpose of trading with the garrison of Fort Harmer, shook hands with the new-comers, and welcomed them cordially to the shores of the Muskinghum, on the head waters of which river they themselves resided. The settlers arriving from the stern climate of New England, where they had left frost and snow, were struck by the contrast presented by the vegetation of their new home. The pea-vines, say they, and buffalo-clover, with various other plants, were nearly knee high, and afforded a rich pasture for their hungry horses. The trees had commenced putting forth their foliage, the birds warbled a welcome song from their branches, and all nature smiled at the approach of the strangers.
On these auspicious shores the settlers immediately commenced felling trees for their log-houses, and for the clearing of the land; while General Putnam resided in a tent which they had brought with them. In five days they had cleared and sown several acres of land. A month later one of the settlers wrote—“This country for fertility of soil and pleasantness of situation exceeds all our expectations. The climate is exceedingly healthy; not a man sick since we have been here. We have started twenty buffaloes in a drove. Deer as plenty as sheep in other places. Beaver and other animals abundant. I have known one man to catch twenty or thirty in one or two nights. Turkeys are innumerable; they come within a few rods of us in the fields. We have already planted a field of 150 acres of corn.” In July, another writer says—“The corn has grown nine inches in twenty-four hours for two or three days past.”
The city, which was laid out according to the great plan already formed, and including within its area the remains of an ancient fortified town, somewhat similar to those since discovered in Central America, and which were here carefully preserved, received the name of Marietta. This name was an abbreviation of Marie Antoinette, the name of the young queen of France, and was intended as a mark of respect to that sovereign, in consequence of the attention and kindness with which she had treated Franklin when at the court of Louis XVI., and of the interest which she had taken in the American struggle. The leaders of this settlement were principally old soldiers, and it was natural in them to remember with gratitude the kind offices which this young and beautiful woman had rendered to their cause; nor is their veneration for the classics less distinguishable. There was the “Capitolium” of the city, and the “Via Sacra,” while the garrison, with block-houses at the corners, was called “Campus Martius,” “as if,” says the historian, “in anticipation of the Indian war, which soon commenced, and continued for five years, during which time it was strictly a military camp.” Every feature of the infant colony bore the stamp of sylvan prosperity; the early regulations for the government were written out and posted on the smooth trunk of a large beech-tree. The 4th of July, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, was celebrated by “a sumptuous dinner, eaten under a bowery which stretched along the banks of the Muskinghum.” The table, we are informed, was supplied with venison, buffalo and roast-pigs, with a variety of fish. Among the latter was a pike weighing 100 pounds, which was caught at the mouth of the Muskinghum, by Judge Gilbert Devoll and his son Gilbert, and the tail of which dragged on the ground when suspended upon a pole between the shoulders of two tall men. On this occasion an oration was made by one of the judges, the first political oration ever made in Ohio.
On the 9th of July, General St. Clair arrived as governor of the colony, and was received in “the bowery” with Arcadian honours, and the firing of fourteen guns. So rapid was the progress of this settlement, that before the end of the summer the city-lots, with their streets and open public spaces, covered an area extending one mile on the Ohio River, and one mile and 120 perches on the Muskinghum. A substantial bridge was built over the creek which falls into the Muskinghum, in the southern part of the city, called, with their love of classical history, “Tiber Creek,” and three other bridges were also built over smaller streams. A road was cut through the forest to the Campus Martius, and the clearing and planting of land went on vigorously. Again and again wrote the settlers of the prosperity and plenty which surrounded them; the harvest was cut in the autumn, and in some cases yielded 104 bushels of ears to the acre, some of these ears yielding a pint and a half of shelled corn each. “As for beans, turnips, pumpkins, squashes, cabbages, melons, cucumbers, etc., they are,” says the exultant writer, “the very finest in flavour I ever tasted, and the great production is truly surprising.” The district of Marietta was called Washington county.
Emigration and colonisation was now the order of the day. It supplied the want of employment and excitement caused by the cessation of the war, and was a healthy outlet for the energies of the people. Among other emigrants who went out to the western settlements of New York was Daniel Shays, who had been included in a bill just passed of general pardon and indemnity for all concerned in the late insurrection. Shays lived to be very old, supported in his latter days by his pension as a revolutionary soldier. In October, John Symmes, one of the judges of Marietta, purchased a large tract of land between the great and little Miami rivers, and in the following month the first settlement within that purchase, and the second within Ohio, was commenced at Columbia at the mouth of the little Miami, five miles above the site of the present Cincinnati. All went on prosperously; towns were laid out, forests cleared, roads opened, mills and bridges built, and population flocked in. Nor was this alone the case on the Ohio. Within twelve months, more than 10,000 emigrants passed through Marietta on their way to Kentucky and other parts of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The West, the “great West,” the boast of the American, was putting forth its vast attractions and luring tens of thousands even then.
At the close of 1787, it was doubtful what would be the fate of the Federal Constitution in the States. It was received with distrust and jealousy by a great body of the people, who feared that the extensive powers given by the new Constitution to the federal government would place them under oppressions as grievous as those of the mother-country, which they had just shaken off. On the other hand, it was supported by the wealthy portion of the community, by the public creditors and merchants, the former of whom saw in it their only chance of payment, while the latter hoped everything from the extension and regulation of commerce. In the midst of this doubt and uncertainty, an able series of articles appeared in a New York paper, written by Hamilton, Madison and Jay, advocating the new constitution, and these so completely meeting all objections, helped greatly to settle the question.
Delaware was the first state to adopt the Constitution, on December 7th; five days later Pennsylvania followed the example; and soon after New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut. Massachusetts weighed and deliberated, with able men on either side, the friends of the Union looking anxiously on, well knowing that on the decision of that important state would depend the decision of others; and at length, on February 7th, the new Constitution was ratified by her, the majority in its favour being nineteen. Maryland gave in her adhesion in April, South Carolina in May, and in June New Hampshire. The Constitution was earnestly advocated and opposed by the different parties in the conventions of Virginia and New York, but both ratified it, the one in June, the other in July.
Eleven states had now adopted the Constitution, and though North Carolina still hesitated, and Rhode Island obstinately held no convention, measures were immediately taken for the organisation of the new government. As was to be expected, Washington received at the appointed time the unanimous vote of the electors, and became president-elect; the next highest number of votes was for John Adams, who was in consequence entitled to the office of vice-president; and senators and representatives under the new Constitution were chosen also in the eleven ratifying states.
The 4th of March was the day appointed for the new government to commence operations, but so many impediments occurred that it was not until the 30th of April that this took place. Some of the causes of this delay are curious. By the help of several public-spirited citizens of New York, who advanced the necessary funds, the old City Hall was prepared for the occasion. The important day was ushered in by the firing of cannon and the ringing of bells. But after all, the building was not ready, and more than that, eight senators only and thirteen representatives made their appearance, not enough to form a quorum in either house. The fact was, that most of the members, many of them from great distances, having to travel to New York on horseback, had found, at that early season of the year, the roads in many places impassable by floods, especially where rivers had to be forded. On the last day but one of March, thirty members, sufficient to form a quorum, being present, business commenced. The vice-president Adams arrived in New York, escorted by a troop of horse, on April 21st, and Washington, as president, proceeded from Mount Vernon in Virginia, to New York, in a sort of triumphal progress, the people everywhere eager to testify their affection and esteem, and on the 29th of April landed at New York, having crossed over from New Jersey in a barge fitted up for the occasion, and rowed by thirteen pilots in white uniforms.
But even now the new Federal Hall was not ready, and Washington took the oath of office, after Divine service had been performed in all the churches, in a balcony fronting the street where the assembled populace could witness the ceremony. The oath was administered by Livingston, Chancellor of New York, who, on its conclusion, exclaimed aloud, “Long live George Washington, President of the United States!” and the multitude answered with enthusiastic shouts.
The inaugural address of Washington was short, and remarkable for its deep tone of gratitude to the Divine Ruler, who had permitted the affairs of America to take a favourable issue; for its pure and elevated sentiment of political wisdom, and of devotion to that beloved country in whose service he had already laboured so faithfully. “The foundation of the national policy,” he remarked, “should be laid in the pure principles of private morality; no truth being more thoroughly established than that there exists an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and happiness.” He considered “the success of the republican form of government as an experiment entrusted to the American people,” and assured them, “that the propitious smiles of Heaven could never be looked for if the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself had ordained, were disregarded.”
His disinterested patriotism was proved by the fact that now, as on the former occasion when he held the office of commander-in-chief, he desired no other compensation for his services than the reimbursement of his expenses.
It was early attempted in the senate to introduce styles and titles of office, and to address the president as “His Highness,” but this was resolutely opposed; nevertheless a committee was appointed to consider the subject, and in the meantime the question was decided by the house of representatives, the supporters of republican simplicity. They addressed Washington, in their reply to his opening address, merely as “the President of the United States.”
Washington on his part, though a strenuous advocate of republican simplicity, found it necessary to sustain the dignity of his office by a form of etiquette which was considerably censured at the time, but which has ever since continued to regulate the presidential household. He laid it down as a rule to return no visits. Certain days were appointed for levees; nor were any invitations to dinner given, excepting to foreign ministers, officers of the government, and strangers of distinction. The arrangement of the ceremonial at levees and other public occasions was entrusted to Humphries, who had formerly been aide-de-camp to Washington, and later, secretary of legation at Paris, and who was supposed to know a good deal on the punctilios of court life. Trifling matters of ceremonial introduced by Humphries, as the placing the president and his wife on elevated seats at public balls, and requiring the dancers to acknowledge their presence by bows and curtseys, led to trouble in after years, as marks of the monarchical tendencies of the federal party.[64] For the rest the greatest simplicity prevailed; there was neither ostentation nor reserve, and the guests of the first man in the Union were entertained with as much ease, and received as kind a welcome, as though he had still been only “Farmer Washington.” On the Sundays, however, no visits were received. He regularly attended church in the morning, and in the afternoon retired to his private apartment. The evening was spent with his family, when sometimes an intimate friend might call, but promiscuous company was not permitted.[65]
The first objects of congress were to establish a revenue for the support of government, and the supply of the exhausted treasury; to organise the executive departments; to establish a judiciary; and to amend the constitution. In order to provide a revenue, duties were imposed on the tonnage of vessels, and on foreign goods imported into the states, among which were ardent spirits. As regarded spirituous liquors, the attention of the public was just turned to this subject by a tract on the great evils attending their use, lately published by Dr. Rush. It was the commencement of the temperance movement, and at the great Federal Festival, held at Philadelphia to celebrate the adoption of the new Constitution, ardent spirits had been excluded, American beer and cider being the only liquors used.
Three executive departments were established to aid the president in the affairs of government—the departments of Foreign Affairs, of the Treasury, and of War. Thomas Jefferson was appointed to the first, Alexander Hamilton to the second, and General Knox to the third, which he had long held, the small navy being also placed under his care. These offices were under the control of the president, and the power of removing them was, after much discussion, placed also in his hands.
The national judiciary now established consisted of a Supreme Court, having one chief-justice and several associate judges, as well as circuit and district courts possessing jurisdiction as specified in the Constitution. Washington declared that “the due administration of justice was the firmest pillar of good government, and that the selection of the fittest characters to expound the laws and dispense justice was an invariable object of his anxious concern.” He selected, therefore, the fittest men he knew for those important appointments; and John Jay became chief-justice, and Edmund Randolph attorney-general. Several amendments to the Constitution were proposed, ten of which, as given in the preceding chapter, were afterwards adopted.
The salary of the president was fixed at 25,000 dollars a year, that of the vice-president at 5,000, those of the heads of departments at 3,500. Six dollars a day, with six dollars for every twenty miles of travelling, were allowed to the representatives, and seven dollars, with the same sum for travelling expenses, in the same ratio, to the members of the Senate. The chief-justice of the Supreme Court was to receive 4,000 dollars, and the associate judges 500 dollars less, per annum.
On the 29th of September, the first session of congress closed. In November, North Carolina ratified the Constitution.
During the recess of congress, the president made a tour through the New England states, omitting, however, Rhode Island, which had not yet given in its adhesion to the Constitution. Everywhere he was received with demonstrations of love and respect. “Men, women and children,” says Jared Sparkes, “people of all ranks, ages, and occupations, assembling from far and near, at the crossings of the roads and other public places where it was known he would pass. Military escorts attended him on the way, and at the principal towns, he was received and entertained by the civil authorities.
“This journey,” continues the same writer, “not only furnished proofs of the attachment of the people, but convinced him of the growing prosperity of the country, and of the favour which the Constitution and the administration of government were gaining in the public mind. He saw with pleasure that the effects of the war had almost disappeared; that agriculture was pursued with activity; that the harvests were abundant, manufactures increasing, the towns flourishing, and commerce becoming daily more extended and profitable. The condition of society, the progress of improvements, the success of industrial enterprise, all gave tokens of order, peace and contentment, and a most cheering promise for the future.”
Journeys of this kind, the great object of which was the becoming better acquainted with the capabilities, as well as the condition of the country, were not uncommon with Washington. Already, in 1784, at the close of the war, he had made a journey of 600 miles, to visit his lands on the Ohio, when the practicability of a great scheme suggested itself to him, viz. that of uniting the East and West, by means of intercommunication between the head waters of the Atlantic streams and the western rivers. He pressed the subject upon the notice of the government of Virginia, the result of which was the formation of two companies, “the Potomac Company,” and “the Kenhawa and James River Company.” Washington thus became the first mover in the great series of internal improvements which took place.
The second session of congress opened on the 6th of January, 1790. Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, brought forward early his report upon the public debt contracted during the war, and which had hung like a mill-stone so long round the neck of government. Taking an able and enlarged view of the advantages of public credit, he recommended that not only the debts of the continental congress, but those of the individual states contracted on behalf of the common cause, should be funded or assumed by the general government, and that provision should be made for paying the interest by taxes imposed on certain articles of luxury, and on spirits distilled in the country. This report led to long discussion; but in conclusion, congress passed an act for the assumption of the states’ debts, and for funding the national debt. Provision for the payment of the foreign debt was made without any difficulty. The debt funded amounted to about 75,000,000 dollars; and it was especially enacted that no certificate should be obtained from a state-creditor, which it could not be ascertained had been issued for the express purposes of compensation, services, or supplies, during the late war. The proceeds of the western lands and the surplus revenue, with the addition of 2,000,000 dollars which the president was authorised to borrow at 5 per cent, constituted a sinking fund to be applied to the reduction of the debt. The effect of these measures upon the country in general was of the most satisfactory kind. The sudden increase of monied capital gave a fresh impulse to commerce and consequently to agriculture.
Shortly after the discussion on the debt commenced in Congress, it was interrupted by petitions from the yearly meeting of the Quakers of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York, advocating the abolition of slavery, and which were followed up by a memorial from the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, signed by Benjamin Franklin as president, one of the last public acts of this remarkable man’s life; he died a few weeks afterwards. This subject led to two months’ controversy on the subject of slavery and the slave-trade, the end of which was a report, entered on the journal of the debates, that any state thinking proper to import slaves, could not be prohibited by congress prior to the year 1808, although it had power to prevent their supplying foreigners with slaves, and that they had no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them in any of the states.
In May of this year, Rhode Island acceded to the New Constitution, and thus completed the union of the Thirteen States. About the same time an act was passed for accepting a cession of land from North Carolina, and erecting it into a territorial government, under the title of “the Territory South of the Ohio,” and which was in every respect to stand upon the same basis as the “Territory North West of the Ohio,” with this exception, that slavery was not excluded. This new territory, which forms the present Tennessee, included the late aspiring state of Frankland, and another tract of about 2,000 square miles, which had been settled in 1780 by James Robertson, who, with about forty families, had advanced 300 miles into the wilderness, and there established the town of Nashville on the banks of the Cumberland River; whither, also, he had been followed by many of the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war, to whom land-bounties had been assigned on the same river. The new territory, for which a governor was presently appointed, was for the greater part in the possession of the Indians at that very time.
Indian wars were the certain result of the advance of the white man into the wilderness, and the frontiers of the more southern states still continued to be the scenes of bloodshed. A war had been carried on for some time between the Creek Indians and Georgia, on the subject of lands said to have been ceded by the Indians to that state, but which they denied. The Creek warriors were well supplied with fire-arms and ammunition, and had the advantage of an able and accomplished chief, a half-breed Indian called, after his father, M‘Gillivray, and who had received an excellent education in Charleston. Under this chief the Creeks carried on a fierce and terrible war, which spread alarm even as far as Savannah. Washington, anxious to bring about a negotiation with these formidable warriors, invited M‘Gillivray to New York; and accompanied by twenty-eight chiefs and warriors, he arrived there, congress being still in session, and was received with every mark of respect and attention. A treaty of peace was entered into; wampum given and tobacco smoked; after which M‘Gillivray having made a speech, and “a shake of peace” between Washington and the chiefs being given, “a song of peace” was raised by the Indians, and the ceremony ended. Peace was established on the frontiers of Georgia, and the lands which the Creeks claimed solemnly guaranteed to them, not much to the satisfaction of the whites.
Thus successful with the Creeks, they were much less so with the western Indians, who encouraged, it was said, by the British in Canada, insisted on making the Ohio their boundary, and infested the banks of the river, attacking the emigrant boats, which descended it, and carrying their ravages far into Kentucky. Pacific overtures having been made in vain by the president to these hostile Indians, General Harmar was sent from Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, with a force of 1,400, to reduce them to terms. He succeeded in destroying the Indian villages and their harvests, but in two engagements near the confluence of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s in Indiana, successive detachments of the army were defeated with considerable loss.
Congress during this present session passed an act “for the encouragement of learning,” which secured a copyright to authors for fourteen years, and if living at the end of that term, for fourteen years longer.
During the session of 1791, a National Bank was proposed by Hamilton, which met with the most vigorous opposition from the republican party, who considered that congress had no constitutional power for such a measure. The supporters of the bill maintained it to be constitutional and necessary for the operations of government. The president required the opinions of the cabinet in writing, and after mature deliberation, gave the bill his signature, and the bank was established at Philadelphia, with a capital of 10,000,000 dollars.
The dissentions on the subjects of the funding system and the bank, originating in the heart of the republic, extended themselves to the extremities, and were a signal for the people to range themselves under two parties. Hamilton and Jefferson were the leaders of these factions, and Washington in vain endeavoured, by his practical wisdom and affectionate remonstrances, to reconcile the two parties. But we have not space to enter at large into the struggles and bitternesses of this party strife. We pass, therefore, on to events.
New York having relinquished her claim to Vermont, though not without the purchase of a release for 30,000 dollars, and the Green Mountain Boys, having adopted the Constitution, were in February admitted into the Union.
The Indian war still continuing, and even with increased violence, additional troops were raised and command given to General St. Clair, governor of the North West Territory, to march to the relief of the suffering settlers; and in October he encamped with 1,400 men near the Miami villages. The chief of the Miamis, at this time, was the powerful Michikiniqua, or the Little Turtle, who by the force of native talent, had raised himself to the military leadership of the confederated western tribes. In his forces, which numbered about 1,500, were included many half-breeds and refugees, among whom was the notorious Simon Girty. St. Clair and his officers were asleep in the midst of their camp, when in the early dawn they were roused by a sudden attack. The carnage which followed was terrible; more than one-fourth of the Americans, and the artillery and baggage, fell into the hands of the enemy.[66] This second repulse spread the greatest terror throughout the north-west frontier even into Pennsylvania. On the news of this disaster, congress resolved to prosecute the war with increased vigour, and provision was made for augmenting the army, by enlistment, to the number of 5,000 men. The defeat of Harmar and St. Clair had, however, created such a dread of the Indians, that a sufficient number of recruits could not be obtained. A clamour was raised against the war; Willett and Daniel Morgan, old revolutionary officers, declined to act as brigadier-generals, Willett openly declaring his doubt of the justice of the war. “The intercourse,” said he, “which I have had with these people, and the treatment which I and others have received from them, makes me their advocate. The honour of fighting and beating the Indians is not what I aspire after.” Colonel Harden and Major Trueman were then sent with a flag of truce, to attempt a negotiation, but they were both murdered. The Six Nations now, at the request of Washington, interfered to persuade the tribes on the Wabash to withdraw from the confederacy, and make peace with the United States. This was in part effected, and the Miamis agreed to a conference the following spring.
The first census of the inhabitants of the United States was taken this year, when the population was found to be 3,921,326, of whom 695,655 were slaves. By this census the representatives were apportioned, allowing one representative for each 33,000 inhabitants, and thus giving the house 105 members. The revenue, according to the report of the secretary, amounted to 4,771,000 dollars.
In this session, the long-agitated question regarding the locality of the permanent seat of government was decided. A district, ten miles square, comprehending lands on both sides the river Potomac, was selected and the city of Washington laid out, the sales which took place producing the necessary funds for its erection.
Kentucky had the satisfaction, after her long efforts at independence, to be admitted into the Union, in June of 1792. The same year the post-office was organised and a mint was established and located in Philadelphia. The coinage, to be called Federal money, were the eagle, half-eagle and quarter-eagle in gold; the dollar, half-dollar, quarter-dollar, dime and half-dime in silver; the cent and half-cent in copper. The device for the coinage led to considerable agitation; the head of Washington, in the first instance, and other presidents for the time being, with the name and order of succession, being considered an alarming step towards monarchy, like the former proposition of the title of Highness and the present levees of the president, and was therefore rejected. An emblematic figure of liberty was finally adopted.
The first Congress had now closed its sessions. Washington was again elected president, and was inaugurated in March of 1793, John Adams also being re-elected to the office of vice-president.