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This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est U\m6 au taux de reduction indiqud ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 2tX 30X y 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X fA If 3 '' '*'*'ffl}'}{'? f* ||l^'*W|"^^ lll't WH ' M I ^M B f't iDlH .f^outl) aicaflct^* N. • 41 The North-west Territory and Western Reserve By James A. (Iari ield. Address bi-fore the //isforiciil Society of Geauga County, Ohio, Sif^teviber 16, 1S73. From the historian's standpoint, our country is peculiarly and exceptionally fortunate. The origin of nearly all great nations, ancient and modern, is shrouded in fable or tradition- ary legend. The story of the founding of Rome by the wolf- nursed brothers, Romulus and Remus, has long been classed among the myths of history ; and the more modern story of Hengist and Horsa leading the Saxons to England is almost equally legendary. The origin of Paris can never be known. Its foundation was laid long before Ciaul had written records. But the settlement, civilization, and political institutions of our country can be traced from their first hour by the clear light of history. It is true that over this continent hangs an impene- trable veil of tradition, mystery, and silence. But it is the tradi- tion of races fast passing away; the mystery of a still earlier race, which flourished and perished long before its discovery by the Europeans. The story of the Mound-builders can never be told. The fate of the Indian tribes will soon be a half- forgotten tale. But the history of European civilization and institutions on this continent can be traced with precision and fullness, unless we become forgetful of the past, and neglect to save and perpetuate its precious memorials. In discussing the scope of historical study in reference to our country, I will call attention to a few general facts concern- ing its discovery and settlement. First, — The Romantic Period of Discovery on this Con- tinent. There can scarcely be found in the realms of romance any- thing more fascinating than the records of discovery and ad- K I ■* jv, ' ii venture during the two centuiies that followed the landing of Columbus on the soil of the New World. The greed for gold ; the passion for adventure; the spirit of chivalry; the enthusi- asm and fanaticism of reliji;ion, — all conspired to throw into America the hardiest and most daring spirits of Europe, and made the vast wilderness of the New \Vorld the theatre of the ujost stirring achievements that history has recorded. Early in the sixteenth century, Spain, turning from the con- quest of Granada and her triumph over the Aioors, followed lier golden dreams of the New World with the same spirit that in an earlier day animated her Crusaders. In 1528 I'once de Leon began his search for the fountain of perpetual youth, the tradition of which he had learned among the natives of the West Indies. He discovered the low-lying coasts of Florida, and explored its interior. Instead of the fountain of youth, he found his grave among its everglades. A few years later l)e Soto, who had accompanied Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, landed in Florida with a gallant array of knights and nobles, and commenced his explorations through the western wilderness. In 1541 he reached the banks of the Mississippi River, and, crossing it, pushed his discoveries west- ward over the great plains; but, finding neither the gold nor the South Sea of his dreams, he returned to be buried in the waters of the great river he had discovered. While England was more leisurely exploring the bays and rl\ers of the Atlantic coast, and searching for gold and peltry, the chevaliers and priests of France were chasing their dreams in the North, searching for a passage to China, and the realms of Far Cathay, and telling the mystery of the Cross to the Indian tribes of the far West. Coasting northward, her bold naviga- tors discovered the mouth of the St. Lawrence; and in 1525 Cartier sailed up its broad current to the rocky heights of Quebec, and to the rapids above Montreal, which were after- wards named La Chine, in derision of the belief that the ad- venturers were about to lind China. In 1609 Champlain pushed above the rapids, and discovered tlie beautiful lake that bears his name. In 161 c Priest La Caron pushed northward and westward through the wilderness, and discovered Lake Huron. In 1635 t^^ Jesuit missionaries founded the Mission St. Mary. In 1654 another priest had entered the wilderness of Northern New York, and found the salt springs of Onondaga. In 1659-1660 French traders and priests passed the winter on Lake Superior, and established missions along its shores h « 1*1 Among the earlier discoverers, no name shines out with more brilliancy than that of the Chevalier La Salle. The story of his explorations can scarcely be equalled in romantic interest by any of the stirrin<;j tales of the Crusaders. Born of a proud and wealthy family in the north of France, he was destined for the service of the Church and of the Jesuit Order. Hut his rest- less spirit, fired with the love of adventure, broke away from the ecclesiastical restraints to confront the dangers of the New World, and to extend the empire of Louis XIV. I'Vom the best evidence accessible, it appears that he was the first white man that saw the Ohio River. At twenty-six years of age, we find him with a small party, near the western extremity of Lake Ontario, boldly entering the domain of the dreaded Iroquois, travelling southward and westward through the wintry wilder- ness until he reached a branch of the Ohio, probably the Alleghany. He followed it to the main stream, and descended that, until in the winter of 1669 and 1670 he reached the Falls of the Ohio, near the present site of Louisville. His com- panions refusing to go further, he returned to Quebec, and pre- part:d for still greater undertakings. In the mean time the Jesuit missionaries had been pushing their discoveries on the Northern Lake. In 1673 Joliet and Marquette started from Green Bay, dragging their canoes up the rapids of Fox River ; crossed I,ake Winnebago ; found Indian guides to conduct them to the waters of the Wisconsin ; descended that stream to the westward, and on the 16th of June reached the Mississippi near the spot where now stands the city of Prairie du Chien. To-morrow will be the two hundredth anniversary of that discovery. One hundred and thirty-two years before that time De Soto had seen the same river more than a thousand miles below ; but during that interval it is not known that any white man had looked upon its waters. Turning southward, these brave priests descended the great ri\er, amid the awful solitudes. The stories of demons and monsters of the wilderness which abounded among the Indian tribes did not deter them from pushing their discoveries. They continued their journey southward to the mouth of the Arkansas River, telling as best they could the story of the Cross to the wild tribes along the shores. Returning from the Kaskaskias and travelling thence to Lake Michigan, they reached Green Bay at the end of September, 1673, having on their journey paddled their canoes more than twenty-five bun- dled miles. Marquette remained to establish missions among the Indians, and to die, three years later, on the western shore of Lake Michigan, while Joliet returned to Quebec to report his discoveries. In the mean time Count Frontenac, a noble of France, had been made Governor of Canada, and found in La Salle a fu counsellor and assistant in his vast schemes of discovery. La Salle was sent to France, to enlist the Court and the Ministers of Louis; and in 1677-1678 returned to Canada, with full power under Frontenac to carryforward his grand enterprises. He had developed three great purposes : first, to realize the old plan of Champlain, the finding of a pathway to China across the American Continent ; second, to occupy and de- velop the regions of the Northern Lakes ; and, third, to de- scend the Mississippi and establish a fortified post at its mouth, thus securing an outlet for the trade of the interior and checking the progress of Spain on the Gulf of Mexico. In pursuance of this plan, we find La Salle and his compan- ions, in January, 1679, ^'"^gging their cannon and materials for ship-building arouna the Falls of Niagara, and laying the keel of a vessel two leagues above the cataract, at the mouth of Cayuga Creek. She was a schooner of forty-five tons' burden, and was named "The Griffin." On the 7th of August, 1679, with an armament of five cannon, and a crew and company of thirty-four men, she started on her voyage up Lake Erie, the first sail ever spread over the waters of our lake. On the fourth day she entered Detroit River ; and, after encountering a terrible storm on Lake Huron, passed the straits and reached Green Bay early in September. A few weeks later she started back for Niagara, laden with furs, and was never heard from. While awaiting the supplies which "The Griffin" was ex- pected to bring. La Salle explored Lake Michigan to its soutli- ern extremity, ascended the St. Joseph, crossed the portage to the Kankakee, descended the Illinois, and, landing at an Ind- ian village on the site of the present village of Uiica, 111., cele- brated mass on New Year's Day, 1680. Before the winter was ended he became certain that " The Griffin " was lost. But, undaunted by his disasters, on the 3d of March, with five com- panions, he began the incredible feat of making the journey to Quebec on foot, in the dead of winter. This he accomplished. He reorganized his expedition, conquered every difficulty, and on the 2ist of December, 1681, with a party of fifty-four French- men and friendly Indians, set out for the present site of Chi- cago, and by way of the Illinois River reached the Mississippi Feb. 6, 1682. He descended its stream, and on the qth of April, iG solemnly that, in tl Great Va column, a tlie couni France tc Rocky M farthest s] I will 1 Enough h their work this count! days of d this New ^ As Irvin action ; it the depths ures; the I tions of st steed, glitt Alabama, £ mere fictioi of fact narr corded min Second. — I next ir important s succeeded l At the b( was claimec sion of Me: and northw, near the m land held f ern Lakes glianies. F Alleghanies, of the bou disputed; b Besides tl ment entere tueen the C onies of En IS It, i\- [o [\. d April, 1682, standing on the shores of the (lulf of Mexico, solemnly proclaimed to his companions and to the wilderness that, in the name of Louis the Great, he took posse>siijn of the (ircat Valley watered by the Mississippi River. He set up a coaimn, and inscribed upon it the arms of France, and named the country Louisiana. Upon this act rested the claim of I'Vance to the vast region stretching from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains, from the Rio Grande and the Gulf to the farthest springs of the Missouri. I will not follow further the career of the great explorers. Enough has been said to exhibit the spirit and character of their work. I would I were able to inspire the young men of this country with a desire to read the history of these stirring days of discovery that opened up to Europe the myjteries of this New World. As Irving has well said of their work : " It was poetry put into action ; it was the knight-errantry of the Old World carried into the depths of the American wilderness. The personal advent- ures ; the feats of individual prowess ; the picturesque descrip- tions of steel-clad cavaliers, with lance and helm and prancinq steed, glittering through the wilderness of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the prairies of the Far West, — would seem to us mere fictions of romance, did they not come to us in the matter- of f act narratives of those who were eye-witnesses, and who re- corded minute memoranda of every incident." Second. — The Struggle for National Dominion. I next invite your attention to the less stirring but not less important struggle for the possession of the New World, which succeeded the period of discovery. At the beginning of the eighteenth century North America was claimed mainly by three great powers. Spain held posses- sion of Mexico, and a belt reaching eastward to the Atlantic, and northward to the southern line of Georgia, except a portion near the mouth of the Mississippi held by the French. Eng- land held from the Spanish line on the south to the North- ern Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and westward to the AUe- glianies. France held all north of the lakes and west of the Alleghanies, and southward to the possessions of Spain. Some of the boundary lines were but vaguely defined, others were disputed; but the general outlines were as stated. Besides the struggle for national possession, the religious ele- ment entered largely into the contest. It was a struggle be- tween the Catholic and Protestant faiths. The Protestant col- otiies of England were enveloped on three sides by the vigor- ous and perfectly organized Catholic powers of France and Spain. Indeed, at an early date, by the IJuU of Pope Alexander VI. all America had been given to the Spaniards. Hut France, with a zeal equal to that of Spain, had entered the list to con- test for the prize. So far as the religious struggle was con- cerned, the efforts of France and Spain were resisted only by the Protestants of the Atlantic coast. The main chain of the Alleghanies was supposed to be im- passable until 1 7 14, when Governor Spottswood, of Virginia, led an expedition to discover a pass to the great valley beyond. He found one somewhere near the western boundary of \'ir- ginia and by it descended to the Ohio. On his return he established the "Transmontane Order," or "Knights of the Golden Horse-shoe." On the sandy plains of Eastern Vir- ginia horse-shoes were rarely used, but, in climbing the moun- tains, he had found them necessary, and, on creating his com- panions knights of this new Order, he gave to each a golden horse-shoe, inscribed with the motto, — " Sic jurat transcendcre monies'^ He represented to the British Ministry the great importance of planting settlements in the western valley ; and, with the foresight of a statesman, pointed out the danger of allowing the French the undisputed possession of that rich region. The progn^ss of i'.ngland had been slower, but more certain than that of her great rival. While the French were estab- lishing trading-posts at points widely remote from each other, along the lakes and the Mississippi, and in the wilderness of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the English were slowly but firmly- planting their settlements on the Atlantic slope, and preparing to contest for the rich prize of the Great West. They pos- sessed one jrreat advantay;e over their French rivals. Thev had cultivated the friendship of the Iroquois Confederacy, the most powerful combination of Indian tribes known to the New World. That Confederacy held possession of the southern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie ; and their hostility to the French had confined the settlements of that people mainly to the northern shores. During the first half of the eighteenth century many treaties were made by the English with these confederated tribes, and some valuable grants of land were obtained on the eastern slope of the Mississippi Valley. Abou began ( perceivt In r Lawrem " rhe C million liritish in the f similar French ; that a gi English were too importar to perm the Ohio In 171 Creek,"' their coli occupy a was und of that ^ mander vading t (Jeorge \ assistants Novembt a journey Ohio at and his c " I spent land in th spot Fort Pittsburg, As Bar tress and their blai bank." 1 council w to secure He then f Le Boeuf ( the comn About the middle of that century the lUiii.sh Ciovernmenl lie^an to reco>;iiize the wisdom of Governor Spottswood, and perceived that an empire was soon to be saved or lost. In 1748 a company was organized by Thomas Lee and Lawrence and Augustine Washington, under the name of "The Ohio ("ompany," and received a royal grant of one-half million acres of land in the valley of the Ohio. In 1751 a liritish trading-post was established on the Big Miami; but in the following year it was destroyed by the French. Many similar efforts of the JMiglish colonists were resisted by the French; and during the years 1751-J-3 it became manifest that a great struggle was imminent between the French and the English for the possession of the West. The British Ministers were too much absorbed in intrigues at home to appreciate the importance of this contest ; and they did but little more than to permit the colonies to protect their rights in the Valley of the Ohio. In 1753 the Ohio Company had opened a road, by "Will's Creek," into the western valle)-, and were preparing to locate their colony. At the same time the French had sent a force to occupy and hold the line of the Ohio. As the Ohio Company was under the especial protection of \'irginia, the Governor of that colony determined to send a messenger to the com- mander of the l""rench force:?, and demand the reason for in- vading the British dominions. For this purpose he selecteil George Washington, then twenty-one years of age, who, with six assistants, set out from Williamsburg, \'a., in the middle of November, for the waters of the Ohio and the lakes. After a journey of nine days through sleet and snow, he reached the Ohio at the junction of the Alleghany and the .Monongahela; and his quick eye seemed to foresee the destiny of the place. "I spent some time," said he, "in viewing the rivers. The land in the fork has the absolute command of both." On this spot Fort Pitt was afterwards built, and still later the city of Pittsburg. As Bancroft has said, " After creating in imagination a for- tress and city, his party swam across the Alleghany, wrapped their blankets around them for the night on the north-west bank." Proceeding down the Ohio to Logstown, he held a council with the Shawnees and the 1 )elawares, who promised to secure the aid of the Six Nations in resisting the French. He then proceeded to the F'rench posts at \'enango and Fort Le Boeuf (the latter fifteen miles from Lake Erie), and warned the commanders that the rights of Virginia must not be in- i Wi .J"' vaded. He received for his answer that the French would bcize every Englishman in the Ohio Valley. Rctiirnin<; to Virginia in January, 1754, he reported to the (iovernor, and immediate preparations were made by the col- onists to maintain their rights in the Wi'st, and resist the incur- sions of the French. In this movement originated the first military union among the iMiglish colonists. Although peace existed between France and Fngland, for- midable preparations were made by the latter to repel encroach- ments on the frontier, from Ohio to the (lulf of St. Lawrence. Braildock was sent to America, and in 1755, at Alexandria, Va., he planned four expeditions against the French. It is not necessary to speak in detail of the war that followed. Alter liraddock's defeat near the forks of the Ohio, which occurred on the 9th of July, 1755, Fngland herself took ac- tive measures for prosecuting the war. On the 25th of November, 1758, Forbes captured Fort Du(^uesne, which thus passed into the possession of the Fng- lish, and was named P'ort Pitt, in honor of the great Minister. In 1759 (Quebec was captured by General Wolfe; and the same year Niagara fell into the hands of the English. In 1760 an iMiglish force, under Major Rogers, moved west- ward from Niagara, to occupy the French posts on the Upper Lakes. They coasted along the south shore of Erie, the first F^nglish-speaking people that sailed its waters. Near the mouth of the Grand River they met in council the chiefs of the great warrior I'ontiac. A few weeks later they took possession of Detroit. "Thus," says Mr. Bancroft, *' was Michigan won by Great Britain, though not for itself. There were those who foresaw that the acquisition of Canada was the prelude of American Independence." Late in December Rogers returned to the Maumee ; and, setting out from the point where Saixlusky City now stands, crossed the Huron River to the northern branch of White Woman's River, and passing thence by the English village of Beaverstown, and up the Ohio, reached Fort Pitt on the 23d of January, 1761, just a month after he left Detroit. Under the leadership of Pitt, F'.ngland was finally trium- phant in this great struggle ; and by the Treaty of Paris, of F"eb. 10, 1763, she acquired Canada and all the territory east of the Mississippi River, and southward to the Spanish Ter- ritory, excepting New Orleans and the island on which it is situated. During the twelve years which followed the Treaty of Paris ilie I'lnj newlv a( ol the S to capiu At Jeii at I-'ort i of the ( ) ians to n and West occupy tl "Amoi time," sa VVasllin;^^• tion to th the West the Ohio thousand 'Vencii \^ ^'i'' ■ fii; from all 1 Alleghany T/tird.- U'est. How ca the Missis dence, and the indep there was bounded French an( How die 'States.? It the colonie knowledge country, at John Smitl and find a were too v; boundaries tended her and during Dominion, c the Revoluti ^--nce to the the l'!njj;lish colonists witc pushing their setilonicnts into the newly acciuirt'd territory; but they encountered the opposition of the Six Nations and liu-ir allies, who made fruitless efforts to capture the iJrilish posts, — Detroit, Xiagar.i, and Kort I'itt. At length, in i7')S, Sir William Johnson concluded a treaty at I'ori Stanwix with these tribes, by which all the lands soutli of the ( )liio and the Alleghany were sold to the lliitish, the Ind- ians to remain in undisturbed possessicm of the territory north and west of those ri\ers. New companies were organized to occupy the territory thus obtained. "Among the foremost speculators in Western lands at that time," says the auilior of "Annals ot the West," '"was (leorge Washington." In 1769 he was one of the signers of a peti- tion to the king for a grant of two and a n.i millions acres in the West. In 1770 he crossed the niounta .js auvl descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kanav.iia, to locate the ten thousand acres to which he was ent' ,•(! for ser\ ces in the Frenc:h War. ^'i'' ' nians planted settlements In Ken^uc'>/- and pioneers from ad the c )lonies began to occupv me rontiers, from the Alleghany to the Tennessee. Third. — The War of the Revolution, and its Relations to the West. How came the Thirteen Colonies to possess the Valley of the Mississippi.^ The object of their struggle was indepen- dence, and yet by the Treaty of Peace in 1783 not only was the independence of the Thirteen Colonies conceded, bnt there was granted to the new Republic a western territory, bounded by the Northern Lakes, the Mississippi, and the French and Spanish possessions. How did these hills and valleys become a part of the United States .-• It is true that by virtue of ro\al charters several of the colonies set up claims e.vtending to the " South Sea." The knowledge which the l'!nglish possessed of the geography of this country, at that time, is illustrated by the tact that ('aptain John Smith was commissioned to sail up the Chickahominv, and find a passage to China! But the claims of the colonies were too vague to be of any consequence in determining the boundaries of tha two governments. Virginia had indeed ex- tended her settlements into the region south of the Ohio River, and during the Revolution had annexed that country to the Old Dominion, calling it the County of Kentucky. Hut previous to the Revolution the colonies had taken no such action in refer- ence to the territory north-west of the Ohio. lO The cession of ihat great Territory, under the treaty of 17S3, was clue mainly to the foresight, the courage, and the endurance of one man, who never received from his country any adequate recognition for his great service. That man was George Rogers Clark ; and it is worth your while to consider the work he accomplished. 15orn in Virginia, he was in early life a sur- veyor, and afterward served in Lord Dunmore's War. Jn 1776 he settled in Kentucky, and was, in fact, the founder of that commonwealth. As the war of the Revolution progressed, he saw that the pioneers west of the Alleghanies were threatened by two formidable dangers: first, by the Indians, many of whom had joined tlie standard of Great Britain; and, second, by the success of the war itself. For, should the colonies obtain their independence while the British held possession of the Missis- sippi Valley, the Alleghanies would be the western boundary of the new Republic, and the pioneers of the West would remain subject to Great Britain. Inspired by these views, he made two journeys to Virginia to represent the case to the authorities of that colony. Failing to impress the House of Burgesses with the importance of warding off these dangers, he appealed to the Governor, Patrick Henry, and received from him authority to enlist seven compa- nies to go to Kentucky subject to his orders, and serve for three months after their arrival in the West. This was a public commission. Another document, bearing date Williamsburg, Jan. 2, 177S, was a secret commission, which authorized him, in the name of Virginia, to capture the military posts held by the British in the Norih-west. Anned with this authority, he proceeded to Pittsburg, where he obtained ammunition, and floated it down the river to Kentucky, succeeded in enlisting seven companies of pioneers, and in the month of June, 1778, com- menced his march through the untrodden wilderness to the region of the Illinois. With a daring that is scarcely equalled in the annals of war, he captured the garrisons of Kaskaskia, St. \'incent, and Cahokia, and sent his prisoners to the Gov- ernor of A'irginia. and by his energy and skill won over the French inhabitants of that region to the American cause. In October, 1778, the House of Burgesses passed an act declaring that "all the citizens of the Commonwealth of Vir- ginia, who are already settled there, or shall hereafter be settled on the west side of the Ohio, shall be included in the District of Kentucky, which shall be called Illinois County." In other words, George Rogers Clark conquered the Territory of the Republ in n British western the onli relied, i the bou que red of it at 1 In hi Territor liriiish J ground doned tl It is a ~ the le site now of the S and ene: allowed and gior) In iyg( Louisville lie was ir tained foi " He hi command gravity an so eminen A person veterans readily ha niodel he rapidly fa i'lgratitudt fought bra "The f, magnanirn. gratitude t was the lej t'le site n( its protectc of its grea I I of ihe North-west in the name of Virginia, and the flag of the Republic covered it at the close of the war. In negotiating the Treaty of Peace at Paris, in 1783, the British commissioners insisted on the Oliio River as the north- western boundary of the United States ; and it was found that the only tenable ground on which the American commissioners relied, to sustain our claim to the Lakes and the Mississippi as the boundary, was the fact that George Rogers Clark had con- quered the country, and \'irginia was in undisputed possession of it at the cessation of hostilities. In his "Notes on the l*"arly Settlement of the North-west Territory," Judge Burnet says, "Th.it fact [the capture of the Ikitish posts] was confirmed and admitted, and was the chief ground on which the British commissioners reluctantly aban- doned their claim." It is a stain upon the honor of our country that such a man — the leader of pioneers who made the first lodgment on the site now occupied by Louisville, who was in fact the founder of the State of Kentucky, and who by his personal foresight and energy gave nine great States to the Republic — was allowed to sink under a load of debt incurred for the honor and glory of his country. In 1799 Judge Burnet rode some ten or twelve miles from Louisville into the country to visit this veteran hero. He says he was induced to make this visit by the veneration he enter- tained for Clark's military talents and services. "He had," says Burnet, "the appearance of a man born to command, and fitted by nature for his destiny. There was a gravity and solemnity in his demeanor resembling that which so eminently distinguished the venerated Father of his Country. A person familiar with the lives and character of the military veterans of Rome, in the days of her c^reatest power, might readily have selected tJiis remarkable man as a specimen of the model he had formed of them in his own mind; but he was rapidly falling a victim to his extreme sensibility, and to the ingratitude of his native State, under whose banner he had fought bravely and with great success. "The time will certainly come when the enlightened and magnanimous citizens of Louisville will remember the debt of gratitude they owe the memory of that distinguished man. He was the leader of the pioneers who made the first lodgment on the site now covered by their rich and splendid city. He was its protector during the years of its infancy, and in the period of its greatest danger. Yet the traveller, who had read of his !i t 12 achievements, admired his character, and visited the theatre of his brilliant deeds, discovers nothing indicating the place where his remains are deposited, and where he can go and pay a trib- ute of respect to the memory of the departed and gallant hero." This eulogy of Judge Burnet is fully warranted by the facts of history. There is preserved in the War Department at Washington a portrait of Clark, which gives unmistakable evi- dence of a character of rare grasp and power. No one can look upon that remarkable face without knowing that the origi- nal was a man of unusual force. Fourth. — Organization and Settlement of the Xorth-west Teriitory. Soon after the close of the Revolution our Western country was divided into three territories, — the Territory of the Mis- sissippi, the Territory south of the Ohio, and the Territory north-west of the Ohio. l'V)r the purposes of this address I shall consider only the organization and settlement of the latter. It would be difficult to find any country so covered with con- flicting claims of title as the territory of the Nonh-west. Sev- eral States, still asserting the validity of their royal charters, set up claims more or less definite to portions of this Territory. First, — by royal charier of 1662, confirming a council charter of 1^)30, Connecticut claimed a strip of land bounded on the east by the Narragansett River, north by Massachusetts, south by Long Island Sound, and extending westward between the parallels of 41 degrees and 42 degrees 2 minutes north latitude, to ihe mythical "South Sea." Second, — New York, by her charier of 1614, claimed a territory marked by definite bound- aries, lying across the boundaries of the Connecticut charter. Third. — by the grant to William Penn, in 1664, Pennsylvania claimed a territory overlapping part of the territory of both these colonies. Fourth, — the charter of Massachusetts also ton- riicted with some of the claims above mentioned. Fifth, — Vir- ginia claimed the whole of the Norih-west Territory by right of conquest, and in 1779, by an act of her Legislature, annexed it as a county. Sixth, — several grants had been made of spe- cial tracts to incorporated companies by the different States. And, finally, the whole Territory of the Xorth-west was claimed by the Indians as their own. The claims of New York, Massachusetts, and part of the claim of Pennsylvania had been settled before the war by royal commissioners: the others were still unadjusted. It became evident that no satisfactory settlement could be made except 13 by Congress. That body urged the several S'.ates to make a cession of the lands they claimed, and thus enable the Gen- eral Government to Oj^en the North-west for settlement. On the I St of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe, delegates in Congress, executed • a deed of cession in the name of \'irginia, by which they trans- ferred to the United States the title of Virginia to the North- west Territory, but reserving to that State one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land which Virginia had promised to George Rogers Clark, and to the oHkers and soldiers who with him captured the ISritish posts in the West. Also, another tract of land between the Scioto and Little ^fiami, to enable Virginia to pay her promised bounties to her officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary army. On the 27th of October, 1784, a treaty was made at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N.N'.) with the Six Nations, by which these tribes ceded to the United States their vague claims to the lands north and west of the Ohio, (^n the 31st of January, 1785, a treaty was made at Fort Mcintosh (now the town of Beaver, Pa.) with the four Western tribes, the Wyan- dottes, the Delawares, the Chippewas, and the 'J'awas, by which all their lands in the Xorth-west 'Territory were ceded to the United States, except that portion bounded by a line from the mouth of the Cuyahoga up that river to the portage between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas, thence down that branch to the mouth of Sandy, theme westwardly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, thence along the portage to the Great Miami or Maumee, and down the south- east side of the river to its mouth, thence along the shore of Fake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. 'The teiritory thus described was to be forever the exclusive possession of these Indians. In 1788 a settlement was made at Marietta, and soon after other settlements were begun. But the Indians were dissatis- fied, and, by the intrigues of their late allies, the British, a sav- age and bloody war ensued, which delayed for several years the settlement of the State. The campaign of General Harmar in 1790 was only a partial" success. In the following year a more formidable force was placed under the command of General St. Clair, who suffered a disastrous and overwhelming defeat on the 4th of November of that year, near the head-waters of the ^Vabash. It was evident that nothing but a war so decisive as to break the power of the Western tribes could make the settlement of 14 Ohio possible. There are but few things in the career of George Washington that so strikingly illustrate his sagacity and prudence as the policy he pursued in reference to this sub- ject. Pie made preparations for organizing an army of five thousand men, appointed General Wayne to the command of a special force, and early in 1792 drafted detailed instructions for giving it special discipline to fit it for Indian warfare. During that and the following year he exhausted every means to secure the peace of the West by treaties with the tribes. But agents of England and Spain were busy in intrigues with the Indians in hopes of recovering a portion of the great empire they had lost l)y the treaty of 17S3, So far were the efforts of England carried that a British force was sent to the rapids of the Maumee, where they built a fort, and inspired the Indians with the hope that the British would join them in fighting the forces of the Ignited States. All efforts to make a peaceable settlement on any other basis than the abandonment on tlie part of the Ignited Status of all territory north of the Oliio ha\ing failed, General Wavne proceeded with that wonderful vigor whicii had made him famous on so many fields of the Revolution, and on the 2oiii of August, 1794, defeated the Indians and their allies on the banks of the Maumee, and completely broke the power of their confederation. On the 3d of August, 1795, General Wayne concluded at Greenville a treaty of lasting peace with these tribes and thus opened the State to settlement. In this treaty there was re- served to the Indians the same territorv west of the Cuyahoga as described in tlie treaty of Eort Mcintosh of 1785. lufth. — Settlement of the Western Reserve. I have now noticed briefly the adjustment of the several claims to the North-western Territory, excepting that of Oon- necticut. It has already been seen that Connecticut claimed a strip westward from the Narragansett River to the Mis- sissippi, between the parallels of 41 degrees and 42 degrees 2 minutes; but that portion of her claim which crossed the territory of New York and Pennsylvania had been extingui>hed by adjustment. Her claim to the territory west of Pennsyl- vania was unsettled until Sept. 14, 17S6, when she ceded it all to the United States, except that portion lying between the parallels above named and a line one hundred and twenty miles west of the western line of Pennsylvania and parallel with it. This tract of country was about the size of the present State, and was called "New Connecticut." In those wise < half a were 1 On to jol for th the re: rate o all the by the hundre Spring east of nec'icu 1S36, a On t associa governr was int guish tl five mill made ( and Se added thirty- ectady, expedit It is serve, through took the down th the Osw( ara, reached Jacket,' the 23d by which lands on rency, tc beef catt Indians, S(J In May, 1792, the Legislature of (."onneciicut L^rantcd to those of her citizens wliose property had been burned or other- wise spoliated by the British during the war of the Revolution lialf a million of acres from the west end of the reserve. These were called "The Fire Lands."' On the 5tli of September, 1795, Connecticut executed a deed to John Caldwell, Jonathan Brace, and John Morgan, trustees for the Conneciicut Land Company, for three million acres of the reserve ly'ng west of Pennsylvania ft)r ;>i,2oo,ooo, or at the rate of 40 cents per acre. 'I'he State gave only a quit claim deed, transferring only such title as she possessed, and leaving all the remaining Indian titles to the reservf, to be extinguished by the purchasers themselves. With the exception of a few hundred acres pre\iously sold in the neighborhood of the Salt Spring tract on the Mahoning, all titles to lands on the reserve east of "The Fire Lands" rest on this quit-claim deed of Con- necticut to the three trustees, who were all living as late as 1836, and joined in making deeds to the lands on the reserve. On the same day thai the trust deed was made articles of association were signed by the proprietors, providing for tlie government of the company. The management of its affairs was intrusted to se\en directors. They determined to extin- guish the Indian title, and survey their land into townships five miles stjuare. Moses Cleaveland, one of the directors, was made General Agent; Augustus Porter, Principal Surveyor; and Seth Pease, Astronomer and Surveyor. To these were added four assistant surveyors, a commissary, a physician and thirty-seven other employees. This party assembled at Schen- ectady, N.V'., in the spring of 1796, and prei^ared for their expedition. It is interesting to follow them on their way to the Re- serve. They ascended the Mohawk River in bateaux, passing through Little Falls, and from the present city of Rome took their boats and stores across into Wood Creek. Passing down the stream, they crossed the Oneida Lake, thence down the Oswego to Lake Ontario, coasting along the lake to Niag^ ara. After encountering innumerable hardships, the party reached Buffalo on the 17th of June, where they met "Red Jacket,' and the principal chiefs of the Six Nations, and on the 23d of that month completed a contract with those chiefs, by which they purchased all the rights of those Indians to the lands on the Reserve, for five hundred pounds, New York cur- rency, to be paid in goods to the Western Indians, and two beef cattle and one hundred gallons of whiskey to the Fastern Indians, besides gifts and provisions to all of them. i6 Setting out from liuffalo 'on tlie s/lh of June, they coasted alon;^ the shore of the lake, sonic of the party in boats ami others marching along the banks. In the journal of Seth I'ease, published in Whittlesey's History of Cleveland, 1 find the following : — "Monday, July 4, 179^^. — We that came by land arrived at the confines of New (Connecticut, and gave three cheers pre- cisely at 5 o'clock I'.M. We then proceeded to (!onneaut, at live hours thirty minutes, our boats got on an hour after; we |)ltche(l our tents on the east side." In the journal of General Cleaveland is the following entry: "On this Creek (' Conneaugh '), in New Connecticut Land. July 4, 179''), under General Closes Cleaveland, the surveyors and men sent by the Connecticut Land Company to survey and .settle the Connecticut Reserve, were the llrst laiglish people who took possession of it. ..." We gave three cheers and christened the place Fort Independence; and, after many difliculties, perplexities and hardshi|)s were surmounted, and we were on the good and prom- ised land, felt that a just tribute of respect to the day ought to be paid. There were in all, including women and children, lifty in number. The men, under Captain Tinker, ranged them- selves on the beach and fired a T'ederal salute of fifteen rounds, and then the sixteenth in honor of New Connecticut. Drank several toasts. . . . Closed with three cheers. Drank several pails of grog. SupfK'd and retired in gootl order." Three days afterward (jeiieral Cleaveland held a council with Paqua, Chief of the Massasagas, whose village was at Conneaut Creek. The friendshij:) of these Indians was purchased by a few trinkets and twenty-five dollars' worth of whiskey. A cabin was erected on the bank of Conneaut Creek ; and, in honor of the conimissary of the expedition, was called "Stow (Jastle.'' At this time the white inhabitants west of the Genesee River and along the coasts of the lakes were as follows : the garrison at Niagara, two families at Lewistown, one at Buffalo, one at Cleveland, and one at Sandusky. There were no other families east of Detroit; and, with the exception of a few ad- venturers at the Salt Springs of the Mahoning, the interior of New Connecticut was an unbroken wilderness. The work of surveying was commenced at once. One party went southward on the Pennsylvania line to find the 41st par- allel, and began the survey ; another, under General Cleave- land. coasted along the lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, which they reached on the 2 2d of July, and there laid the found; the SI compl( IW t ments ment i who hr order; New C so oftei instanc ministe planted new wil Theri tiioroug the tou were frc ing nnc here in it was w has give marked For a legal sta neciicut that Stal By a 1 ton Cou westwarc (-Cuyaho^ eluded a cut settle most of t % th( Hamiltor I)een ere to the se pointed f establish( But in her Lej^ !ier claTn cal .contn 17 foundation of the chief city of the Reser\c. A huge portion of the survey was made durinj; that season, and the work was completed in che following; year. J?v the close of tlie year iSoo there were thirty-two settle- ments on the Reserve, though as yet no organization of govern- ment had been established. But the pioneers were a people who had been trained in the principles and practices of civil order; and these were transplantecl to their new home. In New Connecticut there was but little of that lawlessness whicii so often characterizes the people of a new ci')untry. In many instances, a township organization was completed and their minister chosen before the pioneers left home. Thus tlu-y planted the institutions and opinions of Old Connecticut in their new wilderness homes. There are townships on this Western Reserve which are more thoroughly New I'ngland in character and spirit than most of the towns of the New England of to-day. Cut off as they were from the metropolitan life that h, on the second Tuesday of October. At that election forty-two votes were cast, of which General Ivlward Taine received thirty-eight, and was thus elected a nieml)er of tlie Territorial Legislature. All the early deeds on the Reserve arc preserved in the records of Trumbull County. A treaty was held at Fort Industry on the 4th of July, iSo;, betwetn the Commissioners of the Connecticut Land Compan/ and the Indians, by wiiich all the lands in the Reserve west of the Cuyahoga, belonging to the Indians, were ceded to the Con- necticut Company. (ieauga was the second county of the Reserve. It was cre- ated by an act of the Legislature, Dec. 31, 1805 ; and by a subsequent act its boundaries were made to include the pres- ent territory of Cuyahoga County as far west as the I'^ourteenth Range. Portage County was established on the 10th of February, 1807 ; and on the 16th of June, iSio, the act establishing Cuy- ahoga County went into operation. By that act all of Cieauga west of the Ninth Range was made a part of Cuyahoga County. Ashtabula County was established on the 22d of Januarv, 1811. A considerable number of Indians remained on the Western Reserve until the breaking out of the War of 18 12. Most of the Canadian tribes took up arms against the United States in that struggle, and a portion of the Indians of the Western Reserve joined their Canadian brethren. At the close of that war occasional bands of these Indians returned to their old haunts on the Cuyahoga and the Mahoning; but the inhabi- tants of the Reserve soon made them understand that they were unwelcome visitors after the part they had taken against us. Thus the War of 1812 substantially cleared the Reserve of its Indian inhabitants. In this brief survey I have attempted to indicate the gen- eral character of the leading events connected with the dis- covery and settlement of our country. I cannot, on this occasion, further pursue the history f)f the settlement and build- ing up of the counties and townships of the Western Reserve. ranged i 19 ' have already noticed the peculiar character of the people who converted this wilderness into the land of Iiappy iionics wiiich we now behold on every hand. Hut I desire to call t!)e aucn- tion of the young men and women who hear me to the duty they owe to themselves and their ancestors to study carefully and reverently the history of the great work which has been accomplished in this New Connecticut. 'I'he pioneers who first broke ground here accomplished a work unlike that wiiich will fall to the lot of any succeeding generaiion. 'i'he liardships they endured, the obstacles they encountered, the lite they led, the peculiar (pialilies they needed in their undertakings, and the traits of character devel- oped by their works stand alone in our histijry. The genera- tion that knew these fust pioneers is fast passing away. I!ut there are sitting in this audience to-day a few men and women whose memories date back to the early settlement. Here sits a gentleman near me who is older than the Western Reserve, lie remembers a time when the axe of the Connecticut pioneer had never awakened tlie echoes of the wilderness here. I low- strange and wonderful a transformation has taken place since he was a child! It is our sacred duty to rescue from oblivion the stirring recollections of such men, and preserve them as memorials of the past, as lessons for our ow^n inspiration and the instruction of those who shall come after us. The materials for a '^story of this Reserve are rich and abun- dant. Its pioneers were not ignorant and thoughtless advent- urers, but men of estal)lished character, whose opinions on civil and religious liberty had grown with their growth and become tiie settled convictions of their maturer years. Rotli here and in Connecticut the family records, iournals, and letters, which are preserved in hundreds of families, if brought out and ar- ranged in order, would throw a flood of light on every page of our history. Even the brief notice which informed the citizens of this county that a meeting was to be held here today to organize a Pioneer Society has called this great audience to- gether, and they have brought with them many rich historical memorials. They have brought old colonial commissions given to early Connecticut soldiers of the Revolution, who be- came pioneers of the Reserve and whose children are here to-day. They have brought church and other records which date back to the beginning of these settlements. Thev have shown us implements of industry which the pioneers brought in with them, many of which have been superseded by the superior mechanical contrivances of our time. Some of these imple- 20 iiients are symbols of the spirit and cliaractcr of the pioneers o: tlic Kcservc. Merc is a broad-axe brought from Cotineclicut by John Ford, father of the late governor of Ohio; and we are told that the first work done with this axe by that sturdy old pioneer, after he had finished a few cabins for the families that came with him, was to hew out the timbers for an academy, the Burton Academy, to which so many of our older men owe the foundation of their education, and from which sprang the West- ern Reserve College. These pioneers knew well tiiat the three great forces which constitute the strength and glory of a free governmt;nt are tiie family, the school, and tiie church. These three they planted here, and they nourished and cherished them with an energy and devotion scarcely ecjualled in any other fjuarter of the world. On tiiis height were planted in the wilderness the sym- bols of this trinity of powers; and here, let us hope, may be maintained forever the ancient faith of our fathers in the sanc- tity of the home, tiie intelligence of the school, and the faithful- ness of the church. Where these three combine in jirosperous union, the safety and prosperity of the nation are assured. The glory of our country can never be dimmed while these three lights are kept shining with an undimmed lustre. 'l"hc bes^t single work on tlie North-west Territory is Hinsdale's The Old A\'f//i-~iK'i-st. See the histories of < )hio and Indiana in the "Anicrican Com- monwealths " Series, and Hildreth's rioiner Ilislory. i'he chapter on Territorial Accjiiisitions and Divisions, Ijy Justin VVinsor and Kdward Channing, in the a])i)endix to Vol. Vtl.of the Xarrathc iiiid Critual His- tory of Antcrii\i, contains very much that is vahiahle upon this sul)ject. 'There is a Jlistory of tlie ]\'cstent Rcscnu', by W. S. Kennedy; and Harvey Kict.''s Sk,(,-//is (f IVnitcni /\\\u-rve /.ifr should l)e read in connection, Whittlesey's Early History of C/etulonU is a scholarly and thorough work, covering in great part the general early history of the Reserve. Tlie West- cm Reserve Historical Society at Cleveland has published many valuable tra<:ts relating to the history of the Reservi\ General Garfield's address, given in the present leaflet, was originally published in this series. See the lives of Garfield, benjamin F. Wade, and Joshua R. (iiddings for the noble jiart taken by the Western Reserve in the anti-slavery conflict. 'h m