tract of country mentioned was to be divided between the members of the honorable court. A record was made to that effect, and perhaps the most interesting part of this jobmodern po.iticians w 11 ca. it a stear was that each mem

ber found 1 convenient to be absent from court on the day that the order was made in his favor.*

During the progress of the conflict between civilization and barbarism in the northwest, from 1779 to 1787, the date at which the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio was organized, there were but few events of importance in which the settlements in Indiana were not concerned, or by which they were not affected. In the fall of 1780, LaBalme, a Frenchman, made an attempt to capture the British garrison of Detroit by leading an expedition against it from Kaskaskia. At the head of thirty men he marched to Vincennes, where his force was slightly increased. From this town he proceeded to the British trading post at the head of the Maumee, where Fort Wayne now stands, where he plundered the British traders and Indians and then retired. While encamped on the bank of a small stream on his retreat, he was attacked by a band of Miamis, a number of his men were killed, and the expedition against Detroit ended in ruin. Thus ran the current of border war, sometimes resulting in a victory for the Americans and sometimes for the enemy, during the long struggle for independence, until in 1783, the treaty of Paris was concluded, and the Congress of the United States declared a cessation of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain.

Up to this date the territory now included within the limits. of the State of Indiana belonged, by conquest, to the State of Virginia, but in January, 1783, the General Assembly of that State resolved to cede to the Congress of the United States all right, title and claim which it held to the territory northwest of the Ohio. The conditions offered by Virginia were accepted by Congress on the twentieth of December of the same year, and the transfer was effected early in 1784. In the year preceding, however, the Assembly of Virginia passed an act for

* Harrison's Letters.

platting the town of Clarksville, at the falls of the Ohio. The act stipulated that the lots, consisting of half an acre each, should be sold at public auction to the highest bidder, and that purchasers were to hold their lots subject to the conditions of building on them within three years from the day of sale.

In the spring of 1784, after the deed of cession* had been accepted by Congress, the subject of the future government of the territory was referred to a committee consisting of Messrs. Jefferson of Virginia, Chase of Maryland, and Howell of Rhode Island. The committee reported an ordinance for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio, which, among other things, declared, that neither slavery nor involun

in such place on the northwest side of the Ohio as a majority of the officers shall choose, and to be afterward divided among the officers and soldiers in due proportion, according to the laws of Virginia. That in case the quantity of good lands on the southeast side of the Ohio, upon the waters of Cumberland river, and between the Green river and Tennessee river, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia troops upon continental establishment, should, from the North Carolina

*That the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into States, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than one hundred, nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square; or as near thereto as circumstances will admit; and that the States so formed shall be distinct republican States, and admitted members of the Federal Union; having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other States. That the necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by Virginia in subduing any British line, bearing in further upon the Cumposts, or in maintaining forts and garrisons within, and for the defense, or in acquiring any part of, the territory so ceded or relinquished. shall be fully reimbursed by the United States. That the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskia, Post Vincennes, and the neighboring villages, who have professed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their possessions and titles confirmed to them, and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties. That a quantity not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, promised by Virginia, shall be allowed and granted to the then Colonel, now General George Rogers Clark, and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment, who marched with him when the posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes were reduced, and to the officers and soldiers that have been since incorporated into the said regiment, to be laid off in one tract, the length of which not to exceed double the breadth,

berland lands than was expected, prove insufficient for their legal bounties. the deficiency shall be made up to the said troops, in good lands, to be laid off between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami. on the northwest side of the river Ohio, in such proportions as have been engaged to them by the laws of Virginia. That all the lands within the territory so ceded to United States, and not reserved for, o appropriated to any of the before men tioned purposes, or disposed of in bon. tics to the officers and soldiers of the American army, shall be considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become, members of the confed. eration or federal alliance of the said States. Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and shail be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.

tary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of criminals, should exist in the territory after the year 1800. This article of the ordinance was rejected, but an ordinance for the temporary government of the county was adopted, and, in the following year, laws were passed by Congress for disposing of lands in the western territory, and for prohibiting the settlement of unappropriated lands by reckless speculators.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM

EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND LAND GRANTS.

ROM this date, 1784 to 1787, when the northwestern territory was organized, we have but little to record in the history of Indiana. Land speculation in Ohio, and on the borders of the Ohio and Wabash rivers, was exciting considerable attention, and large associations, representing considerable means, were formed for the purpose of monopolizing the trade in land. Tracts of millions of acres were sold at one time by Congress to associations on the installment plan, and so far as the Indian titles could be extinguished, the work of settling and improving the lands was pushed rapidly forward. The passage of the "ordinance of 1787," created the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio, which of course included the whole of the territory now embraced in the State of Indiana. On the fifth of October, of the same year, Major General Arthur St. Clair was elected by Congress Governor of the territory. He was instructed, on entering upon the duties of the office, to ascertain the real temper of the Indians and do all in his power to remove the causes for controversy between them and the United States, and to effect the extinguishment of Indian titles to all the land possible. The Governor took up quarters in the new settlement of Marietta, Ohio, where he immediately began the organization of the

government of the territory. The first session of the general court of the new territory was held at that place in 1788. The judges were Samuel II. Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, and John Cleves Symmes. Under the ordinance, Governor St. Clair was president of the court.

After the session of the general court at Marietta was concluded, and the necessary laws for the government of the territory passed, Governor St. Clair, accompanied by the Judges, visited Kaskaskia for the purpose of organizing a civil government there. Meanwhile full instructions had been sent to Major Hamtramck, commandant at Vincennes, requiring him

to ascertain the exact feeling and temper of the Indian tribes of the Wabash. These instructions were accompanied by speeches to each of the tribes. On the fifth of April, 1790, a Frenchman named Antoine Gamelin, was dispatched from Vincennes with these speeches. He visited nearly all the tribes on the Wabash, St. Joseph and St. Marys rivers, but was coldly received, most of the chiefs being dissatisfied with the policy of the Americans toward them, and prejudiced through English misrepresentation. Full accounts of his adventures among the tribes reached Governor St. Clair at Kaskaskia in June, 1790. Being satisfied that there was no prospect of effecting a general peace with the Indians of Indiana, he resolved to visit General Harmer at his headquarters at Fort Washington, and there to consult with that officer upon the means of carrying an expedition against the hostile Indians. Before leaving Kaskaskia, however, St. Clair intrusted the Secretary of the territory, Winthrop Sargent, with the execution of the resolutions of Congress regarding the lands and settlers on the Wabash. He directed that officer to proceed to Vincennes, lay out a county there, establish the militia, and appoint the necessary civil and military officers. Mr. Sargent at once proceeded to Vincennes, where he organized the camp of Knox, appointed the necessary civil and military officers, and notified the inhabitants to present their claims to lands. In establishing these claims the settlers found great difficulty, and regarding it, the secretary in his report to the President remarked:

"Although the lands and lots which were awarded to the inhabitants, appeared, from very good oral testimony, to belong to those persons to whom they were awarded, either by original grants, purchase, or inheritance, yet there was scarcely one case in twenty where the title was complete, owing to the desultory manner in which public business had been transacted, and some other unfortunate causes. The original concessions by the French and British commandants were generally made upon a small scrap of paper, which it has been customary to lodge in the notary's office, who has seldom kept any book of record, but committed the most important