Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/99

 HISTORY OF OHIO.

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��that a division of said Territory into two distinct and separate governments should be made ; and that such division be made by a line beginning at the mouth of the great Miami River, running directly north until it intersects the boundary between the United States and Canada." *

The recommendations of the committee were favorably received by Congress, and, the 7th of May, an act was passed dividing the Ter- ritory. The main provisions of the act are as follows :

"That, from and after the 4th of July next, all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky River, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it intersects the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of tem- porary government, constitute a separate Territory, and be called the Indiana Territory.

"There shall be established within the said Ter- ritory a government, in all respects similar to that provided by the ordinance of Congress passed July 13, 1797." t

The act fiirther provided for representatives, and for the establishment of an assembly, on the same plan as that in force in the Northwest, stipulating that until the number of inhabitants reached five thousand, the whole number of representatives to the General Assembly should not be less than seven, nor more than nine ; apportioned by the Governor among the several counties in the new Terri- tory.

The act further provided that " nothing in the act should be so construed, so as in any manner to aifect the government now in force in the teiTi- tory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, further than to pi'ohibit the exercise thereof within the Indiana Territory, from and after the aforesaid 4th of July next.

" Whenever that part of the territory of the United States, which lies to the eastward of a line beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami River, and running thence due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall be erected into an independent State, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the orig- inal States ; thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently, the boundary line between such State and the Indiana Territory."

♦Ameri'-an State Papers. tLand Laws.

��It was further enacted, " that, until it shall be otherwise enacted by the legislatures of the said territories, respectively, Chillicothe, on the Scioto River, shall be the seat of government of the ter- ritory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River; and that St. Vincent's, on the Wabash River, shall be the seat of government for the Indiana Territory." *

• St. Clair was continued as Governor of the old Territory, and William Henry Harrison appointed Governor of the new.

Connecticut, in ceding her territory in the West to the General Government, reserved a portion, known as the Connecticut Reserve. When she afterward disposed of her claim in the manner narrated, the citizens found themselves without any government on which to lean for support. At that time, settlements had begun in thirty-five of the townships into which the Reserve had been divided ; one thousand persons had established homes there ; mills had been built, and over seven hundred miles of roads opened. In 1800, the settlers petitioned for acceptance into the Union, as a part of the Northwest ; and, the mother State releasing her judi- ciary claims. Congress accepted the trust, and granted the request. In December, of that year, the population had so increased that the county of Trumbull was erected, including the Reserve. Soon after, a large number of settlers came from Pennsylvania, from which State they had been driven by the dispute concerning land titles in its western part. Unwilling to cultivate land to which they could only get a doubtful deed, they abandoned it, and came where the titles were sure.

Congress having made Chillicothe the capital of the Northwest Territory, as it now existed, on the 3d of November the General Assembly met at that place. Gov. St. Clair had been made to feel the odium cast upon his previous acts, and, at the open- ing of this session, expressed, in strong terms, his disapprobation of the censure cast upon him. He had endeavored to do his duty in all cases, he said, and yet held the confidence of the President and Congress. He still held the ofiice, notwithstanding the strong dislike against him.

At the second session of the Assembly, at Chil- licothe, held in the autumn of 1801, so much out- spoken enmity was expressed, and so much abuse heaped upon the Governor and the Assembly, that a law was passed, removing the capital to Cincinnati


 * Land Laws.

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