Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/104

66 that if the said donation lands are directed to be laid off in distinct Bodies for each Village, by far the greatest part of them must from the very large and extensive Prairies with which the whole of that country abounds be wholly and absolutely useless through the entire want of Timber.

Your memoralists therefore pray you to take the situation of the antient Inhabitants of the Illinois Country into Consideration and as the humane Intention of Congress was to give such lands as would be useful, that you will permit the said Grantees, their Heirs and assigns especially after a period of Fourteen years, to locate their said donation of Four hundred acres of land in separate Tracts, in such parts of the Illinois Country to which the Indian titles may have been extinguished, and that the Governor of the Territory may be authorized to issue Patents therefor. This permission to locate the lands in separate Tracts, will not it is conceived be prejudicial to the United States, as the value of the lands in the neighbourhood of each Settled Tract will thereby be considerably augmented. Your memorialists further shew that they view that part of the ordinance for the Government of the Territory which requires a freehold qualification in fifty acres of land as Electors for members to the general assembly as subversive of the liberties of the Citizens and tending to throw too great a weight in the Scale of wealth. They therefore pray that the right of Suffrage (in voting for representatives to the general assembly) may be extended to the free male Inhabitants of the Territory of the age of Twenty one years and upwards, but under such Regulations and Restrictions as to you in your Wisdom may seem proper.

Since the Erection of the Territory into a separate Government, the Attorney General [John Rice Jones] therof has prosecuted not only for offenses committed against the Municipal Laws of the Territory but also against the Laws of the United States, and has been obliged at three different Times to travel one hundred and sixty miles, from his home to the seat of the Territorial Government to prosecute offenders against those Laws, and yet he has received no Compensation for his Services either from the United States or the Territory, nor is it probable that the Territory can afford to allow him any Salary for his future services.

Your memorialists, therefore, pray that a Law may be