Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/894

OHIO. aggregated $2,182,720. The total State municipal and county expenses for the year were $5,034,886. Petty criminals are committed to work-houses or to jails, the commitments to the former in 1901 numbering 813, to the latter 1627. No employment is afforded to those committed to the county jails. The State has a cumulative sentence law, but it is not enforced. The State Reformatory at Mansfield has the benefit of a parole law, and a ‘field officer’ is appointed to look after paroled men. Convicts at the penitentiary are employed under the peace-price and the contract systems, but the prisoners remain in the complete control of the State. At Dayton is located a National Soldiers' Home with accommodations for about 6000 inmates.

. Ohio was formed from a part of the (q.v.), and includes a portion of the Virginia cession of 1784 and all of the Connecticut cession of 1800. The first explorers cannot be surely determined. Possibly La Salle, about 1670, visited the region, but he left no record of his wanderings. The enmity of the Iroquois kept the French away from Lake Erie long after they had explored the other great lakes, and though large numbers of coureurs des bois roamed the wilderness and trading posts were doubtless established, not one resulted in a permanent settlement. About 1686 Governor Dongan of New York sent trading expeditions into the region with but little success. In 1749 a French officer, Céloron, under the orders of Gallissonière, Acting Governor of Quebec, crossed Lake Erie, put his boats into the Allegheny, and thus reached the Ohio and the Mississippi. His report is the first authentic relation of this part of the country. At several points he placed tablets declaring all the region of the Ohio to be French territory regardless of the grants of the Stuart kings. English traders were driven out, and this precipitated the French and Indian War. (See .) By the Peace of Paris in 1763 the French possessions cast of the Mississippi passed to Great Britain. During the Revolution the only settlement within the present limits of the State, consisting of some Moravian villages near the present site of New Philadelphia, was broken up by Indians and renegade whites. After the Northwest Territory was formed, settlement was rapid. Massachusetts pioneers founded Marietta in April, 1788. John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, bought a large tract between the Miami rivers and sent out settlers. In 1788, too, a party from Lexington, Ky., founded Losantiville (now Cincinnati) on a portion of this tract. A French settlement was made at Gallipolis in 1789 or 1790, and about the same time Virginians began to come in large numbers. A provision in the Ordinance of 1787 allowed the creation of a representative assembly when 5000 white males of voting age should be resident in the territory. The first session of such an assembly was held at Cincinnati in 1799. and William Henry Harrison was chosen the first delegate to Congress. In 1800 Connecticut completely abandoned her jurisdiction over the territory along Lake Erie, though she still retained proprietary rights in the soil. This was called the (q.v.) and rapidly filled with settlers chiefly from New England. In May, 1800, the Territory was divided and the western part was named Indiana.

On April 30, 1802, Congress authorized the election of delegates to a convention to determine whether a State government should be established. The convention sat at Chillicothe, November 1-29, and adopted a constitution, which was not submitted to the people. The boundaries were fixed, according to the suggestion of Congress, as the Pennsylvania line on the east, the Ohio River on the south, a north and south line from the mouth of the Big Miami to its intersection with an east and west line passing through the most southerly point of Lake Michigan on the west, and this east and west line through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line on the north. A proviso was inserted, however, that if this northern line should touch Lake Erie south and east of the mouth of the Maumee, the northern line should then run from Lake Michigan through the mouth of this stream. Such was found to be the case later and Michigan refused to give up claim to the strip of territory including Toledo until it was made a condition of her admission as a State in 1834. An election for members of the Legislature was ordered for January 11, 1803, and the Legislature met on March 1st. Meanwhile, on February 19th, Congress declared that Ohio, by adopting a constitution, had become a State of the Union, though there was as yet no State Government. The capital was fixed at Chillicothe and so remained until 1810, and was then moved to Zanesville. In 1812 the offer of a land company to build a new city was accepted, and since 1816 Columbus has been the seat of government. Considerable excitement was caused by the alleged Burr-Blennerhasset plot in 1806. During the War of 1812 the occupation of Ohio by the British was prevented by Gen. William Henry Harrison. Many Indians joined the British, but the combined forces were defeated, October 5, 1813, on the river Thames in Canada, and Tecumseh, the Indian leader, was killed. This battle, following close upon Perry's victory on Lake Erie, ended the war, so far as this State was concerned. The population steadily increased, but the lack of a market for the products of the State was the greatest need. Some sea-going vessels had been built upon the Ohio, but such sailing vessels were worth little on rivers. The application of steam to navigation, the construction of the Erie Canal, and the completion of the Miami and Ohio canals in 1835 made a new era. From that time access to the sea was comparatively easy and the country entered upon a period of magnificent prosperity, to which the coming of the railroads gave an additional impetus.

The State supplied more than its quota of troops for the Mexican War, and at the outbreak of the Civil War was exceedingly active. Seventy regiments responded to the first call for troops, though only thirteen were asked. Soldiers were sent into Virginia and helped to save West Virginia to the Union, and the prompt action of Governor Dennison had its influence upon Kentucky also. There were many Southern sympathizers in southern Ohio, however, and resistance was offered to national officers in 1863, when the advantage seemed to be with the Confederate armies. (See ) A large number of the most successful Federal officers were natives of the State, as Grant, Sherman, McDowell, Rosecrans, Garfield, and others.

Ohio was Democratic in national elections from