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disposing of their crops was to feed it to their cattle and drive the cattle in droves over the mountains to Baltimore and other Eastern cities. This movement had begun in 1804, as previously noted, and had been growing ever since.

But in this year of 1811 an event occurred which opened a new era. This was the launching of the first steam boat on the Ohio River. It was the forerunner of a glorious future for the settlers, and was the first builder of that great empire which grew up in the West and Southwest.

In 1807-08 Robert Fulton, the famous inventor and engineer, built his Clermont on the Hudson River, and under steam power made in thirty-six hours the water trip from New York to Albany which had previously required from seven to ten days. He and his associates, having proved that this method of water travel was practicable, at once determined to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities offered for steam navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi. They sent Nicholas J. Roosevelt to make a survey and report on the situation. Roosevelt, (who was a great grand uncle of President Theodore Roosevelt) had been associated with Fulton in devising and building the Clermont. His task now was to determine what, if any, reason existed why steam boats could not be operated to advantage in the West. He met many to discourage him, but his investigations, which extended over every mile of water from Pittsburg to New Orleans, convinced him that the great invention could be utilized along that route, notwithstanding all the river men to whom he talked told him that the rapid currents of the Ohio, and especially of the Mississippi, would make it impossible.

In 1810 Roosevelt began building the New Orleans at Pittsburg, for the Ohio Steam Navigation Company, incorporated in New York. Robert Fulton and the famous chancellor, Robert R. Livingston, were the principals in the enterprise. There was a delay of almost eighteen months in finishing the boat, but on September 27, 1911, all was ready and she started on her trip down the Ohio, with New Orleans as her destination.

One can imagine the sensation created in Steubenville, Marietta, Portsmouth, Cincinnati and Louisville as this new craft passed them, moved and controlled entirely by a power utterly unknown to the people who gazed upon her, and emitting great volumes of smoke from her stack. She reached New Orleans in good time and thereafter plied entirely between the city and Natchez, Mississippi, making a handsome yearly profit for her owners.

But the New Orleans had shown the people that their difficulties in getting their grains and meats to market were about to disappear. The products of the farms of Ohio were wanted in New Orleans, but the only means of getting them there had been "keel boats," which could be brought back against the stream only by the prodigious manual labor of "poling" them, or "flat boats," which could not be brought back at all and had to be broken up down the river and sold for the lumber in them, the crews returning home on foot.

Within a few years scores of steam boats were plying up and down the Ohio and on Lake Erie. The Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miami—and the canals which followed later, made complete the water transportation facilities for shipping out great quantities of materials from many of the farms of the interior sections of Ohio.

Thus was the greatest handicap on the farmers removed, and prosperity increased with wonderful strides. Far greater crops were raised, and new merchandising and manufacturing enterprises followed as a matter of course. The building and equipping of steam boats became a large business in Pittsburg, Cincinnati and other towns, and provided employment for many workmen.

Meanwhile, the growth of the state was more and more rapid with each day. The Independent Press, of Lancaster, mentioned that during

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the summer and autumn of 1810 "moving waggons" to the number of 413 had arrived at and passed through that town. An extended article in the Independent Republican, of Chillicothe, in its issue of November 8th, of the same year, described in some detail the activities of settlers who were coming in, and rejoiced in the great advancement of manufactures :

"The rapid settlement of the State of Ohio since its adoption into the Union is without a parallel, unequalled in the annals of history. The emigration to the state this present year consists already of not less than 1,500 families !—who have principally settled on the waters of the Scioto, Mad River and the Great Miami. That portion of the country which but a short time since was uninhabited, now exhibits to the settler a fine, rich and well cultivated country—the effects of honest industry and healthy climate.

"Domestic manufactures of various descriptions are rapidly advancing, encouraged with a degree of liberality peculiar to enterprising minds. Factories of different kinds have been established, many of which, we may boast, are in a high state of perfection. We confidently believe that there is no country which holds forth so many great and important advantages to the agriculturist, mechanic and stock-holder as this part of the Union—and where industry will meet with a more sure success."

A few months later, after the result of the 1810 census became known, much stress was laid on the fact that Ohio, which had been the seventeenth to be admitted to the sisterhood of states, already stood thirteenth as to population, and would soon stand ninth. The official figures of the census were published with satisfaction in all the papers of the day :

Census of 1811 States :

There were many echoes of the Burr-Blennerhassett conspiracy. Articles were published as to Burr, who was then in France. The following, copied from the New York Public Advertiser, was given prominence in the Supporter.

"We understand from good authority that Aaron Burr lately made application to Mr. Russel, the American Charge d'Affairs in France, for his passport as an American citizen : his object being to quit France and return to the United States ; but that the application very promptly met with a positive refusal from Mr. Russel."

And this, expressing regret and surprise that anyone connected with Burr should be countenanced by American patriots, appeared about the same time :

"It is a fact much to be regretted that some of the partizans of Aaron Burr, that modern Cataline, have, since his nefarious attempts to divide the Union, held and now hold offices, both civil and military, in the Territory of Indiana. How to reconcile such a fact with that love of country and patriotic ardor which should warm the heart of every true American is more than genuine good policy can direct."

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The Western Spectator, in March, 1811, described the final end of the grand home in which the conferences between Burr and Blennerhassett had been held in making the plans which brought ruin to both. Blennerhassett Island, in the Ohio River, opposite Belpre, Ohio, but under the jurisdiction of Virginia (now West Virginia), has been the locale of many romantic novels and of innumerable historical sketches, almost since the days when it was constructed in 1800. It was here that Burr had arrived in 1805 and enmeshed Herman Blennerhassett and his brilliant and ambitious wife in the grand scheme which they believed would lift them to imperial heights. The estate was described as a paradise, and was the object of intense interest to travelers down the river, many of whom called and visited there by right of social position and attainments, and spent many happy hours in the sylvan retreat. The home had all the attractions of the mansions of the settled East, though far removed from the nearest of them. It was, beyond a doubt, the most famous and delightful spot in the Ohio Valley and the Western country.

In a volume, Memoirs of the Early Pioneers of Ohio, by Doctor Hildreth of Marietta, who had received from one of the architects a complete description of the Blennerhassett house and grounds, we find this :

"The island mansion was built with great taste and beauty; no expense being spared in its construction that could add to its usefulness or splendor. It consisted of a main building, fifty-two feet in length, thirty in width, and two stories high. Porticoes forty feet in length, in the form of two wings, projected in front, connected with the offices, presented each a face of twenty-six feet and twenty in depth, uniting them with the main building, forming the half of an ellipse, and making in the whole a front of 104 feet. The left hand office was occupied for a servants' hall, and the right for library, philosophical apparatus, etc.

"A handsome lawn of several acres occupied the front ground ; while an extended opening was made through the forest trees, on the head of the island, afforded a view of the river for several miles above, and bringing the mansion under the notice of descending boats. Nicely graveled walks, with a carriage way, led from the house to the river, passing through an ornamental gateway, with large stone pillars. A fine hedge of natural hawthorn bordered the right side of the avenue to the house, while back of it lay the flower garden of about two acres, inclosed with neat paling, to which were traced gooseberry bushes, peaches and other varieties of fruit-bearing trees, in the manner of wall fruits. The garden was planted with flowering shrubs, both exotic and native, but especially abounding in the latter, which the good taste of the occupants had selected from the adjacent forests, and planted in thick masses, through which wandered serpentine walks, bordered with flowers, imitating a labyrinth. Arbors and grottoes, covered with honeysuckles and eglantines, were placed at convenient intervals, giving the whole a very romantic and beautiful appearance. On the opposite side of the house was a large kitchen garden, and, back of this, orchards of peach and apple trees of the choicest varieties, procured from abroad as well as from the Belpre nurseries. Lower down on the island was the farm with about 100 acres under the nicest cultivation ; the luxuriant soil producing the finest crops of grain and grass.

"The furniture of the drawing room was light, airy and elegant ; with splendid mirrors, gay colored carpets, rich curtains, with ornaments to correspond, arranged by Mrs. Blennerhassett with the nicest taste and harmonious effect. A large quantity of massive silver plate ornamented the side-boards and decorated the tables. Yet they had not entirely completed their arrangements when the destroyer appeared and frustrated all their designs for comfort and future happiness. The whole establishment was noble, chastened by the purest taste, without that glare of tinsel finery too common among the wealthy."

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Concerning this wonder-place, in all the historical references to the troubles of the Blennerhassetts, it seems to have been regarded as enough to say that he and his lady were compelled to leave it and were never able to return to it. But its destruction, and the completeness of the financial ruin which had fallen upon its master, were described in a newspaper "story" in which the author entered into details more fully than was common among the news-writers of that day. In the Western Spectator of March 16, 1811, the following account was published :

"Conflagration—The report of the fire on Blennerhassett's Island, mentioned in our last, proves to have been too correct. We learn that three negroes employed on the island undertook on the night of Saturday week to pass over to the Virginia side of the Ohio in a canoe, which they overset, and one of them was drowned. The other two returned to the house about 3 o'clock in the morning, chilled in their attempts to save the fellow, and one of them, in procuring fire, caught with in some hemp in the north wing. After ineffectual attempts to quench it himself he ran to raise his fellows in the south wing. Had he immediately alarmed Mr. Neale, who occupied the house, it might perhaps have been saved. But while he omitted the cry of fire and was obtaining assistance of the negroes, the flames had progressed too far to be arrested.

"Part of the furniture of Mr. Neale was saved. The utensils, wearing apparel, and various other valuable articles of Mr. Cashwell, cabinet maker, were consumed in the north wing, and Mr. Cashwell himself, in attempting to save some effects from the house, was severely scorched and narrowly escaped perishing. A sudden burst of flame prostrated him on the floor ; he rose with difficulty, and had the good fortune, through smoke and flames, to escape at a window.

"Mr. Miller, of Kentucky, who holds Mr. Blennerhassett's estate on the island to satisfy debts accruing on the dishonor of his bills drawn in favor of Mr. Miller in Burr's time, has suffered very considerably by this event. He had for two years devoted the plantation to the raising of hemp ; he had high expectations of the profits from last year's cultivation, but a great part of his hemp (dressed and packed away in the house) was destroyed by the fire. Besides which he has lost about 250 bushels of hemp seed, intended for the present year, which cannot be seasonably replaced.

"The house was built about ten or eleven years ago, at great expense, under the direction of Mr. Blennerhassett himself, and exhibited taste and elegance probably unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled, in the Western country. It had become somewhat defaced—and the beautiful gardens and shrubbery which formed a part of the paradise described by Mr. Wirt, on Burr's trial, as the residence of an Eve, had been ruined for want of culture, but the house was an object of curiosity to travellers, and was no inconsiderable addition to the beautiful prospect of Belpre ; but its elegance now lies in ashes, and in all human probability will never again be resuscitated."

This year of 1811 saw the outburst and continuance in Ohio of a rancorous war against the "Tammany Society, or Columbian Order," the intensity of which would be inconceivable in the twentieth century if we had not witnessed the similar war made upon another secret organization of political proclivities which swept the country in the year of our Lord, 1924. The Tammany Society had originated in 1789, in New York City, and had become a power among the common people there. It was in the nature of a democratic rival of the "Society of the Cincinnati," which was composed mostly of officers of the Revolutionary army and was regarded as too aristocratic by the members of the Tammany Society. The new organization took its name from "St. Tammany," a somewhat mystical, perhaps mythical, Indian chief of early times. It had subordinate organizations known as Wigwams, each of which had Sachems, Sagamores, and other officers hearing Indian titles, including Wiskinki, door keeper and carrier of the key of the order. At first

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it was purely non-political in character, but when President Washington condemned "self constituted societies" of various kinds it changed its nature and became actively favorable to the republican (democratic) party of that time. It had a wigwam in each state, with a Grand Sachem for each ; it composed a secret ritual and became a strictly secret association for the purpose (or so its enemies declared) of promoting the political aspirations of its members who held the favor of the inner circles.

The Society of Tammany was introduced into Ohio early in the year 1810, and the first wigwam was established at Chillicothe. It made rapid progress, and within a year it had wigwams at Zanesville, Cincinnati, Xenia, Lancaster, Warren, Hamilton, and New Boston (in Champaign County), besides the one in Chillicothe. It was considered a powerful political factor in the state. Among its members were many men of great prominence, and ex-Governor and ex-Senator Edward Tiffin was the Grand Sachem for Ohio. But it also had a large number of bitter opponents in the republican party itself. The Federalists regarded it with equanimity because it was creating an ever-widening breach in the party to which they were opposed.

Gen. Nathaniel Massie, veteran of the republican party, was not favorable to the Tammany Society, and he was active in discrediting it whenever he saw an opportunity. On May 15, 1811, we read in the Supporter, "A numerous and respectable collection of the citizens of Chillicothe and the vicinity convened at the courthouse for the purpose of taking into consideration the constitution of the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order—so-called." Massie was chairman of the meeting and William Creighton Jr., another prominent man in official life, as the readers of these chronicles well know, was secretary. The meeting unanimously resolved "to oppose all secret political factions by whatsoever name or title they may be known or distinguished." Massie and Creighton were instructed to prepare, and they did prepare, a long exposition of the views of the meeting, and from this we make one quotation :

"The said constitution being read, discussed and explained, after mature deliberation of the subject, and a thorough investigation of the principles and design of the institution, it was unanimously agreed by said meeting that they believe the secret aim and concealed design of the Tammany Society to be (under pretence of uniting and consolidating the Republican interest in the State and in the United States) in fact to consolidate and concentrate all the power, which is the legitimate birthright of the people and of their republican government, in the hands of this secret, midnight, cabalistic convention, the members of which may probably be called Knights of St. Tammany or the Columbian Order with a Barrony or Lordship Annexed ; and the Grand Sachems, 'Princess of the Empire of St. Tammany'—their tribes respectively consisting of one state for a principality ;—that they consider all secret political societies, formed in a free republican government like that of the United States and those of the states respectively, the principles and designs of which are sedulously concealed from the people, to be eminently calculated to revolutionize the government in which they are formed, dangerous to the liberties and independence of the people, subversive of their rights, immunities and privileges, chartered, guaranteed and secured to them by the constitutions of their governments, and tending manifestly to dissolve the bonds of their political union, as unnatural and wicked as it is insidious and sure, if the people be not on their guard, vigil and zealous and positive in their opposition."

On May 25, 1811, a few days after the meeting described, Grand Sachem Edward Tiffin delivered the "long talk" at an anniversary banquet of the society. In this he lauded the order very highly as noble and patriotic. The address was published in the Scioto Gazette and several hundred copies of it were printed in pamphlet form for distri-

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bution. Whereupon the storm broke, and the newspapers for months devoted many columns to the controversy. A very interesting and curious phase of the battle developed, involving Tiffin and his career both before and after he became prominent in the affairs of the state. On June 15 there appeared in the Supporter a three-column communication, signed "Calpurnius," flaying Tiffin for his "Long Talk." It accused him of demonstrating in the address that he was so ignorant as to be incapable of writing correct English. It pointed out errors of grammar, construction and composition, and bewailed the fact that he had been so highly favored by the people, considering his limitations, and that he "had contrived to render himself a conspicuous man and had fattened himself upon the people's money." After disposing of the subject of Tiffin's deficiencies in education he proceeded to the main question as follows :

"But miserable as is the style of this oration, it is still less exceptionable than the matter. The sentiments you have advanced evince a callousness of heart, an impudence of assertion without parallel. I have always understood that you were by birth an Englishman—that you were in the English army at the surrender of Burgoyne—that you did not choose to return to your native land ; but sought an asylum in the bosom of that country against which your arms had been directed. These facts have been so often asserted, and have remained so long without contradiction, that I feel justified in assuming them to be true. I therefore consider you an Englishman by birth, and a deserter from your post in the hour of danger.

"I cannot contradict your statement of the views and objects of the Tammany Society ; but you must permit me to declare that I do not believe you. * * * I believe that it is the object of this society to monopolize the distribution of all the offices within the state. To one set of men they say, 'If you wish to get an office, join the Tammany Society. It is the road to your honor and emolument.' The doors of honor and confidence' can only be opened by the key carried by our Wiskinki." Those who will not join you are Tories, Federalists and British agents, etc.

Tiffin felt this attack keenly. He made a reply to it occupying nearly three columns in the same paper in which the letter of "Calpurnius" had appeared. It was very mild in tone, written in a manner that showed him to have been hurt and grieved rather than angered. Referring to the direct charge that he had "fattened himself upon the people's money," he replied :

"I assure you, sir, if I possessed at this time all the lands near Chillicothe which I possessed when I first was called to public service and which was all paid for before I saw them, and which I sold off by piecemeal, they would make both you and me rich men. I have, sir, sacrificed a handsome fortune to sustain the expences of my family. I literally lost my health, and have grown gray in the public service, and am now constrained to exert the energies of my own mind and enfeebled body to repair the wreck."

He referred to his resignation of the lucrative office of United States senator as another evidence that he had not "fattened on the people's money."

"Can you not recollect my letter of resignation to Governor Huntington—that the duties a son owed to a revered parent, enfeebled by age, for seven years past as an infant, whose every moment was embittered by my absence, and that the derangement of my private affairs compelled me to resign the highest honors the public could bestow ?"

He went to great pains to show that he could not, as "Calpurnius" had asserted, have been a soldier in Burgoyne's army at the surrender at Saratoga in 1777, because at that date he was a boy of eleven years in a Latin school in England. He appended to his letter two statements, signed by witnesses who knew the facts, proving that he "was

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born on the tenth of June, in the year 1766, at thirty minutes past ten in the morning."

"Calpurnius" made a public apology for his false accusation, handsomely acknowledged that he was disarmed by Tiffin's reply, and wrote no more about it, although he did not cease his castigations of the Tammany Society. But another correspondent, "An Old Indian Hunter," took up the assault. He wrote particularly as to Tiffin's resignation from the United States Senate and the letter he had written to Governor Huntington stating his reasons for his action :

"The people of Ohio know very well that there was not a word of truth in that letter, save your wish to resign. They know that you went first to Congress under the most favorable impressions ; and that you continued there as long as any countenance was shown you—that an almost unanimous disgust of the members, on account of your rash ignorance, rendered your situation in Congress both awkward and unpleasant. Yes, sir, you were out of your element, and you by some means discovered it and resigned."

In order to appreciate the full significance of this situation in the controversy it must not be forgotten that Tiffin was perhaps the greatest —certainly the most conspicuous—man of his time in Ohio. Head of the convention which formed the state constitution, twice elected governor by the unanimous vote of the people, elected United States senator without opposition in the General Assembly, and foremost in every public movement, he would be immune, if any man could be immune, from attacks of such a character as he had to suffer during the warfare against the Tammany Society.

The editor of the Supporter now printed an editorial paragraph informing the public that many other communications on the Tammany matter had been received but that he would not print any more of them. His was a Federalist paper, and he regarded the quarrel as "a rupture between two parties styling themselves as Republicans" and of no concern to the Federalists, his subscribers and readers.

But the anti- and pro-Tammany war waxed furious for a long time. The sheriff of Greene County refused the society permission to hold a meeting in the courthouse unless it would open the doors to the public, which of course it refused to do. And a large meeting of the people of Xenia, the county seat, held in the courthouse, passed resolutions commending the sheriff for the stand he had taken. The society moved serenely on its way, said very little, increased its membership, and apparently prospered. The General Assembly, in session at Zanesville, where one of the wigwams was located, by exactly identical votes failed to elect candidates to several offices whose election had been thought to be assured, and by the same votes defeated several measures the success of which had been regarded as certain. These votes were assumed to have been dictated by the inner circle of Tammany, especially as Grand Sachem Tiffin was speaker of the House of Representatives. This brought from the Independent Republican an editorial broadside calling attention to "the alarming fact that during the session of the Legislature no less than seventeen members of both houses joined the nefarious association in one night, who, we understand, are authorized to establish societies in their respective counties, to take in the unsuspecting and to dupe the ignorant," and warning the people to crush the society.

A member of the General Assembly wrote an excited letter to the same paper, and it was printed as conspicuously as the editor knew how to make it :

"Fellow Citizens !—It is high time to wake from your slumbers. Behold an aristocracy rising among you, under the cloak of The Tammany Society, which, if you do not destroy in time by your united efforts against it, and all who cover their proceedings in midnight gloom, they will sap the very foundations of your liberties. Even at their last session, have not some of your legislators been leaguing and combining to

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destroy what they have solemnly sworn to protect and defend—your constitution and your liberty ? * * * Why do they join the Tammany Society ? Because it is a secret society and every member swears by his sacred honor to keep inviolate the proceedings had therein, so that they can plot treason, build up an aristocracy or monarchy when they please."

"The Tammany Society or Columbian Order" practically disappeared with the coming of the War of 1812, when all parties and factions were merged in the common peril. The remnants of it, in all but one wigwam were obliterated with the disintegration of the old democratic republican party and the era of good feeling which elected James Monroe president with only one opposing electoral vote in 1816. Only in New York City did it continue to live, and the Tammany power there has not been destroyed by more than 100 years of political vicissitudes.

TENTH LEGISLATIVE SESSION

December 10, 1811, to February 21, 1812

At this session of the general assembly, the second at Zanesville, Thomas Kirker was again speaker of the Senate, and Matthias Corwin, of Warren County, was the new speaker of the House. At his home in Lebanon Speaker Corwin had a son, Thomas, then a youth of sixteen, who was, in years to come, to be one of the most famous men in the history of the state and nation.

Jeremiah McLene was again elected secretary of state, Wm. McFarland treasurer and Benjamin Hough auditor.

The decision as to the site of the permanent capital of the state was now to be made. The commissioners reported that they had received nine proposals from localities within the prescribed forty miles from the center of the state. Among them was the one on which they had made a preliminary report, four and three-fourths miles west of Worthington, which had not met the approval of the Legislature. The others were : (1) The present site at Columbus ; (2) Delaware ; (3) Worthington; (4) a location northwest of Franklinton ; (5) Circleville; (6) a site on the Pickaway Plains ; and two others in Franklin County. All the proposals were accompanied by offers of money, land, the erection of buildings without expense to the state, etc.

The commissioners recommended the Delaware site. The proffer from that town was to donate the grounds, erect the buildings, and lay off 4,000 acres of land in lots, the proceeds of half of which, taken alternately, were to be paid into the state treasury.

There was a season of lobbying, exerting personal influence, making personal appeals for votes, private conferences and counting noses before the final vote was allowed to be taken. The Columbus location was accepted by a very narrow margin. Twelve legislators who favored Delaware were so incensed over the vote that they filed a protest which was entered upon the journal.

It was then decided that the present session should be the last at Zanesville, and Chillicothe was again designated as the temporary capital until 1820, or until such time before or after that year as the new buildings should be ready at Columbus.

The state militia was further strengthened, and laws were passed appropriating money for clothing, blankets, provisions and other supplies for the soldiers, to be used when they took the field. Governor Meigs had had large military experience and possessed a high genius for war. He constantly urged measures which should find the soldiers prepared when they should be called to arms—as he had done during the previous year. Ohio soldiers were intended to act in conjunction with the regular forces of the general government, and when so acting were to be paid and provisioned by the United States. But, as before noted, in order to make it possible for the Ohio troops to engage in long cam-

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paigns and at the same time support their families at home, the state provided that each soldier should be paid an additional $12 per month. This gave them more than twice the pay of regular troops, and in a measure it accounted for the wonderful showing made in the war by a state less than ten years old, in comparison with the older states of the East.

Governor Meigs sent the assembly official figures as to the militia, showing a grand total of 35,349 ; rank and file 32,640. About one-half of them were fully armed and equipped, and the effectives numbered about 20,000.

But many other subjects received legislative attention. The writ of habeas corpus was provided for. The manufacture of salt was so greatly encouraged that it became one of the principal industries in the northern sections of the state. Improvements were made in the tax laws. Strict inspection was required on all products sent to distant points—the original "pure 'food law." Steps were taken to define the boundaries between Ohio and Michigan. Some of the severities of the Crimes Act of 1805 were ameliorated upon recommendation of the governor, who as a judge of various courts knew that some of the extreme punishments imposed had an effect opposite to that intended and desired. A circulating library was authorized in Cincinnati—the first in the state. More new banks were incorporated in various towns.

Incorporations were becoming so numerous, as business activities increased, that it was now a hardship to business promoters to be compelled to wait for sittings of the Legislature to secure the necessary authority. Therefore at this session, on January 12, 1812, a general act of incorporation of manufacturing companies was enacted. Under it formal, prescribed forms for "articles of association" were thereafter to be filed with the secretary of state, who passed upon their form and sufficiency. It only required his approval and a proper record to allow a new corporation to do business. This act; with amendments and revisions made necessary by changing needs, has been the authority for ordinary corporations in Ohio ever since that day.

A joint resolution was passed January 15, 1812, deploring the burning of the theater at Richmond, Virginia, on the night of December 26, 1811, and a copy was sent to the governor of Virginia and the mayor of Richmond. This referred to one of the greatest catastrophes of the times, which had cast a gloom over the whole State of Virginia. On the night of the fire there were present in the theater a capacity house of 600 people, to witness a new play entitled "The Father, or Family Feuds." A swinging lamp on the stage had to be drawn up to the ceiling and unfortunately swung far enough to one side to set the curtain afire. The whole building was consumed and in the panic seventy-two lives were destroyed, and a large number of people were badly injured. George W. Smith, governor of the state, was in the audience, and lost his life, as did a number of other distinguished citizens of Virginia.

The subject of providing a system which would secure good doctors for the people had now assumed large proportions in the public mind. The law previously passed was found ineffective, and the general assembly spent much time during the present session in formulating a new plan which was enacted in a long statute. It incorporated an organization to be known as "The President and Fellows of the Medical Society of the State of Ohio." In great detail it provided for subordinate branches, in districts specifically named by counties, prescribed the manner of their organization, and the election by them of delegates to a state convention to be held in Chillicothe on the first Monday in November, 1812. It dictated the amounts of membership fees and the disposition of the funds raised by them, and gave into the hands of the society full charge of examining and licensing new physicians and surgeons. Any one practicing medicine without a license issued by this society was to be fined not more than $100. But it was

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especially provided that this did not apply to any person called in "to afford relief to the sick and distressed in any sudden emergency."

During previous sessions the matter of building a canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River had received much consideration, as previously noted, and a commission had been appointed to investigate and report upon it. The subject was regarded as highly important since such a canal would provide a much easier outlet for farm products than shipping them down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. Resolutions were now adopted, following a report received by the assembly from the commission, expressing the highest opproval of the project, but shifting the responsibility for the canal upon Congress, as it was a matter of national concern. Congress did nothing, and New York alone built the canal a few years later, construction beginning on July 13, 1817, and the first fleet of boats going through from Buffalo to Albany, a distance of 352 miles, in 1825. Notwithstanding the rivalry of the steam boats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the canal went far in revolutionizing the internal trade of America, and gave an impetus to the commercial enterprises of New York City which in a few years placed her at the head of American cities. Ohio secured the great benefits of the canal although she paid no part of the cost of constructing it, which the original plan had contemplated that she should do. Its importance to Ohio farms and factories was seen in the fact that transportation charges through the canal were less than one-tenth the previous charges for conveying merchandise overland to the East.

The formal resolution concerning the state buildings at the new seat of government required that the state house be built of brick, on a stone foundation, 75 by 50 feet, and "on the most approved models of modern architecture so as to combine, as far as possible, elegance, convenience, strength and durability." The penitentiary building was to be 60 by 30 feet with a yard 100 by 150 feet, surrounded by a stone wall 15 feet high. No name had been given the new town, and it was not until February 21, 1812, that the resolution for this purpose was adopted :

"Resolved, That the town to be laid out at the High Bank, on the east side of the Scioto River, opposite the town of Franklinton, for the permanent seat of government for this state, shall be known and distinguished by the name of Columbus."

Exact knowledge as to the factories operating in Ohio in that early day is obtained from the general incorporation law passed at this session. It specified the kinds of manufactures which were to be carried on under the act and the list is a surprising one considering that it had been only ten years before that the land was almost entirely uninhabited and that there was scarcely a settlement of more than a very few hundred people. This list was as follows :

Manufactures of woolen, cotton, hemp or linen goods, or cotton or other yarns, paper, glass or queensware, or pearl or potashes, making from iron ore bar iron, mill irons, anchors, steel nail rods, hoop iron or ironmongery, sheet lead, shot, white lead and red lead, printers' types or any metal used in the manufacture of type, or carrying on any manufacture by the operation of steam.

It was the policy of the Legislature greatly to encourage home manufacture of woolen fabrics among the settlers, and it passed a law for that purpose. It exempted "from taxation, attachments, distresses, execution or sale for any debt or claim whatever, twelve sheep, with the wool thereon, and seventy-five yards of cloth manufactured by the family, of which at least one-half of the raw material shall be wool."

The election campaign preceding this legislative session of 1811-12 had been the most hitter, perhaps, of all the political contests in the state up to that time. Some of the most prominent men of the commonwealth had been compelled to run the gauntlet in which their enemies stopped at nothing in political assault. The case of Gen. Duncan

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McArthur, who wished to be reelected to the State Senate, was typical. A large part of his campaign was devoted to defending himself against accusations of personal unworthiness. Much was made of an incident in the Senate chamber at Zanesville during the previous session of the General Assembly. A playing card had been lifted up for his view by another member of the senate, seemingly to attract his attention, and the inference charged was that this was a pre-arranged signal to make an appointment for the gambling table. It was also said that, in a heavy game at lieu in a Chillicothe tavern, he had gone to a window, as if to open it, and while there he had reversed a card in his hand so that it could be seen by a confederate at the gaming table, on which there was a large amount of money at the time. He was accused of disputing loudly while gambling, of winning dishonestly by the use of "pick'd cards," of fraudulently acquiring land which he officially surveyed, of having been "intoxicated when toasted as the next governor of Ohio," etc.

His reply, published in the Fredonian and circulated all over his senatorial district, reveals very clearly that the practice of gambling, for large stakes, was very common among the assemblymen, notwithstanding they had themselves passed the drastic laws against it. McArthur's defense seemed to be that since gaming was almost universal his own gaming should not be held against him as a candidate for reelection. "I presume you know," he wrote, "that your Tammany friend, Col. James Dunlap (the other senator from the district), a communicant in the Presbyterian Church, has been in the habit of gambling and taking a little bread and wine from the hands of the elders, alternately, for seven or eight years past." He denied cheating with "pick'd cards," as well as wrong doing in the matter of lands he had surveyed. He was anti-Tammany, and he turned his guns on the members of the Tammany Society, charged they indulged in political gambling, and had by secret political trickery brought about the change of the. seat of government from Chillicothe to Zanesville.

Most of this political fight, which raged for some weeks, dealt with contemptible matters and was carried on in a manner far beneath the dignity of a man who was at the head of the state military forces, was within two years the commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Army, and later filled the office of governor of the State of Ohio. He was reelected senator by a vote of 1,542 to 415.

An event of intense and widespread interest and concern—an earthquake—occurred on Monday morning, December 16, of the year 1811. The papers, of course, devoted much space to it in their columns. The Fredonian contained this first mention of it at Circleville in its issue of the 18th:

"On Monday morning last, between the hours of 1 and 2 o'clock, many of the inhabitants of this place were greatly alarmed by a sudden and violent trembling of their houses which is supposed to have been preceded by an earthquake. The shock was so sensibly felt as to cause many to leap from their beds. About 8 o'clock the same morning a similar shock was experienced, which continued for half a minute—during which time the houses were very considerably agitated. Neither shock was preceded or accompanied by any explosion.

"Since putting the above in type we have seen and conversed with several gentlemen residing at a considerable distance from this place, who represent the shock to have been more severe in their vicinities than what was felt in this place."

There were reports of other tremors during the few following weeks. One of them, in January, was thus reported :

"On Thursday, the 23d inst., at a quarter past nine in the morning, another most violent shock of an earthquake was felt. The trembling was so great as to shake the coffee out of the cups and saucers of

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some of the inhabitants who were at breakfast. This shock was much more terrible than the one reported in our paper last month."

It was not until early February that the full effects of the quake became known in Ohio. It had covered a wide expanse—Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana Territory, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and the Southwest. It had been felt in Philadelphia, Washington, Norfolk, Alexandria and Richmond :

By these shocks vessels of water were upset, chimneys and gable ends of houses were cracked and thrown down, dogs barked, fowls made a noise and deserted their roosts, people deserted their houses and places of residence. Some were under the persuasion that thieves and robbers were breaking into their habitations, and others left their beds in consequence of their believing that the agitation proceeded from the exertions of persons under them. The furniture of houses was greatly shaken, and doors moved and rattled upon their hinges. Many of the clocks stopped, bells were set a ringing, water in the wells were put in violent commotion. The parade ground at Georgetown (South Carolina) settled one or two inches below its former level. The shocks were very violent on the Mississippi. The banks gave way in various directions—ten or fifteen acres of ground having sunk down in a body —and one or two of the Chickasaw bluffs have chiefly fallen in. Trees were prodigiously shaken, broken off and tornup by the roots, as is usual in the most violent storms. Nearly all of the islands in the river, containing from one to 200 acres, have sunk or cracked to a very great extent. Trees that lay concealed in the river are said to have been raised erect, several feet out of the water, as those shocks succeeded each other.

The approaching war with Great Britain now became a subject of deep and universal anxiety to the people of Ohio. Early evidence of direct personal concern was seen in publication in the papers of accounts of hostile activities of the Indians, who had been peaceful since the Greenville treaty of 1795, but who now, under British influence, began to terrorize the settlers in the Western and Northern parts of the state. The first definite instance of this was contained in a letter written January 14, 1812, to Governor Meigs at Zanesville, by the commanding officer of the state militia in Darke County, from Greenville:

"The people of this county are much alarmed at this time by the near approach of the Indian Prophet and his party, consisting of about forty-five warriors, who are hunting about thirty miles from here. We were told by two Mingo Indians, who say they are camped about ten miles from this place, that the Prophet and his party are hunting about twenty miles from them, in a western direction. They say they were told by two of the Prophet's men, who came to their camp and said the Prophet's men would kill every white man they came across. We are about to send out spies immediately to discover whether the Prophet is there or not. Our exposed position would render us an easy prey to the Indians should they attack us.

"There are about thirty-six families in this county, living considerably scattered ; and should the Indians fall upon us we are not in a situation to assist each other ; and as several of them are without guns, we could make but feeble resistance, the nearest settlement to us being on Still Water, which is sixteen miles from this place. The inhabitants have earnestly requested us that we would inform you of our situation and desire that troops may be sent for our protection, and the sooner they are here the better."

This was followed, in successive issues of the papers, by reports of Indian depredations constantly increasing in numbers. There had been a battle in Indiana Territory in which General Harrison, then governor of that territory, had defeated the Indians, but notwithstanding they had signed an agreement to be peaceable, there were frequent outbreaks and murders there. An editorial in a Circleville paper of March 18,

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summed up the situation and expressed the hatred of the British entertained universally by the inhabitants of the state :

"Our readers will perceive by the extracts from several parts of our frontiers, inserted in this day's paper, that the perfidious emissaries of Britain continue to excite the Indians to commit depredations on our frontiers—they continue to murder our citizens, to plunder them of their property and to spread carnage and devastation in almost every direction. It is painful in the extreme to be compelled to relate those unparalleled enormities—but who can hear with apathy and indifference such tales of horror as daily come to our knowledge ? Who can hear of murders committed with impunity, on the persons of our fellow citizens—of people in affluence and respectability, obliged to leave their places of residence, and see their brightest prospects blasted by the sudden eruptions of a horde of ferocious and unrelenting savages, incited to plunder, rapine and murder by the common enemies of mankind, without feeling a glow of indignation rise in his breast, and a desire to avenge the cruelties inflicted on his unfortunate countrymen absorb all his faculties?

"We hope the twelfth congress, who have so generally determined to repel the unjust and unparalleled depredations of Great Britain on the high seas, will turn their attention toward our western frontier, and will convince the people on our borders that government pays as much regard to their security against the incursions of their savage foes as they do toward the security of the other portions of the Union."

It was so completely taken for granted that the conflict was at hand that for three months before the formal declaration of war the state officials, militia officers and soldiers of Ohio were almost constantly busy taking measures to mobilize, preparatory to marching to Detroit, which was threatened by the British army encamped across the river, in Canada. "Recruiting goes on with spirit," said the Fredonian of April 15, "and there never was a time when more willingness existed on the part of our citizens to support the strong measures of government. The President has called on the Executive of this state for 1,200 militia, 300 from each division, to march immediately to Detroit, and there appears only to be a contest among our young men who shall be the first to step forward in vindication of the honor of our country."

Details of the ceremonies attending the recruiting of soldiers made an important part of the news of the day. The local militia regiments met at places appointed by their colonels, and at these meetings there was much military display, much patriotic speech making, much martial music, and, later, much glory of publicity. General McArthur was conspicuous at all the regimental meetings in the military division of which he was the head. At Jefferson, Pickaway County, he "went round the regiment, attended by the music," and received the resignation of Colonel Denny as commanding officer, and his offer to "volunteer as a private man." This was the popular thing for commanding officers to do. Even McArthur, who was major general, in his division orders, referred eloquently to the President's call for volunteers and wrote, "I shall be one of them. Should the detachment from the Second Division think proper to honor me with the command, I will accept it ; otherwise I will cheerfully shoulder by flint-lock, and march in the ranks."

In due time all the volunteers reached the rendezvous at Dayton, where they joined the United States regulars, who had floated down the river from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati and marched to the point of concentration. Maj.-Gen. William Hull, of the United States Army, was there and received from Governor Meigs his formal transfer of the Ohio troops to his command. An intimate touch of all these proceedings was given in a pleasant news-story of May 28, describing the coming to Dayton of the Pickaway County troops :

"Upon their arrival Major Reed, a republican citizen of Dayton, and, as we are informed, the only one of that place, invited them to his home,

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where they partook of a splendid dinner prepared for their reception at his own expense. From hunger and fatigue, it seems, as in the land of Egypt, they found a brother Joseph ! They ate and drank till they were merry in his presence ! !"

One can imagine the glamor of it all, and the high spirits of those raw country men and boys, most of whom had seldom been away from their own cabins. The excitement and patriotic ardor which, under Hull's grandiloquent addresses and promises of glory to be won, made heroes of them all in their feelings and emotions.

But what of those they left behind—their wives and children ? The answer is found in the touching memoirs, written many years after, by the daughter of United States Senator Thomas Worthington, who during that summer of 1812 was in her father's luxurious home, the famous "Adena," at Chillicothe. "The horrors and sufferings of the first year of the war," she wrote, "can never be forgotten by the people of that generation. The country was depopulated of men, and farmer-women, weak and sickly as they often were, and surrounded by their helpless little children, were obliged, for want of bread, to till their fields until frequently they sank exhausted and dying under the toil to which they were unequal. My blessed mother was incessantly occupied in giving such aid as her abundant means afforded ; but the common misfortune was too widely spread to be reached by anything like adequate succor."

On May 30, the 1,500 militia troops assembled at Dayton were divided into three regiments, under command of McArthur, Findlay and Cass, each with the rank of colonel. They remained there, in "Camp Meigs," for some time before all was ready to begin the march northward.

There was now intense indignation in Ohio because of the opposition to the war in some of the cities of the Atlantic seaboard. The Ohio papers were unsparing in their condemnation of those who were not heart and soul ready to punish the British. Some of. them reprinted an open defiance from the Boston Repository :

"Mr. Clay and his Western brethren may make light of our cities being laid in ashes, followed by a flight to Kentucky and Ohio, but we shall take the liberty to think for ourselves, as well as to feel for ourselves, and to determine for ourselves. We tell them plainly we will not go to war. We will not abandon our cities. We will not take flight to the westward. And now let them try their power over us as soon as they please."

The comment of the Ohio papers upon this was in the vigorous western style. Here is a sample of them :

"This is an infamous effusion of a corrupt head and heart. It is plainly a declaration of war—a base and unpardonable act of hostility, for which in any other country but this the writer would be suspended by a cravat of hemp."

Of course political capital was made of it—no opportunity to do that was ever missed. The Boston Repository was a Federalist paper, and the editor we have quoted was a republican. He warned the Federalist editors in Ohio against taking a stand similar to that of the Boston paper, or they will be compelled to seek an asylum in some happy corner of their favorite Britain, where they can feast alone in glorious exultation for having openly opposed the country which gave them birth—the country which is now pursuing rigid measures to save them from the kidnapping hand of the English and the scalping-knife of the Indians."

While the soldiers were still at Dayton, preparing for their march to Detroit, there was renewed uneasiness among the settlers in the northern sections of the state. News came that "our frontier settlers are removing with all possible expedition ; many families who have resided at Sandusky for many years in the strictest friendship with the Indians, and who were well acquainted with their manners and disposi-

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tions, have deemed it unsafe to remain there any longer, and have removed their families to the town of Delaware."

By the first week in June "The Army of Ohio" was ready to move, and on the seventh it entered Urbana. Governor Meigs was there, and he and General Hull held a treaty conference in the woods with twelve of the principal chiefs of the Wyandots, Shawnees and Mingoes. The celebrated Tarhe (or The Crane) was among them. The talk was reported in full to the press. "After some hours the chiefs entered into a written agreement that General Hull should have the liberty to open a road to the foot of the rapids of the Miami of the Lake, and to build block houses on the road." Colonel McArthur's regiment was assigned this task. It opened the road and erected block houses every twenty miles.

A special messenger service was established between the principal towns of the state and the army. Fast riders carried letters to and from the soldiers, and in this way the newspapers were kept informed promptly of all that was going on at the front. War was declared by Congress on June 19, and after that fact became known hostilities were carried on actively between the two armies. The letters home, before long, began to give signs that the Army of the Northwest was in distress. There was sickness and want of supplies. Gradually there were references in the letters indicating want of confidence in the high command, and finally came the shocking news that the expedition had completely failed because General Hull had surrendered Detroit to the British, without a fight and to an inferior force. The date was August 16.

Instantly this disaster became known there was rage and despair in Ohio. The press and public were aflame. "At this awful moment," sounded a call to the people, "when the commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Army has turned tory by the influence of British gold, and surrendered a brave army to the arms of aristocracy, it is hoped that every friend of his country will attend a meeting"—to be held at the Chillicothe courthouse on September 2, to decide what should be done in the situation.

Samuel Finley, a general of the state militia, a man more than sixty years old, issued a call directing attention to the "perilous situation of our frontier settlements, exposed by the inglorious surrender of the important garrison of Detroit, to the ravages and desolating fury of a treacherous and cruel enemy." He asked the men to contribute personal aid to "succor the distressed and avenge their country's wrongs." He resigned his position as president of the Bank of Chillicothe and volunteered "to conduct a body of about 300 horsemen, well armed and accoutered, to seize every opportunity to harass the enemy in their excursions and carry devastation into their towns and settlements."

The Chillicothe meeting of September 2 was presided over by Chief Justice Thomas Scott of the Supreme Court. It adopted resolutions, and addressed a letter to Governor Meigs urging that he take measures to protect the settlers by sending militia to their assistance. But the energetic governor had lost no time. He had repaired to Urbana at the first news of the disaster, and from that town made detailed disposition of the militia to protect exposed positions and to build block houses to which settlers could flee for safety. Gen. William Henry Harrison had already succeeded Hull as commander-in-chief of the army, had established headquarters at Piqua, and had the military situation well in hand. He called for Ohio volunteers to rendezvous at once at Dayton, "carrying their own salt provisions." General Finley delivered a public address commending General Harrison for his prompt measures, and Governor Meigs issued a proclamation urging the citizens of Ohio to respond instantly to General Harrison's call for volunteers.

But another election for governor was to be held in October, and politics again became temporarily important. The enemies of Governor

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Meigs, who was a candidate for reelection, were active against him, charging him with responsibility, in some way, for the condition in which the militia found itself, whereupon officers of the detachment of soldiers who had been at Detroit on September 24, wrote a letter to Governor Meigs, which was broadcasted through the press. "As officers," it naively stated, "we are not permitted to assign the causes of that shameful surrender, or charge the commander-in-chief of that army with imbecility, cowardice or treachery." It commended Meigs and condemned the political enemies who had "privately slandered him." The letter was signed by forty-one officers, the name of Brig.-Gen. Edward B. Tupper at the head of the list.

Generals Harrison and Tupper, with the new army of 1,200 volunteers, soon embarked upon a new expedition to the North, and on November 25 the papers announced "Glorious News. Brilliant Victory of General Tupper Over British and Indians at Rapids of the Miami."

General Harrison issued general orders thanking General Tupper and his gallant corps for their success. This, with news of many victories of the American Navy, had a good effect in relieving the tension; and fears of further devastations by the Indians gradually subsided. The capture of the British frigate Macedonia, by Captain Decatur, of the American frigate United States, on October 25th, news of which reached Ohio in December, was hailed with a frenzy of delight, and the largest type the papers had yet displayed was placed over the accounts of the engagement. One ecstatic outburst of headlines was :

Victory ! Victory !

The United States Navy

The

Wonder of The World

And The

Pride of America.

ELEVENTH LEGISLATIVE SESSION

December 7, 1812, to February 9, 1813

Thomas Kirker continued as speaker of the Senate. There was a new presiding officer in the House—John Pollock, of Clermont County.

Of course the all-absorbing topic was the war. As it had commenced since the adjournment of the previous House and Senate, those bodies had had no opportunity of taking any new action with reference to it. Governor Meigs appeared in person before them on the third day of the session and in his annual message officially notified them that the United States had declared war against Great Britain. in the interim. The tone of his whole address was one of patriotism and of defiance to the enemy. It is well worth quoting here in full :

"Gentlemen : A new and important period has occurred in the American history. The people of the United States have been driven into a necessary war to preserve its inalienable rights.

"A nation, to be free, must possess the right of enjoying what the Great Author of Nature, who spread the waters upon the great deep in His wisdom, had designed. No particular nation can appropriate to itself that in which every other has the natural right to an equal participation, nor with justice arrogate to itself the prerogative of a domination of the ocean.

"The declaration of war is but a practical renewal of the Declaration of Independence, in which celebrated performance is contained a recital of many of those acts of injustice and oppression which caused its adoption—and of which the nation again has reason to complain—and which a sense of duty urges to oppose with all the force of the Union.

"Since the adjustment and candid offers of preliminary arrangements, on the part of the United States, have not been met with corres-

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pondent desires, it is to be hoped, as it ought to be reasonably expected, that every energetic means will be urged to bring, by force, the war to a just, speedy and honorable termination.

"The government of the United States has ever, with an increasing philanthropy and great expense, labored to civilize the savages on her borders—to diminish the ferociousness of their natures, to cultivate among them the arts of peace, to estrange them from the cruel rites of Moloch, and to inspire them with a true knowledge of a beneficent Deity.

"The contrast is obvious. On the ocean your impressed brethren are compelled by the torturing lash to raise their unwilling arms against the country of their birth, and in maratime exile drag out an unhappy existence. On the west the hordes of barbarians, stimulated by British influences, tear alike the scalp from the mother and the infant in her arms, and with relentless fury stain the land of freedom with the blood of her sons.

"Thus on our frontiers, on the part of our enemy, the war is characterized by the disgraceful alliance of pretended civilization and inexorable barbarity.

"Yet through an apparent cloud in the western horizon the brighter light of future prospects may be reasonably anticipated, nor do I deem the time far distant when the western and northern boundary lines of the state shall be run and designated as provided by a law of the United States, passed at the last session of Congress—and when a great portion of the Indian title within them shall be extinguished and territorial indemnification acquired from the heathen remnants of those mighty hosts which have warred upon us without reason or provocation.

"Situated as is the State of Ohio, bordered by hostile tribes and English possessions, new and weightier duties are required. The man who would desert a good cause is unworthy to defend it. Let us banish all rivalry beyond the honorable emulation which is devoted to the public weal and redounds to its benefit and support. Let no man shrink from his duty in whatever station the laws of his country may have placed him.

"The veterans of the Revolution, where are they ? And the fathers of our independence, do they live forever ? No ; they are gone ; but from new exigencies new warriors will arise and defend the heritage of their fathers. To our own exertions let us add a reliance on the protecting arm of Him who shakes the foundations of the continents and takes up the isles of the sea as a very little thing."

The response of the legislators to this eloquent appeal was the immediate adoption of resolutions pledging support to the utmost. While deeply earnest and full of a spirit of determination, they were calm and singularly free from the declamatory outbursts which so frequently characterized the patriotic declarations of those times :

"Impressed with a full conviction that the war in which this nation is involved is, on our part, just and necessary ; that the course pursued by the administration in recommending the measure, and in its mild, conciliatory and continued efforts to secure to this nation an honorable peace, merits the entire approbation of this General Assembly and that not only the honor and dignity of this people, but its continuance as a free and independent nation, depends upon a vigorous prosecution of the war, therefore,

"Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That in the name and in behalf of our constituents, we pledge ourselves to aid the national government in the present emergency to the extent of our resources ; and we do this in the hope that the goodly heritage of our freedom may descend from us to posterity as we received it, excellent and unimpaired.

"Be it further resolved, That we have seen, with emotions of much concern, the protracted delay of the English government to render jus-

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tice to this nation for its outrageous depredations upon us ; and that we will afford to the constituted authorities, in whose wisdom and firmness we place confident reliance, our utmost support in their efforts to sustain the honor of the nation, and to obtain suitable amends for its injuries."

The spirit of the Legislature was but a reflection of the spirit of the people whom it represented. Almost every white man of military age, and thousands above and below it, volunteered for service at some period of the war. Ohio furnished almost three times as many soldiers, in proportion to the population, as any state east of the Alleghanies—ten times as many as some of them.

Official canvas of the vote cast for governor at the previous October election was made on December 15. Governor Meigs was reelected, his vote having been 11,859, a majority of 3,956 over his opponent, Thomas Scott. On the next day the vote for congressmen was opened by the Governor and the Secretary of State in the presence of the Legislature. The increased population, as disclosed by the census of 1810, now entitled the state to six representatives in Congress, and the returns showed that the following men had been chosen in the various districts : John McLean, John Alexander, Duncan McArthur, Wm. Creighton, Jr., James Caldwell, James Kilbourne, and John S. Edwards. The last named resigned to go upon the Supreme Bench and he was succeeded in Congress by David Clendenin.

All of these men were prominent in the early history of the state, and short biographical mention of some of them has already been made in these pages. John McLean became one of the outstanding figures of the nation. He resigned the office to which he was now elected, after serving some time, to become supreme judge. He occupied this position six years, was appointed postmaster general of the nation, and in 1829 was made an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. His name was three times brought before conventions for nomination for President. Creighton afterwards became a United States district judge in Ohio. Caldwell had been a member of the first constitutional convention and of the State Senate. He was a captain in the War of 1812 and stood very high in all his relations in life. He was a successful merchant and banker at St. Clairsville. Kilbourne was the founder of Worthington. He was an ordained minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church, but was very active in public life through many years. As surveyor of lands he laid out the City of Sandusky. He was colonel of an Ohio regiment in the war. He remained in Congress two terms.

Jeremiah Morrow was elected United States senator at this session, by a vote of sixty-three to eighteen cast for Calvin Pease, that district judge who a few years before had all but been impeached for declaring a state law invalid. Morrow had been a congressman since 1803. He served six years in the United States Senate, after which he was elected governor of Ohio. He was conspicuous in official life almost to the time of his death in 1852.

New counties established were Medina, Harrison, Richland and Monroe.

The work of preparing the wilderness on the high bank of the Scioto River opposite Franklinton, to be a fitting place for the capital of the state, was already in progress. The Legislature was quite unwilling that there should be any delay in carrying it forward on the part of those who had made promises of what they would do. A law was now passed providing "a director of the town of Columbus," under $4,000 bond and with an annual salary of $600. It was part of his business to prevent the digging up of the streets and the public square provided for the state house and the carrying away of any of the wood on the property donated to the state. The general purpose of the act was to require "the proprietors of the town" to fulfill to the letter their part of the

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contract under which the state had located the capital there. A Mr. William Ludlow was appointed to this position, and he kept himself busy for some time investigating such matters as the quality of the materials and the skill of the workmen employed in the erection of the public buildings.

In the midst of the anxiety over the welfare of the soldiers, the success of the arms of the state, the raising of the large -amounts of money necessary, and other matters of supreme importance incident to the war, the Legislature did not forget the morals of the citizenry. It became especially exercised over the evils of billiard playing, and singled this out for the special vigilance of court officials. Section 1 of the act for this purpose was as follows :

"Be it enacted by the general assembly of the state of Ohio, That if any person shall keep or procure to be kept any billiard table or billiard tables, in his or their house, outhouse, or other building, the person or persons so procuring or keeping such table or tables shall, for every such offense, on conviction, by presentment or indictment of the grand jury of the county, be fined in the sum of $100 for the use of the county where such offense is committed ; and it shall be the duty of the presiding judges of the several courts of common pleas in the state to give this act specially in charge to the grand juries attending their respective courts."

What would those stern and austere moralists think if they could visit the hundreds of billiard rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association and other religious bodies in Ohio in the twentieth century ?

The balance in the state treasury for this year of 1812-13 was $8,556.04. Notwithstanding the extraordinary increase in expenses incident to the war, this was much the largest balance the state had known at the end of any year. It was another concrete evidence that population and wealth were growing rapidly. The revenues were growing proportionately.

Legislative action at this session seems to indicate that the gambling evil had arrived at an acute stage. Faro was singled out in a special law, and playing that game was punishable by fines of from $50 to $200. A penal impost was laid upon playing cards, and any one bringing a pack of them into the state was subject to a fine of from $5 to $20.

But all matters were subordinate, in the public mind and in legislative consideration, to the war. Within a few days after the session met the governor, in a special message, recited the distressed condition of General Tupper's brigade, which had marched to the relief of Detroit after its surrender to the British. He stated that the brigade was in an almost starving condition on the northern borders of the state, having been compelled to fall back to escape capture. The General Assembly instantly provided relief, hurried forward supplies, and rescued the soldiers. The difficulty of supplying the state troops with necessities sometimes emphasized the lack of facilities incident to the remoteness of the state from the center of things. For instance, a bill was passed appropriating $4,000 for blankets, and an agent who attempted to purchase them found none available. The supply west of the Alleghanies was exhausted, and it would take a long time to secure them in the East. Under these circumstances another act was passed authorizing the agent to purchase, in lieu of the blankets, "such other articles of clothing as shall, in his opinion, be most beneficial for the use of said militia."

An act was passed shortly thereafter appropriating $40,000 to enable Generals William Henry Harrison, Winchester, Tupper and Perkins to carry out a contemplated movement against the British forces. This was by far the largest appropriation for any single purpose up to that time since the state had come into existence.

General Hull's surrender of Detroit was a matter of deep concern to the General Assembly, as it was to all the people of Ohio and the

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Nation. The conduct of the Ohio militia volunteers in Hull's army was the subject of appreciative resolutions adopted early in the session :

"WHEREAS, It is deemed of vital importance to every republican government that, an ardent love of country should characterize its inhabitants ;

"WHEREAS, Those are especially deserving of the gratitude of their country who stand forth early and with alacrity in its defense : and

"WHEREAS, This general assembly have been advised of the promptitude and honest zeal with which the corps of volunteers from this state (lately under the command of General Hull) assembled,—were organized and marched into the enemy's country, and of their bravery and general good conduct ; therefore

"BE IT RESOLVED, That the thanks of this state are due to the officers and soldiers composing the said corps for the patriotism, bravery and general good conduct which they evinced during their late arduous and disastrous expedition."

That the state was overrun by quack doctors, men without conscience, education or training for the profession, was frequently noted in the newspapers of the day. The various attempts of the General Assembly to find a method of standardizing the practice of medicine had all proved ineffectual, including the law of the 1811-12 session. This gave occasion for the act of January 14, 1813, repealing all those previously placed upon the statute books, and adopting a new plan. It was before the days of efficient medical colleges, and the state board of health was yet in the distant future. It had not occurred to the legislators that any salaries ought to be paid, or other expenses incurred, to secure the necessary service of good physicians in the work of preventing incompetents from calling themselves doctors, and it is likely that this was the cause of failure of the various experiments made. It was hardly to be expected that the best physicians would devote the large amount of time necessary to examine candidates for places in their ranks without compensation. At any rate they did not do so. Nor, apparently, did it occur to anyone, even now, to pay the examining doctors for the services they were asked to perform. The new law divided the state into seven districts, and appointed, by name, physicians of each county to be censors, or examining boards. No one could practice without the approval and license of these boards. Applicants were required to show that they were of good character and could answer satisfactorily questions put to them on anatomy, surgery, materia medica, chestry "and the theory and practice of physic."

An enactment of January 14, 1813, reveals another peculiar angle in the public lottery enterprises. Apparently all the men under whose management the General Assembly placed the details of raising, the money were not reliable in their dealings, for the law granted to holders of lottery tickets the right to sue such managers for money won in the drawings and not paid by them; also the right to sue for money paid for tickets in lotteries in which drawings were not held at the time advertised. These were not for private lotteries. They had been outlawed. They were for lotteries in which the selling of tickets was authorized by the state. The passage of this law shows clearly that all was not straight in the public lottery business.

Interest of the people of Ohio in the news of the day must have been at a high pitch throughout the year 1813, for almost every issue of their papers contained news of the most exciting character. It was almost a century prior to the era of "sworn statements" of enormous circulations by newspaper managers, but occasional modest paragraphs appeared in the little four-page weeklies indicating that they were enjoying gratifying increases in the numbers of their subscribers ; the paragraphs usually concluded, however, with appeals for payment of

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subscriptions in arrears, and offers to accept maple sugar and other articles in lieu of cash.

A good many things were written besides news of the war. But politics seemed to be largely forgotten, and the Tammany war no longer had a place in the public prints. There were accounts of the disaster which had overtaken Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign, and later some space was devoted to the activities of the newly aligned allies which shortly afterwards brought on his downfall and sent him to Elba. There was an occasional paragraph referring to the court martial of General Hull, for his surrender of Detroit, which had been ordered but had not been held because many of the sixteen officers appointed to serve on the court were too active in service to give it the necessary time. An item, seemingly regarded as important, was the establishment at Chillicothe of a new school "for the improvement of young ladies," in which they could learn reading, writing, sewing, geography and English grammar, embroidery and tambour, drawing and painting. A new tavern was advertised in the same town "at the sign of George Washington." A brief paragraph was made of a "horrid murder" on the streets of Chillicothe, and the escape of the murderer. Reports appeared of great terror among some people of the state over a new star in the heavens, but their fear was allayed when a learned astronomer assured the people that it was only the planet Mars. There was notice of a Methodist camp meeting on the Scioto River bank, "on the Pickaway Plains at the mouth of Scippio creek." Advertisements of rewards for capture of runaway slaves continued to be frequent. The Bank of Muskingum, at Zanesville, was broken into and $10,500 stolen. A reward of $1,500 was offered for the capture of the rogues who had done it. A large display advertisement offered 1,898 muskrat skins for sale.

There was no election in October except for members of the General Assembly ; there were three-line announcements of candidates, but no comments, no reports of meetings of endorsement, no attacks on personal character—none of the exciting preelection matter which had filled the papers in previous years. Departments of "humour," anecdotes and poetry had entirely disappeared. The editors were apologetic over having too little room to print communications received, and they rather often noted that they had even been compelled to omit advertisements because of press of important news.

But the papers were filled to overflowing with news of reverses and victories at arms and incidental stories throwing light upon the military and naval maneuvers, and the actors in them. The people were thrown alternately into despondency and exultation.

Gen. William Henry Harrison, although at the head of the Army of the Northwest, ranked only as a brigadier general in the national forces, and this placed him in an embarrassing position because some of his officers held the precedence of seniority of appointment ; and this produced confusion and difficulties for him which caused him seriously to consider sending his resignation to the President. This led the people in many towns of the state to hold meetings and adopt resolutions calling upon the general government to make him a major general. They invariably pointed out the very serious need of a commanding officer of great experience and wisdom, and they were alarmed at the possibility of losing General Harrison's services. Their appeals were finallly granted at. Washington, but not until after a great catastrophe to the army which the people were sure would not have occurred if Harrison had been in supreme, unquestioned command. This was the disaster which overtook Gen. James Winchester on the Maumee (then known as the Miami of the Lakes).

The people of the state were apprised of this by a long account in the Fredonian of February 2, 1813, from which we quote :

"With the most poignant sensations of grief we perform the most melancholy task of announcing to our readers the entire destruction of

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the advanced guard of the Northwestern Army, consisting of about one thousand men under the command of General Winchester. * * * Although from the vicinity of the enemy and the facility with which they could cross over, the danger of an attack was evident, yet, unaccountable as it may appear, not the least precaution was taken for the security of the army. The night preceding the fatal morning, we are informed that General Winchester had taken up his lodgings at a private house three quarters of a mile from the troops ; the officers had been billeted in the several houses in the neighborhood ; and the soldiers were lying in promiscuous groups in barns, pens, &c., without order or regularity. The enemy, being probably apprised of the unguarded situation of the American troops, attacked them at daybreak on the morning of the 22d ult. with a force of about 1600 or 1800 Indians and two or three hundred British, with six or eight pieces of artillery. The attack was so sudden, and our troops were so completely surprised, that the roaring of the British cannon gave them the first intimation of danger. The scene of confusion which ensued can be imagined, but not described ! The officers not being able to find out their men, the greatest part of the troops could not be formed, so that very little, if any, resistance was made. A few succeeded in making their escape; the remainder were either killed or taken prisoners. The unfortunate General Winchester was killed, scalped and mangled in a most shocking manner."

This account, although not based on official reports, was later found to be substantially correct in most particulars. But the statement that General Winchester had been killed was an error. He was among the prisoners—and died in his bed at home in Tennessee thirteen years later. The defeat was naturally the cause of much unfavorable discussion of General Winchester and of the lack of experienced and energetic commanders. General Harrison, while deploring the disaster, said it was by no means irreparable. Governor Meigs called the attention of the General Assembly to the situation created. His desire was that those volunteers in the army whose terms of enlistment were about to expire should be encouraged to remain in the service, and the Legislature appropriated $40,000 to pay them a bonus of $12 a month each for so doing.

The newspapers contained reports of a number of public meetings called to consider General Winchester's defeat and the destruction of his army. One at Cincinnati resolved :

"We do not for a moment despair of the Republic, having the fullest reliance in the abilities and will of the nation to repair and avenge the loss ; and we will hold ourselves in readiness to repair to the standard of our country when our services shall be necessary."

But it also took the occasion to express its highest confidence in the military science, experience and patriotism of General Harrison, declaring, "We would view his retirement now as a national disaster." A copy of the resolutions was ordered sent to the President and the Ohio representatives in Congress.

The offer by the General Assembly of a $12 monthly bonus to those Ohio volunteers who should remain in the service was unavailing, and most or them returned home as soon as the period for which they had volunteered had expired. The editors excused them for this because of the hardships they had endured, but they feared their return would produce a bad impression. One of the editors on March 2d, appealed to the people on their behalf. "We trust," he said, "that they will be treated by their fellow citizens with that distinction to which their services so justly entitle them." Just before leaving the army the volunteers' officers handed General Harrison an address of appreciation and confidence, and he made them a written reply, in which he said, "In the whole course of your services, gentlemen, I know nothing that you could have done to promote the cause in which we are engaged that you have not done."

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Another incident in which General Winchester was involved occupied much space in the columns of the newspapers at this time. In the previous October he had ordered Generel Tupper under arrest because he had not obeyed an order which he gave him. A Court of Inquiry had been appointed, and in March, 1813, it made its report, which was given wide publicity. It showed wretched conditions in the army. The report was in part as follows :

"The charge was that General Tupper refused or neglected to obey the orders of General Winchester of the 6th and 7th of October, 1812 ; and that he improperly omitted to pursue with an organized force the Indians who shot one of his men on the 5th of the same month.

"General Tupper admits that he did not obey the above orders, and neglected to pursue the Indians as above stated ; and as an excuse or justification of his conduct relative to said orders he adduced to this court's satisfactory proofs of the following facts, viz :—That most of the ammunition in possession of the soldiery was damaged by long and frequent rains, and rendered unfit for service; that he called for a supply, but was unable to obtain it ; that the troops were almost destitute of provisions and a supply could not be obtained ; that the force of the enemy was represented as much superior to their own ; all which circumstances combined to create a panic among them, and to induce a considerable proportion of them to refuse to march under the aforesaid orders."

The Court of Inquiry regarded these excuses of General Tupper for his failure to obey General Winchester's orders as perfectly satisfactory, and it exonerated him from the charges.

Notwithstanding reverses of the army, there was always a fresh supply of men ready to meet every demand made upon them. Not once was it necessary to resort to a draft. There was almost incessant activity in recruiting, equipping and forwarding all the men needed, promptly and with dispatch. General Harrison, at headquarters in Franklinton after a trip from Sandusky, issued a statement containing these passages :

"The Commanding General has observed with the warmest gratitude the astonishing exertions made by his excellency Governor Meigs, and the general and other militia officers of this state, in collecting and equipping a body of troops for the relief of Fort Meigs ; but the efforts of those gentlemen would have been unavailing if they had not been seconded by the patriotic ardor of every description of citizens, which has induced them to leave their homes at a most critical season of the year regardless of every consideration but that of rendering service to their country. The General found the road from Lower Sandusky to this place literally covered with men—and among them many of those who had shared in the toils and dangers of the Revolutionary war, and from whom, of course, there had been no legal claim for military service."

There were also frequent movements through the state of detachments of volunteers from Kentucky and Eastern states. At a banquet given by the citizens of Chillicothe to Captain McRea's company, of Petersburg, Virginia, on its way to join Harrison's army, "after the cloth was removed twenty toasts were given, accompanied by patriotic songs and martial music from the band." One of the toasts given was "Tecumseh, the most intrepid Indian warrior of the West—May the Petersburg volunteers divest the savage of his ferocity, or number him with the dead." Captain McRea gave them, "Governor Meigs of Ohio —a true patriot, a friend of his country, an honest man, 'the noblest work of God.' "

The raising of the siege of Fort Meigs, in May, was the occasion of great rejoicing by the people. The governor, through his aide-de-camp, issued general orders notifying the volunteers hastening to the fort that their services were not necessary, and therefore giving them their honor-

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able discharge. "The most important fortress," said he, "in the western country, Camp Meigs, was invested by the enemy ; information of it reached his Excellency and orders were issued. In an instant you were soldiers ! The promptness, good order, and regularity of your march to the frontier excites admiration. His excellency is entirely satisfied with your conduct and for it returns his warmest thanks." This was followed by General Harrison's "expressions of his high sense of the distinguished valor which the troops manifested in each of the conflicts in which they were engaged." He congratulated them upon their having completely foiled their foes, "and put a stop to that career of victory which has hitherto attended their arms."

Similar official expressions followed the glorious defense of Fort Stevenson, at Sandusky, and Major Croghan, the commander there, found himself famous. There were fine letters accompanying a beautiful sword presented to him by the ladies of Chillicothe, and his very modest reply, hoping that he might become worthy of it.

But it is evident from the newspaper reports that there had grown up some dissatisfaction with the war among certain classes of the people. At a patriotic meeting in the courthouse at Lebanon a series of resolutions on various war subjects was adopted, among them this :

"RESOLVED, That those who endeavor to palsy the energies of government by exciting division amongst the citizens and groundless complaints against the administration, ought to be viewed with a jealous eye and marked as enemies of their country."

Touching upon this same subject, the Fredonian, after there had been some unusual successes in the army, printed a very bold editorial, from which the following sentences are taken :

"The late brilliant successes of our army on the lakes, while they will effectually dissolve the union now subsisting between the British and the Indians, will be productive of another effect equally beneficial. They will, in many respects, give a new tone to the public opinion. While our arms were unfortunate on land it was the constant policy of those who have enlisted their talents on the side of the enemy to impress on the minds of the uninformed that our misfortunes were to be attributed solely to the retributive justice of Providence. * * * Many well meaning persons were led astray by these false teachers and conscientiously thought it their duty to withhold their support from their government, under the impression that they were engaged in an unjust contest. * * * But we have every reason to rejoice at the auspicious turn which the opening of the present campaign has given to our affairs, not only on account of the effect which it will have upon the enemy, but also because it will effectually open the eyes of many of those who have hitherto been the dupes of an unprincipled and anti-American faction."

The editors felt free to comment on military matters, and they sometimes included General Harrison himself in their critical assaults. His first decision to evacuate Fort Stevenson, at Sandusky, and to burn the stores there, was especially attacked by some of them. And even a meeting of the general and field officers of the militia went as far as they dared in censure of him because of a seeming misunderstanding between Harrison and Governor Meigs over the retention at the north of 2,000 volunteers, after the second attack on Fort Meigs. They adopted a preamble and resolutions, including this : "Resolved, That the conduct of his excellency the Commander-in-Chief of the Northwestern Army is on -this occasion shrouded in mystery and to us perfectly incomprehensible."

Of course a great deal of space—many columns, in fact—was devoted to condemning this action by the militia officers, and doubtless there was much acrimonious disputing over it among the

readers of the papers.

The press had kept the people quite fully informed as to the prep-

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arations by Commodore Perry in his undertaking to rid Lake Erie of the English squadron which had been built and was lying ready at Malden. Perry's departure from Erie, where his vessels had been constructed under his own direction, was recorded, as well as his hunt for the enemy's ships. An officer of the army had made a voyage with the fleet and wrote an account of the pursuit of British vessels in which it was discovered that Perry's vessels in general sailed one-third faster than those of the enemy. The battle might have been, fought at that time had not darkness and a severe storm intervened.

The result of the battle, which everybody knew was about to be fought, was awaited with the greatest anxiety, as the public fully appreciated the tremendous importance of achieving a victory. There was very unusual speed in spreading the news after it occurred. General Harrison, at Camp Seneca, received the famous "We have met the enemy and they are ours" message of Perry the second day after the engagement, and by the evening of the next day—September 13th—a special express reached the state capital with copies of the commodore's dispatches to the commander-in-chief. They were published in the Fredonian of the 14th and in the Supporter of the 15th. "On the receipt of the above information the town was illuminated and every demonstration of joy expressed."

A week later the papers noted that the British naval officers had arrived in Chillicothe as prisoners of war. The men arrived later. The wounded had been taken to Cleveland. shortly thereafter the public was informed that the officers were being kept in close confinement in retaliation for similar treatment given American officers by the British in Canada.

For several weeks after the Battle of Lake Erie the Ohio papers devoted many columns in every issue to Perry and the demonstrations in his honor in all parts of the East. There was almost no limit to the rejoicings over his wonderful victory. In most of the articles, wonder was expressed that such an achievement had been won by a man only twenty-eight years old. The event received far more publicity than did the earlier exploits of Lawrence and Decatur.

A rather peculiar political note resulted from the great attention Commodore Perry received. The Supporter, which was strongly federalist, could not resist the opportunity to say : "Commodore Perry, who so lately distinguished himself on Lake Erie, is a decided Federalist. It is somewhat singular that the war party should style the Federal party tories when every victory which we have yet acquired has been gained by Federalists, sand all the inglorious defeats have been from men of their own party."

The people had another intense thrill when the journals of October 19th gave them "the highly gratifying intelligence" that the forces under General Harrison had captured the whole of General Proctor's army. "This glorious achievement," said the Fredonian, "which puts us in possession of the greater part of Upper Canada, was hailed by the people of this town as a prelude to future successes. A brilliant illumination took place, and every citizen testified his satisfaction at the happy event by every possible demonstration of joy. Party distinctions were in a great measure forgotten, and we rejoiced to see the Federalists unite with the Republicans in celebrating this great victory."

And now, toward the end of 1813, the second year of the war, appeared for the first time in the newspapers of Ohio, a new name. There had been fighting with the Indians in the South, and the official report of the action was signed, "ANDREW JACKSON."

TWELFTH LEGISLATIVE SESSION

December 6, 1813 to February 11, 1814

At this session a new face appeared on the rostrum of the speaker of the Senate. Thomas Kirker, who had so long presided, was defeated by