to be, in the language of the grant of Virginia, held, and "considered, as a common fund, for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become, members of the Confederation, or federal alliance of the said States, Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective proportions, in the general charge and expenditure; and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatever."

In justice to the other States, we ought, perhaps, here to mention that North-Carolina, after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, in 1790, ceded in like manner all her western lands, now the State of Tennessee; and Georgia, in 1802, the present States of Mississippi and Alabama; these last grants, however, were coupled with conditions (needless here to be mentioned,) which rendered them less productive than they otherwise would have been. Connecticut also, excepted in her grant of cession, what is called the Western Reserve, the jurisdiction of which, however, on the 30th of May, 1800, she released to the United States. These different cessions, together with Louisiana and Florida, afterward purchased-the former of France, on the 30th of April, 1803, and the latter of Spain, on the 22nd of February, 1819; the former containing 850,000,000 of acres, including Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Iowa, for $15,000,000; and the latter, about 40,000,000 of acres, for $5,000,000, and the payment of certain claims of American citizens upon the Spanish crown-constitute what is known and distinguished as the "American Public Lands," of which more hereafter.

Soon after the above cessions, Congress, on the 13th of July, 1787, passed an ordinance "for the government of the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio." The present State of Illinois being a part of the Northwestern Territory, and subject to the ordinance above mentioned until 1800, when Indiana, including Illinois, was erected into a separate territory, (Ohio at that time having been admitted into the Union as a State,) the ordinance above referred to, demands a few passing remarks.

According to its provisions, a governor was to be appointed by Congress, for three years; and a secretary, in like manner, for four years. A court, consisting of three judges, was organized; and the governor and judges were authorized to adopt and publish such laws of the original States, civil and criminal, as were necessary, and best adapted to the circumstances of the territory. As soon as there should be five thousand free male inhabitants of full age, in the district, they were authorized to elect representatives in a General Assembly; these were to hold their offices for two years. The governor, legislative council, (consisting of five members, to be appointed by Congress,) and a House of Representatives, were authorized to make any laws, not repugnant to the principles and articles of the ordinance of Congress, thus established and declared. The Legislature were also authorized, by joint ballot, to appoint a delegate to Congress, who was to have a seat therein, and the privilege of debating, but not of voting.

Certain other articles of compact between the original States, and the people and States, in the Northwestern Territory, were also incorporated into said ordinance, and were "to remain for ever unalterable, unless by common consent." Among them are the following:

"No person shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious

sentiments.

No law shall be passed, that shall in any manner whatever interfere with, or affect private interests or engagements, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed.

"The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians. Their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent, unless in just and lawful wars, authorized by Congress.

"No tax shall be imposed on lands, the property of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than resident.

"There shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three, nor more than five States. And the boundaries of the States, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit:

The western State in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash rivers, a direct line drawn from the Wabash, and Fort Vincents, due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and by the said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi. The middle State shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from Post Vincents to the Ohio; by the Ohio by a direct line, drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern State shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line; provided, however, and it is farther understood, and declared, that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered, that if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two States, in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend, or extreme of Lake Michigan.*.

، There shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor in service, as aforesaid."+

The government of the Northwestern Territory having been duly or ganized by Congress, Arthur St. Clair, an officer of high rank in the revolutionary army, who had served with some little, though not with very brilliant reputation, during the war, was appointed the first governor, and

commander-in-chief.

His duties were exceedingly arduous; the population of the territory was small-that of Illinois proper not exceeding at the time three thousand, and scattered over a wide expanded surface. The Indians were numerous, powerful, and hostile.

This ordinance having recently produced some angry discussion in Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, and attempts having been made, and meetings, and conventions held, in order to annex a portion of the former to the latter, the attention of the reader will again be called to that subject when we come to speak of the boundaries of Illinois.

+ The attention of the reader will again be called to the wise and benificent provisions of this ordinance, when we come to speak of slaves and slavery in Illinois.

The influence of British agents was considerable, and the influence of British gold still more. Both were put in requisition; depredations on the part of the Indians were frequent; and recriminations on the part of the whites were terrible.

During this period of gloom, when our frontier settlements were bleeding at every pore, the want of sufficient power in Congress, the want of union between the States, and the want of energy in the Government, had rendered the old confederation impotent, and almost insignificant. The people generally were embarrassed. Their property, in many instances, had been seized for the use of both armies; and much of their labor been withdrawn from the peaceful occupations of husbandry, for military

service.

Their commerce, small at first, was now annihilated; imported commodities were enhanced greatly in value; and articles for exportation reduced below their ordinary price. Peace found the Americans, not only destitute of the elegancies and conveniences of life, but also without means of procuring them except by anticipating their future resources. On opening their ports to foreign vessels, an immense quantity of merchandise was introduced, and many, tempted by its cheapness, were prevailed upon to purchase beyond their ability to pay.

The inducements which equal liberty and vacant lands presented to the European emigrants, it was supposed by many, would enhance the price of the latter, and without effort on their part fill their coffers; and it had not escaped their observation, that in their purchase of real estate on credit, they were essentially relieved from the pressure of pecuniary obligation by the constant depreciation of paper money. Hence, many inferred that the revolution was a real talisman, whose magic powers, by the aid of speculation alone, was capable of changing the whole nature of things. Such delusive hopes, however, were shortly dissipated, but not until a large portion of the community had been wholly ruined.

Our readers need not here be told, that distress under such a state of things was universal. Notwithstanding, however, all these untoward cir. cumstances, Washington stood erect. In a letter to General La Fayette, he says: "However unimportant America may be considered at present, and however Britain may affect to despise her trade, there will assuredly come a day, when this country will have some weight in the scale of empire." This opinion, it will be observed, was wholly prospective. The distress which prevailed, induced the Legislatures of several States to pass relief laws, in violation of the treaty of peace, and to pass laws to prevent the collection of debts by British merchants. This was just as clearly a violation of the fourth article of the treaty, as the withholding of the western and northwestern posts by the English, was of the seventh. Whether the cause or the consequences of the latter, we are unable to determine.

Assuming, however, the treaty to have been obligatory on both, the inability of Congress to enforce its execution was too apparent. Their

control over the acts of thirteen different Legislative bodies, was not, and could not be pretended.

"It is good policy," said Washington, "at all times to place one's adversary in the wrong. Had we observed good faith, and the western posts had been withheld from us by Great Britain, we might have appealed to God and man for justice. What a misfortune it is," said he, in reply to the secretary of foreign affairs, " that the British should have so well grounded a pretext for their palpable infractions." "The distresses of individuals," said he, in another letter, "are to be alleviated by industry and frugality, and not by a relaxation of the laws, or by a sacrifice of the rights of others." This truth, it seems, then stands confessed, that debts improvidently contracted by American citizens, produced infractions of the treaty on our part, and this infraction, (whether before or afterward, is not very material to illustrate the principle,) occasioned infractions on the part of England. Of course, then, the Indian wars, and the bloody massacres that followed, were the offspring of individual improvidence. However much this improvidence was at the time to be deprecated and deplored, it pleased God, in his providence, to sanctify it for our good. The chastisements of Heaven are not unfrequently blessings in disguise.

The present Constitution of the United States, presented to the American people for their adoption, on the 12th of September, 1787, and accepted by the several States, thereafter, under which we have lived and been prospered as a nation, for more than half a century, was its first and most prominent result.

A government, more efficient than "the old Continental Congress," having been organized under the new Constitution; and Washington, the "father of his country," having been elected by acclamation, first President of the United States, on the 4th of March, 1789, great improvements in the condition and circumstances of the people were at once discoverable. Progressive industry, in a short time, repaired the losses sustained by a war of seven years' continuance; and the effect of the new Constitution on habits of thinking and acting, though silent, was soon perceivable.

A

The deprivation of State Legislatures, in the new Constitution, of power to make laws impairing the obligation of contracts, or to make anything other than gold and silver a lawful tender in the payment of debts, removed at once an impression, before then too common, that the people, in case of an emergency, could rely on partial legislation for relief. change in the public sentiment consequently followed; people in embarrassed circumstances, instead of looking to Government for assistance, sought relief by their own personal exertions; and industry and economy were its happy result. Order succeeded to confusion, general prosperity accompanied order, and the mandates of law were heard and obeyed. Peace having in some measure been restored; the Government having been reorganized, and vested with adequate powers for its own preservation, measures were speedily adopted, to repel British and savage aggressions.

Pacific means having been exhausted, the United States government resolved to make the Indian tribes, northwest of the Ohio, feel the effect of their arms. General Harmar, a gallant officer of considerable experience, who had been appointed under the old Congress commander-inchief, was now placed at the head of the army.

It consisted of three hundred and twenty regular troops; detachments of militia from Pensylvania and Virginia, increased its whole number to one thousand four hundred and fifty-three. Insignificant as it may now appear, it was then an imposing force. General Harmar commenced his march on the 30th of September, 1790, from Fort Washington, (now Cincinnati,) to attack the Miami towns on the south side of the Maumee, at the junction of its head-branches. After a march of seventeen days, he reached the great Miami village, which had been set on fire by the Indians; and not finding the enemy, divided his forces, and was cut up and defeated in detail by Little Turtle, the celebrated Miami warrior; and returned to Fort Washington on the 14th of December, after sustaining a loss of seventy-three out of three hundred and twenty of the regular troops, and a hundred and twenty of the militia.

The expedition of General Harmar, though frequently said to be victorious, because he passed through some Indian villages, destroying their miserable dwellings, their crops, and their provisions, failed wholly of its object. The red man was still in arms, the Northwestern Territory was battle-ground, and the confederated tribes, from Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, from the Illinois, the Wabash, and the Miami, were in the field; Little Turtle, himself a host, was at their head; and the struggle between the white and red man was again to be renewed.

An additional force having, in 1791, been raised, Major General St. Clair, who had previously been appointed Governor of the Northwestern Territory, was vested with its command. The olive-branch and the sword being now united, and an army of two thousand regular troops having been collected at Fort Washington, they were joined by a large number of militia, and on or about the 1st of October, commenced their march. The object of the expedition was the same as in the preceding year—that is, the Miami towns upon the Maumee of the lake. General St. Clair, though a veteran of the revolution, and possessed of both talents and experience," was old and infirm. The trying scenes of war, and especially a war with barbarians, amid interminable forests, required sleepless energy, inexhaustible activity, and enduring-toil; qualities, which rarely survive the period of youth and middle-age, and generally participate with the physical powers in their decline; and when to other sources of debility disease is added, what else than disaster can be expected?

When General St. Clair commenced his march, he was so affected by the gout as to be unable to walk, and could neither mount nor dismount his horse without assistance. His troops, having been enlisted for six months only, (it being supposed that the war would terminate, as a matter