The report bears the following indorsement: "Calculation defective, as Mr. Hough applied no correction for sun's declination in longitude, and sun's declination is taken on the 28th of May instead of 27th, the day of observation.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, September 16, 1815.

SIR: In my letter of the 8th of August I acknowledged the receipt of Mr. Hough's observations and calculations for the latitude of the northern cape of the Miami of Lake Erie. I find that Mr. Hough has not said whether the Index Error was + or-, nor mentioned the longitude on which his calculation of the Sun's declination was founded. I have caused a rigid calculation to be made from the data furnished by Mr. Hough, and find that if the longitude he assumed, 82° west, which is near the truth, and if the Index Error be +2′ 15′′ the latitude is 41° 39′ 47′′; and if the Index Error be-2′ 15′′ the latitude is 41° 44′ 17′′, which makes the latitude in the first supposition 12′ 3′′ less, and on the second 7′ 33′′ less; which in the first is equal to 13m 957 and in the second 8m 745 English miles, without allowing for the spheroidal figure of the earth.

You will receive with this, plats of T. 3, S. R. 7, E. 3, meridian. T. 3, S. R. 6, E. 3, meridian.

The draftsman observes that these townships do not agree with those adjoining. The north tier of sections appears to have a vacant space. Please to explain and rectify the error.

I have sent to Philadelphia for a case of instruments for your use. I wish you to use every exertion to canvass the survey of the Military Bounty Lands to be completed as soon as possible.

I am, very respectfully, yours,

EDWARD TIFFIN, ESQ., Surveyor-General.

During

JOSIAH MEIGS.

the next year as has been noticed in this report, one

of the members of Congress from Ohio, on August 9th, 1816, called the attention of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to this act of 1812 and urged the necessity of action, heretofore held in abeyance by the unsettled condition of the Indian affairs in that part of the country. On the 22d of the same month the Land Commissioner, General Meigs, directed the Surveyor-General, Edward Tiffin, at Chillicothe, to engage a faithful and skilled deputy to survey and mark the said

northern boundary."

The Surveyor-General employed William Harris, “an experienced, skillful, practical surveyor, and in December, 1816,

gave him special instructions how to * * * tween Ohio and Michigan Territory."

run the line be

On December 31, Mr. Harris replied as follows:

VINCENNES, December 31, 1816.

DEAR SIR: At the time I wrote to you last, which was in the latter part of September, I had engaged to lay out a town a few miles below Fort Harrison, which has taken me considerably longer than what I expected. It has been but three or four days since I returned to this place. I have been sorry since I wrote that I had not have been more explicit in my answer respecting running the boundary line between Lakes Michigan and Erie. I believe that I informed you that I did not know but what I would engage in this business which implies an uncertainty. My reasons for answering that part of your letter which relates to this business, in this way, was this: I did not altogether understand what you wanted to have done - whether you wanted a line run from one lake to the other or only the boundary line established between the State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory, or whether you would have the line run between the States of Indiana and Ohio, or not.

As the mail leaves to-day, and it will be inconvenient for me to leave this place for two or three days, and perhaps may meet with some delays on the road to Chillicothe, I have thought it best to write and give you a more explicit answer.

If the line can be established between the States of Ohio and Indiana at this time, I should be glad to undertake the job. If not, I wish you to employ some other surveyor, for it will be impossible for me to travel so great a distance and establish a line of few miles in length for the compensation allowed.

There appears to be a treaty on foot with the Indians, for which purpose a part of the Commissioners are here at this time, and it is said their object is to make another purchase of land. Should this be effected I will survey as great a proportion of this as you will please to give me. With the greatest respect, I am your obedient servant,

MR. EDWARD TIFFIN, Surveyor - General.

Also in January, 1817, he writes:

WILLIAM HARRIS.

CINCINNATI, January 12, 1817.

DEAR SIR: Your instructions for running and establishing the line between the States of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan Territory I have received. On examination of which I find that I am instructed to commence the line which is to divide the State of Indiana from the Michigan Territory at the south boundary of Lake Michigan and run east to Lake Erie.

SKELETON FROM OREGONIA. (FOUR MILES UP RIVER FROM FT. ANCIENT.

This part of your instructions appears to me to be incorrect. The Constitution of the State of Indiana fixes or establishes this line ten miles further north. Whether the Convention of Indiana has fixed this line different from what was intended by the ordinance of Congress, I do not know, and indeed I do not think it material, for it appears that the Government have accepted and ratified the Constitution of Indiana without any alteration, and by so doing have established the boundaries of said State, as defined by the Constitution.

This subject seems to be quite important, and I think it would be well to consult the Government about this business before the line is run. I am, with greatest respect, your most obedient,

WM. HARRIS.

MR. EDWARD TIFFIN.

About this time Governor Lewis Cass, of Michigan, took steps to secure a survey of the southern boundary of that Territory. William Harris was engaged to run the line. The Land office furnished Governor Cass a copy of the Constitution of Ohio, instead of, as he had supposed, the ordinance of 1787, on which Michigan's claim was based. To this Governor Cass made vigorous protest in the following letter:

DETROIT, November 1, 1817.

DEAR SIR: Report says, that the line which has been recently run, purporting to be the line between the State of Ohio and this Territory, was not run a due east course from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, but a course somewhat to the north of this, although how much I am unable to ascertain.

The Act of Congress organizing this Territory makes its southern boundary a due east line from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, and this act is in strict conformity with the fifth article of compact in the ordinance for the government of the northwestern Territory. These are declared to be unalterable except by mutual consent; and, although the boundary of Indiana was extended, contrary to their provision, ten miles north, yet I believe it was done unadvisedly, and will, when this Territory is heard in the Legislature of the nation, be a subject for revision and examination.

The Convention of Ohio in their Constitution proposed to the United States, if it was found that an east line from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan would pass south of Lake Erie, that the boundary should run from that extremity to the north point of the Miami Bay. But this proposition has never been acceded to by Congress, and if the construction which we put upon the articles of compact be correct, no agreement, even

Vol. IV-11