peers, and then in pursuance of the law and evidence in the case. As witnesses to this spectacle was a large body of Indians from, the most powerful tribes in the entire West, who had assembled for the purpose of making a treaty. The court of justice of the State then so solemnly opened has, in all these hundred years, never been closed; but is still open to all classes who seek redress for wrongs. The Territorial government, having been now established, with General St. Clair, Governor; Winthrop Sargent, Secretary; Samuel H. Parsons, John C. Symmes (in place of John Armstrong, resigned,) and James M. Varnum began the duty of legislating for the Territory, and continued in session until December, enacting a number of laws, which, however, were not approved by Congress, on the ground that the Governor and Judges had authority only to adopt existing laws from the codes of the original States, but not to enact laws of their own formation. On July 2, 1788, Congress was informed officially that a sufficient number of States had ratified the new constitution of the United States, and measures were taken to put it in force.

On January 9, 1789, at Fort Harmar, a treaty of peace was made with the Indian tribes. With the Iroquois, confirming the previous one at Fort Stanwix in 1784; another with the Wyandottes, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattamies and Sacs, confirming and extending the treaty of Fort McIntosh of January, 1785.

The first Congress under the new constitution of the United States assembled at Federal Hall, Wall street, New York, in April, 1789, and installed George Washington as first President of the United States, and one of its first official acts was to confirm the treaty made at Fort Harmar.

The terms of Territorial officers having expired on the adoption of the new constitution, President Washington appointed General St. Clair, Governor; Winthrop Sargent, Secretary; Samuel H. Parsons, John Cleves Symmes and William Barton, Judges of the General Court. William Vol. II-11

Barton declined, and George Turner was appointed in his stead. Judge Parsons died shortly after, and General Rufus Putnam was appointed in his place.

While affairs were thus progressing at Marietta, active steps were being taken in the Miami Purchase. On the 24th of December, 1788, Israel Ludlow, Matthias Denman, Robert Patterson, Joel Williams and twenty-three other men left Limestone, and on the 28th of December, amid floating ice that filled the Ohio from shore to shore, landed at Losantiville, now Cincinnati. This party proceeded at once to lay out, survey and make a plat of the new town. By the close of the year eleven families and twenty-four unmarried men were residents. On the 9th of August. Captain Strong, with Lieutenant Kingsbury and Ensign Hartshorn and a company of seventy men left Marietta, and on the 11th Captain Ferguson and Major Doughty followed, for the purpose of clearing ground and laying out a new fort for the protection of the settlers in Symmes' Purchase. After reconnoitering for three days from the Little to the Big Miami for an eligible site, he at length fixed on that opposite the mouth of the Licking river, which he represented as high and healthy, abounding with neverfailing springs, and the most proper position he could find. On the 26th of September, 1789, he began the building of Fort Washington, in Cincinnati on the square bounded by Third and Fourth and Broadway and Ludlow street, on a reservation of fifteen acres made by the government. On the 24th of December, 1789, General Harmar left Fort Harmar with a small fleet of boats and three hundred men, and on the 28th landed at, and took command of, Fort Washington. Major Doughty returned to the command of Fort Harmar, and thenceforth for a number of years Fort Washington was the headquarters of the United States army in the West.

In this settlement, as well as at Marietta, was felt the necessity of religious services and educational privileges. On the twenty-fourth of January, 1790, the Baptist Church

was organized at Columbia, with Rev. Stephen Gano as pastor, and shortly after an academy, with John Reilly as teacher; and in 1791 Rev. James Kemper was installed as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Cincinnati, and a church erected in 1792, on the corner of Fourth and Main, where the present church stands, and on the same lot the Cincinnati College Building.

On the second of January, 1790, Governor St. Clair arrived at Cincinnati and organized the County of Hamilton, and changed the name of the town from Losantiville to Cincinnati, after that of the society organized by the officers of the Revolutionary army, of which he was a prominent member. William Goforth, William Wells, and William McMillan were appointed Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, I. Brown, Sheriff, and Israel Ludlow, Prothonotary or Clerk, and officers of the militia were appointed. As at Marietta before Governor St. Clair arrived, the people had been governed by laws of their own making, with Israel Ludlow appointed by them as Sheriff to execute them. But after the Governor arrived Courts began to sit regularly, and the community came easily under the forces of law and order. A celebration was held on the fourth of July, with a salute of thirteen guns and a military parade. The original settlers of Cincinnati were like those of Marietta, mostly composed of officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary

war.

But now the depredations of the Indians became more frequent and alarming No settlement was safe from attack by day or night. The Indians threw off all restraints of tactics, and seemed bent on annihilating every settlement with the torch, tomahawk, and scalping-knife. It was then determined that General Harmar should march to the Indian towns at the head of the Miami of the Lakes, and inflict such chastisement upon them as would protect from further depredations. His command consisted of 320 regular troops from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and 1,133 drafted militia from Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

He proceeded on his toilsome journey through the wilderness and the great swamp, and on the 30th of September, 1790, arrived at the Indian towns on the Maumee, and in the neighborhood of Fort Wayne, Ind., and, after destroying a number of them and laying waste their corn-fields, he was attacked at different points by large bodies of Indians, and, after suffering great loss of men, was compelled to retreat with the remnant of his forces to Fort Washington, which he left shortly after for Philadelphia, being succeeded in command by General St. Clair. Repeated attempts were made after this to induce the Indians to cease their depredations, but in vain, and the situation at every point became more alarming. General Putnam, writing to the President, January 2, 1791, reported an attack on Big Bottom, forty miles up the river, in which eleven men, one woman and two children were killed, three men missing and six escaped. "Thus," he says, "the war which was partial before the campaign of last year is in all probability become general. Our situation is truly critical. *** Several settlements are broken up *** and unless Government speedily send a body of troops for our protection we are a ruined people."

Similar complaints and appeals were made by Judge Symmes and others. The government became aroused to a true appreciation of the real danger and determined to take the most active measures. From the high character of General St. Clair in the army, Washington appointed him Major-General of all the troops to be employed on the frontier, and he was directed to proceed to the Indian country and attempt to establish a just and liberal peace with all the Indian tribes; but, if all lenient means failed, to use such coercive measures as he should possess. Under these orders he proceeded to organize his army at Ludlow Station, now in the northern part of Cincinnati, and on the , 17th of September, 1792, with 2,300 men, exclusive of militia, he moved forward twenty-five miles to the Great Miami river and erected Fort Hamilton on the site of the