the Shenango, forming the Beaver river. "Mohoning lay on the frontier;* as they [the Delawares] had evacuated all their towns to the north of it when the war commenced. Shortly after the commence. ment of the war, they plundered a tanyard near Pittsburgh, and carried away several horse-loads of leather; they also committed several depredations along the Juniata; it happened to be at a time when the small-pox was in the settlement where they were murdering; the consequence was, a number of them got infected, and some died before they got home, others shortly after. Those who took them [it] after their return were immediately moved out of the town and put under the care of one who had had the disease before. In one of their excursions they took some prisoners amongst them was one of the name of Beaty, whom they beat unmerci fully when they took him to Mohoning. They set him to making bridles for them (that is, to fill old bitts), of the leather they took from Pittsburgh. He appeared very cross; he would often run at the little fellows with his knife or awls when they came to look at him where he was at work. However, they [the Indians] soon took him off to Cay-a-haw ge [Cuyahoga], a town not far distant from Lake Erie." *The Delaware Indian town of Mahoning (or "Mohoning," as McCullough calls it) is indicated on Hutchins' map of Bouquet's expedition. It is evident that the village was within what are now the limits of Trumbull or Mahoning county, Ohioprobably the last mentioned.

"We remained," continues McCullough, "in Mohoning till shortly after the memorable battle of Bushy Run. We then moved to Cay-a-haw-ge. moved to Cay-a-haw-ge. The day before we got there they [the Indians] began to be alarmed at Beaty's behavior. They held a council and agreed to kill him lest he should take some of their lives. They led him about fifty or sixty perches out of the town, some walking before and some behind him. They then shot him with arrows! I went out the evening after we got there, along with some little fellows to see him. He was a very disagreeable sight to behold. They had shot a great number of arrows into his body, then went off and left him exposed to the vermin!"

Before the middle of November, 1763, the siege of Detroit was practically raised, and Pontiac with some of his chiefs and with his chosen warriors retired to the Maumee river, within what is now the state of Ohio. There, during the winter, he nursed his wrath. He had learned from a letter written by the French commandant at Fort Chartres, in the Illinois, that the Indians must not expect assistance from the latter or any of his countrymen. The proud and haughty chief, however, resolved that he would renew hostilities with the coming in of spring. But the resolution he did not keep; his power as a savage chieftain was rapidly approaching its end.

CONSUL WILLshire Butterfield.

THE legislature of Ohio of 1837-38 held its regular annual session during the first year of the Presidency of Martin Van Buren. Its session commenced December 4, 1837, and ended March 19, 1838. It was held at a time of general pecuniary embarrassment and of great excitement among the people on the currency question. The public mind was in a constantly agitated, unsettled condition by reason of the very general, indeed the almost universal suspension of specie payments by the banks during the preceding month of May.

The "pet banks," as those were derisively called which were known as the fiscal agents of the government, "went under" in the general crash, and closed their doors, as well as those that had not attained the position of government favorites.

There was substantially no redemption of their issues by the banks with specie at this time, and as there was virtu ally next to no metallic currency paid out by the banks in redemption of their notes, there could of course be little or no gold and silver currency in circulation.

Irredeemable paper money, issued by banks in a state of suspension, and an unauthorized "shin-plaster," "red-dog" or "wild cat" currency issued by irresponsible individuals, firms, companies, corporations and towns, constituted nearly the entire currency circulating among the people at this time. No wonder then that in such circumstances and in the midst of

such surroundings the currency question should be the all-absorbing one, not only among the politicians, but also among the masses generally. It was a time of agitation, of restlessness, and all classes and conditions of people shared in the allpervading excitement of the times, because all felt that they had interests to be affected by the anomalous nature and condition of our currency, the precariousness of the existing condition of things, and the uncertainties overhanging the financial outcome.

The general, the almost universal suspension of specie payments by the banking institutions of the United States, especially by the fiscal agents, those which were collecting and disbursing the revenues of the National government, was a severe blow to the Van Buren administration. It was felt to be all the severer because it came so soon after the close of President Jackson's second Presidential term, and so soon after Van Buren's inauguration. Indeed, it was not only a great blow to the Van Buren party, but to all parties, and to all sections of the country and to all classes of people everywhere, east and west, north and south.

It has always been a well-known matter that President Van Buren was not a man of the stateliness, the stamina, the power, the massiveness and strength of character, the force of will, the overpowering influence with the people, or had any near approach to the popularity with the masses

Indeed, few men identified with American history or with the Presidential office have ever been as liberally endowed with noble, courageous qualities and manly characteristics, or enjoyed to an equal extent the confidence of the American people, or the power to control them, as he of the Hermitage-the hero of New Orleans.

At the preceding Presidential election (in 1836) President Van Buren had received a bare majority of the popular vote, nearly as many being cast against him as in his favor. Personally he was not a man of remarkable strength with the people not a man of popular qualities, not the kind of man to attract others to him or to whom they would be apt to cling warmly. Van Buren was not like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, nor had he the attractive qualities of James A. Garfield.

From various causes Mr. Van Buren had encountered a large amount of popular odium during his long and successful career as a public man, especially during the recent Presidential election contest. He had been United States senator, governor of New York, secretary of state, minister to England, vice-president of the United States, and had just reached the highest position known to our Constitution, but the reputation of a somewhat selfish politician clung to him. Men were disposed to ascribe sinister motives to him, and he never succeeded to high positions after his election in 1836. In 1840 he was defeated by a large majority for

1844 he failed of a nomination, being defeated by Colonel James K. Polk of Tennessee, and in 1848 he accepted the FreeSoil nomination for President, but received no electoral votes.

Soon after the general suspension of the banking institutions of our country, in 1837, President Van Buren issued a proclamation calling an extra session of congress, which convened on the fifth of September. He had addressed to that body an elaborate message in which he strongly recommended the enactment of a law commonly known as the "subtreasury law," which was to serve as the remedy to meet the crisis resulting from general suspension of specie payments by the banks, in the month of May of said year. That measure, as suggested to congress, required payments to be made in specie of all indebtedness to the general government, dispensed with all nonspecie-paying banks as fiscal agents of the government, and required that duty to be performed by a principal sub-treasurer and local sub-treasurers.

The recommendations of the President were not approved by congress in special session, or at least were not enacted into a law, though elaborately discussed, but were given the "go by" at the extra session, a motion to lay on the table prevailing, and the whole subject "going over" to the regular session by an adjournment of congress until the first Monday of the ensuing December.

The people of Ohio did not vote in approval of the sub-treasury measure, as recommended by President Van Buren, at their election in October, 1837, hence

Samuel Treat.. James Cook..

Jackson. ...Sandusky and Seneca Shelby, Allen, Hardin, Putnam, Paulding and Van Wert. Matthew Johnson and Jacob Hostetter........Stark John C. Woodruff and Tracy Bronson....Trumbull George N. Allen..

Anthony H. Dunlevy. Walter Curtis..

.Tuscarawas

Warren Washington William Peppard.. Wayne Parley Carlin.. Wood, Lucas, Henry, Hancock and Williams.

In view of the commercial embarrassments of the country caused by the bank failures and depreciation of our paper currency, the standing committees in both branches of the Ohio legislature on finance and the judiciary, and the select committees on banks and the currency, fifty years ago, were altogether the most important in that body, inasmuch as legal, financial and currency questions and measures would be referred to them for consideration; hence it was that the ablest men in both the senate and the house were placed upon them. Thus were the talents of the Kelleys, the Medills, Col. lings, Dunlevys, Farans, Parishes, the Fords, Chambers, Footes, Thrustons, the Hubbards, of the house of representatives, utilized, as were also the talents of the Stokelys, Wades, Greens, the Smiths, the Starkweathers, the McLaughlins and others of the senate.

Common school education and benevolent institutions also commanded at this session an unusual amount of attention and legislation, the distinguishing feature given to the school law being the provision

Thomas Morris and William Allen were the members of the United States senate from Ohio fifty years ago. The last named gentleman remained in the senate until 1849, and the first named was succeeded by Benjamin Tappan in 1839. Mr. Allen was a special champion of the "subtreasury," or, as it was sometimes called, the "Independent Treasury bill" of President Van Buren, which was the principal measure of his administration. That measure, as I have stated, failed of adoption at the extra session of 1837, but was renewed at the regular session of said year, and repeatedly recommended in his annual messages until and including that addressed to congress in December, 1839, and became a law June 30, 1840. The Ohio senators, first Thomas Morris and last Benjamin Tappan, voted with William Allen in support of the Independent Treasury bill from beginning to end-from 1837 to 1840.

Ohio was represented in the popular branch of congress while the sub-treasury measure was under consideration in that body, in 1837-38, by Alexander Duncan, Taylor Webster, Patrick G. Goode, Thomas Corwin, Thomas L. Hamer, Calvary Morris, William Key Bond, Joseph Ridgway, John Chaney, Samson Mason, James Alexander, jr., Alexander Harper, Daniel P. Leadbetter, William H. Hunter, John W. Allen, Elisha Whittlesey, Joshua R. Giddings, Andrew W. Loomis, Charles