platting the town of Clarksville, at the falls of the Ohio. The act stipulated that the lots, consisting of half an acre each, should be sold at public auction to the highest bidder, and that purchasers were to hold their lots subject to the conditions of building on them within three years from the day of sale.

In the spring of 1784, after the deed of cession* had been accepted by Congress, the subject of the future government of the territory was referred to a committee consisting of Messrs. Jefferson of Virginia, Chase of Maryland, and Howell of Rhode Island. The committee reported an ordinance for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio, which, among other things, declared, that neither slavery nor involun

That the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into States, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than one hundred, nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square; or as near thereto as circumstances will admit; and that the States so formed shall be distinct republican States, and admitted members of the Federal Union; having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other States. That the necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by Virginia in subduing any British posts, or in maintaining forts and garrisons within, and for the defense, or in acquiring any part of, the territory so ceded or relinquished. shall be fully reimbursed by the United States. That the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskia, Post Vincennes, and the neighboring villages, who have professed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their possessions and titles confirmed to them, and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties. That a quantity not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, promised by Virginia, shall be allowed and granted to the then Colonel, now General George Rogers Clark, and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment, who marched with him when the posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes were reduced, and to the officers and soldiers that have been since incorporated into the said regiment, to be laid off in one tract, the length of which not to exceed double the breadth,

in such place on the northwest side of the Ohio as a majority of the officers shall choose, and to be afterward divided among the officers and soldiers in due proportion, according to the laws of Virginia. That in case the quantity of good lands on the southeast side of the Ohio, upon the waters of Cumberland river, and between the Green river and Tennessee river, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia troops upon continental establishment, should, from the North Carolina line, bearing in further upon the Cumberland lands than was expected, prove insufficient for their legal bounties, the deficiency shall be made up to the said troops, in good lands, to be laid off between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami, on the northwest side of the river Ohio, in such proportions as have been engaged to them by the laws of Virginia. That all the lands within the territory so ceded to United States, and not reserved for, of appropriated to any of the before mentioned purposes, or disposed of in boun tics to the officers and soldiers of th American army, shall be 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 whatsoever.

tary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of criminals, should exist in the territory after the year 1800. This article of the ordinance was rejected, but an ordinance for the temporary government of the county was adopted, and, in the following year, laws were passed by Congress for disposing of lands in the western territory, and for prohibiting the settlement of unappropriated lands by reckless speculators.

CHAPTER VI.

FRO

EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND LAND GRANTS.

ROM this date, 1784 to 1787, when the northwestern territory was organized, we have but little to record in the history of Indiana. Land speculation in Ohio, and on the borders of the Ohio and Wabash rivers, was exciting considerable attention, and large associations, representing considerable means, were formed for the purpose of monopolizing the trade in land. Tracts of millions of acres were sold at one time by Congress to associations on the installment plan, and so far as the Indian titles could be extinguished, the work of settling and improving the lands was pushed rapidly forward. The passage of the "ordinance of 1787," created the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio, which of course included the whole of the territory now embraced in the State of Indiana. On the fifth of October, of the same year, Major General Arthur St. Clair was elected by Congress Governor of the territory. He was instructed, on entering upon the duties of the office, to ascertain the real temper of the Indians and do all in his power to remove the causes for controversy between them and the United States, and to effect the extinguishment of Indian titles to all the land possible. The Governor took up quarters in the new settlement of Marietta, Ohio, where he immediately began the organization of the

government of the territory. The first session of the general court of the new territory was held at that place in 1788. The judges were Samuel H. Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, and John Cleves Symmes. Under the ordinance, Governor St. Clair was president of the court.

After the session of the general court at Marietta was concluded, and the necessary laws for the government of the territory passed, Governor St. Clair, accompanied by the Judges, visited Kaskaskia for the purpose of organizing a civil government there. Meanwhile full instructions had been sent to Major Hamtramck, commandant at Vincennes, requiring him

to ascertain the exact feeling and temper of the Indian tribes of the Wabash. These instructions were accompanied by speeches to each of the tribes. On the fifth of April, 1790, a Frenchman named Antoine Gamelin, was dispatched from Vincennes with these speeches. He visited nearly all the tribes on the Wabash, St. Joseph and St. Marys rivers, but was coldly received, most of the chiefs being dissatisfied with the policy of the Americans toward them, and prejudiced through English misrepresentation. Full accounts of his adventures among the tribes reached Governor St. Clair at Kaskaskia in June, 1790. Being satisfied that there was no prospect of effecting a general peace with the Indians of Indiana, he resolved to visit General Harmer at his headquarters at Fort Washington, and there to consult with that officer upon the means of carrying an expedition against the hostile Indians. Before leaving Kaskaskia, however, St. Clair intrusted the Secretary of the territory, Winthrop Sargent, with the execution of the resolutions of Congress regarding the lands and settlers on the Wabash. He directed that officer to proceed to Vincennes, lay out a county there, establish the militia, and appoint the necessary civil and military officers. Mr. Sargent at once proceeded to Vincennes, where he organized the camp of Knox, appointed the necessary civil and military officers, and notified the inhabitants to present their claims to lands. In establishing these claims the settlers found great difficulty, and regarding it, the secretary in his report to the President remarked:

"Although the lands and lots which were awarded to the inhabitants, appeared, from very good oral testimony, to belong to those persons to whom they were awarded, either by original grants, purchase, or inheritance, yet there was scarcely one case in twenty where the title was complete, owing to the desultory manner in which public business had been transacted, and some other unfortunate causes. The original concessions by the French and British commandants were generally made upon a small scrap of paper, which it has been customary to lodge in the notary's office, who has seldom kept any book of record, but committed the most important

land concerns to loose sheets, which, in process of time, have come into possession of persons that have fraudulently destroyed them, or, unacquainted with their consequence, innocently lost or trifled them away; for by the French usage they are considered as family inheritances, and often descend to women and children. In one instance, and during the government of Mr. St. Ange here, a royal notary ran off with all the public papers in his possession, as by a certificate produced to me. And I am very sorry further to observe that in the office of Mr. Le Grand, which continued from the year 1777 to 1787, and where should have been the vouchers for important land transactions, the records have been so falsified, and there is such gross fraud in forgery as to invalidate all evidence and information which I might otherwise have acquired from his papers."

Winthrop Sargent informs us that there were about one hundred and fifty French families at Vincennes in 1790. The heads of these families had all been at some time vested with certain titles to a portion of the soil, and while the Secretary was busily engaged endeavoring to straighten out these claims, he received a petition signed by eighty Americans, praying for the confirmation of the grants of lands ceded by the court which had been organized by Colonel John Todd, under the authority of Virginia, to which reference has already been made.

This case was met in the action of Congress on the third of March, 1791, empowering the Governor of the territory, in cases where land had been actually improved and cultivated under a supposed grant for the same, to confirm to the persons who made such improvements, the lands supposed to have been granted, not, however, exceeding the quantity of four hundred acres to any one person.

In the summer of 1790, a session of the general court was held at Vincennes, acting Governor Sargent presiding, when the following laws were adopted:

I. An act to prohibit the giving or selling intoxicating

* Mr. Sargent acted in the capacity of Governor at the request of St. Clair, who, during the time, was busily engaged with military affairs.