Читать книгу The Ohio River Trade, 1788-1830 - Hazel Yearsley Shaw - Страница 5

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One of the greatest hindrances to the early settlement of the western territory was the continued hostility of the Indian tribes living in that portion of the country. The two leading causes of disquiet among the western people during the years 1787-1788 were due to this cause, and to the Spanish possession of the Mississippi.[125] At Fort Harmar, January 9, 1789, one treaty was made with the Iroquois, confirming the previous one of October 22, 1784, at Fort Stanwix,[126] and another with the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, and Sacs, confirming and extending the treaty of Fort McIntosh, made in January 21, 1785.[127]

These treaties were not respected, and the year 1790 saw the old frontier troubles renewed. The Wabash Indians, especially, who had not been bound by any treaty as yet, kept up incursions against the Kentucky settlers, and the emigrants down the Ohio.[128] Three boats descending the Ohio River in March, 1790 were attacked by twenty-two Indians, above the Falls, and twenty-six horses, merchandise valued at from twelve to fifteen pounds, and several saddlebags containing cash were lost by being left in the two abandoned boats.[129] "The pioneers who descended the Ohio on their way westward, will remember while they live, the lofty rock standing a short distance above the mouth of the Scioto, on the Virginia shore, which was occupied for years by the savages, as a favorite watch-tower, from which boats ascending and descending, could be discovered at a great distance. The murders and depredations committed in that vicinity at all periods of the war were so shocking as to attract universal notice, and letters were written to General Harmar, from various quarters, calling his attention to the subject. They informed him that scarcely a boat passed the rocks without being attacked, and in most instances captured; and that unless something were done without delay, the navigation of the river would necessarily be abandoned."[130] September 19, 1790 Governor St. Clair notified the War Department that the depredations continued on the Ohio and Wabash; that nearly every day brought an account of some new robbery or murder; and that shortly before this, a boat belonging to Colonel Vigo of Post Vincennes, was fired upon near the mouth of Blue River, and three men killed, and later, in attempting to ascend the Wabash, the boats were attacked and the crew's personal baggage and arms stolen. As the boat was navigated by Frenchmen, the Indians suffered them to depart with the peltries.[131] Pope, in 1791, speaks of being frequently alarmed at the hostile appearance of Indians onboth sides of the Ohio, who suspecting that the number of white men was greater than their own, were deterred from attacking them.[132]

The savages who assailed the new settlements in the West, resided chiefly on the northwest side of the Ohio River. The British government, alarmed at the advance of the United States westward, had established agencies among them for the sole purpose of keeping alive their hatred against the American people.[133] The frequent, predatory movements of the savages, following in such rapid succession, produced universal alarm throughout the country, and the sttlers began to think that they would be obliged to abandon it.[134] The glorious campaign of General Wayne with his defeat of the western savages at the Battle of the Miami, 1794, put an end to this warfare.[135] The Treaty of Greenville,[136] signed by the various Indian nations, on August 3, 1795, and ratified by the Senate on December 22, closed the old Indian Wars of the West. In 1796, after some delay, the British government surrendered the northern posts,[137] thus removing the danger from that quarter.

On July 13, 1787 the Ordinance of 1787 was passed;[138] which because of its wise provisions and liberal terms, may be considered as one of the most important documentsin our history. The whole territory lying north and west of the Ohio, extending to the Mississippi, and to the northern lakes, was comprehended within one district, for temporary government. The act contained a provision for the creation of not less than three, nor more than five States, each State to have at least 60,000 free population.[139] The prohibition of slavery probably aided in attracting settlers to this region The fourth article provided that "thenavigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territories, as to the citizens of the United States, and those of other States that may be admitted to the Confederacy without any tax, import, or duty therefor."[140]

In the year 1787, the Ohio Company purchased 1,500,000 acres of land from Congress. The total price agreed upon was nearly three and a half million dollars, but the payment was made in public securities worth only about twelve cents on the dollar.[141] Joel Barlow was sent to Europe to sell the lands, and a subordinate association, called the Scioto Company, was formed to aid him. Mr. Barlow made considerable sales to individuals and companies in France, and many emigrants came to this country, who would have been ruined by the bad faith of the Company, had not the government generously interfered in their behalf.[142] From 1790-1795 the Ohio Company expended more than $11,000 in defending their settlements, which was never repaid them by the United States.[143] J. C. Symmes of New Jersey in 1787, entered into a contract with Congress for the purchase of a million acres between the two Miami Rivers. He finally paid for about one third of it, for which he received a patent.[144]

The early adventurers to the Northwest Territory were men who had spent the prime of their lives in the War of Independence. Many of them had exhausted their fortunes in maintaining the desperate struggle, and retired to the wilderness to conceal their poverty.

Some of them were young men, descended from revolutionary patriots. Others were adverturous spirits to whom any change might be for the better.[145]

The emigration westward, even in 1788, was very great, the commandant at Fort Harmar reporting forty-five hundred persons having passed that post between February and June of that year.[146] Emigrants were constantly passing down the Ohio for Kentucky in 1789.[147] Prior to the year 1795, the east side of the river, for about ten or twenty miles below Wheeling was generally well settled. There were few settlements on the opposite shore until the Muskingum River was reached, and from here to Limestone, "except at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway," the country on both sides of the river was a wilderness.[148] "Till the years 1796-1797 the banks of the Ohio were so little populated that they scarcely consisted of thirty families in a space of four hundred miles."[149]

From the time of the Treaty of Greenville the inhabitants in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and the adjoining States, had gone on increasing with astonishing rapidity, and swarms were pressing forward from the new settlements even beyond the Mississippi.[150] The emigrants from the Eastern States, established themselves in general on the Ohio. The emigrants from Jersey and Maryland spread themselves on both sides of the river, as they descended the Ohio, but during the years, 1793-1796, it was observed that they settled rather on the right than the left, particularly on both the Miamis, the Muskingum, the Great and Little Sciotos, and the Wabash.[151] During this time the population of Kentucky did not increase much, owing to the dearness of land, and the uncertainty of tenures, which led the emigrants to prefer the Northwest Territory, where the land was equally good, and the titles indisputable.[152] Emigrants from Virginia and North Carolina went into Kentucky, and those from the Carolinas and Georgia settled in Tennessee.[153] Before the close of the year 1796, the white population of the Northwest had increased to about five thousand, chiefly distributed in the lower valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami Rivers, and on their small tributaries, within fifty miles of the Ohio River.[154]

By an act of May 7, 1800, the Northwest Territory was divided into two parts and placed under separate territorial governments; the western division was called Indiana.[155] The population was divided into three settlements, which were widely separated. One of these was at the Falls of the Ohio opposite Louisville; another at Vincennes, and distant from the first more than one h hundred miles; and the other comprised the French population in the tract extending from Kaskaskia to Cahokia, on the Mississippi, two hundred miles from Vincennes[156], Illinois from 1800 to 1809, made a part of the Indiana Territory, and was, during that period, under the laws and jurisdiction of that Territory. February 3, 1809, the Territory of Illinois was established by an Act of Congress.[157] April 30, 1802, Congress passed the Enabling Act[158] for the formation of the State of Ohio, and on February 19, 1803, passed an "act to provide for the execution of the laws of the United States within the State of Ohio."[159]