A New History of the United States / The greater republic, embracing the growth and achievements of our country from the earliest days of discovery and settlement to the present eventful year

by Charles Morris

Congress remained in session in New York, while the Philadelphia convention was at work upon the Constitution, and during that period organized a territorial government for the immense region northwest of the Ohio, which belonged to the United States. The enterprising nature of the American people asserted itself, and hundreds of emigrants began making their way into that fertile section, where the best of land could be had for the asking. But the Indians were fierce and warred continually against the settlers. Most of these had been soldiers in the Revolution, and they generally united for mutual protection. The Ohio Company was formed in 1787, and, in order to assist it, Congress passed the Ordinance of 1787, of which mention has been made.

Slavery was forever forbidden in the Territory northwest of the Ohio, and the inhabitants were guaranteed full religious freedom, trial by jury, and equal political and civil privileges. The governors of the Territory were to be appointed by Congress until the population was sufficient to permit the organization of five separate States, which States should be the equal in every respect of the original thirteen. From the Territory named the powerful and prosperous States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin were afterward formed.

SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST.

The Indian titles to 17,000,000 acres of land in the Territory had been extinguished by treaties with the leading tribes, despite which the red men contested the advancing settlers with untiring ferocity. Flatboats were attacked on their way down the Ohio, and the families massacred; blockhouses were assailed, and the smoke of the settlers' burning cabins lit the skies at night. The pioneer path to the fertile region was crimsoned by the blood of those who hewed their way through the western wilderness.

Until formed into States, the region was known as The Northwestern Territory. In 1788, Rufus Putnam, of Massachusetts, at the head of forty pioneers, founded the settlement of Marietta, and within the same year 20,000 people erected their homes in the region that had been visited by Daniel Boone and others nearly twenty years before.

No sooner had the ninth State ratified the Constitution than the Congress of the Confederation named March 4, 1789, as the day on which, in the city of New York, the new government should go into effect.

The time had come for the selection of the first President of the United States, and it need not be said that the name of only one man—Washington—was in people's thoughts. So overmastering was the personality of that great man that he was the only one mentioned, and what is most significant of all, not a politician or leader in the country had the effrontery to hint that he had placed himself "in the hands of his friends" in the race for the presidency. Had he done so, he would have been buffeted into eternal obscurity.

Whatever may be said of the ingratitude of republics, it can never be charged that the United States was ungrateful to Washington. The people appreciated his worth from the first, and there was no honor they would not have gladly paid him.

THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

The date of the 4th of March was fixed without special reason for launching the new government, and it has been the rule ever since, though it often falls upon the most stormy and unpleasant day of the whole year. Some of the States were so slow in sending their representatives to New York, that more than a month passed before a quorum of both houses appeared. When the electoral vote for the President was counted, it was found that every one of the sixty-nine had been cast for Washington. The law was that the person receiving the next highest number became Vice-President. This vote was: John Adams, of Massachusetts, 34; John Jay, of New York, 9; R.H. Harrison, of Maryland, 6; John Rutledge, of South Carolina, 6; John Hancock, of Massachusetts, 4; George Clinton, of New York, 3; Samuel Huntington, of Connecticut, 2; John Milton, of Georgia, 2; James Armstrong, of Georgia, Benjamin Lincoln, of Massachusetts, and Edward Telfair, of Georgia, 1 vote each. Vacancies (votes not cast).