474 YAZOO LAND COMPANIES. actually possessed. Nevertheless she ceded to Virginia the claims she could not make good, leaving that State to carry on the dispute with the National government. In 1788 Georgia offered that land to the government, but Congress rejected the offer, claiming that its southern portion (whose northern limit was the parallel of latitude of the point at which the Yazoo entered the Mississippi, extending from this river to the Chattahoochee) had belonged to West Florida, and therefore, under the treaty of 1783 with Great Britain, belonged to the Nation and not to the particular State which happened to be contiguous to it. Georgia persisted in her claim, however, and in 1789 sold 13,500,000 acres of land beyond the Chattahoochee to the Georgia Yazoo Company, the South Carolina Yazoo Company, and the Tennessee Yazoo Company for $200,000; but as the money tendered in payment was in depreciated Georgia notes, the sale was subsequently cancelled. Much of the land had been sold by the State to New England speculators, who, to develop it, formed four Yazoo companies the Georgia, the Georgia Mississippi, the Upper Mississippi, and the Tennessee. On January 7, 1795, these companies, by uncertain methods, induced the Georgia legislature to sell them 35,000,000 acres for $500,000, giving the legislators some of the land for their votes.* This transac *The act is in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i., pp. 552–555. tion soon came to light, and the people indignantly denounced the unscrupulous members. So thoroughly aroused was public feeling that on February 13, 1796, the Legislature revoked the sale of the land and publicly burned the deed.* Meanwhile a large part of the southern portion of this land had been seized by the Spanish government, which would not evacuate it, although the treaty of 1796 had ceded it to America. On various pretenses, the Spanish governor at Natchez interposed vexatious delays,† and sorely tried the patience of Colonel Ellicott, the United States commissioner for arranging the boundary line between the Spanish and American territories. Not before March 29, 1798, was Natchez evacuated by the Spaniards, and the evacuation was carried out so secretly that it was only by chance that Ellicott learned of it at all. Meanwhile Georgia had ceded to the United States the portion above mentioned, and Congress passed an act on April 7 erecting this tract of land into the Mississippi Territory.|| Its government was similar to that of *McMaster, vol. ii., pp. 479-480. See also, Roosevelt, Winning of the West, vol. iv., pp. 188192; Henry Adams, History of the United States, vol. i., pp. 302-304. See Roosevelt, Winning of the West, vol. iv., p. 208 et seq. Phelps, Louisiana, p. 174. || Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, p. 343. For text of act, see Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. iv., pp. 2625-2627. For the debate, see Annals of Congress, 5th Congress, 2d session, vol. ii., pp. 1249, 1277-1284, 1298-1312; Benton, Abridgment of Debates, vol. ii., pp. 217-224. MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY; PUBLIC LAND SALES. the Northwest Territory, but the Federalists were unable to secure the adoption of a clause excluding slavery from the territory. Winthrop Sargent was appointed governor of the new territory and, together with a number of immigrant families from the territory north of the Ohio arrived at Natchez in the following August.* By April, 1799, the organization of the territory was completed. Exclusive of slaves and Indians, there were at that time about 5,000 persons within its limits. In 1800, however, the population had so greatly increased, and there was so much dissatisfaction with the arbitrary measures of Governor Sargent and his council, that an act was passed (May 10, 1800) authorizing the establishment of the second class of territorial government at an earlier period than the population of the territory warranted under the provisions of the ordinance of July 13, 1787. A House of Representatives was thereupon elected and in December, after the members of the council had been reappointed, the general assembly assembly was organized for business. The 475 Georgia claims were settled also, it being stipulated that the State was to be paid out of the proceeds of the land sales in Mississippi Territory. On May 10, 1800, almost at the close of the session, Congress passed an act regarding the sale of public lands which laid the foundation of the land system. It provided that, before they were offered for sale, all the lands should be surveyed on a rigidly accurate plan at the government's expense. These surveys were founded upon a series of true meridians, the first in the present state of Ohio, the second in Indiana, the third in Illinois, linois, etc., " each forming the base. of a series of surveys, of which the lines are made to correspond, so that the whole country is at last divided into squares of one mile each, and townships of six miles each; and these subdivisions are distributed with mathematical accuracy into parallel ranges," by lines crossing each other at right angles due north and south, and east and west, "excepting when they are formed by an Indian boundary line, or the course of a stream." This act was amended by the Senate so that one-half was to be sold in sections, containing a square mile each, or six hundred forty acres each, and the other half in half sections, or three hundred twenty acres each. "The old system of forfeiture for non-payment was abolished, and payment was to be made, one-fourth in hand, and the balance at the end of two, three, and four years; allowing 476 THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. the purchaser one year after the fourth payment became due, to collect the money, and in case it should not be paid for in that time, the land to be sold, the public reimbursed, and the balance of its produce handed over to the delinquent purchaser." Offices for the sale of land were opened at Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Marietta and Steubenville. The sales effected and the money received were regularly reported to Washington, whereupon the purchaser received from the government an original patent to the soil. Modifications to this act were afterward introduced, as will be noted later.* About the same time an act was passed which greatly affected the territory northwest of the River Ohio. After the Indian war had closed, the tide of prosperity began to set in. Farms began to be cleared and cultivated, mills were erected, roads opened, and bridges built, the territory receiving a large influx of immigrants from the Eastern and Middle States who had soon began to reap the fruits of well-directed industry. Hemp, flax, cotton, and silk were grown; spinning wheels and looms were introduced; and domestic manufactures made great advances.† The Connecticut Reserve had been transferred to the United States, and by the latter jurisdiction was vested in. the established territorial polity of the northwestern territory. The forts, which had so long withstood the onslaught of the savage, now fell into neglect and in time disappeared. Zanesville is described at this time as "a wilderness house of entertainment, near which were encamped a few white hunters, surrounded by Indian wigwams, occupied by the native savages, employed in hunting, fishing, trading and drinking," and Columbus had witnessed the erection of a. large number of substantial houses. Detroit was the centre of a cluster of settlements, and, with those on the Maumee and other streams, formed part of the northwestern territory. During the summer of 1798 a census was taken, which showed that there were more than 5,000 free white males in the territory. As this number of inhabitants entitled the people to the second class of territorial government, Governor St. Clair, on October 29, 1798, issued a proclamation for the election of representatives to serve as a lower house. Of the twentytwo representatives elected, sixteen were from Ohio, three from Michigan, two from Illinois, and one from Indiana.* Monette says: "Those elected to serve in this legislature were such as are not excelled in point of talent by the members of any legislative * Dunn, Indiana, p. 274; King, Ohio, p. 269; Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, pp. 295–296. OHIO AND INDIANA. body in the United States, even at this late day." Representatives were required to be citizens of the territory for three years previous, actual residents or past residents for three years in the districts selecting them, and to be possessed in their own right of a fee simple of 200 acres of land in it. For the right to vote, it was necessary that the citizens possess 50 acres of land and that they should have been citizens and residents of their districts for at least two years. In January of 1799 this House of Representatives met at Cincinnati and elected two persons, who, together with the five appointed by the President, were to form the governor's council. This done, the meet. ing of the House was adjourned until the following September.* We have previously mentioned the efforts made by William Henry Harrison, who had been elected by the territorial legislature in October of 1799 the first delegate from the territory to Congress,t to induce Congress to fix upon a systematic plan for the sale of unoccupied lands. On May 7, 1800, an act of Congress was approved by which the western part of the territory was separated by a line due north from the confluence of the Great Miami and the Ohio to its intersection of the parallel of latitude 477 passing through the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. Detroit was thus left to the old northwestern government,* but the territory from the Great Miami westward to the Mississippi and northwestward from the Ohio to the sources of the Mississippi and Lake Superior, was included in the newly organized territory, which was called Indiana Territory. Harrison was appointed first governor and superintendent of Indian affairs. † At that time there were scarcely more than 5,500 white people throughout the entire region, and the settlements were few and far between, consisting chiefly of Clark's grant at the source of the Ohio, the old French settlement at Vincennes on the Wabash, and one on the Mississippi, from Kaskaskia to Cahokia. The eastern section of the old northwest territory was then renamed the Territory of Ohio, part of which is now the State of Ohio.‡ *United States Statutes-at-Large, vol. ii., pp. 58; Cooley, Michigan, p. 133; Slocum, The Ohio Country, pp. 157-158. Montgomery, Life of Harrison, p. 69 et seq.; D. G. McCarty, Territorial Governors of the Old Northwest, p. 77; Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, The p. 297; Dunn, Indiana, pp. 282-283, 294. text of the act will be found in Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. ii., pp. 964–965; Annals of Congress, 6th Congress, 2d session, App., pp. 1498-1500. See also Gannett, Boundaries of the United States, p. 111 et seq.; Magazine of Western History (September, 1886), p. 618. For the debates in Congress, see Annals of Congress, 6th Congress, 1st session, pp. 583, 632, 649. this connection see also Farrand, The Legislation of Congress for the Government of the Organized Territories of the United States. King, Ohio, pp. 276-277. In Speculation in land — Domiciles — Diet — Prejudice against theatres, horse-racing, and cards — Recreations in the South-Social life in the North - Celebration of Washington's birthday - Social customs in the South Religious conditions - Educational progress Political life. In 1790, when the first census was taken, the total population of the country was 3,929,214, which by 1800 had increased to 5,308,483. About half of this number lived on both sides of the Potomac and fully one-fifth was black.* The increase in population during the decade had been due chiefly to the birth rate, for the independence of the United States had severed many of her closest bonds with European countries, and emigration had consequently been checked. Though many attempts had been made to attract emigrants to this country, it is estimated that the average annual influx of foreigners did not exceed 4,000, nor did it become considerable until after the War of 1812. About 95 per cent. of the inhabitants lived in the large cities of the Atlantic Coast. The largest State was Virginia, with a population of 747,610; then came Pennsylvania, with 434,373; and next North Carolina, with 393,751; Massa *Henry Adams, History of the United States, vol. i., p. 1. chusetts, with 378,787; New York, with 340,120; and Maryland, with 319,728. The largest cities were in the North. Philadelphia numbered 42,520 inhabitants in 1790 and 69,403 in 1800. It was a city of plain, sober, substantial homes, the wealthy merchants owning dwellings of brick, with white marble facings and foundations, ample dormers and doorways, easy staircases, and open chimneys. The streets of the city ran at right angles and had no curbstones, though trees had been set out at regular intervals and the pavements were dotted by posts to mark the boundaries. The frequent epidemics of yellow fever had created a high regard for sanitary precautions and cleanliness; the city was well paved and partly drained, was supplied with water in wooden pipes, and was the best lighted town in America. State House Square was the fashionable promenade and Spring Garden was a favorite place for flying kites. A Schuylkill aque |