Rapid Growth of the West.

The growth of the West was very rapid in the years immediately succeeding the peace with the Indians and the treaties with England and Spain.  As the settlers poured into what had been the Indian-haunted wilderness it speedily became necessary to cut it into political divisions.  Kentucky had already been admitted as a State in 1792; Tennessee likewise became a State in 1796.  The Territory of Mississippi was organized in 1798, to include the country west of Georgia and south of Tennessee, which had been ceded by the Spaniards under Pinckney’s treaty. [Footnote:  Claiborne’s “Mississippi,” p. 220, etc.] In 1800 the Connecticut Reserve, in what is now northeastern Ohio, was taken by the United States.  The Northwestern Territory was divided into two parts; the eastern was composed mainly of what is now the State of Ohio, while the western portion was called Indiana Territory, and was organized with W. H. Harrison as Governor, his capital being at Vincennes. [Footnote:  “Annals of the West,” by Thomas H. Perkins, p. 473.  A valuable book, showing much scholarship and research.  The author has never received proper credit.  Very few indeed of the Western historians of his date showed either his painstaking care or his breadth of view.] Harrison had been Wayne’s aid-de-camp at the fight of the Fallen Timbers, and had been singled out by Wayne for mention because of his coolness and gallantry.  Afterwards he had succeeded Sargent as Secretary of the Northwestern Territory when Sargent had been made Governor of Mississippi, and he had gone as a Territorial delegate to Congress. [Footnote:  Jacob Burnett in “Ohio Historical Transactions,” Part II., Vol.  I., p. 69.]

    Ohio Becomes a State.

In 1802 Ohio was admitted as a State.  St. Clair, and St. Clair’s supporters, struggled to keep the Territory from statehood, and proposed to cut it down in size, nominally because they deemed the extent of territory too great for governmental purposes, but really, doubtless, because they distrusted the people, and did not wish to see them take the government into their own hands.  The effort failed, however, and the State was admitted by Congress, beginning its existence in 1803. [Footnote:  Atwater, “History of Ohio,” p. 169.] Congress made the proviso that the State Constitution should accord with the Constitution of the United States, and should embody the doctrines contained in the Ordinance of 1787. [Footnote:  The question of the boundaries of the Northwestern States is well treated in “The Boundaries of Wisconsin,” by Reuben G. Thwaites, the Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.] The rapid settlement of southeastern Ohio was hindered by the fact that the speculative land companies, the Ohio and Scioto associations, held great tracts of territory which the pioneers passed by in their desire to get to lands which they could acquire in their own right.  This was one of the many bad effects which resulted from the Government’s policy of disposing of its land in large blocks to the highest bidder, instead of allotting it, as has since been done, in quarter sections to actual settlers. [Footnote:  Mr. Eli Thayer, in his various writings, has rightly laid especial stress on this point.]