СНАР. CHAPTER VI. THE COLONIAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. BEFORE the federal convention had referred its VI. resolutions to a committee of detail, an interlude in congress was shaping the character and destiny of the United States of America, Sublime and humane and eventful in the history of mankind as was the result, it will take not many words to tell how it was brought about. For a time wisdom and peace and justice dwelt among men, and the great ordinance, which could alone give continuance to the union, came in serenity and stillness. Every man that had a share in it seemed to be led by an invisible hand to do just what was wanted of him; all that was wrongfully undertaken fell to the ground to wither by the wayside; whatever was needed for the happy completion of the mighty work arrived opportunely, and just at the right moment moved into its place. By the order of congress a treaty was to be held in January, 1786, with the Shawnees, at the mouth of the Great Miami. Monroe, who had been present as a spectator at the meeting of the United States com VI. missioners with the representatives of the Six Na- CHAP. tions at Fort Stanwix, in 1784, desired to attend this meeting with a remoter tribe. He reached Fort Pitt, and with some of the American party began the descent of the Ohio; but, from the low state of the water, he abandoned the expedition at Limestone, and made his way to Richmond through Kentucky and the wilderness. As the result of his enquiries on the journey, he took with him to congress the opinion that a great part of the western territory, especially that near Lakes Michigan and Erie, was miserably poor; that the land on the Mississippi and the Illinois consisted of extensive plains which had not a single bush on them, and would not have for ages; that the western settlers, in many of the most important objects of a federal government, would be either opposed to the interests of the old states or but little connected with them. He disapproved the formation of more than five states in the territory; but he adhered to the principle of Jefferson, that they ought as soon as possible to take part in governing themselves, and at an early day share "the sovereignty, freedom, and independence" of the other states of the confederacy. In the course of the winter the subject of the division of the western territory into states was, on the motion of Monroe, referred to a grand committee. Its report, which was presented on the twenty-fourth of March, traced the division of the territory into ten states to the resolution of congress of September, 1780, by which no one was to contain less territory than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty VI. CHAP. miles square. This resolution had controlled the or dinance of April, 1784; and as the first step toward a reform, every part of that ordinance which conflicted with the power of congress to divide the territory into states according to its own discretion was to be repealed.1 In a further report it was found that Virginia had embodied the resolve of congress of September, 1780, into its cession of its claims to the land north-west of the Ohio. It, therefore, proposed that Virginia should be asked to revise its act of cession." At this stage of the proceedings Dane made a suc- Not one word was said of a This first report of the grand committee is found in Reports of Committees, Papers of Old Congress, xxx. 75, in the State Department, and is endorsed as having been "read 24th of March, 1780, to be considered Thursday, March 30th." 2 This second report of the grand committee is found likewise in vol. xxx. 79 and following, of Papers of Old Congress; but it has no endorsement as to the time when it was entered, read, or considered. 3 The day on which this motion was made is not given, nor is the motion entered in the Journal. It was probably in April. We get the fact from page 85 of vol. xxx. of the Papers of the Old Congress. VI. Monroe to lean for support on the minds and thoughts CHAP. of others. He loved to spread his sails to a favoring breeze, but in threatening weather preferred quiet under the shelter of his friends. When Jefferson, in 1784, moved a restriction on slavery in the western country from Florida to the Lake of the Woods, Monroe was ill enough to be out of the way at the division. When King in the following year revived the question, he was again absent at the vote; now, when the same subject challenged his attention, he was equally silent. At first Monroe flattered himself that his report was generally approved;' but no step was taken toward its adoption. All that was done lastingly for the West by this congress was the fruit of independent movements. On the twelfth of May, at the motion of Grayson seconded by King, the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between them, were declared to be common highways, forever free to all citizens of the United States, without any tax, impost, or duty. The assembly of Connecticut, which in the same month held a session, was resolved on opening a land office for the sale of six millions of acres west of the Pennsylvania line which their state had reserved in its cession of all further claims by charter to western lands. The reservation was not excessive in extent; the right of Connecticut under its charter had been taken away by an act of the British parliament of which America had always denied the validity. 2 1 Monroe to Jefferson, New York, 11 May, 1786. MS. VI. CHAP. The federal constitution had provided no mode of settling a strife between a state and the United States; a war would cost more than the land was worth.' Grayson ceased his opposition; and on the fourteenth of the following September congress accepted the deed of cession by which Connecticut was confirmed in the possession of what was called her "western reserve." The compact establishment of the culture of New England in that district had the most benefi cent effect on the character of Ohio and the development of the union. For diminishing the number of the states to be formed out of the western territory, Monroe might hope for a favorable hearing. At his instance the subject was referred to a grand committee, which on the seventh of July reported in favor of obtaining the assent of Virginia to the division of the territory north-west of the Ohio into not less than two nor more than five states. With singular liberality Grayson proposed to divide the country at once into not less than five states. He would run a line east and west so as to touch the most southern part of Lake Michigan, and from that line draw one meridian line to the western side of the mouth of the Wabash, and another to the western side of the mouth of the Great Miami, making three states between the Mississippi and the western lines of Virginia and Pennsylvania. The peninsula of Michigan was to form a fourth state; the fifth would absorb the country between Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and the line of water to the northern 1 Grayson to Madison, 28 May, 1786. |