CHAPTER III.

THE WEST.

1784, 1785.

Reaching home after an absence of thirty-three days, he declared himself pleased with the results of his tour. Combining his observations with the reminiscences of his youthful mission to the French in the heart of Ohio; of an affluent of the Ohio with the Cuyahoga; and so from the site of Cleveland to Detroit, and onward to the Lake of the Woods.

Chap.
III.
1784.

Oct.
4.

"I need not remark to you, sir, that the flanks and roar of the United States area possessed by other powers, and formidable ones too; nor how necessary it is to apply interest to bind all parts of the union together by indissoluble bonds. The western states, I speak now from my own observation, stand as it were upon a pivot; the touch of a feather would turn them any way. They have looked down the Mississippi until the Spaniards threw difficulties in their way. The untoward disposition of the Spaniards on the one hand and the policy of Great Britain on the other to retain as long as possible the posts of Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego, may be improved to the greatest advantage by this state if she would open the avenues to the trade of that country." [1]

Harrison heartily approved the views of Washington, and laid his letter before the assembly of Virginia, whose members gladly accepted its large views and stood ready to give them legislative support. [2]

Three days later the house, by the same committee, addressed Lafayette, recalling "his cool intrepidity and wise conduct during his command in the campaign of 1781, and, as the wish most suitable to his character, desired that those who might emulate his glory would equally pursue the interests of humanity."

  
18.

Early in 1785 the legislature of Virginia, repeating, in words written by Madison, "their sense of the unexampled merits of George Washington toward his country," vested in him shares in both the companies alike of the Potomac and of James river. [2] But, animated by a pure zeal for the general good and conscious of the weight of his counsels, he was resolved never to suffer his influence to be impaired by any suspicion of interested motives, and, not able to undo an act of the legislature, held the shares, but only as a trustee for the public.

Congress had put at its head the most determined and the most restlessly indefatigable opponent of any change whatever in the articles of confederation. Lee renewed intimate relations with Gerry, the leading member of congress from Massachusetts. He sought to revive his earlier influence in Boston through Samuel Adams. The venerable patriot shared his jealousy of conferring too great powers on a body far removed from its constituents, but had always supported a strict enforcement of the just authority of government, and he replied: "It would have been better to have fallen in the struggle than now to become a contemptible nation." [1]

Immediately on the organization of congress, Washington, with a careful discrimination between the office of that body and the functions of the states, urged through its president that congress should have the western waters well explored, their capacities for navigation ascertained as far as the communications between Lake Erie and the Wabash, and between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, and a complete and perfect map made of the country at least as far west as the Miamis, which run into the Ohio and Lake Erie. And he pointed out the Miami village as the place for a very important post for the union. The expense attending such an undertaking could not be great; the advantages would be unbounded. "Nature," he said, "has made such a display of her bounty in those regions that the more the country is explored the more it will rise in estimation. The spirit of emigration is great; people have got impatient; and, though you cannot stop the road, it is yet in your power to mark the way. A little while and you will not be able to do either." [1]

Not Washington alone had reminded congress of its duties to the West. Informed by Gerry of the course of public business, Timothy Pickering, from Philadelphia, addressed most earnest letters to Rufus King. He complained that no reservation of land was made for the support of ministers of the gospel, nor even for schools and academies, and he further wrote: "Congress once made this important declaration, 'that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'; and these truths were held to be self-evident. To suffer the continuance of slaves till they can gradually be emancipated, in states already overrun with them, may be pardonable, because unavoidable without hazarding greater evils; but to introduce them into countries where none now exist can never be forgiven. For God's sake, then, let one more effort be made to prevent so terrible a calamity! The fundamental constitutions for those states are yet liable to alterations, and this is probably the only time when the evil can certainly be prevented." Nor would Pickering harbor the thought of delay in the exclusion of slavery. "It will be infinitely easier," he said, "to prevent the evil at first than to eradicate it or check it in any future time." [1]

On the question for committing this proposition, the four New England states, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, voted unanimously in the affirmative; Maryland by a majority, McHenry going with the South, John Henry and William Hindman with the North. For Virginia, Grayson voted aye, but was overpowered by Hardy and Richard Henry Lee. The two Carolinas were unanimous for the negative. So the vote stood, eight states against three; eighteen members against eight; [2] and the motion was forthwith committed to King, Howell, and Ellery. [3]

The land ordinance of Jefferson, as amended from 1784 to 1788, definitively settled the character of the national land laws, which are still treasured up as one of the most precious heritages from the founders of the republic.