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a fund toward the proposed purchase.

Ross's motion CHAPTER

had been supported by the Federal senators on the ground that the hopes of purchase were chimerical.

The abolition of the discriminating duties on British ships was opposed by the navigating interests, and failed to pass. Jefferson's dry dock scheme, after a short debate in Committee of the Whole, notwithstanding the support of Dr. Mitchill, was suffered to drop in silence. Four small vessels, to aid in the blockade of Tripoli, not to exceed sixteen guns each, were added to the navy, for which an appropriation was made of $96,000; and with a view to possible operations on the Mississippi, $50,000 were appropriated for fifteen gun-boats. In consequence of loud complaints from South Carolina of the illegal importation not only of slaves from Africa, but of slaves and free people of color from the French West Indies, at the risk of the importation of revolutionary principles, a fine of a thousand dollars for each person so imported contrary to the laws of any state was imposed on the captain, with forfeiture of the vessel. Since 1798, all the states had united in prohibiting the import of slaves from abroad.

The compact with Georgia for the cession of the Mississippi country confirmed and declared valid all British and Spanish grants, and the grants by Georgia, under an act passed in 1785, surveyed and in the hands of resident settlers. It also provided that not above five millions of acres of the ceded territory or their proceeds might be appropriated to the satisfaction of other claims, but no such appropriation was to be made unless Congress acted upon the subject within a year from the ratification of the compact. This provision had in view the vast sales, commonly known as Yazoo claims, made in 1789, and especially those of 1795, covering almost the entire territory, and which had produced such an excitement in Georgia,

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1803.

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CHAPTER those sales having been declared void, and solemnly repudiated by the Legislature.

1803.

The same commissioners, Madison, Gallatin, and Lincoln, who had negotiated with Georgia the cession of the Mississippi country, having been authorized to inquire as to the various private claims to lands in that territory, Feb. 16. reported in favor of liberal grants to all actual settlers prior to the Spanish evacuation, however imperfect their titles might be. They also reported the facts as to the Georgia grants of 1789 and 1795, of which a sketch has been given already under those dates. The claims based on the grants of 1789 the commissioners deemed wholly invalid, the bargain having been rescinded for non-performance on the part of the grantees. As to the grants of 1795, whatever grounds of invalidity there might be as between Georgia and the original grantees, and even though the contract might not be legally binding as between Georgia and the present holders, yet, as those holders claimed to stand, and, to a certain extent, did stand, in the position of innocent purchasers without notice, theirs seemed to be a proper case for a compro

mise.

The claimants had put in an offer to surrender their claims at the rate of twenty-five cents the acre, amounting, as it was calculated, in the whole, to not less than eight millions of dollars; it being, however, a part of the proposition that the sum to be paid should not exceed the price obtained for that five millions of the Mississippi lands which should sell the dearest.

This the commissioners thought too much; at the same time, they suggested the propriety of offering to the claimants certificates bearing interest to the amount of two millions and a half of dollars, or certificates without interest for five millions, payable out of the earliest re

ceipts for Mississippi lands, after the stipulation to Geor- CHAPTER gia should be satisfied.

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Upon this report was founded an act confirming the 1803. titles guaranteed by the compact, and creating two boards March 3. of commissioners for their adjudication; granting, also, to settlers prior to the Spanish evacuation, whose titles might prove defective, lots not exceeding six hundred and forty acres each; and to all persons who had settled in the territory without any valid title prior to the passage of this act, a right of pre-emption to the lands in their possession, the price payable in the customary installments, without interest. Whatever, after these deductions, might remain of the five millions of acres reserved by the compact, was appropriated for the quieting of such other unconfirmed claims as might be exhibited and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State before the close of the year, and for which Congress might see fit to make a provision; the same commissioners being reappointed to receive proposals from the claimants, and to submit them to the next Congress.

The same act extended to the Mississippi Territory the same system for the surveys and sales of public lands already in operation in Ohio. But these surveys and sales, as well as the confirmations and donations provided for in the act, were, of course, limited to the two small tracts, containing together not more than three millions of acres, to which the Indian title had been extinguished, the one on the Mississippi, the other on the Tombigbee, erected by the Territorial Legislature into the two counties of Adams and Washington, the one the nucleus of the present State of Mississippi, the other of the State of Alabama.

Just as the session closed, the new State of Ohio took March 1. upon itself the exercise of self-government, under a con

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CHAPTER stitution framed the preceding autumn. This constitution, one of the most democratic yet adopted, gave the 1803. right of suffrage to all male white inhabitants above the age of twenty-one, residents for a year in the state, and on whom any tax had been assessed. The representatives in the General Assembly, not fewer than seventytwo nor more than seventy-six, to be apportioned among the counties according to the number of their voters, were to be elected annually. The senators, not fewer than one third nor more than half the representatives, apportioned on the same principle, were to be elected for two years. The governor was to be chosen by the people. for the same term, but could not hold office more than six years out of eight. His power was limited to granting reprieves and pardons, calling extra sessions of the Legislature, and temporarily filling such vacancies in state offices as might occur during its non-session. The judicial power was vested in a Supreme Court, courts of Common Pleas, consisting of a president judge and county judges, and in justices of the peace; the judges to be elected by joint ballot of both houses for periods of seven years, and the justices of the peace by the townships for three years. All other officers, civil and military, were to be appointed by joint ballot of the Legislature; except sheriffs and coroners, elected by the people of their respective counties for terms of five years.

St. Clair had been a candidate for governor at the election, but received very few votes, the nearly unanimous choice falling upon Edward Tiffin. All the northwestern part of this new state, to the extent of half its territory or more, was still in possession of the Indians.

In New York the contest between Burr and the Clintons and Livingstons continued to rage with great fury. Burr, however, was fast losing ground. After hanging

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for some time in the balance, the Albany Register, and CHAPTER most of the other country papers of the Republican party, came out on the Clinton side; and it had by this time 1803. become evident that the aid of the Federalists could alone

secure Burr from political annihilation.

Meanwhile the Clintons and Livingstons proceeded

to strengthen themselves by creating a new bank, to be March 19. called the State Bank, and located at Albany. The ground taken in its favor was, that the only three banks in the state out of New York-the Bank of Columbia, at Hudson, the Bank of Albany, and the Farmers' Bank, near Troy-were all in the hands of the Federalists. The Republican character of this new bank was secured, and at the same time the passage of its charter, by admitting all the Clintonian members of the Legislature to subscribe for a certain number of shares. The petitioners also came very near securing, at a mere nominal rent, the monopoly of the Salina salt-springs, the value of which was then but imperfectly known.

This was the first instance of that corrupt practice, subsequently carried so far in New York, of making the grant of bank charters dependent on the politics of the applicants, and of offering to members of the Legislature shares in the stock by way of securing their votes.

While thus strengthening themselves, the prevailing party in the Legislature refused a charter to the Merchants' Bank, already in operation under articles of copartnership, and also to a moneyed corporation applied for by the friends of Burr. Hopes, indeed, were held out, so long as the charter of the State Bank hung in doubt, in order to secure additional votes; but, this object accomplished, the other two applications were voted down without ceremony.

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