WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.

these appointments treaties were concluded, the first at Greenville, the other at Detroit. In 1816 he was elected a representative in Congress, from the State of Ohio, and in 1818 reported his celebrated militia bill, which, like all other plans for a reorganization of the militia, was defeated.

In 1819 General Harrison was elected a member of the senate of Ohio, where he served two years; during this time he was chosen one of the electors for President and Vice President, and voted for James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins; being subsequently chosen an elector, he voted for Henry Clay. While in the Ohio senate, General Harrison went with the minority of twelve senators who voted to retain the clause in a bill for the punishment of certain offences, which provided that persons fined for criminal offences should be apprenticed to respectable citizens, for sufficient sums to pay the fines; in a letter written in explanation of this vote, General Harrison states that he considered it part of the general system of criminal law, and “the most mild and humane mode of dealing with the offenders for whose cases it was intended."

In 1822 General Harrison was a candidate for Congress, but lost his election in consequence of having voted against the Missouri restriction, and in 1824 was elected to the United States senate. In 1828 he was appointed minister to Colombia, and was recalled by the new administration in 1829. He then retired to his farm, where he remained until called to the national seat of government, to occupy the executive chair. In 1836 he was one of the unsuccessful candidates for the Presidency, in opposition to Martin Van Buren; in this election he received seventy-two votes. On the 4th of December, 1839, he was nominated by the Whig National Convention as their candidate for the Presidency; he was elected by a large majority, and on the 4th of March, 1840, was inaugurated President of the United States.

General Harrison occupied the distinguished station to which he was elected but a short period; having been seized with the bilious pleurisy, he died after a short illness, on the 4th of April, precisely one month after his inauguration.

Every demonstration of respect was paid to the memory of the chief magistrate of the Union, and in the cities and large towns a day was set aside on which funeral processions marched in testimony of respect to the deceased, and orations were delivered on his character and services.

The framers of the constitution had provided for the melancholy contingency of the death of a President; that instrument declaring that "In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President;" and in pursuance of this provision, the

INDIANA. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Hon. John Tyler now executes the powers, and performs the duties of President of the United States.

INDIANA. Next to the west of Ohio is the state of Indiana, bordering southerly on the Ohio river, and extending north to lake Michigan, two hundred and seventy miles, and containing 36,000 square miles. Population, 685, 66, of whom 7165 are colored. Militia, 53,913. This state has almost entirely grown up within the present century. In the year 1800, the whole population, including Illinois, was short of 5000. In that year a territorial government was formed for this population, distinct from Ohio. In 1816, a state constitution was formed, and Indiana admitted into the Union, being the twentieth state. Its constitution provides for a general assembly, to consist of a senate of twenty-three members, chosen for three years, with a provision for the renewal of one third annually; and of a house of representatives chosen annually. The judges of the supreme court are appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate, and hold their offices for the term of seven years. The presi dents of the circuit courts are chosen by joint ballot of both houses of the legislature, and their associates by the people.

The constitution provides that there shall not be established or incorporated in the state, any bank or banking company, or monied institution, for the purpose of issuing bills of credit, or bills payable to order or bearer, with a saving clause preserving the rights of the bank of Vincennes, and the Farmers and Mechanics bank of Indiana, established at Madison under the territorial government, and allowing the legislature to establish a state bank with branches. The general assembly meets annually at Indianapolis,

One thirty-sixth part of each township is granted by Congress to its inhabitants, for the support of schools, and several reservations are made for a college. One has been established at Bloomington; number of students, fifty-nine; one at South Hanover, comprising a theological and a literary department; number of students, one hundred and twenty; and one at Wabash; number of students, one hundred. The constitution directs, "that it shall be the duty of the general assembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide by law for a general system of education, ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a state university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to all.”

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. The principal river of Indiana is the Wabash, on its western border; most of the waters of the state flow into the Ohio, Some in its northeastern section find their outlet by the Maumee river in lake Erie. A canal is projected from the boatable waters of the Wabash to lake Erie, following the course of the Maumee valley to the lake. Congress

ILLINOIS.

have granted alternate sections of six hundred and forty acres each, of the public lands lying on this route, to the state, to be appropriated to the construction of this canal. By this grant, a great public object, it is expected, will be obtained, and the government more than indemnified by the increased value of the reserved sections.

The United States, in the character of a great land holder in the west, are deeply interested in every work of internal improvement, by which access to and intercourse with the country is facilitated.

At the session of the legislature in 1832, eight joint stock rail road companies were incorporated, with an aggregate capital of $4,000,000, to construct rail roads from the Ohio river to Indianopolis, and to different points of the Wabash.

An "internal improvement bill" was passed by the legislature in 1836, which provides for a loan of ten millions of dollars, on the credit of the state, to be expended under the direction of the board of internal improvement, for the construction of certain rail roads and canals. The operations of the board of internal improvement have lately been partially suspended.

Indianapolis is the seat of government. Population, 2692. Vincennes is an ancient French settlement, commenced in 1735, on the Wabash, one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, and is now the largest town in the state. Contiguous to the village is an extensive prairie, five thousand acres of which are cultivated in a common field. The name, and kind of land to which it is appropriate, is peculiar to the west. Prairies are of two kinds, river and upland; the former differ little from what are usually called bottom lands. The latter are from fifty to one hundred feet more elevated. They are more numerous, and vary in size from a small field to an extent as far as the eye can reach, and usually bounded by forests. The soil is fertile, varying in depth from two to five feet, and the growth luxuriant.

Indiana has one bank with twelve branches; capital two and a half millions.

ILLINOIS. Illinois bounds on Indiana east, on the Ohio river south, and the Mississippi west, extending from latitude 37 to 42° 30' north, and containing 58,000 square miles. In addition to the three great rivers, the Wabash, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, by which the state is bordered on three sides, the Illinois river rises near the north-eastern border, and traverses the state diagonally to its junction with the Mississippi, nearly opposite the Missouri, its head waters interlocking with the Chicago, which enters lake Michigan. The country is so level and marshy near the sources of these rivers, that in a wet season, boats pass from one to the other.

A canal is projected from boat navigation on the Illinois to the head of lake Michigan, near the outlet of the Chicago.

Congress have appropriated alternate sections of the public lands on this route, to the purposes of the canal, on the same principles as in Indiana, and the like results are expected. Several rail roads are in progress in this state.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. A law was passed in 1837, to establish and maintain a general system of internal improvement in this state. It establishes a board of fund commissioners, consisting of three members, and a board of commissioners of public works, consisting of seven members. This latter board are authorized to superintend and construct all works of internal improvement, with the exception of the Illinois and Michigan canal; and the board of fund commissioners are authorized to contract for loans not exceeding $8,000,000. A number of appropriations have been made for the improvement of the navigation of rivers, for the great western mail route, and for the construction of several rail roads. Nearly three millions of dollars have been expended on public works.

CUMBERLAND ROAD. The Cumberland road is designed to pass through the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to St. Louis on the Mississippi. This road commences at Cumberland, taking its name from the place of its beginning, a village at the eastern base of the Alleghany, in the northwestern section of Maryland, crosses a part of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and strikes the Ohio at Wheeling. It has thus far been made by the United States, at an expense of $1,800,000. It has been surveyed from thence to the Mississippi, a distance according to the course of the road, of 600 miles. Some portions of this section have also been made. The fund originally intended to complete this work, was the two fifths of the five per cent. reserved out of the net avails of the sale of the public lands in the west, for the purpose of making roads leading to and through the new states. This fund has proved to be inadequate, and appropriations have been made in aid of it, at various times, from the treasury. Its primary object is to facilitate the communication between the central portions of the Western States, and the city of Washington. The commencement of the road is near the head waters of the Potomac, 150 miles westward of Baltimore, and about the same distance east of Wheeling.

The population of Illinois in the year 1800, exclusive of Indians, consisted of 215 souls, the remnant of an old French settlement at Kaskaskia. In 1820, the population had increased, principally by emigration from the east, to 55,211; in 1830, it amounted to 157,445, including 2384 colored. Its present population, according to the census of 1840, is 476,183. The three states northwest of the Ohio, and east of the Mississippi, from which slavery is excluded by compact, have been careful to discourage free negro population. They do not exceed one colored

CONSTITUTION.

EDUCATION. MAMMOTH. TUMULI.

to 100 white inhabitants. Labor and domestic service is principally done by free white persons, which gives to these states a physical power and consideration, in proportion to their numbers, greater than those in which the colored population are

more numerous.

CONSTITUTION. The constitution of Illinois bears date August 26th, 1818, and the state was admitted into the Union at the succeeding congress. It prohibits the introduction of slaves. The legislature consists of a senate chosen for four years, with a provision for a renewal of one half biennially. The house of representatives are chosen for two years, and the legislature meet at Vandalia every second year next after the choice of representatives. The governor is chosen for four years, and is ineligible for the next term. Though called in the constitution the executive power, the principal appointments are reserved to the legislature. The judges are chosen by the general assembly in joint ballot, and hold their offices during good behavior.

EDUCATION. The usual grant of one section, or the thirtysixth part of each township, is made for the support of common schools; and three per cent. of the net proceeds of all the public lands sold within the state, are appropriated for the encouragement of learning, one sixth part of which, together with a further grant of two townships, is appropriated to found a college. One has been established at Jacksonville, on the manual labor system, there being a farm of 230 acres of land, and three workshops attached to the institution. The college promises to be of great utility, bringing the means of a public education within the reach of persons of small property, and thereby greatly diffusing its benefits; number of students, forty-two. There are three other colleges, one each at Upper Alton, Lebanon, and Macomb.

MAMMOTH. Two discoveries have been made in the eastern section of the Mississippi valley, which have excited much disquisition. One, the bones of an animal much larger than any now known, or of which there are any authentic accounts in the western continent, and larger than the elephant of the east. A skeleton of this animal, called the mammoth or mastodon, nearly perfect, has been collected and put together in the museum at Philadelphia. It measures eighteen feet in length, and eleven and a half in height.

TUMULI. The other is the tumuli, or large artificial mounds of earth, found in various places, which on being opened, appear to be extensive burying grounds, and to contain much greater numbers than the present condition of the Indians would seem to indicate, leading to the conclusion, that in times anterior to