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tuations of trade and the uncertainties of speculation had CHAPTER begun to be felt; and several of the states had already tried their hands at the enactment of insolvent laws. 1800. More than once, at preceding sessions of Congress, the project had been brought forward of a general bankrupt law for the Union. Such a law was now passed, mod- April 4. eled after the English bankrupt law, and, like that, extending only to merchants and traders. But another act gave to all persons imprisoned on executions for debt issued out of the Federal courts the right to discharge themselves from imprisonment-their property, should they acquire any, remaining still liable for their debtson taking an oath of poverty; and this oath might also be taken with the same effect, even though no execution had issued, at any time after thirty days from the rendition of judgment.

The tract of territory in the northeast corner of the present State of Ohio, reserved by Connecticut out of her cession to the United States, and thence known as the "Connecticut Reserve," had, as already has been mentioned, been sold by Connecticut, jurisdiction and all, to a company of speculators. They had surveyed it into townships, and, under their auspices, a thousand settlers or more were already established on it. To these speculators the jurisdiction was of no pecuniary value, and was even likely to prove a serious embarrassment; while, on the other hand, it was much for their interest to obtain from the United States a direct confirmation of the Connecticut title, hitherto only inferentially acknowledged, and the more so as Connecticut, avoiding all risks, had only given them a quit-claim deed. On the other hand, it was an object for the United States to extinguish the claim of jurisdiction. In this mutuality of interests originated an act of Congress authorizing the April 28.

CHAPTER issue of letters patent conveying the title to the lands XIV. to the Governor of Connecticut, for the benefit of those 1800, claiming under her; similar letters patent to be executed by Connecticut, relinquishing all claim to jurisdiction. This act, in obtaining from Connecticut a relinquishment of all her claims to jurisdiction west of her present boundary, also had the effect to extinguish a controversy long pending between her and New York as to a strip of land along the southwestern boundary of the latter state, known as the "Connecticut Gore," and which Connecticut had claimed as within her charter, on the same principles on which she had formerly claimed the northern portion of the State of Pennsylvania, as well as the Connecticut Reserve itself, and the ceded district west of it.

The rising Connecticut settlement on the Reserve being thus merged into the Territory northwest of the Ohio, May 7. an act was passed dividing that territory into two separate jurisdictions, the region west of a line drawn from the mouth of the Kentucky River to Fort Recovery, and thence due north to the Canada line, being erected into a separate territory, called INDIANA, after one of the old anti-Revolutionary land companies, which had claims in that region.

The assistance expected from the sale of the public lands toward the extinction of the public debt had hitherto entirely failed to be realized. In fact, there was a powerful and influential body of men interested in keeping those lands out of the market, including the speculators in military land warrants, and those who had purchased up such immense tracts in New York and Pennsylvania, as well as in the Territory northwest of the Ohio, on which tracts alone had any settlements as yet been commenced. The act of 1796, authorizing the

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sale of public lands at Cincinnati, Pittsburg, and Phila- CHAPTER delphia (at the two former places at vendue only, and in sections, as the smallest quantity), had effectually pre- 1800. vented purchases direct from the United States by actual settlers of small means, who were thus obliged to obtain their lands at second-hand from the speculators; and during the four years this act had been in force, the total receipts under it, speculative purchases included, had scarcely amounted to $100,000.

Principally through the urgency of Harrison, the delegate from the Territory northwest of the Ohio, and in hopes, also, of improving the revenue, this method of sale was considerably modified, and the substance of the existing land system introduced. By a new act on this May 10. subject, four land offices were to be opened within the territory itself, at Cincinnati, Marietta, Chilicothe, and Steubenville, each with its register and receiver. The lands, subdivided into half sections of 320 acres each, after being offered at public auction, if not sold, might be entered at any time at the minimum price of two dollars per acre, besides the expense of survey, one quarter to be paid in forty days after the entry, and the remainder in three installments spread over four years. joint resolution had already been adopted, authorizing the president to appoint an agent to collect information as to the copper mines on the south side of Lake Superior.

A

The new Territory of Indiana, vast as its extent was, contained only a few isolated spots to which the Indian title had been extinguished, and on which alone any settlements existed. A Territorial Assembly was to be allowed whenever a majority of the freeholders should desire it. St. Vincent's, otherwise known as Vincennes, was fixed upon as the capital. The appointment of governor was given to Harrison, who had both family

CHAPTER and personal claims to it. His father had been a signer XIV. of the Declaration of Independence, and afterward gov1800. ernor of Virginia; while he had been himself first a lieutenant in the army and an aid-de-camp to Wayne during his campaign against the Indians, then secretary of the Northwestern Territory, and finally delegate of that territory to Congress.

May 10.

The immediate privilege of a Territorial Assembly was also extended to the Territory of Mississippi, where great dissatisfaction had arisen with the administration of Governor Sargent. By the same act, the commissioners for adjusting with Georgia her claims to that territory, were vested with full powers to arrange the whole matter; with the restriction, however, that no money was to be paid to Georgia except out of the proceeds of the lands.

Another act, designed to meet such cases as Blount's, Jan. 10. had already passed, subjecting to fine and imprisonment any attempt, on behalf of any foreign power, to tamper with any of the Indian tribes, or the soliciting them to break the laws, infract the treaties, or disturb the peace of the United States.

The repeal of the Sedition Law, at least of that part of it relating to seditious libels, was early proposed by Macon in a committee of the whole, to which several petitions on that subject had been referred. Several of the Southern Federalists, and Marshall among the number, had admitted the impolicy of the law, and, as a means of securing their election, had pledged themselves to vote for its repeal. Macon relied on their assistance, but he was effectually counterworked by Bayard, who Jan. 23. offered a resolution for the repeal of the section relating to libels, "the offenses therein provided for to remain punishable at common law," but the truth to be a defense. A division being called for, that part of the resolution go

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ing for repeal was carried fifty to forty-eight. The other CHAPTER part of the resolution was also carried fifty-one to fortyseven, Gray of Virginia, and Nott of South Carolina, 1800. who had voted for the first clause, voting also for this. Thus amended, the resolution was voted down eightyseven to eleven, those in the minority being mostly Southern Federalists. The bulk of the Federalists were assisted in voting down the resolution by the whole opposition, as tending, in the shape in which it had been adopted, to establish the doctrine of common law offenses against the United States-a doctrine far more alarming than the Sedition Law, which, by its own limitation, would expire in a year.

The

The matter of the surrender of Thomas Nash, or Jon- Feb. 5. athan Robbins, as he had chosen to call himself, was brought before the House by a motion of Livingston's to call upon the president for the papers in the case. These papers were accordingly sent; whereupon Living- Feb. 20. ston offered resolutions charging the president with a dangerous interference, in that affair, with the rights and duties of the judiciary. These resolutions were vehemently supported by Livingston, Nicholas, and Gallatin, to whom Bayard, Harper, Otis, and Dana replied. debate was closed by a most conclusive argument by Marshall, which settled the principle, not for this case only, but for the future practice of the government. Still, it was deemed best to get rid of this inflammable question as quietly as possible; and the Committee of March 10. the Whole, to whom the subject had been referred, was discharged from its further consideration by the decisive vote of sixty-two to thirty-five. Such was the method. resolved upon for disposing of this matter, it not being considered politic to press a vote upon a counter-resolution of approval offered by Bayard.