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ral laws, should not be permitted to them, unless there was a majority of the whole people, calling for the change.

The judges of the supreme court, should never sit, any where, except as a court in bank, and then only once a year, in each judicial circuit.

Whoever shall be instrumental in procuring these amendments to our constitution, will deserve the everlasting gratitude of the people of this state.

But, these highly desirable amendments, may be long wished for, rather than expected; at least very soon. Ever since the existence of this American Union, the political current has run in one, and the same channel. Every tendency has been towards a perfect democracy. Every new state constitution which has been framed, as new states have been from time to time admitted into the confederacy; and every amendment to any older constitution, have exhibited this feature more and more, until the constitution of Michigan, has approached to the very edge of the crater; it admits aliens to vote, as soon as they are disgorged from the jails, workhouses, penitentiaries, and prisons of Europe, and landed on the soil of Michigan.

The love of liberty is a natural impulse; but to be true liberty, it should be regulated by wholesome restraints. We may do as we please, so long as we injure no one. As much liberty as we can bear, use, and not abuse, is genuine liberty. Beyond this point, it is licentiousness, not liberty.

The love of liberty, properly managed, and mildly treated, has an affinity to law, and is calculated to pour a healthful stream through the whole body politic, renovating every limb, and eradicating every symptom of paralysis, which misgovernment produces. All we need in this state, are the amendments to the constitution which have been glanced at, to render this state government a wise and good one. Without these amendments, we may become, wealthy, numerous and powerful. Our ponds may become swamps, and finally good meadows. Our forests may be cleared away, and farms, towns, villages and cities may appear, as if by magic, in those

parts, which these forests now shade. Our iron ores, by means of the coal, reposing always near them, may be manufactured into all the articles, into which iron is converted. Canals may be made by the side of every river, and pass near every man's door. Rail roads may be made, in all directions, all over the state. Lake Erie and the Ohio river may be navigated by ten thousand of our steamers, and every port be thronged with them, and the millions who own them. Steamers, canal boats and rail road cars, may, as they certainly will, throw the people and their property into masses, in cities and towns. In fine, the whole state may be made to resemble in appearance, a garden — a perfect paradise, and yet, unless good government is maintained, those who live under it, may be truly miserable.

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Germany is a perfect garden, and yet hundreds of thousands are flying from it, as they would from the direst pestilence.

Let us hope, that some honest patriot may show himself in our general assembly, who will urge that body to place these amendments before the people for their approbation, and, Ohio may obtain a constitution, at no distant day, which will guarantee to us, what, until then, we cannot have, a well grounded hope of better officers, better laws, and less danger of being ruined by unprincipled demagogues. As it now is, during many a session of the legislature, all well informed men, live in fear, of some new efforts being made, to almost ruin the state. As the state increases in wealth; as the legislature becomes more and more selfish, or rather as that selfishness has more opportunities of gratifying its depraved appetite for legal plunder; the longer such tremendous powers remain in the general assembly, the more difficult will it become, to wrest such powers from so dangerous a body. The more apparent the duty of all good men becomes, to unite, in such measures as will lead to reform, before it is forever too late to obtain it. Place the amendments before the people, article by article, to be voted for and against, and we should stand some chance of having a better constitution.

ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE

GOVERNMENT.

PERIOD THIRD.

THIS PERIOD EXTENDS FROM 1803 TO 1812.

THE first general assembly under the constitution, met at Chillicothe, on Tuesday March 1st 1803. MICHAEL BALDWIN was elected speaker of the house of representatives, and, NATHANIEL MASSIE speaker of the senate. This general assembly proceeded to appoint, all the officers, necessary to carry on the business of governing the state. The offices were filled as follows, viz:

Secretary of state, William Creighton, junior.

Auditor of state, Colonel Thomas Gibson.

Treasurer, William McFarland.

Judges of the supreme court, Return J. Meigs, junior, Samuel Huntington and William Sprigg.

President Judges of the first, second and third districts, Francis Dunlevy, Wyllys Silliman and Calvin Pease.

United States Senators, Thomas Worthington, John Smith. First Governor elected by the-people, Edward Tiffin, who appointed the first adjutant general, Samuel Finley.

First member of congress, Jeremiah Morrow, was elected by the people.

First United States District Judge, Charles Willing Byrd. The first legislature proceeded to enact such laws, as seemed to be needed. They proceeded to organize seven new coun

ties, viz: Gallia, Scioto, Geauga, Butler, Warren, Greene and Montgomery.

Those parts of the state had suffered much for want of an organization into counties. St. Clair had uniformly refused to have these counties erected, and he had the power to prevent it.

Next year, 1804, Muskingum and Highland counties were organized. These new counties, show where the country had been filling up with people. Every thing moved forward as well as could be expected, considering our remote situation from the older states. Mills, though poor ones, were erected, bridges were built, roads were cut out, though not worked on much as yet.

Some general remarks seem necessary here, on the manners, and situation of the people of that time. The president judge and the lawyers traveled their circuits, holding courts. When arrived at the shiretown, the lawyers and judges were all, generally, thrown together, into one room, in a log tavern, and slept under the roof, and some of them very near it. The food was generally, cooked out of doors. And the court house not unfrequently was some log cabin in the woods, without a floor in it.

We have seen a constable with a grand jury, sitting under a tree, and the constable keeping off the crowd, so as to prevent their hearing the testimony of witnesses before the jury. Another constable was guarding a petit jury under some other tree, while they were deliberating on their verdict. And when a new county was organized, the newly elected officers, such as sheriff, clerk, judges, juries, &c., had to be instructed in their duties by the president judge and the state's attorney. These things are all in our recollection, fresh and distinctly remembered. The people were quite uncouth in their aspect, but not so unhappy as one would'suppose. The greatest difficulty which the people had to contend with, was sickness, in many parts of the country. The farmer kept many dogs to guard his sheep, hogs, fowls and himself. His fences were

very high ones, and his dogs were always ready to defend their master's family and property. Hogs became so numerous in the woods, that many of them became wild, and multiplied until the war of 1812 gave their flesh a value, and they were killed. Cattle and horses multiplied greatly in the meantime, and the people had begun to drive them over the mountains, at an early day, to a market. The people lived in log houses, raised Indian corn for their bread, and as to meat they found wild turkeys and deer in abundance in the woods. Domestic fowls and hogs multiplied wonderfully, in a country where there was so little winter for which to provide. And as for pleasure-carriages, we do not believe there was one in the state when it was first organized. Not a few persons, wore moccasins, instead of shoes, and leather made of deer skins for coats or hunting shirts and pantaloons. Thus dressed, equipped with a large knife, and a good rifle gun, the men went about their daily business. When the state was first organized, we do not believe that there was even one bridge in the state. The roads were few and it was no easy, matter for a stranger to follow them. For ourselves we preferred following the pocket compass or the sun, to most of the roads, in the Virginia Military tract; and this even ten years after the organization of the state government. Travelers carried their provisions with them, when starting from any of the towns into the then wilderness, now thickly settled parts of the state. Judges and lawyers rode from court to court, through the forest, and carried their provisions or starved on their route. Though they generally got into some settlement before night fall, yet not always, as we shall long remember. When the streams were swelled with rain, they swam every stream in their way.

The people of that day were greatly attached to president Jefferson and DeWitt Clinton, because they had favored the admission of Ohio into the Union. The then administration of the general government were almost worshiped by our people, and were greatly caressed in return, by the objects of their reverence. We were then weak, and not feared; but

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