Indiana State University - Sycamore Yearbook (Terre Haute, IN)

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veyed. and put on sale at Vineennes. ' Troops and travellers had passed over these lands, and had sent far and wide glowing accounts of the hinds along the Wabash. All the west had heard of the prairies about Fort Harrison. In- dian hostilities had ceased the jireceding year, and the territory ' s liecoming a state advertised the new region all the more. So a great flood of emigration started toward the west, and a large. ]iart of it turned into the Wabash basin. In one day, fifty wagons crossed the Musk- ingum at Zanesville, Ohio, all bound west. Indiana afforded cheaper lands than Ohio, so the tide of settlers flowed over and around Ohio to settle on the Wabash, and the lower White river. It is said that 42.000 came to Indiana in 1816.= The land sal,-, incivax-d (■ni.niii,u ly at Yincennes. In IM. ' i iln ' sal. ' -, tlici-c had Kimmi only S0% as great a- at .IcIl ' .Msonxillc. I,iii in 1816, although at Jeffersonville the sales in- creased 30%, the sales at Vinceimes were greater than at tlir otlici- otTice —in fad. tlicv had increased li ' . i ' , . Many pcoph- canir lnwu the Ohio, other- ci ' o-scl over from Kentucky. but the majority came overland. They came Tn all manner of ways. Joseph Liston came from Ohio to Vigo County, brin-ing his family with him. Ilr pill liis liiJii-clidlil -(mmI on om- linrsi ' . and placed hi- two l„,y-, on loi) of the goods. His wife rodi ' the other lior ' and carried the .voungesi child, while another was tied on be- hind her. Mr. Liston walked behind. This was but a type of the innnigrant family daily arriving on the Wabasli. . stiidy of the im- migration to Vigo Coiiuty -hows that the ma- jority of the permanent settlers were from Ken- tucky, Ohio. New York, and Xorth Carolina. The nativity of neighboring counties was simi- lar, except that the Quakers from North Caro- lina were a more ijroniinent element in the early settlements. Speculation in towns cuntiniUHl for the next two years. Richmond and Terre Haute, and many other towns were laid out in ISKi, and their lots were advertised for sale. In one day, $21,000 worth of lots were sold at Terre Haute. The best lands about Fort Harrison were quick- ly sold at five to ten dollars per acre. During the fall of ISlC. OOC, tracts of 160 acres each were sold in the Yincennes district. ' ' Specula- tion was playing a good part in the .sales. By the middle of 1818. Davie-. .Sullivan. Pike. Jenning.s, Dubois, Raiulolph. Kiplev, Scott. Yanderbiug. S|iencer. Crawford. Vigo, and Monroe Counties had been erected. There were in all twenty-eight counties where there were ten counties five years before, and by the end of 1S18 Owen and Fayette Counties ' had been erected. FIUITS OF (iI!0 Tir AND SPECri.ATION. Indiana ha,l been enjoying a period of un- usual growth and pro.-perity since ISU. hut this prosperity wa more apparent than real. I)ad banking, exce-ive -penilal ion. and a mis- use of credit had brought on conditions thai were lo check the growth of the west- ern states. Thi ' president of the State Bank of Indiana, in a letter, dated January 9, 1819, and addressed from Yincennes to the secretary of till ' Fnited States treasury, stated the condition as follows: ••Tlie pivsi ' iit situation of the western people is di-tre-ing: tlu y cannot get for their pro- duce one diillar of the kind of money that will lie rec-ei (Ml in payment of their debts to the Fnited States. It is not for want of a sufficient quantity of ])roduce tliat the western people ilo not pay tlii ' ir debts. l)ut for want of system in briniiiiii2- the proiliicts of their labor to its proper ' market. The banks ..f the Fnited Stales west of the mountains issue l)Ut few notes, and thesi ' few are immiMliately cullected banks of the western country have generally perverted the system of banking, and, instead of encouarging and fostering those who were emplo.veil in coilei-tiiig and exporting the pro- •See Map in . Repf, ' ■ ■Niles Register. Nov. 2 ' ' McMaster. V . P. 159. ■Soiate Doc. Cong. 3 0, Ses5 Register, Oct. 12. 1810,

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granted for iin academy; and that a township ))e fiiven foi- a college. All of these school lands were yranted the state, on the condition tliat jMirchasers of public lands should be free from taxation on the land purchased for five years after tlie purchase. Saline lands (lands about salt wells), not to exceed thirty-six sec- tions, were grant( d the state, and four sections were granted the state for a site for a capital. ' The state boundiuw w;is extended ten miles farther north. SETTLEKS ' RIGHTS. One of the rea.-on given for asking as much as 7% of the iu-occim1s of the lanas was that the settlers had cndiin-d many dangers and hardships to found sell Icnicnts in this wilder- ness, as a ronseiiuence of which the gmcrnment lands were enhanced in value. It was thought that this fact would justify the settlers in ask- ing for a large per cent, of the sales. These settlers had ])olitical theories almost as acute as those of the French philosojjhers. although they were ncwr displayed unless the pi(.)neers tlionght their riglii were being interfered with. At the hitter part of 1815. some of the settlers and squatters thought the general government was interfering with their rights. For about seven years the boundary of the Indian eouiilry in Indiana had been stationary, but the fron- tier line of settlement had moved onward, and many squatters could be found on Indian soil. where they had no legal right to be. So. on December 1. ). Isl. . the United States executive, throngh the proper official, issued a proclama- tion ordering all such squatters to remove from such locations, and he gave the military officers orders to remove them. A storm of protests en- sued, but it seems that perha|)s a majority of the squatters did not take the proehnnation seriously. However, one editorial writer under the name of Farmers ' and Patriots ' Rights, vigorously asserted the rights of the squatters, and manifested the high patriotism ( ? ) shown by them as they kept in awe for the last three years, a savage foe, whose tomahawks and ' Western Smu Jan. 27, 1816. sealiiing knives would otherwise have glittered in our houses. Are they, he said, ••when danger has ceased to threaten, to l)e called Kiiiiiforvied or evil disjmsed and ordered off the land their presence alone has heretofore secured? This writer maintained that the pre-emjDtion laws passed at various times by congress were as surely violations of the law for preventing squatters from settling on In- dian lands as settling there was a violation. He argued further that the president had trans- cended his power in ap])lying the law. inas- much as the law re |uired thirty days notice lie- fore the settlers could be removed. He con- tinued: Can it be contended that when con- gress and the United States executive set an act at deHanee. that the people should not? His llnal argument was that such a policy of re- moval would injure the territory by weakening the frontier, by taking away those daring men who had been keeping back the Indians. Force is given the.se arguments when it is re- membered that because of the recent hostilities, many of the settlers could not pay the final or fourth annual installment on their farms which (hey had purchased from the government. Upon this failure to make the final iiayment, the st ' ttlers were obliged to forfeit their farms back to the government, thus losing what they hail already paid down. Such losses during the hostilities w-ere comparatively great, run- ning up to several thousand dollars. In 181; more than half as much land reverted to the government as was bought. The same persons who were obliged to lose money because of the hostilities were the men who had been engaged in jn-otecting the frontier — which protection emibled the government to sell the lands at bet- ter advantage. These losses helped to unify the settlers in their expression of what they called their rights. in SII TO THE WABASH, 181C. By the summer of 181() the lands along the Wabash (as far north as Clinton), and inland for manv miles east of the Wabash, were sur- Western Sun, Ja Feb. 23. 1S16.

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(liicr fniiii which their country derives its Mealtli. they have built up tiieir capital in cities and towns, from which they may, perhaps, de- rive the interest of their money, but cannot ao-ain witlidraw their funds, at least for a long time. ■ An English farmer liviiio- near Triuceton stated the economic an l Mn ' ial roudilioii as seen throua-h the eves of an KnqHshm,,, lie said: ••.M,,uev raniiut l,e o-niuci by cuh i val i,.u. There is nn ,-.Miaiii -(kmI niarUcI: farm produce may. pvi vour niouey ,.f ih. ' cheats and scum of so- ciety who Hve here. l ' ,oth d ' liiese men saw the real cause of the depression of 1819. and all the Westerners felt it keenly. Economic distress Yas felt quite generally in 1818. Lands had been bought on four years ' credit, so nearly all the purchasers were in debt to their neigliliors or to the banks. Indiana passed a law in IMS for the executicm of the estates of insoJNcut lcbtors. ' I ' ld, seemed to be a fair law. but it naturally worked liard- shi]is on the debt(U-s. who could get no sound money with wlii. ' h to pay their debts. During the seven years following the expiration (d ' the first United States Bank in 1811. there was a i:)eriod of reckless banking. A great many state and private banks had sprung up. and these had quite generally issued several times as much paper money as they could redeem. James Flint, a judicious Scotch traveller who spent a part of the year 1819 at Jeffersonville, described the situation of the banks as follows: The total number of the-e eslablishmeuls in the Tuited States, could not. perhaps be ac- curately stated on any gi en day. The enu- meration, like the census of ])opulation. might l e eflVctcl by the births and deatlis. The cre- ation of this vast host of fabricators, and ven- ders of base money, must form a meuu.rable epoch in the history of the country. It is b ut just to the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Madison, however, to observe that it fared ■ ' • .A.mer. State Papers. Finance, III, P. 735. ™W. Faux-s Journal, Nov. 3, 1S19, P. 222. Thwaites. R. G,. Early Western Travels. IX. P. 133. ' iState Papers, Cong. 17. Sess. 1. Vol. 6, Doc. 66. P. better than the state bank and most private banks, for it continued to pay specie until all state bank paper was refused at the land offices, and even then it continued to favor the farmers of the Jetfersonville land district by redeeming its bills when presented by persons indebted to the Jelfer.sonville office. AVhen it. was found that more paper money had been issued than could lie redeemed, such money depreciated in value. The branches of the Second United States I ank which began operations in 1817, sustained .serious losses be- cause of the wretched condition of the currency. If it accepted paper money at par, for gold, silver or United States bank notes, it could not dispose of such ])aper at par. The .secretary of the treasury in 1818 ordered the land office, in- cluding that at Jeffersonville and Vincennes, to accept for lands purchased only money that was payal)le on demand in legal currency of the United States Bank. ' ' The United States Bank then ordered its cashiers to accept only its own notes and .specie. Since the land offices could accept only United States liank notes and specie, a great hardshi]) was thrust upon the debtors of the west. How couhl they pay for their farms ' ? Suppose they did raise good crops and a large surplus of hogs and cattle, when they sold them (if they could find a mar- ket ) they wouhl be paid in notes issued by state or private baid -. This money woidd not be acceptable at the land offices in payment for their lands. Specie and United States bank notes were so scarce that not enough could be kejit in the west to serve the general needs for money. The debtors were really in an aggra- vating and embarrassing , ' ,Mi.liti..ii. They laid the blame f u- this condition .ii the United .States bank. an l in this they weiv led by the t crested in the branches of the state bank. The goNcrn.ir in his message of 1818-1819, in re- ferring to the economic condition, said that in ■i- ' The State Constitution of Indiana prolilbited tliat Bank from having oflices in Indiana. Dewey. Fitiancial Hist, of the U. S., P. 2 28. E.sarey. Indiana Banking, P. 223. =Esarey, Indiana Banking, P. 229.