nto political
divisions. Kentucky had already been admitted as a State in 1792;
Tennessee likewise became a State in 1796. The Territory of Mississippi
was organized in 1798, to include the country west of Georgia and south
of Tennessee, which had been ceded by the Spaniards under Pinckney's
treaty. [Footnote: Claiborne's "Mississippi," p. 220, etc.] In 1800 the
Connecticut Reserve, in what is now northeastern Ohio, was taken by the
United States. The Northwestern Territory was divided into two parts;
the eastern was composed mainly of what is now the State of Ohio, while
the western portion was called Indiana Territory, and was organized with
W. H. Harrison as Governor, his capital being at Vincennes. [Footnote:
"Annals of the West," by Thomas H. Perkins, p. 473. A valuable book,
showing much scholarship and research. The author has never received
proper credit. Very few indeed of the Western historians of his date
showed either his painstaking care or his breadth of view.] Harrison
had been Wayne's aid-de-camp at the fight of the Fallen Timbers, and had
been singled out by Wayne for mention because of his coolness and
gallantry. Afterwards he had succeeded Sargent as Secretary of the
Northwestern Territory when Sargent had been made Governor of
Mississippi, and he had gone as a Territorial delegate to Congress.
[Footnote: Jacob Burnett in "Ohio Historical Transactions," Part II.,
Vol. I., p. 69.]

Ohio Becomes a State.

In 1802 Ohio was admitted as a State. St. Clair, and St. Clair's
supporters, struggled to keep the Territory from statehood, and proposed
to cut it down in size, nominally because they deemed the extent of
territory too great for governmental purposes, but really, doubtless,
because they distrusted the people, and did not wish to see them take
the government into their own hands. The effort failed, however, and the
State was admitted by Congress, beginning its existence in 1803.
[Footnote: Atwater, "History of Ohio," p. 169.] Congress made the
proviso that the State Constitution should accord with the Constitution
of the United States, and should embody the doctrines contained in the
Ordinance of 1787. [Footnote: The question of the boundaries of the
Northwestern States is well treated in "The Boundaries of Wisconsin," by
Reuben G. Thwaites, the Secretary of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin.] The rapid settlement of southeastern Ohio was hindered by
the fact that the speculative land com