Description: Photograph of the Executive Journal of the Northwest Territory, 1788-1803. This journal served as a record of all official actions and communications of the territorial government, as kept by secretaries Winthrop Sargent from July 9, 1788 to May 31, 1798; by William Henry Harrison from June 28, 1798 to October 1, 1799 and by Charles Willing Byrd from December 31, 1799 to January 15, 1803. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02976
Subjects: Northwest Territory--Politics and government; Ohio History
Places: Northwest Territory
 

Description: This title page reads "Journal of the Convention, of the Territory of the United States North-west of the Ohio, Begun and Held at Chillicothe, on Monday the First Day of November, A. D. One Thousand Eight Hundred and Two, and of the Independence of the United States the Twenty-Seventh." In November 1802, thirty-five delegates of the Ohio Constitutional Convention convened to draft an Ohio state constitution. In order for Ohio to become a state, representatives of the territory had to submit a constitution to the United States Congress for approval. This was the final requirement under the Northwest Ordinance that Ohio had to meet before becoming a state. Twenty six of the delegates favored the platform of the Democratic-Republican Party. Among these men was Edward Tiffin, the president of the convention. Democratic-Republicans favored a small government with limited powers, in which the legislative branch should hold the few powers that the government actually possessed. Seven delegates to the convention were Federalists. Federalists believed in a much stronger government. The remaining two delegates were independents. Since the Democratic-Republicans controlled the convention, Ohio's first state constitution established a relatively weak government with the legislative branch holding most of the power. The convention approved the Constitution on November 29, 1802, and adjourned, and Ohio's Constitution of 1803 remained in effect until the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1851 adopted a new one. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06905
Subjects: Northwest Territory--Politics and government; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Constitutional conventions; History of the State of Ohio
Places: Chillicothe (Ohio); Ross County (Ohio)
 

Description: The tomb of John Cleves Symmes (1742-1814). Symmes would come to be a prominent figure in the history of the early United States. He served some time in Congress and was also at one time a judge for the state of New Jersey. Symmes would eventually decide that it would be a good idea to start a settlement in what is today Ohio, pooling money together with others to acquire land out in the rugged frontier. Despite his good investment, there were glaring issues that soon cropped up and caused him trouble. Because of his disregard for policies about land ownership, there were cases where many people paid Symmes for land he didn't even own, which became a disaster for these settlers. Because of this disaster, private owners were no longer able to buy up land and then sell it. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06776
Subjects: Symmes, John Cleves, 1742-1814; Northwest Territory--History; Northwest Territory--Politics and government; Land settlement--Ohio
Places: Northwest Territory; North Bend (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Portrait of Arthur St. Clair (1734-1818). St. Clair served as governor of the Northwest Territory from 1788 to 1802. As Ohio moved towards statehood, St. Clair actively opposed Ohio's admittance to the United States. He hoped that what is now Ohio would not become a single state but rather two states. Thomas Worthington, Nathaniel Massie, Michael Baldwin, and several others urged President Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, to make Ohio a state. Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Congress responded by issuing the Enabling Act of 1802. This act called on the people of Ohio to form a constitutional convention and to fulfill the other requirements of the Northwest Ordinance to become a state. St. Clair denounced the Enabling Act. Jefferson responded by removing St. Clair as governor. Ohio became the seventeenth state of the United States on February 19, 1803. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SC4029_001
Subjects: Governors; Northwest Territory--Politics and government; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; St. Clair, Arthur, 1734-1818;
Places: Northwest Territory; Ohio
 

Description: Photographic reproduction of a print depicting Arthur St. Clair (1736-1818), who served as the territorial governor of the Northwest Territory from 1788 to 1802. As Ohio moved towards statehood, St. Clair actively opposed Ohio's admittance to the United States. He hoped that what is now Ohio would not become a single state but rather two states. If this occurred, St. Clair believed that the Federalists would outnumber the Democratic-Republicans, which would allow the Federalists to continue to control the government of the new states. Because of this opposition, President Thomas Jefferson eventually removed St. Clair as governor prior to Ohio's admission to the Union in 1803. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06998
Subjects: Northwest Territory--Politics and government; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Portrait of Winthrop Sargent VII (August 18. 1853-March 29, 1932) of Haverford, Pennsylvania. He was a descendant of Winthrop Sargent II (1753-1820), who served in the Revolutionary War and as the first secretary of the Northwest Territory under Governor Arthur St. Clair. Winthrop Sargent VII wrote a family history of the Sargents titled "Early Sargents of New England" in 1922. The family was also related to John Singer Sargent, a notable American painter. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07515
Subjects: Sargent, Winthrop, 1753-1820; Family history; Northwest Territory--Politics and government
Places: Haverford (Pennsylvania)
 

Description: Portrait of Winthrop Sargent by Gilbert Stuart. Winthrop Sargent (May 1, 1753 – June 3, 1820) was a United States politician, soldier and writer. He was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University in 1771. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, he joined the Continental Army and attained the rank of major by the war's end. In 1786, Sargent helped survey the Seven Ranges of townships in what is now eastern Ohio. Using the knowledge that he had attained while surveying parts of the Ohio Country, he helped organize the Ohio Company and Associates. He also was one of the principal shareholders of the Scioto Company. He became secretary of the Ohio Company in 1787 and assisted Manasseh Cutler in securing land from the Confederation Congress. That same year, the Congress appointed Sargent as the secretary of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio. He accompanied some of the first Ohio Company settlers to Marietta in 1788. During the late 1780s and early 1790s, Sargent played a major role in the governance of the Northwest Territory. Governor Arthur St. Clair was commonly away from his position, and Sargent served as de facto governor in his absence. He also served under St. Clair in his expedition against the American Indians living in western Ohio in 1791. At St. Clair's Defeat on November 4, 1791, Sargent was twice wounded but survived. In 1798, Winthrop Sargent resigned as secretary of the Northwest Territory to accept an appointment as the first governor of the Mississippi Territory. Sargent was a devoted member of the Federalist Party. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, became President of the United States. Jefferson removed Sargent from the governor's seat due to their differing political views. Sargent then retired from public life. He died in 1820 in New Orleans or aboard a steamboat on the Mississippi Rivers at Natchez, according to varying accounts. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07518
Subjects: Ohio History--Military Ohio; American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; Ohio Company (1786-1795); Northwest Territory--History; Ohio--Politics and government
 

Description: Photographic reproduction of a engraved portrait of William Henry Harrison. Harrison served as a general in the War of 1812 against the British. He was also appointed to a number of governmental positions in the Northwest Territory, and went on to become the ninth president of the United States. He became the first president to die while in office when he succumbed to pneumonia in April 1841, just a few weeks after his inauguration, during which he gave a lengthy speech in the rain. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03973
Subjects: Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841; Ohio History--Presidents and Politics; United States--History--War of 1812; Northwest Territory--Politics and government
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Mrs. Elmer Fulton, descendent, unveiling memorial marker to Governor Charles Willing Byrd, appointed Secretary of the Northwest Territory in 1798, then Governor of the Northwest Territory in 1802, October 19, 1941, Sinking Spring, Highland County, Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00288
Subjects: Northwest Territory--Politics and government; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Sinking Spring (Ohio)