whatever; and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government; provided the constitution and government, so to be formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles; and, so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the state than sixty thousand."

Naturally that part of the northwest territory now embraced in the State of Ohio, grew much more rapidly in population than did the other parts of the territory, and, by an Act of May 7, 1800, the territory was divided by a line, which is now the line between Ohio and Indiana, the eastern portion retaining the name of "Northwest Territory," and the western portion being given the name of "Indiana Territory." Ohio became a state in 1802. From the date of the enactment of this statute until July, 1800, when the Secretary of the Territory arrived at Vincennes, Indiana Territory was practically without a government.

On January 11, 1805, Congress, exercising the power which it had reserved in the Ordinance of 1787, created the Territory of Michigan out of "all that part of the Indiana Territory which lies north of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States." The Act provided that the separation should not take effect until June 30, 1805.

By an Act of Congress of February 3, 1809, it was provided that, after the first day of May, 1809, all that part of "Indiana Territory" lying "west of the Wabash River and a direct line. drawn from the said Wabash River and Post Vincennes, due

north, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada" should constitute a separate territory, and should be called Illinois.

Indiana thus assumed its present form. In 1808 the white population of Indiana Territory was about 28,000, of which number nearly 11,000 lived in that part now constituting Indiana. The United States census of 1810 showed that Indiana Territory then had 24,520 inhabitants.

The growth of population within the Territory during the next five years was very rapid, and led its inhabitants to begin entertaining the idea of statehood for the Territory.

Waller Taylor, in an address to the public on June 17, 1812, when a candidate, said: "With respect to the Territories assuming the state government, my opinion is that it should be entered into as soon as the people shall think themselves able to support it; however, I shall expect instructions, and those instructions, whatever they may be, coming from the majority of the people, or from the Legislature, I shall punctiliously obey." But whatever discussion took place none of it found its way to "The Western Sun" until January 13, 1816, when it had an editorial-and it seldom had an editorial, even once a year-wherein reference was made to the rapid growth of the population in the west, and then said:

"And even Indiana, which we have hardly learned to consider anything but a pathless wilderness, has risen to the magnitude of a state, her population having increased in five years from fifty to more than sixty thousand."

This was, of course, an exaggerated statement of the number of the Territory's population.

It is evident that the center of the population was changing to the east of the Territory, for by an Act of March 11, 1813, the government of the Territory was declared to be fixed at

Corydon, in Harrison County, "from and after the first day of May," 1813. After a session of about forty days at Vincennes, the Legislature, pursuant to a joint resolution of both houses, was prorogued, by a proclamation of the Governor, to meet at Corydon, the new capital, on the first Monday of December, 1813.

While a territory, with less than sixty thousand free inhabitants, could be admitted as a state, if "consistent with the general interest of the confederacy," yet by the admission of Ohio in 1802 it had been settled that no territory would be made a state unless it had sixty thousand free inhabitants.

With a design to determine whether or not Indiana Territory had the requisite population, the General Assembly, on August 29, 1814, adopted what it termed "A joint resolution of both houses," so much of which as is apropos is as follows:

"Resolved, by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives, That the several listers for the year 1815 be, and they are hereby authorized and required, at the same time they take lists of the taxable property in their respective counties, to take a list of the free inhabitants within the same, noting in separate lists the free male white inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years, and the said lists to return together with the lists of taxable property to the clerks of their respective counties, to the intent that it may be ascertained and known when there shall be sixty thousand free inhabitants within the Indiana Territory and the clerks of the several counties are hereby required to transmit the same to the House of Representatives, at the same time and in the same manner that they transmit statements to the territorial levies within their county, and the courts of claims in the several counties shall make to the listers reasonable allowance for said services."

The enumerators' returns showed the population of the sev

The Legislature met at Corydon in December, 1815, and on the fourteenth adopted a memorial to Congress, praying for an Act authorizing the formation of a state government.

"Whereas," runs this memorial, "the Ordinance of Congress for the government of this Territory has provided 'that whenever there shall be sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, this Territory shall be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States'; and, whereas, by a census taken by the authority of the Legislature of this Territory, it appears from the returns that the number of free white inhabitants exceeds sixty thousand; we, therefore, pray the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives, in Congress assembled, to order an election to be conducted agreeably to the existing laws of this Territory, to be held in the several counties of this Territory, on the first Monday of May, 1816, for rep

resentatives to meet in convention, at the seat of government

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day of

of this Territory, the 1816, who, when assembled, shall determine, by a majority of the votes of all members elected, whether it will be expedient or inexpedient to go into a State government, and, if it be determined expedient, the convention thus assembled shall have the power to form a constitution and frame of government; or, if it be deemed inexpedient, to provide for the election of representatives, to meet in convention, at some future period, to form a constitution. And, whereas, the inhabitants of this Territory are principally composed of emigrants from every part of the Union, and as various in their customs and sentiments as in their persons, we think it prudent, at this time, to express to the general government our attachment to the fundamental principles of legislation prescribed by Congress in this ordinance for the government of this Territory, particularly as respects personal freedom and involuntary servi tude, and hope they may be continued as the basis of the Constitution."

Although this memorial was adopted by the Indiana Legislature on December 14, 1815, it was not printed in "The Western Sun," of Vincennes, until January 27, 1816, more than a month after it had been presented to Congress. Certainly a commentary on the spirit of newspaper enterprise.

In this memorial the Legislature suggested to Congress the apportionment of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention among the counties, amounting to forty-two in all. Congress followed the suggestion except with reference to Harrison County, to which it awarded five instead of four delegates as the memorial recommended, thus making the number forty-three.

Jackson and Orange Counties are not mentioned either in the memorial or in the Enabling Act, perhaps because they