THE QUESTION OF THE BOUNDARY OF THE STATE. THE HE question of boundary, though not expressly referred to the con vention (The Constitutional Convention of 1802) was one of greater importance than would appear at first view. It is generally known to those who have consulted the maps of the western country extant at the time the Ordinance of 1887 was passed, that Lake Michigan was represented as being very far north of the position which it has since been ascertained to occupy. On a map in the Department of State (at Washington) which was before the committee of Congress who formed the ordinance for the government of the Territory, the southern boundary of that lake was laid down as being near the forty-second degree of north latitude, and there was a pencil line passing through the southern bend of the lake, to the Canada line, which intersected the strait between the River Raisin and the town of Detroit. The line was manifestly intended by the committee, and by Congress, to be the northern boundary of this state; and that map, and the line marked on it, should have been taken as conclusive evidence of the boundary, without reference to the actual position of the southern extreme of the lake. When the Convention was in session in 1802, it was the prevailing opinion that the old maps were correct; and that the line, as defined in the ordinance, would terminate at some point on the strait far above the Maumee Bay; but, while that subject was under discussion, a man who had hunted many years on Lake Michigan and was well acquainted with its position, happened to be in Chillicothe, and in conversation with some of the members, mentioned to them that the lake extended much farther south than was geenerally supposed; and that a map he had seen placed its southern bend many miles north of its true position. His statement produced some apprehension and excitement on the subject, and induced the convention to change the line prescribed in the act of Congress, so far as to provide that if it should be found to strike Lake Erie below the Maumee River, as the hunter informed them it would, then the boundary of the state should be a line drawn from the point where the prescribed line interesected the west boundary of the state, direct to the most northern cape of the Maumee Bay. That provision saved to the State of Ohio the valuable ports and harbors on the Maumee River and bay, which were the prie contended for in the "Michigan war of Governor Lucas." "Yet some of the members (of the Convention) hesitated in making the provision, lest it might cause delay; but fortunately it was adopted and its object is now secure." (Burnett's "Notes on the Northwestern Territory," 1847, p. 360.) (See also the language of the Acts of Congress, 1800, 1802-1812, quoted in Part I of this publication.-EDITOR. 11-B. A. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO. (1803-1902.) T HE third legislative body to come into power in the territory comprised in the present state was the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, which, following the adoption of the State Constitution and the admission of the state into the Union of States, was organized for its first session, on the first day of March, 1803. The legislative body thus inaugurated has been an enormous factor for good in the onward and forward progress of Ohio during the past hundred years. No group of men have served the state with so little personal gain as have her legislators. No body of public men has done. so much to encourage morality, industry and aptriotism. The wonder of it is not that legislators have occasionally made personal mistakes-but that in no matter what strait or dilemma, Ohio has always had in her service, practically without compensation, so many men who were not only patriots, but men who exhibited the wisdom and had the courage to handle the affairs of state with honor to themselves, to their constituents and the name of an Ohioan. When the enormous power of a General Assembly is fairly understood, the more honor is found to be due those men who, since the first settler landed on the western bank of the Ohio, in 1788, have never used that power as a body, except to advance the state in dignity and in prosperity, and in evidences of fealty in every hour of danger to the general government. More or less acquaintance with members of recent assemblies, and a quite studious attention to the records of the past century in Ohio, gives point to these observations. The Fifth A TABLE SHOWING THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE OHIO SENATE FROM 1803 TO 1902 INCLUSIVE. Districts Represented. The First The Second The Third The Fourth Membership of the Ohio Senate from 1803 to 1902. |