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The American Trail - The Northwest Ordinance · The American Trail

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  The American Trail. The American Trail blazed in Blood, Defended in Blood,
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  Chapter two. The Northwest Ordnance seventeen eighty seven. The Northwest Territory from New
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  York State to the Great Lakes was a vast, almost unexplored wilderness. Reliable
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  maps and data about the Indian tribes were needed. Congress sent out scouts and
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  surveyors to bring this information back. One of these men was Kit Bradley,
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  an Army scout an Indian fighter. In the early part of seventeen eighty seven,
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  Kit arrived in Philadelphia to turn in his report. It was a cold,
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  bleak evening. Kit rode his horse slowly down a narrow side street,
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  looking for a tavern where he could stable his horse and eat a warm meal.
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  Suddenly, oo, woo woo, something or someone huddled in a dark
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  doorway. He dismounted and slowly walked over to the doorway. It was a
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  girl. He saw a girl, shivering, frightened and exhausted. Are you
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  all right, ma'am? Let me alone and they'll be scared. I don't
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  need no harm. Who are you? They sent you to find me?
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  Nobody sent me to find nobody here you're trembling. You must be near a
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  frozen Please please let me alone, ma'am. I reckon. You could do
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  with a good meal, real cozy in this tavern. Yes, I feel
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  warmer now you had enough teeth. Oh, yes, I reckon. We
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  can sit a while here in front of the fire. Yes, it's nice
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  here. Oh you look real pretty now with your blonde curls and your blue
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  eyes. M some color in your face. Y you you've been very kind.
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  Annah Hannah, yes said your name was Anna Astold. You're running away
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  from servitor, aren't you? But no, don't look scared. No,
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  no, I'm not afraid. Now you didn't like the family you were bonded
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  too. They treated me like a slave. I was a slave. We
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  had a roof over your head. The roof is not enough. I will
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  not be treated like a piece of dirt? Am I less? And then
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  you are else? Does God think less of me because I should be a
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  slave? Seems to be a lot of people are asking that question these days.
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  Why do you look at me? So? Do you ever hear the
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  Seoudra Valley? No, it's in Ohio where folks settled there. They're farmers.
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  It came from Massachusetts. I was born on a farm in the old
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  country. Annah. Yes, I have a mind to quit what I'm doing
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  and settle out there at Ohio. Yes, I could get a few acres
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  of land. It's good land, good soil. I'd build me a log
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  cabin on it, start a farm. Yes, it's big country, Anna.
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  Sometimes it tries to scare you. But a man and his wife,
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  if they had the gumption, could make out so there. It was the
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  dream of an American frontiersman to take a wife and build a home. But
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  first there was a job to finish. Kid had come to Philadelphia to see
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  one major General, Saint Clair, is my report? General? Yes,
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  I'm anxious to look it over. I sit down, Bradley, Thank you,
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  sir, looking fit enough? Well, I reckon I've still got my
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  scalp Indians pretty hostile, I'll allow the nut so friendly. What are you
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  planning to do while you're here in the East, Oh, I reckon I
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  got something to attend too good. Otherwise you you'd find it pretty dull here
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  now, Bradley, I've never heard so much nobility of purpose in all my
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  born days. How's that General? They're trying to push a bill through Congress?
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  The Northwest Ordnance. They call it give the settlers in the Frontier country
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  the right to local government, the right to local self government. Mat Craig
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  put what's his name, Jefferson, He wrote it local self government. That'd
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  really be something. They were strange words in seventeen eighty seven, but they
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  sounded good to Kit Bradley. Then in July that same year, the Northwest
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  Ordinance was passed. The frontier was officially thrown open to the settlers. In
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  short time, the covered wagon started to roll through Pittsburgh and on into the
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  wilderness. Among the pioneers was Kit Bradley and his wife Annah. What do
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  you think of America? Now? Anna? It's too big exciting you.
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  You'll get used to it. Kit, I'm free. Oh you're not so
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  free. You're my wife. No one can hold me in bonded. The
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  losses of it says it can be. We are slaves in this part of
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  the country, and as good as anyone here. I reckon you are.
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  Oh, it's utiful. It's once. Kit built his log cabin a few
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  miles out of Chili Cooffee Settlement, and for miles around his neighbors rode over
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  to help him. Men and women. They all fitched in. More and
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  more settlers came, and one day a visitor dropped in to see Kit,
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  doctor Edward Tippins. Well, Kit, we're a fair sized community. Now
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  we're above five thousand male voters. You recall what that means, well,
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  I reckon, it means we're ready to govern ourselves. According to the Northwest
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  Ordinance, we're entitled to elect our own legislature. That's something, doctor,
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  that's really something. Will now keep. Some of our friends have asked me
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  to go and see the new governor and well, let him know we're about
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  ready for self government. Now is that all right with you? And when
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  you figure to leave day after tomorrow, you're going alone. I don't mind
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  the trip, I reckon, I'll go along. I can get some woman
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  to come and stay with Anna, and she can look after the farm for
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  a few days. A governor, you said, who is he? General?
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  Saint Clair? Saint Clair. So you see, Governor, we all
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  feel that we've reached the stage world, Doctor Tiffin, I don't think we
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  need to waste valuable time on this sort of discussion. Now, I think
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  you're mistaken. I reckon you are too, Governor Tiffin. Let me ask
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  a question. Please do But don't you think you're just making fools of these
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  simple minded farmers with all this nonsense about self government. Who they're entitled to
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  it? You don't pretend to think these ignorant settlers have sense enough to vote
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  intelligently, do you? The law says they may vote any way they choose
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  intelligently or otherwise. What kind of idiotic talk is that, Governor? We
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  think a lot of doctor Tiffin here, I reckon, he's our spokesman.
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  I'm all the spokesman new people need and all you're going to get. I
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  don't want to hear anything more about this, this Northwest Ordinance. What do
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  you say to that doctor Tifvin? Only this Governor? I don't think you're
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  bigger than the law of the land. It was a bad beginning, and
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  things became worse. Denied the cooperation of the man who had been sent to
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  help them, the settlers were suddenly faced by open hostility from the Indians.
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  Kit Bradley knew that for the moment, politics must be put aside. Survival
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  was now all that mattered. President George Washington ordered Governor Saint Clair to take
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  the field against the Indians Saint Clair and his troops were driven back in defeat.
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  American prestige died the Indians intoxicated by victory. When on the rampage one
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  day, just before dawn, Kit Bradley, about to start work for his
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  farm, saw a horseman approach him. Bradley, Kit Bradley, get your
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  wife and kid and get to the settlement. The Engines are coming this way.
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  Are you afraid? I'm yes, all right, come to leave.
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  Settlers died by the score. Their homes went up in flames, their dreams
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  in nightmares of smoke. Don't cry, it's gone, I reckon. We'll
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  just build another one now, don't you cry. But Congress did not abandon
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  kit Bradley and those like him. It appointed General Anthony Wayne to lead a
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  strong expeditionary force against the Indians. Mayor Anthony Wayne, they called him,
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  and at Timber Falls, he met the Indians and defeated them. American prestige
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  was restored. Peace came to the frontier country. Kit Bradley and the other
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  settlers rebuilt their homes, and, under the leadership of doctor Edward Tiffen,
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  resumed their struggle for self government. At Cincinnati, they convened before Governor Saint
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  Clair Tivian is recognized. They please your excellency to recognize this legislative body and
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  to consider our petition for self government. I have not the slightest intention of
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  recognizing and is twaddled. We insist in says on our constitutional rights. The
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  convention is curls, Governor, who do you think you are? I'll put
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  you in jail. Bradley Kit Bradley, Doctor Tiffin and the rest were not
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  to be stopped by threats. Anna. We're going to hold on next meeting
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  right here in Chili Coothy, and if Governor Saint Claire wants to stay away,
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  we'll make out just fine. Why is he so Chinster? Men like
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  him don't think people like us should have any power? I reckon. The
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  settlers held their next convention at Chili Coffee, and Governor Saint Clair made a
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  point of being there. Your excellency, hands doctor Tivin. This is no
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  time for silence. We'll be heard, Governor, not by me. You
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  won't. We'll go to someone else. I'm still the governor of this territory,
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  and we'll see somebody in Congress. I'll tell you what I think of
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  Congress or order the never won't keep us quiet. Governor, I've had enough,
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  I reckon, so we I reckon. We'll take this to the President,
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  and I'll tell you what I think of him. The time passed one
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  day, Kit took Anna and their child East. A very simple man who
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  had served his country so well, and who himself had written a Northwest Ordinance,
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  was now President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was glad to see
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  this young couple from the frontier. Kid, Hannah, be proud. You
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  took part in a great moment of history, but you helped establish a new
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  pattern of life for the West. We are proud, mister. We must
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  never allow the will of the majority of our people to be frustrated by one
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  man or by a minority. No man is ever greater than the law of
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  the land. I reckon. Someone thought he was well, Governor Saint Claire's
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  being removed from office, removed for insubordination. Now let me offer you some
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  tea. They came from the Thirteen States and from lands across the sea to
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  build a new nations, and out of the frontier country they formed new states
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  after the plan set up in the Northwest Ordinance as a new century began,
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  and the American frontier was rolled back. This has been the second chapter of
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  the story of the American Nation, brought to you by the Ladies Auxiliary to
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  the Veterans of Foreign War. Next week, another story to make you proud
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  of this great country of ours, as we follow the American trail.