THE TIFFIN PAPERS - JOURNAL OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION - FIRST
MESSAGE OF THE FIRST GOVERNOR TO THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF OHIO - MESSAGE OF 1803 - MESSAGE CONCERNING THE ARREST OF THE
BURR - BLANNERHASSET EXPEDITION - TIFFIN IN THE UNITED STATES
SENATE - ELECTION OF SPEAKER OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF OHIO.

THE TIFFIN PAPERS.

     THE following records, papers and documents pertaining to the life and public services of Governor Tiffin, were collected with great care.  They are so full of historic data and record so many interesting events, that, while the careless reader may treat them lightly, the author feels sure that the thinker and lover of history will value them highly, and for his especial benefit has called them the "Tiffin Papers."

THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF OHIO.

     In July, 1787, the congress of the United States, acting under the provisions of the "Articles of Confederation," enacted the widely known "Ordinance of 1787," for the government of the territory of the United States lying to the northwest of the Ohio; and this may be said to have been the first movement towards the establishment of civil government within that vast region.
     For the purpose of carrying that ordinance into effect and of organizing a territorial government, on the 5th of October, 1787, congress appointed General Arthur St. Clair governor and Winthrop Sergeant secretary of the territory; and a few days thereafter, Samuel Holden Prsons, John Armstrong and James Mitchell Varnum were appointed its judges.
     During the summer of 1788, without respecting the opinions prevailing at that time, when the states, as uch, were suspposed to possess more dignity and more political rights than belonged or could possibly belong to an unorganized community, even when acting under supposed Federal authority, the governor and two of the judges of the territory assembled at Marietta, and commenced what they conceived to be their duty of legislating for the residents of the territory, but their enactments were disallowed by congress, because they had been framed without warrant in law by those who possessed no power to enact a law.

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     The organization of a new administration under President Washington was followed soon after by a re-organiztion of the government of the northwestern territory, General St. Clair and Messrs. Sargent and Parsons having been re-appointed, and Messrs. Symmes and Turner called to the bench as judges.
     In July, 1790, the secretary, then acting as governor, with Judges Symmes and Turner, met at Vincennes, and repeated the folly of the previous government by enacting other laws for the government of the inhabitants of the territory, none of which, however, were approved by the congress, because they had been enacted as original laws, and had not been adopted from the existing codes of states under the provision of the "Ordinance of 1787," which was the organic law of the territory.
     In the summer of 1795 a code of laws was adopted unanimously from the codes of the several states, and in 1799,  under the provision of the ordinance, and the territory, having five thousand white male inhabitants, the first general assembly of the territory was convened at Cincinnati.
MORE TO COME

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produce this very important western document, complete, and we assure ourselves that our readers will be glad to see it." - [Editor Historical Magazine:

JOURNAL OF THE CONVENTION.

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THE FIRST MESSAGE OF THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF OHIO TO THE FIRST
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF OHIO.

DEMAND FOR A FREE PASSAGE TO THE SEA.

     The recent embarrassments to our infant commerce, occasioned by the irreularities at New Orleans, we have every reason to believe, will soon be removed by the prompt and efficacious measures taken by the president of the United States, and which has been added by the minister of his Catholic Majesty, and from the embassy,,,,,,, which has been wisely adopted, we may further hope

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GOVERNOR TIFFIN'S SECOND MESSAGE.

THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA

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MESSAGE ON THE BURR-BLENNERHASSET EXPEDITION.

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which I have thought sufficient to guard and keep safe the flotilla and stores already arrested.  I have also dispatched an express to Cincinnati, with orders to raise two companies as above, each, as I thought the most force wanted there, to relieve the militia previously ordered out, and to secure Comfort Tyler's flotilla while descending the Ohio, if it was not already done.  I have no doubt that these three companies will be instantly under arms, and that this hitherto mysterious enterprise will be completely frustrated, and the intended evil levelled at the peace and tranquility of the United States will fall with all its weight on its projectors.

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     Mr. Tiffin having received a majority of all the votes of the members present, was declared by the clerk to be duly elected speaker.
     The general assembly begun and held at the town of Zanesville, on Monday the 3d day of December, 1810, being the first session of the ninth general assembly of Ohio.
     Members from Ross - Edward Tiffin, Abraham Claypool, James Manary, Henry Brush and William Creighton, Jr.
     Mr. Tiffin was again elected speaker.

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which I have thought sufficient to guard and keep safe the flotilla and stores already arrested.  I have also dispatched an express to Cincinnati, with orders to raise two companies as above, each, as I thought the most force wanted there, to relieve the militia previously ordered out, and to secure Comfort Tyler's flotilla while descending the Ohio, if it was not already done.  I have no doubt that these three companies will be instantly under arms, and that this hitherto mysterious enterprise will be completely frustrated, and the intended evil levelled at the peace and tranquility of the United States will fall with all its weight on its projectors.