General Thomas Posey: Son of the American Revolution

9. “ … under your auspices, we have become as one people.” (1813-1816)

", CHAPTER NINE (1813-1816) under your auspices, we ha'Ve become as one people. " President James Madison submitted Thomas Posey's name to the U. S. Senate on 27 February 1813 as his nominee for the governorship of Indiana Territory. Sometime prior to that date Posey, having been relieved of his Senate duties, had gone to visit his daughter, Sarah Ann, and his Thornton stepsons in the Virginia counties of Spotsylvania and Stafford. Although his general availability for other public office was well known in the capital, he had not specifically applied for the governorship, and was unaware that he had been nominated and confirmed until his return to Washington on 11 March. Awaiting him in his quarters was a letter from Secretary of State James Monroe, enclosing his commission and verifying his appointment for a three-year term beginning 3 March.1 On the same day that Thomas was confirmed, the Senate also approved the promotion to the rank of major general of two of his former Northwest Expedition comrades, brigadier generals James Wilkinson and William Henry Harrison.2 Posey conferred immediately with President Madison, Secretary Monroe, and the newly appointed Secretary of War, John Armstrong. It was clear that the paramount factor in his selection had been his military background and experience in Indian warfare . At this time, settlers in Indiana were being increasingly subjected to random attacks by marauding Indian raiding parties. The territory's normal complement of regular army troops had been 207 General Thomas Posey: Son of the American Revolution depleted by the redeployment of most units to Ohio, where General Harrison was assembling a force for an imminent northward march to the lower Great Lakes region.3 Posey, as governor, automatically became commander-in-chief of all local militia forces, directly responsible for the defense and security of all the inhabitants of Indiana Territory. There can be little doubt that Thomas' old personal ties with fellow Virginians Madison and Monroe played a significant part in his selection as governor. But his impressive military qualifications and record of civic leadership were clearly the more dominant considerations . While his appointment seemingly contravened the growing practice of awarding territorial posts to men more closely identified than he with the basic ideological views of the republican administration, he was not perceived in the capital as a die-hard federalist, and his credentials as a fellow gentry leader were unimpeachable . The government officials with whom he conferred after his appointment now directed him to proceed without delay to Indiana to rally its militia and strengthen the defense of the settlements on its western border, which had suffered greatly during the several months the territory had been without a governor.4 The new governor was acutely aware that he faced immediate political challenges as difficult, if not as menacing, as his military ones. His predecessor, Harrison, during the last years in office, had grown increasingly unpopular in the territory due to his rigid federalist views and the sometimes autocratic exercise of his nearly absolute gubernatorial powers. Harrison's term of office spanned the ultimate extension of national gentry leadership to the frontier, and the massive growth of a localist, state-centered developmental opposition to the old policies, practices and style of government.5 Governor Harrison and his small coterie of supporters were derisively called "the Virginia Aristocrats," although not all of them came from that state, and many of his opponents were also Virginia-born.6 Slavery was the most divisive and partisan issue of the time in the territory. Article VI of the controlling Northwest Ordinance of 1787 expressly provided that "There shall be neither Slavery nor involuntary Servitude in the said territory."7 But other provisions of the ordinance cast some ambiguity on this strict prohibitory language , and Harrison's repeated efforts to abolish or subvert its literal interpretation were bitterly resented by an emerging majority of anti-slavery citizens. The local leaders of this movement, openly hostile to the governor, had taken firm control of the territorial legislature , while their acknowledged chief, Jonathan Jennings, was 208 1813-1816 now serving in Washington as the territory's non-voting delegate to Congress. Shortly after Harrison's resignation, the Indiana General Assembly had petitioned Congress not to appoint to the governor's post anyone who favored slavery.s When Thomas Posey's name was submitted to the Senate, Jennings actively opposed his confirmation,9 and the effectiveness...