"Strange Doings with Respect to Preemptions": Federal Power and Political Interests at the Chillicothe Land Office, 1800–1802

The Land Act of 1800 has long been credited with accelerating Euro-American settlement in the Old Northwest, but its effects were far from certain for those illegally squatting on federal land. Following the defeat of the Miami Confederacy at Fallen Timbers in 1794, white squatters slowly trickled north of the Ohio River and settled on lands now claimed by the United States. Violence from the Northwest Indian War and competition from states with their own public lands had created a lull in federal land development, which many squatters had taken advantage of. Hundreds of families either made their ways up the Ohio River's tributaries or followed the newly blazed Zane's Trace to settle on the rich bottomlands of the Scioto and Hocking Rivers. These men and women toiled hard to transform expropriated Native American land into farms and orchards that would provide them with subsistence and perhaps even moderate wealth. The new land act threatened that labor: for the first time, all federal land lying between the Scioto and Muskingum Rivers would be exposed to sale at one of the four federal land offices created by the act.¹

Fearful that the federal government would forcefully remove them from its lands prior to sale—as the US Army had done to dozens of families in the 1780s—squatters living along the Hocking River appealed to Thomas Worthington, the recently appointed register for the Chillicothe land office. They asked Worthington if he considered it his "duty to Interpose in favour of the united States" and remove them from federal land. He responded: "I do not consider it as my duty nor shall I in any case whatever Interfere unless a Law should be made, making it my duty." Worthington's refusal to repeat the violent evictions that plagued squatters in the 1780s was a subtle yet significant shift in federal policy. Not only did it give those living on the Hocking River a moment of ease, but it also opened the door for future arbitration between squatters and federal land officers.²

Stakes at the federal land office were high, not just for the Hocking River squatters but also for Thomas Worthington. While the squatters viewed the land office with uncertainty, Worthington saw it as an instrument for political change in the Northwest Territory. When Worthington first arrived at Chillicothe in 1796, he was one of dozens of aspiring land speculators from the Shenandoah Valley who had made their ways to the Virginia Military District to survey lands and make their fortune. These men hoped to settle the district and recreate many of the social conditions of their native Virginia, particularly its emphasis on local governance and economic development. Their quest to foster and control their local interests placed them in direct conflict with Governor Arthur St. Clair, a stout Federalist who favored nationalist approaches to western expansion. Disputes between the governor and the Virginians over the location of county seats evolved into a partisan contest pitting the Federalist St. Clair against Worthington and his Republican allies. However, St. Clair's access to federal power limited Worthington's prospects for political hegemony. Although Worthington became a leading member of the territorial legislature in 1799, the governor held an absolute veto over all legislation and maintained sole discretion in the appointment of county offices. St. Clair used that gubernatorial authority to create an extensive patronage network throughout the territory. It became clear to Worthington that the territorial government was a hindrance to his aspirations and the only way around St. Clair was an alternate source of federal power. The land office was one such source.³

Portrait of Thomas Worthington at the Ohio Statehouse. After resigning his appointment at the Chillicothe land office, Worthington went on to serve as one of Ohio's first senators and its sixth governor. Charles Wilson Peale, oil on canvas, ca. 1815.

courtesy of the ohio history connection, al02661

Historians often recognize Thomas Worthington as a leading political...