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Degree

PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History, 2005.

Abstract

Situating Governor Arthur St. Clair as the central figure of and focusing on his administration of the Northwest Territory present an accurate and cogent account of America’s first experiment in colonialism. The frontier was not static, but amorphous; it changed over time and brought new challenges to the territorial government. St. Clair is the instrument through which to understand this change. His military and civil careers are the story of the frontier. Throughout his life, St. Clair wanted to be the “father of a country.” But in the end, he was rejected by his “subjects” and as a result later historians overlooked his contributions to western expansion. Examining St. Clair’s governorship shows the process by which the region that became the state of Ohio in 1803 was transformed from a colony populated by natives to a state inhabited predominately by white agriculturalists who were connected to the world markets via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. St. Clair, working under the direction of the federal government, was the architect of this change. He implemented the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which served as the blueprint for expansion in the approximately 250,000 square mile region that became the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. While in office he presided over the settlement of the region, negotiated Indian treaties, campaigned against the Ohio Indians, opened diplomatic relations with colonial representatives from Great Britain and Spain, determined the locations of county boundaries and county seats, implemented a government based upon the provisions of the Northwest Ordinance, created a judiciary, and put laws into operation through the territorial legislature. The governor managed the territory during the formative years of U.S. expansion and set precedents for future generations. St. Clair’s ultimate downfall occurred when he opposed the movement to create the state of Ohio and instead sought to redefine the territory’s boundaries to prevent the eastern section from meeting the criteria necessary to call a constitutional convention. In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson removed the governor from office because of his actions at the Ohio constitutional convention, when he had called the Enabling Act a nullity and questioned Congress’s authority to legislate for the territory without consulting the territorial government. The comments were thought by many to border on treason. His departure symbolized the success of the Revolution of 1800—the ascendancy of a new generation of political figures who dominated the nation’s affairs and determined the fate of the West. Defending the provisions of the Northwest Ordinance, St. Clair was the embodiment of the Federalist vision of expansion, a conservative political philosophy that was out of favor with many of the residents and politicians in Washington.

Subject Headings

History, United States

Keywords

Arthur St. Clair; Indians; Northwest Territory

Advisor

Wakelyn L. Jon

Document number: kent1113952769
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1113952769

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