THE BUILDER JULY 1929

General Washington Johnston; an Early Opponent of Slavery

BY BRO. CURTIS G. SHAKE,
Indiana.

ONE day in the year 1793 there arrived at Vincennes, the "Old Post
on the Wabash," a lad of seventeen years who answered proudly to
the name of General Washington Johnston. Little is known of his
early life, but it has been established that he was born Nov. 10,
1776, in Culpepper County, Va., near where George Washington had
lived many years.

Before his migration to Vincennes, General Johnston had spent some
time with relatives at Louisville, Ky. It is said that he studied
law there and it is quite certain that when he left that place he
had somehow and somewhere acquired the rudiments of a liberal
education. Louisville was then a frontier settlement of some
seventy log cabins. It had been established by Col. George Rogers
Clark only fifteen years before, on the occasion of his celebrated
campaign against Kaskaskia and Vincennes.

We have no account of Johnston's journey from Louisville to
Vincennes. It is quite certain, however, that he followed the old
"Buffalo Trace," which took its name from the fact that from time
immemorial countless thousands of those animals had traveled the
same route each season between the prairies of Illinois and the
salt licks of Kentucky, thereby establishing a well worn trail
through the wilderness. In Esarey's History of Indiana may be found
a graphic account of a journey made over the same route by Arthur
St. Clair and Judge Jacob Burnet, six years after Johnston had
located at Vincennes. It is very interesting in connection with
this sketch, because it gives us an idea of the dangers and
difficulties encountered by this lad of seventeen in traversing a
distance that may now be covered in a pleasurable motor jaunt of
three short hours.

At the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville) they left their boat, mounted
horses and proceeded on their way. About nine o'clock in the
evening they discovered, at a little distance from the path they
were traveling, the camp of four or five Indians, which they
approached. After having shaken hands with the Indians, they
procured a brand of fire, proceeded some distance further on their
way, and halted for the night. Having brushed away the snow from
the spot they had selected for a camp and collected a good supply
of wood for the night they kindled a fire, took some refreshments,
wrapped themselves in their blankets and laid down to sleep.

The next night they encamped in a rich valley, where they found an
abundance of fallen timber, thus enabling them to keep up a warm
fire through the night, before which they slept very comfortably
till morning. During the night a couple of panthers, attracted by
the light of the fire, approached sufficiently near the camp to
serenade the travelers with their unwelcome music, but kept a
respectful distance. The next day they encountered a severe snow
storm, during which they surprised eight or ten buffalos,
sheltering themselves from the storm behind the top of a beech tree
full of dead leaves, which had fallen by the side of the "trace"
and which hid the travelers from their view. The tree and the noise
of the wind among its dry leaves prevented the buffalos from
discovering the men till they had approached within two rods of the
place where the animals stood. The latter then took to their heels
and were soon out of sight. One of the men drew a pistol and fired
but without visible effect.. That evening they reached White River
where they found an old cabin, deserted by its builder, in which a
large wildcat had taken shelter, and seemed at first inclined to
vindicate its right of possession. It was, however, soon ejected,
and the travelers entered and occupied the premises without
molestation during the night and without attempting to do personal
violence to the tenant whom they had driven out. The next morning
they arrived at Post Vincennes.

And now let us take a glimpse at Vincennes not the modern little
city that proudly bears that name, with its well paved streets, its
beautiful homes, its churches and its schools, but the Vincennes of
1793, when General Washington Johnston took up his residence there.
Again we are obliged to look to contemporary sources for
information. In 1796 Vincennes seas visited by Count Volney, a
traveler from France. In his published works he has left us an
interesting description of Vincennes and its people as he saw them,
when Johnston had been a resident there but three years.

The day after my arrival a court was held, to which I repaired, to
make my remarks on the scene. On entering, I was surprised to
observe the audience divided into races of men, in persons and
feature widely differing from each other.... 

They know nothing at all of civil or domestic affairs: their women
neither sew, nor spin, nor make butter, but pass their time in
gossiping and tattle, while all at home is dirt and disorder. The
men take to nothing but hunting, fishing, roaming in the woods and
loitering in the sun. They do not lay up, as we do, for winter, or
provide for a rainy day.... If they trade, they try by exorbitant
charges to make much out of little; for little is generally their
all, and what they get they throw away upon Indian girls, in toys
and baubles. Their time is wasted too in trifling stories of their
insignificant adventures to town to see their friends. Thus they
speak of New Orleans, as if it were a walk of half an hour, though
it is fifteen hundred miles down the river.

Speaking of the Indian population of the town he wrote:

The men and women roamed all day about the town, merely to get rum,
for which they eagerly exchanged their peltry, their toys, their
clothes, and at length, when they had parted with their all, they
offered their prayers and entreaties, never ceasing to drink till
they had lost their senses. Hence arise ridiculous scenes. They
will take hold the cup with both hands, like monkeys, burst into
unmeaning laughter, and gargle their beloved cup, to enjoy the
taste of it the longer; and about the liquor with clamorous
invitations, bawl aloud at each other, though close together, seize
their wives and pour liquor down their throats, and, in short,
display all the freaks of vulgar drunkenness. Sometimes tragical
scenes ensue: they become mad or stupid, and falling in the dust or
mud, lie a senseless log till next day. We found them in the
streets by dozens in the morning, wallowing in the filth with the
pigs. It was rare for a day to pass without a deadly quarrel, by
which about ten men lose their lives yearly. . . They dwell
separately, in mistrust, jealousy and eternal animosity. With them,
what they want they have a right to, and what they have strength
enough to seize is their own.

Thus we find General Washington Johnston located at Vincennes in
1793, determined to become a lawyer and inspired, no doubt, by the
brilliant achievements of such men as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick
Henry, back in Old Virginia. What force of character, what tenacity
of purpose, what vision and what faith he must have possessed, not
to have completely lost himself amid such unpromising and
uninspiring surroundings! How the young man spent the first six
years of his life in Vincennes is not recorded, but it is evident
that he applied himself in study, by way of preparation for his
chosen profession, for at the February term of the District Court
of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, held at Vincennes in
1799, he was duly admitted to the bar the first to receive that
honor west of what later became the State of Ohio.

By all present day standards, Vincennes must have presented
anything but an attractive picture when Johnston became a disciple
of Blackstone and nailed up the "shingle" that proclaimed him an
"attorney and counsellor at law." The village was nothing more than
a frontier settlement of rude log cabins. The streets were mere
paths leading from one house to another. The fort, the church, and
the tavern comprised all that might have been termed public
buildings. The population, aggregating perhaps six hundred souls,
was a motley mixture of French, Indians and Americans, the latter
consisting of venturesome pioneers who had wandered up from
Virginia through Gumberland Gap, by way of Kentucky. Only a few of
the French spoke English and practically none of the Americans
spoke French. The seat of the government was at Marietta, Ohio.
There was no newspaper and no postoffice.

A FRONTIER LAWYER

The practice of law presented many perplexing problems to the young
barrister. Conflicting land claims constituted a most prolific
source of troublesome litigation. Sessions of the General Court
were infrequent, the judges being obliged to ride the circuit,
which embraced Marietta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Vincennes and
Kaskaskia. At Vincennes the situation was further complicated by
the attitude of the French inhabitants toward the new system of
administering justice. They were accustomed to a simple and
inexpensive government, very much resembling the manorial system of
the middle ages. The law of the land since the time of Grozat had
been called rather grandiloquently the Coutume de Paris. Evidently
no one knew what the "customs" of Paris were, so the military
commandant of the fort and the Catholic priest, who together had
been the whole government of the French settlement for nearly a
century, administered the customs of the country, somewhat after
the fashion of the common law. The priest kept the vital
statistics, settled all minor disputes, and, of course, officiated
at all marriages. The commandant issued and confirmed land grants
and administered a self-imposed criminal code in a summary manner.
No wonder the French settlers at Vincennes were perplexed and
bewildered, and petitioned Congress to be relieved from the
blessings of freedom and self-government!

It is remarkable tribute to his character that Johnston was able to
win and retain throughout his eventful life the respect and esteem
of all the discordant elements that went to make up the citizenship
of the community. He learned to understand the viewpoint of the
French inhabitants, and mastered their language. So great was the
confidence of the judges in his honor and integrity that he was
permitted to address juries in French, a privilege never accorded
any other lawyer at Vincennes.

Perhaps no man in Indiana, certainly none in Indiana Territory,
ever held so many important offices of public trust as he did. In
1800 he was made the first postmaster at Vincennes. Three times he
was elected President of the Board of Trustees of the Borough of
Vincennes, an office that corresponds to that of Mayor now. In 1810
he was appointed a Justice of the Peace, a position of much
responsibility in those days. He was for two terms a member of the
Territorial Legislature, and was Speaker of that body at the time
it petitioned Congress to admit Indiana as a state. At different
periods he served as Auditor of Public Accounts, Adjutant General,
and Treasurer of Indiana Territory. He was a member of the General
Assembly of the state in 1821, 1822, 1826 and 1829. During the
session of 1822 he was Speaker of the House of Representatives. He
was twice the presiding Judge of the Circuit Court. In 1809 he
published the first law book written in Indiana Territory, under
the title, The Justices' and Constables' Guide. He was with General
Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe, and upon the return of the
General from that engagement, publically welcomed him on behalf of
the Legislative Council and House of Representatives.

JOHNSTON'S EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS


Not alone as a public officer, but as a private citizen as well,
did Johnston assume a position of leadership in the community. He
frequently delivered public addresses on patriotic occasions, and
a number of these were published in The Western Sun, by request of
the citizens. He was one of the members of the original Board of
Trustees for the Vincennes University, and the first Clerk of that
Board, and throughout his life manifested the deepest interest and
concern in that institution. He was likewise one of the
incorporators of the Vincennes Library Company which, in 1806,
established the first library in the Territory. At his death his
own extensive collection of books found its way into this library,
and upon the dissolution of the Company in 1883, these passed into
the possession of Vincennes University. Their well balanced
variety, and the succinct marginal notes, in the bold handwriting
of the original owner, stand as mute proof of his comprehensive
interest in literature and the cultural pursuits.

General Washington Johnston was one of the pioneers of the old
Indiana Territory and when we speak of Indiana Territory it is well
to bear in mind that it embraced what is now the states of
Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Indiana all of the old
Northwest, except Ohio. He came to Vincennes at the formative
period, when the future states were just beginning to develop. The
Constitution of the United States had been adopted only six years
earlier. George Washington had been first inaugurated President but
four years before, and but fourteen years had passed since George
Rogers Clark had captured this part of the country from the
British. He saw the beginning of almost everything, and was himself
a part of almost everything in the beginning. He reached Vincennes
seven years before it was known that it would become the capital of
Indiana Territory. He saw the courts and the seat of government
established. He saw the territorial officers as they tardily came
to take up their residence and set the wheels of government in
motion. He saw, one by one as they came, bright, educated,
ambitious and daring young men from the eastern states, who had
each determined to make a mark for himself in the new country. He
saw the settlers come and drive the Indians from their habitations
and hunting grounds. He saw some men from the free states, and some
from the slave states, who brought their slaves with them, all
determined to carve out homes in the wilderness and on the
prairies. He saw representatives come from the various settlements
round about to the seat of the new government, bringing with them
their various problems to be solved.

He saw William Henry Harrison come as a young man of twenty-seven
to assume his duties as Governor of Indiana Territory, and he knew
Zachary Taylor when he was a young army officer stationed at
Vincennes. He was Harrison's steadfast friend and staunch supporter
from the beginning to the end. When Harrison first came everybody
was his friend, but as time wore on enemies sprang up and these
tormented him and his administration continuously, but Johnston
never failed him


One of the most vexing problems that arose in those early days was
the question of slavery. It may seem strange to us that slavery
should ever have been a serious problem in Indiana Territory, but
it was one of the most difficult matters that confronted the new
community. Harrison favored slavery, and this fact brought many of
his friends to the same way of thinking.

It is true that the Ordinance of 1787, creating the Northwest
Territory, prohibited slavery. But this was only a legislative
enactment that could have been changed by Congress, and it came
very nearly to the point of doing so two or three times under the
influence of those who would profit by it.

In 1807 the Territorial Legislature adopted a very remarkable law
respecting slavery, known as the Indenture Act. It provided, among
other things, that slaves might be brought into the Territory by
their masters; that within thirty days thereafter the owner and the
slave might enter into a contract of indenture, by the terms of
which they might agree upon a period of years during which the
slave should serve the master in consideration of his freedom, and
that upon the refusal of the slave to enter into such an agreement
he might be removed from the Territory by his master and sold.

The following are specimens of Indenture agreements, taken from
public records, as given by Col. William M. Cockrum, in his Pioneer
History of Indiana.

On this 27th day of July, 18 , I, Joseph Barton, have this day set
free my slave, Thomas Turner, and I hereby make and acknowledge the
emancipation paper for his complete freedom. The said Thomas Turner
for the privilege of being known as a free man, has agreed to
indenture his Services to me for a period of thirty years from
date.

(Seal) JOSEPH BARTON.

I, Thomas Turner, do hereby accept the emancipation papers for
which I Sincerely thank my former master and do cheerfully agree to
indenture myself to the said Joseph Barton as per the above
agreement.

July 27, 18 . THOMAS TURNER.

X My own mark.

This is to certify, that I, James Hartwell, of my own free will and
accord, do this day emancipate and give freedom to a negro slave,
named Charles Hope, brought by me from North Carolina. In making
these papers I want to bear testimony to the painstaking and
careful way he has done his work, and that he is a quiet and most
obedient servant and has always been very easily managed. For these
good qualities it affords me great pleasure to be able to give him
his rightly earned freedom. For some necessary expenses that has to
be incurred before he can leave the home he has so long lived at
and for the love he has for me and my family, he hereby agrees to
indenture his Services to me for twenty-nine years from the 18th
day of October, 18 , which is the date of this agreement.

(Seal)

JAMES HARTWELE

I, Charles Hope, do hereby acknowledge my thankfulness to my master
for the kindness he has shown in setting me free and I cheerfully
accept the conditions in my freedom papers and agree to serve the
time Specified, or until death.

CHARLES HOPP.

X His Mark.

These contracts of indenture were assignable to any person in the
territory if the slaves consented, which they were practically
obliged to do. Commenting upon the last mentioned case, above
quoted, Col. Cockrum in his book says:

Note the meanness of this hypocrite who made the great show of
giving this negro pretended freedom with such a good certificate of
character, which would make the negro more salable when he had an
opportunity to sell him, and on the fifteenth day of the next
November he did sell him to a neighbor for four head of horses, ten
head of cattle, one hundred acres of military land, and a
promissory note for three hundred dollars. The next year this negro
went with his master on a pretended trip to the saline country of
Illinois, but was carried farther south and was sold into slavery
for life.

Johnston was a member of the legislature in 1808 as he had been in
1807. That body in 1808 was almost evenly divided on the subject of
slavery; at least it was supposed to be at the beginning of the
session. As usual, a number of petitions relating to slavery were
presented, and these were all referred to a committee of which
Johnston was the chairman.

It was not long before a report came in and this was written by
Johnston himself. He read the report to the body and took the
strongest grounds possible against slavery. The document was a
masterly one and it must have been delivered in an eloquent manner,
because after it was read, and before the body adjourned, the
report was unanimously adopted.

This proved to be the death knell to the institution of slavery in
Indiana Territory. The question was never presented again, and
Congress never had another opportunity to comply with a request
from Indiana Territory to extend slavery to any of its soil.

Johnston was severely criticised for his apparent change of front
on the question of slavery. He answered his critics with
characteristic candor and frankness. He acknowledged that he had
allowed himself to be considered a pro-slavery man, out of
deference for what he believed to be the sentiment of a majority of
the people among whom he lived. But he said he had always abhorred
slavery and was personally opposed to it. He said further that he
had never before been confronted with the responsibility of
seriously and officially passing upon the subject; that when he
considered the harm that it would do posterity, and the trouble
that it would surely bring to the country there was but one course
for him to take, and that he had taken that course.

This report was a remarkable document. No more able or forcible
indictment against human slavery was ever submitted to any body of
people in the United States. It contained the cold logic of William
Lloyd Garrison, the fiery eloquence of Wendell Phillips, and the
human sympathy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It deserves to be classed
among the great state papers of the period.

JOHNSTON AS A MASON

Johnston became and continued to be throughout his life a devoted
adherent of the institution of Freemasonry. He was probably made a
member of the order at Louisville. The community at Vincennes was
more or less unfriendly to Masonry, and William Henry Harrison was
a pronounced anti-Mason, but the Fraternity had a bold and
determined champion in Johnston. Through his earnest and persistent
efforts Masonry was introduced into Indiana Territory. On his
initiative a group of members at Vincennes applied for a
dispensation to establish a lodge there to the Grand Lodge of
Kentucky. This was granted Aug. 27, 1807, but one difficulty after
another prevented the formation of the lodge. The dispensation
having expired Johnston requested another which was likewise
granted. The lodge was finally instituted on March 13, 1809, the
first legally constituted lodge of the order, or for that matter
the first assemblage of Masons in the territory now comprising
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

On the occasion of the anniversary of Saint John the Baptist, 1809,
he delivered a Masonic address at the court house in Vincennes, "in
the presence of the members of the lodge and a respectable
collection of citizens." The full text of this discourse was
published by request in The Western Sun of July 16, 1809. In the
proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Indiana for 1819, it is disclosed
that Johnston proposed to publish in book form a collection of his
Masonic addresses, but if this was done no copy is known to be in
existence.

He served repeatedly in every office of Vincennes Lodge, No. 1, and
was the moving spirit in the organization of the Grand Lodge of
Indiana. He represented the Vincennes Lodge at the preliminary
meeting held at Corydon, Ind., Dec. 3, 1817, for the organization
of a grand lodge, and acted as chairman of the committee which
formulated the address to the grand lodges of Ohio and Kentucky,
advising them of the proposed action. For two years he was the
Deputy Grand Master of Indiana, and there is a tradition at
Vincennes that he purposely remained away from the Grand Lodge
meeting of 1830, because he did not desire to be elected Grand
Master.

General Washington Johnston died at Vincennes Oct. 26, 1833, and
was buried with full Masonic honors. In 1923 the Grand Lodge of
Indiana and Vincennes Lodge, No. 1, caused an appropriate monument
to be placed at his grave in Fairview cemetery. His family Bible
and the Masonic jewels that he wore are prized possessions of the
Vincennes Lodge.

In the Vincennes Gazette of Nov. 9, 1833, appeared this obituary:

Departed this life on the 26th ult. Gen. W. Johnston, Esq., in the
59th year of his age. He was born in Culpepper's county, Va., and
came to this borough in 1794 (1793). He was one of the very oldest
immigrants to this part of the country. The writer of this
paragraph (which is far too short and imperfect adequately to
detail his merits) does not design to eulogize him now, for
"flattery" cannot "soothe the dull cold ear of death," but to pay
a just tribute of respect to departed worth. As a lawyer he stood
deservedly high. His reading in his profession was varied and deep,
and he used the advantages which he possessed for the advancement
of the interest of his clients' justice. He filled many honorable
offices with credit to himself and usefulness to the people. As a
legislator he was discriminating, industrious, intelligent, and
dignified. As president judge he preserved the sanctity of the
"ermine," and was equally impregnable to the flattery and
intimidation. As a magistrate he was enlightened and faithful to
his trust. And in the various relations of a Christian citizen,
husband and father, he was not surpassed. He was one of that noble
and gallant band that presented a fearless front to the murderous
tomahawk and deadly rifle on the well contested and bloody field of
Tippecanoe. His death has left a blank in our society which will
not readily be filled. He was buried with Masonic honors and the
large concourse of citizens that followed his remains to the grave,
proclaimed the respect entertained for his memory.

One writer has summarized the distinguished services rendered by
General Washington Johnston in these appropriate words:

"He killed the institution of slavery and established the
brotherhood of Freemasonry in Indiana."

GENERAL WASHINGTON JOHNSTON'S REPORT AGAINST SLAVERY. 1808

After a struggle of seven years the inhabitants of this portion of
the British Empire in America found themselves in possession of
independence as a nation, and in the institution they adopted they
secured the enjoyment of a degree of personal liberty utterly
unknown to any other government. But an unfortunate circumstance
darkened the cheering prospect. In every state, but especially in
the southern section of the Union, an oppressed race of men,
supplied by a most inhuman trade, portended the most serious evils
to the American nation. Sensible that slavery in a country where
liberty was deservedly so dear, and had been purchased at so high
a price, presented a feature of deformity not to be justified,
every state hastened to put an end to the horrid traffic.. Those
which could do it without anger abolished slavery altogether, and
those which from the great number of their negroes could not with
due regard for their safety follow at once the dictates of justice
and humanity, enacted laws for the protection of that unfortunate
class of men, and then gradual emancipation. When the Northwestern
Territory was ceded by Virginia to the United States, Congress
obeyed the impulse of justice and benevolence and endeavored to
prevent the propagation of an evil which they could not totally
eradicate, by enacting in the ordinance which forms our
constitution that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude in the Territory, otherwise than, etc."

The law of the Territory entitled, "An act concerning the
introduction of negroes and mulattoes into the Territory," makes it
lawful for a holder of slaves to bring them into the Territory, and
to keep them therein during sixty days, during which period the
negro is offered the alternative of either signing an indenture by
which he binds himself for a number of years, or of being sent to
a slave state or territory there to be sold. The natural inference
from this statement forces itself upon the mind that the slave thus
circumstanced is held in involuntary servitude, and that the law
permitting such proceedings is contrary to both the spirit and the
letter of the ordinance, and that therefore it is unconstitutional.
Your committee might add that the most flagitious abuse is made of
that law. Negroes brought here are commonly forced to bind
themselves for a number of years, reaching or extending to the
natural term of their lives, so that the condition of those
unfortunate persons is not only involuntary servitude but down
right slavery. It is perhaps unnecessary to advert to the novel
circumstances of a person under extreme duress of a slave becoming
a party to a contract, parting with himself and receiving nothing.

That slavery though in itself unjust, might nevertheless be
tolerated for reasons of expediency is a point which your committee
do not feel themselves at liberty to concede. They are firmly fixed
in the persuasion that what is morally wrong can never by
expediency be made right. Such a pliable doctrine, if generally
admitted, would soon line our highways with banditti, our streets
with footpads, and fill our exchange alleys with swindlers; but
policy itself forbids the measure. With respect to population, the
great and more compact middle and eastern states, compared with the
southern states, justifies the expectation that emigration will
proceed more from the first than the last. This observation will be
rendered conclusively by the fact that the state of Virginia, older
and larger than Pennsylvania, contains a body of militia of sixty
odd thousand men, when Pennsylvania actually musters ninety odd
thousand men.

(2) With respect to the spirit of enterprise and internal
improvement, your committee cannot trespass upon the time of the
house by entering minutely into the elucidation of this important
Subject, upon which very erroneous opinions have been entertained.
They will only observe that a general view of the different states
of the union, and of their respective means of prosperity and
importance, will soon convince the impartial enquirer that the hand
of freedom can best lay the foundation and rapidly raise the fabric
of public prosperity. The old states north of Maryland, without one
single precious commodity, exporting nothing but bulky articles,
present everywhere the spectacle of industry and initiation. Their
style of agriculture is superior. Their mills, bridges, roads,
canals, and their manufactures are in point of number without a
parallel in the southern states, and they, besides other parts of
the world, export to those states manufactured commodities to a
large amount annually. On the subject of public improvements we
will beg leave to refer the house to a document laid before
Congress on the subject of roads and canals. The state of Ohio
furnishes us with a ease in point, which aptly illustrates the two
foregoing observations. In the short space of a few years our eyes
witness it growing into importance, where but a little while before
Indian hordes and savage beasts roamed without control. Farms,
villages and towns are multiplying with a rapidity unprecedented in
the history of new settlements. The same cause will produce the
same effect. The exertion of the free man who labors for himself
and family must be more effectual than the faint efforts of a meek
and dispirited slave, whose condition is never to be bettered by
his incessant toil. The industrious will flock where industry is
honorable and honored, the man of an independent spirit where
equity reigns, and where no proud nabob can east on him a look of
contempt.

(3) With respect to the influence which the practice of slavery may
have upon morals and manners, when men are invested with an
uncontrolled power over a number of friendless human beings, them
to incessant labor; when they can daily see the whip hurrying
promiscuously the young, the aged, the infirm, the pregnant woman
with her sucking infant, to their daily toil; when they can see
them unmoved, shivering with cold and pinched with hunger; when
they can barter a human being with the same unfeeling indifference
that they barter a horse, part the wife from her husband and,
unmindful of their mutual cries, tear the child from its mother;
when they can, in the unbridled gust of stormy passion, inflict
cruel punishments, which no law can avert or mitigate; when such
things can take place, can it ever be expected that the milk of
human kindness will ever moisten, in their intercourse with one
another, the eyes of the man in the daily practice of such
enormities, and will respect the moral obligations and the laws of
justice, which they are constantly outraging with the wretched
negro? Their passions, never controlled, will break out in
frequence, which will be decided with savage cruelty, and their
manners will receive a tinge of repelling fierceness, which will be
too often discernible, where a proper education has not softened
and expanded the heart and corrected the understanding. At this
very moment the progress of reason and general benevolence is
consigning slavery to its merited destination. England, sordid
England, is blushing at the practice! I tremble for my country when
I reflect that God is just. Must the Territory of Indiana take a
retrograde step into barbarism and assimilate itself with Algiers
and Morocco?

(4) With respect to its political effects, it may be worthy of
inquiry how long the political institutions of a people admitting
slavery may be expected to remain uninjured. How proper a school
for the acquirement of republican virtues is a state of things
wherein usurpation is sanctioned by law; wherein the commands of
justice are trampled under foot; wherein those claiming the right
of free men are themselves the most excerable tyrants, and where is
consecrated the dangerous maxim "that power is right?" Your
committee will here only observe that the habit of unlimited
dominion in the slave holder will beget in him a spirit of
haughtiness and pride, productive of a proportionate habit of
servility and despondence in those who possess no negroes, both
equally inimical to our institutions. The lord of three or four
hundred negroes will not easily forgive, and the mechanic and
laboring man will seldom venture a vote contrary to the will of
such an influential being.

This question your committee have hitherto only considered in
relation to the internal prosperity and happiness of the Territory.
They cannot yet dismiss the subject without offering to this House
two observations tending to prove that in relation to the United
States the admission of slavery into this Territory is a measure
which neither justice nor policy can justify. The negro holders can
emigrate with their slaves into the extensive Mississippi
Territory, the Territory of New Orleans, and the more extensive
Louisiana. By opening unto them the Territory of Indiana a kind of
monoply of the United States land is granted to them, and the
middle and eastern states, as well as enemies of slavery from the
south, are effectually precluded from forming settlements in any of
the territories of the United States. Your committee respectfully
conceive that the national legislature cannot with justice make
such an unequal distribution (if they may be allowed the
expression) of the laws with the disposal of which they are
entrusted for the benefit of all, but especially of those states
whose overflowing population render emigration necessary.

If we take a general survey of the geographical extent of the
United States we will discern the system of slavery extending from
the line of Pennyslvania and the Ohio river to the Floridas, and
from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. By the purchase of Louisiana,
where it was found existing, it may spread to an indefinite extent
north and west, so that it may be said to have received a most
alarming extension, and is calculated to excite the most serious
fears. By admitting it in Indiana, that is to say opening to it the
vast tract of territory between the state of Ohio, the river of
that name, the Lakes, and the Mississippi, the comparative
importance of the middle and eastern states, the real strength of
the Union, is greatly reduced and the dangers threatening the
internal tranquility of the United States proportionately
increased.

From the above reasons, and many others which might be adduced,
your committee are of opinion that slavery cannot and ought not to
be admitted into this Territory; that it is inexpedient to petition
Congress for a modification of that part of the ordinance relative
to slavery, and that the act of the legislature of Indiana for the
introduction of negroes and mulattoes into said Territory ought to
be repealed, for which purpose they have herewith reported a bill.

Your committee are further of opinion that a copy of this report,
and a copy of one of the petitions upon which the same is
predicated, be immediately made out, signed by the Speaker of the
House and attested by the Clerk, and forwarded by the ensuing mail
to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United
States, with a request that he will lay the same before Congress.

GEN'L W. JOHNSTON,
Chairman of Committee. 
Indiana Territory, Vincennes, 19th Oct., 1808.

Considering the period this is a most remarkable document and we
may well be proud that it came from the pen of a Mason.

NOTE

The obelisk marking the grave of General Washington Johnston was
erected by the Grand Lodge of Indiana, as appears from the
following transcript of the inscriptions on the two bronze plates
on the base. That on the south side reads as follows:

ERECTED A. D. 1923, A. L. 5923,
BY
THE GRAND LODGE, F. AND A. M.
INDIANA,
AND
VINCENNES LODGE NO. 1, F. AND
A. M.
IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION
OF THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICES OF
GENERAL WASHINGTON JOHNSTON
TO FREE MASONRY
AND THE STATE

The tablet to the west bears these words:

GENERAL WASHINGTON JOHNSTON
BORN NOVEMBER 10, 1776;
DIED OCTOBER 26, 1833:
FATHER OF MASONRY
IN INDIANA TERRITORY;
CREATOR OF
VINCENNES LODGE NO. 1, F. AND
A. M.
MARCH 13, 1809;
FOUNDER OF
GRAND LODGE F. AND A. M. INDIANA
DECEMBER 3, 1817.
