Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County. William Alexander Taylor
cases within the limits of said borough, and be entitled to the same fees as justices of the peace in like cases; all process shall be directed to the town marshal who is hereby authorized and empowered to exercise the same powers in serving such process, levying execution, and making distress or delinquents in civil and criminal cases, and shall be entitled to the same fees as constables are; but it shall not be lawful for the said mayor or town marshal to take cognizance of or hold plea in any debt, personal or mixed, except the defendant shall reside within the limits of the corporation aforesaid.
Sec. 9. Be it further enacted. That the town marshal shall collect all taxes assessed by the corporation, and he is hereby authorized and required to collect and pay over to the treasurer all such sums of money as shall be assessed for the use of said corporation, within three months from the time of his receiving a duplicate thereof; and the treasurer's receipt shall be his voucher, on his settlement with the common council, which shall be when thereunto required by them, after the expiration of three months as above; the town marshal shall give ten days notice before he makes distress for the collection of any tax; and if the tax on any lot on which no personal property can be found, shall remain unpaid two months after the expiration of the three months aforesaid, the said town marshal shall give notice in one or more of the newspapers printed in said town, of the amount of such tax, and the number of the lot on which it is due; and if said tax shall not be paid within two months after the date of such advertisement, the town marshal shall in such case proceed to sell so much of such lot or lots as will discharge the same, taking the part sold in such a manner as will include the same distance on the back line of the lot, as on its front line; Provided, That the former owner may at any time within one year thereafter, redeem the lot or part thereof so sold, by paying to the purchaser, his or her heirs, executors or administrators, the amount of said tax, and one hundred per centum damages thereon.
Sec. 10. Be it further enacted, That the town marshal and treasurer shall each before he enters on the duties of his office, give bond with security to the recorder, to be approved of by the common council, conditioned for the faithful discharge thereof; the treasurer shall pay over all moneys by him received, to the order of the mayor and common council, and shall when required submit his books and vouchers to their inspection.
Sec. 11. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the recorder to make and keep a just and true record of all and every law and ordinance made and established by the mayor and common council, and of all their proceedings in their corporate capacity; and the record so made, shall at all times be open to the inspection of any elector of said town; and if any person shall think himself aggrieved by any judgment of the mayor, it shall be lawful for such person to appeal to the court of common pleas, within ten days after such judgment; and it shall be the duty of said court to hear such appeal, and give such relief as shall appear to them reasonable.
Sec. 12. Be it further enacted, That the annual election shall be opened at twelve o'clock, and closed at four o'clock in the afternoon of said first Monday in May; at the first election, two judges and a clerk who are electors, shall be appointed by the electors present, who shall each take an oath faithfully to discharge the duties of his appointment; and at all subsequent elections the mayor, recorder, treasurer or common council, or any three of them, shall be judges of the election, and shall cause a statement of the votes to be publicly declared, and a fair record thereof made by the clerk on the same day, who shall notify the persons elected to the respective offices, within two days thereafter, by giving personal notice, or by leaving a written notice at their most usual place of residence; and it shall be the duty of the recorder, every year, after the first election, to set up or cause to be set up, at least ten days previous to the first Monday in May, notice of the election, in five of the most public places in said town.
Sec. 13. Be it further enacted, That in case of a vacancy in the office of mayor, recorder, or treasurer, the vacancy shall be supplied from the common council; and in case of a vacancy in the common council, it shall be supplied by the mayor, recorder, treasurer and common council men, from among the electors of said town; and in case of misconduct in office of the mayor, recorder, treasurer, common council men or any subordinate officer, the others have hereby power to remove him or any of them, by an agreement of a majority of two thirds concurring.
Sec. 14. Be it further enacted, That in case of the absence or inability of the mayor, it shall be the duty of the recorder to act in his stead, who shall at all times when the mayor resumes his office, render to him an account of his transactions during such absence or inability.
Sec. 15. Be it further enacted, That the corporation shall use the jail of the county of Franklin, for the confinement of all such persons as by the laws of the corporation may be liable to imprisonment; and all persons thus imprisoned, shall be under the charge of the sheriff of the county.
Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That no law shall ever be made by this corporation, subjecting cattle, sheep or hogs, not belonging to any of the residents of said borough, to be abused or taken up and sold for coming within the bounds thereof.
Matthias Corwin, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Peter Hitchcock, Speaker of the Senate.
February 10, 1816.
Pregnant With Great Results.
As heretofore suggested, the conference described was pregnant with great results, and had much to do in determining the immediate destiny of all that portion of the new republic lying west and northwest of the Alleghenies and south of the great chain of lakes. Having broken the French power in the Canadas, to lose in turn her own colonies in the American Revolution, the British government still fondly hoped to reconquer the republic, and bring the entire continent, at least north of the Rio Grande, under the British flag and scepter.
It is pretty well settled that the British aggressions, which led up to the war of 1812, had for their purpose the provocation of hostilities between the old nation and the infant republic. The English statesmen and soldiers apparently imagined that the republic was too poverty-stricken to maintain its existence in another war, and it provoked rejoicing rather than surprise in government circles in London when the United States declared their readiness and their determination to defend their rights against all comers and demonstrate that an American was not inferior to a king in all proper sovereignty.
It is also clear that it was part of the program to threaten the republic from the sea and from Lower Canada, thus engaging all the military forces of the original states in self-defense, and leave all the vast empire lying west and northward in a defenseless and undefendable state, thus allowing the savage tribes in the northwest the opportunity to sweep away the white settlements which were scattered over the territory now comprising Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, and form a junction with the British armies in Virginia or Pennsylvania, or some other advantageous spot that would paralyze the new nation.
After that the Indian allies would return to their wilderness domain, England would resume control of the lost colonies, a modified and a better form of government, would follow the once colonial system of the crown, and England would in the course of a century or two dominate the whole continent and build up the most splendid empire since the days of Persian greatness and opulence.
All this was changed by that conference across the river, and whatever of cohesive alliance of all the Indian tribes, under the tutelage of the Canadian representatives of the crown was dissipated, when the wise chief Tarhe, who had not only learned to respect Americans but was able to estimate them as warriors, gave the keynote to his fellows that prevented an alliance, which if once consummated, would have made it impossible for the United States forces to have invaded Canada and put England herself on the defensive.
To the military and statesmanic genius of General William Henry Harrison and the lofty idea of humanity entertained by Tarhe and his fellow chiefs and counselors, powerful enough to move and control all the northwestern tribes in the very crisis of an epoch, is due the fact that the growing young state of Ohio and its log cabin capital, were not whelmed in a century of darkness and disaster, from which but a slow recovery was to be expected, even if any semblance of the present political, commercial, social and educational conditions had been possible by the morning of the twentieth century.
The