[By Hon. H. M. Rice, of St. Paul.]
On the 26th day of January, 1796, when the American Congress was in
session in Philadelphia, a Bill was reported for establishing land
offices for the sale of lands in the North-western Territory. It
was under discussion until April of the same year in the House of
Representatives. A great diversity of opinion existed; some were in favor
of selling in small tracts of fifty acres—others contended that none
should be surveyed or sold in less than township tracts. Some favored
a Bill that would retain the lands for actual settlers, others were
for disposing of as much of the public domain as possible, and at the
highest price, for the purpose of paying the public debt. For a long
time, they could not agree upon the price. Mr. Williams, of New York,
said “it was as necessary that the country should be settled as that the
land should be sold. Or shall it be said that the honest, industrious
settlers shall make roads, bridges, and other improvements, whilst the
rich holders keep their lands in hand until these improvements are made,
in order to increase the value of them?” Mr. Williams, undoubtedly,
took a correct view of the case. The Bill, as finally agreed upon,
established the office of Surveyor General, under the following title:
“_An Act providing for the sale of the Lands of the United States, in the
Territory North-west of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of Kentucky
river_.” On the 18th of May, 1796, the Bill was approved by receiving the
signature of George Washington. The office was first opened at Marietta,
Ohio, under Rufus Putnam, Surveyor General. In 1804 it was removed to
Vincennes;—in 1805 to Cincinnati;—in 1814 to Chillicothe;—in 1829 it
was removed back to Cincinnati, where it remained until 1845, when it
was removed to Detroit. In May, 1857, the office was again, and for the
last time, removed to St. Paul. It now has in its custody the original
correspondence for its establishment in 1796, which, undoubtedly,
contains many important facts and reminiscences that would not only
fully pay for their perusal, but might furnish historical points of
great value. Through it, the past and present are connected. There can
be found the workings under the original act under which no lands could
be surveyed in tracts of less than 640 acres, nor sold for less than two
dollars per acre; and out of this has grown our admirable system, which
places within the reach of every man a home, be he rich, or be he poor.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF PERROT; SO FAR AS IT RELATES TO MINNESOTA AND THE
REGIONS IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT.
[Prepared by A. J. Hill, of St. Paul, and accepted for publication by the
Minnesota Historical Society.]
§ 1. SHORT ACCOUNT OF PERROT AND HIS WRITINGS.
Nicolas Perrot, whose name is already well known to the readers of the
early history of Minnesota, was born in 1644, and repaired, at an early
age, to New France, where he resided, almost habitually, from 1665 to
1689, amongst the diverse races of its most distant part—the extremity
of the angle formed by the valleys of the St. Lawrence and of the
Mississippi. “At first simple _coureur du bois_ by trade (1665-1684),
and interpreter incidentally (1671-1701), he was at last, under the
successive governments of M. M. de la Barre, Denonville and Frontenac
(1684-1699), charged with a command analogous to that of our chiefs of
Arab bureaux in Algeria.” In his capacity of interpreter, he was present
at the convocation of the tribes at _Sainte-Marie-du-Sault_, where, on
the 14th of June, 1671, the French government assumed the sovereignty
of the regions beyond the Great Lakes. Nearly eighteen years later,
on the 8th of May, 1689, he himself, acting as principal agent, took
formal possession, in the name of the King of France, of all the country
visited by him, or that might be visited, from Green Bay to the regions
beyond the St. Croix and St. Peter. Subsequent to 1718, no information
concerning him can be obtained.
The writings of Perrot are as follows: