Book Description

Excerpt from A Lecture Delivered Before the Indiana Historical Society, on the Early History of Indianapolis and Central Indiana: At the Hall of the House of Representatives, on Monday Evening, the 31st of January, 1853 Assembled in this beautiful Capitol of the fourth State in the Union, who is not startled by the recollection, that the rains of scarce thirty winters have obliterated the tracks of the Indian from the spot on which it stands. Who can realize that little more than thirty years ago the red man built his bark lodge, and kindled his council-fires, in the dense wilderness that then covered the site of this fair and flourishing city? Yet this is true, and there are men living in our midst; men still in the full vigor and strength of manhood, who witnessed it all - aye more, the Delegate who once represented what now constitutes the States of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, in the Congress of the United States, is still living. Surely, when he looks on these three mighty States, now sending six Senators and twenty-three Representatives to our National Councils, he must feel that he is in a new existence or, like Rip Van Winkle, he has taken a long sleep, so great is the change. But still greater must be the surprise of those yet living, who were on the stage of action in 1799, when General William Henry Harrison was elected the first Delegate to Congress, from the terri tory north-west of the Ohio river, whose boundaries were Penn sylvania, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and Canada. The country west of the Mississippi then belonged to another power, and was acquired, by Mr. Jefferson, from France, in 1803. Arthur St. Clair had been Governor of the territory for several years, previous to' 1799, under a territorial government of the first grade having no Delegate in Congress. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.