Editing Arthur St. Clair (section)

==Northwest Territory==
{{main|Northwest Territory}}
[[File:St Clair Narrative 1812.jpg|thumb|''A Narrative'' printed by [[Jane Aitken]]]]
Under the [[Northwest Ordinance]] of 1787, which created the [[Northwest Territory]], St. Clair was appointed governor of what is now [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], [[Illinois]], [[Michigan]], [[Wisconsin]] and part of [[Minnesota]]. He named [[Cincinnati, Ohio|Cincinnati]], Ohio, to honor his membership in the [[Society of the Cincinnati]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=Suess|first=Jeff|title=Our history: Who was Cincinnatus, inspiration for city's name?|url=https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/10/11/our-history-who-cincinnatus-inspiration-citys-name/752548001/|access-date=2021-03-05|website=The Enquirer|language=en-US}}</ref> and it was there that he decided to relocate his home.

As governor, he formulated "Maxwell's Code" (named after its printer, [[William Maxwell (engraver)|William Maxwell]]), the first written laws of the territory. He also worked with [[Josiah Harmar]], Senior Officer of the United States, to resolve the issue of Native American tribes refusing to leave their lands, which the federal government had seized as punishment for their support of the British during the Revolution. In 1789, the two men succeeded in getting several Native American tribal leaders to sign the [[Treaty of Fort Harmar]], but the treaty was never fully implemented and the tribes rejected it outright as illegitimate.

Supported with intelligence, supplies, and weapons funneled to them by British agents, the tribes decided to wage full-scale war against the Americans in what came to be called the "[[Northwest Indian War]]" (or "Little Turtle's War"). Harmar was ordered by President Washington's administration to crush the Indians with a force mainly composed of ill-disciplined and inexperienced state militiamen; he suffered a [[Harmar's Defeat|humiliating defeat]] in October 1790.

===Army commander===
In March 1791, St. Clair succeeded the disgraced Harmar as Senior Officer of the new [[United States Army]] and was restored to his previous rank of [[Major general (United States)|major general]]. He personally led a [[punitive expedition]], this time with two full Army regiments and a large contingent of militia. St. Clair had far more experience commanding troops than Harmar and his force was properly supplied and organized; unfortunately, like Harmar, St. Clair was also devoid of any practical experience in frontier warfare and generally dismissive of the Indians as fighters. In October 1791, he ordered the construction of [[Fort Jefferson (Ohio)|Fort Jefferson]] to serve as the advance post for his campaign. Located in present-day [[Darke County]] in far western Ohio, the fort was built of wood and intended primarily as a supply depot; accordingly, it was originally named "Fort Deposit".

===St. Clair's defeat===
{{Main|St. Clair's Defeat}}In November 1791, near modern-day [[Fort Recovery]], St. Clair advanced on the main Indian settlements at the head of the [[Wabash River]]. On November 4, they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by [[Miami tribe|Miami]] chief [[Little Turtle]] and Shawnee chief [[Blue Jacket]] with the support of British agents [[Alexander McKee]] and [[Simon Girty]]. More than 600 American soldiers and scores of camp followers were killed in the battle, which came to be known as "St. Clair's Defeat"; other names include the "Battle of the Wabash", the "Columbia Massacre," or the "Battle of a Thousand Slain". It remains the greatest defeat of a U.S. army by Native Americans in history, with a total of 623 fallen Americans compared to just 50 fallen Native Americans. The wounded were many, including St. Clair and Capt. [[Robert Benham (politician)|Robert Benham]]. <ref>Leroy V. Eid, "American Indian Military Leadership: St. Clair's 1791 Defeat." ''Journal of Military History'' 57.1 (1993): 71–88.</ref><ref>William O. Odo, "Destined for Defeat: an Analysis of the St. Clair Expedition of 1791." ''Northwest Ohio Quarterly'' (1993) 65#2 pp. 68–93.</ref><ref>John F. Winkler, ''Wabash 1791: St Clair's Defeat'' (Osprey Publishing, 2011)</ref>
===Continued as Governor 1788-1802===

Although an investigation exonerated him, St. Clair surrendered his commission in March 1792 at the request of President Washington before resuming his previous office as territorial governor.

[[File:ST.CLAIR, Arthur (signed check).jpg|thumb|St. Clair signed check while Governor of Northwest Territory (1796)]]
A [[United States Federalist Party|Federalist]], St. Clair refocused his energies on carving up the Northwest Territory into two states that would strength Federalist control of [[United States Congress|Congress]]. However, he was opposed by Ohio Democrat-Republicans for what they perceived as his shameless partisanship, high-handedness, and arrogance in office. In 1802, he declared that his constituents "are no more bound by an act of Congress than we would be bound by an edict of the first consul of France." This, coupled with the gradual collapse of Federalist influence in Washington D.C., led President [[Thomas Jefferson]] to remove him as governor. <ref>Dumas Malone,''Jefferson The President: First Term, 1801–1805'', Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1970, pp. 243–44.</ref> He thus played no part in the organizing of the state of Ohio in 1803.

The first [[Ohio Constitution]] provided for a weak governor and a strong [[State legislature (United States)|legislature]], largely as a reaction to St. Clair's method of governance.