General Harrison; the discriminating genius of Mr. Gallatin, then a member of Congress, was also employed in its production; and although the earnest request of that distinguished citizen, and the circumstances of the moment, forced Mr. Harrison to submit to the credit of being its sole author, the natural ingenuousness of the latter induced him subsequently, when he could do so with propriety, to explain his own part in the proceeding, and to give Mr. Gallatin the honor due him. The bill was warmly attacked by some of the ablest men in the lower house. Mr. Harrison defended it alone; he exposed the folly and iniquity of the old system; demonstrated that it could only result to the benefit of the wealthy monopolist, while the hardy and useful population, which has since poured into the fertile plains of Ohio, and made it in thirty years the third State in the Union, must have been excluded. from her borders, or have taken the land on terms dictated by the wealthy purchasers from the government.

In 1802, a convention was held at Vincennes, of which General Harrison was president, at which a petition was adopted, praying of Congress that a provision of one thirty-sixth part of the public lands within the Territory of Indiana be made for the support of schools within the same; and on the 2d of March succeeding, Mr. Randolph, the chairman of a committee to whom this subject was referred, made a favorable report. This was the commencement of our beneficent system for the support of public schools.

As early as 1803, petitions were presented to Congress, praying for various improvements or changes in the mode of selling lands, among which the most prominent suggestions were: to sell the land in smaller tracts; to charge no interest on sales; to sell for cash; to reduce the price; and to make grants of small tracts to actual settlers.

On the 23d of January, 1804, a report was made in the House of Representatives, recommending the reduction of the size of the tracts, and the sale of quarter sections in the townships which had before been offered in half sections, and the sale of half sections in those which had been offered in whole sections.

The present admirable system of selling the public lands, may be dated as having commenced with the act of May 10, 1800, though several important improvements have been made since that time. It is not necessary to notice all these changes. All the lands within each district, are surveyed before any part is offered for sale; being actually divided into townships of six miles square, and each of these subdivided into thirty-six sections of one mile square, containing six hundred and forty acres each. All the dividing lines run according to the cardinal points, and cross each other at right angles, except where fractional sections are formed by large streams, or by an Indian boundary line. These sections are again divided into quarter, half-quarter, and quarter-quarter sections, containing one hundred and sixty, eighty, and forty acres respectively, of which the lines are not actually surveyed, but the

corners, boundaries, and contents, are ascertained by fixed rules. prescribed by law.

Previous to the year 1820, the price demanded by government for its land, was two dollars per acre, one-fourth of which was paid at the time of purchase, and the remainder in three equal annual instalments; a discount of eight per cent. being allowed to the purchaser, if the whole was paid in advance. This arrangement, however liberally intended, was found to be productive of great mischief. Large purchases were made by individuals, who had not the means of payment. Persons who had only money enough to pay the first instalment on one or more tracts, disbursed their whole capital in making the prompt payment required at the time of entry, depending on future contingencies for the power to discharge the other three-fourths of their liabilities. This was done, in most cases, without the least intention to defraud; the risk of loss being entirely on the side of the purchaser, and the allurement to make the venture, such as few men have the resolution to withstand. A rapid increase in the value of lands was generally anticipated, and many expected to meet their engagements by selling a portion of the land at an enhanced price, and thus securing the portion retained; some were enticed by a desire to secure choice tracts, and others deluded by the belief that they could raise the sums required, within the appointed time, by the sale of produce made on the soil. A few, by industry, or by good fortune, realized these anticipations, but a great majority of the purchasers, at the expiration of the term limited for the payment of the last instalment, found their lands subject to forfeiture for nonpayment. Instead of rising, the price of land had fallen, in consequence of the vast quantities thrown into the market; and the increase in the amount of produce raised, so far exceeded the increase of demand for consumption, that the farmer was unable to realize any considerable profits from that source, while the expenses of clearing and improving his farm required both labor and money. Money was scarce, the country was new, without capitalists, moneyed institutions, or manufacturers, and with little commerce; and while the sale of lands, and the importation of foreign goods required to supply the wants of the people, constituted an immense and an eternal drain of the circulating medium, across the mountains, the industry of the people was not yet brought into action, nor the resources of the country developed, to a sufficient extent to afford the means of bringing the money back. Ours was was a population of buyers. The demand for money induced the establishment of local banks, whose notcs were at first eagerly taken, but soon depreciated, having the usual effect of driving better money out of circulation, without substituting any valuable medium in its place. Bank debts were added to land debts. This state of things existed chiefly from 1814 until 1820.

A period of distress occurred which reached its lowest point of depression in 1819. The whole population trembled upon the

brink of ruin; and had the federal government proved a rigid creditor, this extensive and beautiful country must have presented a vast scene of desolation. The purchasers of land had become settlers; they had built houses and opened fields upon the soil, the legal title to which remained in the government. A few could have saved their homes by the disposal of other property; the many could not purchase the roof that sheltered them, at any sacrifice which they might have been willing, or perhaps able, to make. Yet it is not to be inferred that the people were destitute, or desperately poor; far from it-they were substantial farmers, surrounded with all the means of comfort and happiness-except money. To have driven such a people to extremity, would have been ungenerous and fatally unwise; for now that the crisis has passed, we may say without offense or danger, that there is no calculating the extent of the private misery, and the public convulsion, which such a policy would inevitably have produced. The enlightened statesman (Mr. Crawford), who at that time presided over the Treasury department, saw, and properly estimated the wants and feelings of that part of the community, together with the relative duty of the government. A system of relief was devised, which, by extending the time of payment, and authorizing purchasers to secure a portion of their lands by relinquishing the remainder to the government, in the course of eight years extinguished a large portion of those debts, and has eventually, it is believed, absorbed the whole, without injury to the citizen, and with little loss to the government. Upon granting relief to the land purchasers, the credit system was abolished; and lands are now sold by the government at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, payable in cash.

THE RANGER'S ADVENTURE.

THOMAS HIGGINS, a native Kentuckian, in the late war enlisted in a company of rangers, and was stationed in the summer of 1814, in a block-house or station, eight miles south of Greenville, in what is now Bond County, Illinois. On the evening of the 30th of August, a small party of Indians having been seen prowling about the station, Lieutenant Journay with all his men, twelve only in number, sallied forth the next morning, just before daylight, in pursuit of them. They had not proceeded far on the border of the prairie, before they were in an ambuscade of seventy or eighty savages. At the first fire, the lieutenant and three of his men were killed. Six fled to the fort under cover of the smoke, for the morning was sultry, and the air being damp, the smoke from the guns hung like a cloud over the scene; but Higgins remained behind to have "one more pull at the enemy," and avenge the death of his companions.

He sprang behind a small elm, scarcely sufficient to protect his body, when, the smoke partly rising, discovered to him a number of Indians, upon whom he fired, and shot down the foremost one.

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Concealed still by the smoke, Higgins reloaded, mounted his horse, and turned to fly, when a voice, apparently from the grass, hailed with: "Tom, you won't leave me, will you?" He turned immediately around, and seeing a fellow-soldier, by the name of Burgess, lying on the ground wounded, and gasping for breath, replied: "No, I'll not leave you-come along." "I can't come, said Burgess; "my leg is all smashed to pieces." Higgins dismounted, and taking up his friend, whose ankle had been broken, was about to lift him on his horse, when the animal taking fright, darted off in an instant, and left them both behind. "This is too bad," said Higgins; "but don't fear; you hop off on your three legs, and I'll stay behind between you and the Indians, and keep them off. Get into the tallest grass, and crawl as near the ground as possible." Burgess did so, and escaped.

The smoke, which had hitherto concealed Higgins, now cleared away, and he resolved, if possible to retreat. To follow the track of Burgess was most expedient. It would, however, endanger his friend. He determined, therefore, to venture boldly forward, and, if discovered to secure his own safety by the rapidity of his flight. On leaving a small thicket in which he had sought refuge, he discovered a tall, portly savage near by, and two others in a direction between him and the fort. He paused for a moment, and thought if he could separate and fight them singly, his case was not so desperate. He started, therefore, for a little rivulet near, but found one of his limbs failing him-it having been struck by a ball in the first encounter, of which, till now, he was scarcely conscious. The largest Indian pressed close upon him, and Higgins turned round two or three times in order to fire. The Indian halted and danced about to prevent his taking aim. He saw it was unsafe to fire at random, and perceiving two others approaching, knew he must be overpowered in a moment, unless he could dispose of the forward Indian first. He resolved, therefore, to halt and receive his fire. The Indian raised his rifle, and Higgins, watching his eye, turned suddenly as his finger pressed the trigger, and received the ball in his thigh. He fell, but rose immediately and ran. The foremost Indian, now certain of his prey, loaded again and with the other two pressed on. They overtook him-he fell again, and as he rose the whole three fired, and he received all their balls. He now fell and rose a third time, and the Indians, throwing away their guns, advanced upon him with spears and knives. As he presented his gun at one or the other, each fell back. At last, the largest Indian, supposing his gun to be empty from his fire having been thus reserved, advanced boldly to the charge. Higgins fired and the savage fell.

He had now four bullets in his body-an empty gun in his hand two Indians unharmed, as yet, before him—and a whole

tribe but a few yards distant. Any other man wou.d have despaired. Not so with him. He had slain the most dangerous of the three, and having little to fear from the others, began to load his rifle. They raised a savage whoop and rushed to the encounter. A bloody conflict now ensued. The Indians stabbed him in several places. Their spears, however, were but thin poles, hastily prepared, and bent whenever they struck a rib or a muscle. The wounds they made were not, therefore, deep, though numerous.

At last one of them threw his tomahawk. It struck him upon the cheek, severed his ear, laid bare his skull to the back of his head, and stretched him upon the prairie. The Indians again. rushed on, but Higgins, recovering his self-possession, kept them off with his feet and hands. Grasping, at length, one of their spears, the Indian, in attempting to pull it from him, raised Higgins up; who, taking his rifle, dashed out the brains of the nearest savage. In doing so, however, it broke-the barrel only remaining in his hand. The other Indian, who had heretofore fought with caution, came now manfully into the battle. His character as a warrior was in jeopardy. To have fled from a man thus wounded and disarmed, or to have suffered his victim to escape, would have tarnished his fame forever. Uttering, therefore, a terrific yell, he rushed on and attempted to stab the exhausted ranger; but the latter warded off his blow with one hand and brandished his rifle-barrel with the other. The Indian was, as yet, unharmed, and under existing circumstances, by far the most powerful man. Higgins' courage, however, was unexhausted and inexhaustible. The savage, at last, began to retreat from the glare of his untamed eye, to the spot where he dropped his rifle. Higgins knew that if he recovered that, his own case was desperate; throwing, therefore, his rifle-barrel aside and drawing his hunting-knife, he rushed upon his foe. A desperate strife ensued-deep gashes were inflicted on both sides. Higgins, fatigued and exhausted by the loss of blood, was no longer a match for the savage. The latter succeeded in throwing his adversary from him, and went immediately in pursuit of his rifle. Higgins, at the same time, rose and sought for the gun of the other Indian. Both, therefore, bleeding and out of breath, were in search of arms to renew the combat.

The smoke had now passed away, and a large number of Indians were in view. Nothing, it would seem, could now save the gallant ranger. There was, however an eye to pity and an arm to save and that arm was a woman's! The little garrison had witnessed the whole combat. It consisted of but six men and one woman; that woman, however, was a host-a Mrs. Pursley. When she saw Higgins contending, single-handed, with a whole tribe of savages, she urged the rangers to attempt his rescue. The rangers objected, as the Indians were ten to one. Mrs. Pursley, therefore, snatched a rifle from her husband's hand, and declaring that "so fine a fellow as Tom Higgins should not be lost for want of help," mounted a horse, and sallied forth to his rescue. The