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The Democratic Party of the State

of Ohio

CHAPTER I

Political parties in Ohio when the Territory became a State-Governor St. Clair and his views of government-Charges Filed Against Him-The Enabling Act-The Chillicothe Convention-Removal of St. Clair-The First State Constitution— First State Election and First and Second General Assemblies— Edward Tiffin-First Governor.

When Ohio became a state in 1803 the first Republican Party, which subsequently became the Democratic Party, had control of public affairs, and rightly so, for the state would have remained a territory for another decade could the Federalists have had their way. The latter party was opposed to statehood and it was entirely due to the determined fight made by the Republicans that the territory became a state so early in the Nineteenth century. Thomas Jefferson and his doctrines were strong in Ohio and even before the author of the Declaration of Independence became President his adherents in this state outnumbered the Federalists. The admission of the Territory of Ohio into the Union as a state was the first of many great boons conferred upon Ohio by the Democracy.

In 1788 General Arthur St. Clair was made Governor of the Territory of Ohio by Congress. He had been a distinguished soldier in the Revolutionary War, had served in the French and Indian War and was with General Wolfe at the taking of Quebec in 1759; also he was a courtly and scholarly man, but during his long tenure as Governor of the Territory he seems to have developed into what is popularly known today as a political boss. He became very arbitrary and rendered himself obnoxious by vetoing bills which the peo

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