Two letters written by future Governor of Ohio Samuel Huntington shortly after his arrival in the Northwest Territory, describing his initial impression of the Western Reserve and providing substantial details of a court case involving the murder of Native Americans by recent emigrants.
The first letter, datelined Trumbull County, September 23, 1800, includes substantial details regarding early court proceedings in the Northwest Territory, including a discussion of a case of emigrants murdering local Native Americans and a jury refusing to prosecute. The letter - somewhat unusually - has two sections of lines partially clipped out, possibly some embarrassing detail censored by a later member of the recipient's family. A partial transcription reads:
...had not all business been suspended in the Reserve, at two different periods since my arrival, the first was on account of the alarm occasioned by the killing two Indians when I first arrived, the second was the trial of one of the murders here which has just ended - & which all the reserved was collected to see -- these will detain me longer than I should otherwise have staid -- McMahon the Prisoner was acquitted there was evidence of the most deliberate malice & the proof of willfull murder was compleat, but he was tried by a jury of wild Irishmen who hold that the killing an Indian is lawful -- there is some apprehension that the Indians will look for satisfaction & that some scalps will be taken taken on our frontiers.
The second letter, datelined Youngstown, October 8, 1801, describes his building a home and clearing land in Cleveland, and offering details on land speculation as well news of his family and their adjustment to life in the Territory.
Each letter is written on a separate single page, with the letter from 1800 addressed on the reverse to Asa Spalding of Norwich, Connecticut, and the second letter had presumably also been sent to Spalding.
