The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1845-05-16
Public Meeting.

At a meeting of the citizens of Williams
county, held at Bryan on the twenty first day
of March, in pursuance Of an adjournment
Of meeting Of the citizens Of Bryan and
public notice, Hon. THOMAS KENT was
called TO the Chair, and N. M. LANDS ap-
pointed Secretary.
Notwithstanding the badness Of the roads,
occasloned by a long rain, the meeting was
snumerously attended from all parts Of the
county; and several gentlemen from Farmer,
Hicksyille, Milford and Tifin, in Defiance
county, were in attendance. After spirited
remarks from several gentlemen of this and
Defiance county, expressive of their indigna-
tion at the unprecedented, unjust and op-
pressve action of the Ohio Legislature in
erecting the new county of Defiance, COM
mittee previously appointed for that purpose
reported the following resolutions, which,
after an animated discussion, were unani-
mously adopted:
Whereas, by law Of the last session of
the Legislature of the State Of Ohio, the
townships Of Tiffin, Washington, milford,
Farmer, Hicksville, Delaware and Defiance,
have been stricken off from the county Of
Williams, and in conjunction with certain
other territory, erected into the county of
Defiance; and, whereas, the said townships,
and the residue Of the said old county Of
Williams, are yet comparatively new--but
sparsely populated--and were before the di-
vision sufficiently burdened with debts and
taxes; and, whereas, the said county of Will
liams was, and is, largely in debt; and said
debt was mostly contracted while the terri
tory now composing said county of Williams
was mostly Wilderness, and through the
means and procurement of that portion of
said county now included in the county of
Defiance; and, whereas, said law exempts
said townships, included in said county of
Defiance, from alarge proportion Of said debt
and, whereas, the expenses of removing the
county seat from Defiance to Bryan, in the
year, 1910, and the expenses of the public
buildings at Bryan, are wholly to be borne
by the present county Of Williams; and
whereas, the said removal, from Defiance to
Bryan. was in accordance with, and almost
unanimous vote of the aforesaid townships
to relocate said county seat; and, whereas,
said law was carried through the Legislature
as party measure, and by means of the
most gross Misrepresentation and falsehood
--and in face of the fact that at least three
fourths of the inhabitants in the territory
affected thereby, and a majority of the inha-
bitants within the present county of Defiance,
were opposed to its passage; and, whereas,
the said law will operate most ruinously on
the people of Bryan and its vicinity, who,
relying on the good faith of the Ohio Legis-
lature, have located at Bryan or in its vicinity
and whereas, in order TO procure the passage
of said law, it was represented to the Legis-
lature (among many other falsehoods) that
an almost impossible swamp forms natural
division between the present county of Will
liams and the county of Defiance; There
fore,
Resolved, That we regard it as something
extraordinary and unparalleled in the history
of legislation to make such law party
measure; and we regard its passage as a
dsep disgrace to the party in the majority,
by whom it was forced through in opposition
TO the overwhelming majority demonstrating
against its passage.
Resolved, That town like the town of
Defiance, which claims to enjoy so many ma
tural advantages, and which has been settled
longer than any other town in this portion of
the State, and which has been continually
an object efspecial legislation, and which is
still behind any other town in the State of
the same age in the number of its inhab-
tants and in public Improvements, having
never completed any without the assistance
of the State, and being still without any
meeting house or other public place of reli-
gious worship completed, and without even
finished school house, (both measures
having been attempted, but the energies of
the citizens in both instances, have been ex-
hausted before either could be completely is
fit subject for the Legislative assistance of
our recent benevolent Legislature.
Resolved, That the few honest men in tine
town of Defiance, who have resisted this
outrageous measure, in its inception, progress
and completion, deserve to be remembered
as men of principle, and above the noisy
babble of the narrow-mnded neighbors with
whom it is their misfortune to live.
Resolved, That there is not town in the
State which has received the same amount
Of legislative favor with SO few inhabitants as
Defiance, and who at the same time have
been SO utterly unworthy of it.
Resolved, That the Legislature of Ohio by
exonerating that part Of Defiance county for
merly contained in Williams county from a
large portion Of the debt, for the payment of
which it was legally and honesty bound,
have exhibited their extraordinary familiarity
with that clause of our Constitution which |
prohibits the passage of any law inpairing
the obligation of contracts, and their peculiar
disposition to carry out lis provisions.
Resolved, That we are compelled to
view the act .nassad hu The last Ohio I q nisln