Cincinnati Frontier

Take 20—An update on the Convention of States--from 6:45-7:30 PM

To Watch a Complete Recording of This Class–Click Here

Michael Patton will talk about the Cincinnati Frontier from 7:30-8:30 PM.  Our mental images of the American frontier are formed by stories, television shows, and movies more than by actual history.  But there was much more to it than what innumerable Hollywood productions show.  We do not have to go farther west to look at the history of the frontier; when Cincinnati was founded it was the frontier. 

We have more than enough history for a television mini-series – plenty of wilderness; lots of Indians; one-sided treaties; an army with a couple very bad commanders and resounding military defeats; an army then reformed into the Legion of the United States with a competent commander and a major victory; a traitor; intrigues by the British, French, and Spanish; a judge who sold thousands of acres of land with fraudulent titles, settlers; and the very first congressional inquiry of the executive branch

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When the United States and Great Britain ended the Revolutionary War in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris, Britain agreed that the western boundary of the United States shall be the Mississippi River.  A huge area west and north of the Ohio River, soon to be called the Northwest Territory, would allow incredible room for expansion.  But most of the land west of the Appalachian Mountains had been reserved to the Indians by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, and even though subsequent treaties quickly reduced the extent, the northwest area was still theirs.  And no Indian tribe had signed the Treaty of Paris.

The chiefs of a few tribes signed treaties in the next several years in which they agreed to move and yield the lands in southern Ohio area to the United States.  Join Engineer and local Cincinnatian Michael Patton who will walk us through Cincinnati Frontier Treason, Fraud, and the Indian Wars in the Early Settlement

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From 6:45-7:30 PM– The Convention of States will present an overview of the process for a minimum of 34 State Legislatures to make applications for a Convention of States. The purpose of holding a convention is for the purpose of suggesting proposed amendments to the US Constitution in 3 limited areas: term limits for Federal officials, imposing fiscal restraints on Federal spending & taxation, and limiting power, scope, and jurisdiction of the Federal government. Just like any amendments proposed by Congress, it still takes 3/4ths or 38 states to ratify any proposed amendments before they would become effective. He will share where the project stands currently in Ohio and in the other states active in this movement.

Speaker’s Bios:

 Michael Patton- is a professional engineer who has been working locally 25 years in the aerospace industry.  He is interested in alternative energy, film, and history, especially the history of the American Indians in this area and of Cincinnati when it was the frontier.  He is a frequent contributor to Streetvibes, the biweekly paper of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and which is sold downtown.  Seminars at EmpowerU are one of the sources used for the articles.

He has learned that much news and even many histories are often so incomplete to be quite misleading.  A good question to keep in mind is, “what am I not being told?”  Among his favorite authors are Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged), C.S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters and That Hideous Strength), Agatha Christie (mystery writer and observer of human nature extraordinaire), and G.K. Chesterton (religious writer and author of the Father Brown mysteries).  One of his favorite quotes is by Chesterton and is appropriate whenever your view and actions are outside the norm: “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

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Bill Scott- A graduate of Penn State University, Mr. Bill Scott, the State Director of Convention of States in Ohio, studied business administration and accounting. He was a corporate auditor, CPA, and financial consultant for the former international accounting firm of Arthur Andersen, becoming a Partner with that firm in Philadelphia. With a specialization in the insurance industry, he later served as Chief Financial Officer for several insurance-related organizations before retiring. After moving to Dayton 4 years ago from out-of-state, he held several leadership positions within Convention of States, becoming the State Director for Ohio last year.