

22 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



A plan and description of the earthworks at Circleville, Ohio, were communicated 

 anonymously to the Royal American Magazine, printed in Boston, and were inserted 

 in the number for January, 1775. The plan was taken on horseback, by computa- 

 tion only, Oct. 17, 1772. 



During the struggle of our revolution, the minds of all classes of people were 

 absorbed in the exciting political and military events of the time, and little inclina- 

 tion or opportunity existed for archaeological investigations. Near the conclusion 

 of the Avar, Mr. Jefferson gratified his taste for such pursuits, by preparing his 

 "Notes on .Virginia," which were written in 1781-2, though not fully published 

 till 1787. 1 His opinions there expressed in regard to the great antiquity of the 

 American races are well known. He was uncertain whether to believe that the 

 Americans were derived from the northern Asiatics, or the Asiatics from the 

 Americans, but saw positive indications of a common origin. Our community was 

 less prepared than now for the reception of views opposed to the usual interpre- 

 tation of scripture history, and when Mr. Jefferson was a candidate for the 

 presidency, his supposed sceptical sentiments upon this question were strongly 

 urged against him. Of the great earthworks at the west and south he appears to 

 have known little or nothing. He says : " I know of no such thing as an Indian 

 monument." " Of labor on a large scale I think there is no remain so respectable 

 as would be a common ditch for the draining of land." He refers to the barrows 

 found all over the country as possible exceptions, but had in his mind only the 

 small burial mounds of modern date, such as he had seen in Virginia. William 

 Bartram's work had not then been published. Mr. Jefferson's speculations manifest 

 the philosophical acuteness of his mind; and his remarks on a study of the abori- 

 ginal languages, as affording the best evidences of derivation, and as most likely 

 to lead to a true solution of the question, indicate the ability and relish with which 

 he would have examined the subject, if the duties of a statesman had left him 

 leisure to devote to it. 



No sooner were our citizens relieved from the cares and restrictions of war, than 

 they began to explore and occupy the western country. From Fort Pitt, as a centre 

 of operations, military and surveying parties were sent in different directions to 

 prepare the way for emigration, and to secure the protection of the frontiers. Pioneer 

 settlements had already been made in Kentucky ; of which an account was printed 

 by John Filson in 1784, containing a brief notice of two "ancient fortifications," 

 with ditches and bastions, near Lexington. 



The design of making an organized settlement northwest of the Ohio, appears to 

 have been first publicly suggested by the soldiers of the revolution in June 1783. 

 A grant had been solicited from the British government as early as 1772, on behalf 

 of the provincial officers and soldiers who had served in the war against France ; 

 and on receiving a favorable reply, Israel Putnam and Rufus Putnam, the first 

 afterwards the celebrated general of the revolution, the other, also, subsequently, a 



Jefferson distributed to his friends in Paris, copies of Lis "Notes," bearing the date of 1782, but 

 supposed to be printed in 17*4. A more complete edition was printed in 1787— Rich. Bibliotheca 

 Americana. 



