Maumee City Express

For the Maumee City Express.

To the Electors of Lucas County.

Fellow Citizens:--In the great political movements, that affect us for weal or woe, our voice is stifled in that of the multitudes operating on the same question. We consequently are liable to disregard our responsibility as voters.

It happens however, that this year, we have submitted to us, by our legislature, a question of really great importance to every inhabitant of the county, and all who may hereafter become such.

The question amounts to this in effect to wit: Shall a majority of the people of the county of Lucas, as often as it may be necessary for them to visit the seat of Justice of the county, be compelled to go ten miles further than they would need could the seat of Justice be removed to the best location in the county. On this question you are called to act on the 8th of Oct. next, by putting on your ballots for or against a removal of the seat of Justice.

There has never been no question before the people of Lucas county, that has excited half the general interest, that this has, and aside from personal feeling on the subject, every elector ought to feel that he is called upon as a juror to do an act of justice to the parties concerned.

Let every one then place before him a map of the county, and make it a study for ten minutes, where is the seat of Justice? There at the north-eastern extremity of the county? for though the township of Oregon on the south side of the river, contains about 60 sections of what is called land, the most of it, to say the least, consists of very little desirable for settlement, is of very questionable character.

Who has business at the seat of Justice from the south and east of Toledo? The people of Oregon. Who from the N. E. down the river? The people of Manhattan. Who from the S. W. up the river? The people of Maumee, Monclova, Waterville and Providence. Who from the west? Those of Tremainsville, Sylvania, Amboy, Royalton, Chesterfield, Gorham, German, Clinton, York, Swan creek, Wing and Springfield. Draw a line through Toledo North and South, and on the East side of such line there will be one tenth of the territory of the county, calling that land which may or may not be land; and on the west side there will be nine tenths of said territory, and most of it the best and most desirable land in the county.

In the mean time there is no good reason for continuing the seat of Justice at Toledo. Eligible locations in abundance, are to be had much more central and in every other respect equally commodious. If it should by the commissioners be thought advisable to fix the seat of Justice on the river, Maumee City and Waterville, or some point between them, would be more central, and either Maumee City or Waterville could well accommodate the public business. Waterville with the present limits of the county is rather nearer the centre than Maumee City, but taking into consideration the Sandusky road and other roads from the interior of the state, the bridge across the Maumee, the proximity of the seat of Justice of Wood county, and the roads west and north-west, and up and down the river, from the bridge of Maumee City, that would probably be the point, if established on the river. But it is more than probable, that ere long the boundaries of the county will be altered, and how must they be altered? Agreeably to the constitution, they cannot be so altered as to leave less than four hundred square miles in each county. Now look again at the map. The north line of the state must remain within four miles and a half of the centre of Toledo. No more territory can be obtained on the east or south, but it is probable that the non-descript part of Lucas county on the south side of the river, will be attached to Wood and Sandusky counties. But including that, and you will perceive, that about one hundred square miles only are nearer Toledo than they are Maumee City, while admitting the county to contain just four hundred square miles, three hundred of them will be nearer to Maumee City than to Toledo. This is inevitable, in any way you can fix it. Neither is it very easy to form a county out of the present territory of Lucas including Maumee and Toledo in which Maumee City will not be as nearly central to the county as any town on the river.

The question then recurs, why should the people of Lucas county submit to the expense and inconvenience of continuing the seat of Justice at Toledo?

Is it because they have a particular regard for the foreign speculators, who have erected so many buildings to stand tenantless unless something is done for their relief? Or is it on account of the self-denying hospitality and politeness, the rigid morality and decorum of its fluctuating population?

Fellow citizens it ought not to be thus, and it must not and will not be thus. Let the Legislature of the state understand, that what we have so unanimously asked of them for two years, we insist upon still, and this business will be satisfactorily adjusted.

AN OLD SETTLER.