USA > Iowa > Story County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Story County, Iowa > Part 4
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Among the first operations of the company was to send 800 emigrants to Louisiana, who arrived at Dauphine Island in 1718.
In 1719 Philipe Francis Renault arrived in Illinois with 200 miners and artisans. The war between France and Spain at this time rendered it extremely probable that the Missis- sippi Valley might become the theater of Span- ish hostilities against the French settlements. To prevent this, as well as to extend French claims, a chain of forts was begun, to keep open the connection between the mouth and the sources of the Mississippi. Fort Orleans, high up the Mississippi River, was erected as an outpost in 1720.
The Mississippi scheme was at the zenith of its power and glory in January, 1720, but the gigantic bubble collapsed more suddenly than it had been inflated, and the company was de- clared hopelessly bankrupt in May following. France was impoverished by it; both private and public credit were overthrown; capitalists sud- denly found themselves paupers, and labor was
left without employment. The effect on the colony of Louisiana was disastrous.
While this was going on in Lower Louisiana, the region about the lakes was the theater of Indian hostilities, rendering the passage from Canada to Louisiana extremely dangerous for many years. The English had not only extended their Indian trade into the vicinity of the French settlements, but through their friends, the Iro- quois, had gained a marked ascendancy over the Foxes, a fierce and powerful tribe, of Iroquois descent, whom they incited to hostilities against the French. The Foxes began their hostilities with the siege of Detroit in 1712, a siege which they continued for nineteen consecutive days, and although the expedition resulted in dimin- ishing their numbers and humbling their pride, yet it was not until after several successive cam- paigns, embodying the best military resources of New France, had been directed against them, that they were finally defeated at the great bat- tles of Butte des Morts and on the Wisconsin River, and driven west in 1746.
The company, having found that the cost of defending Louisiana exceeded the returns from its commerce, solicited leave to surrender the Mississippi wilderness to the home govern- ment. Accordingly, on the 10th of April, 1732, the jurisdiction and control over the commerce reverted to the crown of France. The company had held possession of Louisiana fourteen years. In 1735 Bienville returned to assume command for the king.
A glance at a few of the old French settle- ments will show the progress made in portions of Louisiana during the early part of the eighteenth century. As early as 1705 traders and hunters had penetrated the fertile regions of the Wabash, and from this region, at that early date, 15,000 hides and skins had been collected and sent to Mobile for the European market.
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In the year 1716 the French population on the Wabash kept up a lucrative commerce with Mobile by means of traders and voyageurs. The Ohio River was comparatively unknown.
In 1746 agriculture on the Wabash had at- tained to greater prosperity than in any of the French settlements besides, and in that year 600 barrels of flour were manufactured and shipped to New Orleans, together with consid- erable quantities of hides, peltry, tallow and beeswax.
In the Illinois country, also, considerable settlements had been made, so that, in 1730, they embraced 140 French families, about 600 " converted Indians," and many traders and voyageurs.
In 1753 the first actual conflict arose be- tween Louisiana and the Atlantic colonies. From the earliest advent of the Jesuit fathers, up to the period now referred to, the great ambition of the French had been, not alone to preserve their possessions in the West, but by | every possible means to prevent the slightest at-
tempt of the English, east of the mountains, to extend their settlements toward the Mississippi. France was resolved on retaining possession of the great territory which her missionaries had discovered and revealed to the world. French commandants had avowed their purpose of seizing every Englishman within the Ohio Valley.
The colonies of Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia were most affected by the encroach- ments of France in the extension of her domin- ion, and particularly in the great scheme of uniting Canada with Louisiana. To carry out this purpose, the French had commenced a line of forts extending from the lakes to the Ohio River. Virginia was not only alive to her own interests, but attentive to the vast importance of an immediate and effective resistance on the part of all the English colonies to the actual
and contemplated encroachments of the French.
In 1753 Gov. Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent George Washington, then a young man just twenty-one, to demand of the French com- mandant "a reason for invading British do- minions while a solid peace subsisted." Wash- ington met the French commandant, Gardeur de St. Pierre, on the head-waters of the Alle- gheny, and having communicated to him the object of his journey, received the insolent answer that the French would not discuss the matter of right, but would make prisoners of every Englishman found trading on the Ohio and its waters. The country, he said, belonged to the French by virtue of the discoveries of La Salle, and they would not withdraw from it.
In January, 1754, Washington returned to Virginia, and made his report to the governor and council. Forces were at once raised, and Washington, as lieutenant-colonel, was dis- patched at the head of 150 men, to the forks of the Ohio, with orders to "finish the fort already begun there by the Ohio company, and to make prisoners, kill or destroy all who interrupted the English settlements."
On his march through the forests of Western Pennsylvania, Washington, through the aid of friendly Indians, discovered the French con- cealed among the rocks, and as they ran to seize their arms, ordered his men to fire upon them, at the same time, with his own musket, setting the example. An action lasting about a quarter of an hour ensued; ten of the Frenchmen were killed, among them Jumon- ville, the commander of the party, and twenty- one were made prisoners. The dead were scalped by the Indians, and the chief, bearing a tomahawk and a scalp, visited all the tribes of the Miamis, urging them to join the Six Nations and the English against the French. The French, however, were soon re-enforced, and Col. Washington was compelled to return
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to Fort Necessity. Here, on the 3d of July, De Villiers invested the fort with 600 French troops and 100 Indians. On the 4th Wash- ington accepted terms of capitulation, and the English garrison withdrew from the valley of the Ohio.
This attack of Washington upon Jumonville aroused the indignation of France, and war was formally declared in May, 1756, and the "French and Indian War" devastated the colonies for several years. Montreal, Detroit and all Canada were surrendered to the English, and on the 10th of February, 1763, by the treaty of Paris-which had been signed, though not formally ratified by the respective governments, on the 3d of November, 1762- France relinquished to Great Britain all that portion of the province of Louisiana lying on the east side of the Mississippi, except the island and town of New Orleans. On the same day that the treaty of Paris was signed, France, by a secret treaty, ceded to Spain all her possessions on the west side of the Missis- sippi, including the whole country to the head- waters of the Great River, and west to the Rocky Mountains, and the jurisdiction of France in America, which had lasted nearly a century, was ended.
At the close of the Revolutionary War, by the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, the English Government ceded to the latter all the territory on the east side of the Mississippi River and north of the thirty-first parallel of north latitude. At the, same time, Great Britain ceded to Spain all the Floridas, comprising all the territory east of the Mississippi and south of the southern limits of the United States.
At this time, therefore, the present State of Iowa was a part of the Spanish possessions in North America, as all the territory west of the Mississippi River was under the dominion
of Spain. That government also possessed all the territory of the Floridas east of the great river and south of the thirty-first parallel of north latitude. The Mississippi, therefore, so essential to the prosperity of the western por- tion of the United States, for the last 300 miles of its course flowed wholly within the Spanish dominions, and that government claimed the exclusive right to use and control it below the southern boundary of the United States.
The free navigation of the Mississippi was a very important question during all the time that Louisiana remained a dependency of the Spanish crown, and as the final settlement in- timately affected the status of the then future State of Iowa, it will be interesting to trace its progress.
The people of the United States occupied and exercised jurisdiction over the entire east- ern valley of the Mississippi, embracing all the country drained by its eastern tributaries; they had a natural right, according to the ac- cepted international law, to follow these rivers to the sea, and to the use of the Mississippi River accordingly, as the great natural channel of commerce. The river was not only neces- sary but absolutely indispensable to the pros- perity and growth of the western settlements then rapidly rising into commercial and polit- ical importance. They were situated in the heart of the great valley, and with wonderfully expansive energies and accumulating resources, it was very evident that no power on earth could deprive them of the free use of the river below them, only while their numbers were insufficient to enable them to maintain their right by force. Inevitably, therefore, imme- diately after the ratification of the treaty of 1783, the western people began to demand the free navigation of the Mississippi-not as a favor, but as a right. In 1786 both banks of
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
the river, below the mouth of the Ohio, were occupied by Spain, and military posts on the east bank enforced her power to exact heavy duties on all imports by way of the river for the Ohio region. Every boat descending the river was forced to land and submit to the arbitrary revenue exactions of the Spanish authorities. Under the administration of Gov. Miro, these rigorous exactions were some- what relaxed from 1787 to 1790; but Spain held it as her right to make them. Tak- ing advantage of the claim of the American people that the Mississippi should be open to them, in 1791, the Spanish Government con- cocted a scheme for the dismembership of the Union. The plan was to induce the Western people to separate from the Eastern States by liberal land grants and extraordinary commer- cial privileges.
Spanish emissaries among the people of Ohio and Kentucky informed them that the Spanish Government would grant them favora- ble commercial privileges, provided they would secede from the Federal Government east of the mountains. The Spanish minister to the United States plainly declared to his confiden- tial correspondent that, unless the Western peo- ple would declare their independence and re- fuse to remain in the Union, Spain was deter- mined never to grant the free navigation of the Mississippi.
By the treaty of Madrid, October 20, 1795, however, Spain formerly stipulated that the Mississippi River, from its source to the Gulf, for its entire width, should be free to American trade and commerce, and that the people of the United States should be permitted, for three years, to use the port of New Orleans as a port of deposit for their merchandise and produce, duty free.
In November, 1801, the United States Gov- ernment received, through Rufus King, its
minister at the court of St. James, a copy of the treaty between Spain and France, signed at Madrid, March 21, 1801, by which the cession of Louisiana to France, made the previous autumn, was confirmed.
The change offered a favorable opportunity to secure the just rights of the United States, in relation to the free navigation of the Missis- sippi, and ended the attempt to dismember the Union by an effort to secure an independent government west of the Alleghany Mountains. On the 7th of January, 1803, the American House of Representatives adopted a resolution declaring their " unalterable determination to maintain the boundaries and the rights of navi- gation and commerce through the River Mis- sissippi, as established by existing treaties."
In the same month, President Jefferson nomi- nated and the Senate confirmed Robert R. Liv- ingston and James Monroe as envoys pleni- potentiary to the court of France, and Charles Pinckney and James Monroe to the court of Spain, with plenary powers to negotiate treaties to effect the object enunciated by the popular branch of the National Legislature. These envoys were instructed to secure, if possible, the cession of Florida and New Orleans, but it does not appear that Mr. Jefferson and his cabinet had any idea of purchasing that part of Louisiana lying on the west side of the Missis- sippi. In fact, on the 2d of March, following, the instructions were sent to our ministers, containing a plan which expressly left to France " all her territory on the west side of the Mis- sissippi." Had these instructions been fol- lowed. it might have been that there would not have been any State of Iowa, or any other mem- ber of the glorious Union of States west of the " Father of Waters."
In obedience to his instructions, however, Mr. Livingston broached this plan to M. Tal- leyrand, Napoleon's prime minister, when that
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
courtly diplomatist quietly suggested to the American minister that France might be will- ing to cede the whole French domain in North America to the United States, and asked how much the Federal Government would be willing to give for it. Livingston intimated .that 20,- 000,000 of francs might be a fair price. Tal- leyrand thought that not enough, but asked the Americans to " think of it." A few days later, Napoleon, in an interview with Mr, Livingston, in effect informed the American envoy that he had secured Louisiana in a contract with Spain for the purpose of turning it over to the United States for a mere nominal sum. He had been compelled to provide for the safety of that prov- ince by the treaty, and he was "anxious to give the United States a magnificent bargain for a mere trifle." The price proposed was 125,000,000 francs. This was subsequently modified to $15,000,000, and on this basis a treaty was negotiated, and was signed on the 30th of April, 1803.
This treaty was ratified by the Federal Gov- ernment, and by act of Congress approved October 31, 1803, the President of the United States was authorized to take possession of the territory and provide for it a temporary gov- ernment.
Accordingly, on the 20th day of December following, on behalf of the president, Gov. Clairborne and Gen. Wilkinson took posses- sion of the Louisiana Purchase, and raised the American flag over the newly acquired domain, at New Orleans. Spain, although it had by treaty ceded the province to France in 1801, still held quasi possession, and at first objected to the transfer, but withdrew her opposition early in 1804.
By this treaty, thus successfully consum- mated, and the peaceable withdrawal of Spain, the then infant nation of the New World ex- tended its dominion west of the Mississippi to
the Pacific Ocean, and north from the Gulf of Mexico to British America.
If the original design of Jefferson's adminis- tration had been accomplished, the United States would have acquired only that portion of the French territory lying east of the Mis- sissippi River, and while the American people would thus have acquired the free navigation of that great river, all of the vast and fertile empire on the west, so rich in its agricultural and inexhaustible mineral resources, would have remained under the dominion of a foreign power. To Napoleon's desire to sell the whole of his North American possessions, and Liv- ingston's act transcending his instructions, which was acquiesced in after it was done, does Iowa owe her position as a part of the United States by the Louisiana Purchase.
By authority of an act of Congress, approved March 26, 1804, the newly acquired territory was, on the 1st day of October following, di- wided. That part lying south of the 33d paral- lel of north latitude was called the Territory of Orleans, and all north of that parallel the Dis- trict of Louisiana, which was placed under the authority of the officers of Indiana Territory, until July 4, 1805, when it was organized, with territorial government of its own, and so re- mained until 1812, when the Territory of Or- leans became the State of Louisiana, and the name of the Territory of Louisiana was changed to Missouri. On the 4th of July, 1814, that part of Missouri Territory comprising the pres- ent State of Arkansas, and the country to the westward, was organized into the Arkansas Territory.
On the 2d of March, 1821, the State of Mis- souri, being a part of the territory of that name, was admitted to the Union. June 28, 1834, the territory west of the Mississippi River and north of Missouri was made a part of the Ter- ritory of Michigan; but two years later, on the
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
4th of July, 1836, Wisconsin Territory was erected, embracing within its limits the present States of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
By act of Congress, approved June 12, 1838,
the Territory of Iowa was erected, comprising, in addition to the present State, much the larger part of Minnesota, and extending north to the boundary of the British possessions.
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
CHAPTER III.
EXPEDITIONS AND INDIAN CESSION TREATIES-PIKE'S EXPEDITION-THE INDIANS OF IOWA-THEIR PRINCIPAL VILLAGES AND BATTLES-THE BLACK HAWK PURCHASE - KEOKUK'S RESERVE-FIRST INDIVIDUAL GRANT-A LIST OF ALL INDIAN TREATIES AFFECTING IOWA SOIL-THE SPANISH GRANT TO DUBUQUE-THE CLAIM OF CHOTEAU- THE GIRARD TRACT AND THE HONORI TRACT-THE HALF-BREED LANDS-CONTROVERSIES OVER THE RIVAL CLAIMS.
Who, not content With fair equality, fraternal state, Will arrogate dominion undeserved Over his brethren .- Milton.
OON after the acquisition of Louisiana, the United States Government adopted meas- ures for the exploration of the new territory, having in view the conciliation of the numerous tribes of In- dians by whom it was possessed, and, also, the selection of proper sites for the establishment of military posts and trading sta- tions. The Army of the .West, Gen. James Wilkinson, com- manding, had its headquarters in St. Louis. From this post, Capts. Lewis and Clark, with a sufficient force, were detailed to explore the unknown sources of the Missouri, and Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike to ascend to the head-waters of the Mississippi. Lieut. Pike, with one ser- geant, two corporals and seventeen privates, left the military camp, near St. Louis, in a keel-boat, with four months' rations, on August
9, 1805. On the 20th of the same month the expedition arrived within the present limits of Iowa, at the foot of the Des Moines Rapids, where Pike met William Ewing, who had just been appointed Indian agent at this point, a French interpreter and four chiefs and fifteen Sac and Fox warriors.
At the head of the rapids, where Montrose is now situated, Pike held a council with the Indians, in which he addressed them substan- tially as follows: "Your great Father, the President of the United States, wished to be more intimately acquainted with the situation and wants of the different nations of red peo- ple in our newly acquired Territory of Louis- iana, and has ordered the general to send a number of his warriors in different directions to take them by the hand and make such in- quiries as might afford the satisfaction re- quired." At the close of the council he pre- sented the red men with some knives, whisky and tobacco.
Pursuing his way up the river, he arrived
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
on August 23, at what is supposed, from his de- scription, to be the site of the present city of Burlington, which he selected as the location of a military post. He describes the place as , being " on a hill, about forty miles above the River de Moyne Rapids, on the west side of the river, in latitude about 41° 21' north. The channel of the river runs on that shore; the hill in front is about sixty feet perpendicu- lar; nearly level on top; four hundred yards in the rear is a small prairie fit for gardening, and immediately under the hill is a limestone spring, sufficient for the consumption of a whole regiment." In addition to this descrip- tion, which corresponds to Burlington, the spot is laid down on his map at a bend in the river, a short distance below the mouth of the Henderson, which pours its waters into the Mississippi from Illinois. The fort was built at Fort Madison, but from the distance, lati- tude, description and map furnished by Pike, it could not have been the place selected by him, while all the circumstances corroborate the opinion that the place he selected was the spot where Burlington is now located, called by the early voyagers on the Mississippi, " Flint Hills."
On the 24th, with one of his men, he went on shore on a hunting expedition, and follow- ing a stream which they supposed to be a part of the Mississippi, they were led away from their course. Owing to the intense heat and tall grass, his two favorite dogs, which he had taken with him, became exhausted and he left them on the prairie, supposing that they would follow him as soon as they should get rested, and went on to overtake his boat. Reaching the river, he waited some time for his canine friends, but they did not come, and as he deemed it inexpedient to detain the boat longer, two of his men volunteered to go in pursuit of them, and he continued on his way up the
river, expecting that the two men would soon overtake him. They lost their way, however, and for six days were without food, except a few morsels gathered from the streams, and might have perished, had they not accident- ally met a trader from St. Louis, who induced two Indians to take them up the river, and they overtook the boat at Dubuque.
At Dubuque, Pike was cordially received by Julien Dubuque, a Frenchman, who held a min- ing claim under a grant from Spain. Dubuque had an old field piece, and fired a salute in honor of the advent of the first Americans who had visited that part of the Territory. Dubuque, however, was not disposed to publish the wealth of his mines, and the young and evidently in- quisitive officer obtained but little information from him.
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After leaving this place, Pike pursued his way up the river, but as he passed beyond the limits of the present State of Iowa, a detailed history of his explorations on the upper waters of the Mississippi more properly belongs to the history of another locality.
It is sufficient to say that on the site of Fort Snelling, Minn., at the mouth of the Minne- sota River, Pike held a council with the Sioux, September 23, and obtained from them a grant of 100,000 acres of land. On the 8th of Janu- ary, 1806, Pike arrived at a trading post be- longing to the Northwest Company, on Lake De Sable, in latitude 47°. At this time the then powerful Northwest Company carried on their immense operations from Hudson's Bay to the St. Lawrence; up that river on both sides, along the great lakes to the head of Lake Superior, thence to the sources of the Red River of the north and west, to the Rocky Mountains, embracing within the scope of their operations the entire Territory of Iowa. After successfully accomplishing his mission, and performing a valuable service to Iowa and the
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whole Northwest, Pike returned to St. Louis, arriving there on the 30th of April, 1806.
According to the policy of the European nations, possession perfected title to any terri- tory. It is seen that the country west of the Mississippi was first discovered by the Span- iards, but afterward was visited and occupied by the French. It was ceded by France to Spain, and by Spain back to France again, and then was purchased and occupied by the United States. During all that time, it does not ap- pear to have entered into the heads or hearts of the high contracting parties that the coun- try they bought, sold and gave away was in the possession of a race of men who, although sav- age, owned the vast domain before Columbus first crossed the Atlantic. Having purchased the territory, the United States found it still in the possession of its original owners, who had never been dispossessed; and it became necessary to purchase again what had already been bought before, or forcibly eject the occu- pants; therefore, the history of the Indian na- tions who occupied Iowa prior to and during its early settlement by the whites becomes an important chapter in the history of the State, that cannot be omitted.
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