Cahokia records, 1778-1790, Part 13

Author: Alvord, Clarence Walworth, 1868-1928
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 856

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Barbau was a man well advanced in years, when he was called upon to lead the French in their struggle for political liberty. In 1746, when he married his first wife, he was over twenty-five, so that in the year 1786 he must have passed his sixty-fifth birthday. His parents were not Canadians, but had come directly from France to New Orleans, where he was probably born.4

The long expected reply from Congress was brought to Kas- kaskia by Joseph Parker in January, 1787. The people were eager to learn its contents, and sent in haste to Barbau at Prairie

1 Hald. to Bish. of Quebec, Can. Archives, B., 66, 161.

2 Shea, Archbishop Carroll, 145; Amer. Cath. Hist. Researches, New Ser., ii., No. 3.

3 Kas. Rec., Petitions; Memorial of De Monbreun, Va. State Lib. De Monbreun remained only a short time in Kaskaskia after laying down his office. The records show him still there in 1787, but after that he appears no more. He went to Tennessee and at an advanced age died in Nashville in 1826. He had accumulated considerable property which he left to his children. (Chester Probate Records, March 19, 1827, Randolph County.)

4 Marriage contract, Cah. Rec. in, Belleville, Ill.

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INTRODUCTION

du Rocher that he might come and open it. But the deputy county lieutenant being ill and unable to come gave his permis- sion to the clerk to read the communication to the inhabitants.1 There must have been some disappointment felt when they heard that the government for which they had so ardently hoped was not yet to be established, but was still to be determined upon. However, they had succeeded in communicating with Congress, which was some consolation.

At almost the same time an emissary appeared from a different quarter. George Rogers Clark had, during the fall of the pre- vious year, led a force of Kentucky militiamen, without the au- thority of the United States, against the Indians in the Northwest territory. He then decided to garrison Vincennes, and now sent John Rice Jones to buy provisions in the Illinois, where some of the merchants had promised him assistance.2 The name of Clark had always been honored by the French, for they still remembered the kind but firm rule they had enjoyed during that year when he held not only the military but the civil authority. They were therefore easily persuaded that Clark and this agent represented the United States. Jones was well received and his purchases were guaranteed by a prominent American merchant, John Edgar, whose relations with the French were far more kindly than those of his fellow countrymen.3

Dodge, who had never forgiven Clark for his suspicions, and

1 The letter from Barbau is torn so that there remains of the date only the year and "anvier." Kas. Rec., Letters.

2 For the expedition of Clark see Winsor, Westward Movement, 275 et. seq .; Secret Jour- nals of Cong., iv., 313, but see also pp. 301 et seq.

3 Papers of Qld Cong., xlviii., 19. John Edgar was born in Belfast, Ireland, of Scotch- Irish parents. During the years 1772-1775, he commanded a British vessel on Lakes Huron and Erie. He then went into business at Detroit, where he was arrested on August 24, 1778, for corresponding with the Americans, and remained in prison until 1781, when he escaped. He had learned while in prison of the treasonable correspondence of the Vermonters with the British government and by giving information concerning it won the confidence of Wash- ington, George Clinton, and Congress. In 1784 he went to Kaskaskia to establish himself in trade. The trying years which followed almost drove him to cross to the Spanish bank; but with the coming of Governor St. Clair conditions became better and he was appointed to important positions under the new government. For twenty-five years he held the office of justice of the Court of Common Pleas. During this time he purchased many of the land claims of the French for a few dollars and in the course of years became the richest land owner of the American Bottom. In 1798 Congress voted him 2240 acres of land in considera- tion of his losses in Canada during the Revolutionary War. He died in 1830. Roberts, Life and Times of General John Edgar, Address in MS. to be printed in Transactions of Ill. Hist. Soc., for 1907; Amer. State Papers, Pub. Lands, passim; 'sce post, p. cxlii. et seq.

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who, in this case, had right on his side, since Clark was acting in a most illegal manner in invading the territory of the United States, opposed the collection of supplies by Jones and was powerful enough to prevent any sales. Jones went to Vincennes, however, and returned with troops. The narrator's account of what then occurred is interesting. "Mr Jones seemed a fine gentleman who caused no hurt to any body, but entered in the above said fort on the hill occupied by john Dodge. he threatened him to cast him out from it if he continued to be con- trary to America, as he was before. he stood there some days with his troops, during which time the wheat had been delivered peaceably and no body has been hurted."1

With the rising anger of the French and the promised assist- ance of Clark, Dodge began to feel that his position was becoming a dangerous one. He therefore collected his property and some- time in the spring crossed to the Spanish side, leaving a farmer to guard the fort and such of his possessions as he left there.

With the departure of Dodge all difficulties were by no means overcome. Since the expected authority from Congress to form a government did not arrive, the people began to clamor for some immediate form of judiciary, and they naturally turned to the government which had been established by John Todd. They knew no other nor was there any semblance of legality to be found except in the revival of their former civil organization. The final decision to revive the court came from the people and not from the county lieutenant, who, however, when consulted gave his unqualified approval.2

The clamors of the Americans, who numbered over one hun- dred, were heeded in this new establishment and they were given the franchise. Unfortunately for the French party the new- comers were more familiar with the use of the ballot, and by con- centrating their votes were able to elect three of their own number to office. These were Henry Smith, John McElduff, and Thomas Hughes. The other three candidates elected were Antoine

1 De la Valiniere in Papers of Old Cong., xlviii., 19.

2 Barbau to Langlois, May 2, Kas. Rec., Letters.

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Bauvais, François Corset, and J. Bte. Bauvais.1 These last had all held office before. Henry Smith was made president of the court. He was about fifty years old, and had come from Virginia to Illinois in 1780 and settled at Bellefontaine.

The first session was held on June 5, 1787, probably without the presence of the French justices, who were not willing to admit Americans to the bench. At this session no business was trans- acted.2 On the 7th of July the French justices posted on the door of the church a memorial addressed to the people, in which they set forth their objections to serving on the same bench with the Americans. The chief difficulties they raised were the im- possibility of the American and French judges understanding each other and the hopelessness of finding an interpreter capable of successfully performing his duties. The protest contained their definitive decision, and the two parties were compelled to separate. The result was that the Americans outside the village were turned adrift, and Bellefontaine, from this time, ceased to belong to the Kaskaskia district.3 An agreement was drawn up the day after the protest, in which the signers promised that the court should remain French as it had been constituted by John Todd, and that the Frenchmen receiving the next largest number of votes should be added to the list of judges. These were Vitale Bauvais, Nicolas Lachance, and Louis Brazeau. The number of signatures was not large, but the presence of John Edgar's name gave some promise that his influence would be thrown on the side of peace.4 The presence of the three members of the

1 Certificate of election by Barbau, Kas. Rec. I prefer to explain the composition of the court as above rather than to regard it as the result of agreement, because the protest of the French justices, noted below, would have been made before rather than after the elec- tion, if there had been any agreement to divide the court between the two classes of inhabit- ants.

2 Mason, John Todd's Record-Book, 308; Kas., Rec., Petitions. The government thus revived is probably the one to which Colonel Harmar refers, when he writes: "There have been some imposters before Congress particularly one Parker, a whining, canting Methodist, a kind of would be governor." (Smith, St. Clair Papers, ii., 35.) In a petition to Congress written by Tardiveau, who favored the American party in the Illinois, it is said: "That a simple report of a committee of Congress recommending the situation of the Illinois country has been by some designing persons palmed upon them for a frame of government actually established." Papers of Old Cong., xlviii., 209.

3 See post, p. cxlviii .; In Mason, John Todd's Record-Book, 312, there appears a jury trial attended by several Americans from Bellefontaine. They were probably called in on account of an insufficiency of Americans in the village to form a jury.

4 Both papers in Kas. Rec. The record of the sessions of this court may be found in the back of John Todd's Record-Book, 308 et seq.

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Bauvais family among the justices may be explained by the fact that few important French families had remained in Kaskaskia during these trying years, for the majority had preferred to seek refuge under the Spanish government.

The question of the court had hardly been settled, when Col- onel Harmar, who commanded in the Northwest, appeared in the village with some United States troops. He had been sent to the Illinois to make a general inspection of conditions, particu- larly to put an end to the anarchy at Vincennes due to Clark's garrison, and arrived at Kaskaskia on the 17th of August.1 He was accompanied by Barthélemi Tardiveau, a French mercantile adventurer, who had had relations with the Kentucky separa- tists 2 and was a personal friend of John Dodge, with whose bro- ther he had lived at the Falls of the Ohio.3 Tardiveau had very little knowledge of the conditions existing in the Illinois other than what he had learned from the Dodges; but Harmar was persuaded that he was the best informed man in the country and made him his interpreter and chief adviser.4 Dodge returned to his fort above Kaskaskia where he entertained the colonel, whose associates from this time were almost exclusively members of the Dodge party. Even after Harmar had visited the orderly village of Cahokia, his opinion of the French still remained some- what affected by the influence of these men, so that he reported : "I have to remark that all these people are entirely unacquainted with what the Americans call liberty. Trial by jury etc. they are strangers to. A commandant with a few troops to give them

1 Smith, St. Clair Papers, ii., 22, note, 30 et seq.

2 Roosevelt, Winning of the West, pt. v., ch. i. I have found several notices of Tardiveau to prove his importance in the development of the West, but such notices are so disconnected that almost nothing can be said of his life. He lived for a time in Holland and was later engaged in the fur trade at Louisville, before 1786. His influence with Governor St. Clair was as great as with Harmar, and he was appointed colonel of militia and judge of probate of St. Clair County. (Smith, St. Clair Papers, ii., 165.) He evidently did not remain long on the American side, for he was shortly afterwards at New Madrid and engaged in the Mississippi trade with Pierre Menard and others. This enterprise failed. (Menard Col., Tard. Papers.) In 1793, he was associated with Genet's scheme and was appointed chief interpreter. He died before 1800.

3 Papers of Old Cong., xlviii., 13.

4 Smith, St. Clair Papers, ii., 31, 35.

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INTRODUCTION

orders is the best form of government for them; it is what they have been accustomed to." 1

Although the majority of the French were ready to accept without question any disposition that might be made of them, some members of their party were by no means satisfied with the course of events. The leader of this faction was the Vicar General Huet de la Valiniere. His most important follower was the clerk, Pierre Langlois, who had been an adherent of Richard Winston and was an irreconcilable enemy of John Dodge. The priest, however, had lost all influence over the French by his own tyrannical methods. His was a nature to make enemies, and during the past year by his close adherence to the canonical law and his harsh and personal attacks in his sermons against individ- uals he had managed to stir up every community of the American Bottom against him.2 He and his associates were not willing to give up the old issues against the Americans, and were particularly exasperated that Tardiveau, a friend of John Dodge, should be the spokesman for the villagers; for said they, "that frenchman who speaketh easily the English language is come lately here with Col. Harmar whom he inspired with sentiments very different from those which we could expect from a gentleman in his place. He deceived him in their way as he was himself deceived. He made him stay, live and dwell only in the houses of friends of Dodge, he accompanied him everywhere like his interpreter, but he could not show him the truth being himself ignorant of it, he gave allways an evil idea to every word proceeding from those who Dodge thought to be his enemies."3 Tardiveau could not ignore this attack and declared that Langlois was opposed to any change in the regulations made by Todd. To justify himself Langlois, accompanied by the priest, presented himself before Colonel Harmar and said: "We desire and expect every day one regula- tion from the honl Congress, but now till it may come, having none,

1 Smith, St. Clair Papers, ii., 32. A further proof of the influence of Dodge is given by Harmar's unfavorable opinion of Parker, who had carried the message of the French party to Congress. Harmar writes that he was very "unpopular and despised by the inhabitants." (Ibid, ii., 35.)

2 See papers printed in Amer. Cath. Hist. Researches, New Ser., ii., No. 3.

3 Papers of Old Cong., xlviii., 19

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we did by common consent aggree to keep the same brought by Mr Todd, till the other may come, and Mr Tardiveau would do better to deceive not others as he is deceived himself." The narra- tive continues : "Afterward the same Mr Langlois having shown the above said proofs against John Dodge who was present, the said Dodge was so much angry that in the presence of the Lieu- tenant Makidoul [Ensign McDowell] with several others in the yard he did cast himself upon the said Mr Langlois and putting his fingers in his eyes and hair he would have made him blind, if the officer had not cryed against him." 1

Harmar did not care to become mixed up in the local quarrel, which he probably regarded as beneath his notice, and gave his support to the government which had been established, so far as to tell the inhabitants to obey their magistrates.2 Dodge, how- ever, felt that the victory belonged to him, and after the departure of the troops assembled his friends in his fort and "fyred four times each of his great canons, beating the drums etc."

Harmar brought discouraging news to the American settlers, who had received land grants from the deputy county lieu- tenants and courts. They were informed that such titles had no legal value, since Congress had forbidden settlements on the north side of the Ohio.3 This affected the villages of Bellefontaine and Grand Ruisseau. In this condition Tardi- veau saw his opportunity. He agreed with the settlers to repre- sent their case before Congress and obtain for each of them a concession of land, in consideration of one tenth of all land thus granted. The agreement was signed by one hundred and thirty Americans. He also represented to the French that their suffer- ings merited payment in land and offered to obtain for each of them a grant of five hundred acres on the same terms. The French had begun to learn the American habit of speculating in land, at least they thought they saw their opportunity to imitate that example, and most of them took advantage of the offer. In

1 .Papers of Old Cong., xlviii., 19.

2 Smith, St. Clair Papers, ii., 32.

3 Ibid, 31.

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INTRODUCTION

all fifty-three signed the contract at Kaskaskia, as did also the most representative citizens of Cahokia. To Pierre Langlois this act seemed to be a surrender to the enemy and he realized that the French would never reap the benefit, as in fact they did not, for the majority were too indolent to cultivate the ground they already possessed. He therefore wrote a letter to Con- gress saying that the French had been deceived and were not in need of that form of relief.1

For the next year Tardiveau deluged Congress with petitions. They were long wordy affairs full of glittering generalities and flowery phrases. He had been given copies of all the previous petitions and other important papers, and out of these he wove a story to soften the hearts of the congressional dele- gates; but he was careful not to mention names or particular events of the last few years, for his constituents were of all the parties which had divided Illinois politics, and he wished to obtain lands for all. He painted the French as living in Arcadian simplicity, guided only by the dictates of con- science and innocently bowing to the hardships thrust upon them, but through all their troubles retaining an unbounded faith in the goodness of Congress and a faithfulness to the American cause. The Americans he pictured as making settlements with all faith in the power of the courts to grant land, and as being greatly sur- prised at the illegality of the titles thus obtained. He allowed himself to speak against Clark and his officers who, on account of the recent attack on the Indians and the garrisoning of Vincennes, were in little favor.2 He found that George Morgan and his associates were attempting to obtain a grant of land for a colony in the same region and protected the interests of his constituents from them.3

Tardiveau was successful in arousing an interest in the French and gaining for them grants of land. Between the years 1788 and 1791 three laws were passed, either by the Continental Congress

1 Papers of Old Cong. xlviii., 89.

2 See his petitions in Papers of Old Cong. xlvii., 119, 123, 209; xli., 275.

3 Papers of Old Cong., xlviii ., 89

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or the Congress of the United States, by which four hundred acres were given to every head of a family living in the villages in the year 1783, and a hundred acres to those enlisted in the militia in 1790; to satisfy the Americans they were granted titles to lands which had been taken up under concessions of a sup- posed authority and which had been improved.1 The history of these land grants belongs to a later era; for twenty years were to pass before the many difficulties arising out of them were settled. Sufficient for our purpose is the fact that very few of the petitioners or their families were benefited by the concessions, for, long before the claims were settled, the rights of the original grantees were purchased by American land speculators. That story is but a continuation of the present one, the supplanting of the French by the more virile Anglo-Saxons.2

While Tardiveau was thus representing the misfortunes of the Illinois to Congress, the Court which had been founded with such hopes had, after a short period of innocuous existence, passed away.3 The French of Kaskaskia were not experienced enough to inaugurate a new movement after the events of the past years. Had they been left to themselves they might have succeeded as well as the Cahokians with self government; but their spirit had been broken, and their natural leaders had taken refuge on the Spanish shore. Influenced by the example of the Americans, the French themselves gave no obedience to the court which they had established. In 1789 John Edgar summed up the character of the people of Kaskaskia in these words : "It is in vain to expect an obedience to any Regulations, however salutary in a place where every one thinks himself master, & where there is not the least degree of subordination. You know better than I, the dispositions of a people who have ever been subject to a military power, & are unacquainted with the blessings of a free govern- ment by the voice of their equals. To the commands of a Superior

I A good account of these laws is given by E. G. Mason in Chi. Hist. Soc. Col., iv., 192 et seq .; see also Amer. State Papers Pub. Lands, ii., 124.

2 In Chester Ill. there are several record books containing the record of these sales of claims. The prices paid for each four hundred acres range from fifteen dollars upwards.

3 Mason, John Todd's Record-Book, 313.

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INTRODUCTION

there are no people readier to obey; but without a superior there are none more difficult to be governed."1

The end of the court was without doubt hastened by the charge of illegality of its decisions made by the Kentuckians, who refused to recognize any civil organization in Illinois, saying that under the act of Congress, neither the people nor the com- manding officer was authorized to appoint magistrates.2 This reference is to the "Ordinance of 1787", which created a govern- ment for the Northwest and under which ordinance Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor in 1788; but, since the effects of this act were not extended to the Illinois till the spring of 1790, the people were without other authority than that which resided in themselves and were for the moment weakened by the ordi- nance itself, since it annulled all other jurisdiction than that which might be established in accordance with its decrees.

The history of the " Ordinance of 1787" does not fall, however, within the limits of this Introduction; but in one point it was to affect the Illinois seriously and immediately. It prohibited slavery in the Northwest. As soon as this was learned, the French supposed that the slaves which they had always owned would be set at liberty. This fear was used by the Spaniards to draw the inhabitants of American Illinois to their territory as settlers. In 1788 George Morgan, who was, as we have seen, well known in the lands on the Mississippi, was attempting to make a settlement at New Madrid. He had been disappointed in obtaining a grant of land for a settlement on the American side and so accepted the offer of the Spanish government for a large tract on the western bank.3 He advertised extensively the advantages of the colony, where he had been accorded religious toleration and the free navigation of the Mississippi. One of the arguments he used was the action of Congress in making the land of the Northwest free soil. He attracted many French and Americans by this means in spite of the efforts of Tardiveau and Major Hamtranck, com-

1 Edgar to Hamtranck Dr. MSS., 2W124-142.

2 Hamtranck to Harmar November 11, 1789, Dr. MSS., 2W124-142. This was said of the court of Post Vincennes, but was equally true of Kaskaskia.

3 Winsor, Westward Movement, 366.

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manding at Post Vincennes, who tried to stop the emigration by assuring the French that Congress had no intention of freeing the slaves already owned in the territory, an interpretation of the ordinance which St. Clair later confirmed.1

Another cause of the emigration at this time was the danger to life and property from the Indians. Several tribes of the North- west were on the warpath and had ceased to spare the villages, as they had previously been inclined to do, when the attachment of the French to the Americans was uncertain. The Miami, the Wabash, the Kickapoos, and the Pottawattamies were all accounted enemies and had made attacks on the unprotected settlements.2 The villages in the Illinois suffered most, however, from the Pianke- shaws of the Spanish bank, who were incited by the Spaniards to burn and murder until the inhabitants should be forced to take refuge under the Spanish government. A writer from Kaskaskia says: "It is well known that the minds of the Indians are con- tinually poisoned by the traders on the other side, who set off America in the most despicable light possible, which has not a small influence with the Indians. Government may not encourage it, but surely if friends to us they ought to put a stop to it."3 On October 8, 1789, John Dodge, who was glad enough of an oppor- tunity to revenge himself, led a band of these Indians and some whites into the village of Kaskaskia and attempted to carry off some slaves belonging to John Edgar, the most prominent and one of the last Americans to cling to that village. Although he failed, the lives of Edgar, his wife, and John Rice Jones were for a time in the greatest danger.4

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Cahokia records, 1778-1790, Part 13

Author: Alvord, Clarence Walworth, 1868-1928 Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 856

Author: Alvord, Clarence Walworth, 1868-1928
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 856