USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Cahokia > Cahokia records, 1778-1790 > Part 4
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1 See the statement of the people of Cahokia concerning their idea of Clark's troops, this volume, p. 539. I have found no evidence that George Morgan had any knowledge of Clark's undertaking.
2 This is not the place for an account of military actions, nor have I considered it neces- sary to repeat what is contained in Clark's own narratives, which have been so frequently exploited by historians and novelists that they are very familiar. His Letter to Mason and his Memoir have been printed in English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 411 et seq.
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purpose.1 It was evidently expected by the American traders of Kaskaskia that they would learn something from these Kentucky hunters, for Bentley, who was absent, wrote to Murray concern- ing them; but the latter answered: "As to the hunters you write of there is three of them, one of them was here before, his name Benjm Lynn, but they bring no news that I can hear of worth reporting."? According to Clark's account of their in- vestigation given to Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia, they reported that: "The principal inhabitants are entirely against the American cause, and look on us as notorious rebels that ought to be subdued at any rate, but I don't doubt but after being acquainted with the cause they would become good friends to it."3 There has been preserved, however, another account according to which they reported that there were: "Strong traces of affection for the Americans, among some of the inhabitants."4 There is also a tradition that Linn was warned by a trader of an attack planned by some Indians against himself and companion.5
The history of Clark's journey down the Ohio, of his landing near Fort Massac, and of the march across the prairies is so well known that it need not be retold; but the events occurring at Kaskaskia which made his success possible are less familiar. The states had sent down the Mississippi, in the spring of the year, an expedition under Willing to make attacks on the British posts in the south. The course of this expedition, Rocheblave had followed with interest and, as he heard of the depredations Willing made upon property, he published the accounts to the villagers in order to cause them to fear for their own.6 When he learned that another expedition was on the Ohio directed against the Illinois, he connected it with the Willing raid and saw in it an attempt on the part of the Americans to gain control of the whole stretch
1 Letter by Clark, Amer. Hist. Rev., viii., 492.
2 Murray to Bentley, May 25, 1777, Mich. Pio. and Hist. Col., xix., 417. There is a slight mistake in the date given by Clark who says he sent them in June.
3 Letter by Clark, Amer. Hist. Rev., viii., 492.
" Butler, History of Kentucky, 46.
5 Tradition preserved in Linn's family, Dr. MSS., 18J51.
6 Mason, Rocheblave Papers, in Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 408, 410. 412 et seq.
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of the river. This news of the approach of Clark did not reach him much before that officer was at the falls and possibly not before he had landed at Massac creek. Rocheblave immediately ordered out the militia to make preparations for resistance ; but he soon learned the strength of the party opposed to him, for the American traders in Kaskaskia either persuaded the in- habitants not to attempt repelling the invaders, and in this they were aided by the Spanish emissaries, or else they quieted the fears of an attack. Whatever occurred, Rocheblave found that he could accomplish nothing, for his government was by per- suasion rather than by command, and the militia officers were members of the party that gave lukewarm support to the British and was half inclined to the American cause. Unfortunately for Rocheblave, his chief supporters were not with him at this crisis ; Viviat had died in the preceding fall, Lachance had recently been taken prisoner,1 and Cerré had just started with some furs for Michillimackinac. Hoping that the sight of a reinforcement coming to their assistance might arouse the inhabitants, Roche- blave sent a messenger to summon the militia from Vincennes; and M. Legras actually started with forty men from that village to assist Kaskaskia. The message had come too late, however, for Clark landed at Massac creek, marched across country, and cut off any help which might be rendered from the Wabash. Thus the crisis, which Rocheblave had been prophesying, arrived, and he found himself unable to make any resistance.2
1 Rocheblave to Bosseron, April 25, 1778, Mason, Rocheblave Papers, in Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 408.
2 The above account is an attempt to explain in the light of the knowledge of conditions just previous to the attack the following passage in a letter from Rocheblave to Carleton, dated April 3 [evidently miscopied for August 3], 1778. The translation is from Mason, Rocheblave Papers, Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 418. "Sir: I steal a moment from my guards in order to have the honor of informing your excellency that the night of the fifth or [and?] sixth of July last three hundred rebels under the orders of Mr. Clerke [sic], the self-styled Colonel, arrived here where they have made me prisoner.
"The majority of the inhabitants knowing the manœuvres which had occurred in the lower part of the Mississippi were resolved to defend themselves, but the dealings of our neighbors, the Spaniards, and the abuse of the treacherous English, especially those named Daniel Murray, Richard Winston, and John Hanson, prevented them from doing it. There remained to me for a resource Mr. Legras, who prepared himself with forty men to come and join me from Fort Vincennes, where he is a captain of militia, but the rebels having landed on the beautiful river [Ohio], sixty leagues from here, crossed the neck of land which separates that river from this place, and prevented that. I regret so much the more that he did not arrive, as a number of men on seeing me supported would have joined themselves to us, and we would have been able to hold the balance of affairs in opposition to those who were desti-
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Whether Clark and the American traders of Kaskaskia com- municated with each other before the attack in the night of July 4th and 5th, is very doubtful. We have seen that, before setting out from Fort Pitt, Clark knew of no party in the village that was ready to give him assistance; but he may have heard of the American partisans from that party of hunters, just from Kas- kaskia, who met him at the Tennessee River, although from his own account their information was anything but reassuring; or Murray and his associates may have communicated with him as soon as he approached the village. There is some slight evi- dence that the capture of the village was made less difficult by the aid of some of the inhabitants; for Clark seems to have found no trouble in procuring boats to convey his troops across the Kas- kaskia River;1 and, if the tradition is trustworthy, his soldiers were admitted to the fort and guided to the bedchamber of Rocheblave by a Pennsylvanian, who may have been Daniel Murray.2 Clark himself says that provisions were
tute and in extremities." In 1780 Rocheblave gave a similar explanation of his failure to defend the Illinois, Can. Archives, B., 122, p. 545.
Since Clark himself says "that they had some suspicion of being attacked and had made some preparations - keeping out spies - but they, making no discoveries, had got off their guard" (Letter to Mason, English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 416) and, "we were informed that the people, a few days before, were under arms, but had concluded that the cause of the alarm was without foundation, and that at that time there was a great number of men in town, but that the Indians had generally left it, and at present all was quiet" (Ibid p. 476), there appears to be no good reason for rejecting the testimony of Rocheblave. It is to be noticed also that the Cahokians write as if the Kaskaskians chose not to defend their village. See post, p. 537. The chief difficulty in reconciling Rocheblave's account with other known facts lies in his own letter of July 4th, which gives a long narrative of the depredations of the Willing expedition on the southern Mississippi and only makes a brief mention of the expected attack on Kaskaskia i. e., "We are upon the eve of having here a numerous band of brigands."
Historians have followed too exclusively and uncritically the narratives of Clark, who was fond of the dramatic, not to say the melodramatic, and who never hesitated to omit de- tails which would affect what he regarded as the dramatic dénouement. Like other frontiers- men he never underestimated his own deeds, and after a careful comparison of the letter to Mason with the Memoir, one is forced to believe that he was given to exaggeration. There- fore it is not surprising that he did not make more of the persons and conditions which made the occupation of Kaskaskia easy and that he emphasized the surprise of the place, since that appealed to his dramatic instincts. Mason in his paper on Philippe Rocheblave (Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 373) uses the letter quoted above, but does not attempt to give any explanation of it. I have not noticed an attempt to explain this letter by any other historian of this event. See Winsor, Nar. and Crit. Hist., vi., 719; English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 168; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, Pt. ii., ch. iv.
1 He says, "We marched after night to a farm that was on the same side of the river, about a mile above the town, took the family prisoners, and found plenty of boats to cross in, and in two hours transported ourselves to the other shore with the greatest silence." (Let- ter to Mason, English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 416.) If he really found these boats on the east bank of the Kaskaskia, how did they happen to be there, since very few people were living on that bank at the time?
2 Reynolds, Pioneer History, 73. The passage is: "An American, a native of Penn- sylvania, was there in the Fort and conducted Kenton and his small party into the Fort by a
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collected for his troops by Murray and Winston during the night.1
It is evident from the narratives of Clark and Bowman and from the letters of Rocheblave that the inhabitants and the comman- dant himself had not expected the attack so soon. On the day before the attack Rocheblave wrote to Carleton: "We are upon the eve of seeing here a numerous band of brigands,"2 but the whole tone of the letter proves that by the " eve" he did not mean that very night. In the letter sent after the capture of the village, he writes as if he had expected that there was plenty of time to send to Vincennes for aid, after he had learned of Clark's move- ments; and as if he had been disappointed in his hope of assis- tance, because the Virginians had made a forced march by land. This looks as if he had expected the party to take the customary route down the Ohio and up the Mississippi. If Clark had fol- lowed this course, the time would have been ample for Rocheblave to obtain reinforcements from Vincennes.3
What the feelings of the majority of the French people were when they heard the warwhoop of the frontiersmen in their village streets, can be easily imagined. Since the time of the attack was a surprise and the less intelligent French had been taught to believe the worst of the "Big Knives," the first fear of the majority has probably been correctly depicted by Clark. Many of the more intelligent, who had supported Rocheblave, must have felt terror at hearing the noise and have had misgivings of the future, which would place in power Murray, Winston, and Kennedy, whom they had learned to regard as their enemies. Others, like Father Gibault, who were acquainted with the hos- tility of the Protestant East to the Roman Catholic Church, feared perhaps that the freedom of worship might be denied them. After all allowance has been made for such causes as these and
small back gate ..... The Pennsylvanian was true to liberty and conducted them to the very bedchamber of the sleeping Governor, Rocheblave."
1 In his Memoir, English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 478.
2 Rocheblave to Carleton, July 4, 1778, Mason, Rocheblave Papers, Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 416.
3 See letter quoted on p. xli., note 2.
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the suddenness of the attack, Clark's narrative of the abject terror of the French people still appears somewhat exaggerated. They were without doubt timid, but they were not poltroons. Besides, they saw several familiar faces among the Virginians, some of whom had been in Kaskaskia, and others they had met on trading trips.
The party strife of the village broke out in Clark's headquar- ters on the very night of the attack. The closest adherent of Rocheblave's faction, Gabriel Cerré, was absent from the village, and his enemies tried to win the favor of Clark by making accusa- tions against him; but Clark was not deceived. He recognized that his position was critical. He was in an alien community and had only a small body of troops with which to hold the people in check. Under such circumstances he could not afford to drive the leader of such a strong party from him. How important he regarded the winning of the support of Cerré and his party is proved by the space he devotes in his Memoir to an account of his relations with this leader.1 He finally confronted Cerré with his accusers, and the latter were afraid to repeat their charges. By this diplomatic conduct he won over the man who could bind the discordant elements in the villages to his side.
The chief means used by Clark to gain the good will of the French at this critical time were the French treaty and the cry of liberty. We have already seen that the words liberty and inde- pendence were not wholly unknown in these regions. To assert that the movement which was growing in France and which was in eleven years to break out in the French Revolution was without effect on the banks of the Mississippi would be taking too much for granted. The best of these men were educated and traveled to New Orleans and Quebec, and what was talked of there was repeated by the firesides of the Illinois. Only ten years before their friends of New Orleans were in revolt against Spanish tyranny,2 when the word liberty became a household term; and two years later the French of the Illinois were making use of the
1 English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., pp 477, 478, 481, 484-486.
2 Phelps, Louisiana, 113
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same word in their struggle with Colonel Wilkins.1 The traders from the East had been full of similar ideas during the past few years. Liberty and independence were words with which to fire the imaginations of the French and to make them dream of things to come.
The French treaty was Clark's trump card in the game he was playing; for the word France awakened in the minds of the Kas- kaskians memories of days gone by, always more joyous than the days of present hardship,- those days when the lilies of France waved over the forts of the Illinois. France is a name of wonder- ful meaning to Frenchmen of all times. The people of Illinois felt its charm and, at a later day, said "when these men once pronounced the name of France, how could they raise their hands against them?"? Just previously rumors had been spread up and down the Mississippi that France was coming into her own again, ridiculous reports no doubt spread by those discontented with the British rule, and yet they aroused in the hearts of the French a hope, of which the appearance of Clark seemed a har- binger.
It was not with rifles and swords that Clark won the Illinois, but with the promise of liberty and the alliance with France. These two weapons were all sufficient. Immediately after the occupation of Kaskaskia Clark sent Bowman with a detachment of thirty men to occupy Cahokia, which yielded readily to the same persuasions.3 Vincennes joined the American cause with- out even the use of troops, for Father Gibault undertook to per- suade the people to submit, which they did after their priest had represented the case to them.4 In their first enthusiasm the French furnished the Virginians with all their necessities and their need was great, for they had reached Kaskaskia, as the inhabitants of Vincennes said, "half naked like the Arabs.">5 But the spirit
1 Mason, Chapters from Illinois History, 281 et seq.
2 See post, p. 537.
3 Bowman's letters in English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 558 et seq .; the Cahokian account in this vol., p. 537.
4 Clark's Letter to Mason, English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 419.
5 Inhabitants of Vincennes to De la Balme, Menard Col., Tard. Papers.
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in which the French received the Americans is best seen in the way they aided in defending the country against the British. In December following the occupation of the Illinois by Clark, Lieutenant Governor Hamilton of Detroit retook Vincennes and threatened the other villages. At no time had Clark's position been so dangerous, for he had neither money nor sufficient troops. With him were only two companies of soldiers, in which some of the French had already enlisted. Since these were too few either to hold his position or to make an attack, he called upon the villages; and two companies of Frenchmen were formed. The merchants of the region raised the necessary money. Clark then made his difficult and dangerous march across the submerged prairies, a march which tried to the utmost the endurance of the men. The conquest of Vincennes and the retention of the whole Northwest for the Americans were the results. More than half of the men who followed him so bravely were inhabitants of the American Bottom.1 To the French soldiers in Clark's little army as well as to the Virginians belongs the honor of that campaign and its consequences.
After the submission of the villages to him, Clark found him- self in command of a large country inhabited by a people who had joined themselves willingly to his cause and to whom he had promised greater liberty than they had hitherto enjoyed. From the first he was called upon to exercise the power of commandant and judge. He continued for a time the custom, followed by the last two British representatives, of appointing arbitrators in all cases of dispute between the inhabitants.2 This, however, was not in accordance with his own ideas of self-government, which were those of the West generally, nor did his many military duties permit him to give that attention to civil affairs that was required. He therefore made other arrangements. He writes that he
1 Va. State Papers, i., 316; Letter to Mason, English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 437. The expedition against Vincennes was evidently financed by the inhabitants of the French villages, from whom Clark raised $11, 102 between December 20th and February 5th. Clark's account against Virginia, in English, Conquest of the Northwest, ii., 1054.
2 Kas. Rec. Court Record, fol. 100.
Letter by Clark, July 24, 1778, in Amer. Hist. Rev. viii., 501.
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caused: "a court of civil judicature to be established at Cahokia, elected by the people. Major Bowman, to the surprise of the people, held a poll for a magistracy, and was elected and acted as judge of the court. [The policy of Mr. Bowman holding a poll is easily perceived.] After this similar courts were established in the towns of Kaskaskia and Vincent."1 The title of the court thus founded at Cahokia was the "Court of the Committee of Cahokia," and a few pages of the records of its sessions have been preserved and are printed in this volume.2 Clark reserved the right of appeal to himself and he adds: "I believe that no people ever had their business done more to their satisfaction than they had through the means of these regulations for a considerable time."3 By an examination of the few remaining records it is possible to arrive at an approximate date for the founding of these courts. The date of the earliest paper which has been preserved issuing from the court at Cahokia is October 29, 1778.4 Among the Kaskaskia Records is a court record, the last pages of which were used by the clerk of the British government and later by the clerk of the Virginia government for recording deeds and other instruments. The first entry in it after the date of the occupa- tion of Kaskaskia by Clark was made on October 20th. The last direct petition to Clark that exists is dated August 27.5 There- fore it must be concluded that the courts were established be- tween the last of August and the last of October. But it is pos- sible to make a closer calculation. Since it is probable that an entry was made by the Kaskaskia clerk in his book of record shortly after the machinery of civil government was started, we may take the date October 20th as approximately the date of the establishment of the court at Kaskaskia; and since that at Cahokia was the earlier, the court of that village must have begun
1 Clark's Memoir, English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 484. The sentence in brackets is added from Dr. MSS. 47J35.
2 Pp. 2 et seq.
3 Clark's Memoir, in English, Conquest of the Northwest, i., 484.
4 See post, p. 2.
5 See post, p. I .
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to hear suits about the middle of the same month and possibly a little earlier.1
These courts were modeled after the county courts of Virginia, with some modifications. The number of justices sitting at Caho- kia was seven, four of whom were necessary for a quorum; the sessions were held weekly; the jurisdiction included both criminal and civil cases; the records of the sessions were kept in English.2 Since the members of this committee were elected by popular vote, the first election of chief magistrates ever held on the soil of Illinois or of the old Northwest was that at Cahokia in the month of October, in the year 1778.
During the last few years disorder and crime had increased in the Illinois. We have seen how Rocheblave lacked the power to enforce good order and had appealed to public opinion without effect to put an end to the trading in liquor with the Indians. But it was not from the depredations of the Indians only that the people suffered. Members of the slave class, influenced by the disorders of the times, had become insolent and violent, so that the fear of the large population of red and black slaves was widespread, and with good reason, for many murders had recently been committed, for which the slaves were suspected of being responsible. Members of the family of the Nicolle had become sick and died under the most suspicious circumstances, and several sudden deaths of both whites and blacks had occurred which gave every evidence of being caused by poison. To stop further lawlessness by this class, Clark published a very stringent order against the slaves on December 24, 1778, in which he forbade them to walk the streets after sundown without a special permis- sion from their masters, or to assemble for dances at night, under
1 It is possible that Clark was mistaken about the establishment of a court at Kaskas- kia, for among all the records that have been preserved there is not one issuing from such a court, or one that gives direct evidence of the existence of such a court. Moreover there has been preserved a petition, dated February 18, 1779, from a widow in regard to her hus- band's estate, in which she gives elaborate reasons for not having troubled Colonel Clark during his presence in Kaskaskia, and states that conditions are now such that she must have protection to save her property. Since Clark was away, she applied to the officers of militia of Kaskaskia. These heard her prayer and granted .the protection. The act was signed by the officers, but not as members of a court. One name has been torn off, but the others are Joseph Charleville, Richard Winston, Charles Danis, and Charles de Lisle acting for Duplasy. Kas. Rec., Petitions.
2 See record of the court, pp. 4 et seq.
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penalty of punishment by flogging.1 All persons were forbidden to sell liquor to slaves. In the court of Cahokia an investigation of the death of the Nicolles was begun. This was not ended until the following June, when it was proved that some slaves, of whom two were particularly guilty, had poisoned a number of whites as well as several negroes.2
Of this first experiment in popular government in the Illinois very little can be said, for almost all its records have been de- stroyed. The character of Clark, the order he preserved or tried to preserve, and the expedition with which justice was administered, no doubt made the government generally popu- lar; still the military power was very evident and at times arbitrary, and the soldiers were becoming unruly. Therefore the French looked forward to the time when a civil government, not so dependent on the military force, should be inaugurated. The people were reasonable, however, and recognized the necessity of these temporary arrangements, and in their first enthusiasm exhibited a tractable and united spirit to their commandant. In justice to Clark it must be said that neither at this time nor later, when there was most just cause to criticise the military force, did the French utter a word of complaint against him, for he had won, not only their esteem, but their affection, so that they never held him responsible for the evils that crowded upon them.
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