USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Cahokia > Cahokia records, 1778-1790 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
"I present to you Colonel Todd, my good friend, as your governor. He is the only person in the state whom I desired to fill this post in this colony. I am fully persuaded from my knowl- edge of his capacity and diligence that he will succeed in render- ing to you justice and making you contented.
"You are assembled here, gentlemen, for an affair of the greatest importance, namely, to elect the most capable and illus- trious persons to sit in judgment on your differences. . . . . I pray you to consider the importance of this choice and to make it without partiality and to elect the persons most worthy of your trust; and I hope that in a short time that you will be convinced that you are the freest people in the universe."1
Clark was followed by the county lieutenant, John Todd. His speech was also read by some one familiar with the language. He said in part: "Gentlemen, I am sent by the government of Virginia to exercise the duties of chief magistrate of this county. The reception which I have received from you deserves my thanks. I am flattered and shall always be happy, if my power can serve your well-being. I am sure that nothing will be lacking on my part to secure that end.
"The Republic of Virginia has had only noble motives in
1 Dr. MSS., 49J43. This is an original manuscript and is signed by Clark, Fort Clark, May 12, 1779. Translation by the editor.
1x
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
coming here. It was not moved by the love of conquest but has come to invite you to participate with her citizens in the blessing of a free and equal independence and to be governed and judged by officers who shall be placed in power by the people.
"Your great distance from the capital, gentlemen, does not permit you to send representatives to the assembly; but if in the future it happens that for your welfare or to avoid loss you prefer such representation, I have it in my instructions to assure you that it will not be refused you.
" The purpose for which we have assembled you to-day, gentle- men, is that you may choose among you six of the most notable and most judicious to be judges of the court of Kaskaskia, conjointly with two others from Prairie du Rocher and St. Philippe.
"Each one with the right of voting can give his vote, either viva voce or by writing, to elect whomever he wishes to place in office."1
The assembly then proceeded to the election. A large ballot sheet had been prepared which was divided into squares. At the top of this were placed the names of the candidates, and at the side the names of the voters as they handed in their votes either by word of mouth or by writing, and their choice was checked off in the proper squares .? The harmony of parties is evident from the list of men chosen as justices. The old factional strife, which had marked the years of Rocheblave's government, was hushed before the grand ideals which had been invoked by the men who had inaugurated this new constitution. All men united in choos- ing those who appeared most fitted to exercise the duties of the new office. At the head of the court was placed the man who had been the chief support of Rocheblave, but who had in the past few months won the confidence of Clark and his officers by the liberal assistance he had given their tottering finances, Gabriel Cerré. On the whole, however, the names of the judges are those of men who had been lukewarm to the British cause and had won favor either in the recent campaign against Vincennes
1 Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Cah. Rec. This is an original manuscript. Translation by the editor.
2 At least this was the"method at later elections. Kas. Rec., Pol. Papers, among which arc two such ballot sheets.
1xi
INTRODUCTION
or by their cordial acceptance of the American allegiance. There were elected from Kaskaskia, besides Cerré, Joseph Duplasy, Jacques Lasource, Nicolas Janis, Nicolas Lachance, and Charles Charleville.1
On May 19th the people of Prairie du Rocher assembled and elected J. Bte. Barbau and Antoine Duchaufour de Louvieres as their representives in the court. At St. Philippe, Pierre Sieur de Girardot was elected.2
The court now being complete, Todd issued the commission on May the twenty-first: "From the great Confidence reposed in your Judgment & Integrity by the good people of Kaskaskia and its dependencies and agreeably to an act of the general assem- bly of Virginia, you are hereby constituted & appointed Justices of the peace for the District of Kaskaskia and Judges of the Court of the said District in cases both civil & criminal. any four or more of you are authorized to constitute a Court before whom shall be cognizable all actions and cases of which the Courts of the Counties of this commonwealth Respectively have Cognizance. your judgment must have the Concurence of at least a majority and be entered with the proceedings previous and subsequent and fairly recorded in Books provided for that pur- pose."3
Richard Winston, who was already commandant of the vil- lage, was appointed by Todd to the office of sheriff and Jean Girault, state's attorney. Carbonneaux, who had been clerk during the British period, was re-elected by the court.4
The date of the inauguration of the court at Cahokia is not known. During the subsequent years the elections were held generally after the middle of June, the nineteenth being the favorite date; but the court was elected before that date in 1779, for it was in session as early as the tenth of June.5 The election
1 Mason, John Todd's Record-Book, Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 295.
2 For election at St. Philippe see supra, p. Ivii., note 4.
3 Kas. Rec., Court Record, fol. 169.
4 Mason, John Todd's Record-Book, Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 295. Winston's commission is among the Kas. Rec.
5 See post, p. 13.
Ixii
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
passed off without making many changes in the personnel of the court which had been established in 1778 by Major Bowman. In the place of Langlois, Bte. Saucier was returned. J. Bte. LaCroix was appointed sheriff by Todd and François Saucier was elected clerk by the court.1 A court was also established at Vincennes. As this post lay outside the territory which in time has become the state of Illinois and since the records from which this account is drawn belong to the villages of the Mississippi bottom, the history of Vincennes will be noticed only incidentally in this Introduction.
The history of these courts was very dissimilar, as will be shown in the following pages; but there are certain general statements in regard to them which can be made that are true of all. The courts met at first rather irregularly, for the justices seem to have attempted to continue the weekly sessions to which they had become accustomed in Clark's courts. Later they gave this up and settled down to holding monthly sessions with some regularity and meeting in special sessions when required .? The individual justices had jurisdiction in cases involving not more than twenty- five shillings, as was the law in the other counties of Virginia.3 The French law was retained as the law of the county, but it was modified somewhat by the law of Virginia. In a letter to Clark on December 12, 1778, Governor Henry mentions sending him the Bill of Rights of Virginia to guide the French people, and appeal was made to it at one time at least in the history of the court of Kaskaskia.4 But this was not the only Virginia act that was used in these courts, for we find mention of the "Code of Laws and Bill of Rights" as a guide to be followed in questions of difficulty.5 What this code contained I have been unable to discover, but it was probably the more important laws respecting
1 Mason, John Todd's Record-Book, Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 295.
2 This was true both of the Kaskaskia and the Cahokia courts. Mason, John Todd's Record-Book, Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collections, iv., 309.
3 Chitwood, Justice in Colonial Va., 81; see post p. 533.
+ Dr. MSS., 60JI, a copy; Kas. Rec., Letters.
5 Memorial of Timothe de Monbreun, November 18, 1794, Va. State Library.
Ixiii
INTRODUCTION
the county courts. There was some attempt at Kaskaskia to regulate the procedure in accordance with English law. On one of the stray papers of the records from Kaskaskia there is a regular docket like that of any English court. At the end of the Cahokia court record, published in this volume, there is an attempt to imitate the same form. Trial by jury was also permitted and probably required in criminal cases; at least the record of the first jury trial at Cahokia was criminal. Another evidence of the influence of the English law is the practice of arresting men for debt, which makes a late appearance in the his- tory of the Cahokia court. On the whole the law of the courts is that of the coutume de Paris, as it had been used in the Illinois throughout the eighteenth century. The litigants do not as a rule favor the English procedure and are generally satisfied to have a majority of the judges decide their cases in accordance with equity.
There were very serious charges made against the Vincennes justices on account of the large costs they demanded. A similar charge could not be made against the Cahokia court, for, with the exception of a few cases, which might be explained if we knew all the circumstances, the costs were moderate and not different from those that had been fixed by the ordinances of the French kings. Of the Kaskaskia court almost nothing is known, on account of the disappearance of the record. That the justices of Cahokia were careful in preserving the records of their sessions is evident from this volume. The history of the courts at Kaskas- kia and Vincennes was far more stormy, and no doubt in the fac- tional fights the records were not kept as well, but that they were made is evident from numerous references to them in letters and petitions. Where they are now is not known, but in both places there were plenty of men who would prefer that such records should not remain in existence, and they have no doubt been destroyed.
Although unity among the French population appears to have reigned at the election and there was great enthusiasm
lxiv
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
expressed for Clark and the new county lieutenant, there was no such feeling for the American soldiers or for the numerous traders and land speculators who had already found their way into the country. The backwoodsman was a type that had been developed rather slowly in the Eastern colonies; but the endless Indian war- fare, the life of the woods, the separation from the centers of civilization, the need of reliance on self had produced a set of men well fitted for the task of winning the West. Of great phy- sical strength, brave to recklessness, splendid riflemen, trained in woodcraft in which they were second only to their foes, the Indians, lovers of individual freedom, hostile to the regulations of society, hard drinkers, suspicious, quarrelsome, intolerant, un- cultured even to vulgarity, they had all the virtues as well as the vices of the Homeric heroes.
It is difficult to trace the origin of these men of the frontier, for they came from all nations, from England, Ireland, Germany, and Holland. There was also a strong strain of Scotch-Irish blood from western Pennsylvania. Some came from respectable families of the eastern settlers; many had fled to the West to escape the consequences of crime; others were redemptioners. Men of noble ideals mingled with those of the criminal class, for the West asked no questions in regard to the origin and past life of men, provided they were courageous and could wield an axe and fire a gun. What was needed were men, and they came from all classes. The love of the frontier with its excitement was in their blood and they came to fight the Indians, to quarrel among themselves, take up the land, winning it from the Indians and from nature in a way that no other men could have done so well. The well-controlled colonies of the French with their many pro- hibitions on individual initiative had failed where the splendid self-reliance and personal assertiveness of the American pioneers succeeded.
The men trained under the French system now came in con- tact with this different race of beings. In the ensuing struggle those best adapted to survive in the life of the backwoods had an advantage which they used without restraint and without com-
1xv
INTRODUCTION
passion, and the French gave way before the egoism of the Ameri- cans, for whom they were no match. There was little to unite these discordant elements. The French were Catholics; the majority of Americans, Protestant, and the Calvinistic blood of the Independents and Presbyterians still ran warm in the veins of the pioneers, although they may have long ceased to feel the restraining influence of religion. For them the Catholics were enemies, as they had been on many a battle field of the Old World. The French lived on good terms with the Indians, the pioneer knew no good Indian save a dead one. With unremitting and relentless watchfulness they waged that war of extermination until the Indian was driven from the coveted prairies. The friends of the foe who had murdered with such cruel barbarity father, mother, sister, and brother of these stalwart pioneers were not to be trusted, and at every Indian uprising the French people were suspected. The French had been educated to respect the law and to obey the magistrates. With their little difficulties they were accustomed to run to the constituted au- thority for redress. The frontiersmen preferred to execute their own law and in any dispute were themselves judge, jury and executioner. Let a disagreement arise and there followed that terrific fight in which no rule was known, no end was allowed, save the yielding of one party to the greater physical strength of the other. Kicking, throttling, gouging of the eyes, biting were all permissible. In such a struggle the greater strength and weight of the American had a distinct advantage over the French- man. Hence that contempt for the smaller race which is so marked in the attitude of the pioneer for his French neighbor.
No better example exists of their differences than in their manner of life. The frontiersmen preferred the isolated log cabin, built without the least attempt at attractiveness; bare of furniture, comfortless, ill kept, life here was unlovely, individualistic, and un- social. Even when forced for safety to seek the shelter of the stockade, they brought to the common life only the same qualities. Amidst the stench of cattle and hogs in the enclosure, the young were brought up with no conception of a quieter and more lovely
lxvi
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
life. The hero of the stockade was the strongest in the rough and tumble fight, the surest shot, the killer of Indians. The French were temperamentally the opposite; their mode of life had more refinement, more attempt at æsthetic enjoyment, was gentler in every way. Their little cottages in the village com- munity surrounded by the picket fence, which enclosed a garden with vegetables and flowers, set them apart as a people of different ideas and civilization.
It was over these two people who were now mingling in the Illi- nois villages that Todd was called to rule. The soldiers of Clark had answered nobly to his call to war against the British and Indians, but it required other training than theirs to garrison a village of peaceful citizens. When the spirit of self-abnegation, which marked the army of backwoodsmen on the campaign, had disappeared, the equality which reigned on the frontier reas- serted itself and Clark's influence became only that of an equal. The obedience yielded to him in an emergency and in the face of danger was past, and the spirit of individual assertiveness was again predominant.
The French had experienced the evils of this rule of the un- trained militia from Virginia and Kentucky, and were glad to be finally released from its petty tyranny. They saw with joy the inauguration of the civil government, for the court would be their champion against the soldiery; and under the strong hand of the lawcourt, an institution which the French were accustomed to respect, order would again be restored and they would taste the sweets of that liberty which Clark and Todd had promised them. The court was French, and it is to this institution that the " villagers" clung throughout the following years, for through it alone could they hope to bring that freedom from military rule which oppressed them.
The reverse of the picture must not be forgotten. The position of the Illinois battalion was a very difficult one. The men were in a country far from their source of supplies, surrounded by hostile tribes of Indians, and unable to confer easily with the officials in Virginia. They, therefore, were frequently forced to
Ixvii
INTRODUCTION
act independently and their acts were not always confirmed by the Virginia authorities. Their supply of money from the state was also inadequate for the work they had to perform. This was due to two causes : first because Virginia did not fully appreciate the importance of holding the Illinois - that was a need better understood by the Kentuckians; second, the finances of the state were such that there was no supply for this distant country. In 1780, Governor Jefferson wrote to Clark: "The less you depend for supplies from this quarter the less will you be disappointed by those impediments which distances and a precarious foreign commerce throws in the way, for these reasons it will be eligible to withdraw as many of your men as you can from the west side of the Ohio leaving only as many men as will be necessary for keep- ing the Illinois settlement in spirits, but we must accommodate our measures for doing this to our means."1 In the previous year the situation was only a little better. It was the necessity of holding the country at any cost that forced upon the men of the West the use of measures which bore with harshness on the French, measures which were often cruel and brutally carried out. That they held the territory for America is their excuse. The French were not the only ones to suffer. Clark never re- ceived just recompense for his labors, and many personal debts which he incurred for the cause were never paid. Many of his officers suffered in the same way and found themselves financially embarrassed by their devotion to the American interests.
No sooner was the court of Kaskaskia established than it took up the cause of the French and attempted to put an end to the anarchy which threatened. In a memorial to John Todd of the twenty-fourth of May, 1779,2 the justices told their grievances and demanded reforms: First, "The soldiers of Fort Clark go into the commons of this place to hunt the animals of the undersigned petitioners and without giving heed to the brandings or to whom they may belong they have enclosed them in the fort and killed them without giving notice to anyone. Such acts have never been
1 Dr. MSS., 29J14.
2 Kas. Rec., Pol. Papers. Original MS. Translation by the editor.
Ixviii
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
seen in this country before. It is contrary to all law and particu- larly contrary to the usages and customs of an independent country like this one, which has been announced to be free. In a place where each should be able to do with his property what pleases him and to enjoy it as seems good to him, the soldiers have killed dray-oxen, milch cows, and other animals belonging to people who can not subsist without them. It causes for some a lack of means for the cultivation of the fields and for others a lack of . nourishment and subsistence for the family. We have always been ready to furnish animals for the garrison in so far as it was in our power and are still ready as far as we have resources. If it is permitted that our beasts of burden be killed, how can we cultivate our fields and furnish the needs of the' garri- son and those of our families? If such abuses continue, which tend to the ruin of the colony, what will become of the colonists ?"
The second subject of the memorial was against the sale of intoxicating liquors to the Indians. They said that the French had made an agreement not to sell any liquors to the Indians, as it had been the cause of disaster to the colony and they begged Todd to put an end to this trade.1 The third subject was in regard to trade with the slaves without premission of the masters. The black law was still in force and forbade such trade, which was nevertheless practiced and caused the slaves to be insolent and disorderly.
On this last subject Clark had already issued an ordinance, and at this very time there was in process the trial, which had begun in the courts founded by Clark, of the slaves for poisoning.2 The case was proved against two and a sentence of execution pro- nounced against them, so that this kind of disorder from the slaves received a check.
The subject of trade in liquor with the Indians was apparently regulated by the issuance of trade licenses; at least there are in existence two such licenses, one of which is in this volume and the
1 Refers to the agreement under the Rocheblave administration. See supra, p. xxxii.
2 See post, pp. 4. 13.
1xix
INTRODUCTION
other may be found in John Todd's Record-Book.1 Since these measures did not prove effective, the court, on September 6th, issued a proclamation prohibiting the sale of liquors to the savages and the buying of any commodity from slaves without permission of their owners.2
The first subject was beyond the power of the civil government and was never fully righted, for this grievance concerning the killing of cattle belonging to the French appears in all subsequent petitions of the inhabitants of the villages, whether they addressed themselves to Virginia, to Congress, or elsewhere. The position was a difficult one, and the soldiers left to shift for themselves recurred again and again to this method of foraging. During the summer of 1779 some steps seem to have been taken to stop the abuse, for the officers complained several time of the lack of supplies, and the imminent need of military seizure, which they were forbidden to make.
There was another vital question in the Illinois which demanded the attention of the county lieutenant. The land was fertile, and he had every reason to fear that there would be a rush of settlers to the county, which would now fall under the land laws of Vir- ginia that permitted the greatest license to settlers in preempt- ing land. The result in Kentucky had been land-speculation, law-suits, and general anarchy. This Todd hoped to prevent in the Illinois. The French settlers were always opposed to the indiscriminate giving away of unpatented land and, in the peti- tion of May 24th already mentioned, they called Todd's attention to some adventurers who were taking up large tracts of land near their village, and urged him to save at least the rich river bottom. They did not know that the Virginia assembly in May, at the time this question was under discussion in Illinois, had passed a law forbidding settlements north of the Ohio river.3 Todd was directly interested in the land question, as he had been appointed the surveyor of the county by the corporation of William and Mary
1 See post, p. 463; Mason, John Todd's Record-Book, Chi. Hist. Soc.'s Collection iv., 296. 2 Kas. Rec., Court Record, p. 238.
3 Hening, Statutes, x., 32.
1xx
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
college.1 In the middle of June he "enjoined all persons what- soever from making any New Settlements upon the Flat lands, unless In manor and form of Settlemt as heretofore made by the French Inhabitants untill further Orders given hereon."2 That Todd had no intention of forbidding settlers in the prairies is evident from the proclamation, and after Todd's departure neither the incoming immigrants nor the officers of the troops paid any heed to the Virginia legislation. In fact many Americans found their way to the region and were welcomed by Clark, who believed that the settlement of families was the best way to hold a country. In 1779 Montgomery mentions the departure of several families from Kaskaskia to form a settlement up a creek about thirty miles.3
But it was not the single settler only who had to be watched. No sooner had the news of the conquest of the Illinois reached the East than the Illinois and the Wabash Land companies, which had been formed during the British period,4 decided to pool their interests and begin immediately to make settlements. Only a few days after the Virginia assembly passed the act creating the county of Illinois, on December 26th, William Mur- ray on behalf of himself and the other proprietors presented a memorial in which he set forth the fact of the purchase of lands from the Indians and the purpose of making a settle- ment as soon as the state of affairs in the West would permit.5 In order not to allow the claim to lapse through non-occupancy, the companies made, the next spring, preparations to form a settle- ment on the Wabash, and appointed on March 26th John Campbell as their western agent.6 There was sent him a proclamation to be published in which the most liberal terms were offered to the first five hundred settlers in the town which it was proposed
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.