USA > Illinois > Chapters from Illinois history > Part 19
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CHAPTERS FROM ILLINOIS HISTORY
II. COL. JOHN TODD'S RECORD-BOOK
The early records of "The Illinois," as the region including our State was formerly called, unfortunately have not been preserved. Those of its civil and judicial administration, during the sixty years of its organized government as a royal province, and the subsequent period of its existence as a county of Virginia, would be of exceeding value to him who shall properly write the history of Illinois. A large collection of such papers remained at Kaskaskia, once the capital, successively, of Province, Territory, and State, until the day came when the ancient village was obliged to yield even the honor of being a county-seat to the neighboring city of Chester. To the latter place, several boxes filled with these papers were then removed, and stood for years in the hall of its courthouse, until, by neglect or wanton misuse, their con- tents were lost or destroyed. One, however, of these mementoes of the past, and not the least in worth among them, was recently found in an office of this courthouse, in a receptacle for fuel, just in time to save it from the fiery fate of many of its companions, and is now in the custody of the Chicago Historical Society. This is the original Record or Minute-Book of Col. John Todd, the first civil governor of the Illinois country.
When George Rogers Clark had captured the British posts beyond the Ohio, under the authority of Virginia, that State was quick to act for the preservation of the rights thus acquired. Kaskaskia was taken on the 4th of July, 1778; the first surrender of Vincennes, or St. Vin- cent, as it was sometimes called, occurred soon after; and in October, of the same year, the General Assembly of Virginia passed "An Act for establishing the County of
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Illinois, and for the more effectual protection and defence thereof." The young Commonwealth, only in the third year of its own independent existence, and then, with the other revolted colonies, engaged in a death struggle with the Mother Country, did not shrink from the duty of pro- viding a suitable government for the immense territory thus added to its domain. The act recites the successful expedition of the Virginia militiamen in the country adjacent to the Mississippi, and that good faith and safety require that the citizens thereof, who have acknowledged the Commonwealth, shall be supported and protected, and that some temporary form of government, adapted to their circumstances, shall be established. It provides that all the citizens of Virginia, settled on the western side of the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct county, to be called Illinois County. The vast area, afterwards ceded to the United States under the name of the Northwest Territory, and now divided into five States, then com- posed a single county of Virginia. Of this county the Governor of the State was authorized to appoint a county- lieutenant, or commandant, who could appoint and com- mission deputy - commandants, militia officers, and commissaries. The religion and customs of the inhab- itants were to be respected, and all civil officers were to be chosen by a majority of the inhabitants of the respec- tive districts. The County-Lieutenant had power to pardon all offenders, except for murder or treason. The Governor was authorized to levy five hundred men to garrison and protect the county, and keep up communi- cations with Virginia, and with the Spanish settlements, and to take measures to supply goods to the inhabitants and friendly Indians. Such was the first Bill of Rights of Illinois.
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The Governor of the State of Virginia, upon whom devolved the duty of selecting the commandant of the country of Illinois, was the first who ever held that office, the immortal patriot, Patrick Henry; and the man whom he chose for this difficult and responsible position was John Todd. He was not unknown on the frontier or at the capital. Born in Pennsylvania, and educated in Vir- ginia, he had practiced law in the latter colony for sev- eral years, when, in 1775, he removed to the Kentucky country. He was one of those who met at Boonesboro', in the spring of that year, under the great elm tree, near the fort, to establish the proprietary government of the so-called colony of Transylvania, comprising more than half of the modern State of Kentucky, and he was very prominent in the counsels of its House of Delegates or Representatives, the first legislative body organized west of the Alleghenies. He preempted large tracts of land near the present city of Lexington, and is said to have been one of the band of pioneers, who, while encamped on its site, heard of the opening battle of the Revolution in the far East, and named their infant settlement in its honor. When the agents of the Kentucky settlers had obtained a gift of powder from Virginia for the defence of the frontier, in the following year, and had brought it down the Ohio to the Three Islands, Todd led a small party through the forests to transport it to one of the forts, but was beaten back, after a bloody contest with the Indians. Early in 1777, the first court in Kentucky opened its sessions at Harrisburg, and he was one of the justices. Shortly after he was chosen one of the repre- sentatives of Kentucky in the legislature of Virginia, and went to the capital to fulfill this duty. The following year he accompanied George Rogers Clark in his expe-
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dition to the Illinois, and was the first man to enter Fort Gage, at Kaskaskia, when it was taken from the British, and was present at the final capture of Vincennes.
Meanwhile the act, above mentioned, had been passed, and the Governor had no difficulty in deciding whom to appoint County-Lieutenant of Illinois. At Williamsburg, then the capital of the Old Dominion, in the former man- sion of the royal rulers of the whilom colony, Patrick Henry, on the 12th of December, 1778, indited his letter of appointment to John Todd, Esq., and entered it in the very book now before us. It occupies the first five pages, and probably is in Patrick Henry's handwriting. At all events his own signature is subscribed thereto. This letter is not such a one as territorial governors would be likely to receive in these later days. It deals with higher things than those which occupy the modern politician. The opening paragraph informs John Todd, Esq., that by virtue of the Act of the General Assembly, which establishes the County of Illinois, he is appointed Coun- ty-Lieutenant, or Commandant, there, and refers him to the law for the general tenor of his conduct. It contin- ues as follows: "The grand objects which are disclosed to the view of your countrymen will prove beneficial, or otherwise, according to the value and abilities of those who are called to direct the affairs of that remote coun- try. The present crisis, rendered favorable by the good disposition of the French and Indians, may be improved to great purposes, but if, unhappily, it should be lost, a return of the same attachments to us may never happen. Considering, therefore, that early prejudices are so hard to wear out, you will take care to cultivate and conciliate the affections of the French and Indians." ... "Although great reliance is placed on your prudence in managing
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the people you are to reside among, yet considering you as unacquainted in some degree with their genius, usages, and manners, as well as the geography of the country, I recommend it to you to consult and advise with the most intelligent and upright persons who may fall in your way."
His relations to the military, under Colonel Clark, are next considered; the necessity of cooperation with and aid to them, in defence against, or attack upon, hostile British and Indians, summing up with the general direc- tion, to consider himself "at the head of the civil depart- ment, and as such, having the command of the militia who are not to be under the command of the military, until ordered out by the civil authority, and to act in conjunction with them." He is advised "on all occasions to inculcate on the people the value of liberty, and the difference between the state of free citizens of this Com- monwealth, and that of slavery, to which the Illinois was destined, and that they are to have a free and equal rep- resentation, and an improved jurisprudence." His care must be to remove "the grievances that obstruct the happiness, increase, and prosperity of that country, and his constant attention to see that the inhabitants have justice administered." He is to discountenance and pun- ish every attempt to violate the property of the Indians, particularly in their land. To the Spanish commandant, near Kaskaskia, he is to tender friendship and services, and cultivate the strictest connection with him and his people, and a letter to him, from Governor Henry, Todd is to deliver in person. And he is warned that the mat- ters given him in charge "are singular in their nature and weighty in their consequences to the people imme- diately concerned, and to the whole State. They require
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the fullest exertion of ability and unwearied diligence." Then with that high sense of justice and humanity which distinguished the man, Henry turns from State affairs to right the wrongs of the helpless wife and children of his country's enemy. The family of Mr. Rocheblave, the late British commandant at Kaskaskia, had been left among the hostile people there, while the husband and father was a prisoner in Virginia, and their possessions had been confiscated. Todd is informed "that they must not suffer for want of that property of which they had been bereft by our troops; it is to be restored to them, if possible; if this can not be done, the public must sup- port them." And the letter concludes with a direction to send an express once in three months, bringing a general account of affairs, and with the mention of a contem- plated plan for the appointment of an agent to supply the Illinois with goods on public account.
Conciliation of the newly - enfranchised inhabitants, selection of competent advisers, defence against foreign and native enemies, subordination of the military to the civil arm of the government, establishment of Republican institutions, administration of equal justice to all, an alli- ance with friendly neighbors, encouragement of trade, and the exertion by the commandant of unwearied abil- ity, diligence, and zeal, in behalf of his people; such are the principal heads of this able and, for its time, extraor- dinary state paper. It shows us that the man who had taken the grave responsibility of the secret instructions which led to the capture of the Illinois country, was com- petent to direct the next step in its career. He could wisely govern what had been bravely won. With all the cares of a new State engaged in a war for its independ- ence resting upon his shoulders, proscribed as a traitor
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to the Mother Country, and writing almost within sound of the guns of the British fleet upon the James, he looked with calm vision into the future, and laid well the foun- dations of another Commonwealth beyond the Ohio.
This book, made precious by his pen, was entrusted to a faithful messenger, who carried it from tidewater across the mountains to Fort Pitt, thence down the Ohio, until he met with his destined recipient, and delivered to him his credentials. It is supposed that Todd received it at Vincennes, then known to Virginians as St. Vincent, not long after the surrender of that place, on February 24, 1779, and thereupon returned to the Kentucky country to make some necessary preparations for his new duties, and possibly to enlist some of the soldiers authorized to be raised by the act under which he was appointed. At all events, he did not reach the Illinois country until the spring of 1779, as we learn from the journal of Col. George Rogers Clark, who says: "The civil department in the Illinois had heretofore robbed me of too much of my time that ought to be spent in military reflection. I was now likely to be relieved by Col. John Todd, appointed by Government for that purpose. I was anx- ious for his arrival, and happy in his appointment, as the greatest intimacy and friendship subsisted between us; and on the -- day of May (1779) had the pleasure of seeing him safely landed at Kaskaskias, to the joy of every person. I now saw myself happily rid of a piece of trouble that I had no delight in."
So came the new Governor to his post, the bearer of Republican institutions to a land and a people but just freed from the rule of a foreign king. And with him he brought this very book containing in the memorable let- ter inscribed in its pages his own credentials, as well as
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the best evidence these new citizens could have that they were subjects no longer. This was no ordinary arrival at the goodly French village of Kaskaskia. In the eighty years of its existence it had seen explorers and mission- aries, priests and soldiers, famous travelers and men of high degree, come and go, but never before one sent to administer the laws of a peoples' government for the ben- efit of the governed. We may imagine its inhabitants gathered at the river side to watch the slow approach of a heavy boat, flying a flag still strange to them, as it toils against the current to the end of its long voyage down the Ohio and up the Mississippi. And when there lands from it one with the mien of authority (having, per- chance, this book under his arm), they are ready to ren- der him the homage exacted by royal governors, and here and there a voice even cries: "Vive le Roi." And, as they are reminded that they are under a free government now, and learn that the newcomer is their own County- Lieutenant, on their way back to the village, we may hear François and Baptiste say to one another, "Who is it that rules over us now?" "What is this free gov- ernment of which they speak?" "Is it a good thing, think you?" Small blame to them if their wits were puzzled. Less than fourteen years before they had been loyal liegemen to King Louis of France; then came a detachment of kilted Highlanders and presto! they were under the sway of King George of Great Britain; a few years passed, and one July morning, a band with long beards and rifles looked down from the heights of Fort Gage and raised a new banner over them, and now there was yet another arrival, which, though seemingly peace- ful, might mean more than appeared. Perhaps the very last solution of the mystery which occurred to them was
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that thenceforth they were to take part in their own government.
Whether Todd regarded his department as such "a piece of trouble," as Clark found it, we have no means of knowing, but certainly he addressed himself at once to his work. Under the clause of the statute which author- ized him to appoint and commission deputy-commandants and militia officers, he took action, probably as soon as he arrived, and recorded it in his book. At page 6 is the first entry in Todd's handwriting, which reads as follows:
"Made out the military commissions for the District of Kaskaskia, dated May 14, 1779:
"Richard Winston, Commandant, as Capt.
"Nicholas Janis, First Co., Capt.
"Baptiste Charleville, I Lieut.
"Charles Charleville, 2 Lieut.
"Michael Godis, Ensign.
"Joseph Duplassy, 2d Capt.
"Nicholas le Chanie, I Lieut
"Charles Danee, 2 Lieut.
"Batiste Janis, Ensign."
"17th May, sent a Com. of Command of Prairie du Rocher, and Capt. of the Militia to Jean B. Barbeau.
"The District of Kohokia:
"François Trotter, Command't.
"Tourangeau, Capt. I.
"Beaulieu, Capt. 2.
"Guradin, Lieut.
"P. Marthir, Lieut.
"Sanfaron, Ensign.
"Comns. dated 14th May, 1779, 3d year of the Com- monwealth."
This was the earliest organization of a militia force
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proper, in this region, and these officers were the first of the long line, adorned by many brilliant names, of those who have held Illinois commissions. There was signifi- cance, too, in the concluding of this entry with the words, "Third year of the Commonwealth." It meant that in this "remote country," as Patrick Henry called it, men felt the change from subjects to freemen then being wrought by the great Revolution, and that they were playing a part in it.
And this is emphasized in the succeeding minute.
Todd appears to have next put in force the statutory provision that all civil officers were to be chosen by a majority of the citizens in each district, and on pages 7 and 8 he records the "List of the Court of Kaskaskia, the Court of Kohokias, and the Court of St. Vincennes," and adds, "as elected by the people." As elected by the people, and not as appointed by a king-as chosen by the citizens of each district, and not by the whim of some royal minister, thousands of miles away, across the sea. This was indeed a change. For more than half a century the settlements at the Illinois had known a court and a judge. But the laws, and the administrators thereof, had been imported from a distant kingdom, and with the framing of the one or the selection of the other, they had had nothing whatever to do. And, without doubt, the election here recorded was their first exercise of the rights of citizens of a republic, and the first exercise of such rights within the territory of Illinois. In these lists appear a number of names of more or less note in the old time, and some of those already recited in the militia appoint- ments. Richard Winston, Deputy-Commandant at Kas- kaskia, filled also the office of Sheriff of that district, and Jean B. Barbeau found no inconsistency between his
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duties as Deputy-Commandant at Prairie du Rocher and those of one of the judges of the court of his district. Nicholas Janis and Charles Charleville were also liable to be called from the Kaskaskia bench to do military duty, and at Cahokia, five of the seven judges held officers' commissions. This state of things may have been occa- sioned by the scarcity of men to take the new positions, so that "there were offices enough to go around," and to give some public-spirited citizens two apiece. If so, the modern office-seeker might well sigh for those good old times. An unusual circumstance appears in connection with the court of Vincennes. Against the name of one Cardinal, elected by the people as a judge, Todd has written, "refused to serve." This is believed to be the only instance in our annals of a refusal to take an office. And it is feared that this unique individual left no descendants. No other of the name appears in any sub- sequent record of the territory, so far as known. It is possible that we ought to share the glory of this rara avis with the citizens of Indiana, since Vincennes is within the limits of that State. But, as he was at the time of this unexampled refusal a citizen of Illinois, we should strenuously claim him as one whose like will ne'er be seen again. After the list of the court of Vincennes, Todd notes his militia appointments at that place, the Chief-Justice P. Legras being also appointed Lieutenant- Colonel, and the first Associate-Justice, Major. Opposite two of the names is written, "rank not settled," as if already that jealousy, which is the bane of the profession of arms, had sprung up. And a number of blanks are left, apparently to await the determination of that con- troversy, which seem never to have been filled.
Having organized the military and judicial depart-
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ments of his government, the new commandant appears next to have given his attention to the encouragement of business. On page 11 of this book appears a License for Trade, permitting "Richard M'Carthy, Gentleman, to traffick and merchandise, with all the liege subjects and Friends of the United States of America, of what nation soever they be, and to erect Factories and Stores at any convenient place or places he shall think proper within the Commonwealth." A careful proviso is made that "by virtue hereof no pretence shall be made to trespass upon the effects or property of individuals"; and the license is given under the hand and seal of John Todd, at Kaskaskia, the 5th June, 1779, in the 3d year of the Commonwealth.
The financial question was the next to claim the atten- tion of the busy County-Lieutenant, and he grappled with it sturdily. It was now the fourth year of the Rev- olutionary War, and the peculiar disadvantages of the continental currency, which had been severely felt at the East, began to be appreciated at the West as well. But John Todd did not hesitate to confront this evil, and, at any rate, devised a plan for its correction. Within a
month of his arrival at Kaskaskia, on the 11th of June, 1779, he addressed a letter to the court of Kaskaskia, which appears on page 12 of his Record-Book. He informs it that "the only method America has to support the present just war is by her credit, which credit con- sists of her bills emitted from the different treasuries by which she engages to pay the bearer, at a certain time, gold and silver in exchange; that there is no friend to American Independence, who has any judgment, but soon expects to see it equal to gold and silver, but that merely from its uncommon quantity, and in proportion to
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it, arises the complaint of its want of credit. And one only remedy remains within his power, which is to receive, on behalf of government, such sums as the people shall be induced to lend upon a sure fund, and thereby decrease the quantity." He states that the mode of doing this is already planned, and requests the concurrence and assistance of the judges. His zeal for the cause led him slightly astray when he predicted that these bills would soon be equal to gold and silver, since, in the following year, continental money was worth just two cents on the dollar, and never became more valuable. But in other respects his scheme was not so erroneous. He did not indulge in the delusion that all troubles could be removed by an unlimited issue of paper money. On the contrary, he favored the retire- ment of a portion of that in circulation, and a kind of redemption of the public promises to pay. On page 14 is set forth at length, "Plan for borrowing 33,3331/3 dol- lars of Treasury notes, both belonging to this State and the United States." The preamble recites that owing to no other reason than the prodigious quantity of treasury notes now in circulation the value of almost every com- modity has risen to most enormous prices, the preserving the credit of the said bills by reducing the quantity, requires some immediate remedy. And it is therefore declared that 21,000 acres of land, belonging to the Common- wealth, shall be laid off on the bank of the Mississippi in the district of Cahokia, 1,000 acres to be reserved for a town, and the remainder to constitute a fund; and that the lender of money shall take a certificate for the sum, entitling him to demand, within two years, a title to his proportion of the land in said fund, or the sum originally advanced in gold and silver, with 5 per cent interest per annum. It is prudently provided that the State shall
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have the option of giving land or money, and to further protect a paternal government against any undue advan- tage being taken of it by its sons, notice is given that a deduction shall be made for all money hereafter discov- ered to be counterfeited. Then follow the commence- ment of a French translation of the plan, a copy of the instructions to the Commissioner for borrowing money upon this fund, which direct him to keep every man's money by itself, and the form of receipt to be issued. Henry H. Crutcher appears to have been appointed such Commissioner, and his bond, with George Slaughter and John Roberts as sureties to Mr. John Todd, Com- mander-in-Chief of the County of Illinois, in the penalty of $33,3331/3 for the safe keeping of the money, is next recorded under date of June 14, 1779.
On the same date this energetic "Commander-in- Chief" addresses himself to the subject of the land under his jurisdiction, and the title thereto. He issues a proc- lamation strictly enjoining all persons from making any new settlements on the flat lands within one league of the Rivers Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, and Wabash, except in the manner and form of settlements as heretofore made by the French inhabitants; and every inhabitant is required to lay before the persons appointed in each dis- trict for that purpose a memorandum of his or her land with their vouchers for the same. Warning is given that the number of adventurers who will soon run over this country, renders the above method necessary, as well to ascertain the vacant land as to guard against tres- passes which will be committed on land not of record. The object of this step evidently was not to discourage actual settlers; but to prevent the taking up of large tracts of land by speculators; and it shows both wisdom
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