USA > Illinois > Chapters from Illinois history > Part 21
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Its own story is curious enough to entitle it to preser- vation, if only for its age and the vicissitudes through which it has passed. Made in Virginia more than one hundred years ago, brought the long journey thence to Illinois, at that day exceeding in risk and time a modern trip around the world, in use here in the infancy of the Republic, then cast aside and forgotten for almost a cen- tury, and lately rescued by the merest chance from destruction, it has now, by the formal vote of the Board of Commissioners of Randolph County, Illinois, the lineal successors of our first County-Lieutenant, been placed, we hope permanently, in the custody of the Chicago His- torical Society. And when we consider that its opening pages were inscribed by the first Governor of the State of Virginia, who was one of the foremost men of the Revo- lution, that it is mainly filled with the handiwork of the first County-Lieutenant of the great Northwest Territory, that it contains the record of one of the first courts of common law in Illinois, and above all, that it is a sum- mary of the beginning of Republican institutions here, and, in fact, the record of the origin of our State, this common-looking book, with its coarse paper and few pages of faded handwriting, becomes an unique histor- ical memorial, worthy to be treasured by the people of Illinois with reverent care for all time to come.
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And with it too should be treasured the memory of that brave and able man, John Todd, a pioneer of progress, education, and liberty, and the real founder of this Com- monwealth, who served his countrymen long and well, and died a noble death, fighting for their homes and firesides against a savage enemy, and giving his life, as he had given the best of his years and strength, for the cause of civilization and free government in the western world.
ILLINOIS IN THE REVOLUTION
The region which is now Illinois has its own associa- tions with the American Revolution, although so remote from the scene of the outbreak and of many of the events of that great contest. In 1763 the French King, in con- sequence of the victory of Wolfe over Montcalm on the plains of Abraham at Quebec, ceded it to Great Britain. An interregnum of two years occurred before its new master could reduce it to possession. It was the western most of the lands to which George the Third claimed title under the French cession, and his representatives made repeated attempts to occupy it. But these were foiled by the power and address of that sovereign of the wilder- ness, the red King Pontiac, who really ruled Illinois from 1763 to 1765. But Pontiac ultimately yielded to the inevitable, and gloomily instructed his dusky hordes to leave the waterways to the west unobstructed.
Thereupon a detachment of soldiers under young Cap- tain Stirling, who was afterwards to win distinction as a general at Waterloo, came from Pittsburg by the Ohio and the Mississippi to old Fort Chartres. Here, on Octo- ber 2, 1765, as the Highlanders presented arms and the British and French commandants exchanged the formal courtesies of the occasion, the white banner of the Bour- bons was lowered never to float in Illinois again, and the meteor flag of England streamed in its stead. And thus Illinois, then inhabited only by Frenchmen and by Indians friendly to the French, became a colony of Great Britain less than ten years before the beginning of the Revolution.
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Of the population of the new colony at the time it was thus occupied, various estimates have been made. After the cession many of the French inhabitants crossed the Mississippi and settled at what is now St. Louis, believ- ing that to be still French territory. Their surprise and grief were great when they learned some time later that the French King had, by a secret treaty made at the time of the cession to England, transferred New Orleans and the whole country west of the Mississippi to Spain. This checked the emigration, for Spain was almost as hateful to Frenchmen as England. In a number of cases houses had been floated across the river, and two of the five flourishing French villages in Illinois, Ste. Anne of Fort Chartres and Prairie du Pont, were almost entirely depop- ulated, and have since died out. The other three, Kas- kaskia, Prairie du Rocher and Cahokia, still exist, and preserve many quaint French and Canadian ways and customs, but none of them in as prosperous a condition as formerly. At all events, when Illinois came under the English dominion, exclusive of the roaming Indians, its population did not exceed two thousand whites and one thousand negroes, the latter all held in slavery. Eng- lish traders soon found their way there, and among the few records we have of that period are the account books of a post trader at Kaskaskia, which were found at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a few years ago, and throw curious side lights upon the history of Illinois just before the Revolution.
The causes from which the Revolution resulted were at work on the seaboard, and, strange to say, produced an effect even among the handful of people in this wild region, so remote and so difficult of access. It was an exceeding surprise to the English officials in Canada and
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the Northwest to find that the Frenchmen in Illinois, so recently relieved from the yoke of an absolute despotism, took as naturally to the new ideas of liberty as if they had been of English birth. These pioneers, living on the far- off frontier (for Illinois was then emphatically the Eng- lish frontier in North America, all west of it belonging to another nation), practically said to the authorities of Eng- land: "We have become Englishmen and we want the rights of Englishmen." At such demands the head of the British Colonial Office became irate, and said that he never had heard of such barefaced presumption in his life, that it could not be tolerated and that it must be put down and punished. But these sturdy Illinoisans were not one whit afraid. Every movement along the Atlantic for colonial rights and then for independence met a ready response and sympathy in this part of the interior. And the celerity and accuracy with which such news reached them is really marvelous. Fearless men, taking their lives in their hands, toiled over the Alleghenies, and paddled along the great rivers, by danger haunted pass and shore to bear the news to Illinois of the repeal of the Stamp Act and the successive steps of colonial independ- ence, and hearty rejoicings went up from our prairies when these messengers of freedom arrived.
In 1771 the people of Illinois assembled in a general meeting at Kaskaskia and sent a demand to the English government for institutions like those of Connecticut, and the right to appoint their own governor and all civil magistrates. This shows a remarkable acquaintance with the affairs of the eastern colonies, for Connecticut alone among those of New England had preserved her ancient charter and it was the freest of them all. This demand was forwarded through General Gage, then in command
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at Boston. In transmitting it to the home authorities he wrote: "A regular constitutional government for the people of Illinois cannot be suggested. They don't deserve so much attention." "I agree with you," rejoined Lord Hillsborough, then at the head of the Brit- ish Colonial Office, "a regular government for that dis- trict would be highly improper." His successor, Lord Dartmouth, took the same view, and described the ideas of the inhabitants of the Illinois district with regard to a civil constitution as very extravagant, and rejected their proposition to take some part in the election of their own rulers as absurd and inadmissible. He therefore prepared and forwarded to Illinois what he called, "A Sketch of Government for Illinois." It was very sim- ple. It provided, in a few paragraphs, that all powers should be vested in officers appointed by the Crown, and none left in the people. Upon receipt of this precious document a storm of wrath arose in the prairie land. The people of Illinois again assembled at Kaskaskia, and under the lead of Daniel Blouin, a liberty-loving Canadian of French descent, forwarded by him as their agent, to Lord Dartmouth, their indignant protest against the pro- posed "Sketch of Government," which they rejected, to use their own language, "as oppressive and absurd, much worse than that of any of the French or even of the Spanish colonies." And they boldly added, "Should a government so evidently tyrannical be established, it could be of no long duration. There would exist the necessity of its being abolished." There is something very fine about this action on the part of this little band of men of foreign birth transferred against their will to the British Crown, but determined to have all the rights which that transfer gave them. Though not born free,
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in the sense that Englishmen were, they at least resolved to die free. So spoke the men of Illinois, and so they bore themselves in the days just preceding the Revolu- tion. Great honor is due to them and to their leader, Daniel Blouin, a "village Hampden," whose name deserves to be rescued from oblivion. No wonder that some of George Third's friends doubted the power of England to conquer the old colonies, when the new ones spoke the tongue of liberty as if it were their birth- right.
It is probable that attempts would have been made by the government to bridle the unruly colonists of Illinois but for the more urgent needs for troops elsewhere. At the commencement of the Revolutionary War the British regular garrisons were withdrawn from the Illinois posts to Canada and were enrolled in the forces operating from that country against the colonies. Their places were sup- plied by the local militia under the command of British officials appointed by the Governor-General of Canada. Very soon expeditions began to be planned in Illinois against the English forts to the eastward, regardless of these officials who were striving to maintain the author- ity of the Mother Country in the rude, palisaded forts at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, within the present limits of the State of Illinois. The most important of these expedi- tions were directed against Fort St. Joseph, which stood on the River St. Joseph within the present limits of Mich- igan, and but a mile or so from the city of Niles in that State. It was garrisoned by a small English force, and was considered a very important post, being located on the great east and west Indian trail, not far from the port- age to the headwaters of the Kankakee River, the most important tributary of the Illinois.
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In October, 1777, a jovial Irislıman named Tom Brady, and a French half-breed named Hamelin, residing at Cahokia, in the Illinois country, organized a party of six- teen volunteers. They crossed the prairies to Fort St. Joseph, surprised it at night, and defeated and paroled the garrison of twenty-one regulars. They captured a quantity of merchandise, burned what they could not carry away, and also fired the buildings and palisades of the little stockade. Returning flushed with victory, they were overtaken at the Calumet River, not far from the present South Chicago, by the foes whom they had just overcome and their Indian allies. The Illinois party, in their turn, were surprised and routed, and twelve were taken prisoners, including the redoubtable Brady. He was sent to Canada, escaped, found his way to Pennsyl- vania, and thence by the Ohio River to the Illinois terri- tory, where he afterward became sheriff of St. Clair County. His career illustrates the indomitable character of the Illinois office seeker. Warfare, imprisonment, exile, hardships, all were unavailing to prevent Tom Brady from returning to his bailiwick and securing an office.
The failure of Brady's undertaking, and the death of some of his comrades and the capture of others, aroused a desire for revenge among the men of Illinois. In the summer of 1778 one Paulette Meillet, a Canadian French- man residing near the site of Peoria, of which he was the founder, resolved to undertake the task of obtaining sat- isfaction. He led a force of three hundred French and Indians from his place of residence, probably by the Illi- nois and Kankakee Rivers, to St. Joseph. Rumors of his coming had caused the garrison to take some steps towards putting the fort in a state of defence, but these were of little effect. The impetuous mob of Meillet's
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force carried the palisades, though mounted with small cannon, and the English troops surrendered at discretion. They were paroled and sent to Canada, the goods col- lected by the Indian traders were seized, and again the torch was applied. The victorious Illinois soldiers returned at their leisure, and no enemy dared to follow their trail.
Fort St. Joseph was destined to figure again in Rev- olutionary annals and this time in connection with events of greater importance. In January, 1781, Don Francesco Cruvat, the Spanish commandant at Saint Louis, acting undoubtedly under orders from his home government, sent a force to capture this post. It crossed the prairies of Illinois in the dead of winter, captured the fort with- out difficulty, and took formal possession of it and of all the region watered by the Illinois River and its tribu- taries, in the name of the King of Spain.
I have departed from the chronological order of Revo- lutionary incidents associated with Illinois in order to present those relating to Fort St. Joseph in succession. After the Spaniards left it was occupied as a trading post, and nominally at least came under the jurisdiction of the United States. It has had a remarkable history, and one hardly realizes that this now quiet spot, within a stone's throw of which we pass and repass on the Michigan Cen- tral Railway, has been the scene of so many stirring events. It is the site of a fort founded by the French, ceded to the English, captured by Pontiac, twice taken by our troops in the Revolutionary War and again by Spain. Besides the banner of the great Republic, the flags of three sovereigns have floated over it, and one may well say four, if the warrior crest of the red King Pontiac is included, as it should be, for he was the kingliest man of
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them all. One may truly say of him as Rufus Choate said of King Philip of Pokanoket: "I would not wrong his warrior shade by classing him with any of the so- called sovereigns who in his time sat upon the thrones of Europe."
Before Meillet's force had set out from Peoria, another expedition was on its way down the Ohio, which was, perhaps, the first to fly the stars and stripes on western waters. James Willing, a young Philadelphian, whose brother was a partner of the famous Robert Morris, had been engaged in trading at the south when the Revolu- tionary War broke out. He came north and formed a plan to wrest the Southwest from the British Crown. He was commissioned a captain in the Continental navy, crossed the Alleghenies to Fort Pitt with a company of marines, enlisted others, built an armed vessel and set sail from Pittsburg in January, 1778. The news of his approach caused positive terror among the English gar- risons in the Northwest. He captured traders along the Ohio, skirted the entire southern boundary of what is now the State of Illinois, and at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi turned southward, to the immense relief of the English commandant of the Illinois country. This was M. Philippe Rocheblave, a Frenchman in the British service, and the last royal governor of the Illinois. It is very interesting to read his letters, now preserved in the British Museum, written from Kaskaskia to the Gov- ernor-General of Canada. He alternates between hope and fear, as different accounts of Willing's progress reach him. He confounds him with George Rogers Clark, of whose expedition to the Illinois some floating rumors had reached him. And when at length he learns that Willing's vessel had really gone southward he utters
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a pious ejaculation of thankfulness for his escape from the "Long Knives," as the Kentuckians were called. But on that very day, and probably soon after the dis- patch of the Indian messenger who carried his letter to Canada, he found himself in the power of the leader of the "Long Knives," George Rogers Clark himself. Wil- ling had a series of adventures at the south, and was ulti- mately taken prisoner by the British near Mobile, and would have been hanged by them but for Washington's prompt notification that he would hang a British officer if Willing was executed. Some of his men found their way northward, and joined George Rogers Clark in Illi- nois. Willing remained a captive for years on a British prison ship, and was finally exchanged, broken in health and spirits, and reached his home, where he died soon after. He sleeps with his kindred in the vaults of an old church in Philadelphia.
The great event of the history of Illinois in the Revo- lution has been so often told as to need but brief mention here. George Rogers Clark's splendid campaign has become a household word. This young Virginian, with a handful of men, over great obstacles and through great privations, captured the British garrisons at Kaskaskia in what is now Illinois, and at Vincennes, in what is now Indiana. In his wonderful march to the latter place across the flooded prairies and the swollen streams of southern Illinois, he was accompanied by battalions com- posed of the young Frenchmen of Illinois, who quitted themselves like men. The whole region now comprised in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin was made a single county of Virginia, under the name of Illinois, and governed by officials appointed by the Old Dominion. Clark's campaign and Virginia's
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subsequent occupancy of the country turned the scale in our favor at the negotiation of the Treaty of 1783, when Spain strove hard to acquire all of this region by virtue of her expedition to St. Joseph, and France, our ally, but already jealous of the new nation, was quite willing that she should have it. George Rogers Clark, by deeds mainly occurring on the soil of Illinois, added to our country a territory of more than two-thirds of the area of the original thirteen colonies.
Clark's force was not sufficient for him to guard the whole of the conquered territory, and hence a large part of the Illinois region was still open to raids from the enemy. Major De Peyster was the British commandant at Mackinac. Under his orders an invading expedition was sent in the summer of 1779 to attack the trading post of Le Pé, which was situated within the present limits of Peoria, Illinois. It had been an important fur-trading sta- tion under the French régime, and it was still maintained by traders of that race, who were friendly to the Amer- icans and rejoiced in Clark's conquest. They had built a stockade which De Peyster feared might be of advantage to the Virginian troops in case they moved further north- ward, and therefore wished to destroy. The commander of the expedition was Charles Gautier de Verville, a Canadian in the British service, who was employed dur- ing the Revolution in recruiting Indian allies for the Brit- ish in the Northwest. His soldiers were almost entirely Indians from various tribes. He undoubtedly came from Mackinac along the west coast of Lake Michigan, and by the lonely little Chicago River and the portage to the Des Plaines River, and thence down the Illinois. Many times this route had been followed by parties of Indians and of Frenchmen in the early days of the Northwest,
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but this is the first time it appears in Revolutionary his- tory. De Verville's approach was so stealthy and so sudden that the startled French traders had no time to prepare a defence, and their stockade was taken and burned. But fear of retribution from Clark and his "Long Knives" led De Verville to beat a hasty retreat, and he apparently returned as he came by the site of Chi- cago, across which trooped these natives allies of Great Britain in their war paint, adorned with the spoils of Le Pé.
A more formidable expedition menaced the Illinois settlements in the following year. Spain had declared war against Great Britain, which prepared to attack the Spanish posts on the Mississippi, with a fleet and army to ascend that river. The British officers in the West were directed to cooperate with the expedition to descend the river. A motley horde of Indians was assembled at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, and went down the Mississippi to St. Louis, where they attacked the outskirts of the town and slew a dozen or more peo- ple, but were soon driven away. One of their bands crossed the river and did some mischief at Cahokia in Illinois, but was beaten off, and the expedition divided itself into various bands and fled northward, some return- ing by the Chicago portage. The result might have been different had the traders awaited the arrival of Charles de Longlade, a famous partisan of Green Bay, who was leading a band of Indians by the way of the Chicago and Illinois Rivers to join them. But he failed to cooperate, and the whole affair amounted to nothing. Old Jean Baptiste Pointe au Sable, the negro trader then living alone at the Chicago River, saw them come and go, but was protected by his British commission, and suffered nothing at their hands.
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Another Revolutionary expedition in Illinois in behalf of the American cause was destined to an equally useless but more mournful conclusion. It is a sad and strange tale, and in some respects remains an unsolved mystery to students of Illinois history to this day. Early in the Revolutionary War a French officer named La Balme landed at Boston, apparently intending to offer his serv- ices to the colonial cause. His journal, which has been preserved, shows that he was a man of refinement and education, and inspired with an ardent love of liberty. Why he did not enter the Continental army is not known, nor whether he ever obtained any commission or author- ity from our government. But shortly after Clark's con- quest of the Northwest La Balme appeared in Illinois with arms and money, and began recruiting a force to attack the British post at Detroit. He visited the French villages, and his appearance and earnest words created a deep impression. One of Clark's officers who saw him there could not learn by what authority he was acting, but writes that "the people run after him as if he were the very Masiah himself." With companies of young men from Kaskaskia and Cahokia he crossed Illinois to the old French village of Vincennes, where he enrolled other companies. A fragment of a song still exists which purports to have been sung by the girls of the vil- lage in praise of those young Frenchmen who were going to march against the forces of "perfidious Albion," and doubtless was a patent aid to La Balme's recruiting. He left Vincennes with a well-equipped little force, ascended the Wabash, and attacked an English trading post near the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and captured it with its stores. Flushed with success and sated with plunder, La Balme's troops kept little guard over their
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night encampment. The enraged traders, summoning their Indian friends, fell upon the unsuspecting French- men before morning, slew La Balme, utterly routed his forces, and recaptured their goods. Some prisoners, including La Balme's adjutant, were sent to Canada, and in the Canadian archives to-day are preserved La Balme's journal and French commissions, but no papers which throw any further light upon this affair. Had he succeeded in capturing Detroit, La Balme's name might have gone down in history with that of George Rogers Clark, whose dearest wish after the conquest of Illinois was the taking of that place. As it is poor La Balme is but a name and nothing more.
Manuscripts and official documents and traditions pre- serve the accounts of other expeditions less important or less striking, of forays and skirmishes, of interesting transactions, all associated with Illinois in the Revolu- tion. But enough has been related to show that her peo- ple had a part in the great conflict and performed deeds of which their successors upon Illinois soil have a right to be proud.
THE MARCH OF THE SPANIARDS ACROSS ILLINOIS
We do not realize at the present time that the early inhabitants of what is now Illinois had the Spaniard for a neighbor. Nor that the territory of ten free and sov- ereign States of our Union lying beyond the Mississippi was once as hopelessly doomed to civil and ecclesiastical tyranny as any province of Old Spain. And His Most Catholic Majesty not only owned all the country west of what some early voyagers finely call "the Eternal River,"1 but soon laid claim to the exclusive control of its waters, and would not suffer the Mississippi to go unvexed to the sea. This is vividly illustrated by a single incident occurring in the latter part of the last century. Andrew Ellicott, boundary commissioner on behalf of the United States of America, after encamping at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, embarked upon the latter stream, and writes as follows in his journal of the voyage: "Left the shore at daylight, and proceeded down the river to the station of one of the Spanish gallies; the master behaved very politely, but informed us that it would be proper to remain at his sta- tion till the next morning. (The next morning) we pro- ceeded down to New Madrid ... the commandant requested me to continue there two or three days."? It was as if a representative of our government, leaving Cairo in Illinois to-day to visit New Orleans, should be. halted by a foreign armed vessel, taken into custody for
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