USA > Illinois > Illinois, historical and statistical, comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state, Vol. I > Part 12
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(FAC SIMILE) A PLAN
of the several Villages in the ILLINOIS COUNTRY, with Part of the River Mississippi &c. by
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292
I35
PROCLAMATION OF GEN. GAGE.
When the proclamation of King George III was issued, Oct. 7, 1763, providing for the government of the country wrested from France-dividing it into four provinces, viz .: Quebec, East and West Florida, and Grenada-no reference was made to the Northwest, the possession of which at that time was stubbornly disputed by the aboriginal tribes. But in regard to all that vast territory the policy of the government was indicated and set forth in the same state paper as follows: His Majesty prohib- ited his subjects "from making any purchases or settlements whatsoever, or taking possession of any of the lands beyond the sources of any rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest."* While the announcement of this policy was no doubt intended to placate the Indians, and to disabuse their minds of the conviction that the British wanted their lands, it was also clearly intended as an inhibition against all white settlements. All such were discouraged. Instead of offering any inducements for the colonization of this splendid region, at the suggestion of the English Board of Trade, the government preferred to confine all new settlements "within such a distance from the sea-coast as that they might be within easy reach of the trade and commerce of Great Britain."
On Dec. 30, 1764, Gen. Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, in view of the prospective occupation of the country, carefully prepared a proclamation in which the policy and intentions of the government in regard to the French inhabitants were made known. The first official act of Capt. Stirling was to "read, publish, and post" this impor- tant document, a synopsis of which is as follows:
Beginning with a recital of the surrender of the country to the British by the French, it proceeded to set forth that his British Majesty, well knowing the religious faith in which the inhabitants had lived, guaranteed to each the free and undis- turbed exercise of religious freedom, according to the rites and teachings of the Roman-Catholic church. That the French inhabitants would be unrestrained should they choose to return to France or emigrate to any other country, and that a safe passage to all such would be assured. That they were at lib- erty to remove their personal effects whither they pleased, and
* Dillon's " Historical Notes, " 97-8.
136
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
to sell or otherwise dispose of their lands, provided the convey- ance was made to British subjects. That those French settlers who preferred to remain upon their land and were willing to become loyal subjects of the British crown should receive and enjoy the same rights and privileges as regarded person, prop- erty, and commerce, as native-born subjects of the king, but that in order to avail themselves of this favor they must take an oath of allegiance to Great Britain.
But the French inhabitants beheld the surrender of the coun- try where they had dwelt so long and contentedly to their life-long foes, men of a different race and creed, whose habits, instincts, and tastes were so different from their own, with feel- ings of distrust and dissatisfaction. In addition to those who had retired the previous year with Villiers to New Orleans, others had removed to Natchez and Baton Rouge; others across the river to Ste. Genevieve, while quite a number took up their resi- dence at St. Louis, a trading-post established the previous year (1764) by Pierre Lacléde, and which was now rapidly growing into a thriving village. They carried with them their property and slaves, and as far as possible their houses. The dwellers about Fort Chartres, numbering some forty families, left almost in a body, less than half a dozen remaining ;* while those at St. Philip all departed but one man, the captain of the militia. In this way it was estimated that at least one-third of the French inhabitants left the Illinois country, rather than become the subjects of the Protestant house of Hanover.
The mixed character of the population at this time is well illustrated by the record of a marriage at Prairie du Rocher, in which a French soldier from the Spanish city of St. Louis, was married to an Englishwoman from Salisbury, by a French priest in the British province of the Illinois.+
Capt. Stirling, who had been temporarily detailed to take command of the fort, was, on Dec. 4, 1765, relieved by Maj. Robert Farmer, who brought with him from Mobile a detach- ment of the Thirty-fourth British Foot. The gallant captain no doubt took his leave of the perplexing questions which con- fronted him with no small satisfaction. He afterward fought his way up to a brigadier-generalship in the Revolutionary
Pittman. + E. G. Mason's " Illinois in the Eighteenth Century," p. 42.
I37
BRITISH COMMANDANTS.
War, and finally died in England in 1808, a baronet and gen- eral, the highest rank in the army .*
The following year, Maj. Farmer was in turn relieved by Col. Edward Cole, who had commanded a regiment under Gen. Wolfe at Quebec. He remained in command during the years 1766-8, but the position was not at all congenial. He neither admired the country nor appreciated its advantages. His health was poor and the privations of life at a frontier fort increased his discontent. 6 Accordingly, in 1768, he was relieved at his own request.+
Col. John Reed succeeded Col. Cole, but his incumbency was of short duration. The inhabitants complained that he was arbi- trary and despotic in his government, and he was recalled the same year. Following him in September, 1768, came "John Wilkins, Esq., lieutenant-colonel of his majesty's Eighteenth or Royal Regiment of Ireland," and "commandant throughout the Illinois country," as he describes himself. With him from Phila- delphia came seven companies of his regiment. The experience of these troops was that common to all new comers on the American Bottom in these early days, few of whom escaped malarial diseases. The fatality among them became really alarming. At one time, out of five companies, only a corporal and six men were found fit for duty. From Sept. 29 to Oct. 30 three officers, twenty-five men, and twenty-seven women and children died.+
Apart from the ever-present Indian problem and how best to regulate intercourse and maintain friendly relations with the red men, there does not seem to have been very much to occupy the commandant's attention. Indian affairs were under the general direction of Sir William Johnson, who gave them the closest and most patient consideration. He was greatly an- noyed by the efforts of the French who had removed to the west side of the Mississippi, in conjunction with those of the Spanish government, to divert the trade of the Indians from his majesty's subjects. Keen intellect, ready tact, and a firm
* New-York Colonial Docs., VII., 786. Why the historians of Illinois and the Northwest should, without exception, persist in killing off this distinguished officer at Fort Chartres is one of those errors of history for which it is difficult to account.
+ "Historical Magazine," Vol. VIII, 260.
.
138
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
hand were required properly to adjust these conflicting inter- ests, and these the experienced and popular Sir William pos- sessed.
For some time the policy of discouraging the settlement of the Northwest commanded the warm support of the British ministry. Overtures looking toward the colonization of the territory, whether proceeding from would-be corporations or from individuals, met with disfavor. The reasons for the adop- tion of this line of action are briefly outlined in a letter from Gen. Gage to the earl of Hillsborough, written in 1769, in which he says : "As to increasing the settlements [northwest of the Ohio] to respectable provinces, * I conceive it altogether in- consistent with sound policy. * In the course of a few years necessity would force them to provide manufactures of some kind for themselves, and when all connection upheld by com- merce with the mother country shall cease, it may be expected that an independency in her government will soon follow." The governor of Georgia in a similar strain wrote to the British lords of trade: "This matter, my lords, of granting large bodies of land in the back parts of any of his majesty's northern colonies appears to me in a very serious and alarming light. If a vast territory be granted to any set of gentlemen who really mean to people it, and actually do so, it must draw and carry out a great number of people from Great Britain, and I apprehend they will soon become a kind of separate and independent people, who will set up for themselves, and they will soon have manufactures of their own, and in process of time they will soon become formid- able enough to oppose his majesty's authority."*
And thus early were felt the premonitions of the coming storm, which was destined to sweep away the power of the king in the thirteen colonies of North America.
But such were the demands of the people for more land west of the Alleghanies that the rigorous enforcement of this policy soon began to be relaxed. Col. Wilkins, in 1769 and after, made several grants of land near Fort Chartres, giving as a reason therefor that "the cultivation of lands not then appro- priated was essentially necessary and useful toward the better peopling and settlement of the said country, as well as highly
* " Report of the British Board of Trade, " 27.
139
THE DUNMORE WAR.
advantageous to his majesty's service in raising, producing, and supplying provisions for his majesty's troops stationed in the country of the Illinois."*
In 1774, the earl of Dunmore (John Murray), the last British governor of Virginia, encouraged colonists to take warrants from him for lands in the Ohio Valley. A number of these "land jobbers," as they were called, having been robbed and killed by the Indians, as was alleged, an attack was made upon the latter by a party of whites under one Greathouse, and sev- eral of them killed. The war then followed which is known in history as the Dunmore War with the Shawnees, which lasted from April to December, 1774. Some severe engagements took place between the contending parties, and many lives were lost. It was at the close of this war, when propositions for a treaty of peace were being discussed, that the celebrated Logan, who had been a great sufferer thereby, delivered his eloquent speech. It appears in Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," p. 105, ed. 1787, as follows:
"I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said: 'Logan is the friend of the white man.' Col. Cresap the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear; Logan never felt fear; he will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan ? Not one."+
On July 5, 1773, the Illinois Land Company, at Kaskaskia,
* Dillon's " Historical Notes," 116.
+ Capt. Michael Cresap (his father, Col. Thomas Cresap, was not in that part of the country at the time) was in no way responsible for the killing of Logan's relatives. The subject is fully treated by W. F. Poole in Winsor's "America," VI, p. 712.
1
140
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
obtained from ten chiefs of the Kaskaskia, Peoria, and other tribes a deed for two large tracts of land in the Illinois. In 1775, the Wabash Land Company purchased from the Pianka- shaws at Vincennes lands amounting to thirty-seven million, four hundred and ninety-seven thousand, six hundred acres. These two companies were afterward consolidated, and after the country passed under the jurisdiction of the United States repeated efforts were made to secure a confirmation of these grants from Congress, but without avail. In this year, Gov. Dunmore, on what authority does not appear, ordered the sur- vey of the vacant land in Virginia, in lots of from one hun- dred to one thousand acres, and that it be put up for sale.
The French subjects of Great Britain who had remained in the Illinois early exhibited a disposition to become troublesome, and as a panacea for all civil ills, Gen. Gage instructed Col. Wilkins to establish a court of common-law jurisdiction at Fort Chartres, with a bench of seven judges-the first British court rest of the Alleghanies. Instead of appeasing, this move in- creased, the discontent of the French; and it must be confessed that it was an injudicious step to compel a people to settle their disputes by common-law proceedings whose only knowledge of jurisprudence was confined to a limited acquaintance with the civil law. Their opposition, especially to that bulwark of Brit- ish freedom, trial by jury, was insuperable. It was repugnant to all their ideas of justice that the rights of persons and prop- erty should be safer in the hands of a panel of " miscellaneous tailors and shoemakers" than in those of erudite and dispassion- ate judges. They wanted none of it.
Among their other causes of complaint was a proclamation of Gen. Gage, directing the departure of settlers on the Wabash and at other places who were holding under grants from Jean Baptiste Racine, otherwise known as St. Marie, commandant at Vincennes. The inhabitants claimed under old French conces- sions, although many new ones, to small tracts around Vin- cennes and Ouiatanon, had been made.
The government of the Illinois country indeed was a subject of embarrassing consideration in the British cabinet for several years .* Petitions were sent to the king setting forth the griev-
* Canadian Archives.
141
ILLINOIS ATTACHED TO QUEBEC.
ances of the inhabitants, and delegations were also despatched to the colonial governor of Canada, praying to be attached to the province of Quebec,* for governmental purposes.
The growing disaffection of the American colonists to the British government, which was by this time becoming apparent, decided parliament, with a view to the conciliation of the French inhabitants of Canada, June 2, 1774, to pass an act enlarging the province of Quebec so as to include the Northwest Terri- tory.+ This act also confirmed to the French inhabitants the free exercise of their religion and restored to them their ancient laws in civil cases without trial by jury. The passage of this act by parliament, while it had the desired effect upon the French in attaching them to British interests, exerted a diametrically opposite influence upon the British inhabitants of the old thir- teen colonies. They denounced it in their conventions and through their press, characterizing it as " the very extraordinary and alarming act for establishing the Roman-Catholic religion and French laws in Canada." It was cited in the Declaration of Independence as one of the causes of the Revolution-a result foreseen by Lord Chatham, Edmund Burke, and Charles Fox, who opposed the passage of the law.
The administration of Lieut .- Col. Wilkins in the Illinois coun- try proved unpopular. Grave charges were preferred against him, including misappropriations of the public funds-of which he demanded investigation, claiming that he was able to justify his conduct. He was superseded in September, 1771, and sailed for Europe in July, 1772.
The data for the details of events in the Illinois country from 177 1 to 1778 are locked up in the Haldimand and other papers on file among the archives of Canada, only brief extracts from which have been published.§ From these documents it appears that Capt. Hugh Lord of the Eighteenth Regiment became commandant after Col. Wilkins, and so continued until 1775.
* American Archives, I, 186 et seq.
+ P'erhaps, also, the British ministry, foreseeing the coming storm of the Revo- lution and its possible results, was influenced by a desire to secure this portion of unoccupied territory for the British crown. See W. F. Poole in Winsor's " America," Vol. VI, 715.
+ W. F. Poole, in Winsor's "America," Vol. VI., p. 714.
§ A calendar of these papers has been prepared by Douglas Brymner.
142
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
In 1772, one of the periodic floods incident to the Mississippi overflowed the American Bottom and swept away two bastions and part of the main walls of Fort Chartres .* The post being thus rendered untenable, the headquarters of the commandant were ordered to be removed to Kaskaskia.
Fort Chartres was never again occupied or used except as a resting-place for wandering traders or predatory bands of sav- ages. Its walls were utilized in other structures in the vicinity, and that portion of its armament which was not at that time removed to Kaskaskia was afterward probably taken to Fort Jefferson, and some of the old British cannon were used against their former owners during the War of 1812. It gradually fell into decay, until today scarcely a foot-path leads to the spot where its ancient foundations may yet be seen. The expense of its construction was enormous; its utility was never demon- strated; as a protection against the incursions of either the Indians or Spaniards, it proved practically valueless.
In a letter of Gov. Haldimand of July 8, 1781, it appears that Capt. Matthew Johnson received £1200 salary for six years' service as "lieutenant-commandant of the Illinois," from May, 1775, to May 1781. But as to where that officer was stationed or what duties he performed, other than to draw his pay, the reader must at present be left in the dark.
In another later letter from the governor, Capt. Sinclair of Mackinac is designated as "lieutenant-governor of the Illinois," and it is probable that that district was for a time attached to his command. It is clear, however, from these papers that Phillip François de Rastel, Chevalier de Rocheblave was in command at Kaskaskia as early as October, 1776, and that his conduct there was approved by Sir Guy Carleton. He had been an officer in the French army, and had resided at Kaskaskia a number of years, having been married there, as appears by the old parish records, April 11, 1763. With the transfer of the country to the British he had transferred his allegiance, and had been promoted as above stated. It appears that in 1766 he was in command at Ste. Genevieve, where he became in- volved in serious financial difficulties.
He was evidently a faithful and intelligent, although a com-
* Beck's "Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," 108.
143
EXPLOITS OF CAPT. WILLING.
plaining and captious, officer. The few settlers of British birth gave him more trouble than the French. Their leaning toward the American cause was a source of much annoyance. The number of regular troops comprising his garrison had been reduced until, after the withdrawal of the last detachment, he was forced to depend for the safety of his position entirely upon the loyalty of the militia. His repeated demands for funds to meet repairs and current expenses had not been hon- ored. He had kept on good terms with the Indians, but was. fearful of forays from the Spaniards, and of an attack from one Willing, whose depredations on the Mississippi gave him much concern.
James Willing of Philadelphia, a young man of good connec- tions but of extravagant tastes and dissolute habits, having exhausted his means, applied for and obtained a commission in the American army, and was ordered West to watch the British, to conciliate settlers, and enlist recruits. His good address and persuasive eloquence enabled him in a short time to raise a. force of over a hundred men. At Manchac, below Natchez, he managed to make himself master of a British armed vessel with which he proceeded to New Orleans. He here sold his vessel and with the proceeds entered upon a career of debauchery and crime which made him notorious. Having squandered the means- thus obtained, he organized a fresh force of kindred spirits and returned to Manchac, where, taking possession of the post, he plundered the people indiscriminately. Thence he proceeded up the river, freebooting and alarming the settlers. As may be- well supposed, his name became a terror to both loyalists and patriots, who finally organized a force and drove him and his band out of the country .* Such, at least, is the story told of and the character given to Capt. Willing by those who claim to have suffered at his hands; on the other hand, Girardin, in his "History of Virginia,"+ refers to his expedition as laudable, and claims that the charges of cruelty and excesses brought against him were not justified by the facts.
Rocheblave was a good correspondent, and kept the author- ities at Quebec well advised of what was going on in his district. He pointed out the necessity of the presence of regular troops
* Memoirs of Capt. Phelps, 1802.
+ Vol. IV, p. 357.
144
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
and complained of his want of means, of his "constant worries," and requested to be relieved ·by "some Englishman."
It is evident that with the opening guns of the Revolution so many demands were being made upon the Canadian governor's time and resources from what were considered more important localities that but little attention was given to Illinois affairs; and, as will be shown in the next chapter, taking advantage of this negiect, the Americans, through a brilliant strategic move- ment, were enabled to deal one of the most effective and im- portant blows of the war.
Authorities: Dillon's " Historical Notes "; New-York Colonial Documents; Parkman's "Pontiac "; Capt. Pittman's "Settlements on the Mississippi, 1771"; " Magazine of Western History," and Articles therein by O. W. Collet; Billon's "Annals of St. Louis"; "Illinois in the Eighteenth Century," by Edw. G. Mason; "Canadian Archives"; Haswell's "Memoirs of Capt. Phelps"; W. F. Poole in Win- sor's "America, " Vol. VI; Beck's "Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri."
PERIOD III .- UNDER VIRGINIA, 1778-1784. 1
CHAPTER IX.
Illinois in the Revolution-Its Reduction by Virginia under Col. Clark-Capture of Vincennes-Indian Treaties.
T HE issue of the French-and-Indian War gave to Great Britain a prestige greater than that country had ever enjoyed. Her victories on both land and sea had been un- precedented, and the addition of Canada and that portion of Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi River to her colo- nial domain, already imperial in the grandeur of its extent, formed a fitting climax to a long line of splendid achieve- ments. But the settlement of America had come to have a broader significance than the mere establishment of new marts of trade or the opening of new channels of commerce. The discon- tented emigrants from the overcrowded British Isles found in the newly-acquired territory opportunities for advancement which had been denied them at home, and the rapid accumulation of population soon brought about an aggregation of interests, so- cial and political, distinctive and peculiar to the colonies. The home government soon perceived this fact, and the problem how best to adjust the relations between the mother country and the growing colonies became of such vital importance ånd absorbing interest as to overshadow all other questions.
The settlers of North America were men of rugged inde- pendence and firm believers in the right of free-deliberation and free-speech; and the arbitrary policy of the home ministry awakened the most determined opposition. The assertion of the right of taxation without representation, the enforcement of the navigation act, the adoption of the stamp-tax act by the British parliament, were firmly and defiantly resisted. Accu- mulated oppressions compelled, as a necessary defensive meas- ure, the formation of the thirteen colonies into the American Union, and the creation of the Continental Congress. Follow- ing this came the vote to raise troops, provide means of defense,
IO
145
146
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, and the War of the Revolution.
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