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 9
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Similar grants of commons were made to other French vil- lages for the benefit of the inhabitants. The impetus derived from the energy of the Indies Company was communicated to Cahokia and Kaskaskia, which increased in size and num- bers. In 1722, a parish church and stone residence for the Jesuits were erected at the latter place, and new mills and store- houses at each of these villages. Agriculture was encouraged, and grants of land were made to permanent settlers. These grants, although inchoate in their character, were permitted to become allodial titles without farther concessions. The first of these conveyances of record, bearing date May 10, 1722, was to Charles Danie.+ Another in this locality, covering several
* "Voyages aux Indes Occidentales," Bossu, Part I, 132.
+ It reads as follows: "Pierre Duque Boisbriant, knight of the Military Order
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
leagues in extent, and one also near Peoria, were made to Renault for the labor of his slaves. He left the country in 1743, but some of this land is yet designated on the map of Monroe County as belonging to his heirs; while the title to other portions is now being litigated in the courts.
These grants on the American Bottom commenced at the Mississippi River and extended to the Kaskaskia or to the bluffs, with no intervening or unsold tracts. They were so many arpents-II and 67/100 rods-in width and length, the lines of which ran the same course. Some of them, as at Cahokia, were only two arpents wide and extended five miles to the bluffs." Thus large fields were within a common en- closure, each owner contributing his share toward keeping up the fence. In this way nearly all of the land in the American Bottom, in the vicinity of the settlements, was conveyed.
In September, 1721, such progress had been made in the settlement of the new country and in building up separate communities, that it was deemed advisable by the commis- sioners of the council for the government of the Indies Com- pany to divide the province of Louisiana into nine civil and military districts. And it was provided that over each of these should be appointed a commandant and a judge, from whose decisions appeals might be taken to the superior council at New Orleans.+
Of these districts, Illinois, the largest and next to New Orleans the most populous, was the seventh. It embraced over one-half of the territory of the present State and all of St. Louis and first King's lieutenant of the Province of Louisiana, commanding at the Illinois, and Marc Antoine de la Loire des Ursins, principal secretary for the Royal Indies Company ;---
On the demand of Charles Danie, to grant him a piece of land five arpents in front, on the side of the Mitchiagamia River, running north and south, joining to Michel Philip on one side and on the other to Meleque, and in depth east and west to the Mississippi. In consequence they do grant to the said Charles Danie (in soc age) the said land; whereon he may from this date commence working, clearing, and sowing in expectation of a formal concession, which shall be sent from France by Messieurs the Directors of the Royal Indies Company. And the said land shall revert to the domain of the said company if the said Charles Danie do not work thereon within a year and a day. BOISBRIANT.
* See " American State Papers, " Vol. II.
+ Dillon, 43.
DES URSINS. "
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CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
that country between the Arkansas and the forty-third parallel of North latitude, from the Mississippi to the Rocky Moun- tains. It included the present states of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and parts of Arkansas and Colorado .* In 1723, the Wabash region was cut off from the Illinois, and made a district by itself. The commandant, with his Secre- tary des Ursins, and Michael Chassin, the company's commis- sary, formed the council of the district, and administered its affairs according to the civil law.
Other events affecting the Illinois territory at this early day, in their order, were as follows: In 1722, upon request of the Peoria Indians living on the Illinois River, who represented that they were being hard pressed by the Sacs and Foxes, a force was sent from Fort Chartres to their relief; but before its arrival they had themselves defeated their foes, as hereto- fore related. In 1725, Boisbriant having been summoned to New Orleans to succeed Gov. de Bienville, who had been recalled to France, he was followed in the command of the Illinois district, at least temporarily, by Capt. du Tisné, who was in turn succeeded by Capt. de Liettet of the royal army.
Communication with the outer world was now mostly carried on by way of New Orleans. The old route from Canada by the Chicago portages having fallen into disuse, the French settlements on the Mississippi River were peculiarly open to forays from the savages-especially since the departure of the Peorias, in 1722, from the Illinois River. These hostile incur- sions were of frequent occurrence and determined the French to strike the Foxes an effective blow. An expedition was accordingly directed against them by the Marquis de Beau- harnais-grandfather of the first husband of the Empress Jose- phine-governor of Canada, in which the French and the Illinois Indians, commanded by Liette, took a prominent part.§ The Sacs and Foxes were met and defeated near Green Bay, Other collisions occurred between the belligerents in which the combined French and Indians were victorious under the brave St. Ange, upon whom the duties of comman-
* "Magazine of Western History."
+ Judge Breese spells this name de Lielte, and others de Siette, and Charlevoix Delietto.
+ Oscar W. Collet. § E. G. Mason.
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
dant, after Liette, had devolved. He was the father of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, and died about 1742 .*
In 1734, Gov. Bienville, who had been recalled in 1725 and was then succeeded by Gov. Périer, was reappointed and con- tinued to act as governor of Louisiana until 1743, when he was again recalled and succeeded by the Marquis de Vaudreuil.
In 1732, the charter of the Indies Company was surrendered, and Louisiana, including the district of the Illinois, was gov- erned by officers appointed directly by the French crown under a code of laws known as the "Common Law of Paris." These laws, however, not being adapted to the exigencies of civil or social relations in a new country, were not generally enforced; the commandant exercising an arbitrary but mild authority, which was acquiesced in without complaint.+ The majority of colonists who had come to this country, influenced by induce- ments held out by the Indies Company, being indigent and illiterate, when the company failed, for the most part betook themselves to the pursuits of hunting and boating. A few men of talent and enterprise remained, who became merchants and traders on a large scale with the Indians.
In 1734, Pierre d'Artaguiette, a young officer who had greatly distinguished himself in a war with the Natchez, was promoted to the majority of his regiment and appointed, by the governor of Louisiana, commandant of the Illinois district; and his administration proved popular and successful. In 1736, how- ever, he conducted a disastrous expedition against the Chicka- saws, who had long opposed the advancement of the French settlements on the Mississippi. His force was composed of a part of the garrison of Fort Chartres, a company of volunteers from the French villages, and a large portion of the warriors of the Kaskaskias, making an army of two hundred French and four hundred Indians .¿ The Illinois and Miami Indians were under command of Chief Chicagou. At the mouth of the Ohio, the Chevalier Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vin- cennes§ joined the expedition with his quota from the Wabash.
* O. W. Collet. + Dillon's "Historical Notes," 60.
# Holmes' "Annals," II, 83.
§ Vincennes was born in 1668, and was a brother-in-law of Louis Joliet. Dillon and others say that his name was Francis Morgan Vincennes. Shea, in his note
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INDIAN FORAYS.
Marching out from Fort Chartres on a morning in February, his command, when mustered on board his bateaux and canoes, presented an imposing appearance as it floated down the Mis- sissippi. A cooperating force from New Orleans was expected to effect a junction at an agreed point near the Chickasaw village. Bienville failed to carry out his part of the plan. Dis- appointed at this unexpected failure, to fight was the only alternative left the brave, young commander; but he was severely wounded early in the engagement, as were many other officers; his Indian allies fled, and the Chickasaws soon re- mained masters of the bloody field. Artaguiette, Vincennes, Father Senat, Tisné, and young Pierre St. Ange-brother of Louis,* were taken prisoners and burned at the stake.
The successor of the lamented Artaguiette was Alphonse de la Buissoniére, who, in 1736, also led an expedition against the warlike Chickasaws. The opposing forces came in sight of each other, but, upon a careful survey of the situation, concluded to make peace. However, this was soon broken by the implaca- ble redskins, who attacked a boat at the mouth of the Ohio, going to the Illinois, and killed all on board except one young girl, who had recently arrived from France and was on her way to join her sister at Fort Chartres. Reaching the shore, she wandered through the woods for days, living on herbs and roots; but finally saw the flag floating from Fort Chartres, and, struggling on, reached the haven of her hopes.
From this time on, for a period of over twelve years, the French settlements in the Illinois district were at peace with all the world, and prosperous. The war between Great Britain and France during the four years preceding the treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle, in 1748, involved the colonists on the Atlantic coast, but did not materially affect the remote and comparatively isolated settlers in the valley of the Mississippi.
During this period, the commandants general, as they were called in official documents, succeeded each other in the follow- ing order: In 1740, Capt. Benoist de St. Claire was appointed
to Charlevoix, IV, 122, gives the name as in the text. Collet says that the name Vincennes was one that he assumed. W. A. Brice, in his "History of Ft. Wayne," says that an officer by the name of M. de Vincennes was reported to have died at the Miami village in 1719. * O. W. Collet.
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to succeed Buissoniére; two years thereafter came the Chevalier de Bertel or Berthet, who held the position until 1748-9, when he in turn yielded the command to St. Claire, who was rein- stated therein.
The early history of the French settlements in southern Illi- nois reads, in these days of higher civilization and broader culture, like a romance of Arcadia. The wants of these primi- tive denizens of a new territory were as simple as they were few. Subsequent historians have called these the "halcyon days of Illinois," and allude to this period as the date at which was established the fact that "an honest, virtuous people need no government."*
The growth and prosperity of the five French villages in the district had been uniform and substantial. Extending along the American Bottom from Kaskaskia to Cahokia, frequent and friendly communication was maintained among their inhabit- ants along a line sixty miles in length. At peace with each other, they established and cultivated amicable relations with their Indian neighbors. Religious dissensions were unknown. The settlers recognized but one church, and to dispute her will in matters of faith never entered their minds. In each hamlet was a rude chapel, with its attendant priest, who was, not only in matters of religion but in all the affairs of every-day life, the "guide, philosopher, and friend " of his illiterate parishioners. The architecture of their houses partook of the simplicity of those who dwelt within them-a single story, surmounted by a thatch of prairie-grass, rested upon four posts, whose roughly- hewn sides were concealed by horizontal cross-ties, and whose interstices were filled in with clay and straw, in lieu of mortar. The main entrance was protected by a primitive porch or shed. The floors were made of puncheons. The substantial furnish- ing of these plain homes was designed with an eye to utility rather than ornament; articles of mere luxury were unkown, and she was a proud dame who could adorn her dwelling with a silver heirloom brought from her native land, to which she had bid a long farewell.
The demands of dress were not at all exacting. Coarse,
* See Reynolds' "Pioneer History of Illinois," and Breese's "Early History of Illinois. "
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STATE OF SOCIETY.
blue cotton sufficed for summer wear, which was sometimes covered by a capot made of a Mackinac blanket. In winter, cotton was replaced by bear skin. Blue handkerchiefs formed the head-gear of men and women alike, while both sexes were content to cover their feet with loosely-fitting deer-skin moccasins. Their agricultural implements were of the most primitive kind-wooden plows without a colter, and carts with- out iron. They usually plowed with oxen, which were yoked by the horns rather than by the neck. The horses were driven tandem, with harness made of raw-hide, which was strong and neat. With such implements and outfits thousands of acres were cultivated on the American Bottom, yielding large and remunerative crops.
They raised chiefly wheat, oats, hops, and tobacco-Indian corn only for hogs and hominy; against its use for bread they were prejudiced. Their bags were made of dried elk- skins. They had neither spinning-wheels, looms, nor churns -butter being made by shaking the cream in a bottle, or by breaking it in a bowl with a spoon, and very little used. Their commerce was chiefly with New Orleans, the people of which port depended mainly on Illinois for supplies of various kinds. Regular cargoes of flour-as many as four thousand sacks in 1745 *- bacon, pork, hides, tallow, leather, lumber, wine, lead, and peltries were annually, and sometimes more frequently, transported in keel-boats and barges, or batteaux as they were called, to New Orleans, where was found an excel- lent market. For cargo on their homeward voyage, the little vessels brought to the Northern settlements sugar, rice, manu- factured tobacco, indigo, cotton, and such other goods as the simple wants of the inhabitants required.
The Frenchmen in Illinois were excellent boatmen, and although the work of ascending the river was difficult and at some places perilous, they so mingled their amusements with the excitements of the voyage as to make this kind of life not only tolerable but enjoyable. The manner of navigating the Mississippi, as conducted then and for over half a century there- after, was by towing, sailing, and, as it was called, cordelling, which consisted in pulling the boat up stream by a long rope,
* Reynolds.
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one end of which was fastened to a tree, the other being in the hands of the men on board. When creeks or rivers impeded their progress, they swam them or were ferried over in canoes. The crews numbered, according to the size of the vessel, from ten to fifty hands, and with large boats heavily laden, four or five months' time was consumed in making the round trip from Kaskaskia to New Orleans. Besides coin, good peltries were an acknowledged measure of value, and passed freely in com- mercial transactions.
The government of the commandant, as before stated, was mild and conservative, interfering but little with the every-day pursuits of the people, excepting in matters of commerce, over which he maintained absolute control. Having extensive pat- ronage and unlimited power over trade, as well as over all con- tracts for supplies, repairs, and stores for his majesty's maga- zines, ample opportunities were afforded him not only to secure the good-will of the inhabitants, but also to add very largely to his legitimate income.
"The Court of the Audience of the royal jurisdiction of the Illinois," as Judge Breese calls it, which came to be established, had but little difficulty in settling the few matters of dispute which arose, or in enforcing its judgments and decrees, through the provost marshal .* Each village had its own local com- mandant, who was usually the captain of the militia.+
The burdens of the people were light; and there being but few social distinctions, there were no rivalries. Care was a stranger, and amusements always in order. Paying strict attention to the public duties of religion, they regarded the close of the mass on Sunday as the signal for the commence- ment of festivities on this gala day of the week. Games, visit- ing, and gossip were the order of the day; but their chief delight was in dancing, in which old and young engaged alike.+
Ignorant of the expensive demands of fashion, their artifi- cial wants were few and easily satisfied. All it cost for a year's board and lodging was two months' work-one plowing and one harvesting.§ Thus lived in their border villages this
* See interesting address before Illinois State Bar Association, on the " Beginning of Law in Illinois, " by Edward G. Mason, 1887.
+ Breese, 217. # Monette, Stoddard. § Capt. Pittman.
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STATE OF SOCIETY.
primitive, detached people, apparently contented with their situation, their government, and religion.
But there is a reverse side to this picture. The highest prod- uct of any country-the outgrowth which surpasses in value all the combined harvests of the soil and the aggregate yield from its mines, however great-consists of the men and women who not only acknowledge that soil as their mother, but who owe their character and its development to the circumstances and institutions surrounding their birth and among which they are reared.
"Ill fares the land, to gathering ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay."
In vain do fertile fields respond to labor, when those who culti- vate them are themselves the stunted product of a warped, incomplete, or degenerate civilization.
These early colonists, in a very considerable proportion, were the product of the lower, while not a few of them had belonged to or descended from the criminal, classes. The higher quali- ties of mind and heart which often distinguish the national character, and which were repeatedly displayed by the enter- prising and loyal French who came to this country after 1780, they apparently either left behind them or never possessed.
Having no educational system, they were ignorant alike of their rights, duties, and responsibilities as citizens. It was not for the interest of their rulers that they should learn either, and they were as destitute of ambition as the animals with which they plowed. Like children, they cheerfully performed the tasks assigned them, stimulated by the hope of the promised play-time which was sure to follow. In return for the permis- sion to indulge in their chosen pastimes without restraint, they willingly confided their government to others. While they were light-hearted, they were light-headed as well, and thrift- less; the poorer portion laboring only long enough to gain a bare subsistence each passing day, the rest of the time being spent in sporting, hunting, and wine drinking. Those who had slaves compelled them to labor to support their drunken mas- ters in idleness and debauchery .* They are represented as hard masters, and overreaching and profligate in their inter- course with the Indians.
* Lieut. Frazier.
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ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
Their connection with the latter, indeed, was a source of injury and degradation to both races. It was found that it was easier for the French to descend to the lower plane of savage life than it was for the native to improve by the specimen of civilization presented him by the French, while the bad qualities of the latter were adopted naturally and without an effort. The result was the demoralization and decay of both, so that in the end one was exterminated and the other compelled to give way to the sterner and more elevating civilization of the Anglo-Saxon.
As remarked by a close observer of these early times, we look in vain for the monuments of this ancient population. Their memorials may be counted upon less than the fingers of one hand. With not one single important work of educa- tion, art, science, culture, benevolence, or religion are they associated .*
* O. W. Collet, "Magazine of Western History," 1, 95.
Authorities: Gov. Reynolds' "Pioneer History of Illinois"; Dillon's Historical Notes; "Illinois in the Eighteenth Century," by Edward G. Mason, president of Chicago Historical Society; Gayarre's "Louisiana"; French's " Louisiana"; Ameri- can State Papers; Papers and Manuscripts by O. W. Collet; " Early History of Illinois," by Judge Sidney Breese; Holmes' "Annals"; "Western Annals," by J. H. Perkins and J. M. Peck; Papers and Manuscripts in Chicago Historical Society; "Magazine of Western History"; Monette's "Valley of the Mississippi"; "Char- levoix, New France," by Shea; Works of Judge James Hall; Martin's "Louisiana"; Du Pratz' "Louisiana"; Stoddard's "Louisiana "; Bossu's "Voyages"; " Decouvetes et Establissements," etc., P. Margry; "Boundaries of Ontario," by David Mills.
CHAPTER VI.
The French-and- Indian War- British Claims -Wash- ington's Mission-Position of Illinois-How affected- Why the French Lost the Country, 1755-1763.
T HE claim of the British to the rich country of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys was now to be submitted to the adjudication of the sword. It was contended, indeed, that this right rested not only upon grants from the crown and treaties with the original owners, but upon the right of prior discovery by Col. Wood, in 1654, and by Capt. Bolt, in 1670 .*
In 1698, attention had been directed by Dr. d' Avenant, in a report on the trade and revenues of England, to the import- ance of securing possession of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and the danger to English commercial interests if the settlement of that valuable territory by the French was not checked.+ To carry out this recommendation, an expedition was promptly fitted out by the English government this same year, consisting of a small frigate, commanded by Capt. Barr, and another vessel commanded by Capt. Clements, with instruc- tions to take possession of Louisiana and establish a colony on the banks of the Mississippi .; The surprise of the French governor, Bienville, when returning to Biloxi from his first exploration of the Mississippi, September 16, 1699, at meeting Capt. Barr on his way up may be imagined.
An interesting conference followed. Bienville demanded of Capt. Barr what he was doing in the Mississippi Valley, and whether he was not aware that the French had already estab- lished themselves in that country; to which the captain, equally surprised at the encounter, replied that he was ignorant of the fact, but that the English had discovered the country fifty years before and therefore had a prior and better right to it than the French. However, without making any demonstration, he re-
Thomas Hutchins in Gilbert Imlay's "Topographical Description of the West- ern Territory of North America"; Coxe's "Carolina," 120; "State of British and French Colonies in North America," (1755), 107.
+ Dillon's " Historical Notes, " 29. # French's "Louisiana," VI., 60.
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versed the course of his vessel and set sail in the direction of the gulf; but intimated to the astonished representative of the House of Bourbon that the latter would hear from him again .*
At about the same time it was ascertained by Iberville that English traders from Carolina were among the Chickasaws, buy- ing furs and slaves, and that a party of Englishmen had left New York for the Illinois country.+ To fortify the claim to the country, based upon right of discovery, treaties were nego- tiated by Great Britain with the Iroquois in 1701, and subse- quently confirmed in 1724-6. By these instruments, that powerful nation conveyed their territorial rights to the British, retaining only the privilege of hunting. But as the Iroquois had never really acquired any title to the Northwest, never having resided in that locality, the conveyance was certainly not of much value.# Further, to strengthen their claim, the British, in 1748, concluded a treaty of alliance and friendship with the Twightwees, their first connection with the Miami confederacy.§
During the thirteen years which followed, both Great Britain and France were too much absorbed in the war of the Spanish succession, in which they participated on opposite sides, to devote much attention to the affairs of their respective colonies in the new world. The peace which followed the formation of the triple alliance in Europe, in 1717, remained unbroken for nearly a quarter of a century, and the relations of the two countries continued on a friendly footing. At the outbreak of the war of the Austrian succession, in 1740, these hereditary foes found themselves once more arrayed on opposing sides. The treaty of Aix-la-chapelle, in 1748, brought this war to a close so far as the peace of Europe was concerned, but the question of the respective rights of the two powers in North America was left unsettled by that rather unsatisfactory com- pact. The ownership of the territory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi remained still in dispute-a casus belli des- tined to bring about a conflict which was to end in the transfer of a continent.
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