USA > Kentucky > Boyle County > Danville > The Political Club, Danville, Kentucky, 1786-1790. Being an account of an early Kentucky society from the original papers recently found > Part 1
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Gc 976.902 D23s 1555775
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01715 1843
HILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS NUMBER ".
THE POLITICAL CLUB
DANVILLE, KENTUCKY 1786-1790
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF AN EARLY KENTUCKY SOCIETY FROM THE ORIGINAL PAPERS RECENTLY FOUND.
BY THOMAS SPEED Author of "The Wilderness Road."
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: + JOHN P. MORTON AND COMPANY, Printers to ff : Filgon Club. 1894
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/politicalclubdan00spee_0
1555775
F883.83
COPYRIGHTED BY JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY. 1894
DEDICATION.
I dedicate these pages to Center College, which for seventy- five years has been an honor to the State of Kentucky and the pride of the town of Danville. It was my privilege to attend this institution as a student during the presidency of Dr. Lewis W. Green, whose father was a member of The Political Club, and my college days at Danville gave me a lasting attachment both for the school and the delightful place of its location.
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
F IFTEEN years ago it was my fortune to discover among my grandfather's papers the records of "The Political Club," a society which had its existence at Danville, Kentucky, from 1786 until 1790. I have often been requested to publish these records, together with some account of the work of the club, but it has not been convenient for me to do so until now. To meet expectation on this subject I prepared this work and read it before the Filson Club.
I have felt that it is a duty I could not fail to perform. The existence of The Political Club is a chapter in Kentucky history worthy of even more detailed treatment than is here given. Nothing that has been recorded of the pioneers so well illustrates their character for intelligence. Professor Shaler, in his History of Kentucky, published in 1885, says: "The early records of Kentucky are too imperfect to afford
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PREFACE.
any clear insight into the condition of education or the intellectual motives of the pioneers. Recently, however, there has been disinterred a quantity of papers giving the record of a Political Club that existed at Danville from 1786 to 1790." . "The notes of this club give a very fair idea of the intellectual quality of its meet- ings. For several years, or until the changes of the shifting population removed its leaders far from their original abodes, this club industriously debated the ques- tions of polity that concerned the settlements."
There is no historic mention of "The Political Club" prior to finding the records, nor was there any tradition of its existence; the old papers alone have preserved it from oblivion. Perhaps this is not strange under the circumstances. There was no newspaper to publish its meetings and discussions. Besides, what occurred at the meetings was not publicly known, as none were admitted except the members. When the club ceased to exist many of the members removed from Danville to other places in the State, and other interests superseded thought or memory of the club meetings.
The historian, Humphrey Marshall, knew of the club, though as he was not a member he could not have
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PREFACE.
known particularly of its work. It was not at all likely that the later historian, Butler, knew of the club at all, and Collins, though his history contains minch in detail of every county in the State, failed to discover that there had been such a society at Danville.
The preparation for public service which the club gave to the body of men composing it was so soon made use of, and the ideas developed there so quickly embodied in the first State Constitution, that the club debates were overshadowed by real legislation1. But it was these debates that laid the foundation of the practical usefulness of the actors in this legislation.
The sketches of the members show that for more than a quarter of a century they took a leading part in affairs in Kentucky. Going out from the sessions of the club to engage in the public transactions of the day, they made an impression upon the times, but the club itself, to which they owed so much for training in political knowledge, was lost sight of and forgotten.
In the preparation of this work I have deemed it advisable to point out some of the reasons, and partic- ularly those of a geographical nature, which brought the town of Danville to the forefront in the early
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PREFACE.
days, and made it the place for the existence of a society like The Political Club.
Following the suggestions offered on this subject, sketches of the members are given. Many of them are so well known, however, that biographical mention is almost unnecessary. Some account of their descendants is also shown. Following these sketches the work of the club is presented.
I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Pres- ident of the Filson Club, Colonel R. T. Durrett, for suggestions, and for assistance in finding in his full collection of historical works facts which could not be found in any other collection.
For information concerning the members of the club and their descendants, I am indebted to Colonel Thomas M. Green personally, and to his valuable work, "Historic Families of Kentucky."
I am also indebted to Judge James S. Pirtle and Judge W. Overton Harris, of the Louisville Bar, and in general I acknowledge my indebtedness to the members of the Filson Club.
LOUISVILLE, Ky., October 1, 1894.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Early Kentucky, .
1-8
Climate, Soil, People, 2
Inducements to Settlement, 3
Attractions,
4
The Great Immigration,
5
Incidents of Removal to the West, 6
Character of the Pioneers, 7
The Kentucky Woods, 12-16
Grandeur of the Forest, 13
Descriptions,
14
The Traveled Ways, 17-19
From Limestone to Crab Orchard, 17
From Mouth of Licking to Crab Orchard, 18
From Falls of the Ohio to Crab Orchard, 18
Danville the Gate City,
19
Location of Danville, 19-30
The Center of the State, but at the Southeast Corner of the Portion First Settled, . 16
Influence of the Wilderness Road, 21
Population of Kentucky in 1790, 23
The Town of Washington (note), 23
Pioneer Stations near Danville,
25
Situation of Danville, . 25
Founding of Danville (note), 167
Early Settlement in this Section, 26
First Court Held at Danville, 27
Place of Holding Conventions, 27
Transylvania Seminary, 27
Center College, .
29
Danville Theological Seminary, 30
Influence of Railroads, 30
X
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Formation of The Political Club,
31-37
No Record or Tradition of the Club, 32
Accidental Finding of the Papers, 33
Major Beatty's Diary, .
33
Mention of the Club after Discovery of the Papers, 35
The Members of the Club, 38-41
List of Members,
38
General Characteristics, . 39-41
Sketches of the Members, 42-97
Harry Innes,
42
Thomas Todd,
45
George Muter,
47
Abraham Buford,
50
Robert Dougherty
52
Christopher Greenup,
53
Samuel McDowell,
56
William McDowell,
62
John Brown,
63
-. James Brown,
66
James Speed,
66
Thomas Speed,
69
Willis Green, .
70 -
Stephen Ormsby,
74
Matthew Walton,
75
Thomas Allin,
77
Peyton Short, 77
William Kennedy,
79
William McClung,
81
Gabriel Jones Johnston,
82
Joshua Barbee,
83
John and James Overton,
84
Baker Ewing, .
89
Benjamin Sebastian,
90
John Belli,
91
Peter Tardeveau,
93
Robert Craddock,
95
James Nourse,
95
David Walker,
96
CONTENTS. xi
PAGE.
Object of the Club, 97-100
Position and Influence of the Members, 98
Period Through Which They Lived, 99
Organization and Minutes,
100-155
First Meeting, IOI
Constitution of the Club, IO2
Rules of the Club, 105
107
III
Separation on Terms of the Act, .
II2
Representation by Numbers or Counties,
114
Resolution as to Persons Attending after Being -Elected, . I16
Periods of Election, 116-IIS
Committee Appointed to Prepare Form of Government for Kentucky, II8
Right of Indians to the Soil, 120
Resolution as to Admission of Members, 121
Expatriation,
122
Suffrage,
125
Capital Punishment, I26
Impressment of Arms, 128
Culture of Tobacco, 129
Power of Courts to Adjudge Legislative Acts Unconstitutional, 130
Intermarriage with Indians,. 134, 135
Powers of Second Branch of the Legislature, . 136
Uniting with Cumberland, 137
One or Two Branches of Legislature? 139
Period of Elections,
141
Emission of Paper Currency, 142
Discussion of the Constitution of the United States, 143
The Club Revision of that Instrument, . 145
Resolutious Concerning Federal Constitution, 146
"Enforce" or "Execute" Laws by Militia, 148
Ineligibility of the President after One Term, 149
Ineligibility of Senators, . 150
Existing Laws as to Citizenship, 150
Slavery and Slave Trade, 151
.
Navigation of the Mississippi,
-- Separation from Virginia,
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CONTENTS.
Organization and Minutes-Continued. PAGE.
Tobacco as a Commutable for Taxes, 151
Polygamy, 152
Laws as to Citizenship, 152
Resolution as to Members not in the Neighborhood of Danville,
152
Places of Meeting of the Club, 152
Treasurer's Accounts, 153
Humors of the Club, . 154
Books Brought out in "Packs,' 156
High Character of the Members,
157
Intelligence of the Pioneers,
157
Kentucky Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge,
15S
Manufacturing,
158, 159
Schools and Churches,
159
Spanish Intrigues, 160
Devotion to the Union, 161
Influence of Political Club on First Kentucky Constitution, 162
Devotion of the Members to Cause of Good Government, 165
Note, 167
€
Filson Club Publications.
NUMBER NINE.
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THE
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Political Club
DANVILLE, KENTUCKY,
1786-1790.
.
By
Thomas Speed.
THE POLITICAL CLUB.
EARLY KENTUCKY.
T' T HE events in the early history of Kentucky are invested with that peculiar fascination which be- longs to heroic and romantic periods.
The people of the present generation look back to the pioneer days with feelings somewhat akin to the memories of their own childhood. They read of Daniel Boone and his times very much as they read old leg- endary romances. In the lazy distance of a hundred years ago men assume heroic proportions, and their deeds excite wonder. But there is a reality in these Kentucky annals which gives them a charin above the mere fanciful. The assurance of veritable history gives an . irresistible interest to narrations which also have features of the marvelous.
This singular fascination, which is found in the accounts of the pioneer days of Kentucky, springs from a combination of conditions which attended the occupa- tion of the country by the white man.
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The climate was propitious; it is the most delight- ful part of the temperate zone. Having neither too great heat nor cold it was favorable to out-door life, which, to a great extent, was necessarily the lot of the pioneers. The country was covered with woods, which gave shelter against the winds and afforded material for fuel and house-building. In the woods of Kentucky Robin Hood would have found a boundless expansion of Sherwood Forest. The land itself was extremely fertile, and so drained by nature that the soil was dry and easily cultivated, while springs and running streams afforded an abundant supply of water.
The people who settled Kentucky were families from the Atlantic States, of substance and education, being of the best stock and having the refinements of society. Yet it was their fortune to undergo hardships of the severest sort and face dangers that were frightful. They had to endure bereavements and losses, and make their wilderness homies at the cost of blood and tears. Thus there came about in the great immigration which settled Kentucky in the days between 1775 and 1792 a remarkable conjunction of circumstances as to people, country, and climate.
The explorations and adventures of Doctor Thomas Walker, Christopher Gist, Daniel Boone, Stewart, and
THE POLITICAL CLUB. 3
Finley, and the "Long Hunters," together with those of Simon Kenton, Benjamin Logan, Richard Henderson, and many others, are all as thrilling as any romance, with the added interest of being real occurrences. The settlement of Kentucky, which closely followed these ex- ploits, furnishes incidents not less interesting. Placing ourselves one hundred and twenty years back, we find a deep meaning in the statement that the settlements in Kentucky were in the wilderness. It was a wilder- ness of magnificent distances, being so vast in extent that for all practical purposes it might be described as boundless. Eastward the habitations of men were beyond the mountains; to the west all was unknown; north lay the unoccupied regions to the lakes and beyond; south- ward all was desolate to the Gulf. In the heart of this limitless wilderness the Kentucky Commonwealth grew up while. all the surrounding land remained unbroken and untonched.
The "Land of Kentucke," as the country was called by the explorers, had many rare attractions, which have often been described. It lay on the waters of a beau- tiful river, and possessed inducements for occupation second to no spot on the earth. Yet it was hid away, like a jewel in an unopened mine, up to the very period of its sudden settlement. One writer describes it thus:
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THE POLITICAL CLUB.
"Covered with boundless forests and protected by Alpine barriers terrific to the eye, and almost inaccessible to the most adventurous foot, this lovely country remained unexplored until Boone and his associates resolved to subdue and people it."*
The people east of the mountains knew, indeed, that there was land extending far away toward the west, but for aught they knew the mountains continued on and on in wild, inhospitable, and uninhabitable grandeur without a break. They did not know that a delightful region lay spread out upon the southern tributaries of the Ohio like the garden of the Lord for beauty and fertility.
This secluded and hid-away condition of Kentucky has been beautifully described in verse by Henry T. Stanton, in his Centennial Ode :
Shut out from civil bound by rivers deep, By forests dark, and mountains high and steep, By rocks, ravines, and rude, forbidding lines Of gnarled laurels and of tangled vines, The Unknown Land, that on the sunset rim
Stretched over distance limitless and dim, Lay, with its spread of plain and vale and hill, Beyond the eye, mysterious and still.
To daring hunter and explorer bold Unbroken stood the fastness of its hold,
៛ Hall.
THE POLITICAL CLUB. 5
While, south and westward, dimly stretched away, With range on range the bristled mountains lay, The Blue Ridge, Smoky, Clinch, and Cumberland, Toward the sky, precipitous and grand,
As if to bar from man's ambitious quests The dark beyond, upheld their cloud-hid crests. With no brave hand to grasp and put aside The thorny hedging of its thickets wide, And no sure foot to make its toilsome trail From peak to farther peak, and vale to vale: For centuries this now historic bound Remained to civil man untrodden ground.
The great immigration which suddenly made Ken- tucky a State in the Union began about the close of the Revolutionary War, but the whole period of seventeen years from 1775 to 1792 constitutes the peculiarly heroic or romantic age of Kentucky. It was the immigration in this period which established the power of the white man in the western country. It pierced and broke the center of the barriers which had barred the west against occupation. It divided the Indians north from those in the south; it operated as a flank movement upon the powerful tribes which occupied the choicest portions of New York and Pennsylvania, and caused them to give way before the advance of civilization. It made the vast territory of the West, including Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, vulnerable to settlement, and opened the way to Tennessee and Alabama .*
* Wilderness Road.
.
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THE POLITICAL CLUB.
The contemplation of families of people in Kentucky during the earlier period of the immigration brings to the mind a continuous series of exciting scenes-the breaking up of the homes and associations east of the Alleghanies; the excitement attending the proposed re- moval; the perils and hardships of the long journey. We follow them along the toilsome way; the first stages lead upward to the tops of the mountains, where the streams which run westward begin to take their rise. Then comes the descent by the rugged passages through vast solitudes, either to Cumberland Gap or to the Ohio River; then the dangerous descent of the river, or wearisome travel over the equally dangerous trace through the mountains of Kentucky. The arrival at the destined end of the journey was at no town or set- tlement, it was only a halt in a solitude. The hastily constructed cabins clustered about common centers called stations, which were stockades intended for refuge from Indian attacks. Subsisting on the bare necessities of life, in constant dread, fighting for their lives, nursing the wounded, burying the slain; men, women, and child- dren spent their days and nights, weeks, months, and years, until a State was evolved at a period when the greater portions of New York and Pennsylvania, and even Virginia, were untouched by the hand of civiliza- tion.
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THE POLITICAL CLUB.
The boldness, energy, hardihood, self- denial, and perseverance of the pioneers have often been described. Their bravery in Indian fighting, skill and sagacity in hunting, their wonderful powers of endurance have been the theme of many writers. But it is not alone in such accounts of the early days in Kentucky that we find extraordinary interest. There are facts and features of those early days which have not received their full share of attention from the historian, which are of the deepest interest to those whose more thoughtful minds seek for the philosophy of remarkable events occurring among mankind.
The pioneers were more than hunters and fighters. They were a people who brought into intelligent order the original and elementary material of a State; they erected from the very elements of social life an organ- ized Commonwealth. They did their work under many difficulties, and in the face of many discouragements; and, it may be added, they resisted inducements to form other connections than that of the newly formed union of the States. Every thing connected with this work of State building in the wilderness is full of interest.
These pages will set forth a chapter of this early history which, from causes to be made to appear, has not been heretofore written; and this long forgotten .
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THE POLITICAL CLUB.
and newly discovered feature in the early annals of Kentucky will be found to have an interest second to nothing else bearing upon her first civic affairs.
LOCATION OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
Preliminary to an account of "The Political Club," it will be interesting to consider some of the facts and conditions of the times and place of its existence.
In the spring of 1775 Daniel Boone marked out the trace which soon became the Wilderness Road. This was the route by which immigrants came to Kentucky "overland" or through the mountains. They entered the State at Cumberland Gap, and by that road made their way to the interior. At the time this trace was made there were no settlers in the country of Kentucky. From that time until the close of the Revolutionary War in 1783, a period of eight years, the immigration, while not so rapid as it afterward became, yet resulted in a population of over twenty thousand. The close of the war led to a greatly increased interest in the western country, and from that time until 1792, and later, the immigration was so remarkable it is best described as a movement of population .* In 1790 there were more
* In a document transmitted by Lord Dorchester to Lord Sydney in Eng- land, 1789, it is said: "The last census of the people (in Kentucky), taken in
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THE POLITICAL CLUB. 9
than seventy-five thousand inhabitants in Kentucky. In five more years that number was about doubled.
The geographical distribution of the first settlers is a subject of great interest. What attractions were most powerful? What portion of the State was first occu- pied ? Did the early settlers scatter themselves generally over the extensive territory which now constitutes the State of Kentucky, or did they cluster together in some favored portion of it?
If the reader will take a map of Kentucky and draw . a line from Maysville to Crab Orchard, and another line from Louisville to Crab Orchard, it will be seen that the two lines form almost a right angle. Taking then the course of the Ohio River from Maysville to Cincin- nati, and from thence to Louisville, a body of land is included almost square, and about one hundred miles in extent each way. It contains about ten thousand square miles, and is larger than the State of Massachu- setts. The country lying east of the line from Maysville to Crab Orchard begins to be hilly and soon becomes 1788, amounted to 62,000 souls, including a much greater portion of adult males than is usually to be looked for in a common estimation of this nature, to which great additions have been made since, the writer having seen five hundred persons at Limestone who had just landed or arrived there in the course of two days-the time of his stay -besides a constant influx of fami- lies he met on the high road." (See Colonel John Masou Brown's " Political Beginnings," Appendix. )
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THE POLITICAL CLUB.
mountainous. Also southwardly of the line from Louis- ville to Crab Orchard lies the broken country of the Muldraugh Hill range, which, beginning in the semi- mountainous section near Crab Orchard, extends across the State to the Ohio River a little below the Falls at Louisville.
Within the square described the land is generally level or gently undulating, almost all of excellent qual- ity and admirably adapted to cultivation. It well merits the encomiums it received from the early explorers. It is traversed by the Kentucky, the Licking, and Salt rivers and their numberless tributaries. Two sides of the square are washed by the Ohio River. It now com- prises thirty-six counties, twelve of which border on the Ohio River. The world - famous Bluegrass land lies within this area, constituting a large part of it. Those portions which do not properly come under the desig- nation of "Bluegrass" are yet like it in respect to being gently undulating and of fertile soil.
The first settlers naturally sought this singularly favored body of land. It was this section which Daniel Boone called "A Second Paradise," and Felix Walker, a companion of Boone, tells in his diary how, after leaving the mountains, "we began to discover the pleasing and rapturous appearance of the plains of
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THE POLITICAL CLUB.
Kentucky." Colonel Richard Henderson, who came out over Boone's trace the same spring it was opened, speaks of leaving the Rockcastle hills and "camping in the eye of the rich lands." John Filson, writing in 1784, says: "By casting the eye upon the map and viewing that great compass of about one hundred miles square is seen the most extraordinary country the sun enlightens with his celestial beams."
The "level lands" of Kentucky were first reached by the immigrants who came over the Wilderness Road at Crab Orchard, which was not far from the spot which became the site of Danville. The immigrants who came down the Ohio River first reached the level lands at the landing-place called Limestone, afterward Maysville. While some landed there others proceeded on and landed at the mouth of Licking River or Kentucky River, or at the Falls of the Ohio. From these river gate-ways, as well as from the entrance at Crab Orchard, the settlers spread themselves over the area described. Having nat- urally passed beyond the mountainous country before landing at Limestone, they as naturally did not pass down the river beyond the Falls, where navigation was impeded. Nor did they go into or beyond the rough country of the Muldraugh Hill range as long as they could find eligible locations without doing so.
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THE POLITICAL CLUB.
The following extract from Shaler's History of Ken- tucky confirms the foregoing statements :
"In the middle section of the State, stretching from the Ohio River to the escarpment of Muldraugh Hill, lay the rich lands since known as the 'Bluegrass' district; west of them the unwooded district known as the Barrens, which were at first supposed from their treeless condition to be worthless lands; and still further west a tract of sandy country like that of the easternmost district- good lands, it is true. but not rich enough to attract the first settlers. It was this bluegrass land that was the incentive to immigration. .. After the Bluegrass district was occupied the population began to move to the less attractive lands."
THE KENTUCKY WOODS.
At the coming of the white race the whole of this region was a dense woods. No more magnificent forest ever adorned the face of the earth. It was not excelled even in the imaginings of poetry and romance. Every conceivable grandeur of forest scenery was displayed.
"The loftie trees, yclad with sommer's pride,
Did spread so broad that Heaven's light did hide."
From the margins of the streams to the tops of the hills, on the slopes and the outspread plateaus stood the finest timber of oak, poplar, ash, chestnut, hickory, sugar - tree, beech, walnut, mulberry, wild cherry, and
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