USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 17
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But they were not without resentment at the delay attendant upon their admission to the Union. With their blood and treasure they had taken the new territory from the sav- ages, had defended it against countless at- tacks, and could see no good reason why their hopes for statehood should be disappointed. Gen. James Wilkinson, who had sat as a dele- gate in the Danville convention, boldly and defiantly declared himself in favor of the im-
mediate separation of Kentucky from the par- ent state and the setting up of an independent government for the time being. It is not im- probable that when this proposal was made, Wilkinson was already in correspondence with the Spanish authorities in the south or was courting such correspondence and such finan- cial offers as might result therefrom. Wilkin- son had served in the war with England; was largely engaged in commercial pursuits and by his plausible manner, had ingratiated himself into the good opinion of far better men than himself, thus giving him perhaps as great an influence as was possessed by any man in Kentucky.
At the time when Wilkinson was sowing the seeds of discord, there was forwarded to Ken- tucky from a body of men at Pittsburg, styl- ing themselves "A Committee of Correspond- ence from Western Pennsylvania," a com- munication stating as follows: "That John Jay, the American secretary for foreign af- fairs, had made a proposition to Don Gardo- qui, the Spanish minister to the United States, to cede the navigation of the Mississippi river to Spain for twenty-five or thirty years, in consideration of some commercial advantages to be granted to the United States, but such as the western country could derive no profit from."
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Immediately thereafter and in response thereto, a circular letter was sent to the peo- ple of Kentucky as follows :
"DANVILLE, Kentucky, March 29. 1787.
"A respectable number of the inhabitants of the district having met at this place, being greatly alarmed at the late proceedings of congress in pro- posing to cede to the Spanish court the navigation of the Mississippi river for twenty-five or thirty years, have directed us to address the inhabitants on the western waters and inform them of the measures which it is proper for this district to adopt. The inhabitants of the several counties in this district will be requested to elect five members in each county to meet in Danville on the first Monday in May to take up the consideration of this project of congress, to prepare a spirited but decent remon- strance against the cession; to appoint a committee of correspondence and communicate with one al- ready established on the Monongahela, or any other that may be constituted; to appoint delegates to meet representatives from the several districts on the western waters in convention, should a con- vention be deemed necessary, and to adopt such other measures as shall be most conducive to our happiness.
"As we conceive that all the inhabitants residing on the western waters are equally affected by this partial conduct of congress, we doubt not but they will readily approve our conduct and cheerfully adopt a similar system to prevent a measure which tends to almost a total destruction of the western country. This is a subject which requires no com- ment; the injustice of the measure is glaring, and as the inhabitants of this district wish to unite their efforts to oppose the cession of the naviga- tion of the Mississippi with those of their brethren residing on the western waters, we hope to see such an exertion made upon this important occasion as may convince congress that the inhabitants of the western country are united in the opposition and consider themselves entitled to all the privileges of freemen and all those blessings procured by the Revolution, and will not tamely submit to an act of oppression which would tend to a deprivation of our just rights and privileges.
( Signed ) GEORGE MUTER. HARRY INNESS, JOHN BROWN, BENJAMIN SEBASTIAN."
These letters having been sent to each
county, the feeling against congress was in- creased though it is difficult to understand why Kentucky as a state, would have more free- dom from Indian forays than as a district, un- less congress had intervened and sent troops to aid in the defense of the people. But the free navigation of the Mississippi river was threatened and the pioneers of Kentucky, not- ing the great increase of population, recog- nized that they were about to be cut off from a future market and that freedom of access thereto was to be at the will of a foreign gov- ernment. They had too recently been relieved from the thraldom of King George of Eng- land to willingly accept the yoke of Spain. There was stern opposition to the proposal of Don Gardoqui, the Spanish minister, but the proposed delegates to the convention were chosen without undue excitement. They met in due time at Danville and after considering many propositions, adjourned without taking action upon the question at issue. Smith, in his "History of Kentucky," gives the follow- ing fair resume of the situation at that time :
"As early as the 28th of June, 1785, the ar- rival of Don Gardoqui had been announced to congress, with plenipotentiary powers to treat on behalf of his majesty with any per- son or persons vested with equal powers by the United States, on the subjects in contro- versy.
"The Hon. John Jay, then being the secre- tary of the United States for foreign affairs, received from congress a similar commission, and a negotiation was opened between these ministers in New York. The caution of con- gress had inserted in the commission of Mr. Jay these words: 'That he enter into no treaty, compact or convention whatever with the said representative of Spain which does not stipulate the right of the United States to the navigation of the Mississippi river and the boundaries as established by the treaty with Great Britain.'
"More than half a year had elapsed before
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congress had any communication as to the progress of the negotiation. Difficulties were at length announced by the American minister on the subjects of treaty. He was called be- fore congress and explained by reference to the navigation of the river which was claimed exclusively and justly by Spain within her ter- ritories, and further by presenting to view the project of a commercial treaty containing, as he contended, advantageous stipulations in fa- vor of the United States, in consideration of which it was proposed that they should 'for- bear the use of the navigation of the Missis- sippi for twenty-five or thirty years.' He urged the adoption of this project as a beneficial one for the United States; said that a stipulation to forbear the use on the part of the United States, accepted by Spain, was an admission on her part of the right; that, in fact, the United States were in no condition to take the river or force the use of it, and, therefore, gave nothing for the benefits they would de- rive from the proposed treaty, not otherwise to be effected, for the use of the nation.
"Under this view of the subject, the seven most eastwardly of the states voted to re- scind the ultimata in the secretary's instruc- tions, and it was, of course, so entered on the journal, the other states dissenting. It, how- ever, required the concurrence of nine states to give an instruction; therefore, none was given. The case had been debated; the strength of the party for the treaty had been tried and found wanting. The project had failed, most happily for the Union."
Jay, who had formerly rendered great ser- vice to his country, was under the ban in the
protesting states. The excitement was very great and there was a possibility that had nine instead of seven states joined in supporting his plans, the protesting states would have se- riously considered the propriety of withdraw- ing from the confederation which they could probably have done without meeting the re- sistance from the remaining states which fol- lowed the withdrawal of the southern states from the Union many years later. Virginia was the most earnest of those states opposing Jay's plans, and by a unanimous vote of her legislature instructed her delegates in con- gress never to accede to any such proposition, and was warmly seconded by the other non- concurring states.
General Wilkinson, urged on by an unap- peasable ambition, saw, in the situation, his opportunity and was sustained by many men of purer minds and less ambition. The peo- ple felt that they were neglected, and, driven to desperation by Indian forays and the dis- comforts attendant upon the development of a new land, seemed almost ready to dissolve all allegiance to the new government and set up for themselves. But they were never ready to form an alliance with any foreign govern- ment. They were, first of all things, Ameri- cans and such they would remain, whether members of the Union or citizens of an inde- pendent state. Wilkinson was able and plaus- ible but not able enough nor plausible enough to lead astray the brave men and women about whose homes in the wilderness, the flowers of beauty, the harvests of prosperity were be- ginning to grow.
CHAPTER XIX.
"THE KENTUCKY GAZETTE"-ANOTHER PLEA FOR ADMISSION-WILKINSON FOUNDS TOBACCO TRADE-FIRST KENTUCKY CONGRESSMAN-MANY ATTEMPTS AT SEPARATE GOVERNMENT- ADMISSION AGAIN POSTPONED-SPANISH SIREN SINGS TO BROWN-LETTER FROM CHIEF JUSTICE MUTER-JUDGE INNES DROPS A HINT.
A new chapter was written in Kentucky history at this moment, a chapter which has been duplicated very many times. On the 28th of August, 1787, John Bradford began at Lexington the publication of The Kentucky Gazette, the first newspaper published in Ken- tucky. It was a modest affair, appearing first on a half-sheet, but almost immediately after- wards increasing in size; later becoming still larger. It was a boon to the better informed men of the day, as it gave them an opportu- nity to display their powers as controversial- ists. At once, its columns were filled with discussions for and against separation and those of today who have imagined our fore- fathers to have been but poorly educated and crudely informed would have the impression removed by an examination of the files of this pioneer newspaper of the west.
September the 17th the convention reassem- bled at Danville nearly all the members be- ing present. It was decided, unanimously, after brief discussion, that it would "be expe- dient for the good people of the district that it should be separated from the rest of the state (Virginia) upon the terms and condi- tions prescribed by law."
An address to congress was prepared, that body being requested in respectful manner, to admit the new state into the Union by the
name of Kentucky. The last day of Decem- ber, 1788, was fixed as the date upon which the authority of Virginia should cease and that of the new state begin.
It was also agreed that at the respective court days in the various counties in the fol- lowing April, representatives should be chosen who should continue in office until De- cember 31, 1788, their election to be by the free male inhabitants of each county; the usual number of five delegates from each county being provided for. After making these provisions the convention adjourned and thus one more of the tedious steps to- wards statehood had been taken.
It appears that the chief industry of the district at this period consisted of the election of delegates and the holding of conventions. But the end justified the means. Through many difficulties and, on the part of congress, unjust delays, the district finally came to its own, though it was not yet to be.
General Wilkinson was always to be reck- oned with. His ambitious dreams spurred him on, as did his avaricious fondness for Spanish gold. In June, 1787, he had gone to New Orleans with a cargo of tobacco and other Kentucky products. While in New Or- leans, as he afterwards stated, he made ar- rangements with the Spanish General Miro,
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for the introduction of several thousand fam- ilies into Florida or, failing that, for a colony along the Arkansas and White rivers, in what was then recognized as Spanish territory. He also claimed to have secured a concession for furnishing an annual supply of tobacco for the markets of Mexico, all of which promised rich financial returns to himself and his associates. To justify these appeals to the pocket nerve of the people, Wilkinson exhibited the per- mits of the Spanish general. This action of Wilkinson was entirely legitimate. He was establishing a market for the products of the district, as any man had a right to do, and all would have been well had he gone no further. It was claimed by many that he had renounced his citizenship and become a subject of the Spanish king, in return for the concessions granted him. Wilkinson admitted that he had the contracts and boasted of the privilege of free storage in the Spanish warehouses, but was shrewd enough to ignore the charge that he had become a Spanish subject. By contin- uing the purchase of tobacco he popularized himself with the people, adding to the prestige thus gained by keeping continually before them the great value of the free navigation of the Mississippi and of commercial connec- tion with Spain.
About this time, the Kentucky delegates to the Virginia legislature were instructed by the convention at Danville to ask for a represent- ative in congress, the population of the dis- trict having increased to an extent justifying such request. Under this recommendation the Hon. John Brown, of Danville, was chosen as the first delegate from the district of Ken- tucky in what may be termed the old congress, in contradistinction to that which assembled after the ratification of the constitution by a sufficient number of the states.
The following statement of conditions and events at that time is from the writings of Butler, a fair-minded and intelligent observer :
"On the 29th of July of this year (1789),
the sixth convention met at Danville to form a constitution of government for the district, preparatory to its separation from Virginia. While this body was assembled, information was received that congress had determined to refer the question of admitting Kentucky into the Union to the new government. This was indeed a cruel blow to the excited hopes of in- dependent government, so repeatedly voted by Kentucky and as often assented to by Vir- ginia. It is not a matter of wonder that there was now observable the most deep-felt vexa- tion, a share of resentment bordering on dis- affection and strong symptoms of assuming in- dependent government. The navigation of the Mississippi and the trade to New Orleans, now just tested for the first time, were strenuously pressed into the argument in favor of com- pleting the constitution and organizing gov- ernment without delay. It was even proposed to submit the state of the district and the course to be pursued to each militia company. This proposition was, by a large majority, most judiciously rejected. The body came, after protracted debate, to the following recommen- dation :
"That the people of the district should elect another assembly to meet in November and to continue in office until the first of January, 1790, 'that they delegate to their said repre- sentatives full power to take such measures for obtaining admission of the district as a separate and independent member of the United States of America and the navigation of the Mississippi as may appear most con- ducive to those purposes, and also, to form a constitution of government for the district and organize the same when they judge it neces- sary, or to do and accomplish whatsoever, on consideration of the state of the district may, in their judgment, promote its interest.'
"From the breadth and plenipotentiary character of this commission, like that of a Roman dictator, the temper of the district may be inferred; nor can there, in the whole his-
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tory of American government. be found a ca- reer of such multiplied disappointments and abortive assemblies as in the labors of Ken- tucky to be admitted into the Union. All par- ties appear to have been well disposed; still. as if under the influence of some enchantment, consent was given but to be repealed ; act was passed after act, and assembly met after as- sembly, only to give birth to a successor as re- mote as ever from obtaining what had been the favorite object of the people for years. Had a domestic government been organized after the repeated and harmonious co-opera- tion of the great contracting parties, it is not to be supposed that it would have been so tech- nically misconstrued as to have been viewed as treasonable to Virginia or hostile to the Un- ion, owing to repeated and unavoidable acci- dents. The magnanimous temper of Virginia would have cured everything. Should any such unjust imputation have been placed upon the proceedings of Kentucky, it must soon have been removed by their fidelity, had it been, as it is believed it was, immovably fast to the confederacy of their countrymen. Ver- mont continued without the pale of the Union during the whole of the Revolutionary war and until March, 1791 ; yet no indictment was brought against her for treason. At this dis- tance of time, the protracted delays and re- peated public disappointments on this question seem truly inexplicable. It is not known to what else to compare our long succession of fruitless conventions than to the card edifices of children which are no sooner erected than at a breath they are demolished. The asser- tion may be safely ventured that no sober po- litical critic of the present day can believe that any community in these states would now be so trifled with and tantalized as the people of this district were for eight years in obtaining a separate municipal existence.
"Some auxiliary resolutions for directing the election of the seventh convention closed the labors of this addition to the numerous and
ineffectual assemblies. So excited had public feeling in Kentucky become in consequence of this provoking course of things that disunion seems to have been at least proposed as its 'idea was formally combatted in the public prints of the time while nothing more open or formal than the acts of the convention is recollected in its favor.
"As it has before been stated, the separa- tion of Kentucky from Virginia was an agreed case between the high parties, the difficulty was one of form and accident only. In such a state of things, it would have been cruel mockery and iniquity in Virginia to have so far misrepresented a separation of Kentucky, which had been the subject of repeated and mutual agreements, as to have considered it treasonable. The jealousy of the country could not, however, have been too keenly ex- cited against any attempt at foreign independ- ence; it is never admitted into the creed of an enlightened patriot until the last extremity of domestic misfortune, and even then to be most sleeplessly watched."
But there was to be yet other delay trying to the patience of Kentucky. Marshall's his- tory thus refers to the proceedings in con- gress : "Hon. John Brown, as early as Feb- ruary, had introduced the address of the dis- trict convention requesting the assent of con- gress to Kentucky's admission into the Union. On the morning of the 3d of July-the 4th of July being the limit prescribed for obtain- ing the assent of admission on the part of con- gress-some weeks after the Virginia conven- tion had been in session and some days after it had in fact, ratified the Federal constitu- tion, the motion of Mr. Brown was taken up for the last time and ultimately postponed for the reasons subjoined :
"Whereas, application has been lately made to congress by the legislature of Virginia and the dis- trict of Kentucky for the admission of the said dis- trict into the Federal Union as a separate member thereof on the terms contained in the acts of the
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said legislature, and in the resolutions of the said district relative to the premises; and
"Whereas, congress having fully considered the subject, did, on the 3d day of June last, resolve that it is expedient that the said district be erected into a sovereign and independent state and a separate member of the Federal Union, and appointed a com- mittee to report an act accordingly, which committee on the 2d instant was discharged, it appearing that nine states had adopted the constitution of the United States lately submitted to conventions of the people ; and
"Whereas, a new confederacy is formed among the ratifying states, and there is reason to believe that the state of Virginia, including the said district, did, on the 26th of June last, become a member of said confederacy ; and
"Whereas, an act of congress, in the present state of the government of the country, severing a part of said state from the other part thereof and admitting it into the confederacy, formed by the articles of confederation and perpetual Union, as an independent member thereof, may be attended with many inconveniences, while it can have no ef- fect to make the said district a separate member of the Federal Union formed by the adoption of the said constitution ; and
"Therefore, it must be manifestly improper for congress, assembled under the said articles of con- federation, to adopt any other measures relative to the premises than those which express their sense that the said district, as a separate state, be ad- mitted into the Union as soon as circumstances shall permit proper measures to be adopted for that purpose."
Mr. Brown, representative from the district of Kentucky, recognizing the selfish, antago- nistic spirit of the representatives from the north and east, was convinced that admission to the Union was to be long delayed.
While in this spirit, he was approached by the wily Spanish minister, Gardoqui, who sought to impress upon him the importance of independent existence for Kentucky with free navigation of the Mississippi and exclusive trade with Spain. The efforts of General Wil- kinson and the results of his commerce through the port of New Orleans, had not been without effect in Kentucky, and Brown was not unwilling to listen to the siren Span-
ish song. Of the events of that period, Mar- shall has written bitterly as a political enemy of Brown; at a later period, his kinsman. Green, took up the burden of his plaint and bore it along in his "Spanish Conspiracy." Smith, a true conservative and amiable histo- rian, devoid of prejudice, modifies Marshall in the following continuation of the incidents connected with the failure of Kentucky to se- cure admission to the Union :
"To President McDowell, of the Kentucky convention of July, Mr. Brown wrote soon after the action of congress, giving an account of his labors and disappointments to which he added his own reasons for his failure. In this letter was inclosed a detached strip in these words :
"'In a conversation I had with Mr. Gard- oqui, the Spanish minister, relative to the nav- igation of the Mississippi river, he stated that if the people of Kentucky would erect them- selves into an independent state and appoint a proper person to negotiate with him, he had authority for that purpose and would enter into an arrangement with them for the ex- portation of their produce to New Orleans on terms of mutual advantage.'
"This is not the only letter written by Mr. Brown about the same time to Kentucky. He recollected that Judge Muter had joined with him in March, 1787, in sending forth the cir- cular address to the courts on the subject of the Mississippi, and favored him with one of his epistles containing an introduction of his new acquaintance, Don Gardoqui. Although Muter could not be called a great man, yet he disliked the intrigues of political partisans and was alarmed, on the perusal of Mr. Brown's letter, to find him engaged with a foreign min- ister, which directly implicated the peace of Kentucky and the preservation of the Union. Under the circumstances, it was impossible for him not to combine the views disclosed by Mr. Brown with those manifested by General Wilkinson in the late convention. This coin-
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cidence of objects naturally suggested a con- cert of means to effect them and pointed ont the danger as being imminent. This led him to Colonel Marshall, and was his induce- ment for showing the letter with which he had been honored by Mr. Brown. The com- munity was seriously affected with anti-Fed- eralism and the mania of national dissolution, when its representatives in convention could pass and send out to it the propositions which have been detailed, as the basis of authority for another convention to throw Kentucky out of the Union, if it pleased, and to enter into arrangements with Spain, who had refused the United States a treaty for the navigation of the Mississippi river, without exciting a much more general disapprobation than was apparent. And when to this reflection is added the fact that the greater number of the leaders in the former convention were again elected, and that Mr. Brown, having returned to the district, was, himself, elected a member of the same, there seems but little reason to doubt that a large proportion of those who gave tone to public opinion, were of the party of Wil- kinson and Brown from the July to the No- vember convention of this year.
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