USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 21
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"PROCLAMATION.
"Whereas, It appears that a state of war exists between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain and the United Netherlands on the one part and France on the other. and the duty and interests of the United States require that they should with sin- cerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers.
"I have, therefore, thought fit, by these presents to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid toward those powers respectively, and to exhort and to warn the citizens of the United States carefully to avoid all acts and
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proceedings whatsoever which may in any manner tend to contravene such disposition.
"And I do hereby also make known that whoso- ever of the citizens of the United States shall render himself liable to punishment or forfeiture under the law of nations by committing, aiding or abetting hostilities against any of the said powers, or by carrying to any of them those articles which are deemed contraband by the modern usage of nations, will not receive the protection of the United States against such punishment or forfeiture; and further, that I have given instructions to those officers to whom it belongs to cause prosecutions to be insti- tuted against all persons who shall, within the cog- nizance of the courts of the United States, violate the laws of nations with respect to the powers at war, or any of them.
"In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the 22d day of April, 1793, and of the independence of the United States of America the seventeenth."
"GEORGE WASHINGTON."
The French minister to the United States at this time was M. Genet, who about the first of November, 1793, sent four persons, named Le Chase, Dupeau, Mathurian and Gignoux to Kentucky, with the view of enlisting men to join in an expedition against New Orleans and the Spanish possessions adjacent thereto. They carried with them blank commissions to be issued to such men as would join in their enterprise. The governor was informed by the secretary of state of this enterprise and "that the special interests of Kentucky would be particularly committed by such an attempt, as nothing could be more inauspicious to them than such a movement at the very mo- ment those interests were under negotiation between Spain and the United States." The above quotation is from Butler, who was, in the main, a fair historian of the events of his day.
Butler continues as follows: "Such, how- ever, was the excitement of the public mind on the subject of the Mississippi, added to its fevered condition in regard to French politics,
that too many persons were ready to embrace those foreign proposals to embroil the peace of the United States. Two of these emis- saries had the audacity to address letters to the governor, informing him in express terms of their intention to join the expedition of the Mississippi and requesting to be informed whether 'he had positive orders to arrest all citizens inclining to our assistance.' To this presumptious letter of Dupeau, Governor Shelby condescended to reply, in the words of the secretary of state, that he had been charged to 'take those legal measures neces- sary to prevent any such enterprise, to which charge I must pay that attention which my present situation obliges me.' These foreign agents proceeded in their piratical attempt, from the bosom of a neutral and friendly nation, to raise two thousand men under French authority, and to distribute French commissions among the citizens of Kentucky ; to purchase cannon, powder, boats and what- ever was necessary for a formidable expedi- tion. In an unguarded moment, these agents, influenced by the same mischievous spirit that had undermined the peace and independence of so many European states, subordinated the exalted patriotism and fidelity of Gen. George Rogers Clark and prevailed upon him to take command of the expedition as 'a Major Gen- eral in the armies of France, and Com- mander-in-chief of the revolutionary legions on the Mississippi.' Under this ominous title for an American officer, he issued, under his own name, proposals for volunteers for the reduction of the Spanish forts on the Missis- sippi, for opening the trade of that river, and giving freedom to its inhabitants. All per- sons serving on the expedition will be entitled to one thousand acres of land; those who en- gage for one year will be entitled to two thou- sand ; if they serve for three years, or, during the present war with France, they will be en- titled to three thousand acres of any unappro- priated land that may be conquered, the
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officers in proportion as other French troops ; all lawful plunder to be equally divided, ac- cording to the custom of war; those who serve the expedition will have their choice of receiving their lands or one dollar per day.'
"General St. Clair intimated to Governor Shelby, early in November, that this commis- sion had been given to General Clark. This communication was followed by one from General Wayne, of January 6, 1794, inclosing his orders to Major Winston, commanding the United States cavalry in Kentucky, which
vided they manage their business with prudence, whether there is any legal author- ity to punish or restrain them, at least, before they have actually accomplished it. For, if it is lawful for any one citizen of a state to leave it, it is equally so for any number of them to do it. It is also lawful for them to carry any quantity of provisions, arms and ammunition. And if the act is lawful in it- self, there is nothing but the particular inten- tion with which it is done that can possibly make it unlawful; but I know of no law
NATURAL BRIDGE, KENTUCKY
placed that officer and his men under the orders of Governor Shelby, and promised that 'should more force be wanted, it should not be withheld notwithstanding our proximity to the combined force of hostile Indians.'
"After the receipt of these letters, Governor Shelby addressed the Federal secretary of state on the 13th of January, 1794, and after acknowledging receipt of the information in regard to Clark and the French emissaries, proceeded as follows : 'I have grave doubts, even if General Clark and the Frenchmen at- tempt to carry this plan into execution, pro-
which inflicts a punishment on intention only, or any criterion by which to decide what would be sufficient evidence of that intention even if it were a proper subject of legal cen- sure.' "
This communication, precluding any effect- ual interposition on the part of the governor of Kentucky, the president of the United States issued his proclamation on the 22d of April, apprising the people of the west of the unlawful project and warning them of the consequence of engaging in it. About the same time General Wayne was ordered to es-
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tablish a strong military post at Fort Massac on the lower Ohio and to prevent by force, if necessary, the descent of any hostile party down that river.
Governor Shelby sympathized with the peo- ple of Kentucky in the matter of the navigation of the Mississippi, but was not inclined to as- sert the authority of the state against the fed- eral government, though his political opponents charged that he was conspiring with the French party. In January he addressed the secretary of state as follows: "Much less would I assume a power to exercise it against Frenchmen, whom I consider friends and brothers, in favor of the Spaniard whom I view as an enemy and tyrant. I shall also feel but little inclination to take an active part in punishing or restraining any of my fellow- citizens for a supposed intention only, to grat- ify the fears of the minister of a prince who openly withholds from us an invaluable right ; or one who secretly instigates against us a most savage and cruel enemy. Yet, whatever may be my private opinion as a man, a friend to liberty, an American citizen and an inhabi- tant of the western waters, I shall at all times hold it as my duty to perform whatever may be constitutionally required of me as governor of Kentucky by the president of the United States."
The secretary of state replied to Governor Shelby stating that negotiations with the Spanish government had been under consid- eration since December, 1791, but were de- layed by the unsettled condition of affairs in Europe.
In the spring of 1793 Genet, the minister of the French Republic, landed at Charleston and was received with such demonstrative enthu- siasm as to have carried him beyond all dis- cretion. He made a progress through the country to New York, the demonstration at Charleston being repeated in each of the states through which he passed. This excited Frenchman was so elated by his reception that
he entirely ignored the neutrality proclamation of the president, hitherto given, and which now appears for the first time in a history of Kentucky. He armed and equipped priva- teers to prey upon the commerce of England and Spain, and enlisted crews for these vessels in American ports as though he were in his native land. Men were enlisted openly by agents of the French government ; veterans of the late war were commissioned to lead them and in Kentucky especially, there was no lack of volunteers. The seven long years of the Revolutionary struggle had closed with nearly every man a soldier; those who had not met the English armies in the field had learned the arts of war in the struggles against the savage enemy. There is an attraction in war for men of spirit and once a soldier, always a soldier, may be accepted as almost a truism. Especially was this true at that time in Ken- tucky ; indeed it is true today as was shown in the late war with Spain, when the men who had served in the War Between the States were the first to offer their services to the government. None were more disap- pointed than the veterans of the Union and Confederate armies who were rejected be- cause of their advanced age.
It was proposed by the French agents to organize and equip in Kentucky a force of 2,000 men and with them man a fleet which should float down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and capture New Orleans, the capital of the Spanish possessions in America. There was no lack of fighting men in Kentucky at that time as there has been no lack at any time, and a descent upon New Orleans was apparently a matter of the near future. But there was to come a check upon these warlike preparations. Meetings were held through- out the state at which there were adopted res- olutions of hostility to the administration of General Washington, and there was something more than a hint at separation from the Union. The people of that day should not
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be too harshly judged by those of the pres- ent. They felt themselves neglected by those in authority ; they were orphans with none to care for them and it is in keeping with the spirit of the people that from the days of Daniel Boone to the present moment, they have proposed to take care of themselves and have done so. They needed the free access to markets which was at that time afforded by the Mississippi river alone. If the federal government would not secure it for them, they proposed to secure it themselves.
It may be that strange new chapters in his- tory would have been written had that flotilla and its two thousand Kentuckians passed down the two great rivers to New Orleans. But this was not to be. Genet had overshot the mark. Vainly imagining himself as pow- erful in the United States as he would have been in the Jacobin clubs of France; carried away by the mad fury of the French Revolu- tionists, he forgot his high station as the repre- sentative of his country to a friendly but neutral government, and defied the authority of that government and the solemn proclama- tion of its representative head. There could be but one result ;- his immediate recall at the instance of the American government which he had insulted by ignoring its laws and the proclamation of its president. With Genet re- called as minister, his commissions were of no value ; especially, as all of his acts were dis- avowed by the French government.
The movement against New Orleans was abandoned at once, and the French agents who had fostered the movement in Kentucky gave over their task. One of them, La Chaise, on May 14th, said to the Lexington Club : "That unforeseen events had stopped the march of 2,000 brave Kentuckians to go by the strength of their arms and take from the Spaniards the empire of the Mississippi, in-
sure to their country the navigation of it, break the chains of the Americans and their brethren, the French, and lay the foundations of the prosperity and happiness of two great nations, destined by nature to be one."
Little did this flamboyant Frenchman re- alize that this "Empire of the Mississippi" was soon to pass into the control of his own coun- try and finally into that of the United States, adding an empire thereto for the paltry sum of fifteen million dollars. There are ro- mances in history superior to any that the greatest novelist has conceived. The Louis- iana Purchase by Jefferson outside the bounds of the constitution though it may have been, as some have claimed, and that of Alaska by Seward, are great epics in the grand song of empire which has been a part of the history of our unparallelled country. The God of Na- tions seems to have watched over us, protected us, and led us forward in the march of the universe until the Union has become "the greatest among ten thousand" and altogether powerful.
There was no longer an opportunity for an advance upon the Spanish posts along the lower Mississippi, and the Democratic Socie- ties were dissolved there being 110 longer rea- son for their existence. It is difficult at this day, to fully understand the intensity of feel- ing which characterized the Kentuckians of that day. They were terribly in earnest, of that there is no doubt. The Ohio and the Mississippi today flow unvexed to the sea. Perhaps if there were obstacles now as there were in those earlier days, we, the descendants of those pioneer fathers, would be as ready as they to fight for what we deemed our rights. Happily there is no call to arms now and the most serious questions Kentuckians have to solve are settled at the peaceful ballot box. Thus may it ever be.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE CREATION OF COUNTIES-PERIOD OF NEEDED RECUPERATION-SPAIN AGAIN CHECKMATED -OFFERS REJECTED TOO TAMELY-SEBASTIAN, ONLY, UNDER SUSPICION-"SPANISH CON- SPIRACY" ANALYZED.
Those gentlemen holding official positions as state officers today may be interested in knowing the salaries that were originally paid to their predecessors. Certainly the taxpay- ers will be interested. The governor was paid $1,000 per annum. This would scarcely pay the traveling expenses of the governor of today, who travels to many points as the "orator of the day." The appellate judges received $666 per annum; the secretary of state, the auditor, the treasurer, and the attor- ney general, received $333, each. It is inter- esting to consider the probable number of aspirants for these several positions today at the rate of compensation above stated. It happens that there were patriots in those days.
There were forty-two representatives in the general assembly, representing the various counties as follows: Bourbon, five ; Clark, two; Fayette, six; Green, one; Hardin, one; Harrison, one; Jefferson, two; Logan, one; Lincoln, three ; Mercer, three; Madison, three, Mason, three; Nelson, three; Shelby, one ; Scott, two; Washington, two, and Wood ford, three.
It will be seen that the number of counties had increased to seventeen at this time and from that date forward there has been a steady increase until there are now one hun- dred and nineteen counties in the state, a number not likely to be increased if the neces- sities of the commonwealth are considered. There was at one time a tendency towards the
creation of new counties, without there being shown a real necessity therefor. It was deemed good politics when a bill for the erec- tion of a new county was introduced to name it for the then governor, and to give to the county site the name of the lieutenant gov- ernor. This plan was a shrewd one, since the general assembly was, as a rule, in political accord with the administration.
As an illustration, the county of Knott may be mentioned. It was created while that ad- mirable and genial statesman, J. Proctor Knott, was governor of Kentucky. Its chief town was named Hindman, in honor of that accomplished gentleman, James A. Hindman, who was at that time linetenant governor of Kentucky. No happier selections could have been made. Governor Knott had won high honor in the congress of the United States as chairman of the judiciary committee and was recognized throughout the Union as one of its foremost statesmen. James A. Hindman had served in the Union army as captain of artil- lery, and many times as the representative of his county in the general assembly. He was a citizen of whom any constituency might be proud, and one of his lesser distinctions was that he defeated the writer of these words for the nomination for lieutenant governor, be- cause the element that then controlled the politics of Kentucky had concluded that the time had arrived when a man who had served in the Union army ought to be placed on the ticket.
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Reference has already been made to the treaty with the Indians made at Greenville, Ohio, in 1795, which put an end to future in- vasions of Kentucky by the savages from the north. In 1796, a like treaty was made with the southern Indians, and thenceforth the state was free from savage incursions.
Butler, the historian of peace rather than of war, says of this period: "These pacific measures, so important to the prosperity of the one party, and the existence of the other, were most essentially promoted by the British treaty concluded on the 19th of November, 1794, and the equally important treaty with Spain agreed to on the 17th of October, 1795. In regard to the British treaty which con- vulsed this country more than any other measure since the Revolution, and which re- quired all the weight of Washington's great and beloved name to give it the force of law, no section of the country was more deeply interested than Kentucky ; yet, perhaps, in no section of the Union was it more obnoxious. Its whole contents encountered the strong pre- possession of the Whigs against everything British; and this feeling seems to have pre- vailed among the people of the southern states, possibly from more intense sufferings in the Revolutionary war, than in any other portion of the Union, on account of their sympathies with France. Yet now, when the passions which agitated the country so deeply and spread the roots of party so widely, have subsided, the award of sober history must be, that the British treaty was dictated by the soundest interests of this young and growing country. What else saved our infant institu- tions from the dangerous ordeal of war? What restored the western posts, the pledges of western tranquility, but this much abused convention ? The military establishments of the British upon the western frontier were to be surrendered before the Ist of June, 1795. Further than this, Kentucky was not particu- larly interested, but it is due to the reputation
of the immortal Father of his Country and the statesmen of Kentucky who supported his administration in this obnoxious measure, to mention that Mr. Jay informed the president in a private letter, 'that to do more was im- possible, further concessions on the part of England could not be obtained.' Fortunate was it for the new Union and young institu- tions of the infant republic that they were al- lowed by this treaty time to obtain root and to fortify themselves in the national sym- pathies and confidence."
Spain had long dreamed of a western em- pire under her domination. Through Gar- doqui and Wilkinson she had made abortive efforts to win Kentucky to her schemes, yet she was still hopeful. The Spain of that day was not the weak and powerless Spain of to- day. That country was then so powerful as to be reckoned with by the other powers of Europe ; today, there are none to do her rev- erence. Then she used all the arts of diplom- acy to gain "the dominion and control of the great Mississippi valley, and consequently the navigation of the great artery of commerce which flowed through its center and led to the ocean. Entranced by the grandeur and glory of this promise to the eye, they could not con- sent to abandon the hope of its realization."
While negotiations were pending between the Spanish court and the United States, they were compelled to wait upon the affairs of the former government which was in danger of being involved in the "maelstrom of war which was devastating the central nations of Europe." Here was the newest of nations, the young giant of the west, compelled to wait upon the developments of a game of war played upon the chess-board of Europe, upon which the giant could not move even a pawn. Finally in June, 1795, the president took a hand in the game and sent Thomas Pinckney to Madrid to negotiate a treaty. Of this em- bassy. Smith in his history, says: "By the end of October, terms mutually satisfactory
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were agreed upon which acknowledged our southern limits to the north of the thirty-first degree of latitude, and our western to the middle of the Mississippi. Our right of the navigation of the Mississippi to the sea was conceded, and also the right of deposit at New Orleans for our produce for three years."
But the Spanish government was not hon- est in thus agreeing to the points involved which had for a long series of months dis- turbed the people of Kentucky. On the face of the negotiations, it had been honest; be- neath the surface there was duplicity and dis- honesty characteristic of the foreign diplo- macy of that day.
Again Butler is turned to for a statement of conditions in Kentucky at that time and the shadowy scheming of the Spanish author- ities, regardless of the treaty negotiated with Pinckney. He says: "In July, 1795, Gov- ernor Carondelet dispatched Thomas Power to Kentucky with a letter to Benjamin Sebas- tian, then a judge of our court of appeals. In this communication he declares that 'the confidence reposed in you by my predecessor, General Miro, and your former correspond- ence, have induced me to make a communi- cation to you highly interesting to the coun- try in which you live and to Louisiana.' He then mentions that the king of Spain was willing to open the navigation of the Missis- sippi to the western country and desirous to establish certain regulations, reciprocally ben- eficial to the commerce of both countries. To effect these objects, Judge Sebastian was expected, the governor says, 'to procure agents to be chosen and fully empowered by the people of your country to negotiate with Colonel Gayosa on the subject at New Ma- drid, whom I shall send there in October next, properly authorized for the purpose, with directions to continue at the place or its vicin- ity until the arrival of your agents.' Some time in November, or early in December of this year, Judge Innes and William Murray
received a letter from Judge Sebastian re- questing them to meet him at Colonel Nicho- las' house in Mercer county. The gentlemen addressed went as desired, to Colonel Nicholas' house and met Judge Sebastian there, who submitted the letter quoted above. Some deliberation ensued which resulted in the unanimous opinion of all the gentlemen assembled that Judge Sebastian should meet Colonel Gayoso, to ascertain the real views of the Spanish government in these overtures. The judge accordingly descended the Ohio and met the Spanish agent at the mouth of the river. In consequence of the severity of the weather, the gentlemen agreed to go to New Madrid. Here a commercial agreement was partially approved by Sebastian, but a difference of opinion occurring between the negotiators whether any imposts, instead of a duty of four per cent, should be exacted upon imports into New Orleans by way of the river, the negotiators repaired to the metrop- olis, in order to submit the difference of opin- ion to the governor. This officer, upon learn- ing the nature of the difference between the gentlemen acting in this most insidious nego- tiation, readily consented to gratify the Ken- tucky envoy. It was deferred on account of some pressing business. A few days after this interview, the Spanish governor sent for Judge Sebastian and informed him that a courier had arrived from Havana with the in- telligence that a treaty had been signed be- tween the United States and Spain, which put an end to the business between them. Judge Sebastian, after vainly urging the Spanish governor to close this sub-negotiation, in the expectation that the treaty would not be rat- ified, returned to Kentucky by the Atlantic ports.'
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