USA > Kentucky > A history of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 14
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absence of rivalry, and that pursued with sufficient bitterness. They would dispute who was the best shot, who the most supple wrestler, the strongest man, or the "best man" in a fight; nor were these disputes always bloodless; and even sometimes were settled with the knife and the rifle. The female sex, though certainly an object of much more feeling and regard, than among the Indians, was doomed to endure much hardship, and to occupy an inferior rank in society to her male partner. In fine, our frontier people were much allied to their cotemporaries of the forest in many things, more than in their complexions.
To be sure this is but a general sketch of the early mass: there were among them, men of finer mould and superior character, who would have adorned any state of society; and these remarks must be severely restricted to the body of the earliest emigrants. This picture has little or no resem- blance of Clark, of Harrod, and Buone; Bullitt and Logan; Floyd, the Todds, and Hardin; and no doubt many other noble spirits, who were the lights and guides of their times. It was a state of society peremptorily extorting high physical faculties; more than mental exertions, or artificial endowments. When, therefore, we Icarn that Boone, Harrod, and Logan, were little advanced in artificial learning; let no reader be so unjust or unthinking, as to treat their memory with contempt. Letters could have ill supplied their manly spirit, their vigor- ous frames, and above all, their talents and tact in command- ing the respect and confidence of a rough and fierce class of men, while living; and which excited their sincerest regrets, when dead. These gallant and magnanimous hunters of Ken- tucky, will ever be sacred to the hearts of all lovers of brave and noble deeds; however they may have been unadorned by the polish and beauty of learning. . Charlemagne was no less the emperor of the west of Europe; he was no less the master spirit of his time, stamping his impress on his generation, be- cause he signed, and could not artificially subscribe his name. Artifical education, or the learning of books, is too often con- founded with that higher education, consisting in the develop- ment of the mind, inspired by surrounding circumstances, and
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which is open to all the children of man, whether favored by civilization or not.
The religion of these times most necessarily have suffered amidst the pressing privations surrounding the inhabitants; it- could not have been greatly cultivated amidst the struggles with want, and battles with Indians. Yet the heart of the hardiest male, much less of the softer sex, must often have melted with reverence for that Being, whose secret and invisible providence watched over their weakness, and saved them from the perils of the rifle and the tomahawk. True, many fell victims to the In- dians; many were burned and tortured, with every refinement of diabolical vengeance; others were harrowed with the recollec- tion of their childrens' brains dashed out against the trees; the dying shrieks of their dearest friends and connexions; still the consolations of heaven, were not absent from the dying spirits of the former; or the wounded hearts of the latter. In the beautiful poetry of Bryant:
" The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned
" To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
" And spread the roof above them, ere he framed
" The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
" The sound of anthems, in the darkling wood,
" Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down,
" And offer'd to the Mightiest, solemn thanks
" And supplication."
Temples and their ministers, important as they undoubtedly are, to a cultivation of a love for heavenly meditations, and the moral glories of another and higher state of being, are, let it never be forgotten, not indispensable. The religion of the heart, gratitude to God and love for man, flourish in the rudest stages of society; and not unfrequently with more purity, than amidst the accumulated temptations of refined life. There was, indeed, as might most naturally be expected, a roughness of exterior; (though conventional forms of society are never to be confounded with the essence of true politeness) there was too exact a retaliation of the savage warfare of their subtle and fe- rocious enemies; there was too little respect for the rights and moral claims of Indians; but to lie, to cheat, to desert a fellow
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hunter in distress, were vices unknown to the brave and sim- ple men who conquered Kentucky. A manly love of truth and independence of spirit, which would right itself in "the court of Heaven," were almost invariable traits in their character.
There are some curious particulars in our early arts, which may well be recorded. * Hlats were made of native fur, and sold for five hundred dollars in the paper money of the times; the wool of the buffalo, and the bark or rind of the wild nettle, were used in the manufacture of cloth, and a peculiar sort of linen out of the latter.
In December, 1781, the legislature of Virginia extended the scale of depreciation, at which her issues of paper money should be taken, from one and a half paper dollars for one hard or metalic dollar, to one thousand dollars in paper, for one in silver. The certificates of this depreciation, which were issued in exchange for the previous currency, were directed by law to be taken for taxes and for lands belonging to the State. The price of the latter was fixed at a specie valuation; but so reduced as to make them cost less than five dollars in hard money, or the paper price of the warrant was subjected to the scale of depreciation, so that land was obtained "for less than fifty cents per hundred in silver." A temptation to pour a flood of paper money on the lands of Kentucky, which trebled and quadrupled the land claims of the country, to its deep and lasting distress.
CHAPTER IX.
Land Titles-Attempts to sever Kentucky from the United States-John Jay rosista them-Supreme District Court estaig hed-James Wilkmson-Commercial Associa- tion in Philadelphia-Settlement of Wastington, in Mason county-Indian depreda- tions-First Convention-Virginia agrees to a separation of Kentucky-Clark's unfor- tunate expedition in 1750-Colonel Logan's expedition.
During this comparative exemption from Indian hostility, the energies of Kentucky were now principally turned to the ac- quisition of land: this was particularly facilitated by the arri- val of Colonel Thomas Marshall, and George May, as surveyors * Marshall 1, 124. M *
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for the new counties of Fayette and Jefferson: these gentlemen opened their offices late in November, 1782, having been de- layed by the grand expedition under General Clark. One office was opened at Lexington, and another at Coxe's station, in Jefferson county; the third has been already mentioned. Here commenced that scramble for land, which has distressed and desolated society in Kentucky almost as calamitously, as pestilence or famine. The original source of the misfortune was, leaving the survey of the country to individuals, and not doing it by public authority. Could the public lands of Virginia have been delayed in their survey and sale, until they had been laid off by public appointment, how happily might the claims of her regular soldiers, and her irregular, though scarcely less useful pioneers, in another field of her service, have been satisfied! The residue might have been snatched from the speculator and offered in open market for the benefit of her treasury. But other counsels prevailed, and Kentucky was opened to the conflicting claims of innumerable locators and surveyors, producing a lybarinth of judicial perplexities, through which it became necessary to pursue the landed pro- perty of the country, to place it in a state of security. It is not known what States besides those of New England, made their sales of land upon previous public surveys. This system was adopted so early as the 20th May, 1785, in regard to the public lands of the United States, and has most wisely been observed to this day.
On the subject of the legal condition of landed estate in Ken- tucky, the preface to Chief Justice Bibb's Reports, affords a sketch drawn by the hand of a master. The melancholy effects on the peace and prosperity of private citizens, volumes could not pourtray. The breaking up of favorite homes, improved at the hazard of the owner's life, and fondly looked to as a support for declining age; and a reward for affectionate children, swept away by refinements above popular comprehension, produced most wide spread discontent and distress; promoted a litigious spirit, and in some instances, a disregard of legal right in general, which had presented itself in such odious and afflicting aspects.
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: The preliminary articles of peace between the United States and Great Britain, which had been signed on the 30th of No- vember. 1782, were *not known in Kentucky until the spring of 1783; a singular illustration of the imperfect intercourse be- tween the western section and the other parts of the country. While this history is writing, the ordinary rate of the mail from Louisville to Washington City, and Philadelphia, is only about a week or eight days to either place-showing the great dis- parity of time between the transportation of the mail now, and at the period to which we have already referred.
This is not the place to expatiate upon the honorable termi- nation, to the labors and sacrifices of the patriots and sages of . the Revolution; but the incidental operation which peace produced on our domestic hostilities, most strictly appertains to the affairs of Kentucky. The Indians alarmed at the approach- ing loss of their powerful allies, who had fed, and clothed, and armed them against their most hateful enemies, suspended their incursions into Kentucky.
It must be interesting as connected with the negotiation of peace, to observe the attempts which were so artfully urged, to sever Kentucky from the rest of the confederacy; and to no- tice how ably they were repelled. The first step in this in- sidious intrigue was taken by Count Lucerne, at Philadelphia, in conformity with instructions from Count de Vergennes, the French minister of State. On the arrival of the former gen- tleman, he lost no time in pressing ton Congress certain in- structions for their ministers at Paris, pursuant to the following ideas: 1. "That the United States extend to the westward no farther than settlements were permitted by the British procla- mation of 1763;" 2. "That the United States do not consider themselves as having any right to navigate the Mississippi, no territory belonging to them being situated thereon;" 3. "That the settlements cast of the Mississippi" (embracing Kentucky with her southern neighbors) "which were prohibited as above, are possessions of the crown of Great Britain, and proper ob- jects against which the arms of Spain may be employed for
* Marshall 1, 155. t Pitkin 2. 92.
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the purpose of making a permanent conquest for the Spanish crown," In consequence of adverse events happening to the American arms, Congress, on the motion of the delegates from Virginia, authorized by a resolution of the legislature in 1781, and assented to by all the southern States, with the exception of North Carolina, *instructed Mr. Jay, their minister at Madrid, "no longer to insist on the free navigation of the Mississippi below the southern boundary of the United States." Still these concessions were fruitless, and Spain would neither acknowl- edge American Independence, nor form any treaty; though she would thave granted any money required by the exigencies of America; provided Mr. Jay would have entered into her favor- ite scheme, of excluding all foreigners from entering the Gulf of Mexico by the rivers of the north. This independent firm- ness of John Jay, under the pressure of bills drawn upon him by Congress for half a million of dollars in expectation of Span- ish assistance, must immortalize him among American patriots. .
But notwithstanding the failure of this favorite Spanish scheme at Madrid, it was pressed again at Paris by the Span- ish minister, Count Aranda, supported by Count de Vergennes, and his secretary, M. Rayneval, with the same happy result upon the same minister. This second failure, when supported with the whole influence of the French cabinet, is the more astonishing and honorable to the character of Mr. Jay; since the French minister at Philadelphia had the adroitness to persuade Congress in a moment of either despondency or of credulous confidence, to instruct its ministers at Paris #"to undertake nothing in the negotiations for peace or truce, without their knowledge and concurrence." meaning the con- currence of the King of France, "and ultimately to govern yourselves by their adrice and opinion." A step of degrading compliance, which, whenever this country may be again dis- posed to take, it had better surrender in form, an independence which she would no longer retain in reality. Yet armed with the perverted authority of their own government, the Ameri- can plenipotentiaries extricated themselves from the toils pre-
+ Jay's Life 1, 120. + Pitkin 2, 07. Idem 99. # Idem 109.
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pared for them by a foreign court; and by firm and sagacious concert; brought their country out of war, into peace and inde- pendence, with exalted honor.
Let us now attend to some of the proposals which would have implicated the future condition of Kentucky .* The Secretary of the French minister of State, after a long argument to show that the rights of the United States were derived through Great Britain, and that she had acknowledged the Indians as an inde- pendent power belonging to neither party, proposed to run the boundary on the west to Fort Thoulouse, (the head of the Tom- beckbee) and then by various points, which the author has been unable to identify in our more recent topography, to intersect the t"Cumberland river; whose course is to be followed until it falls into the Ohio. The savages to the west of the line des- cribed, should be free, and under the protection of Spain;" "the lands situated to the northward of the Ohio," must be regulated by the court of London." Fortunately these joint intrigues of France and Spain were most adroitly counteracted by John Jay on his own individual resposibility; against the opinion of Dr. Franklin, and against his own instructions, though ultimately and cordially supported by both Franklin and the elder Adams, who joined the commission some time afterwards.
In March, 1783, an improvement of the judiciary in this dis- * tant section of the State, was directed by the legislature of Virginia, uniting the three counties into a district, to be called the District of Kentucky, with a court of common law and chan- cery jurisdiction co-extensive with its limits, and possessed of criminal jurisdiction. The District court was opened at Har- rodsburg on the 3d of the month, by John Floyd, and Samuel McDowell as judges; George Muter did not attend until 1785, the two former appointed John May their clerk. Walker Daniel was likewise appointed by the Governor of Virginia, Attorney General for the District of Kentucky. This constitutes the third legislative alteration of Kentucky; 1. the county of Ken- tucky; 2. the three counties sinking the name of Kentucky; and now, 3. the District, reviving the name of Kentucky to
* Pitkins, 2, 139-140. t State papers, vol. 2, 169.
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go out, we trust, no more forever. This commenced the higher judicial organization; * at this time, no house at Harrodsburg could conveniently accommodate the court; and it adjourned to a meeting-house near the Dutch station, six miles from its place of meeting. The Attorney General and clerk were directed to fix on some safe place, near Crow's station, close to the present town of' Danville, for holding the court; they were authorized to procure a log house to be built, large enough to accommodate the court in one end, and two juries in the other; they were likewise authorized to contract for building a jail of hewed or sawed logs, at least nine inches thick. This arrangement for buildings, so suitable to the poverty of the mechanic arts at this time, gave rise to the town of Danville; which continued the seat of the District court, and was the place of meeting for all the early public assemblies of Kentucky, Yet this ancient town, if any thing artificial in Kentucky is entitled to the name, has by some strange juggle of political intrigue, ceased to be the seat even of' a county : may its college and its benevolent asylum for the deaf and dumb, compensate the inhabitants of this delicious section of Kentucky, for the wayward tricks, of which they have been made the victims.
Society now rapidly assumed the character of older and riper communities. A fertile soil, liberty and peace, soon spread their benign effects over the land. In consequence, the fields smiled with the heavy crops; cattle and hogs throve in the rich range of the woods to an astonishing degree. Emigrants diffused conside- rable money, and labor was well rewarded. Mechanics, divines, and schoolmasters, fast followed to fill up the picture. Several crops of wheat were raised on the south side of the Kentucky river; some distilleries were erccted for the distillation of spirits from Indian corn.
This year was likewise distinguished by the opening of west- ern trade with the fair and opulent city of Philadelphia, by Daniel Broadhead, who brought merchandise from that place in wagons to Pittsburg, and thence in boats to Louisville; where it was offered for sale, and thus established, it is believed, the first
+ Marshail, 1, 157.
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store in the State for the sale of foreign merchandise. In Phila- delphia were formed several companies of land speculators, who converted their hordes of paper money into Virginia land war- rants; and added a new impulse to a tide already at the flood. A. commercial association had likewise been formed at the above place; the active partner of which, was James Wilkinson, after- wards so prominent in western affairs; who in February, 1784, arrived in Lexington. So impressive and influential were the movements of this gentleman, though only in private life, that they constitute quite an era in the history of Kentucky.
The conclusion of the definite treaty of peace which had been signed at Paris, in September, 1783. (but the ratification of the parties not exchanged until May. 1784,) it was fondly hoped would have immediately led to the surrender of the British posts on the lakes, and in consequence, to a control over the conduct of the Indians; this, whether, they had been in French, British, or American hands, has always followed that event. Mutual com- plaints of infractions of the treaty, and unfortunately as well grounded against Virginia, for suspending the collection of British debts in her courts; as against Great Britain, for retaining forts within the acknowledged limits of the United States; protracted the execution of the treaty. In the mean time the Indians per- ceiving the frontier fortifications, (which must strike them as the most palpable marks of power.) still in the hands of their old friends; necessarily relied upon the continuance of their protec- tion against the Americans. 'This was too readily afforded by the agents and subjects of the British government; particularly those who were interested in retaining a monopoly of the fur trade. Truth likewise compels the acknowledgment, that many indi- viduals in Kentucky displayed a revengeful hostility to the Indians, not at all short of their own ferocity to the whites. In one instance a friendly Indian is said to have been seduced into the woods by a white man and secretly murdered; yet the punishment of the law could not be inflicted upon the offerder, owing to the popular resentment against the old enemies of the whites, and their unjustifiable sympathy with a shedder of inno- cent human blood. The effect of this winking of the laws of
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the white man over his offences against his red brother, is said to have been instantaneous, "the amicable parties of Indians ceased, confidence was lost, friendly intercourse abated," and retaliation became the only appeal. It soon lighted up a re- newal of hostilities on the frontiers, for which it must never be forgotten in a just estimate of these wars, the Indians were pre- disposed by nearly two centuries' encroachments of white men on every thing dear to the very nature of the aborigines.
Previous to again entering on another portion of our sangui- nary annals, it will be interesting to notice the extension of our pacific domain, and the improvement of our social comforts. Hitherto that part of Kentucky lying north of Licking river had remained unsettled, as it was deemed dangerous from its contiguity to the northern Indians. Indeed surveys had been suspended in this section of the district, by order of the princi- pal surveyor; they were afterward resumed, and again suspen- ded, by the appearance of Indian sign. Simon Kenton, however, after an absence of nine years, repossessed himself of the im- provement formerly mentioned, made in 1775, by this most way- ward and enterprising man, near the present town of Washing- ton, at the head of Lawrence's creek.
Indian invasion was now threatened in a new direction; hitherto the hostile incursions had come from the north, but information was given Colonel Logan, that some of the Cherokee tribes medi- tated an invasion of the southern frontiers; while hostile inten- tions were demonstrated by the northern tribes. These alarm- ing circumstances in the autumn of 1784, induced the Colonel to procure a meeting of the citizens at Danville, to adopt mea- sures for the public security. Upon taking the situation of the district into consideration, this assembly discovered that no legal authority existed here to call out the militia for offensive purposes; there was no magazine of arms or ammunition be- yond private supplies; nor any provisions or public funds to purchase them. The property of individuals was no longer in a time of peace, subject to be impressed as during the late state of war; moreover the government of the State, that had already complained of expense, might refuse to pay for the
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expedition, "or even to compensate for real losses." Under these embarrassments, the military expedition was abandoned, and fortunately; for whatever might have been the correctness of the intelligence communicated to Colonel Logan, no invasion by southern Indians was made this year. The meeting, how- ever, produced an effect much more important to the welfare of Kentucky than any temporary military party could have done; for in consequence of the discovery, which it had made of the want of suitable legal and political organization for the necessary purposes of so insulated a community, it was thought advisable to invite a convention of the representatives of the whole district, in the next ensuing month. This assembly might, it was hoped, make an imposing and effectual appeal to the legislature of the State, upon these subjects of deep con- cern to Kentucky. To effect this first of our formal conven- tions, (though the second in fact) the meeting addressed a writ- ten circular to each militia company, recommending it to elect one representative to meet at Danville, our temporary capital, on the 27th of December, 1784. The invitation was complied with, and the representatives assembled in conformity with it: they organized themselves into a convention by elect- ing Samuel McDowell, President, and Thomas Todd, clerk; and then proceeded to business. In a session "conducted with much decorum," which is indeed a national characteristic of our public assemblies, it was thought that many of the grievences of the district might be remedied by suitable acts of the Virginia legislature; while others of the greatest magnitude, involving the military defence, originated in the great distance of the country from the seat of the State government. These latter mischiefs could only be removed by a separation of the district from the parent Commonwealth; and its erection into an equal and independent member of the American confederacy. This latter opinion finally prevailed by a decided majority, and it was reduced to a resolution, *- in favor of applying for an act to render Kentucky independent of Virginia." Still with the deference due to the feelings and interests of a free people,
ยท Marshall 1, 194. N
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which is the very essence of republican and popular govern- ment; and as the representatives to this convention were not ex- pressly elected with a view to so fundamental a political change as was now contemplated, the convention forbore to make the application to Virginia. It, however, earnestly recommended the measure to the district, and likewise at the ensuing April elections for members of the State legislature, to elect represen- tatives to meet in convention in the ensuing May. This second convention was expressly charged with an interesting question, and one hitherto untried even in the school of American poli- tics, (rich as it is in experiments;) it was that of considering and determining the expediency of a separation of Kentucky from Virginia, and applying to its legislature for their consent to the measure. Our confederacy had not yet exhibited this process of moral swarming in mutual harmony and peace; which has since been so often repeated, as to have familiarized our minds, to the grandeur of the political operation; one un- known to the annals of the eastern continent. Strange to re- late, at this time, abundantly as the press has since been dif- fused, wide as Volney remarks, as American settlements; none yet existed in Kentucky. The circular address of the conven- tion of '84, to the people of the district was, therefore a written one: the members to be chosen are said* to have been twenty- five, which were divided among the three counties according to their supposed population. This autumn is remarkable for a great accession to the population of the district, and the supe- riority of its character; the effect was instantaneous in stretch- ing out the frontiers, and enlarging a safe interior. The In- dians, too, are said to have very sensibly relaxed, even in their predatory warfare. With January, 1795. the county of Nelson was created out of all that part of Jefferson county, south of Salt river. On the ensuing March, the death of Elliott, who had re- cently settled at the mouth of Kentucky river. the burning of his house and dispersion of his family, struck the country with no little alarm: it was interpreted by its indications of future consequences, rather than the immediate effects, desolating as
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