USA > Kentucky > A history of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 22
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.Marshall 2-100,
(Marsball 2-103.
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entitled to two thousand; if they serve three years, or during the present war with France, they will have three thousand acres of any 'unappropriated land that may be conquered; the officers in proportion, pay &c. as other French troops; all lawful plunder to be equally divided according to the custom of war; those who serve the expedition will have their choice of receiving their lands, or one dollar per day."
Governor St. Clair intimated to Governor Shelby early in November, that this commission had been given to Clark with other particulars; this communication was followed by one from General Wayne, of January 6th, 1794, enclosing his orders to Major W. Winston, commanding the United States cavalry in Kentucky, which placed that officer and his men under the orders of Governor Shelby, and promised " should more force be wan- ted, it should not be withheld, upon this interesting occasion, notwithstanding our proximity to the combined force of hostile Indians." After the receipt of these letters Governor Shelby addressed the Secretary of State on the 13th of January, 1794 and after acknowledging the receipt of the information in regard to Clark and the French emissaries, proceeded as follows,* "I have great doubts even if they (General Clark and the French- men) attempt to carry this plan into execution, provided they manage their busines with prudence, whether there is any legal authority to restrain or to punish them; at least before they have actually accomplished it. For if it is lawful for any one citizen of the 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 pro- visions, arms and ammunition. And if the act is lawful in itself, there is nothing but the particular intention with which it is done, that can possibly make it unlawful; but I know of no law which inflicts a punishment on intention only; or any crite- rion by which to decide what would be sufficient evidence of that intention, even if it was a proper subject of legal censure." This communication precluding any effectual interpo-ition on the part of the governor of Kentucky, the President of the United States issued his proclamation on the 24th of March, apprising
*American State Papers, vol 2 p 39.
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the people of the west, of the unlawful project, and warning them of the consequences of engaging in it. About the same time General Wayne was ordered to establish a strong military post at fort Massac on the Ohio; and to prevent by force if necessary the descent of any hostile party down that river.
The surprise of the President at the latter communication from Gov. Shelby, must have been greatly increased, when he contrasted it with the one received from the same public officer, dated the 5th of October .* In this prior communication the Gov- ernor expressed himself as follows: "I think it my duty to take this early opportunity to assure you, that I shall be particularly attentive to prevent any attempts of that nature (alluding to the French expedition against Louisiana) from this country. I am well persuaded, at present, none such is in contemplation in this State. The citizens of Kentucky possess too just a sense of the obligations they owe the general government, to embark in any enterprise that would be so injurious to the United States."
Early in November, 1793, the Legislature of the State as- sembled, but the Governor took no notice, in his address to them, nor in the course of the session, of the French enterprise, com- municated to him by the Secretary of State, acknowledged by the French agents concerned in the unlawful enterprise, and which was consummating under his own eyes. But what is more extraordinary, the Governor mentioned nothing of the Spanish negotiation likewise communicated to him at the same time; which was so interesting to Kentucky, and which would have been so well calculated to soothe her excited feelings. Though nothing specific had been mentioned, or could consistent- ly with such measures have been announced; still the great and merited influence of Governor Shelby might well have been more pointedly exerted, to sustain the administration of the illustrious Washington, amidst the perplexities of foreign negotiation, and of domestic disturbance. Not that the Governor should be sup- posed to have stood alone in his sentiments of French sympathy and Spanish dislike; for they were the fixed sentiments of the West in general; and were ardently cherished in Kentucky by
*American State Papers, vol. 3 -- 27.
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some of her most distinguished citizens. The regret is, that the Governor did not bring the weight of his massy character to rally his countryinen around the standard of the Union, which he had fought so bravely to maintain, and to recall them from their mistaken partialities for a foreign nation. The super- seding of Mr. Genet, at the request of the President of the United States, and the subsequent disapproval of his acts by the French general, produced an abandonment of this last and only intrigue of France with the people of Kentucky.
The Secretary of State on the 29th of March, 1794, replied to the Governor's communication, of the 13th of the previous Janu- ary, at a length, which most properly places it in the appendix. It may be sufficient to mention, that the Secretary endeavors to confute the legal difficulties, which had embarassed the mind of the Governor of Kentucky; he then enters into a sketch of the negotiations at Madrid, respecting the navigation of the Missis- sippi. From this statement it appeared, that as early as December, '91, the first verbal overtures of Spain had been accepted by the President; and Mr. Short had been associated with Mr. Carmichael, the Charge d' Affaires at Madrid, in the negotiation. "For many months have our commissioners been employed," says the Secretary, "in this important affair at Madrid. At this moment they are so employed. The delays, which forms may have created, the events of Europe, and other considerations, which at this season cannot, with propriety, be detailed, dictate a peaceable expectation of the result."
There are however other views, connected with the above transactions, which were entertained by our distinguished and patriotic Governor himself. These, historical justice, no less than the author's deep respect for the great public services of Governor Shelby, impels him to record. He is more eager to do this, because this defence, though in part produced by a motion of Mr. H. Marshall, is totally omitted by him in his History. These views are contained in part in the Governor's message of the 15th of November, 1794,* to the House of Representatives of Kentucky. In this communication made conformably to a
*See Appendix,
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resolution of the House; the Governor reiterates the doubts of his legal authority to comply with the wishes of the General Government. "After the most careful examination of the subject I was," says he, "doubtful whether under the constitu- tion or laws of my country, I possessed powers so extensive as those, which I was called upon to exercise. Thus situated, I thought it advisable to write the letter No. 5,* in which all the information I had received is fully detailed, my doubts as to the extent of my powers carefully stated, and the strongest assurances given, that every legal requisition should, on my part, be punctually complied with." These doubts the Gover- nor considered as confirmed by the passage of an act of Con- gress on the 5th of June, 1794, entitled "an act in addition to an act, for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States." "From the necessity of passing this law, I infer that my doubts as to the criminality of this proposed enterprise were well founded; and that until the passage of that law, the offence had not been declared, nor the punishment defined."
In an address of Governor Shelby to the Freemen of Ken- tucky, in July, 1812; just prior to the Gubernatorial election of that eventful period, he expresses himself again on this subject as follows: "The attention of the General Government being thus drawn to the western country, I deemed it a favora- ble time to make an impression on their minds of the impor- tance of the navigation of the Mississippi, and of the necessity of attending to that subject. On that account, and with that object, my letter of the 13th of January, 1794, was calculated, rather to increase than to diminish the apprehensions of the General Government as to the western country. This letter had the effect desired. It drew from the Secretary of State information in relation to the navigation of the Mississippi, and satisfied us that the General Government was in good faith pur- suing this object of first importance to the people of Kentucky. The information thus drawn forth quieted the public mind, and restored harmony to the country." The same subject is resumed in a letter of Governor Shelby, to General Martin D.
*Letter of the Governor to the Secretary of State of the 13th January, 1794.
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Hardin of July Ist, 1812. In this letter the Governor remarks, that "there is to be sure some inconsistency in my two letters to the Secretary of State of the United States. and I saw it at the time, but at the date of the last I saw evidently that the whole scheme of La Chaise would fall to the ground without my interference, and that the present moment was a favorable one, while the apprehensions of the President were greatly excited, to express to him what I knew to be the general sentiments of the Kentucky people, relative to the navigation of the Missis- sippi and the Spanish Government. Those sentiments had often to my knowledge been expressed by way of petition and memo- rial to the General Government, and to which no assurance, nor any kind of answer had been received; and I feel an entire confidence that my letter of the 13th January, 1794, was the sole cause that produced an explanation by the special commis- sioner, Colonel James Innes, of the measures that had been pursued by our Government towards obtaining for us the navigation of the Mississippi; and although I felt some regret that I had for a moment kept the President uneasy, I was truly gratified to find that our right to the navigation of that river had been well asserted by the President in the negotiations carried on at Madrid, and indeed the minds of every Ken- tuckian then settled down in quietness, on a subject that had long caused great solicitude after the attempt of Jay to cede away the navigation of that river for 25 or 30 years."
In addition to these forcible considerations, stamped with impressive earnestness, it is due to the memory of Governor Shelby to state, that his ideas were fully concurred in by his distinguished Secretary, James Brown. This coincidence of opinion appears from a letter of the Secretary to the Governor, of the 16th of February, 1794. "The information which has reached me since the date of my last letter, has induced me to to accord with you in opinion as to the result of that enterprise; and has fully convinced me that nothing less than a considera- ble supply of money will enable the promoters of it to effectuate their intentions. I therefore clearly concur with you in the sentiment, that it would be, at present, unnecessary to take any U
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active measures in the business; and if unnecessary, it would certainly be impolitic to exercise powers of so questionable a nature as those which the General Government have adopted, and now wish you to exert.
Indeed it appears to me that good policy will justify the Executive of this country, in discovering a certain degree of unwillingness to oppose the progress of an enterprise, which has for its object the free navigation of the Mississippi. In their deliberation on this interesting subject, Congress has uniformly acted under the influence of a local, unjust policy. Instead of consulting the interests of every part of the Union, they were once on the point of sacrificing all the western waters by an unnecessary surrender of their most invaluable right. Although that detestable plot could not be effected, yet our right is sus- pended and we are deprived of all the advantages which would result from the enjoyment of it. The secrecy with which the late negotiations are veiled, justifies a suspicion that some designs unfriendly to our interests yet exist, and only wait a more favorable moment to be carried into effect. Congress therefore ought to know, through every possible channel, that we are convinced of our wrongs, and conscious of our ability to redress them. Such information might call their attention to our situation, and give our interests a place in their political deliberations. These representations could not be made to government at a more favorable juncture. Mortified at finding that their conduct towards the powers at war has only served to offend their allies without soothing their enemies-and ap- prehensive that all their abject submissions may fail in procu- ring them peace with England and Spain, they may be alarmed at the idea of our detaching ourselves from the Union at so critical a period. I am therefore happy that, whilst you have expressed your devotion to the laws and constitution of the Union, you have reminded the government of what is due to us as a State, and that power ought not to be assumed for the pun- ishment of those whose object is to do what government ought long ago to have done for us." Such is a full and impartial statement of this unhappy difference of opinion, at a most exci-
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ted period of public feeling between the Father of his country, and the pre-eminent Governor of Kentucky.
After this detail from original documents, exhibiting the sen- timents of all the high parties concerned in this interesting passage of Kentucky History; the author might well leave the subject to the judgment of every reader without expressing the state of his own mind. Yet he feels a sentiment of disdain at so equivocal a course; and he freely commits his own conclu- sions to the public decision.
The author thinks the legal difficulties, which embarassed the mind of the Governor, cannot be discredited by any candid judge; were they less founded, than they so forcibly appear, they might still have embarrassed the determination of Governor Shelby. The other point which the Governor makes in his letter to General Hardin, and which is confirmed by the letter of Secretary Brown; namely, an anxiety to develope the inten- tions of the government of the United States in regard to the navigation of the Mississippi, is more difficult to appreciate at this day. Yet the public mind of the whole western country, was at the times in question, tremblingly alive to this most vital interest. Its anxieties had arisen to the most feverish condition; as has been frequently mentioned; its citizens were ever suspecting a revival of Mr. Jay's fatal proposition, under the vail of secret negotiations. Nor was this the only excitement, which was stimulating the public feelings, all of which enters most strictly into the vindication of the first Shelby adminis- tration.
Attachment to republican institutions, sonatural in a free people, and gratitude for revolutionary services had consecrated the interests and the plans of France in the hearts of too many of our countrymen, at the expense of their sober judgment, and their duty to their own country. Americans, like too many of the enlightened friends of freedom in England, like Fox and M'Intosh, Erskine and Sheridan, were intoxicated with the triumphs of an imaginary freedom in France. Yet the sacred name of liberty had never been profaned, to sanction more attrocious tyranny, more exorbitant ambition, or more horrible
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crimes than in the republic of France. Yet it was long before the delusion disappeared from the minds of our countrymen, and at this period it was in the zenith of its influence; the prophetic mantle which covered the magnificent Burke, fell upon few, and but late, in the mad career of the misnamed French republic. Mixed with this sentiment of admiration for a people believed to be struggling for their liberty, was a deep indignation, (so reasonable in the citizens of the western country,) at the provoking and oppressive delays of Spanish negotiation. The public patience was exhausted, its jealousies were all alive. In confirmation of this condition of public feeling in Kentucky, the reader is referred to the address of the Democratic Society in Lexington .* Well may this fevered state of public sentiment have, even insensibly extended itself to the Governor of Ken- tucky, ever distinguished through his long and noble career, for his love of republican institutions, and for his devotion to the interests of his western fellow citizens, so well understood by him. These sentiments seem to show themselves in the Governor's letter to the Secretary of State of the 13th of January; where he says, "much less would I assume a power to exercise it against men, whom I consider as friends and bretheren, (meaning the French,) in favor of a man whom I view as an enemy and a tyrant, (meaning the King of Spain.) 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 gratify the fears of the minister of a prince, who openly withholds from us an invaluable right, and who secretly instigates against us a most savage and cruel enemy." Still the Governor adds, that "whatever may be my private opinions as a man, as a friend to liberty, an American citizen, and an inhabitant 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." Yet this construction by the author, is not admitted by the Governor himself; still it is believed to be a probable explanation of a state of things, which the highly excited feelings of the times scarcely admitted to be
*See Appendix.
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seen by those under their influence. In this explanation not a shade of censure is intended to be cast upon the motives of Governor Shelby; on the contrary, they are most sincerely believed to have been full to overflowing of zeal, for what he deemed the genuine interests of American freedom, and the prosperity of Kendicky. At the same time the impartial justice- of History extorts the remark, that in the instance of the French plot of 1793 and 4, Governor Shelby's zeal was, as the author believes, in common with almost all Kentucky, and too large a portion of the nation, mistaken in its attachment for the French people; and too embittered against the intriguing and procrasti- nating Spaniards. At this distance of time, however, the at- tempt may be made to limit the degree of foreign attachment, and enmity, it might have proved utterly vain, to have endea- vored to realize it in practice, at the period in question. Nor ought any surprise to be felt, that a Governor of Kentucky should have been carried away by the same tide of sentiment which had swept half the civilized world, and certainly spared no portion of it less than the United States, and especially their western section.
About* the 14th of May, 1794, La Chaise informed the Lex- ington society, "that unforeseen events had stopped the march of two thousand brave Kentuckians to go, by the strength of their arms take from the Spaniards, despotic usurpers, the empire of the Mississippi; insure to their country the navigation of it; break the chains of the Americans and their brethren the French; hoist up the flag of liberty in the name of the French republic, and lay the foundation of the prosperity and happiness of two nations situate so, and destined by nature to be but one, the most happy in the universe."
This was a period of intense political excitement throughout Europe, as well as through the United States; and in no portion of the latter did it rise to a higher degree, than among the ardent and excitable people of Kentucky. The adventurous spirit and energetic stamp of a conquering and migrating people, communicate themselves to the general character and are dis-
« Marshall 0 -- 126 じ2
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played in the general deportment. Such has sometimes presen- ted itself, as a probable solution of the overflowing ardor and abounding energy, which are so prominently exhibited in Ken- tuckians; and which still mark the descendants of that gallant and daring body of men, who conquered the most favorite hunt- ing ground of the Indians. In addition to this, a large body of revolutionary officers and soldiers had settled in Kentucky, and no doubt had, increased the military impulse. With this excitability of character, also preserved in no slight degree in the parent stock of Virginia. the thrilling events of the French revolution, which had arrayed Fox and M'Intosh against Pitt and Burke, impressed themselves on the feelings of Kentucky, with the utmost power. In this way the great moral volcano of France poured its streams of desolating lava on the distant lands of Kentucky. France and Frenchmen were identified with all the high and hallowed sentiments of liberty and national grati- tude; and no wonder the effects on all the relations of society, were deep and wide. How mistaken and ill directed, and more- over how ill requited was all this enthusiasm of Americans for French interests, need not, thank God, be now detailed. Its ut- ter overthrow, and with it, all "inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachment for others," in the terms of Washington's sacred farewell to his countrymen, are now to be seen in a genuine national pride; which, while it should not be blind to the excellences of other nations, will at all times, in peace and in war, rally round our own country in opposition to any other on the earth.
Under the influence of the national excitement, which then marked Kentucky, in common with the rest of this republic, a numerous and respectable meeting was held in Lexington on the 24th of May, 1794; when resolutions of a most violent char- acter were adopted, expressive of unqualified censure upon the administration of the great Washington, mixing all the difficulties and perplexities attending the Indian war, British outrages and Spanish procrastination, in one mass of condemnation. The virtuous, the patriotic and enlightened Jay was denounced as an enemy to the western country, and finally a convention was
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invited "for the purpose of deliberating on the steps, which will be most expedient for the attainment and security of our just rights."
The military defence was particularly inveighed against, although no government could have exerted itself more affection- ately than that of Washington, under the embarassments of so distant and so vulnerable a frontier; with a foreign force stimu- lating the enemy within the bosom of the country. Yet, when by the light of our own times, the conduct of a war in the same region, in the comparative maturity of the government is compared with that which was carried on under ten-fold embar- rassment; the approval of the administration is irresistible. If the government of the United States, with all its strength and efficiency, took three campaigns in 1812 and 1813, to defeat the Indians, what credit does the administration of Washington not deserve in 1791, to have effected the same object in four cam- paigns, two of which only were active ones? The complaints respecting foreign negotiations might be as effectually answered; but it is not material to this history; suffice it to say, the conven- tion could not be brought about with all the powerful incentives, which were applied to inflame the public indignation. The subject of the excise on distilled spirits, next produced its irrita- tions on Kentucky temper; but they never exceeded some hard words, and more tricks upon the public officers. The tumults of Pennsylvania happily did not extend themselves to Kentucky.
CHAPTER XIV.
Wayne's campaign of 1794-Indian peace of Greenville-British Treaty of 1794- Spanish Treaty ( . 1795-Spanish Negotiations with Judge Sebastian in 1795 and in 1797-First conflict between the court of Appeals and the Legislature.
General Wayne, who was left in head quarters at Greenville, had, in the course of the winter of 1793, re-occupied the battle ground of St. Clair, and erected a fort, which he called Reco- very.
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Still the depredations of the Indians continued; and on the 10th of February, Lord Dorchester, the Governor General of Canada, in a speech addressed to several Indian tribes assembled at Quebec, declared to them, that "he* should not be surprised if Great Britan and the United States were at war in the course of the year; and if so a line must be drawn by the warriors." In pursuance of this hostile spirit Governor Simcoee stablished a military post below the rapids of the Maumee, on its northern side, about fifty miles south of Detroit; this flagrant outrage upon our territory was suitably noticed by the government, without obtaining the withdrawal of the insulting garrison; instead of which, it provoked a justification on the part of the British Minister of this encroachment upon a nation at peace. It was indeed a time of insults and aggressions from both France and Great Britian, such, as it is to be trusted, this nation will never again experience. The advance of British forts must no doubt have greatly encouraged the hostilities of the Indians, independent of the actual aids in arms and provisions obtained from the British.
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