USA > Kentucky > A history of the commonwealth of Kentucky > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
To this must be attributed in some degree an attack in July, upon Fort Recovery, by a large body of Indians, who after an assault for twenty-four hours with small arms, withdrew. By the 26th of July General Scott, accompanied by sixteen hundred Kentucky militia, united with the regular army under Gen. Wayne, of about the same number. The reluctance to co-operate with regular troops had disappeared before the reputation of Wayne, propagated by the Kentucky volunteers in the previous campaign. The army under General Wayne commenced its march to the confluence of the Au Glaize with the Maumee, where the richest and most extensive settlements of the Indians lay; there he attempted a surprise, by ordering two roads to be cut from Greenville to distract the enemy, while he marched by neither. This manœuvre was however defeated by the desertion of a degenerate soldier by the name of Newmant,
*American State Papers vol. 2-65-73,
tIt has been conjectured by some officers, that Newman was purposely sent hy Wayne as sergeant Champ was by Washington during the revolutionary war. The subsequent unexplained pardon of Newman gives some confirmation to this idca.
-
237
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
who gave the Indians intelligence of the approach of the army in sufficient time to allow of their evacuating their towns. They were accordingly found deserted; while Wayne prosecuted his march down the northern side of the Maumee. The enemy were now reported, by the scouts, to be encamped in the vicinity of the British fort, at the foot of the Rapids, where the American army directed its march, after having built Fort Deposite, about seven miles from the British garrison. On the 20th of August, the march was resumed, in the order hitherto pursued. After proceeding about five miles, the com- manding General was informed by a messenger from Major Price, who led the advance, that he had discovered the enemy; their left resting upon the Maumee, and their right extending an unknown distance into a thick brush-wood. The army was then formed upon the principles previously adopted, to receive the enemy in front in two lines; its right resting on the river, and its left extending into the wood previously mentioned. General Scott was now ordered to repair to Todd's brigade of Kentucky volunteers, which had marched on the extreme left of the army, and with that brigade to turn the extreme right of the enemy, and attack their rear; whilst General Barbee, who, with his brigade had formed the rear guard of the army, was directed to follow the second line of infantry, to be employed as circumstances might require ; and the light troops and guards in front of the army, being now driven in by the enemy, to arrest their progress until the lines of infantry were properly formed; Captain Campbell, who commanded the advance of the dragoons, was directed to charge. In the the execution of this order, that gallant officer was killed, and his troop driven upon the infantry, which being at length formed, were or- dered to "advance and charge with trailed arms, and rouse the Indians from their coverts, at the point of the bayonet, and when up, to deliver a close and well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load again, or to form their lines." "Such was the impetuosity of the charge, by the first line of infantry, that the Indians, Canadian militia and volunteers were driven from all their cov-
238
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
erts, in so short a time, that although every possible exertion was used by General Scott and his detachment of the mounted volunteers, to gain their proper positions, but part could get up in season to participate in the action, the enemy being driven in the course of one hour more than two miles, through the thick woods, already mentioned, by less than one half their number." "The loss of the enemy was more than double that of the Federal army. The woods were strewed for a considerable distance with the dead bodies of Indians and their white auxilia- ries, the latter armed with British muskets and bayonets. Brig. General Wilkinson commanded the right wing, and Col. Hamtramck the left; these officers, with the aids Capt. De Butts, T. Lewis, Lieutenant William H. Harrison, and Adjutant General Mill's, were all most generously complimented by the commanding General .* The army remained for three days en- camped on the Maumee, in front of the battle-ground, de- stroying all the houses and fields of grain, including the house and stores "of Col. M'Kee, the British Indian agent, and prin- cipal stimulator of the war now existing between the United States and the savages." While the American force was thus encamped, Major Campbell, who commanded the British fort on the Miamis, (as the Maumee was then written,) addressed a letter to Gen. Wayne to know in what light he was to view "such near approaches," "almostwithin the reach of the guns of a post be- longing to his majesty, the king of Great Britain." To this inso- lent demand Wayne replied, that "were you entitled to an answer, the most full and satisfactory was announced to you from the muz zles of my small arms yesterday morning, in the action against hordes of savages in the vicinity of your fort, which terminated gloriously for the American arms." This was followed by several other letters in a tone of proud defiance on the part of the Amer- ican officer, concluding in a demand in the name of the President of the United States, to withdraw and remove his troops to the nearest post occupied by the British at the peace of 1783. To this demand it was gallantly answered, that "the post would not be abandoned at the summons of any power whatever until orders were received from his superiors, or the fortunes of war
* See General Wayne's genaue despatch in the Casket of 1830, p. 116, Philadelphia.
239
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
should oblige him." Here the correspondence terminated; and every thing within view of the fort, and even under the muzzles of the guns, was immediately fired and destroyed. The least retaliation for these insults, would in all probability, have pro- duced the demolition of this audacious intrusion of a foreign post upon our soil in time of peace; the temper of the Kentuckians, at that time so exasperated by British aids to the Indians, was ripe for any extremities; they were however fortunately avoid- ed, more by the prudence of the British officer, than a correspon- dent sentiment on the part of the American commander. The Indians were shortly afterwards invited to a treaty at Greenville, where they made large cessions of territory to the United States, including all claims south of the Ohio river, and concluded a peace, which was faithfully observed until the war of 1812.
The legislation of the state now presses itself on the attention and in one of its most important bearings, that of the Judiciary; no department of a government of laws, comes home to the fire- sides and bosoms of the people so dearly as this; nor is there one whose learning, intelligence and purity ought to be alike above a feeling of dependence upon the legislature and of fear of the people, whose rights are deposited in their peaceful guardian- ship. In the session of 1795, an act passed reciting the burthen- some constitution of the court of Appeals, divested it of its original jurisdiction in land cases, and established six district courts; one at Washington in Mason county, a second at Paris, a third at Lexington, a fourth at Franklin, a fifth at Danville and a sixth at Bairdstown. These courts superseded the criminal court of Over and Terminer; they were held twice a year by two Judges; their jurisdiction embraced all matters" at common law, or in chancery arising within their districts, ex- cept actions of assault and battery. actions for slander, and actions of less value than fifty pounds, "unless in the latter case they were against justices of the peace." Another act of the next session established a court of Quarter Sessions in each county, to be composed of three justices of the peace to be ap- pointed for that purpose: while a third act re-constructed the
.Marshall, vol. 2 p. 35.
-
210
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
county courts, whose judges, like their judicial brethren of the Quarter Sessions have been repealed out of authority, by repeal- ing the law creating their offices. This legislative control of the judges of courts inferior to the court of Appeals, although the established construction under the constitution of the United States, as well as that of Kentucky, seems unfounded in any principle which will not make all the courts equally the crea- tures of the legislature. The constitutional description, and the tenure of office, are the same; yet the existence of the judges is made dependent upon the will of the legislature just with the same effect as if the judges held their offices at the pleasure of the legislature. The evasion of the constitutional tenure by re- pealing the office and thus reaching the officer, who would oth- erwise be beyond the reach of the legislature, is too inconsitent and too indirect, to be a constitutional argument.
If the personal ability or learning of the judges is insufficient, let them be addressed out of office; but let the independent tenure of judicial authority, so indispensible to equal justice, remain unimpaired. The principle of legislative control over the office, and thus indirectly over the officer, became in the sub- sequent history of the state, the root of a most embittered and dangerous controversy, respecting its application to the Court of Appeals.
Another branch of legislation, which has occasioned deep interest in the State is that connected with titles to land; which, in every civilized community must possess deep and enduring importance. On this subject. an act passed at the session of 1793, giving "further time to the owners of lands to survey the same, and for returning plats and certificates to the Register's Office." This is the first act of Kentucky supposed to violate the compact between her and Virginia, in regard to land titles, a controversy which has acquired inexpressible importance at every step of its agitation; and has involved the legislatures, the courts and the people in equal concern. The article of the compact supposed to be infringed by this act, expresses "that all private rights and interests of lands, within the said district, derived from the laws of Virginia, prior to such separation, shall
1
241
HISTORY'OF KENTUCKY.
private rights and interests of lands within the said district, de- rived from the laws of Virginia, prior to to the separation. shall remain valid and secure under the laws of the proposed state, and shall be determined by the laws now existing in this state." meaning the state of Virginia. The act of Kentucky militating with this article, gives the time of one year from the 1st of Jan- uary, 1794, to the owners of entries to comply with the requisi- tions of the same, during which time, no such entry shall be forfeited.
An important law concerning real estate, carly passed the legislature of Kentucky. In Virginia, lands had not been sub- ject to execution; they were now including "tenements and hereditaments in possession, reversion or remainder," subjected to this final process. A valuationi wes, however, to be made, and unless the lands would sell for three fourths of this estimate for ready money, the defendant might replevy the debt for three months.
The civil list of the session is worth recording for its simpli- city and economy, virtues which sadly diminish in the progress of government. The governor was to receive £300, or 81000 per annum, to be paid quarter yearly; the judges of the court of Appeals each £200, or 866; 66; the judges of the court of Oyer and Terminer £30, or $100; Secretary of State £100, or £333 33; Treasurer, Auditor, and Attorney General the same. The session of 1793 fernished the first law of appor- tionment of representatives under the constitution; it, however. assigned the representation arbitrarily, with ut determining any particular ratio. The number of representatives was forty- seven, apportioned as follows: Bourbon five. Clark two, Fayette six, Green one, Hardin one, Harrison one, Jefferson two, Lo- gan one, Lincoln three, Mercer three, Madison three, Mason three, Nelson three, Shelby one, Scott two, Washington two. and Woodford three.
The population of the State Had, at the recent census of 1790, amounted to 73,677, of which 12,130 were slaves. The session of '93 was held at Frankfort, and the public buildings not · being ready, the legislature assembled in a large framed house, Y
242
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
belonging to Major James Love, at the lower end of the present town, on the river bank. The revenues of the state from the 15th of November 1792, to the same date in 1793, amounted to £4,920 or $16,400 00, and the expenditure to £4921 or $16,403 00.
The year 1795 brought about peace with the Indian tribes to the north, at the treaty of Greenville, which, with a similar arrangement with the southern Indians in 1796, completed the tranquillity of the barbarians on our frontiers. 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 27th of October, 1795.
In regard to the British treaty, which convulsed this country more than any measure since the revolution; and which requi- red all the weight of General 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 part of the Union was it more obnoxious. Its whole contest encoun- tered the strong prepossession of the whigs against every thing British; and this feeling seems to have prevailed in greater bitterness among the people of the southern states, (possibly from more intense sufferings in the revolutionary war) than in any other portions of the union. Yet now when the passions that 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 institutions from the dangerous ordeal of war? What restored the western posts, the pledges of western tranquillity, but this much abused convention? The military establishments of the British on the western frontiers, wore to be surrendered before the first day of June. 1796: further than this, Kentucky was not particularly 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
243
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
mention that Mr. Jay informed General Washington in a private letter,* that "to do more was impossible, further concessions on the part of Great Britain, cannot, in my opinion, be obtained;" he also added,t "the confidence reposed in your personal charac- ter was visible and useful throughout the negotiations." Happy, most happy was it for the new union and young institutions of these states, that they were allowed by this treaty, time sufficient to obtain root; and fortify themselves in the national affections.
The other foreign treaty mentioned above, may well be con- nected here, for its important bearing on the limits, the trade and the peace of Kentucky, though negotiated at a subsequent period. To have a clear view of this negotiation it will be necessary to revert to the difficulties and obstacles opposed by Spain to our western limits and navigation, at the earliest steps of our intercourse with her as an independent power.
It will be recollected how strenuous and artful were the attempts of both the branches of the house of Bourbon, to prevent the aggrandizement of these states by a liberal boundary, and the navigation of the Mississippi. By the stern and uncompromi- sing patriotism of John Jay, and the liberal policy of the British government, these diplomatic intrigues were defeated, as far as related to the treaty of peace with Great Britain; but they were long and artfully renewed by Spain on her own account. One branch of these diplomatic machination-) has been already noticed in the fruitless overtures of Don Gardoqui, through the Hon. John Brown, then a member of the old Congress, to his friends in Kentucky, and to the convention of' December 1787. It now remains to pursue this most persevering of the foreign in- tigues which were aimed at the independence and the freedom of Kentucky. The new government of the United States, among its earliest negotiations abroad, adopted measures for settling the subjects of difference between this country and Spain. These at- tempts were met by the latter country with alternate encourage- ment and neglect. as her affairs with France and Great Britain promised a continuance of peace, or threatened to involve her in -Jay's Life, vol. 2, p. 235. iMarshall'y Washington. vol. 2, p. 960, 2d edition. 9.American State papers, vol. IV, p. 12).
24
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
the mortal strife, which was desolating the centre of Europe. Our Spanish relations continued in this condition until 1794, when on the intimation of the Spanish commissioners, Messrs. Viar and Jaudenes. in this country, President Washington deter- mined to send Mr. Thomas Pinckney, our minister at London, to Madrid, to conclude a treaty at that city. The minister arrived there about the last of June, 1795; bat did not conclude his nego- tiations until after a long appendix to the tantalizing labors of fif- teen years, on the 27th of October of the same year. The pur- port of this treaty acknowledged our southern limits to the north- ernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude; our wes- tern, to the middle of the Mississippi, its navigation to the sea, with a right of deposit at New Orleans for our produce, during three years. Yet amidst these fair prospects of arranging all our differ- ences at Madrid, an insidious under plot was formed at New Or- leans .*
In July, 1795, Governor Carondelet dispatched Thomas Power to Kentucky, with a letter to Benjamin Sebastian, then a judge of our court of Appeals. In this communication he declares, that the "confidence reposed in you by my predecessor, Brigadier General Miro, and your former correspondence, have induced me to make a communication to you highly interesting to the country in which you live, and to Louisiana." He then men- tions that the king of Spain was "willing to open the navigation of the Mississippi to the western country, and desirous to estab- lish certain regulations, reciprocally benificial to the commerce of both countries." To effect these objects, judge Sebastian was expected, the Governor says, "to procure agents to be cho- sen and fally empowered by the people of your country, to nego- tinte with Colonel Gavaso on the subject, at New Madrid, whom I shall send there in October next, properly authorized for the purpose, with directions to continue at the place or its vicinity, 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 requesting them to meet him at Colonel Nicholas' house in Mercer county, on .. Journal H. Representatives, 1306, and Wilkinson's memoire, vol. 2. Appendicis 5 and 45.
.
245
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
business of importance, which he had to communicate concern- ing them all. The gentlemen addressed, went as desired, to Colonel Nicholas', and met judge Sebastian there, who submitted the letter quoted above; some deliberation ensued, which re- sulted in the unanimous opinion of all the gentlemen assem- bled, that judge Sebastian should meet Colonel Gayaso, 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 conse- quence of the severity of the weather, the gentlemen agreed to go to New Madrid. Here a commercial agreement was par- tially approved by Sebastian; but a difference of opinion occur- ring between the negotiators, whether any imposts, instead of a duty of four per cent. (it had been six per cent. on imports, and as much on exports,) should be exacted upon importations into New Orleans, by the way of the river; the negotiators repaired to the metropolis, in order to submit the difference of opinion to the Governor. This officer, upon learning the nature of the dif- ference between the gentlemen acting in this treacherous, and on the American side, most insidious negotiation, readily con- sented to gratify the Kentucky envoy. It was deferred, on ac- count of some pressing business. A few days after this inter- view, the Spanish Governor sent for judge Sebastian, and informed him that a courier had arrived from Havanna with the intelligence, that a treaty had been signed between the United States and Spain, which put an end to the business between them. Judge Sebastian, after vainly urging the Spanish Gov- ernor to close this sub-negotiation, in the expectation that the treaty would not be ratified, returned to Kentucky by the Atlan- tic ports.
Several reflections necessarily arise out of this summary of the negotiation of 1795: which was preserved secret from the government of Kentucky, until voluntarily disclosed by judge Innes, in 1806, before a committee of the legislature. The first romark that suggests itself on the face of these documents. is, that judge Sebastian had been connected with the Spanish government before this time; since Governor Carondelet refers to the confidence reposed in him by his predecessor. To what
246
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
extent, and how long, no information exists within the command of the author, although he has attempted to investigate the earliest ramifications of a plot, now only interesting for its his- torical curiosity, and not as an engine of party ambition. This negotiation, though terminated so abruptly by Carondelet, con- trary to the urgent representations of Sebastian, was again renewed by the former officer in 1797; while the territorial line - was marking between the United States and Spain, on the south. It was again effected through the agency of Messrs. Power and Sebastian, and in a way to endanger the union and peace of these states more flagrantly and openly, than on the former more covert attempt.
In the summer of 1797, Thomas Power again arrived at Lou- isville, as the agent of the Governor of Louisiana, and immedi- ately communicated a letter to Sebastian, desiring him to lay his proposals before Messrs. Innes, Nicholas, and Murray. These proposals were no less than to withdraw from the federal union, and to form "a government wholly unconnected with that of the Atlantic States." To aid these nefarious purposes, in the face of a solemn treaty recently negotiated, and to compensate those who should consign themselves to infamy by assisting a foreign power to dissolve the American union; and to convert its free republican states into dependencies on the arbitrary and jealous government of Spain, orders for one, or even two hundred thousand dollars, "on the royal treasury of New Orleans," were offered; or "if more convenient, these sums were to be conveyed at the expense of his Catholic Majesty into this country," and held at the disposal of those, who should degrade themselves into Spanish conspirators. Fort Massac was pointed out as an object proper to be seized at the first declaration of independ- ence; and, "the troops of the new government," it was promised, "should be furnished," without loss of time, "with 20 field pieces, with their carriages, and every necessary appendage, including powder, balls, &c., together with a number of small arms and ammunition, sufficient to equip the troops which it should be judged expedient to raise." The compensation for these free offers of money and arms, independent of weakening the United
i
247
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
States, was to be obtained in the extension of the northern boundary of the possessions to which Spain had so pertinacious- ly clung; and which she now so desperately, and for the last time, endeavored so treacherously to retain. The northern boundary on this side of the Mississippi was to be the Yazoo, as established by the British government when in possession of the Floridas; and which was, by a secret article in the treaty of peace, retained, as the boundary between the United States and Floridas, should Great Britain recover them from Spain. Eager indeed, must Spain have been to obtain this insignificant addition to her boundary, when she could break in upon her jealous exclusion of foreigners from her American possessions; and promise the Kentuckians, "if they would declare them- selves independent of the federal government, and establish one of their own, to grant them privileges far more extensive, give them a decided preference over the Atlantic States, in her com- mercial connections with them; and place them in a situation infinitely more advantageous, in every point of view, than that in which they would find themselves, were the treaty (meaning the treaty between the United States and Spain of '95) to be carried into effect." Such were the powerful temptations pre- sented by the Spanish government of Louisiana, to some of the leading men of Kentucky, in order to seduce them into a de- pendeney of Spain. These offers were entertained too gravely, and rejected with too much tameness for the honor of Kentucky patriotism, as will appear from the following detail given by judge Innes to the legislative committee previously mentioned.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.