USA > Kentucky > Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II > Part 82
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On motion made, ordered, that Mr. Todd have leave to bring in a bill for the establishment of Courts of Judicature, and regulating the practice there-
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in,-Ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Dandridge, Mr. Callaway, and Mr. Hen- derson, do bring in a bill for that purpose.
On motion of Mr. Douglass, leave is given to bring in a bill for regulating a militia,-Ordered, that Mr. Floyd, Mr. Harrod, Mr. Cocke, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Hite, be a committee for that purpose.
On motion of Mr. Daniel Boone, leave is given to bring in a bill for pre- serving game, etc.,-Ordered, that Mr. Boone, Mr. Davis, Mr. Harmon, Mr. Hammond, and Mr. Moore, be a committee for that purpose.
The bill for establishing Courts of Judicature, and regulating the practice therein, brought in by the committee, and read by Mr. Todd, passed the first time,-Ordered to be referred for second reading, etc.
The bill for establishing and regulating a militia, brought in by the com- mittee, and read by Mr. Floyd,-Ordered to be read by the Clerk. Read by the Clerk, -Passed the first time .- Ordered to be referred for second reading.
The bill for preserving game, brought in by the committee, ordered to be read by the Clerk,-Read and passed the first time,-Ordered to be referred for second reading. Ordered, that the convention be adjourned until to- morrow, 6 o'clock.
May 26th. Met according to adjournment,-Mr. Robert McAfee appointed Sergeant at Arms.
Ordered, that the Sergeant at Arms bring John Guess before this convention, for to answer for an insult offered Colonel Richard Callaway.
The bill for regulating a militia, read the second time and ordered to be engrossed.
'The bill for establishing Courts of Judicature and regulating the practice therein : read second time,-Ordered to be recommitted, and that Mr. Dand- ridge, Mr. Todd, Mr. Henderson, and Mr. Callaway be a committee to take it into consideration.
On motion of Mr. Todd, leave is given to bring in an attachment bill,- Ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Dandridge, and Mr. Douglass, be a committee for that purpose.
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The bill for establishing writs of attachment, read by the Clerk and passed the first time,-Ordered to be referred for second reading.
On motion of Mr. Dandridge, leave is given to bring in a bill to ascertain Clerk's and Sheriff's fees. The said bill was read and passed the first time,- Ordered to be referred for the second reading.
On motion made by Mr. Todd, ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Lythe, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Hite, be a committee to draw up a compact between the proprietors and the people of this colony.
On motion of Mr. Lythe, leave is given to bring in a bill to prevent profane swearing and sabbath breaking-Read the same by the Clerk,-Ordered, that it be recommitted, and that Mr. Lythe, Mr. Todd, and Mr. Harrod, be a committee to make amendments, etc.
Mr. Guess was brought before the convention and reprimanded by the Chairman.
Ordered, that Mr. Todd and Mr. Harrod wait on the proprietors to know what name for this colony would be agreeable. Mr. Todd and Mr. Harrod reported, that it was their pleasure that it should be called Transylvania.
The bill for ascertaining Clerk's and Sheriff's fees read the second time- passed and ordered to be engrossed.
The attachment bill read the second time and ordered to be engrossed. A bill for preserving game, read the second time and passed,-Ordered to be re- committed, and that Mr. Todd, Mr. Boone, and Mr. Harrod be a committee to take it into consideration.
The militia bill, read the third time and passed. On motion of Mr. Todd, leave is given to bring in a bill for the punishment of criminals,-Ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Dandridge, and Mr. Lythe, be a committee for that purpose.
The bill for establishing Courts of Judicature and regulating the practice therein, read second time and ordered to be engrossed.
On motion of Mr. Boone, leave is given to bring in a bill for improving the breed of horses,-Ordered that Mr. Boone, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Hammond, bring in a bill for that purpose.
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The bill for ascertaining Clerk's and Sheriff's fees, read the third time and passed. The bill for establishing writs of attachment, read the third time and passed.
On motion, ordered, that Mr. Todd have leave to absent himself from this house.
The bill for punishment of criminals, brought in by the committee, read by the Clerk, passed the first time and ordered to be considered, etc.
The bill for establishing Courts of Judicature and regulating the practice therein, read the third time with amendments and passed.
The bill for improving the breed of horses, brought in by Captain Boone, read the first time-passed and ordered to be referred for consideration, etc. Ordered, that the convention adjourn till to-morrow, 6 o'clock.
Met according to adjournment.
The bill to prevent profane swearing and sabbath breaking, read the second time with amendments,-Ordered to be engrossed.
The bill for the punishment of criminals brought in and read-passed the second time,-Ordered to be engrossed.
The bill for the improvement of the breed of horses, read the second time, passed and ordered to be engrossed.
Ordered, that Mr. Harrod, Mr. Boone, and Mr. Cocke wait on the pro- prietors, and beg that they will not indulge any person whatever, in granting them lands on the present terms, unless they comply with the former propo- sals of settling the country, etc.
On motion of Squire Boone, leave is given to bring in a bill to preserve the range,-Ordered that he have leave to bring in a bill for that purpose.
The following message received from the proprietors, as follows, to-wit :
To give every possible satisfaction to the good people, your constituents, we desire to exhibit our title deed from the Aborigines and first owners of the soil in Transylvania, and hope you will cause an entry to be made of the exhibition in your journal, including the corners and abutments of the lands or country contained therein, so that the boundaries of our colony may be fully known and kept on record. RICHARD HENDERSON.
'I'ransylvania, 27th May, 1775.
Ordered, that Mr. Todd, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Hite inform the proprietors that their request will be complied with; in consequence of which, Colonel Henderson personally attended the convention, with John Farrow, attorney in fact for the head warriors or chiefs of the Cherokee Indians, who, in pre- sence of the convention, made livery and seizin of all the lands in a deed of feoffment, then produced and bearing date the seventeenth day of March last, 1775.
To which Colonel Henderson, in behalf of himself and company, produced his deed, which is bounded and abutted as follows, viz : Beginning at the Ohio river at the mouth of the Kentucky, Chenoa, or what by the English is called Louisa river; from thence running up the said river and the most north- erly branch of the head spring thereof ; thence a southeast course to the top ridge of Powell's mountain ; thence westwardly along the ridge of Powell's mountain unto a point from which a northwest course will strike or hit the head spring or the most southwardly branch of Cumberland river ; thence down the said river, including all its waters, to the Ohio river ; thence up the said river to the beginning.
A bill for preserving the range, brought in by the committee, was read- passed the first time,-Ordered to be laid by for a second consideration.
The bill to prevent profane swearing and sabbath breaking, read the third time and passed.
Ordered, that Mr. Callaway and Mr. Cocke wait on the proprietors, with the laws that have passed, for their perusal and approbation.
The committee appointed to draw up the compact between the proprietors and the people, brought in and read it, as follows, viz :
WHEREAS, it is highly necessary for the peace of the proprietors, and the security of the people of this colony, that the powers of the one and the liberties of the other be ascertained, -- We, Richard Henderson, Nathaniel
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Hart, and John Luttrell, on behalf of ourselves as well as the other pro- prietors of the colony of Transylvania, of the one part, and the representa- - tives of the people of said colony, in convention assembled, of the other part, do most solemnly enter into the following contract and agreement-to wit : Ist. That the election of delegates in this colony, be annual.
2d. That the convention may adjourn and meet again on their own ad- journment ; provided, that in cases of great emergency the proprietors may call together the delegates before the time adjourned to, and if a majority does not attend, they may dissolve them and call a new one.
3d. That to prevent dissension and delay of business, one proprietor shall act for the whole, or some one delegated by them for that purpose, who shall always reside in the colony.
4th. That there be perfect religious freedom and general toleration-Pro- vided, that the propagators of any doctrine or tenets, evidently tending to the subversion of our laws, shall for such conduct be amenable to, and punished by the civil courts.
5th. That the judges of the superior or supreme courts be appointed by the proprietors, but be supported by the people, and to them be answerable for their mal-conduct.
6th. That the quit-rents never exceed two shillings sterling per 100 acres.
7th. That the proprietors appoint a sheriff, who shall be one of three per- sons recommended by the court.
8th. That the judges of the superior courts have, without fee or reward, the appointment of the clerks of this colony.
9th. That the judges of the inferior courts be recommended by the people, and approved of by the proprietors, and by them commissioned.
10th. That all other civil and military officers be within the appointment of the proprietors.
11th. That the office of Surveyor General belong to no person interested or a partner in this purchase.
12th. That the legislative authority, after the strength and maturity of the colony will permit, consist of three branches, to wit : the delegates or repre- sentatives chosen by the people ; a council not exceeding twelve men, possessed of landed estate, who reside in the colony ; and the proprietors.
13th. That nothing with respect to the number of delegates from any town or settlement, shall hereafter be drawn into precedent, but that the number of representatives shall be ascertained by law, when the state of the colony will admit of amendment.
14th. That the land office be always open.
15th. That commissions without profit be granted without fee.
16th. That the fees and salaries of all officers appointed by the proprietors, be settled and regulated by the laws of the country.
17th. That the convention have the sole power of raising and appropriating all public moneys, and electing their treasurer.
18th. That, for a short time, till the state of the colony will permit to fix some place of holding the convention which shall be permanent, the place of meeting shall be agreed upon between the proprietors and the convention.
To the faithful, and religious, and perpetual observance of all and every of the above articles, the said proprietors, on behalf of themselves as well as those absent, and the chairman of the convention on behalf of them and their constituents, have hercunto interchangeably set their hands and affixed their seals, the twenty-seventh day of May, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. RICHARD HENDERSON. [Seal. ]
NATHANIEL HART. Seal.]
JOHN LUTTRELL. [Seal.]
THOMAS SLAUGHTER, Chairman. [Seal. ]
A bill for improving the breed of horses, read the third time and passed.
The bill for the punishment of criminals, read the third time and passed.
The bill to preserve the range, read the second time and ordered to be en-
ยท grossed.
Ordered, that Mr. Lythe wait on Colonel Henderson and the rest of the
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proprietors, with the bill for establishing Courts of Judicature, and regulating the practice therein.
The bill to preserve the range, read the third time and passed.
Ordered, that Colonel Callaway wait on the proprietors with the bill for preserving the range.
Ordered, that a fair copy of the several bills passed into laws, be trans- mitted to every settlement in this colony that is represented.
Ordered, that the delegates of Boonesborough be a committee to see that the bills that are passed be transcribed in a fair hand, into a book for that purpose.
Ordered, that the proprietors be waited on by the Chairman, acquainting them that all the bills are ready for signing.
The following bills, this day passed and signed by the proprietors, on be- half of themselves and partners, and the Chairman of the convention, on be- half of himself and the other delegates :
Ist. An act for establishing Courts of Judicature, and regulating the practice therein.
2d. An act for regulating a militia.
3d. An act for the punishment of criminals.
4th. An act to prevent profane swearing and sabbath breaking.
5th. An act for writs of attachment.
6th. An act for ascertaining clerks' and sheriffs' fees.
7th. An act to preserve the range.
8th. An act for improving the breed of horses.
9th. An act for preserving game.
All the above-mentioned acts were signed by the Chairman and proprietors, except the act for ascertaining clerks' and sheriffs' fees, which was omitted by the clerk not giving it in with the rest.
Ordered, that at the next meeting of Delegates, if any member be absent, and doth not attend, that the people choose one to serve in the room of such absent member.
Ordered, that the convention be adjourned until the first Thursday in September next, then to meet at Boonesborough.
MATTHEW JOUETT, Clerk.
History of the Colony of Transylvania-continued .- Col. Daniel Boone's com- pany of 21 men, increased to 30 by the addition of Capt. Twetty's company of 9, at Watauga, it has already been seen, reached within about 15 miles of Boonesborough, when they were attacked by Indians. (For further account of the temporary fort erected there for defense, see a few pages ahead.) On reaching the southerly bank of the Kentucky river, 1} miles below the mouth of Otter creek, on the evening of April 1st, 1775, reduced to 25 in number, they began the erection of another small fort, which Col. Henderson called Fort Boone, when he reached the spot on the 20th of April and found it still unfinished. "Two or three days' work would have made it tolerably safe;"* but from the day that Capt. Win. Cocke arrived with encouraging news from Col. Henderson's party it was totally neglected. It was still unfinished on the 12th of June, " notwithstanding the repeated applications of Capt. Boone, and every representation of danger from the proprietors." The company of Col. Henderson, with that of Capt. John Luttrell which had preceded him a few days, had increased the number of guns-a familiar way of reckoning the men fit for military duty-to about 65. Others came, until 80 men were at Boonesborough ; but this was the maximum for 1775. By the middle of June, the number had run down to 50, and was steadily declining. Some unpleasantness occurred or was manifested among the proprietors :* "Our plantations extend near two miles in length, on the river and up Otter creek. . Should any successful attack be made on us by the Indians, Capt. Nathaniel Hart, I suppose, will be able to render sufficient reasons to the surviving company for withdrawing from our camp, and refusing to join in
* Col. Richard Henderson's letter to the Proprietors, from Boonesborough, June 12, 1775.
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building a fort for our mutual defense. . Our men, under various pre- tenses, are every day leaving us."
Before Daniel Boone and his co-workers in opening the road which to this day is proudly pointed out as Boone's Trace, reached the Kentucky river, other daring adventurers and settlers-following in the wake of the two com- panies of Isaac Hite and Col. James Harrod, who in 1774 erected and par- celed out the " lottery cabins," on the waters of Dick's and Salt rivers, and of Shawnee Run-had already come into the same region, in such numbers as to be called the Harrodsburg, Boiling Spring, and St. Asaph's " settlements." Of these several companies, some had already made a clearing and built a cabin, arranged with others to plant corn for them, and reached Cumberland Gap on their return home. Col. Henderson met 40 of them, on April 8, 1775, at a point 4 miles west of Cumberland Gap-all eagerly pressing towards the settlements, and away from the bloody scenes just enacted in their rear in now Madison county. Only one could be prevailed upon to venture back to the land of danger and of promise. Eight days later, April 16, they met James McAfee at the head of a company of 18, also returning; and of that number, Robert and Samuel McAfee were persuaded to go back to Boone's fort with them. In addition to these 58, Col. Henderson's journal (ante) mentions a company of 32 from Virginia, under Col. John Floyd-who were already on Dick's river, in April. His letter of June 12th speaks of 40 more whom he met, in the same month, going back to Virginia; and adds that there were still about 60 or 70 in now Mercer county, 19 in now Harrison county, besides a surveying party of 13 in now Fayette county. This presents a total of 230 men already at various points in Kentucky-in advance of the organ- ized Transylvania Colony movement, which accomplished so much towards the permanent possession of the "Kentucky country."
In the long struggle between liberty and despotism, more or less modified- a struggle coeval almost with the creation of man-the world has scarcely presented so thorough a condition of personal freedom as that enjoyed by the pioneer hunters of Kentucky. Art could make no palace so grand as their home. Physical nature had no real want which the forest did not sup- ply. The purest air of heaven combined with the high exercise of the chase to produce the most perfect bodily health. Sickness was the greatest stranger in early Kentucky. Death from natural causes was so remarkable, that "on one occasion when a young man was taken sick and died, after the usual manner of nature, the women in the fort sat up all night, gazing upon him as an object of beauty."* Wherever the pioneer went, his hands obtained him all that was necessary to existence. The forest furnished him more than he could eat ; he had but to put forth his hand and call it his own. The skins that enwrapped his food became his own clothing. The canopy of heaven was his roof; the ground, that brought forth so abundantly, if he chose to till it, was his bed. Wherever it pleased him to remove, his house was ready for him. If the land were not his own, he made it so by clearing a spot, and carving his name upon a tree as the record of his ownership; he planted a few seed, and went away ; he returned, and gathered his crops. His life was one of constant danger, scarcely one of toil ; one of an ever-fresh excite- ment, that he loved despite the danger. It would be strange, then-when for two years he had taken up the land and laid it down at pleasure-had sur- veyed where and as many acres as he chose, and none gainsaid his right and ownership-if now the new-made claim of Henderson & Co. to be pro- prietors of all the land should be either promptly or at all conceded. Those who came with Col. Hendersou, or before him at his instance, were tempted and employed by the promise of lands purchased of the Indians-whose ownership the pioneers had felt was much like their own, attaching to them personally where they went and while they staid. They who were already in the land, who had spied it out and were reveling in its luxuries, would be " hail fellows, well met," with the lordly Transylvanians ; but so far acknowl- edge their superior rights as pay them tribute, NEVER ! They would help them open the country, combine with them for defense, counsel with them for the
* Ex-Gov. Morehead's Boonesborough address, May 25, 1840, page 143.
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common safety and common good, meet them for any purpose upon equal terms; but submit to them as lords of the soil, entitled to an annual quit-rent, NEVER !! They found Kentucky free soil, and with their blood would help to keep it free. A common government, an equal representative government, they would help to establish and maintain ; the air they breathed was too free and too pure, and the surroundings of their homes too inspiriting and grand, to teach them the virtue of a proprietary government. They united in a protest and petition, addressed "To the Honorable the Convention of Virginia," in which appear the following sentences-which showed they were willing to submit to what they regarded as the right, but prompt to repel and resent the wrong :
The Petition of the inhabitants, and some of the intended settlers, of that part of North America now denominated Transylvania, humbly showeth :
WHEREAS some of your petitioners became adventurers in that country from the advantageous reports of their friends who first explored it ; and others since, allured by the specious show of the easy terms on which the land was to be purchased from those who style themselves proprietors, have, at a great expense and many hardships, settled there, under the faith of holding the lands by an indefeasible title, which those gentlemen assured themn they were capable of making.
But your petitioners have been greatly alarmed at the late conduct of those gentlemen, in advancing the price of the purchase money from twenty shil- lings to fifty shillings sterling per hundred acres. At the same time they have increased the fees of entry and surveying to a most exorbitant rate ; and, by the short period prefixed for taking up the lands, even on those ex- travagant terms, they plainly evince their intention of rising in their demands as the settlers increase or their insatiable avarice shall dictate.
And your petitioners have been more justly alarmed at such unaccount- able and arbitrary proceedings, as they have lately learned-from a copy of the deed made by the Six Nations with Sir William Johnson, and the com- missioners from this colony, at Fort Stanwix, in the year 1768-that the said lands were included in the cession or grant of all that tract which lies on the south side of the river Ohio, beginning at the mouth of Cherokee or Ho- gohege river, and extending up the said river to Kettaning. And, as in the preamble of the said deed, the said confederate Indians declare the Cherokee river to be their true boundary with the southard Indians, your petitioners may, with great reason, doubt the validity of the purchase that those pro- prietors have made of the Cherokees-the only title they set up to the lands for which they demand such extravagant sums from your petitioners, without any other assurance for holding them than their own deed and warrantee- a poor security, as your petitioners humbly apprehend, for the money that, among other new and unreasonable regulations, these proprietors insist should be paid down on the delivery of the deed.
And, as we have the greatest reason to presume that his majesty, to whom the lands were deeded by the Six Nations for a valuable consideration, will vindicate his title, and think himself at liberty to grant them to such persons and on such terms as he pleases, your petitioners would, in consequence thereof, be turned out of possession, or be obliged to purchase their lands and improvements on such terms as the new grantee or proprietor might think fit to impose ; so that we can not help regarding the demand of Mr. Henderson and his company as highly unjust and impolitic, in the infant state of the settlement, as well as greatly injurious to your petitioners, who would cheer- fully have paid the consideration at first stipulated by the company, when- ever their grant had been confirmed by the crown, or otherwise authenticated by the supreme legislature.
And, as we are anxious to concur in every respect with our brethren of the united Colonies, for our just rights and privileges, as far as our infant set- tlement and remote situation will admit of, we humbly expect and implore to be taken under the protection of the honorable Convention of the Colony of Virginia, of which we can not help thinking ourselves still a part, and request your kind interposition in our behalf, that we may not suffer under the rig-
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orous demands and impositions of the gentlemen styling themselves proprie- tors, who, the better to effect their oppressive designs, have given them the color of a law, enacted by a score of men, artfully picked from the few adventurers who went to see the country last summer, overawed by the pres- ence of Mr. Henderson.
And that you would take such measures as your honors in your wisdom shall judge most expedient for restoring peace and harmony to our divided settlement; or, if your honors apprehend that our case comes more properly before the honorable the General Congress, that you would in your goodness recommend the same to your worthy delegates, to espouse it as the cause of the Colony. And your petitioners, etc .*
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