USA > Kentucky > Historical sketches of Kentucky : embracing its history, antiquities, and natural curiosities, geographical, statistical, and geological descriptions with anecdotes of pioneer life, and more than one hundred biographical sketches of distinguished pioneers, soldiers, statesmen, jurists, lawyers, divines, etc. > Part 6
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In the meantime the legislature of Virginia assembled, and, having received information of the refusal of Congress to act upon the application of Kentucky for admission, they passed a third act, requiring the election, in Kentucky, of a seventh con- vention, to assemble at Danville, in July 1789, and go over the whole ground anew. They gave this convention ample powers to provide for the formation of a State government. Two new conditions were inserted in this act, which gave serious dissatis- faction to Kentucky; but, upon complaint being made, they were readily repealed, and need not be further noticed. In other re- spects, the act was identical with its predecessors. An English agent, from Canada, during this winter, visited Kentucky, and called upon Colonel Marshall, and afterwards upon Wilkinson. His object seems to have been to sound the temper of Kentucky, and ascertain how far she would be willing to unite with Canada, in any contingency which might arise. The people, believing him to be a British spy, as he undoubtedly was, gave certain indications, which caused him to leave the country, with equal secrecy and dispatch.
In the meantime the people quietly elected delegates to the seventh convention, as prescribed in the third act of separation, which, in July, 1789, assembled in Danville. Their first act was to draw up a respectful memorial to the legislature of Virginia, remonstrating against the new conditions of separation, which, as we have said, was promptly attended to by Virginia, and the obnoxious conditions repealed by a new act, which required another convention to assemble in 1790. In the meantime the www general government had gone into operation ; General Wash- ington was elected president, and the convention was informed, by the executive of Virginia, that the general government would lose no time in organizing such a regular force as would cifec- tually protect Kentucky from Indian incursions. This had
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become a matter of pressing necessity, for Indian murders had become so frequent, that no part of the country was safe.
The eighth convention assembled in July, 1790, and formally accepted the Virginia act of separation, which thus became a compact, between Kentucky and Virginia. A memorial to the President of the United States and to Congress, was adopted, and an address to Virginia, again praying the good offices of the parent State in procuring their admission into the Union. Pro- vision was then made for the election of a ninth convention, to assemble in April, 1791, and form a State constitution. The convention then adjourned. In December, 1790, President Wash- ington strongly recommended to Congress to admit Kentucky into the Union. On the 4th of February, 1791, an act for that pur- pose had passed both Houses, and received the signature of the President.
We have thus detailed as minutely as our limits would permit, the long, vexatious, and often baffled efforts, of the infant com- munity of the West, to organize a regular government, and obtain admission into the Union. And it is impossible not to be struck with the love of order, the respect for law, and the pas- sionate attachment to their kindred race, beyond the mountains, which characterized this brave and simple race of hunters and farmers. The neglect of the old confederation, arose, no doubt, from its inherent imbecility, but never was parental care more coldly and sparingly administered. Separated by five hundred miles of wilderness, exposed to the intrigues of foreign govern- ments, powerfully tempted by their own leading statesmen, repul- sed in every effort to obtain constitutional independence, they yet clung with invincible affection to their government, and turned a deaf car to the syren voice, which tempted them with the richest gifts of fortune, to stray away from the fold in which they had been nurtured. The spectacle was touching and beau- tiful, as it was novel in the history of the world.
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CHAPTER III.
No sooner was the new federal government organized than its attention was anxiously turned to the exposed condition of the western frontier. A useless effort to obtain peace for Ken- tucky, was quickly followed by a military force such as the west had never seen under the federal government, but which was still utterly inadequate to the wants of the country.
General Harmar, at the head of three hundred and fifty regu- lars, was authorized to call around his standard fifteen hundred militia from Pennsylvania and Virginia. A considerable part of this force rendezvoused at Cincinnati, in September, 1790, and marched in hostile array upon the Miami towns. The result was most disastrous. Two large detachments, composed both of regulars and militia, were successively surprised, and routed with dreadful slaughter. The regulars were absolutely destroyed, and the militia sustained enormous loss. Harmar returned with loss of reputation, and the events of the campaign were such as to impress Kentucky with the belief that regulars were totally unfit for Indian warfare. They zealously endeavored to impress this truth upon the mind of the President, and were not a little discon- tented that he adhered to his own opinion in opposition to theirs.
To satisfy them as much as possible, however, a local board of' war was appointed in Kentucky, composed of General Scott, Shelby, Innis, Logan, and Brown, who were authorized to call out the militia, into the service of the United States, whenever they thought proper, to act in conjunction with regular troops. Under the direction of this board, an expedition of eight hundred mounted men under General Scott, under whom Wilkinson served as second in command, was got up against the north-western tribes. Some skirmishing ensued, some prisoners were taken, and about fifty Indians killed. No loss of any amount was sus- thined by the detachment, but no decisive or permanent impres- sion was made upon the Indians.
Warned, by the disastrous campaign of Harmar, of the neces- sity of employing a greater force, the general government em- ployed two thousand regular troops, composed of cavalry, in- fantry, and artillery, in the ensuing campaign. The command Was given to General St. Clair, the governor of the north-western territory. This gentleman was old and infirm, and had been Very unfortunate in his military career, during the Revolutionary war. He was particularly unpopular in Kentucky, and no volun- teers could be found to serve under him. One thousand Ken- tuckians were drafted, however, and reluctantly compelled to Ferve under a gouty old disciplinarian, whom they disliked. and in conjunction with a regular force, which they regarded as doomed to destruction in Indian warfare. The consequence was
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that desertions of the militia occurred daily, and when the battle day came there were only about two hundred and fifty in camp.
The army left Cincinnati about the Ist of October, and en- camped upon one of the tributaries of the Wabash on the even- ing of the 3d of November. Encumbered by wagons and ar- tillery, their march through the wilderness had been slow and painful. His Kentucky force had dwindled at every step, and about the Ist of November a whole regiment deserted. The general detached a regiment of regulars after them, to protect the stores in the rear, and, with the residue of his force, scarcely exceeding one thousand men, continued his march to the encamp- ment upon the tributary of the Wabash. Here he was assailed, at daylight, by about twelve hundred Indians, who surrounded his encampment, and, lurking under such cover as the woods af- forded, poured a fire upon his men, more destructive than the annals of Indian warfare had yet witnessed. His troops were raw, but his officers were veterans, and strove for three hours, with a bravery which deserved a better fate, to maintain the honor of their arms. Gallant and repeated charges were made with the bayonet, and always with temporary success. But their nimble adversaries, although retreating from the bayonet, still maintained a slaughtering fire upon the regulars, which swept away officers and men by scores in every charge. A re- treat was at length ordered, which quickly became a rout, and a more complete overthrow was never witnessed. The remnant of the troops regained fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles from the battle ground, on the night after the battle, and thence retreated to Cincinnati, in somewhat better order.
This dreadful disaster produced great sensation throughout the United States, and especially in Kentucky. A corps of mounted volunteers assembled with great alacrity, for the purpose of re- lieving St. Clair, who was at first supposed to be besieged in fort Jefferson, but upon the receipt of more correct intelligence, they were disbanded.
In December, 1791, the ninth and last convention was elected, who assenibled at Danville in April following, and formed the first constitution of Kentucky. George Nicholas, who had emi- nently distinguished himself in the Virginia convention which adopted the federal constitution, was elected a member of the Kentucky convention from the county of Mercer, and took an active and leading part in the formation of the first constitution. This constitution totally abandoned the aristocratie features of the parent State, so far as representation by counties was con- cerned, and established numbers as the basis. Sutfrage was uni- versal.'and sheriff's were elected triennially by the people.
But while these departures from the constitution of Virginia dis- played the general predominaner of the democratic principle in Kentucky, there are strong indications that the young statesmen of the west, were disposed to curb the luxuriance of this mighty element, by strong checks. The executive, the senate, and the
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judiciary, were entirely removed from the direct control of the people. The governor was chosen by electors, who were elected is the people for that purpose every fourth year. The mem- bers of the senate were appointed by the same electoral col- lege which chose the president, and might be selected inditle- rently from any part of the State. The judiciary were appointed a- at present, and held their offices during good behavior. The supreme court, however, had original and final jurisdiction in all land cases. This last feature was engrafted upon the constitution, by Colonel Nicholas, and was most expensive and mischievous in practice. The constitution was adopted, and the officers elected, in May, 1792. Isaac Shelby was elected . governor, a brave and plain officer, who had gallantly served in the Revolutionary war, and distinguished himself at Kings' Mountain, and Point Pleasant. Alexander Bullitt was chosen speaker of the senate, and Robert Breckenridge of the house of representatives. The governor met both branches of the legislature in the senate chamber, and personally addressed them in a brief specch, in reply to which they voted an address. James Brown was the first secretary of state, and George Nich- olas the first attorney-general. John Brown and John Edwards (heretofore political opponents,) were elected, by joint ballot, kenators to Congress. They fixed upon Frankfort as the future seat of government, by a process somewhat singular. Twenty- five commissioners were first chosen by general ballot ; then the counties of Mercer and Fayette, the rival competitors for the reat of government, alternately struck five names from the list until the commissioners were reduced to five. These last were empowered to fix upon the capital.
The legislature was busily engaged, during its first session, in organizing the government. The judiciary and the revenue principally engaged their attention. Acts passed, establishing the supreme court, consisting of three judges, county courts, and courts of quarter session, the latter having common law and chancery jurisdiction over five pounds, and a court of over and terminer composed of three judges, having criminal jurisdiction, and sitting twice in the year. Taxes were imposed upon land, cattle, carriages, billiard tables, ordinary licenses and retail stores.
In the meantime Indian depredations were incessant, and General Washington, to the infinite distress of Kentucky, perse- vered in the employment of a regular force, instead of mounted militia, in the north-west. St. Clair was superseded and tiene- tal Wayne became his successor. A regular force, aided by militia, was again to be organized, and a final effort made to crush the hostile tribes. General Wilkinson received a conunis- Fion in the regular service, and joined the army of Wayne. In Preember, 1792, Colonel John Hardin, of Kentucky, who had commanded detachments under Harmar, was sent as a unseen- gor of peace to the hostile tribes, and was murdered by them. Boats were intercepted at every point on the Ohio, from the
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mouth of Kenawha to Louisville, and in some cases their crews murdered. Stations upon the frontiers, were sometimes boldly attacked, and were kept perpetually on the alert. Yet the Pres- ident was compelled, by public opinion, in the east, to make an- other fruitless effort for peace with these enraged tribes, during the pendency of which effort, all hostilities from Kentucky were strictly forbidden. Great dissatisfaction and loud complaints against the mismanagement of government were incessant. In addition to the Indian war, the excise law told with some effect upon the distilleries of Kentucky, and was peculiarly odious. Kentucky had been strongly anti-federal at the origin of the government, and nothing had occurred since to change this origi- nal bias.
Early in the spring of 1793, circumstances occurred which fan- ned the passions of the people into a perfect flame of disaffection. The French Revolution had sounded a tocsin which reverberated throughout the whole civilized world. The worn out despotisms of Europe, after standing aghast for a moment, in doubtful inac- tivity, had awakened at length into ill-concerted combinations against the young republic, and France was engaged in a life and death struggle, against Britain, Spain, Prussia, Austria, and the German principalities. With this war the United States had, strictly, nothing to do, and the best interests of the country clearly required a rigid neutrality ; which President Washington had not only sagacity to see, but firmness to enforce by a proclamation, early in 1793. The passions of the people, however, far outran all consideration of prudence or interest, and displayed them- selves in favor of France, with a frantic enthusiasm which threat- ened perpetually to involve the country in a disastrous war with all the rest of Europe. The terrible energy which the French Republic displayed, against such fearful odds, the haughty crest with which she confronted her enemies, and repelled them from her frontier on every point, presented a spectacle well calculated to dazzle the friends of democracy throughout the world. The horrible atrocities which accompanied these brilliant efforts of courage, were overlooked in the fervor of a passionate sym- pathy, or attributed, in part, to the exaggerations of the British press.
The American people loved France as their ally in the Revo- lution, and now regarded her as a sister republic contending for freedom against banded despots. The sympathy was natural, and sprang from the noblest principles of the heart, but was not on that account, less threatening and disastrous to the future happiness and prosperity of the country. Washington, fully aware of the danger, boldly and firmly strove to restrain the passions of his countrymen from overt acts of hostility to the powers at war with France, and in so doing, brought upon him- self a burst of passion, which put his character to the most severe test. In no part of the world did the French fever blaze more brightly than in Kentucky. Attributing to English perfidy
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in refusing to surrender the western posts, the savage murders, which desolated their frontier, they hated that nation with the snine fierce fervor with which they loved France. The two pas- sions fanned each other, and united with the excise and the Indian war in kindling a spirit of disaffection to the general gov- ernment, which, more than once, assumed a threatening aspect.
Citizen Genet, the ambassador of the French Republic, landed at Charleston in the spring of 1793, and was received with a burst of enthusiasm, which seems completely to have turned his brain. His progress through the country to New York, was like the triumphant march of a Roman conqueror. Treating the President's proclamation of neutrality with contempt, he pro- ceeded openly to arm and equip privateers, and to enlist crews in American ports to cruize against the commerce of England and Spain, as if the United States were openly engaged in the war, as an ally of France. Four French agents were sent by him to Kentucky, with orders to enlist an army of two thousand men, appoint a generalissimo, and descending the Ohio and Mis- sissippi in boats, attack the Spanish settlements at the mouth of the Mississippi, and bring the whole of that country under the dominion of the French republic. The troops and officers were to receive the usual pay of French soldiers, and magnificent donations of land in the conquered provinces.
There was a cool impudence in all this which startled the minds of many, but the great mass were so thoroughly imbued with the French fever, that they embraced the project with ardor, and regarded the firm opposition of Washington with open indig- nation, expressed in the strongest terms. General George Rogers Clark accepted the office of Generalissimo, with the high sounding title of "Major General in the armies of France and Commander in Chief of the French Revolutionary Legions on the Mississippi," and great activity was displayed in enlisting men and officers for the expedition. Upon the first intelligence of this extraordinary project, the President caused Governor Shelby to be informed of it, and explaining to him the mischief which would result to the United States, requested him to warn the citizens against it. The governor replied, that he did not believe that any such project was contemplated in Kentucky, " That her citizens were possessed of too just a sense of the obligations due to the general government to embark in such an enterprise."
In the meantime democratic societies, somewhat in imitation of the terrible Jacobin clubs of France, were established in the east, and rapidly extended to Kentucky. There were established during the summer of 1793, one in Lexington, another in George- town, and a third in Paris. Their spirit was violently anti-fede- ral. The navigation of the Mississippi, the excise, the Indian war, the base truckling to England, the still baser desertion of France, in the hour of her terrible struggle with the leagued des- potism of the old world, became subjects of passionate declama-
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tion in the clubs, and violent invectives in the papers. The pro- tracted negotiation then in progress with Spain, relative to the navigation of the Mississippi, although pressed by the executive, with incessant carnestness, had as yet borne no fruit. The sleep- less jealousy of the west, upon that subject, was perpetually goaded into distrust of the intentions of the general government. It was rumored that their old enemy, Jay, was about to be sent to England, to form an alliance with that hated power, against their beloved France ; and it was insinuated that the old project, of abandoning the navigation of the Mississippi, would be revi- ved the moment that the power in Congress could be obtained. Under the influence of all these circumstances, it would have been difficult to find a part of the United States in which anti- federal passions blazed more fiercely than in Kentucky. The French emissaries found their projeet received with the warmest favor. The free navigation of the Mississippi forever, would be the only direct benefit accruing to Kentucky, but French pay, French rank, and lands ad libitum, were the allurements held out to the private adventurers.
In November, 1793, there was a second communication from the President to the governor. This stated that the Spanish minister, at Washington, had complained of the armament pre- paring in Kentucky, mentioned the names of the Frenchmen engaged in it, of whom Lachaise and Depeau were chief, and earnestly exhorted the governor to suppress the enterprise, by every means in his power, suggesting legal prosecution, and, in case of necessity, a resort to the militia. The governor of the north-western territory (the unfortunate St. Clair), about the same time, communicated to Governor Shelby, that extraordinary preparations seemed to be going on for the enterprise. Two of the French emissaries also wrote to the governor, and we are tempted to give the letter of Depeau in full. Here it is :
" CITIZEN GOVERNOR,
It may appear quite strange to write to you on a subject, in which, although it is of some consequence. With confidence from the French ambassador I have been dispatched with more Frenehmen to join the expedition of the Mississippi. As I am to procure the provision I am happy to communicate to you, what- ever you shall think worthy of my notice, as I hope I have in no way disoblige you ; if I have, I will most willingly ask your pardon. For no body can be more than I am, willing for your prosperity and happiness. As some strange reports has reached my ears that your excellence has positive orders to arrest all citi- zens inclining to our assistance, and as my remembrance know by your conduct, in justice you will satisfy in this uncommon request. Please let me know as I shall not make my supply till your excellence please to honor me with a small answer. I am your well wisher in remaining for the French cause, a true citizen Democrat. CHARLES DEPEAU."
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" Postscript. Please to participate some of these hand bills to that noble society of democrats. I also enclose a paper from Pittsburgh."
The governor replied to citizen Depeau in a grave and formal manner, reciting, at length, the information and instructions he had received from the department of state, and concluding with the remark, that his official position would compel him to pay some attention to them. As to whether he " participated " the handbills to the " noble society of democrats," the voice of his- tory is, unfortunately, silent.
About the same time General Wayne wrote to the Governor, advising him that the regular cavalry, then wintering in Ken- tucky, under the command of Major Winston, would be subject to his orders, and that an additional force should be furnished, if necessary, to repress any illegal expedition from Kentucky. The reply of the governor to the secretary of state, is somewhat curious, and shows that the views of the brave and plain old soldier had become somewhat warped, from their original simpli- city, by the nice distinctions and quibbling subtleties of his legal advisers. The following extracts from his reply are given.
" I have great doubts, even if they (General Clark and the Frenchmen,) attempt to carry this plan into execution, (provided they manage the business 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 this state to leave it, it is equally so for any number of them to do it. It is also lawful for them to carry with thein any quantity of provisions, ammunition and arms. And if the act is lawful in itself, there is nothing but the intention with which it is done which can make it unlawful. But I know of no law which infiets a punishment upon intention only, or any criterion by which to decide what would be sufficient evidence of that inten- tion." Again he says, "Much less would I assume power to exercise it against men whom I consider as friends and brethren, in favor of a man, whom I view as an enemy and a tyrant. I shall also feel but little inclination to take an active part in pun- ishing or restraining my fellow citizens for a supposed intention mily, to gratify or remove the fears of the minister of a prince who openly withholds from us an invaluable right, and who se- cretly instigates against us a most savage and cruel enemy."
These extracts are given as powerfully illustrative of the times. The course of reasoning and passions disclosed in thein, were not peculiar to Governor Shelby, but were shared by a vast majority of the citizens of every class. Upon receiving this answer, the President gave orders to General Wayne to occupy fort Massac with artillery, and to take such other steps as might be necessary to arrest this mad expedition.
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