USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 31
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228
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
that if not rescued in the course of the day, when night came on and the Indians had fallen asleep, she would deliver herself and children by killing as many of the Indians as she could, thinking, in a night attack, as many of them that remained would most probably run off. Such an attempt would now seem a species of madness; but to those who were acquainted with Mrs. Daviess little doubt was entertained that, if the attempt had been made, it would have proven successful.
The boy who had been scalped was greatly disfigured, as the hair never after grew upon that part of his head. He often wished for an opportunity to avenge himself upon the Indians for the injury he had received. Unfor- tunately for himself, ten years afterward the Indians came to the neighbor- hood of his father and stole a number of horses. Himself and a party of men went in pursuit of them, and, after following them for some days, the Indians, finding that they were likely to be overtaken, placed themselves in ambush, and when their pursuers came up killed young Daviess and one. other man; so that he ultimately fell into their hands when about twenty-one years old.
The next year after, the father died, his death being caused, as it was supposed, by the extraordinary efforts he made to release his family from the Indians. An act of courage subsequently displayed by Mrs. Daviess is calculated to exhibit her character in its true point of view.
Kentucky, in its early days, like most new countries, was occasionally troubled by men of abandoned character, who lived by stealing the property of others, and, after committing their depredations, retired to their hiding- places, thereby eluding the operation of the law. One of these marauders, a man of desperate character, who had committed extensive thefts from Mr. Daviess, as well as from his neighbors, was pursued by Daviess and a party whose property he had taken, in order to bring him to justice. While the party were in pursuit. the suspected individual, not knowing any one was pursuing him, came to the house of Daviess armed with a gun and toma- hawk, no person being at home but Mrs. Daviess and her children. After he had stepped in the house, Mrs. Daviess asked him if he would drink something, and, having set a bottle of whisky on the table, requested him to help himself. The fellow, not suspecting any danger, set his gun up by the door, and, while drinking, Mrs. Daviess picked up his rifle, and, placing herself in the door, had the gun cocked and leveled upon him by the time he turned around, and in a peremptory manner ordered him to take a seat or she would shoot him. Struck with terror and alarm, he asked what he had done. She told him he had stolen her husband's property, and that she intended to take care of him herself. In that condition she held him a prisoner until the party of men returned and took him into their pos- session. 1 Those were days in which even the women and children were taught to be fearless in self-protection.
1 Collins, Vol. II., p. 471.
229
EPIC AGE OF KENTUCKY HISTORY.
Sallust says: "The actions of the Athenians doubtless were great, yet I believe they are somewhat less than fame would have us conceive them." Not so with the pioneers of Kentucky. But we may say of their exploits, as this author says of the actions of the Romans, "History has left a thou- sand of their more brilliant actions unrecorded, which would have done them great honor, but for want of eloquent historians." Of those actions and events which are of record, we are obliged to omit from the pages of this history many of thrilling interest, the relation of which is better suited to other annals, and the recital of which here might not only enlarge the volume beyond proper dimensions, but surfeit the reader with too much of the repulsive horrors of strife and carnage. Enough is told of adventure, of romance, and of heroism, to make of the pioneer age of Kentucky an epic as inspiring and enchanting as any of ancient times, if only received through the illusive glamours of tradition, and recited to us in the enchanting verse of an Odyssey or an Æneid.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
CHAPTER XVIII.
(1783-85.)
End of the Revolutionary war.
The news four months coming.
Subsidence of Indian hostilities. Rage for lands.
France and Spain intrigue to absorb Kentucky in the negotiations.
Jealous of the expansion of the United States territory to the Mississippi.
Congress and Dr. Franklin compromised by the arts of French diplomacy.
Minister John Jay has the sagacity and firmness to resist and defeat these intrigues at Madrid and Paris.
He wins over the English plenipoten- tiary.
Speed's letter.
New court established in Kentucky dis- trict.
Court located at Danville.
Emigration largely increased.
Industry and thrift prevail.
Broadhead's store, at Louisville, the first in Kentucky.
Paine's disciples introduce communism.
Reception of one at Lexington.
Judge Harry Innes on the bench.
Stations increased in Shelby county.
Life and services of Bland Ballard, the noted scout and Indian fighter.
Indians kill his father and several others of his family, whom he defends.
Battle of the Boards.
Colonel John Floyd killed.
Destructiveness of life by Indian war- fare in Kentucky.
Fight between the wild cat and school- master.
Delay of treaty of peace until 1784.
Criminations and retaliations between England and the States.
England retains the North-west forts, to the great prejudice of Kentucky.
Revenges and marauding on the front- iers provoke petty hostilities.
Settlements north- of Licking, in Mason county, resumed.
Kenton visits his old home and father.
Kenton's station at Washington, and Waller's at Maysville.
Virginia cedes all her North-west terri- tory, nearly one hundred and seventy million acres, to the United States.
No compensation for this vast treasure of domain.
Subsequent cruelty and ingratitude of the Federal Government to Virginia.
Blaine's censure of the wrong.
Symptoms of hostilities by the Southern tribes.
Meeting called by Colonel Logan to consider public affairs.
It opens up the question of separation from Virginia.
A convention of elected representatives ealled at Danville to consider.
A second convention meets in May.
A third, in August, 1785, finally acts.
Nelson county created of part of Jeffer- son.
Address of the convention to the people. Memorial to the Virginia Legislature.
No newspaper or printing-press.
Copies of the address posted in manu- script.
General James Wilkinson prominent.
Colonel Robert Johnson at Great Cross- ings.
Incident in the removal of Rev. Eastin to Bourbon county.
Generosity of an Indian.
Attack on the parents and comrades of Judge Rowan, then but ten years oldl.
Desperate adventure of three men in pursuit of Indian raiders to Tennessee.
231
PEACE REIGNS SUPREME.
Captain James Ward's boat attacked.
Elliott killed at Carrollton.
McClure's camp assailed.
Capture and rescue of Mrs. McClure and one child.
Moore's party attacked and nine of them killed.
Captain Whitley's pursuit.
Colonel Thomas Marshall warned by Simon Girty's brother.
Simon Girty's cruel malice to the whites. The wrongs done him that made him a renegade.
Their costly consequences to the whites.
The white-winged angel of peace hovered near, and gave a silvery lining to the somber clouds of war that had overshadowed the whole land for long years, as the closing days of the old passed away, and the birth throes of a better era ushered in the new year of 1783. The preliminary articles of peace between the United States and Great Britain were signed on the 30th of November, 1782 : but the welcome intelligence was not received in Ken- tucky until nearly four months later, in the spring of next year. 1 No more striking commentary could be written. expressive of the marvelous contrast between the slow processes by which knowledge was transmitted and dif- fused throughout the habitable world a century ago, and the electric and phonetic agencies by which a flashing spark or a fleeting sound is made now to blend in the unit of thought, the annihilation of time and distance. The achievement of American independence and the liberation of man to the free exercise of volition, of thought. and of action-the divinely-given heritage and right of manhood-were but the dawning of that modern new age of intellectual activity. invention, and enterprise which has revolution- ized the life of civilization, and so suddenly made possible the miracles of human conception and mechanism which have been born into the world almost with the mystery of revelation.
The winter passed away in comparative quiet and immunity from Indian disturbances. The expedition of Clark in the autumn had paralyzed the power of the Miami tribes by destroying their property, which it would take the entire year to restore, even though they might have had the disposition for further hostilities. These savages were well apprised of the prospective treaty of peace, for which they knew negotiations to be pending. The effect was to hold them in suspense, for it was impossible to determine the conse- quences to themselves until the full terms were known. The tomahawk remained in the belt and the scalping-knife in the sheath, for the time. No event could be more opportune for the views and occupations of the people of Kentucky, than the confirmation of the gospel of great joy which the news of peace brought to their hearts and homes. They were wearied of war. and longed for that peace which would return them to their homes and families in security, and permit them to build their fortunes amid the abundance which unsparing nature had lavished upon this favorite land. The land- hunger, hitherto a strong and prevalent passion, but somewhat restrained by the demands and diversions of military defense, was now destined to become
: Marshall, Vol. I., p. 155.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
a consuming appetite with the great masses who were seeking homes or speculation in the famed westward Eden. What unforeseen and unhappy incidents intervened to cause a renewal of hostilities by the Indians, and to partially disappoint the hopes of the pioneers, when chronicled in due time, will become philosophy teaching by example, and furnish lessons of wisdom to the statesmanship of the future that seeks to profit by the experience of history.
It is not the province of this history to dilate upon those matters which affect the policy and diplomacy of the nation and of Europe, further than as these may be an essential part of Kentucky history also. We have before alluded to the fact that the destiny and disposal of the territory of Kentucky, in the ultimate adjudication of boundaries and jurisdictions in the now pend- ing treaty negotiations between England, France, Spain, and the United States, formed the pivotal point on which would turn the questions as to whether the Alleghanies should limit the western boundaries of the United States, should Spain and France found colonial empires of all territories south of the Ohio and west of the Mississippi rivers. The fate of the conti- nent lay in the balance.
Spain held an indefinite extent of territory on either side of the Missis- sippi river, and was covetous for more. France had ceded much to England, but possessed islands in the seas interested in the commerce and navigation of the river. Both nations were connected by nature and by compact, and, although both had aided the United States in the war of independence, each saw with jealous eye the territorial claim of the latter extended by chartered grant and by conquest to the banks of the Mississippi. The assistance these two kingly powers rendered was known to be prompted more by hatred of England, than by love for the Americans. It was not disinterested; and the day for the consideration of indemnity was one of postponement, not of doubt. This is but a part of the international code. more commercial than humanitarian. It was a wise stroke of policy for them to dismember from England so powerful an arm of power as her growing American colonies promised to be; but it was not their design, or their desire, that these sep- arated colonies should confederate into a grand unit of government, that would absorb and overpower their own vast possessions on the Western Con- tinent. The delimitation of boundaries must be controlled by the finesse of diplomacy, and under the dictations and arts of Paris and Madrid.
France assumed the lead. as most active and enterprising in the cabinet and in the field. Besides, her rivalry in commerce and manufactures made it an object to control the markets of the new world. as far as practicable. The first step was taken by Count Lucerne, French ambassador at Philadel- phia, in conformity with instructions from Vergennes. French minister of state. These adroit diplomats had before, with only too much success, urged upon Congress to instruct the American minister at Paris : 1 First-
& Pitkin, Vol. II., p. 92.
233
MINISTER JOHN JAY'S FIRMNESS.
That the United States extend westward no farther than settlements were permitted by the English proclamation of 1763; Second-That they con- sider that they have no right to navigate the Mississippi, no territory belonging to them being situated thereon; Third-That the settlements east of the Mississippi, embracing Kentucky and all territory south of it, which fall under the last prohibition, are possessions of the crown of Great Britain, and proper objects against which the arms of Spain may be employed for con- quests for the Spanish crown. Before this time also, on motion of the delegates from Virginia, and assented to by the delegates from other States, except North Carolina, Congress had instructed Minister John Jay, at Madrid, " no longer to insist on the free navigation of the Mississippi below the southern boundary of the United States." 1
Already had the flatteries of Vergennes. and the blandishments of Paris- ian society, won over to the advocacy of this humiliating concession, Dr. Franklin, the American representative at the French court. 2 Count Lu- cerne had persuaded Congress, in a time of despondency or of credulous confidence, to instruct its commissioners at Paris "to undertake nothing in the negotiations for peace or truce, without the knowledge and concurrence of the king of France, and ultimately to govern yourselves by his advice and opinion." 3
This mistaken concession, fortunately for Kentucky, and for the inde- pendence and honor of the States, was not acquiesced in by all of the American plenipotentiaries whose duty it was to negotiate for an honorable peace with Great Britain. French intrigues had formed this controlling party in our Congress, and Dr. Franklin, of the three commissioners, had been won over at Paris. Thus were the instruments prepared and the ma- chinery put in motion, which were to stifle the new-born independence of the United States in the cradle of French intrigue and flattery, and to limit the boundaries of their territory at the will and pleasure of the French mon- arch. + At the critical moment, Commissioner John Jay had the sagacity, the firmness. and the personal independence to ignore the instructions of Congress, and to resist the plot of French intrigue, as he had that of the court of Spain. The elder Adams coincided in the views of Jay, and finally Franklin acquiesced. Jay unfolded to the British minister the designs of France and Spain, and convinced him that the limitation of the boundaries and jurisdiction of the United States, insisted on by them, was intended to enhance the power of these great rivals, and to give them ultimate suprem- acy on the western continent. This view induced the English commissioners much more readily, to concede the entire territorial claim of Great Britain south of the lakes, and to the Mississippi river, an unconditional independ- ence. But for these opposing incidents to subtle intrigue, Kentucky might have been a French or a Spanish province. On such slight circumstances
1 Jay's Life, Vol. I., p. 120.
2 Marshall, Vol. I., p. 156.
3 Pitkin, Vol. II., p. 109.
+ Marshall, Vol. I., p. 157.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
often hangs the fate of nations. In the processes of time, French and Span- ish rule would have doubtless been extirpated by Anglo-American aggression ; but the present Federal unit might have been prevented.
1 To show the uneasy and dangerous sentiment pervading the people at this time, we quote from a letter of James Speed, of Lincoln county, to Governor Harrison, of Virginia, of July 22, 1784:
"Many of the inhabitants of this place are not natives of Virginia, nor well affected to this government. These are sowing sedition among the people as fast as they can, which I fear will have too great an effect so long as we are so pent up in forts and stations, notwithstanding the attorney-gen- eral (Daniel) has taken every step in his power to suppress them.
"I fear the faction will increase, and ere long we shall revolt from gov- ernment, in order to try if we can govern ourselves, which, in my opinion, will be from bad to worse. I hope your Excellency will endeavor to im- prove the present good disposition of the savages toward us, and have a peace concluded as soon as possible."
In March, the Legislature of Virginia directed an improvement of the judiciary in this distant section, uniting the three counties into one district, with a court of common law and chancery jurisdiction co-extensive with its limits, and possessed of criminal jurisdiction. 2 John Floyd and Samuel McDowell were the first judges. These appointed John May clerk. Walker Daniel was commissioned, by the governor of Virginia, attorney-general for the district of Kentucky. The former division into the three counties of Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln, had sunk the name of Kentucky. The cre- ation of the judicial district revived it, never more to go out.
The court was to meet at Harrodstown; but there was no suitable house in which to hold its sessions, and it adjourned to a meeting-house near Dutch station, six miles distant. The attorney-general and clerk were directed to select some safe place near Crow's station, on or near the site of Danville, to hold the court; to have constructed a log-house large enough to accom- modate the court in one end, and two juries in the other; and to contract for building a jail of hewed logs at least nine inches thick. These structures so characteristic of the homely economy and simplicity of the times, as well as the poverty of mechanic arts, gave origin to the attractive town of Dan- ville, so noted for the beauty and fertility of the country around it, and for the hospitable virtues and elegant culture of its people. On condition that such buildings were erected at a convenient place, without expense to the court or State, the judges pledged that they would remove to and occupy the same; and in case they should abandon the use of such buildings at any time, they promised to reimburse the outlay for the same, from the funds allowed for the support of the court, or induce the Legislature to do so. Here the court continued to hold its sessions until the separation from Vir- ginia, when it was abolished.
I Virginia Calendar, Vol. III.
2 Marshall, Vol. I., p. 159.
235
FIRST STORE IN KENTUCKY.
The obstacles to emigration were this year mainly removed, and the inducements increased. Many soldiers of the Revolution, when discharged, having but few ties or attachments for localities, turned their eyes toward the country beyond the mountains, where the lands were fertile and cheap, and where there seemed the fairest prospects of building up from the ruins of wasted years and wasted fortunes. Society soon began to assume the conventional forms and customs of older communities ; while the generous soil, with liberty and peace, soon spread cheerful content and even pros- perity over the country. The fields smiled with abundant crops, the cattle and hogs multiplied and grew fat upon the nutritious pastures and the rich nuts of the forest; while the industrious housewives plied the hand-cards, the spinning-wheel, and loom. Emigrants and traders brought in some money, which, with supplies from other sources, fully met the simple wants of a people who had nearly all they cared for that money could buy. Me- chanics, divines, and school-masters came in to fill up the picture. The crops and industries began to be more varied. Wheat and rye were added to the grain supplies, while mills and distilleries were erected to consume the sur- plus products.
1 Daniel Broadhead, an enterprising business man of Louisville, this year made purchases of merchandise at Philadelphia, which was transported across the mountains, in wagons, to Pittsburgh, and thence in boats to Louis- ville; thus establishing the first store in Kentucky for the sale of foreign goods. For the first time, the belles adorned their persons in calico, and the beaux with wool hats.
There were no serious invasions or raids by the Indians, and new settle- ments sprang up, not now as the compulsory result of military enterprise, but rather of civil employment to lay the foundations of happy homes. Such were the consequences of suspended hostilities and anticipated peace. How striking and how desirable, in contrast to a state of war! Yet, in the present state of partially-refined sentiment, defensive wars are held to be just, and to be met with patriotic valor; while wars of aggression merit the execration of mankind as unjust, cruel, and destructive to the victims, and debasing and brutalizing to the authors.
2 A singular instance illustrative of the times, and worthy of mention, occurred this year. Thomas Paine, the notorious blasphemer of God and defamer of men, wrote a book to ridicule and to expose to contempt the chartered right of Virginia to the country west of the Alleghanies, by twisting the terms "west and north-west," found in the charter, like a cork- screw, around the North pole, to use his own language, and to persuade Congress to assume the possession and sovereignty of the same. Possessed of marked brilliancy as a writer, but of a morbidly cynical and morose spirit, Paine excelled in this species of authorship. Though an atheistic monstrosity. he found admirers and disciples among a class of men who had
I Marshall, Vol. I., p. 161.
: Marshall, Vol, I., p. 162.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
as little regard for divine or human authority as himself. Of this lawless class, two men of Pennsylvania, having imbibed the doctrine and spirit of this book, came to Kentucky to propagate their communism, and to ap- propriate their neighbors' property. Pomeroy went to Louisville, where he became obscured from view. Galloway chose Lexington as his freld, and in due time obtained an audience and made some disciples. Several of these he persuaded to enter on the adjacent lands of neighbors, to claim an equal right to possession and use, and to begin improvements, expecting to hold under an act of Congress soon to be promulgated. The people had been before annoyed with mischievous attempts to unsettle their land titles.
The procedure was assuming a rather serious phase, and some pro- tective measures were deemed essential. A justice of the peace was applied to for a warrant. There was some doubt as to any law for a case so novel. But finally, an old Virginia law was found, which imposed a fine in tobacco, at the discretion of the court, upon " the propagators of false news, to the disturbance of the good people of the colony." This was enough. The warrant was issued, and Galloway was brought up for examination, and the facts easily proved on him. He had said that the Virginia title "was no better than an oak leaf," which had disturbed the minds and peace of many. He was sent up for regular trial, and the affair had now gained enough noto- riety to bring in quite a crowded audience. The fellow could make little defense, as his obnoxious teachings had led to several cases of trespass and depredation. He was adjudged a culprit, and fined one thousand pounds of tobacco, which, being unable to pay, he must lie in prison. His distress was very great, and finally it was intimated to him that, if he would leave the country, he might be released and given the opportunity. He most readily agreed to this, and was allowed to disappear without further inquiry.
The other disciple, who made his appearance at Louisville, fared yet worse than Galloway, at Lexington. In the court records for May 7, 1784, the following entry appears :
"George Pomeroy being brought before the court, charged with having . been guilty of a breach of the act of amnesty, entitled 'Divulgers of false news,' on examining sundry witnesses, and the said Pomeroy being heard on his defense, the court is of the opinion that the said George Pome- roy is guilty of a breach of the said law; and it is, therefore, ordered that he be fined two thousand pounds of tobacco for the same. And it is further ordered that the said Pomeroy give good security for his good behavior. himself in one thousand pounds sterling, with two securities at five hundred pounds sterling, and pay costs, etc."
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