USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 39
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2 In May, 1788, a flat-boat load of kettles were being carried from Louis- ville, by the mouth of Salt river, up to Bullitt's Lick, near the site of Shep- herdsville. The owners, Henry Crist and Solomon Spears, with Christian Crepps, Thomas Floyd, Joseph Boyce, Evans Moore, Mr. Fossett and five other men, and one woman, thirteen in all, composed the crew. Discover- ing Indian signs on the banks of Salt river, they kept a scout ahead of the boat. About dusk, when not far below the mouth of Rolling Fork, they heard the gobbling of turkeys, as they supposed. Two of the party sprang ashore to kill the game, and were fired on by Indians who had decoyed them with the imitative sound. In another moment they were seen running to the boat, pursued by a large body of savages. The crew promptly seized their guns and delivered a volley into the advancing enemy, and with deadly effect. The river was at flood height; and the boat, chained to a tree, stood out from the bank. Fossett and his companion plunged in and swam to the boat, the former with a broken arm, both holding their guns. The Indians proved to be a large party, ten to one of the whites, and had been watching the little crew. So sanguine were they of their prey, that they rushed to the water's edge, and some even tried to draw the boat to the shore. The fatal rifles of the whites slew them on the shore and in the water, until they were driven back to cover behind the trees. The battle waged with mutual destruction. Though the kettles were ranked up as a breastwork on the sides of the flat, the boat was fastened by a chain that held its bow to the shore, and exposed the crew to a raking fire. They were being exterminated, and must loose the chain, or all perish. Fossett, a lion- hearted Irishman, with an arm broken, could not use his rifle well; but with his other arm, seized a pole and. in full view of the savages, worked at the hook until it was unfastened, and the boat floated out into the stream.
: Collins, Vol. 11., p. 644.
2 Collins, Vol. II., p. 102.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Crist and Crepps stood over him, keeping the Indians treed, while the re- lease was made. The disaster to the crew was caused by this fatal fasten- ing of the boat.
The battle had lasted an hour. Six brave men lay dead or dying in the gangway ; Floyd, Fossett, and Boyer badly wounded; and Crist, Crepps, and Moore unhurt. The boat gradually neared the southern side of the river. On looking above, they saw some fifty of the enemy crossing the river to intercept them, some on logs and some swimming. With a large body of Indians on both sides of the stream, escape of- the boat was now impossible. Spears, lying fatally wounded, had begged that the boat, when loosed, be carried immediately to the other shore, and all escape who could ; which was then feasible. The survivors resolutely refused to abandon the wounded. The boat soon touched the southern bank, and the three wounded helped ashore, and to concealment in the brush. Crist, Crepps, and Moore now returned to assist the woman; but no entreaty could move her. The fright had so paralyzed her faculties, that she sat dazed and insensible to all around, with her face buried in her hands.
The Indians, having gained the south side, were seen rushing toward the boat, yelling like bloodhounds. The three surviving combatants charged the savages with a shout, on which they fell back to a ravine. The former pushed on to the forest in the hope of escape, when, as they passed, the savages rallied from the ravine and fired on them. Crepps received a ball in his left side, and Crist one through his foot, crushing the bones, while Moore escaped, and bore the tidings to the Lick of the catastrophe. Crepps was found and brought in, but died a few hours after.
Crist hobbled on the next day to the vicinity of Long Lick, when, sick- ened and faint, he laid down to die. Over the rocks and roots and thorns, his other foot gave out, and he could not walk. He bound his moccasins on his knees, and crawled. The second night out, he came in sight of an Indian camp-fire, and aroused the barking of a dog. Several red men arose up to look around, when he crept back to the bushes, and continued his slow journey. At night, managing to roll a log into the river, he crossed over on it, and resumed his journey. He knew he was some eight miles from Bul- litt's Lick, which he wished now to reach. He could crawl a quarter or half a mile an hour. His moccasins wore out. Next his hat, his hunting shirt, and vest were consumed, as sandals for the knees and hands.
On the night of the third day, worn with hunger, want of sleep, acute pain, and raging thirst, he came in the neighborhood of the salt-works. But nature was once more exhausted, and he laid himself down again to die, and in sight of the many fires burning under the salt kettles in the distance. After a weary night, morning came, and with it the sound of horses' hoofs. He called out to the rider, but, to his dismay, the sounds went clattering away toward the Lick. It proved to be a negro, who, alarmed at the cry, had dashed away to the salt camp, with a report of Indians near. On close
297
NEW METHOD OF INDIAN WARFARE.
questioning, and on supposition that it might be some one escaped from the boat's crew, a party went in search, and found the despairing sufferer. A long year passed before Crist was well of his injuries.
The woman in the boat was carried a prisoner to Canada. Ten years after, Crist met her again in Kentucky, she having been ransomed by an Indian trader and brought into General Wayne's camp on the Maumee, and restored to her friends. She informed Crist that the body of Indians who made the attack on the boat numbered over one hundred and twenty, and that thirty of them were killed in the engagement. This statement was con- firmed to Crist by Indians whom he met afterward, and who had been in the battle.
Crist described Crepps as a tall, fair-haired, handsome man, and, al- though of kindly spirit, brave and daring in every danger. While a gentle- man in every bearing, he was possessed of all those striking qualities that made up the heroic manhood of pioneer life in Kentucky. He characterized him as the lion of the desperate combat in which he received his death wound. Crepps left a young wife and son. A posthumous daughter was born to her, who in years became the wife of Hon. Charles A. Wickliffe, afterward governor of Kentucky, and postmaster-general under President Tyler, besides holding several other important official positions, and whose son, Hon. J. Crepps Wickliffe, was United States attorney for the district of Kentucky, by appointment of President Cleveland.
Indian raids, with spoliations and massacres, were too numerous through- out the district to attempt to encumber the narrative of history with more than a moiety. Crab Orchard, Floyd's Fork, Drennon's Lick, Great Cross- ings, Blue Licks, Kenton's station, Hardin's settlement, and countless other places had been subjected to these ever-recurring and intolerable outrages.
They began a new method of warfare, which, for a time, was very har- assing. Capturing a flat-boat on the Ohio, they manned and fortified it, and learned how to manage it. With this, they captured several family and trading-boats on the river, massacred those on board, and carried off their goods. Thus besetting the great avenue of ingress, they spread new alarm beyond the State limits to those desiring to emigrate, as well as among those near the Ohio.
Of the many captures on the river, Spaulding, in his "Early Sketches of Catholic Missions in Kentucky," gives an intensely-interesting account of that of John Lancaster and several comrades, at the mouth of Miami. They were carried off to a village seventy miles back, and very rudely treated for a time. Finally, Lancaster was adopted into an Indian family and treated as one of them, until he happened to be left in the care of an- other Indian. in the absence of his foster brother, who became very threat- ening and brutal. In fear of his life being taken, Lancaster made his escape, and, though pursued, with a pack of dogs on his trail, he managed to reach the Ohio river, make a raft of logs tied together with bark, and float down,
298
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
by night, to Louisville. But we must not now dwell further on these recitals of carnage and cruelty.
Before the close of 1788, another tempter came to pay court .to the maid- enly young doweress of the West. Dr. Connolly, the same whose British loyalty cost him the confiscation of two thousand acres of land on the site of Louisville, appeared in Lexington, professedly to ascertain the possibility of recovering his lost estate. He was direct from Quebec, and accompanied by Colonel Campbell, of Louisville. They called on Colonel Thomas Mar- shall and Judge Muter, and afterward on General Wilkinson. The doctor was authorized to say, in confidence, that Great Britain stood ready to guarantee the same protection to Kentucky as to Canada, if she would ally herself in any way with the empire, and that the navigation of the Missis- sippi would be secured to her. To enforce this assurance, there were four thousand British troops in Canada ready to be sent down the Mississippi to capture New Orleans, if need be. A rumor got out in the community that a British spy was in town, and very strong indications of summary violence were manifested. Meeting with a cold reception from Marshall, Wilkinson, and others whom he had approached, and learning the state of public feel- ing, Connolly was extricated by being privately conveyed to Maysville, on his return to Canada. The intense resentment toward England for her con- tinued incitement of the Indians to murder and pillage the settlers was such, that an agent, on such a mission, was really in imminent danger of per- sonal violence. His views and plans were but partially exposed.
This year the site of Cincinnati was first surveyed and laid out for a city. Matthias Denman purchased of Judge Symmes nearly eight hundred acres of land, lying opposite the mouth of Licking, for five hundred dollars in continental money. He resold two-thirds to John Filson and Colonel Rob- ert Patterson. who. with a party of fifteen, came down from Limestone and surveyed and staked it off in lots, and gave it the name of Losantiville. Filson, who was the first historian of pioneer Kentucky, venturing too far from camp, was killed by Indians.
The Legislature of Virginia created the counties of Mason and Wood- ford, and chartered the towns of Maysville, Danville, and Hopewell, now Paris, this year.
-
299
EVENTS OF THE PERIOD FROM 1790 TO 1795.
CHAPTER XX.
(1790-95.)
Population in 1790.
Ninth convention accepts the fourth act of the Virginia Assembly.
Fixes the Ist of June, 1792, to enter the Union.
On county-court days, in December, del- egates to be elected to frame a constitu- tion.
Constitutional convention to meet first Monday in April.
Indian hostilities continue.
Loyalty of Kentucky to the Union.
Convention meets.
McDowell president.
George Nicholas' prominence.
Constitution formed.
Comments.
Indian raids at many points.
General Scott destroys their crops and towns in Ohio.
British yet retain the forts and incite Indian hostilities.
Harmar's defeat. Local military board appointed.
Scott's and Wilkinson's expeditions to the Wabash.
Successful results.
Captain Hubbell's desperate boat fight.
May's disaster.
Captain Marshall's escape.
Raid on Elkhorn, near Frankfort.
Other raids. St. Clair in command.
Protest of Western men.
Colonel Oldham commands the Ken- tucky troops.
Campaign and defeat of St. Clair.
Wilkinson made colonel in the regular army. Isaac Shelby first governor. Other first State officials. Contentions over the capital site.
Legislature organizes the judiciary de- partment.
Wages and values of the day,
Scarcity of specie.
Repulse of Major Adair.
Murder of Hardin and Truman.
False philanthropy excuses the Indian atrocities.
Policy of partialism to the Indian. Injury to him and the whites.
President Washington orders a treaty council.
A historian's comment.
Indians refuse to treat.
General Wayne in command of the West.
Scott joins him with one thousand Ken- tuckians.
Sparks from the French revolution kin- dle Jacobin fires in America.
Burn furiously in Kentucky.
Societies formed.
The people suspicious of centralism,
Resolution of the Lexington club.
Pledge to support France evaded.
French emissaries enter Kentucky with
commissions for citizens, to enlist two thou- sand men to capture New Orleans. Clark chief commandant.
Governor Shelby's position.
Secretary Randolph's letter. Genet's triumphal tone.
His insolence.
His recall.
Intense sentiment universal.
The collapse.
Governor Shelby.
General Wayne's campaign renewed,
Confidence of Kentuckians in him.
Battle and victory. British insolence.
Kentuckians anxious to attack the fort.
300
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Treaties with the Indians.
Whitley's exploits.
Last Indian raids.
Big Joe Logston's fight. Chapman's station.
Last incursion in Mason county.
The population of Kentucky in 1790 was sixty-one thousand one hun- dred and thirty-three whites, twelve thousand four hundred and thirty slaves, and one hundred and fourteen free blacks, a total of seventy-three thousand six hundred and seventy-seven. On account of the rude treatment and neglect by the Government, and the indifference to the results, no vote was cast in the district of Kentucky in January, 1789, for electors for president and vice-president, the first national election. The third act of separation was passed by Virginia, with clauses very objectionable to the people of Ken- tucky. These required of the latter the payment of a portion of the do- mestic debt of Virginia, after they had defended the frontiers at their own cost, and also that both the continental and State soldiers of Virginia should locate their lands under warrants in Kentucky.
' In July, 1789, the eighth convention met at Danville, and rejected these conditions, and memorialized the Legislature to abolish them. In Decem- ber, this memorial was complied with, and the objectionable provisions expunged by a fourth act of separation on the part of Virginia. This lat- ter act required a new convention to assemble on the 26th of July, 1700. to determine their wishes for separation; and added the conditions that Con- gress should release Virginia, prior to the Ist of November, 1791, from all her Federal obligations, arising from the district; that the proposed State shall, on the day after separation, be admitted into the Union, and that such day of admission be after the Ist of November, 1791. On July 26, 1790, the ninth convention-elect met at Danville, and accepted the modified terms of the last act of the General Assembly, and fixed on the Ist day of June, 1792. when Kentucky should become a State separate from, and independent of, the government of Virginia. Afterward, an address to the Legislature was adopted, and also a memorial to President Washington, praying Congress and the president to sanction the proceedings, and expressing a feeling of admiration and loyalty for the form of government established. Finally. it was resolved that, on the respective court days of the several counties, in December, 1791, delegates be elected, who should, on the first Monday in April, 1792, meet in convention at Danville, and there frame a constitution for the anticipated Commonwealth, and a proper code of laws, to remain in force until substituted by subsequent legislation.
In February, 1791, Congress, in session, passed the act to admit Ken- tucky as one of the States of the Union, to have effect on the Ist of June, 1792. All obstacles being now removed for the free action and expression of the people of Kentucky. they proceeded in December, 1791, to elect delegates who, on the 3d day of April, 1792, met and proceeded to adopt
I Marshall, Vol. I., p. 360.
301
LOYALTY OF KENTUCKY.
the first constitution of the Commonwealth, to be recognized on the Ist day of June.
Thus, from the first meetings in 1784, to consider the necessity of form- ing an independent State government for their own protection and man- agement of home affairs, until the admission into the Union eight years after, the people of Kentucky were subjected to the torturing and irritating necessity of appointing or electing delegates for assemblage in ten successive conventions, were embarrassed by the sectional jealousies of the North- eastern States for a natural affiliation with the Union, and hampered and delayed by the restrictive legislation of Virginia. During this period, the Indians, both on the north and the south, unremittingly pursued their raid- ing practices, murdering men, women. and children, with all the atrocities of their savage natures, stealing and destroying property, and harassing the settlements in every conceivable way, while Kentucky was left to her own defense. In the most gloomy period of these inauspicious surroundings, the temptations of Spanish intrigue, with the alternative of independent gov- ernment, and the full right to use all her forces for defense, came to the peo- ple. The love of order and of the institutions of liberty were deeply grounded in the hearts of the pioneers; and this love gave patience and endurance through all this ordeal of trials, of discouragements, and of temptations-a test of the loyalty of Kentucky, severer than the citizens of any other State have experienced. To quote from McClung, that eloquent historian: "It is impossible not to be struck with the love of order, the respect for law, and the passionate 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 im- becility ; 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 lead- ing statesmen, repulsed in every way to obtain constitutional independence, they yet clung with invincible affection to their Government, and turned a deaf ear to * the syren voice which offered them the richest gifts of fortune to stray from the # fold in which they had been nurtured. The spectacle was beautiful and touching. ing, as it was novel in the history of the world."
On the assembling of the constitutional convention, Samuel McDowell, who had been president of the nine conventions which had charge of the question of the separation of
SAMUEL M DOWELL.
302
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Kentucky from Virginia, was again elected president. The constitution was, perhaps, as nearly in accord with that of the Federal instrument as that of any other State, by the advantage of subsequent adjustment. It aban- doned the features of the parent State, so far as representation by counties was concerned, and established numbers as the basis. The executive, the Senate, and the judiciary, were removed from direct control of the people. · The governor and senators were chosen by electors, who were elected by the people every four years. The judges were by executive appointment, and held during good behavior. The Supreme Court had original and final jurisdiction in all land causes, a provision which proved of mischievous and dire woe after.
The comments of Marshall, in his history, on the first experiment at organic law in the Commonwealth, are very interesting, as presenting the views of a learned contemporary, and one who was an acknowledged leader in the Federal party, or, as they were better known in the popular and pro- vincial style of the day, the Country party. The distinguished author was learned in the law of statesmanship, as expounded through the Federalist, in the masterly and able essays of Hamilton, Jay, Madison, and others. With the excesses of the French revolution, and other erraticisms of un- disciplined democracy, fresh in memory, it is not to be wondered at that a powerful element of conservatism looked with apprehension to the con- cession of too much power to the people. With the traditions and policies of the old era, and the partial demonstrations of the experiments of the new, for guidance, it was not unreasonable that many statesmen of the day should seek a remedy against the abuses of popular suffrage, in measures of limitation and restriction thrown around the electors, rather than to have turned to the wiser and better remedy of to-day, of qualifying universal suffrage by universal education. It was not so well understood then, as now, that popular suffrage, once conceded, never yields or compromises its powers and franchises, but, with insatiable instinct, continues to demand, until the last barriers are broken down, and civil rights are made equal to all. Modern statesmanship admits no alternative; the people must be edu- cated and qualified for self-government is the canonized doctrine of to-day.
1 The contemporary historian says :
" It is to be observed that antecedent to the formation of the Constitution. an immense mass of information had been presented to the public mind in newspaper essays, and in books, on political subjects. While, in addition to these, may be mentioned the Constitutions of the States, as storehouses or fountains of information. from which to draw constitutional provisions.
"Excepting, however, the provisions for forming the senate, and the original jurisdiction given to the court of appeals, the Constitution of Ken- tucky resembling in its general arrangements that of the United States, and in its details those of the several States, is, in reality, the genuine offspring of
I Marshall, Vol. I., p 414
3º3
CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY.
the local circumstances and habitual modes of thinking and acting, common to a majority of the people of the country at the time-the result of prin- ciples, inculcated and imbibed in the Revolution. brought with the emigrants, and here cherished and propagated, from the first to the last settlement. It was made for present use rather than futurity ; for the then condition of the country, more than for one materially different, which was to ensue in the course of progressive population and change of circumstances ; in short, it was the result of feeling, not of foresight-of prepossession, rather than a full knowledge of the subject. It was a representative democracy, instead of a real republic, as all governments should be. It contained, neverthe- less, most of the essential principles and material parts of a good constitu. tion, but defective in some. In others, ill-assorted, and the checks inade- quate.
"The constitution of 1792 exhibits plenary evidence of a compromise, if not of a contest ; and the mode of forming the Senate, and of electing the governor, was an attempt to check and control the downright and broad democracy avowed in the equality of all men, and reduced to practice in the equal right of suffrage, throughout all the primary elections. That such was the design of the contrivance is manifest, as well on inspecting its feat- ures, as from the resistance it met with after its proposed operation was ascertained, and which terminated only in its dissolution by that democracy, which abolished any compromise that might have been made.
" Take from the first Constitution of Kentucky the mode of electing militia company officers, the mode of electing sheriffs and coroners, and the original jurisdiction of the court of appeals, and render the electors of the governor and senators eligible by citizens having the fee-simple estate in one hundred acres of land, and upward, on which one family at least, should reside ; and it may be put in competition with any constitution in America, without the hazard of a blush, and with a challenge of equal merit ; it would, in reality, be excellent.
"Take it as it is, with the exception of the original jurisdiction of the appellate court, and it may be held up to the world as the delineation of a constitution nearly perfect and truly republican in its apparent features. Its design is obviously to embrace both extremes of the heterogeneous mass of human beings who compose the great community which it was to gov- ern, and from whom were to be drawn by election such individuals as were to exercise the powers of government ; while the deficiency lies in the sub- stratum of the Senate."
In 1790, Indian massacres, incendiarisms, and pillages were reported at Lee's creek ; on Hanging Fork of Dick's river ; in Kennedy's bottom. where the settlers were all driven out; on the Ohio, on John May's boat, where the crew were killed or taken prisoners; on three boats near the mouth of the Scioto; on Beargrass; at Big Bone Lick; at Baker's station; on a boat near Three Islands, in the Ohio, and at mat y other points. These aggres-
304
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
sions called for retaliatory punishment. General Scott, with two hundred and thirty volunteers, crossed the Ohio at Limestone, and was joined by General Harmar, with one hundred United States regulars, and all marched for the Scioto towns. The Indians avoided any general engagement, and retreated. Some of them were killed, and their property destroyed.
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