USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky : from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 11
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But so much did Governor Shelby sympathize with the French movement, that, when the legis- lature of the state assembled in November, he neither alluded in his message to the enterprise,
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SHELBY'S CONNIVANCE.
then well known to be on foot, nor did he issue any proclamation admonishing the people from joining it.
This inclination of Shelby to promote the French cause, by refraining from taking any ac- tive measures in opposition to it, did not escape the penetration of the French agents. Depeau had the audacity to write to him, avowing himself authorized by Genet to procure provisions for the expedition, and asking him whether it was his intention to arrest such as joined in it.
In reply to Depeau, and with a view of cau- tioning the French emissaries not to violate the laws too openly, Shelby enclosed a copy of the instructions sent him by the secretary of state, and ended his letter by a half-regretful avowal that his situation compelled him to pay attention to it.
On the 6th of January, General Wayne, find- ing that the Governor of Kentucky had taken no steps to prevent volunteers from enlisting in the service of France, addressed him a letter, ad- vising him that the cavalry stationed between Georgetown and Lexington had been directed to act in obedience to his orders, in the event of his having any occasion for their services; and if that force should be found insufficient, a larger one would not be withheld.
What reply Shelby made is not known; but on the 13th of the same month, he wrote to the
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
secretary of state, acknowledging his having re- ceived information that Clark had accepted a commission to raise a body of men, but that he had not, so far as he was aware, taken any steps to do so. A little further on, the governor adds : "I have great doubts, even if Clark and the French agents attempt to carry this plan into execution-provided they manage the business with prudence-whether there is any legal au- thority 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. It is also lawful for them to carry with them any quantity of provisions, arms, and ammunition. And if the act is lawful in itself, there is nothing but the particular intention with which it is done that can possibly make it unlawful.
" I know of no law which inflicts a punishment on intention only, or any criterion by which to decide what would be sufficient evidence of that intention : even if it was a proper subject of legal censure.
" I shall, upon all occasions, be averse to the exercise of any power which I do not consider myself clearly and explicitly invested with ; much less would I assume power to exercise it against men whom I consider friends and brethren, in favour of a man whom I view as an enemy and a tyrant.
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GOVERNMENT MEASURES.
" I shall also feel but little inclination to take an active part in punishing or restraining my fellow-citizens for a supposed intention only-to gratify, or remove the fears of the minister of a prince who openly withholds from us an invalua- ble right ; and who secretly instigates against us a most savage and cruel enemy."
After this letter, there could be no possibility of mistaking the position of Governor Shelby. It was very evident that the movement met with his hearty concurrence, and it is not at all im- probable, that if the old veteran had been free of his official station, he would have joined the ex- pedition in person.
Shelby was a man who entertained strong pre- judices. He was attached to the French people for the efficient aid they had rendered the coun- try during the Revolutionary struggle. He hated the British and the Spaniards ; and he desired, beyond all other things, a free navigation of the Mississippi.
The letter of Shelby was no sooner received by the general government, than Edmund Ran- dolph, then secretary of state, replied to it, point- ing out the errors into which the governor had fallen, and explaining the duties he seemed so well disposed to neglect ; while Washington or- dered General Wayne to occupy Fort Massac with artillery, and to take such other steps as might be necessary to arrest the expedition.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Genet still persevered in his schemes ; placed himself in direct opposition to the government of the United States, and, supported by the nume- rous democratic societies which had spread by this time over all parts of the Union, became both popular and insolent.
Unable any longer to endure the repeated attacks by which the administration was assailed, a cabinet council was held at Philadelphia, to consider what should be done.,
After reading over Genet's correspondence, it was unanimously agreed to send a copy of the whole, with a full statement of Genet's conduct, to Gouverneur Morris, to be laid before the exe- cutive council of France, with a letter request- ing the recall of the obnoxious ambassador.
Washington, who had hitherto refrained through motives of delicacy from interfering in the affairs of Kentucky, otherwise than through the executive of the state, now determined to appeal to the good sense and patriotism of the great body of the people.
By a proclamation dated the 24th of March, 1794, he informed them of the illegality of the project set on foot by French agents, and warned ~ them of the danger of embarking in it.
The proclamation effected a considerable change in the sentiments of many who had previously been led to suppose that the enterprise was un- dertaken with the consent and by the connivance
187
GENET RECALLED.
of the President of the United States. Several influential persons immediately threw up their commissions ; while those who still desperately adhered to the cause felt themselves placed in a position of considerable embarrassment.
The activity of the democratic societies within the state still continued without abatement. Every means was resorted to for the purpose of inflaming the popular mind, the favorite topic being the navigation of the Mississippi, which they alleged was withheld from Kentucky because of the jealousy of the eastern states.
In the spring of 1794, a general meeting of the people was held in Lexington, and resolutions adopted, inviting the citizens of the different counties to elect delegates to a convention whose object was not strictly defined, but which looked in the old direction of separation.
Just at this time, however, the intelligence came that Genet had been recalled ; that his acts were disavowed by the French government, and all his proceedings disapproved.
The French agents, Lachaise and Depeau, immediately lost caste in the estimation of their former friends. Clark, stripped of his magnifi- cent title, retired to private life, and the project, which had caused so much alarm to the general government, fell through, never to be revived again.
Citizen Genet, learring that the government
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
of the French Republic had been wrested from the hands of those from whom he had received his appointment, did not venture to return to his own country, but consoled himself for the change by marrying an American lady, and settling in New York. 2.
CHAPTER XIV.
Commissioners sent to the Indians to treat for peace-Refusal of the savages to treat-The army under Wayne Fort Greenville built-St. Clair's battle-ground reoccupied-Fort Recovery built-Wayne joined by the Kentucky volunteers -Commences his march-Indian villages abandoned-Builds Forts Adams and Defiance-Intelligence of the Indians-A flag sent to them-Their answer-Fort Deposit built-The enemy discovered-Battle of Fallen Timbers-Defeat of the Indians-Wayne encamps near the British fort-Altercation with Major Campbell-Conduct of the Kentuckians-Fort Wayne built-Treaty with the Indians-Feeling in Ken- tucky-Marshall elected to the Senate of the United States -Attempt to remove Judges Muter and Sebastian-Courts of quarter sessions and oyer and terminer abolished-Other laws.
IN the mean time, in order to bring the Indians to terms, without the effusion of blood, Washing- ton had despatched commissioners to them em- powered to frame a treaty of peace. Elated by their previous successes over the several armies which had been sent against them, the savages not only refused all pacific overtures, but pre- pared to meet a renewal of hostilities with the utmost confidence.
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WAYNE IN COMMAND.
While this negotiation was pending, the troops under Wayne remained at Fort Washington, where they suffered greatly from an epidemic influenza. When it was known that the com- missioners had failed in effecting a treaty, Wayne marched with his army, and leaving garrisons behind him at the intermediate posts, established himself with twenty-six hundred regulars, in a fortified camp at Greenville, six miles in advance of Fort Jefferson. Wayne had previously made a requisition upon the state of Kentucky for mounted volunteers. The great reluctance of the militia to serve with regulars was soon ob- served by the commander-in-chief, from the tardi- ness with which they responded to his call. On the 20th of September, 1793, Wayne earnestly urged General Charles Scott, commandant of the militia at Georgetown, to advance by the 1st of October with all the force he could collect in the mean time.
On the 28th of September, Governor Shelby ordered a draft from the militia to supply the deficiency of volunteers ; and on the 24th of the following month, Scott, with a force of one thou- sand mounted men, was encamped on a prairie, nearly midway between Fort Jefferson and the head-quarters of General Wayne. The season being too far advanced to render military opera- tions effective, Wayne dismissed the volunteers until the opening of spring, and, building Fort
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Greenville, went into winter-quarters with his regulars.
It was during this enforced suspension of hos- tilities, that Wayne ordered a part of the legion- ary cavalry remaining in Kentucky to obey any call made upon them by Shelby for the suppres- sion of the French expedition against Louisiana. The passive encouragement given to the agents of Genet, by the Governor of Kentucky, prevented the latter from making use of the power thus placed in his hands, but the offer was not the less honourable to the vigilance of Wayne.
The necessity of transporting provisions on pack-horses, through seventy miles of wilderness, rendered the support of the troops at Fort Green- ville very expensive to the general government. It, however, afforded occupation to the army in guarding the supplies by the way, and in keeping open the communication between the various posts which had been established along the line of route.
During the winter several Indian chiefs visited the fort. The first impression created by their appearance was, that the savages were at length disposed to sue for peace ; but those pleasing an- ticipations were soon dissipated. After satisfying their curiosity, and holding with Wayne and his officers several idle talks, they departed as sud- denly as they had come, and without making any proposals.
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WAYNE ADVANCES.
As the winter advanced, Wayne pushed for- ward a strong detachment to build and occupy Fort Recovery, on the site of the battle-field where St. Clair had met with so disastrous a defeat.
In May, 1794, intelligence being received that the British and Indians were posted on the Miami, near the villages at the Rapids, Wayne determined to commence operations as early as possible, and renewed his requisition upon the Governor of Kentucky for additional troops.
The action of Shelby was, in this instance, prompt and efficient; by the middle of July, General Scott had assembled sixteen hundred vo- lunteers. With this force he immediately marched from the rendezvous at Georgetown, for head- quarters.
On the 26th of the month, the first division joined the regular army at Fort Greenville, and without waiting till the remainder of the volun- teers came up, Wayne commenced his march for Fort Recovery.
The Indians had already opened the campaign by a vigorous assault upon Fort Recovery during the latter part of June. After two days' hard fighting, they suffered a repulse ; but were not altogether unsuccessful. They captured three hundred pack-mules, and inflicted a loss of fifty men, upon an escort of one hundred and fifty, which had just guarded a provision train, and lay encamped outside the fort.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
After leaving Fort Recovery, Wayne advanced to St. Mary's, by an unfrequented route, with the view of taking the Indians by surprise ; but on his arrival at the villages he found them abandoned. This was the more mortifying to the general, since, in order to divert the attention of the In- dians from the route he intended to pursue, he had caused two roads to be opened from Green- ville in the direction of St. Mary's; while he marched by the obscure way already mentioned. The treacherous conduct of a volunteer, who, while the army was secretly approaching the In- dian settlement, escaped to the enemy and warned them of their peril, rendered a stratagem en- tirely useless, which, at the outset, offered the most favourable prospects of success.
At this place Wayne built Fort Adams, and at the confluence of the Au-Glaize and the Miami, he erected a strong stockade, which he named Fort Defiance.
On the 12th of August, he learned from several prisoners who had been taken, that the main body of the Indians had retired down the Miami about thirty miles, where they occupied a camp at the foot of the Rapids, and in the vicinity of a new fort recently built by the British.
Having in his camp a man by the name of Miller, who had been a prisoner among the In- dians and understood their language, Wayne determined to send him to them once more with
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WAYNE SENDS AN ENVOY.
pacific overtures. Miller was at first averse to undertaking so dangerous a mission, it being his opinion, from what he had observed, that the Indians were unalterably determined on war, and that they would not only pay no respect to a flag, but would most probably murder the bearer.
Still anxious to make the experiment, Wayne assured Miller that he would hold the prisoners then in his custody as pledges for his safety, and that he might select from among them any num- ber he desired to accompany him. Thus en- couraged, Miller consented to deliver the mes- sage, and took with him one of the men and a squaw. With these attendants he left the camp on the afternoon of the 13th, and at daybreak the next morning reached the tents of the hostile chiefs, without being previously discovered. He immediately displayed his flag, and proclaimed himself a messenger. Instantly, he was assailed on all sides with hideous yells, and the cries, " Kill the runaway !" "Kill the spy !"
Elevating his voice, and speaking to the in- furiated savages in their own tongue, Miller ex- plained to them the purport of his mission. This partially calmed them. He was taken into cus- tody, and permitted to read to them the letter of Wayne. Miller took particular care to lay great stress upon a passage in the letter, which stated that if the Indians did not send the bearer back
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
to him by the 16th of the month, he would at sunset of that day cause every prisoner in his camp to be put to death.
On the 15th Miller was liberated by the In- dians, who replied to the message of Wayne, that if he waited where he was for ten days, they would come and treat with him; but that if he advanced, they would give him battle.
Before the return of his messenger, Wayne had commenced his march. On the 16th Miller met the general-in-chief, and, after delivering the answer which the Indians had sent, expressed his belief, from the constant arrival of small parties, and the manner in which they were painted, that they had already determined on war, and only desired the delay in order to gain time for their reinforcements to join them. Wayne advanced at once.
· On the 18th, when within about seven miles of the British garrison, he halted the army and threw up hastily a fort, which he called Fort De- posit.
On the morning of the 20th, his spies, who had been sent out the day before, returned and re- ported the enemy encamped in a bushy wood, their left flank being protected by the rocky bank of the river. The advance was immediately resumed in the same order as before; the right flank composed of the regulars under Wayne, leaning on the Mi- ami; one brigade of the Kentucky troops, com-
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BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS.
manded by General Todd, occupied the left; while the other, commanded by General Barbee, was placed in the rear as a reserve. A strong de- tachment under Major Price was thrown in ad- vance, to give notice when the enemy were found.
As soon as the Indian fire was heard, the legion was formed in two lines in the midst of a thick wood, the ground being covered with old fallen timber prostrated in some tornado, a posi- tion very favourable to the Indians, since the mounted volunteers could hardly act. The In- dians were in three lines, extending from the river at right angles, and within supporting dis- tance of each other.
As the weight of their fire indicated a disposi- tion to turn the left flank of the legion, Wayne ordered the second line into position on the left of the first. He also directed the mounted volunteers · to attempt to gain the enemy's rear by a circuit- ous route, while Captain Campbell, commanding the cavalry, was instructed to move along the bank of the river, until he had penetrated and passed the Indian left.
The front line of the legion, a short distance in advance, was now ordered forward with arms trailed, to rouse the savages from their coverts, with the bayonet, before firing a shot. When they had succeeded in doing so, they were to de- liver the whole of their fire, and then charge again with the bayonet, without giving the enemy
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
time to reload their pieces. These orders were obeyed with such alacrity, that before the other troops could get into position, the Indians were completely routed. In less than an hour the enemy passed the British fort in full flight, and Wayne halted in full sight of it. The loss of the legion was one hundred and seven men in killed and wounded. Among the former, were Captain Campbell and Lieutenant Towlis. The loss of the Indians was not ascertained, but it was believed not to have exceeded that number.
The corn-fields were ravaged close up to the British fort, and the establishment of McKee, the British Indian agent, was burned with the rest.
General Wayne encamped near the fort for three days. While he continued there, a sharp and angry correspondence took place between himself and Major Campbell, the commander of the British garrison. Campbell inquired by what authority the American general approached so near the British cannon, and insulted his com- mand ? Wayne retorted, by commenting upon the protection tacitly afforded by Campbell to the fugitive Indians, who had taken refuge be- hind his fortifications, and asked, in return, by what authority he had posted a garrison under a foreign flag within the territory of the United States ?
Campbell responded by declining to discuss the question of right. He asserted that he held pos-
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WAYNE AND CAMPBELL.
session of the post by the authority of his Bri- tannic majesty, and expressed his determination to maintain it until ordered to withdraw by his superiors.
The Kentuckians, already exasperated against the British, on acccount of the protection which the latter had for so many years extended to the Indians, sought to increase the difficulty between the two commanders by firing off their rifles within range of the fort-guns, and by offering various other insults to the garrison. The re- spect which both Wayne and Campbell felt for their respective governments-who were at this time endeavouring to adjust by an amicable treaty all matters in controversy-induced both com- manders to stop short of a sanguinary issue to their quarrel.
Wayne fell back to Fort Deposit, which hav- ing improved and strengthened he now named, in scornful contempt of the assumed jurisdiction of Campbell, Fort Defiance. From this place he marched to the main forks of the river, where he built Fort Wayne.
In the mean time, he had sent another flag to the Indians, offering them peace, and inviting them to a friendly council. The chiefs agreed to meet him at Greenville. Leaving garrisons in Fort Defiance and Fort Recovery, Wayne re- turned, and occupied his old winter-quarters.
During this brief campaign of ninety days, he
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
had marched three hundred miles, opening a road as he went along; had gained a victory ; driven the Indians from their principal settlement, and destroyed the provisions upon which the savages had relied for their subsistence during the winter.
The Kentucky volunteers, having suffered con- siderably from sickness, were discharged about the middle of October, and returned to their homes, well pleased with their commander, and better disposed to do justice to the intrepidity of the regulars than they had ever been before.
The success of Wayne went far to obliterate the stigma under which the general government had laboured in consequence of the previous de- feats. The regular troops also gained at length that honourable recognition for courage and in- trepidity which had hitherto been denied them. Upon the Indians, the effect of their sudden and most unexpected defeat at the Rapids was both deep and lasting. Those tribes of the east and south, who had previously been strongly disposed to form an alliance with their northwestern breth- ren, now desired nothing more than to maintain the most pacific relations with the whites. With the hostile Indians a treaty was soon afterward made, which was respected for nearly eighteen years.
In Kentucky, the odium with which the gene- ral government had been so long regarded now yielded to better and more friendly feelings.
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LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.
The federalists, who, being placed under the ban of the democratic associations, had until now been scarcely able to obtain even a decent show of respect, with the decline of French and Spa- nish intrigues, grew gradually into favour ; so much so indeed, that during the following winter, Humphrey Marshall, one of the leaders of that party, was elected to the senate of the United States, over his talented republican competitor, John Breckenridge.
At the meeting of the legislature, an attempt was made to remove two of the judges of the Su- preme Court, for having given an illegal decision in an important law-suit, which, if the judgment had not been speedily reversed and reprobated, would have seriously affected the tenure of lands in the state. The resolution being with difficulty carried at all, and the constitution requiring con- curring majorities of two-thirds in each house to sustain an address, the effort to remove Judges Muter and Sebastian failed. At the next spring term, however, Muter joined the dissentient judge, Wallace; the former decree was set aside, and the decision reversed.
By an act of this legislature, the courts of quarter sessions and the court of oyer and ter- miner were abolished, and the district courts established in their places. Original jurisdiction in land cases was also taken away from the Supreme Court, and conferred upon the district courts.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
Another singular act was also passed at this ses- sion, which made it obligatory upon every white male over sixteen years of age to kill a certain number of squirrels and crows annually.
CHAPTER XV.
Retrospective-Joe Logston-His character-Leaves the fort in search of cattle-Is fired on by two Indians-His horse killed under him-Wounds one Indian severely-Is attacked by the other-Both combatants disarmed-A fearful trial of strength and activity-Kills his antagonist-Returns to the fort-Is disbelieved-A search instituted-The story con- firmed-An example of savage heroism- The Nickajack ex- pedition-The people of Tennessee call upon Kentucky for assistance-Colonel Whitley marches with one hundred men -Forms a junction with Colonel Orr-Is appointed to com- mand the troops-Surprise of the Nickajack towns-A second expedition organized-The result-Anecdote of Whitley- Proceeds to the southern towns to recover some negroes- Conduct of a half-breed-Friendship of Otter Lifter-His character-Biography of Whitley-His death.
BEFORE taking leave of the eventful year 1794, it may perhaps be as well to take up the minor incidents connected with it, and which, although presenting themselves in the form of episodes to the general narrative, exhibit the hardy character of the Kentucky borderers, and the energy and resolution by which they were distinguished.
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