USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky : from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 13
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Power, in the mean time, visited Wilkinson, who, holding a command in the regular army, was then at Detroit. His ostensible object was to deliver Wilkinson a letter of remonstrance from Governor Carondelet, against the United States taking immediate possession of the posts on the Mississippi. The real purpose of his journey was to sound him upon the Spanish pro- position.
Wilkinson having gone to Michilimackinac, Power waited at Detroit until his return. An interview then took place, of which Power subse- quently gave to Governor Carondelet the follow- ing account :-
" General Wilkinson received me very coolly. During the first conference I had with him, he exclaimed very bitterly, ‹ We are both lost, with- out being able to derive any benefit from your journey.'
" He said the governor had orders from the president to arrest me, and send me to Philadel- phia ; and added, ' that there was no way for me
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
to escape, but by permitting myself to be con- ducted immediately under a guard to the Fort Massac, and from thence to New Madrid. Hav- ing informed him of the proposals of which I was the bearer, he proceeded to tell me that it was a chimerical project; that the inhabitants of the western states, having obtained by treaty all they wanted, would not wish to form any other politi- cal or commercial alliances ; and that they had no motive for separating themselves from the other states of the Union, even if France and Spain should make them the most advantageous offers ; that the fermentation which existed four years back was now appeased."
Wilkinson told him further, that Spain had no course to pursue under present circumstances but to comply fully with the treaty ; which had over- turned all his plans and rendered the labours of ten years useless : that he had destroyed his ciphers, and that his honour did not permit him to hold correspondence with the Spanish govern- ment. He complained of his secret having been divulged, that he had known from the preceding September that Spain did not intend giving up the posts on the Mississippi, but she would be compelled. He added, that when the posts were surrendered, it was probable that he would be made governor of Natchez, and he should then, perhaps, have it in his power to realize his politi- cal projects.
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SPANISH INTRIGUES.
"Mr. Sebastian," continues Power, " held a dif- ferent opinion. He said, if there is a war with Spain, she will have nothing to fear from Ken- tucky, and insinuated that it would be the readiest way for Spain to accomplish a union with the West ; inasmuch as it would coerce Kentucky into taking an open part against the Atlantic states."
Power's own opinion was that only three mo- tives would be able to impel Kentucky to break the confederation of the states. A war with the French republic ; a prohibition to navigate the Mississippi ; and an incapacity on the part of the state to pay its share of the common duties.
The intention of Power had been to return from Detroit by way of Louisville, but Wilkinson induced him to take a route through the unset- tled country of the Miami of the lake, and thence by way of Fort Massac to New Madrid. Wil- kinson, intimating that Power was a messenger charged with an answer to despatches received by himself as commander of the American army, placed the agent under care of Captain Shaum- bergh, and an escort of United States troops, who had orders to proceed to Fort Massac by the nearest and shortest route.
When he arrived at the latter post, Power re- ceived from Sebastian the letter of Innis and Nicholas, and then sailed down the Mississippi to report to Carondelet the ill success of his mission.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
The particulars of this transaction remained unknown till 1806, when they were divulged, and the public then learned for the first time that Sebastian had been receiving an annual pension of two thousand dollars from the year 1795 up to the period his treasonable conduct was ex- posed.
On the 4th of March, 1797, Mr. Adams had succeeded General Washington as President of the United States; but with the people of Ken- tucky he was even less a favourite than his illus- trious predecessor. The administration of Wash- ington had always been unpopular in the border state, but that of Adams was denounced with a fierceness and virulence which can only be pal- liated by referring it to the exasperated state of party feeling, as it existed at that time.
During the session of the legislature, the pro- priety of calling a convention to revise the old constitution was debated with great animation. The object of the proposed revision was to bring the election of the governor and senate more under the control of the popular vote, and to change the law regulating the election of sheriffs. As it was necessary to consult the wishes of the people in regard to the proposed change, a poll was opened in May, 1797, when it was found that out of nine thousand eight hundred and fourteen votes, regularly returned, five thousand four hundred and forty-six were in favour of a
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CONVENTION CALLED.
convention ; but as five counties did not return the whole number of their votes, the result was considered doubtful. Another election was, there- fore, ordered, which took place in May, 1798, when out of eleven thousand eight hundred and fifty-three votes returned, nearly nine thou- sand called for a convention. Even at this election, the actual indifference of the people to any agitation of the subject may be in- ferred from the fact that ten counties failed to return the whole number of their votes, and eight counties declined voting at all. The con- vention, however, was called by the succeeding legislature, under the impression that such was the true desire of their constituents.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
CHAPTER XVII.
Garrard elected Governor of Kentucky-Denounces the alien and sedition laws-Nullification resolutions written by Jeffer- son-Endorsed by Kentucky-Denounced by other states- Creation of new counties in Kentucky-Education promoted -Various academies established -. Appropriations of land for their support-Meeting of convention-New constitution adopted-Garrard re-elected governor-An attempt made to encourage manufactures-Election of Jefferson-Navigation of the Mississippi interrupted-Louisiana ceded to France- Excitement in Kentucky-Letter of Jefferson to Livingston -Monroe sent to Paris-Purchase of Louisiana-Claiborne takes possession of New Orleans-Greenup elected Gover- nor of Kentucky-Re-election of Jefferson-Kentucky militia discharged.
IN his address to the legislature, which met in November, 1798, Governor Garrard, the suc- cessor of Shelby, denounced as unconstitutional and dangerous to public liberty the acts recently passed by Congress, and commonly known as the alien and sedition laws.
Under the influence of the fierce party spirit then unhappily prevalent, a great deal of cen- sure had been cast on these acts, the first of which gave the President of the United States control over suspected aliens, while the object of the other was to suppress libels against the government, the president, or either branch of the legislature, and to put down combinations of seditious persons.
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NULLIFICATION RESOLUTIONS.
To these acts, as the leader of the ultra Demo- cratic party, Mr. Jefferson was bitterly opposed. He therefore drew up a series of resolutions, which were presented to the house by John Breckenridge, the representative from Fayette, and almost unanimously adopted.
The object being to define the powers of the general government, and the rights and privi- leges of the states, the first resolution declared-
" That the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the princi- ple of unlimited submission to the general go- vernment ; but, that by compact under the style and title of a constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, dele- gated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government ; and, that whensoever the general government assumes un- delegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that to this compact each state acceded, as a state, and is an integral party ; its co-states forming as to itself the other party : that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the ex- tent of the powers delegated to itself ; since that would have made its discretion, and not the con- stitution, the measure of its powers ; but that, as in all other cases of compact among parties hav-
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
ing no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress."
Enough is shown in the above resolution to prove that the doctrine of nullification is not of recent origin ; and that South Carolina, who has subsequently most sturdily supported the princi- ples enunciated above, can point to Thomas Jef- ferson and Kentucky as the first to distinctly avow them. Subsequent reflection and a cooler and more impartial condition of the public mind has caused, not only Kentucky, but most of the other states of the Union, to reject a doctrine, which, if carried practically into operation, would not only clog the machinery of the general go- vernment, but break up the confederation into petty state sovereignties.
A copy of the resolutions adopted by the legis- lature of Kentucky was ordered to be sent to each state in the Union; but Virginia was the only one that assented to them. Some of the other states censured the Kentucky doctrine with great severity; even Kentucky herself, at a later day, repudiated it quite as unanimously as she had once, in the heat of party spirit, con- sented to let it go forth to the world under the sanction of her name.
The rapidity with which the population of the state increased may be inferred from the fact, that although, during the year 1796, six new
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EDUCATION ENCOURAGED.
counties had been erected, under the respective names of Bullitt, Logan, Montgomery, Bracken, Warren, and Garrard, it was found necessary in 1798 to augment the number by an addition of eleven others, which were called Pulaski, Pendle- ton, Livingston, Henry, Cumberland, Gallatin, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Jessamine, Barron, and Hen- derson. The greater number of these latter were in that section of the state known as the Green River country, the settlers, of which had taken up claims south of Green River, under the head- right laws.
Nor were the means of education at this period altogether neglected. The Winchester Academy was established at this session ; and in compli- ance with the joint request of the trustees of the Transylvania Seminary and of the Kentucky Academy, the two institutions were united upon terms previously agreed to by the parties.
Twenty trustees were named, and the esta- blishment was henceforth to take the name of the Transylvania University. The seat of the seminary was fixed at Lexington, but could be removed by the board of trustees, two-thirds of whom were required to concur in the measure.
The trustees were incorporated. They were to exercise a control over the receipts and dis- bursements, and possessed the right, by the con- currence of a majority of their number, to re- ceive poor boys, or youths of promising genius,
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
into the institution, whose education was to be provided for by public donations, or from the common fund.
The former laws of the two institutions, with certain modifications, were to be the laws of the university, until altered by the legislature.
The Bourbon Academy was also established by an act of this session.
By another act more than twenty similar seats of learning were likewise established, with corpo- rate powers vested in trustees, a faculty of su- perintendence, and all the necessary provisions for efficient action.
This act, like one passed the preceding ses- sion, granted six thousand acres of land to each academy established by it. The location to be fixed under the direction of trustees. A like quantity of six thousand acres was also granted for an academy in each county of the state, where none had been established. The location of the latter being given to the several county courts.
The convention which had been called by a majority of both houses in the legislature met at Frankfort, on the 22d of July, 1799, chose Alexander Bulllit for president, Thomas Todd for clerk, and adopted rules for its government. By the 17th of August, the convention had suc- ceeded in making a new constitution, which went into operation on the 1st day of June, 1800. James Garrard was re-elected governor, and
LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS. 229
Alexander Bullitt, lieutenant-governor. The brief period in which the new constitution was framed, and the unanimity with which it was adopted, are remarkable when contrasted with the protracted sessions which have since been held in other states, for the purpose of remodelling simi- lar instruments.
At the session of 1799, the new counties of Breckenridge, Floyd, Knox, and Nicholas, were created. Eighty-eight acts were passed, and the receipts for the year in the public treasury shown to be eleven thousand two hundred and thirty-four pounds; which, with the balance of the last year, made fifteen thousand three hun- dred and sixty-four pounds. The expenditures within the same period were about fourteen thou- sand and seven hundred pounds.
By one of the acts of this session, an attempt was made to encourage manufactures within the state, by an appropriation of six thousand acres of vacant land, south of Green River, for the use and emolument of manufacturers of wool, cotton, brass, or iron, who should settle on it, at the rate of five families for each thousand acres, be- fore the 1st of January, 1803, carry on their trade in good faith, and pay forty dollars the hundred acres in four equal annual instalments. The act, however, was badly digested, and its provisions being found impracticable, it expired under its own limitations.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
In the winter session of 1801, the act esta- blishing district courts was repealed by the legis- lature of Kentucky, and the present circuit courts erected in their stead. At the same session, an in- surance company was chartered in Lexington. By a clause which was not thoroughly understood by the members who voted for it, or it would never have been admitted, banking powers were granted to this company, who thus obtained the first bank charter ever granted in Kentucky.
In relation to national affairs,-in which the people of Kentucky, from their devotion to the democratic candidate for president, took an inte- rest far beyond that which they felt in their own state appointments,-the news of the election of Mr. Jefferson over Mr. Adams was received with the most unbounded expressions of satisfaction.
In the course of the year 1802, the interrup- tion of the navigation of the Mississippi produced great excitement in Kentucky. This interrup- tion was effected by suspending the American right of deposit at New Orleans, which under the Spanish treaty had been granted for three years, with a proviso that, if the privilege should be withheld at the expiration of that time, some other place of deposit near the mouth of the river was to be granted. The latter provision not being complied with, the treaty was undoubt- edly violated, and western commerce most se- riously crippled. So excited were the people of
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PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA.
Kentucky upon the subject, that when it became known that Spain had ceded the territory of Louisiana to France, it would have required a very little additional misunderstanding to have produced a state of war.
Jefferson immediately wrote to Livingston, at that time American minister at Paris, directing him to obtain, if possible, the immediate transfer of Louisiana, or at least of the island of Orleans, to the United States. In this letter he stated em- phatically, that if the possession of Louisiana was retained by France, it would completely reverse all the political relations of the United States, and form an epoch in their political course. " There is one spot on the globe," continued Jefferson, " the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. That spot is New Orleans."
This strong protest had its effect ; perhaps also the motion which was made in the Senate of the United States, to authorize the president to seize New Orleans by force of arms, may have had a tendency to accelerate the action of the French government. The motion was not car- ried, but Mr. Monroe was despatched to Paris to arrange the difficulty with the first consul.
Livingston had opened a negotiation for the purchase of New Orleans, and the adjacent tracts on the Mississippi, before Monroe arrived. His prospects of success were at first unpromising enough ; but the approach of a new European
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
war so impressed Napoleon with the necessity of selling a territory which he could not by any pos- sibility defend while the fleets of Great Britain controlled the seas, that just before Monroe reached Paris, Talleyrand had requested Living- ston to make an offer for the whole of Louisiana. After a few conferences, Bonaparte agreed to sell to the United States the entire territory of Louisiana for the sum of fifteen millions of dol- lars, and no time was lost in making the purchase.
On the 20th of December, 1803, William C. Claiborne, governor of the Mississippi Territory, descended to New Orleans and took formal pos- session of the newly acquired territory in the name of the United States.
In 1804, Christopher Greenup was elected Governor of Kentucky. Mr. Jefferson was the same year re-elected President of the United States. P
On the 4th of March, the governor of the commonwealth formally, by proclamation, dis- charged the militia, who, in expectation of making a military descent upon New Orleans, had volun- teered upon the service, with an alacrity which showed how strongly the people of Kentucky were moved upon a subject so vital to their com- merce.
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AARON BURR. -
CHAPTER XVIII.
Aaron Burr-Elected Vice President of the United States- Loses the confidence of his party-Is nominated for Gover- nor of New York-Defeated through the influence of Hamil- ton-Kills Hamilton in a duel-Flees to South Carolina -- Returns to Washington-Sets out for the West-His nomi- nal projects-His association with Wilkinson-Becomes ac- quainted with Blennerhasset- Actual project of Burr- Reaches New Orleans-Returns overland to Kentucky -- - Spends the spring and summer in Philadelphia and Wash- ington-Attempts to win over Eaton, 'Truxton, and Decatur -- His second journey to the West-Builds boats on the Mus- kingum-Contracts for supplies and enlists volunteers- Wilkinson at Natchitoches-Receives despatches from Burr -Sends a messenger to the president-Orders New Orleans to be strengthened-Proceeds to Natchez-Despatches a second messenger to Washington-Writes to Claiborne and the Governor of the Mississippi Territory-Reaches New Or- leans-His measures at that place.
IN the year 1801, Aaron Burr, a native of New Jersey, a graduate of Princeton, a colonel in the war of independence, and subsequently a senator of the United States, was elected Vice President of the Union. He was a man of the most extraordinary talents, plausible, intriguing, daringly ambitious, singularly polished in his address, but of the lowest moral character.
Before the expiration of his term of office, he had lost the confidence of his party, and while Jefferson was unanimously nominated as a can- didate for re-election to the presidency ; in the
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
selection of a candidate for vice president, Burr was set aside, and George Clinton nominated in his stead.
Possessing yet some little political power in New York, he was enabled to have himself brought forward by his friends as an independ- ent candidate for governor of that state, in op- position to Chief Justice Lewis, the nominee of the administration party.
Owing to the high character of Alexander Hamilton, and the influence of his opinions upon the active politicians of the state, Burr was de- feated, and charging his discomfiture to the in- strumentality of Hamilton, only waited a favour- able opportunity for accomplishing a signal re- venge.
Hamilton at this time was at the head of the federal party, which, though shorn of its former power, was yet large enough to offer formidable opposition to any candidate whose fitness they doubted, or whose opinions were at variance with their own.
Sinking rapidly in the scale of political repu- tation, and deeply involved in pecuniary liabili- ties, Burr brooded over the failure of his latest hope with a malignity, which, gathering strength by nursing, at length impelled him to force his antagonist into a duel. The result was such as might have been expected. Hamilton was shot down at the first fire, and to escape the indignant
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BURR'S SCHEMES.
outburst of public opinion, Burr fled to South Carolina, and took refuge with his accomplished and unfortunate daughter, who had married a wealthy planter of that region.
The seat of government having been removed to the District of Columbia, Burr returned to Washington and presided over the senate until the expiration of his term of office; and then being unable to return to New York in conse- quence of the officers of that state holding a war- rant against him for the killing of Hamilton, he turned his attention to a wider field of opera- tions, and to bolder schemes of ambition.
At the close of the session of Congress in the spring of 1805, Burr set out for the West. The nominal objects for which this journey was prose- cuted were variously stated. One was a specula- tion for a canal around the falls of the Ohio, which he had projected with Senator Dayton of New Jersey, whose extensive purchase of mili- tary land warrants had given him a large inte- rest in the military bounty lands in that vicinity.
Burr had offered a share in this speculation to General Wilkinson, who, besides being commander- in-chief of the army in that quarter, had lately been appointed governor of the new territory of Louisiana. Burr and Wilkinson had long been known to each other, and the former seems to have reckoned confidently upon securing the co- operation of his old military associate, with whom
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
he had carried on, at various times, a correspond- ence in cipher, and whose civil and military posi- tion promised to make him a very efficient agent in the scheme to which all other projects were intended finally to succumb.
Wilkinson, who about this time was getting ready to embark at Pittsburgh to take possession of his government in Louisiana, invited Burr to descend the river in his company ; but as Burr's own boat-the common ark or flat-boat of those days-was already prepared to start, he pro- ceeded on his voyage alone.
When nearly opposite Marietta, he stopped at Blennerhasset's Island, and there, for the first time, made the acquaintance of its enthusiastic but visionary owner. This was Herman Blen- nerhasset, an Irish gentleman, who, becoming disgusted with the political condition of his own country, had settled on an island in the Ohio, and being possessed of a considerable fortune, gratified his refined taste by erecting an elegant mansion in the wilderness, and surrounding it with all those luxurious accessories which had hitherto been un- known beyond the mountains.
The beautiful and accomplished wife of Blen- nerhasset was no less an enthusiast than himself ; and Burr, a master of all those arts which are best calculated to elicit the admiration of women, soon succeeded in attaching warmly to his cause
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BLENNERHASSET.
two persons whose ambition had previously been bounded by the limits of their own domain.
Working upon the ardent imagination of Blen- nerhasset, Burr moulded him as easily to his pur- poses as the potter the clay beneath his hands. Both Blennerhasset and his wife devoted them- selves, and all they possessed of wealth, to the fortunes of the crafty and unscrupulous adventu- rer, with an enthusiasm heated almost to fanati- cism by the glowing prospects held out to them in the future.
The project which Burr actually entertained was one well adapted to enlist in his cause all those who were dissatisfied with their present condition of life, and such turbulent and restless spirits as were ready for any enterprise which promised to gratify their ambition, even though it should be at the expense of common justice and morality.
Well knowing how odious the Spanish name had become to a great portion of the people of the West and South, from the difficulties which had for so many years attended the navigation of the Mississippi on the one hand, and from the long existing territorial disputes on the other, the scheme which Burr desired to perfect was to organize a military force upon the western waters, descend the Mississippi, and wrest from Spain a portion of her territory bounding on the Gulf of Mexico. As the consummation of this act would
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