USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky : including an account of the discovery, settlement, progressive improvement, political and military events, and present state of the country > Part 17
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In reviewing this address, the mind is unavoidably arrested by one idea which it suggests-" that the situa- tion of the country was irreconcilable to a connexion with any community beyond the Apalachian mountains- other than the federal union." The inference seems to be invited that a connexion on this side of those moun- tains, was not of so inflexible a nature.
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But with whatever ease this course of reflection now occurs, the language of the address was undoubtedly in- tended to have no other effect at that time than to alarm Virginia, by the comparison ; and thereby to obtain with the greater certainty, her assent to the proposed se- paration.
The Chief Justice of the district, George Muter, and the Attorney General, Harry Innes, were chosen to pre- sent this address to the Legislature ; and to add their personal solicitation, as well as to giveany verbal expla- nation, which might facilitate the passage of the much desired act.
The convention, had yet to address the people of the district-and this was done in the following terms :- " To the Inhabitants of the District of Kentucky. "FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN,
" Your representatives in convention having com- pleted the important business for which they were special- ly elected, feel it their duty before they rise, to call your attention to the calamities with which our country ap- pears to be threatened-blood has been spilt from the eas - tern to the western extremity of the district, accounts have been given to the convention from Post St. Vincen- nes, which indicate a disposition in the savages for gene- ral war; in the mean time if we look nearer home, we shall find our borders infested, and constant depreda- tions committed on our property. Whatever may be the remote designs of the savages, these are causes sulfi- cient to rouse our attention, thatowe may be prepared not only to defend but punish those who unprovoked offend
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us. God and nature, have given us the power, and we shall stand condemned in the eyes of Heaven and man- kind, if we do not employ it, to redress our wrongs and assert our rights,
" The Indians are now reconnoitering our settlement .s in order that they may hereafter direct their attacks with more certain effect, and we seem patiently to await the stroke of the tomahawk ; strange indeed it is, that at- though we can hardly pass a spot, which does not re- mind us of the murder of a father, a brother, or deceased friend, we should take no single step for our own preserva- tion : Have we forgot the surprise of Bryant's or the shocking destruction of Kinchelo's station, let us ask you? Ask yourselves, what there is to prevent a repetition of such barbarous scenes ? five hundred Indians might be conducted undiscovered, to our very thresholds, and the knife may be put to the throats of our sleeping wives and children. For shame -- let us rouse from our lethargy, let us arm, associate and embody-let us call upon our officers to do their duty, and determine to hold in detes- tation and abhorrence, and to treat as enemies to the community, every person who shall withhold his counte- nance and support, of such measures as may be recom- mended for our common defence ;- let it be remembered that a stand must be made somewhere : not to support our present frontier would be the height of cruelty as well as folly ; for should it give way, those who now hug themselves in security, will take the front of danger, and we shall in a short time be huddled together in stations; a situation in our present circumstances, scarcely prefer-
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able to death-let us remember that supineness, and in- action may entice the enemy to general hostilities- whilst preparation and offensive movements will-discon- cert their plans, drive them from our borders, secure our- selves, and protect our property.
" Therefore, resolved, that the convention in the name and behalf of the people, do call on the lieutenants, or commanding officers of the respective counties of this district, forthwith to carry into execution the law for re- gulating and disciplining the militia.
" Resolved, That it be recommended to the officers to assemble in their respective counties, and concert such plans as they may deem expedient for the defence of our country, or for carrying expeditions against the hostile na- tions of Indians.".
This address is from the same pen as that to the Legis- lature. It may well be said to breathe the same spirit, in one grand point of view at least, that of persuading Virginia, that it was prudent, "to make a virtue of ne- cessity," and to grant with her best grace, what her worst fears might extort from her, at the muzzle of the .rifle, and the edge of the tomahawk.
It is however believed that the real spirit of these pa- pers was not felt or cherished, by many members of the convention. A separation of the Western, from the Eastern part of the state, on peaceable, and constitution- al terms, occupied the mind, and filled, both the wish and expectation, of a great majority of the members. Nor can it be ascertained that at this time any other plan was formed. Most of the gentlemen foresaw that a
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considerable length of time would unavoidably elapse before the event of separation could completely take place ; and they knew that the country was every day ripening to its maturity. They were hence not opposed to the application, nor impatient of any necessary delay which prepared the country, for the assumption and ex- ercise of independent government.
On the subject of Indian hostility, there was exaggera- tion. It was evident, from the events of the war, and the measures taken by Congress to bring about a gen- eral pacification with the different tribes, on the fron- tiers, that great relaxation had taken place in the fre- quency, and nature, of their depredations. The fron- tiers were sometimes alarmed, perhaps some lives might be lost in this summer, and no doubt horses were sto- len. But the country had now grown strong, and felt restless under the pressure of circumstances, which a . few years before were supported with patience, or chan- ged with facility, by individual exertion. And to say the truth, it was not so much an apprehension of real danger, as the desire of rule, that impelled the leaders of separation, into, those inflated expressions, of injury, of apprehension, and of impatience.
We do not say this, to detract from the propriety of the application for an act of separation ; because we re- ally think that such application was proper : but to pre- sent a correct history of the times, which are perfectly within our own recollection.
It could but be obvious to every one who reflected on the local position, legal relations, and political circum-
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stances, of the country, as connected with the residue of Virginia, that a separation of the parts ought to take place, so soon as the population could conveniently sustain the burthens of government ; and the people be brought to think the change expedient. The govern- ment of Virginia had manifested no hostility to the measure ; nor was there in Kentucky much diversity of opinion; except as to the time. But it is a fact, that however unanimous the convention might be, the peo- ple were much divided in opinion as to the time when a separation, and a new government, would be proper, and could be sustained with convenience.
Some indeed, there were who were opposed to the measure, as being unnecessary, dangerous, and inexpe- dient, upon general principles of policy ; or particular considerations of personal and local interests, connected with the safety, of property, which had not escaped open menace.
Certain characters had embraced with great ardour the idea of a separation, who were well aware of the ne- cessity of having the people with them, in order to suc- ceed. Hence the frequency of declamation, against the hardships, restraints, and oppressions, imposed on Ken- tucky, by Virginia.
She was about to enforce the general laws, for the col- lection of revenue. This has always been a copious subject for popular demagogues. She had not environed the frontiers, with a cordon of troops, nor raised a wall to defend them from the Indians : No subject could touch more immediately, the sensibilities of the multitude.
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She had not even delegated, the executive power of the commonwealth, to the local authorities of Kentucky.
And although this subject might not suit as well, as some others for popular declamation, there was no o .- ther, more sensibly felt, or which caused more intemper- ance. She had passed a law to compel surveys on pre- 'vious entries-she had imposed a tax on the emination of grants for land-and she actually derived revenue from the registering fees, on surveys. Nay, she had been so illiberal as to listen, to representations of an ex- isting disposition in some of the Kentucky people, to keep up hostilities with the Indians, by repeated and public threats of violence against them, whether in peace, or war. And she had gone so far as to indicate a wish to avoid hostility, by restraining aggressions.
Those who were anxious for the separation delighted to dwell upon these topics ; and no astonishment should be felt, if they sometimes carried their representations beyond the plain and simple matter of fact, into the re- gions of imagination, and the fields of oratory.
Nor is it difficult to explain how these different views come to be taken of the same subjects by the convention, and the historian. The former represents objects as seen by the optics of a politician, anxious to effect a particular result. The latter presents them, as one calm- ly reviewing a scene in which he was but a spectator.
Besides, the magic of composition is beyond the con- ception of those who have not attended minutely to its effects. Who was there in the convention that could contradict any statement of fact in the addressto the
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people ? For what facts were stated ? And as to the co .. louring, that belonged to the art of. the painter, and glowing, as it was, the subject would bear its most vivid tints.
Was there ever language which reprobated in terms too strong, or too animated, the conduct of a govern- ment which exacted taxes from the people when those people composed the audience, and were to pronounce the sentence ? Was there ever an orator, who repre- sented in language too ardent and figurative, the sad condition of a people exposed to an enemy whom they were forbidden to exterminate ? Was there ever a pen which delineated with more than sufficient energy, and display of dramatic effect, the state of a country, from which any thing was required, while every thing was not conceded ? In fine, who could complain in tones too loud, or in strains too pathetic, to a people, who were taught to complain of their condition, as the sure means of obtaining a better ?
Again, who in the convention could have imbibed so little of the patriotic feeling of the rhetorician as to rise, and propose that the address, should be paired down to the standard of sober narrative, and simple matter of fact ? Who was not pleased, and transported, that the oppres- sed rights of humanity, had found an advocate so worthy of their cause ? Who, in one word, was not enchanted, by a style so brilliant, so glowing, so patriotic, as that in which the interesting subjects, of this address were pour" trayed ? There was not one.
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There is a fascination, an enthusiasm, on these occa- sions to which honest men, even think it a virtue to yield ; and to oppose, or impair which, would at such times be thought treason, or sacrilege.
We are therefore not to be surprised if politicians en- grossed by their schemes, orators enraptured by the warmth of their passions, or writers, heated by the fervor with which their favorite objects are pursued, on the one hand, and the sober historian who reviews the same transactions, or who describes the same state of things, on the other, should not always see with the same eyes, or give to the same subjects, the same coloring, of light, and shade.
Copies of the address to the people were industriously multiplied, and circulated among them. That to the General Assembly was in due time presented.
In October of this year, M'Clure and others, were de- feated near the head of Skeggs's-creek, coming into Ken- tucky with families. The Indians attacked the camp, and killed six of the company.
Mrs. M'Clure ran into the woods with her four chil- dren, and would have made her escape, but the young one screamed, and gave notice to the savages-they found her, and immediately killed her three eldest chil- dren, & made her, with the other in her arms, prisoners ; the rest of the party escaped, by means of the night. The Indians took her back to the camp, and made her cook for them. In the morning they mounted her on an unbroke horse, and compelled her to accompany them on their return home.
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Intelligence . of this sad catastrophe being brought to Captain William Whitley's station, and he being from home, Mrs. Whitley dispatched a messenger for him, and others to collect his company. On his return, he found twenty-one men waiting for him; these, says he, " were as true as steel." With these he directed his course to the war path, intending to intercept the Indi- ans returning home. Fortunately they had stopped to divide the plunder, they had taken, and Capt. Whitley, struck the path a short distance a head of them. He ob- served they had not passed, & prepared for their arival. His men were placed in an advantageous position ; nor had they waited long before the Indians appeared, dressed in their spoils. At the proper distance, he surprised them. by a fire, which killed two, wounded two, & dispersed the rest ; he recovered Mrs. M'Clure, and a negroe woman; and retook six scalps, which the savages had taken at the camp.
In the various affairs with the Indians, which we have had occasion to notice, there has not appeared any one, with more circumstances of interest, or conducted with more spirit and judgment.
Ten days after this event, a Mr. Moore, and his party were defeated two, or three miles from Raccoon-creek, on the wilderness road.
In this attack the Indians killed nine persons and dis- persed the rest .. Upon the receipt of this news, Captain Whitley raised thirty mnen, and aiming to intercept the enemy on their return, had passed all the trails but one, when on the sixth day, in a cane-brake, his party met
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the Indians, within ten steps, before either discovered the other. Captain Whitley immediately called ten of his men by name, to take the right, as many more to take the left; the other ten were ordered, to dismount in front with hin'. There were twenty Indians well dressed in their plundered clothes, and mounted on good horses.
The Indians immediately on making the discovery Captain Whitley, abandoned their horses and took to flight on foot, They were pursued, and three of them killed-two by Captain Whitley, who scalped one of them. He recovered eight, of the nine, sca'ps, which they had previously taken-and retook from them a rich booty, consisting of twenty-eight horses, fifty pounds in cash; and a quantity of clothes, and household furniture, which they had plundered ; with this he returned.
In November, another party of Indians killed two of the Sloans, on the Rolling- Fork, of Salt River.
In January 1786, the act passed, in favor of the pron posed separation. It is in the following words :---
" An act concerning the erection of the district of Kentucky into an independent State.
" Whereas it is represented to be the desire of the good people inhabiting the district known by the name of . the Kentucky District, that the same should be separa- ted from this Commonwealth whereof it is a part, and be formed into an independent member of the American confederacy, and it is judged by the General Assembly that such a partition of the Commonwealth, is rendered expedient by the remoteness of the more fertile, which must be the more populous part of the said district, and
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by the interjacent natural impediments to a convenient and regular communication therewith :
" Be it enacted by the general assembly, That in the month of August next, on the respective court days of the counties within the said district, and at the respective places of holding courts therein, representatives to con- tinue in appointment for one year, and to compose a convention, with the powers, and for the purposes here- inafter mentioned, shall be elected by the free male in- habitants of each county, in like manner as delegates to the general assembly have been elected within the said district, in the proportions following : In the county of Jefferson shall be elected five representatives, in the 1 county of Nelson five representatives, in the county of Fayette five representatives, in the county of Bourbon five representatives, in the county of Lincoln five repre- sentatives, in the county of Madison five representatives, and in the county of Mercer five representatives. That full opportunity may be given to the good people, of exercising their right of suffrage, on an occasion, so in -. teresting to them, each of the officers holding such elec- tions, shall continue the same from day to day, passing over Sunday, for five days, including the first day, shall cause this act to be read on each day, immediately pre- ceding the opening of the election, at the door of the court house, or other convenient place, and shall fix up two copies at least of this act, in the most public situati- ons at the place of election, twenty days before the commencement thereof. Each of the said officers shall deliver to each person duly elected a representative, a
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certificate of his election, and shall moreover transmit a general return to the clerk of the supreme court of the district, to be by him laid before the convention. For every neglect of any of the duties hereby enjoined on such officer, he shall forfeit one hundred pounds, to be recovered by action of debt, by any person suing for the same. The said convention shallle held' at Danville, on the 4th Monday of September, and as soon as two thirds of the representatives shall be convened, they shall and may proceed, after choosing a president and other proper officers, and settling the proper rules of proceeding, to consider, and by a majority of voices to determine, whe- ther it be expedient for, and be the will of the good peo- ple of the said district, that the same be erected into an independent state, on the terms and conditions follow- ing :
" First. That the boundary between the proposed state and the state of Virginia, shall remain the same as at present separates the district from the residue of the commonwealth.
" Second. That the proposed state shall take upon it- self a just proportion of the public debt ofthis common- wealth.
" Third. That all private rights and interests in lands within the said district, derived from the laws of Virginia prior to such separation, shall remain valid and secure under the laws of the proposed state, and shall be deter- mined by the laws now existing in this state.
" Fourth. Thatthe lands within the proposed state of non-resident proprietors, shall not in any case be taxed
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higher than the lands of residents at any time prior to the admission of the proposed state to a vote by its dele- ยท gates in congress, where such non-residents reside out of the United States ; nor at any time either before or after such admission, where such non-residents reside within this commonwealth, within which this stipulation shall be reciprocal ; or where such non-residents reside within any other of the United States, which shall de- clare the same to be reciprocal within its limits ; nor shall a neglect of cultivation or improvement of any land within either the proposed state of this commonwealth, belonging to non-residents, citizens of the other, subject such non-residents to forfeiture or other penalty, within the term of six years .after the admission of the said state into the Federal Union.
" Fifth. That no grant of land, nor land warrant to be issued by the proposed state, shall interfere with any warrant heretofore issued from the land office of Virgi- nia, which shall be located on land within the said district now liable thereto, on or before the first day of Septem- ber, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.
" Sixth. That the unlocated lands within the said district, which stand appropriated by the laws of this commonwealth to individuals or descriptions of indivi- duals, for military or other services, shall be exempt from the disposition of the proposed state, and shall remain subject to be disposed of by the commonwealth of Virgi- nia, according to such appropriation, until the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty- eight, and no longer; and thereafter the residue of all
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lands remaining within the limits of the said district, shall be subject to the disposition of the proposed state.
" Seventh. That the use and navigation of the river Ohio, so far as the territory of the proposed state, or the territory which shall remain within the limits of this commonwealth, lies thereon, shall be free and common to citizens of the United States, and the respective juris- dictions of this commonwealth, and of the proposed state, on the river as aforesaid, shall be concurrent only with the states which may possess the opposite shores of the said river.
" Eighth. That in case any complaint or dispute shall at any time arise between the commonwealth of Virgi- nia and the said district, after it shall be an independent state, concerning the meaning or execution of the forego- ing articles, the same shall be determined by six com- missioners, of whom two shall be chosen by each of the parties, and the remainder by the commissioners so first appointed.
" And be it further enacted, That if the said conventi- on shall approve of an erection of the said district into an independent state, on the foregoing terms and con- ditions, they shall and may procced to fix a day, poste- rior to the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, on which the authority of this commonwealth, and of its laws, under the exceptions a- foresaid, shall cease and determine forever, over the pro- posed state, and the said articles become a solemn com- pact, mutually binding on the parties, and unalterable by either without the consent of the other. Provided bow-
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sver, That prior to the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, the United States in congress, shall assent to the erection of the said district into an independent state, shall release this common- monwealth from all i's federal obligations arising from the said district, as being part thereof ; and shall agree that the proposed state shall immediately after the day to be fixed as aforesaid, posterior to the first day of Septem- ber, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, or at some convenient time future thereto, be admitted into the Federal Union. And to the end that no period of anarchy may happen to the good people of the proposed state, it is to be understood that the said convention shall have authority to take the necessary provisional measures for the election and meeting of a convention at some time prior to the day fixed for the determination of the authority of this commonwealth, and of its laws, over the said district, and posterior to the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty. seven, aforesaid, with full power and authority to frame and es- tablish a fundamental constitution of government for the proposed state, and to declare what laws shall be in force therein, until the same shall be abrogated or altered by the legislative authority, acting under the constitution, so to be framed and established.
" This act shall be transmitted by the executive to the delegates representing this commonwealth in Congress, who are hereby instructed to use their endeavors to ob- tain from congress a speedy act to the effect above speci- fied."
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To the passage of this act, there was in reality no se- rious objection on the part of Virginia. She had fore- seen that such an event was to take place, in the progres- sive settlements of her territory to the west : and she had prudently provided for it in her constitution of govern- ment.
It was already apprehended that inconveniences began to be felt in the legislature, from the Kentucky represen- tation.
In general, the members were men of circumscribed political, and moral views ; confined in their legislative attention to local objects ; and ready to throw themselves on all occasions upon the side of that partizan, who fa- vored their particular topical pretensions. They were moreover for ever asking for some new indulgence to land claimants, and clamorous, ifthey did not obtain ant they asked.
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