USA > Kentucky > The political beginnings of Kentucky. A narrative of public events bearing on the history of that state up to the time of its admission into the American Union > Part 3
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I Deposition of Patrick Henry, 4th June, 1777, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Vol. I, p. 289.
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The date of Henry's deposition (4th June, 1777), and the emphatic refusal with which, as he asserts, he met offers of participation in the Transylvania Company, leave no room for doubt that Henderson and his associates resorted to methods not entirely unknown to more modern projectors. But their efforts to bias the pure and patriotic mind of Patrick Henry utterly failed. The attempt to approach him and sell or give to him an interest in enterprises about which he was perhaps to vote as a legislator proved fatal to the plan. Jef- ferson also was perhaps approached and his influence sought to be enlisted, but the result was equally unfavorable.' It was too soon by many years to grow rich in the public employ.
Public life and conscientious discharge of public duty brought Henry and Jefferson and Monroe to poverty, from which the first only rescued himself by a resolute return to private life.
The attempt to practice upon the integrity of Henry and Jefferson at once aroused their attention to the question of colonial boundaries and titles. The true history of the Watauga treaty was exposed by Henry, and the effect of a congressional recognition explained. The memorial failed, and Mr. Hogg, its bearer, returned to North Carolina baffled and disappointed.
" Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. II, p. 513.
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There were elements of disintegration at work within the Transylvania colony itself. Its first adherents came to doubt the title and question the policy of the proprietors. The proclamations of Dunmore and Martin perhaps first shook their confidence in the title offered them by Henderson, but to this were soon added irritating exactions on the proprie- tors' part, and acts of discrimination in the interest of their favorites that alienated all the influential men among the pioneers.
The closing days of the meeting at Boonesborough had been signalized by the formal issue of commissions to magis- trates." These ran in the name of the proprietors, and were signed by Henderson. An oath of fealty to the proprietors as sovereigns of the country and lords of the soil was de- manded of the colonists.2 The feudal ceremony of livery of seizin was insisted upon, and acceptance of tenure as from lords paramount made a condition of the grants.3 The mul- tiplication of ceremonies and assertion of feudal title greatly dissatisfied James Harrod and his associates. They soon discovered that for their labor and pains in subduing and protecting the new country they would have at best but a doubtful title to such lands, and in such quantities as the proprietors might choose to sell them.
I Henderson's Diary, 5th June, 1775, in Collins, Vol. II, p. 501.
2 Deposition of James Douglass, in Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Vol. I, p. 309.
3 Virginia Calendar, Vol. I, p. 309.
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The effect of the treaty of Fort Stanwix began to be discussed by John Todd and Harrod. Douglass admitted the grave doubt which he, as a veteran surveyor, had as to the Henderson title. John Floyd soon had news from his relative, Col. William Preston, of Augusta County, Surveyor and County Lieutenant of Fincastle (and whose deputy he was), that the paramount title of Virginia would be recog- nized and enforced.
So the adventurers, determined to repudiate the Transyl- vania Company and its claim of title from the Cherokees, resumed the location of land warrants, under the King's proclamation of 1763, and returned their surveys to the office of Fincastle County, Virginia.
A petition addressed to the Convention of Virginia was prepared in the autumn of 1775, and soon signed by eighty- four of those who had before acquiesced in Henderson's claim. Its draftsman was Capt. Peter Hogg, of Augusta County, "who was a skilled lawyer,"' a brother of James, one of the Transylvania proprietors. This document reached the Virginia Convention in March, 1776, and was the begin- ning of a frequent and important political intercourse between the parent State and its western colony.
The petitioners, after setting forth the alluring hopes of "an indefeasible title," which Henderson and his associates
" Deposition of Abraham Hite, 23d October, 1778, in Virginia Calendar State Papers, Voi. I, p. 302.
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had assured, and the many hardships they had encountered in establishing themselves in the wilderness, complained of arbitrary and onerous advances made by the proprietors on the prices of land and the scale of fees for surveys. They alluded to the treaty of Fort Stanwix and the deed of the Six Nations (a copy of which they had just procured), and advanced a doubt if the Cherokees ever had title to give Henderson. Consequently (the petition argued) the royal title would be good for whoever might obtain grants, and those who should rely on Henderson's grant might be turned out of possession. They prayed the convention to take the case of the pioneers under its care, to invoke, if need be, the Continental Congress, and to disallow the claims of Hender- son and his associates.
"And [said they] as we are anxious to concur in every respect with our brethren of the United Colonies for our just rights and privileges, so far as our infant settlement and situation will admit of, we humbly expect and implore to be taken under the protection of the honorable convention of the colony of Virginia, of which we can not help thinking ourselves a part." 1
The Transylvania Company made every effort to carry out their contracts, but the prestige of their claim was gone. Another communication from an assembly of elected dele-
1 Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. II, p. 510.
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gates of pioneers, held at Harrod's Station, was prepared 17th July, 1776, and laid before the convention by John Gabriel Jones and George Rogers Clark, duly chosen as del- egates to represent them, and who undertook a journey to Virginia for that purpose.'
It required the presence of one possessed of Clark's de- cision to put the relations of Virginia and Kentucky upon the basis of a definite and satisfactory understanding. His conference with Patrick Henry, then Governor, was all that he could ask; but the Executive Council hesitated to send out to the West the five hundred pounds of powder that Clark declared was absolutely needed to protect the frontier. There was doubt with some of the council whether Virginia's borders included Kentucky; whether the Indian title of the Cherokees was not really good, and the right of Henderson under it better than Virginia's. The council, while willing to lend the gunpowder to the pioneers as friends, were not sure that it could be given to them as fellow-citizens of the colony.
In all his years of distinguished and fruitful service George Rogers Clark never perhaps showed the clearness and strength of his resolution more conspicuously than then. He refused the proffered loan, and announced his intention to return and establish an independent State, whose resources should be
" The original manuscript of this noteworthy memorial is in the writer's possession.
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exerted in her own protection since the parent colony declined the duties of sovereignty. The firmness of Clark, supported by Henry's powerful aid, convinced the wavering Executive Council, and on 26th August, 1776, was made the decisive order by which Virginia assumed the duty of military pro- visions for Kentucky. It was the assumption by the State of Virginia, so newly declared independent, of all territorial rights and of all royal prerogatives within the colonial boundaries.
The step once taken was never retraced. The legislation obviously necessary was soon matured and enacted. The vast county of Fincastle was divided into smaller municipalities, and as one of these there came into existence on 7th Decem- ber, 1776, as an organized political subdivision of Virginia, the county of Kentucky.1
The claim of the Transylvania Company vanished. Its projectors recognized the force of events they could not control, and wisely abandoned all hope of proprietary sover- eignty or ownership. To compensate for the outlay they had sustained, and the real or supposed public benefits that had accrued from their attempted organization of Transylvania, a grant of land was made under act of 17th November, 1778.2 Henderson and his associates accepted the donation,
1 9 Hening, Statutes at Large, p. 257.
2 The terms of the grant to Henderson and his associates will be found in 9 Hen- ing, Statutes at Large, 571.
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which included two hundred thousand or more acres in the angle between the west bank of Green River and the Ohio. With the grant they accepted the construction of title that the act declared, that the Cherokee claim of title was void and the Watauga purchase a nullity.
The sovereignty of the soil of Kentucky was assured beyond cavil in the State of Virginia as political successor of the British Crown. Right by discovery; right by charter of 1609; right by treaty stipulation of 1763 between France, Spain, and Great Britain; right by extinction of the title of the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix in 1768; right by extinction of the Cherokee title at Watauga; right by Henderson's ab- dication of the Cherokee title; right by request and consent of the people of Kentucky; all were now concentered in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
And with this consummation disappeared the "proprie- tary" idea from American institutions. Its success was never possible in those times of political ferment.
County and District of Kentucky.
The County of Kentucky, thus organized as part of the Commonwealth of Virginia, speedily showed that material progress which attends the establishment of political order. A Court of Quarter Sessions was established, holding its
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terms at Harrodsburg, and counting among the justices of the quorum such really able men as John Todd, John Floyd, Benjamin Logan, and Richard Callaway.1 An election was held at which delegates to the Virginia House of Burgesses were chosen; and, most important of all for the immediate needs of the infant settlement, a thorough organization of the militia under Clark's general supervision was at once completed. Every man reported in turn for his share of the military duty rendered absolutely necessary by constant at- tacks of Indians. As yet there was ample unappropriated land for the adventurous to explore and the strong to keep. The tide of prosperity was setting in; its first fruits were seen in multiplied clearings and patches of corn that dotted the canebrakes and forests. The settlements became more numerous and strong. The solitary stations gathered ham- lets about them. Wives and daughters joined the pioneers, and comforts began to accumulate.
The simple machinery of a simple court of quarter sessions was enough for some years. There was but little litigation or cause for it until the conflict of land titles began to arise.
' A sketch of the life of John Todd and his important public services, up to his death at the Blue Licks, at the age of thirty-two, will be found in an oration delivered at the Centennial Commemoration of the Battle of the Blue Licks, August, 1882, by the writer of this paper. An account of John Floyd, so far as material availed, is given in an article on Kentucky Pioneers, in Harper's Magazine for June, 1887. Mr. E. G. Mason, of Chicago, is preparing a Life of John Todd, with special reference to his services in the Illinois country. Thomas M. Green, Esq., of Maysville, Ky., has pub- lished an elaborate sketch of Logan.
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But, as surveys and settlements increased, the confusion of overlapping and interfering grants became well-nigh inex- tricable. In addition to grants based on the royal proclama- tion of 1763, there was a variety of State warrants authorizing locations. There was a right of settlement for him who "made an improvement" or "raised a crop of corn," and around this settlement right as a center was the "pre-emption right" of the settler entitling him to one thousand acres on easy terms.
The surveyors of that time were well educated and skill- ful,' but the difficulties were great and the dangers constant. - Only a few years passed before a host of land quarrels em- broiled the entire population.
The remedy proposed by the parent State was the obvious one of a special land commission to adjust claims and give judicial sanction to those found valid. Such a tribunal was appointed in 1779, convening in the autumn at Harrods- burg.2 Its first official act was to examine and validate the land claim of Isaac Shelby, on 14th October, 1779, at St. Asaph Station. A land office of the Commonwealth was also organized in the same year to issue patents for land in
I Surveyors were, by law, required to be " nominated and certified " as "able," by the president and professors of William and Mary College. One sixth part of survey- ors' fees inured to the benefit of that college. (10 Hening, Statutes at Large, 53.)
2 The Land Commission for Kentucky was created by Statute of 1779. (10 Hening, Statutes at Large, p. 43, sec 8.) An account of its constitution and work is given by Dr. Whitsitt, in his paper on Caleb Wallace, in the Filson Club publications. The Com- mission, as originally named, consisted of William Fleming, Edmund Lyne, James Bar- bour, and Stephen Trigg, with John Williams, jr., as clerk.
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satisfaction of treasury warrants and to dispose of the pub- lic domain.
Meantime Richard Callaway and John Todd had repre- sented the County of Kentucky at Williamsburg, and the latter had especially impressed his activity and intelligence upon his brother legislators. At his instance the towns of Boonesborough' and Louisville2 were incorporated, and with an enlightened prevision of the need of the future State he procured the legislature of Virginia to dedicate the escheated lands of Tory refugees in trust "as a free donation from this commonwealth for the public school or seminary of learning to be erected within the said county." 3
The legislative session of May, 1780, accomplished the division of the County of Kentucky into the three counties of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette.4 The name Kentucky came near being lost, as had been that of Fincastle. It sur- vived in the usage that had adopted it as a convenient term for the western country, and was revived with the establish- ment of the " District of Kentucky" in 1782,5 and its subse-
1 10 Hening, Statutes at Large, 134.
2 10 Hening, Statutes at Large, 298.
3 10 Hening, Statutes at Large, 287. The preamble declares the policy of the Com- monwealth as being "always to promote and encourage every design which may tend to the improvement of the mind and the diffusion of useful knowledge, even among its remote citizens whose situation a barbarous neighborhood and a savage intercourse might otherwise render unfriendly to science." The grant is to a list of well-known men as trustees; but the right of former owners to show cause against the forfeiture is carefully reserved.
4 10 Hening, Statutes at Large, 315.
5 11 Hening, Statutes at Large, 85.
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quent representation in 1787 in the Continental Congress as the District of Kentucky within the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the agitation of its admission as an independ- ent and separate State into the American Union.
The importance of the county organizations within Ken- tucky was greater than might be supposed. For the first time in their western life the pioneers had within their own limits the elements of strictly legal though limited organi- zation of the civil and military powers. In Fayette, John Todd was the county lieutenant and colonel of militia, with Boone as his second in rank. Across the Kentucky, Ben Logan held the chief rank in Lincoln, and John Floyd in Jefferson. It was thus possible to gather an efficient array in sudden emergencies, and to keep on foot the continual scouts of small parties in which all the able-bodied men of the district took their part by turns. Over the general con- duct of these Clark, in his capacity of brigadier, had super- vision.
The system of county governments and statutory powers of the local justices enabled the levy of the small taxes for pressing military and civil need. First in the history of taxa- tion within the State is the head-tax of ten pounds of tobacco, which the justices of Lincoln County on 21st November, 1783, imposed upon their constituents. But withal the civil power, though never overborne, was of far less importance
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in the affairs of the new communities than was the sharp authority of the military commandants, for the exercise of which occasion was presented daily. It is creditable to the discrimination of the pioneers that they never confused in their own minds nor confounded in practice the executive and judicial ideas. The principal militia officers, who were by statute given power to call out troops, were, perhaps, all of them justices within their several counties. Some of them also filled peculiarly executive posts, as Todd, who was Governor of the Illinois, and some were commissioned judges of oyer and terminer, as was Floyd in the District Court organized in March, 1783.' Yet it is very observable that no difficulty seems to have arisen from their appar- ently incompatible offices. No complaint has come down in memorial or tradition that the military trenched on the civil power, or that the civil magistrate interfered with mili- tary relations.
The militant attitude of the communities gave great con- sideration to the county lieutenants and colonels, and with these, especially after the battle of the Blue Licks, in August, 1782, was, as a general rule, the initiative of public action upon important measures. This will be observed in the his- tory of those conventions which through a series of years
" The act creating the "District Court on the Western Waters" is given in II Hening, Statutes at Large, 85.
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were convened to consider the erection of the District into a " separate and independent State."1
The establishment of the County of Kentucky in 1776, and the assumption of military and political sovereignty by Virginia, which the furnishing of gunpowder to the front- iersmen distinctly imported, was the necessary foundation of that series of operations so ably conducted by Clark into the Northwest Territory. Other expeditions were numerous and effective, but they were limited within the narrower lines of retaliatory attack upon Indian towns, or pursuit within their lands of war parties that from time to time made incursions into Kentucky. But the broad and permanent political significance of Clark's plan was thoroughly appreciated by perhaps none but Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, and by Clark and his chief lieutenant, John Todd, in the West. To the great body of the people and public men in Virginia the news from across the mountains had but a far- off sound, and was little heeded in the nearer and more per- sonal experience of the Revolutionary struggle. To the north- ward, and especially in New England, men were marshaled
1 The phrase "separate and independent State" is used in each of the Virginia acts touching the organizing of the State of Kentucky as well as in all the proclamations, memorials, resolutions, and proceedings of conventions concerning that subject. As this movement had its commencement long before the assembling of the Federal Con- stitutional Convention, there is much ignorance or insincerity in criticising those words in the light of the Federal and Anti-Federal theories of the constitution that came into being at a later period. Much of the political rancor of after days rested upon this confusion of historical sequence, and the changed ideas that such terms suggested to zeal- ous partisans.
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in desperate conflict within their own borders, and faced the all-engrossing problem of the subjection or independence of their own communities. Very eminent and patriotic men doubted, and many of them vehemently denied, the wisdom of territorial expansion toward the west. A very influential opinion prevailed that it would be ruinous to the older colo- nies, now asserting themselves as revolted and independent States, to have their scanty populations drained by the fever of western emigration.'
The defense of the West was not permitted to become a continental measure. It was relegated as a purely domestic concern to Virginia and her sons in Kentucky. In the face of the appalling difficulties that confronted the establishment of colonial independence, all thought of acquiring new and unexplored territory seemed chimerical. Another and a weighty consideration that tended to confirm the reluctance of the seaboard population to embark the revolted colonies
* The feeling of the Atlantic population was at no time friendly to the growth of the West. The reasons given were quite sound from the standpoint of things as they then were. Gerry was not the only prominent man who distinctly advocated the crest of the Alleghanies as the boundary of the united colonies. The opinion lasted in full force up to the inauguration of Washington. In 1789 Governor Clinton, in a conver- sation with Gardoqui, the Spanish Minister, stated that " the attempt to maintain estab- lishments at so great a distance, by withdrawing the population of the nearer States, would be a national error." (Gardoqui to Floridablanca, Secret Despatch No. 6, 21st No- vember, 1789.) The year previous Gardoqui had informed his government that his arrangement with Jay would have the support of the Atlantic States, especially in the matter of occluding the Mississippi, because the leading men of those States clearly realized that the growth of the West would drain the population of the East. ( Gardo- qui to Floridablanca, Secret Despatch No. 21, 24th October, 1788.)
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in a direct and aggressive movement upon the British terri- tory in the Northwest, lay in the complications surrounding their relations with Spain.
It was of obvious importance that the good-will of that power should be preserved pending the Revolutionary strug- gle; and the Congress had no sooner been advised of the rupture between Spain and Great Britain than it sent to Madrid a minister charged with the duty of negotiating an alliance, and of asserting a right to navigate the Mississippi to the Gulf. Both Spain and France refused to admit the claim, and the Court of Madrid clearly declared its exclusive right of navigation, as well as its right to possess itself (as an enemy of England) of all the territory between the "back settlements of the former British provinces" and the Missis- sippi River. Another announcement was made that savored almost of menace:
" We furthermore expect you to prohibit the inhabitants of your confed- eracy from making any attempt toward settling on or conquering any por- tion of the British territory to which we refer." 1
The reluctance of the New England statesmen was there- fore not unnatural. It seemed clear to the wisest of them that the powerful friendship of Spain must be conciliated.
I The substance of the Spanish demand is well given in Gayarre, History of Louis- iana, Spanish Dom., p. 134.
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They felt that the abstract right of navigating the Missis- sippi to the sea could never become a practical question until American independence should first be achieved. To press it upon Spain while the war was waging and the outlook far from encouraging, seemed unwise irritation of a needed friend. And still less could their judgment sanction a mili- tary expedition disapproved and indeed forbidden by Spain, and to conduct which troops must be withdrawn from Wash- ington's depleted army. The crisis of the struggle was in the East. Failure there meant ruin everywhere. The sub- jugation of New England and New York would determine the fate of North America. "Why then," thought they, "shall the demands of a powerful and friendly nation be contemptuously treated in sheer wantonness of unprofitable contention over a right which, if conceded, can not be en- joyed until independence is first achieved?"
A great political idea, nevertheless, took firm hold of Henry and Jefferson, and with their support Clark and the pioneers of Kentucky solved it in the subjugation of the Northwest.
Henry was prompt to put into political shape the suc- cessful campaign of Clark, and it was by his influence (aided always by Jefferson) that Virginia, by legislative act passed at the October session of 1778, organized the country beyond the Ohio, and extending to the Mississippi and the Lakes, as
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