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 4
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
a political subdivision of the Commonwealth, "The County of Illinois," and provided for its proper administration.1
John Todd, already county lieutenant of Fayette, in Kentucky, was named county lieutenant of the Illinois, and furnished with elaborate and sagacious instructions from the pen of Henry.2
The foothold thus established beyond the Ohio, and the organization of the County of Illinois, gave additional pos- sibilities for political development in Kentucky. With the incursion of Girty in 1782, and the battle of the Blue Licks,
1 9 Hening, Statutes at Large, 552.
2 The executive instructions of 12th December, 1778, are given in full, I Virginia Calendar of State Papers, 312. A perusal of them will confirm that higher estimate of Patrick Henry's wisdom and foresight which recently prevails. A manuscript note book of John Todd, continued after his departure from the Illinois, has been recov- ered by the Chicago Historical Society. Among other curious entries upon its pages is the following (Todd's Note Book, p. 19):
"WARRANT FOR EXECUTION.
" Illinois, to wit :
"To Richard Winston, Esqr., Sheriff in Chief of the District of Kaskaskia.
"Negro Manuel, a slave, in your custody, is condemned by the Court of Kaskaskia, after hav- ing made honorable Fine at the Door of the Church, to be chained to a post at the Water Side, there to be burnt alive and his ashes scattered. This sentence you are hereby required to put in Execution on Tuesday next at 9 o'clock in the morning, and this shall be your warrant.
"Given under my hand and seal at Kaskaskia the 13th day of June in the third year of the Commonwealth."
This entry is unsigned, and is erased by eleven perpendicular marks, and does not, therefore, prove that such an execution took place. There was no law of Virginia authorizing such a punishment for crime ; but the. "Act for establishing the county of Illinois," premising that it would be " difficult, if not impracticable, to govern" the people of that conquered territory "by the present laws of this commonwealth," se- cured to the French inhabitants full enjoyment of their own customs and system of laws. "All civil officers to which the said inhabitants have been accustomed, necessary for the preservation of peace and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a major- ity of the citizens in their respective districts," and these "shall exercise their several jurisdictions, and conduct themselves agreeable to the laws which the present settlers are accustomed to." The inhabitants of Kaskaskia district elected a court entirely
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
the danger of overwhelming Indian invasion ceased, and thenceforward Indian warfare was restricted to the deadly and frequent encounters of individuals or small parties. The new district was safe from overthrow, and it carried war to the Scioto and the Wabash.
The country, thus comparatively freed from public dan- ger, attracted an immigration that was large in numbers and important in character. With the close of the Revolution the influx of population was marked. From Virginia there came many whose relatives or friends had already located in Kentucky. The "Blue-grass" section attracted large num- bers from Augusta and Rockbridge counties whose descend- ants still present many of their characteristics-large stature, courage and energy of action, and strong Calvinistic creeds.
From Maryland came at different times parties of settlers who established themselves in what are now known as
composed of old French settlers ( Todd's Note Book, p. 8), and from this fact, and the terms of the sentence directing amende honorable at the church door, burning at the stake, and scattering of ashes, it seems that sorcery was the imputed crime. It is to be hoped (as the erasure of the warrant possibly indicates) that the sentence was not exe- cuted, and that Todd interposed a pardon. This he could have done in a case of sor- cery, but could not have done had the crime been murder; the law being that " it shall and may be lawful for the county lieutenant or commandant in chief to pardon his or her offense, except in cases of murder or treason, and in such cases he may respite exe- cution from time to time, until the sense of the governor in the first instance, and of the general assembly in the case of treason, is obtained." (9 Hening, Statutes, 553 ad. fin.) It is to be hoped that the researches of Mr. Mason will develop the history of what was almost certainly the last instance of a prosecution for witchcraft or sorcery. The negroes owned by the French on the Mississippi were from Louisiana, and most of them imported from Africa. If so, the practice or suspicion of voudouism could be accounted for.
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
Marion, Nelson, and Washington counties, bringing with them their ancient friendships and alliances, and impressing on those localities their Roman Catholic faith.
The Baptists, so recently emancipated from legal perse- cution, also sought the new State in large numbers." Their migrations were, in not a few instances, by congregations, for the new country presented to them a double attraction. As a rule they brought but little wealth, yet the road to that fortune which lay in securing provision for their children seemed open. But the strongest motive with the Baptist adventurers lay in the absolute religious equality they were to enjoy in the new West. The prejudices of an established church still affected them in Virginia, though statute declared all religions alike in the eye of the law. They had lived through so much opprobrium that the breath of full freedom seemed an answer to long-suffering and prayer. They came filled with convictions that gave them deserved influence, and shaped in no small measure the sentiments of the new State.
The absorbing object with the new immigrants was the acquisition of lands upon which they might settle, or which in the expected enhancement of values they might turn to
" The influence upon Kentucky of the different denominations represented in the early immigration is full of interest for curious inquirers. Waddell's History of Augusta County, Va., Davidson's History of Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, Webb's Cente- nary History of Catholicity in Kentucky, Spencer's History of Baptist Church in Ken- tucky, are sources of information ; besides such minor publications as Taylor's Ten Churches, Hickman's Narrative (MS.), McAfee's History of Providence Church (MS.), and the like.
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
profit. As yet there were but two practicable modes of deriving title: one the location of military warrants for services in the French and Indian wars, and for which the royal proclamation of 1763 provided; the other the location of Virginia treasury warrants, issued during the Revolution- ary struggle. These warrants were all assignable, and were for a long time the chief transferable value in the new coun- try. They presupposed the sovereignty of the King and of his political successor, the State of Virginia.
But the influx of population and the avidity with which the better lands were sought suggested again the old ques- tion of title, and a party of agitators soon began to make head, contending that with the achievement of American independence the ownership of all the vacant and unoccu- pied lands devolved upon the United States in exclusion of State claim. In support of this theory, which struck at the root of all land titles in the West, its advocates reproduced and amplified the argument of Tom Paine against the Vir- ginia title, and in favor of treating the northwest country as a fund to pay their Revolutionary War debt."
I Writings of Thomas Paine: " Public Good, being an Examination into the Claim of Virginia to the vacant Western Territory, etc." (1780), p. 41. This paper very strongly disputed the Virginia claim. It advocated the establishment of a new State "between the Alleghany Mountains and the river Ohio as far north as the Pennsylvania line, thence down said river to the falls thereof, thence due south into the latitude of the North Carolina line, and thence east to the Alleghany Mountains aforesaid " (pp. 36, 37). This would have included all Kentucky east of Louisville-already occupied and politically organized as a county of Virginia,
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They noisily argued that all the Virginia patents were void, and all her legislation and the proceedings of the land commission mere nullities. Two apostles of this theory were especially conspicuous, one Galloway, in Fayette, and George Pomeroy, in Jefferson. Their following was the body of the landless or land speculating, and they seem to have played the demagogue with much success. All land owners were alarmed and the country put into a ferment by Pomeroy's repeated assertions that he had news of Con- gress' action annulling all the Kentucky claims and assum- ing the ownership of the soil; and even more, by the actual appropriation of lands by those who affected to believe the rumor. Walker Daniel, attorney for the District of Kentucky, very cleverly declined to argue the question of Virginia's title, but taking advantage of the untrue assertion by Pome- roy, that Congress had assumed paramount title, indicted the champions under an ancient colonial statute of Virginia lev- eled against the spreaders of false news.' A conviction fol- lowed, and a fine of two thousand pounds of tobacco was in- flicted, with a requirement of surety for good behavior in the future.2 The treatment was effectual. No new disturber arose.
" This statute, "Divulgers of False News," is the eleventh in order of colonial enactments, and the first of a civil nature. The ten older colonial acts relate exclus- ively to glebes, tithes, and the establishment of the State religion.
2 Letters of Walker Daniel to Governor Harrison, January 19th and May 21, 1784. (Virginia Calendar of State Papers, Vol. III, pp. 555 and 584.) The record of Pomeroy's conviction is preserved at Louisville in the County Court.
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
The Agitation for Separate Political Organization.
The subdivision of Kentucky into three counties and its organization into a district for judicial purposes tended greatly to stimulate immigration. There was enough of settled civic life to convince new adventurers that order was emerging from the desperate border warfare that had for years prevailed. There was a new land opened for those whose fortunes had been impaired or ruined in the Revolu- tionary struggle, and a new field for the ambitious and enter- prising youth just disbanded from the continental army. So rapid was the influx that the inconvenience of remote legis- lative and executive authority began to be sensibly felt. The new and strange surroundings required adaptations of laws and exercises of executive power differing greatly from those that quite suited the older communities of the parent com- monwealth.
Delegates sent to Williamsburg lost touch of their con- stituents. They found it difficult to engage the attention of the Virginia burgesses in matters that were of pressing im- portance to the West.
Executive authority for action, urgently and vitally nec- essary, could not be procured in time to avert public evils or
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
pursue with promptitude measures that could not safely be neglected.1
The years 1783 and 1784 made plain to the people of Ken- tucky the absolute necessity of a distinct State organization.2
A threatened incursion of the Cherokees, whose princi- pal towns were upon the since immortalized stream of Chick- amauga, suggested to Col. Benjamin Logan the necessity of concerted action throughout the District. He had been one of the foremost men of the new country since 1775. His station of St. Asaph (near the present town of Stanford) had been established soon after James Harrod had erected the first cabin in the wilderness. A long experience of frontier life had made him perfectly familiar with Indian warfare and keenly appreciative of the methods that pioneers must use. For years he had been lieutenant of his county and colonel of the militia, and his name was a synonym for courage, prudence, and probity.
" The difficulties and dangers of travel between Kentucky and Virginia are admir- ably set forth in Capt. Thomas Speed's account of "The Wilderness Road," in the publications of the Filson Club. It is there mentioned as late as 1792 the route of Capt. Van Cleve from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) to Philadelphia, when proceeding under orders "with all despatch," was by way of Lexington, Crab Orchard, Cumber- land Gap, Powell's Valley, Abingdon, Botetourt, Lexington and Staunton, in Virginia, Hagerstown, Maryland, and York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Speed, Wilderness Road, pp. 22, 23.) The distance thus traveled was not less than 826 miles-of which not less than 564 miles lay west of Staunton. See the table of distances given in Wil- derness Road, p. 17.
2 Marshall (History of Kentucky, ed. of 1812, p. 225, et seq.) gives, very well, the condition of affairs that impelled the Kentuckians to seek a separate State organization. The sentiment was evidently unanimous.
The Political Beginnings of Kentucky. 57
It seemed to Logan that the threatened danger would best be averted by striking the first blow, and that the Chero- kees should be attacked before they were ready to take the war-path. The urgency seemed all the greater, for he with others was convinced that the occasional forays from the northwest, as well as the meditated attack from the south, were fomented by British agents, who still occupied the un- surrendered posts along the lakes. The subsidies contrib- uted to Girty and McKee and other renegades strengthened this opinion. The presence of Col. Bird, an English officer, in the attack of 1781 had confirmed it.1
The Consultation of Militia Officers.
The urgency of the situation induced Logan to take the initiative in the necessary measure of a general convocation of the militia authorities of the District. He issued a call on his own responsibility for a meeting to be held in Novem- ber, 1784, at Danville, to which newly established "station " the District Court had already removed its sittings.
The militia officers who met in consultation in answer to Logan's call encountered practical embarrassments that
* Judge Walker, quoted by Prof. Hinsdale, has discovered the official list of sup- plies furnished for Col. Bird's expedition against the Kentucky settlements, and the bills rendered to the British Indian Department. Among the items is the significant one of 476 dozen scalping knives. (Hinsdale, Old Northwest, 158.)
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
seemed to abundantly justify the growing popular desire for an independent State organization. The occasion of their as- semblage was the threat of an Indian incursion in such force as would devastate the country. To await the enemy's com- ing was manifest unwisdom. But who was to authorize a levy of the militia and a march into the enemy's country, or lay a tax to support the troops?
There was no declared state of war, and consequently the county lieutenant possessed no statutory authority to call out the men or take measures to equip and supply them. These powers had lapsed with the promulgation of the peace with Great Britain.
There were no magazines of war material, nor any public funds. It was not possible to pledge the public credit, for there was no legislative power at hand to authorize it. In short there was no public machinery other than the meager authority of the county justices, limited as it was by the stat- utes erecting the counties, and that of the militia colonels now upon a peace footing. An executive or military act required first to be sanctioned by the Governor of Virginia. New and original powers could be had only from the legisla- ture at Williamsburg.
The meeting found it impossible to take the decisive action suggested by Logan. The counter-attack upon the Cherokees could not be made.
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
A further discussion awakened the minds of all to the growing needs of the new community and the serious incon- veniences that attended the care for ordinary and pressing public affairs. Not a ferry could be established, a village incorporated, or a necessary magisterial office created with- out the ruinous delay and cost attending a journey of peti- tioners to the eastern limits of Virginia.
The conference called for a single military purpose broad- ened into a consideration of the general political situation,1 and resulted in a unanimous conviction that the time had come when Kentucky should be erected into "a separate and independent State," and be incorporated as such into the American Union, with a local government of its own.
The suggestion was not entirely new. Already the in- conveniences of their situation had called forth a memorial bearing date 15th May, 1780, and signed by six hundred and seventy-two inhabitants of "the Countys`of Kaintuckey and Illinois," which had reached the Congress, carrying a prayer "that the Continental Congress will take Proper Methods to form us into a Separate State." It was premature, and the MS. slumbered, neither noted in the journals or indexed in the papers of Congress, until recently brought to light.2
1 Littell, Political Transactions in and Concerning Kentucky, 16; Marshall, History of Kentucky, ed. 1812, 227; Butler, History of Kentucky, 145.
2 The manuscript is No. 48 of the series of papers of the old Congress, preserved in the State Department at Washington. It was discovered by Hon. Theodore Roose- velt, who kindly informed the writer.
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
It was determined, therefore, that a movement should be inaugurated looking to this end, and with due regard to orderly procedure it was recommended to the people at large that representatives be elected-one from each militia com- pany-to meet in convention at Danville in the coming month to deliberate upon the condition of the District and suggest a remedy for the difficulties.
The Convention of Militia Delegates.
The proposition met with general acceptance. The com- panies were notified and chose their representatives, and these assembled on 27th December, 1784, at Danville.
The sessions were prolonged through ten days. William Fleming, an influential citizen, presided, and Thomas Todd, afterward a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was secretary of the convention.
By far the larger number of the delegates were natives of Virginia, and bound to the ancient Commonwealth by ties of affection and interest. They met without any feeling of animosity or estrangement from the parent State, and con- ducted all their proceedings and debates with a moderation and decorum that has extorted a compliment from an un- friendly historian.1
I Marshall, History of Kentucky, ed, of 1812, 228.
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The convention agreed that very many of the inconven- iences that oppressed their people might be removed by action on the part of the legislature of Virginia. There were, however, evils inseparably connected with their remote and detached situation which plainly could not be cured until Kentucky was provided with its own government. A multi- tude of considerations enforced this conclusion. And it was considered that the suggestion could not give offense to Virginia, because her Constitution, adopted in 1776, pro- vided in its twenty-first article for the establishment and government of new territories westward of the Alleghany Mountains.1
But the delegates, bearing in mind that they were but representatives of their respective militia companies, chosen without formal warrant of law, abstained from any action that might seem to transcend their special powers, and con- tented themselves with a recommendation that a convention be held in the coming spring (1785), to which delegates should be sent instructed to consider the propriety of an application to the legislature of Virginia for an act estab- lishing the independent State of Kentucky.
I"The western and northern extent of Virginia shall, in all other respects, stand as fixed by the charter of King James the First, in the year one thousand six hundred and nine, and by the public treaty of peace between the Courts of Great Britain and France, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three, unless by act of legis- lature one or more territories shall hereafter be laid off and governments established westward of the Alleghany Mountains." (9 Hening, Statutes at Large, 118.)
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The Political Beginnings of Kentucky.
The choice of these delegates, they advised, should be made by the people at a civic vote to be taken at the April court days (1785) of the several counties. It was thought that ample time would thus be given for preliminary discus- sion, and the best opportunity afforded for expression of popular opinion."
The reasons for this recommendation and the details of a plan of procedure were disseminated in conversations and by written circulars, for as yet there was not a print- ing press within the District, and the suggestion met with such general favor that by a very full vote a body of twenty-six delegates were selected on the basis of an ap- proximate representation of the population of the three counties.3
I The minutes of the convention of 27th December, 1784, are given by Crevecœur. ( Lettres d'un Cultivateur Americain, Vol. III, p. 438.) They are not to be found else- where. The seven resolutions adopted declared : (1) The many inconveniences, civil and military, that resulted from the distance from the seat of government ; (2) The propriety of considering the formation of a new State, and its admission to the Union ; (3) The calling of a convention to consider that matter; (4) That representation should be based on freehold population ; (5) That 12 delegates from Lincoln, 8 from Fayette, and 8 from Jefferson should be chosen; (6) Who should be elected in April and convene in May; (7) And that the people be enjoined to choose for delegates their best men.
2 The establishment of a printing press was invited by the trustees of the village of Lexington, who, in July, 1786, offered the use of a public lot to John Bradford for that purpose. From this press the first number of the " Kentucky Gazette" appeared on IIth August, 1787. Mr. W. H. Perrin, of the Filson Club, has collected the history of the Kentucky press in his "Pioneer Press of Kentucky," Filson Club Publications No. 3.
3 Marshall, History of Kentucky, ed. of 1812, 230.
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The Convention of may, 1785.
The representatives thus chosen met 'in convention at Danville on the 23d May, 1785. By the terms of their elec- tion they were intrusted in behalf of their fellow citizens with the duty of deliberating upon the general political situ- ation, and they felt themselves authorized by the popular voice, expressed in the only form then practicable, to inau- gurate the movement for an orderly and legal constitution of a new State.
It was a noteworthy feature of this convention, as indeed of all the gatherings of the pioneers, that the utmost deco- rum, moderation, and adherence to parliamentary procedure was observed. A deliberate civility and a certain character- istic formality had come with them from their native Vir- ginia and impressed itself upon all their proceedings.
It is interesting to follow the story of those early assem- blies. They illustrate some of the finest characteristics of the men who made the new State. They vindicate, as will be shown, the consistent and loyal purpose that animated them, and establish against detraction and envy the purity and wisdom not less than the sagacity and perseverance of the builders of the Commonwealth.
The convention spent an entire week in preliminary inter- change of views. It was not until the calmest survey of the
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situation had been had that the first declarative resolution was adopted. On the ninth day of the session (31st May, 1785) it was
" Resolved unanimously, as the opinion of this committee, That a peti- tion be presented to the Assembly, praying that the said district may be established into a State, separate from Virginia.
" Resolved unanimously, as the opinion of this committee, That this dis- trict when established into a State ought to be taken into union with the United States of America, and enjoy equal privileges in common with the said States."
And further, by way of recommendation to their constitu- ents, it was
"Resolved, That this convention recommend it to their constituents to elect deputies in their respective counties, to meet at Danville on the sec- ond Monday of August next, to serve in convention, and to continue by adjournment till the first day of April next, to take further under their con- sideration the state of the district.
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