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 8
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the Western parts of Europe shall be engaged in war. notwithstanding the aversion of the courts of London & Versailles to war, it is not certain that some incident may not engage them in it. England, France, Spain, Russia, Sweden, & Denmark will all have fleets at sea, or ready to put to sea immediately. who can answer for the prudence of their officers? War is their interest ; even their courts are pacific from impotence only, not from disposition. I wish to heaven that our new government may see the im- portance of putting themselves immediately into a respectable position ; to make provision for the speedy payment of their foreign debts will be the first operation necessary. This will give them credit. A concomitant one should be magazines & manufactures of arms. this country is at present in a crisis of very uncertain issue. I am in hopes it will be a favorable one to the rights & happiness of the people; and that this will take place quietly. small changes in the late regulations will render them wholly good. the campaign opens between the Turks and the two empires with an aspect rather favorable to the former. the Russians seem not yet thawed from the winter's torpitude. they have no army yet in motion, and the Emperor has been worsted in two-thirds of the small actions which they have had as yet. he is said to be rather retiring. I do not think, however, that the success of the Turks in the partisan affairs which have taken place can authorize us to presume that they will be superior also in great decisions. their want of discipline and skill in military manoeuvers is of little consequence in small engagements & of great in larger ones. their grand army was at Adrianople by the last accounts, and to get from thence to Belgrade will require a month. it will be that time at least then before we can have any very interesting news from them-in the meantime the plague rages at Con- stantinople to a terrible degree. I can not think but that it would be desir- able to all commercial nations to have that nation & all its dependencies driven from the sea-coast into the interior parts of Asia & Africa. What a field would thus be restored to commerce ? the finest parts of the old world are now dead in a great degree to commerce, the arts, to science & to society. Greece, Syria, Egypt, & the northern coast of Africa constituted the whole world almost for the Romans, and to us they are scarcely known, scarcely
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accessible at all-the present summer will enable us to judge what turn this contest will take.
"I am greatly anxious to hear that nine states accept our new constitu- tion. We must be contented to accept of its good, and to cure what is evil in it hereafter. It seems necessary for our happiness at home; I am sure it is so for our respectability abroad. I shall at all times be glad to hear from you, from New York, from Kentucky, or whatever region of the earth you inhabit, being with sentiments of very sincere esteem & attach- ment, Dear Sir,
" Your friend & servant,
"TH. JEFFERSON. " The honble
"JOHN BROWN, EsQ."
The sentiments avowed by Brown, and because of which he had been returned as a delegate to Congress, revived and strengthened the old confidential relations between himself and Madison. The latter returned from New York to Vir- ginia to supervise the campaign for the adoption of the new Constitution and assist in the return of members to the Vir- ginia convention called to pass upon the question of rati- fication. -
The elections were ordered for April. The intervening time was full of activity and anxiety. Brown's advices from home were that Kentucky would choose delegates favoring ratification. Madison wrote him that the outlook was favor- able, but that he had reason to think that the former unan- imity in Kentucky was being disturbed by objectors.' Innes
1 Madison to Brown, 9th April, 1788, MS,
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wrote hopefully to his brother, the Attorney General of Vir- ginia. The result of the elections was a disappointment in two ways. The friends of the new Constitution had largely relied on the votes of Kentucky to give them a majority, and had distrusted their chances of success in the counties of Virginia where Patrick Henry, William Grayson, Benjamin Harrison, and George Mason championed the opposition. The opponents of the Constitution relied on the Virginia vote, and especially the counties along the Blue Ridge. They took little heed of the delegation from Kentucky.
As the returns came in, the anxiety of each party in- creased, for all calculations were at fault. Madison gained hope for the cause that had seemed desperate. His first let- ter to Brown after the returns began to come in has recently come to light. It is as follows :
" Dear Sir :
" ORANGE, April 9, 1788.
"The returns of our elections as far as they are published have raised somewhat the hopes of the friends of the Constitution. Those who are best informed think the adverse party will be outnumbered at the start. It seems pretty clear now that in point of character the advantage will be on the federal side. The three chancellors are elected and are to be included in the description. So are Innes, Marshall, Nicholas, Corbin, Ga. Jones, Zach'y Johnson, Stuart, White, Walter Jones, and probably a number of others in counties not yet heard from. The principal characters on the opposite side are only Henry, Mason, Harrison, Tyler, & Mr. Smith, who will be reinforced by a few secondary characters of some influence. I say nothing of the Governor; because it is not yet certain which party will
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have most of his aid, nor of Monroe, whose precise sentiments are not gen- erally known. If I mistake not, he will be found not an enemy to the Constitution. A good deal may depend on the vote of Kentucky on the question. I have taken the liberty of stating to several gentlemen in that quarter my opinion that the constitutional impediments to improper meas- ures relating to the Mississippi will be greater as well as the pretexts for them less under the new than the existing system; and that the former alone can promise any effectual measures either in favor of that object, or of a dispossession of the English of the posts, an object of still more im- mediate consequence perhaps to the District. I understand that hitherto the people there have been friendly to the Constitution. According to cur- rent report, a division of opinions is extending itself to them. I have not heard much from the counties on the western side of the Alleghany. The counties between that and the Blue Ridge have, without an exception I believe, elected federal members. The main body of the antifederalists lies, as was conjectured, on the south side of James River. There appears, however, to be much less unanimity even there than was feared. Very low down the counties have chosen federalists.
" Present my compliments to the family if you please, and particularly to Gen'l Irvine & Col. Reed, if they be still a part of it.
" With very sincere esteem and regard, I am, Dear Sir,
"Your ob't friend & serv't,1 "J'S. MADISON, JR."
The news from Kentucky, that her fourteen delegates were unfriendly to the Constitution, was quickly communi- cated by Brown from New York to Madison, still at his home in Virginia. In the same letter was conveyed a request from Brown that Madison should prepare a sketch for a Constitu-
I Madison to Brown, 9th April, 1788, MS. The original MS. is in the writer's pos- session.
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tion of the new State of Kentucky, already provided for, as has been seen, now awaiting only formal admission to the Union by vote of the Congress.
On the eve of the assembling of the Virginia Convention Madison wrote in reply as follows:
"Dear Sir :
" ORANGE, May 27, 1788.
" I am much obliged by your favor of the 12th instant, and particularly by the documents covered by it.
"Similar information to that you recite from Kentucky had reached us from the same quarter. Having not heard of the meeting for instructions being actually held, I indulge some hopes that it may not have taken place, and that the delegates will bring to the Convention no other fetters than those of prejudice. I have endeavored to calculate with as much accuracy as possible the comparative merit of the new & old system in relation to the Mississippi, and cannot but persuade myself that if the vote of Kentucky should turn on that point her intelligent & candid friends will embrace the Constitution. There are considerations both of a general nature and pecu- liar to the Western interest, which, in my opinion, recommend the same policy. It gives me a great deal of pleasure and no small hopes to find that you view the matter in the same light that I do, and that the confidence reposed in your judgment on the question by the members from that district will be made use of on the side wished by the federalists. The unfortunate turn given to the Kentucky elections has not yet extinguished the hopes of this part of the community, nor the fears of their rivals. The calculations which are generally made leave rather a balance, but a very minute one, on the federal scale, after adding Kentucky to the opposite one. But the issue must be somewhat uncertain where the data are so far from being clear & precise and the calculations so nice & tickleish.
"I am anxious that the decision of Congress on the subject of Ken- tucky may be speedy and conciliatory. It will co-operate persuasively with
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the arguments and with the delegates from that Quarter, and in my opinion is in every respect desirable. The request made on the subject of constitution for the new state needed no apology. Nothing would give me more pleas- ure than to throw in my ideas towards so important a work were it within the compass of practicability. But under present circumstances I can promise nothing of that sort. I did not receive your letter till the day before yesterday; I have been occupied with company and other matters since, and shall not have a moment's leisure before I set off for Richmond. At that place I shall not probably be able to attend to any subject distinct from the one under deliberation. By the end of the convention, if no other difficulties were in the way, the season would be past. Had I rec'd your letter ten days sooner I would at least have attempted some outlines. I shall have an opportunity in Richm'd of conversing with the members from Kentucky; and if this subject sho'd be introduced I shall be very ready to suggest hints that may occur.
" With sincere esteem and regard I am, Dr Sr, "Yrs affec'y, "J. MADISON, JR.
" Give my regards to Col. Carrington, to whom I s'd write, had I any thing worth saying to him. Give them also to Mr. Elsworth & Mr. Harmar and the rest of the family, if it retains any other of my acquaintance." I
And so Madison went off to attend the convention at Richmond, and Brown addressed himself to the task of get- ting passed through Congress the measure admitting Ken- tucy to the Union, and which since March had been stifled in committee.2
The vote by which Virginia, and with it the District of
I Madison to Brown, 27th May, 1788, MS. The original MS. is in the writer's pos- session.
2 Journals of Congress, Vol. IV, pp. 811-819.
.
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Kentucky, adopted the Federal Constitution, did not pass until 26th June, 1788.
The debates in convention were earnest and impassioned throughout its session. The opponents of the Federal Con- stitution insisted that its ratification would be followed by a surrender of the Mississippi, and studiously kept alive the apprehensions of the Kentuckians. They prophesied, too, that a renewed union of Church and State was inevitable, and especially aroused the alarm of the Baptists, now grown numerous, with obscure suggestions that times were to be once more as they were before the statute of religious equality. Behind these false fears were the potent names of Henry, Lee, Grayson, and Harrison, strenuously objecting on more solid grounds to the unamended Constitution.'
The efforts of the friends of the proposed Constitution were equally strenuous. The debate led by Madison and Pendleton was, as Bancroft observes, "well seconded by George Nicholas, John Marshall, James Innes, Henry Lee, and Francis Corbin."2 Their correspondence was incessant with those who could aid in forming public opinion or en- forcing the arguments they suggested, or counteracting the suggestions that inflamed popular alarm. George Nicholas
" The general estimate of Patrick Henry's statesmanship will be higher when the fact is recognized that ten of the twelve imperfections which he attributed to the Fed- eral Constitution were admitted, and were cured by immediate amendment. (See Tyler's Patrick Henry, 316.)
1 Bancroft, History of the Constitution, Vol. II, p. 315,
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had not yet made Kentucky his home, but relatives and friends had preceded him thither, and these he plied with all his arguments. James Innes was in constant correspond- ence with his brother, Harry Innes, at Danville, and kept him informed of all that was done, and of all the hopes and fears of the friends of the Constitution. John Marshall had been the agent of the District of Kentucky before the legis- lature of Virginia, and he, it seems, consulted with Samuel McDowell, the stated chairman of the Kentucky conven- tions.
The embarrassments of the Spanish Minister, Gardoqui, meantime, were very serious. His perplexities daily increased. He labored under difficulties that might well have caused him to despair of success in his diplomacy, even had its direct objective point been well settled in his own mind or indicated by his government. Copies of Gardoqui's dis- patches to his government and of the communications be- tween him and Galvez, Cespides, and Miro, during the entire period of his mission, have been recently permitted to be made from the originals in the royal archives. Among them are the secret papers intended only for the private inspection of the King and Count Floridablanca."
I Hon. J. L. M. Curry, Minister of the United States to the Court of Spain, most obligingly induced the Spanish authorities to permit copies to be taken for the writer of this paper. The documents are voluminous, filling six MS. volumes. In peint of ability they are disappointing; nor is the historical light they shed proportioned to their bulk,
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How ill-digested was Gardoqui's plan-if plan it can be called-is best seen from these.
The ill success of the first project of treaty sketched by Jay and Gardoqui disconcerted the Spanish envoy. He had come to America fully imbued with that idea, which he frequently cited as being fundamental in Spanish policy, that the commerce of the king's colo- nial possessions must be inexorably interdicted to all for- eigners.
The application of this doctrine to the navigation of the Mississippi would clearly exclude the inhabitants of the West, those about the sources of the Ohio, those whose fortunes were cast in the Marietta colony, the Kentuckians, and the frontiersmen of Frankland and Cumberland, from access with their products to the outer world.
The alarm sounded by Muter, Brown, Innes, and Sebas- tian,' in their circular letter of 29th March, 1787, had de- feated the scheme of relinquishing for the space of twenty- five years all claim on the part of the United States of right to navigate the river to the Gulf.
Brown, representing Kentucky as a Senator in the Vir- ginia Assembly, procured from it the emphatic declaration of 26th November, 1786, already mentioned :
1 Littell's Political Transactions, Appendix VIII, No. 2, p. 19.
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" Resolved unanimously, That the free use and navigation of the west- ern streams and rivers of this Commonwealth, and of the waters leading into the sea, do of right appertain to the citizens thereof, and ought to be considered as guaranteed to them by the laws of God and nature as well as compact."
Congress at a later date took cognizance of the rumor, upon motion of the delegates from North Carolina, and put a stop to all negotiations with Spain, declaring by resolution that the report of an intent or disposition to surrender claim to the navigation of the Mississippi was not founded on fact, and that the delegates were at liberty to make public all cir- cumstances of the negotiations. By further vote it adopted the report of its committee, Madison, Hamilton, William- son, and Dane,' and
.
" Resolved, That the free navigation of the river Mississippi is a clear and essential right of the United States, and that the same ought to be con- sidered and supported as such.
" Resolved, That no further progress be made in the negotiations with Spain by the Secretary for Foreign Affairs; but that the subject to which they relate be referred to the federal government which is to assemble in March next." 2
The Spanish Minister found himself environed with dif- ficulties that threatened a failure of all diplomatic arrange-
I Gardoqui to Floridablanca, No. 306, 24th October, 1788; Madison to Brown, MS., 26th September, 1788.
2 The resolutions, as well as an excellent preliminary sketch of the respective atti- tudes of Gardoqui and Jay, and a statement of the Spanish claim are to be found in Trescot, Diplomatic History, 49.
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ments. The settled policy of his government and its con- stantly asserted claim of sovereignty over the Mississippi alike forbade a concession by treaty of the right of naviga- tion. His own course for the past three years had committed him fully to that position, and Spanish pride barred any re- consideration. But he was confronted with dangers of armed movement in the west against Natchez, New Orleans, and perhaps even against New Mexico,' a danger imminent and serious, and likely to result in loss of territory and prestige, as Navarro had already so forcibly demonstrated in his dis- patches.2 Clark and his Kentucky troops had already seized Spanish posts and confiscated Spanish munitions.3 The English, still supposing that the sources of the Mississippi lay north of the boundaries defined by their treaty with the United States, showed every disposition to assert for their trade a right of water transportation to the Gulf of Mexico,
I Gardoqui to Cespides, Ist August, 1787: "La arrogancia y liberdad con que ulti- mamente se han explicado, en gazetas y cartas, los habitantes de los nuevos establici mientos sobre las orillas del Ohio y imediaciones al Misisipi me obligan a reiterar lo mucho que dicta la prudencia, el que todas nuestras fronteras se pongan en estado de mayor respecto."
^ Gardoqui had already ascertained Washington's views of the situation of affairs in the West, and had advised his government of the collision that Washington feared. He quotes Washington as saying of the frontiersmen in effect that they were bold, strong, and insubordinate, and likely to exact what they reckoned a right whether accorded by Spain or denied: "La emigracion a aquel rio es asombrosa, especialmente de aquellas classes de gentes que no estan muy subordinadas a la ley y buen gobernio. Que la prohivicion de la corte de Espana sea justa o injusta politica, o de otra manera, no sera facil contener a esta clase de gentes el que se priben del goce de suo utilidades naturales." (Gardoqui to Galvez, 23d August, 1785.)
3 Gardoqui to Floridablanca, confidential No. 16, 12th May, 1787: "Se han apode- rado del Fuerte o Puesto San Vincent y continuan robos y otros desordenes,"
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and it was not difficult to see that they might foment the American claim, or even assist it, in the hope of their own advantage. And the Governor of Louisiana had already given a seeming acquiescence to the American claim by the trade permit which Wilkinson held.
The express resolution of Virginia and the debates in her convention, together with the general evidence of popu- lar opinion, demonstrated that the right to navigate the Mis- sissippi would never be surrendered by separate communities or the united Commonwealths.
Moreover, the Spanish officials were at cross-purposes. The governing mind of Galvez no longer exercised the wise control of former years. He had gone to his viceroyalty of Mexico. Jealousies sprang up and increased between Miro and Gardoqui, and it is not clear that the clash of pecuniary interest did not make them mistrust one another.
The Colony of New Madrid.
In this dilemma Gardoqui resolved to adopt a plan that promised, if not a solution of the problem, at least a post- ponement to more favorable times of that irritating question, the export of western produce down the Mississippi.
He hit upon the expedient of a free port upon the banks of the Mississippi, where a colony of Americans established
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in the king's territory might intervene between the distinctly separated and antagonistic communities to its north and south.
It was this modus vivendi that brought about the founding of New Madrid by Morgan and his New Jersey colonists.
Col. George Morgan, after serving through the Revolu- tionary War, had resumed his residence near Princeton, New Jersey. His earlier life had been one of adventure. He had wandered as far west as Kaskaskia many years before the Revolutionary War, and he and his father-in-law had vaguely located an immense land claim in that vicinity.' He re- tained his love for frontier life. His education was liberal and his talents good, but he was an inveterate speculator, had twice been bankrupt, and was then in straitened circum- stances. He conceived the idea of planting a colony upon his old British grant of land including Cahokia and Kaskas- kia, and for the confirmation of it he petitioned the Conti- nental Congress. In urging his scheme upon the members of Congress, Morgan spent much of the earlier portion of the year 1788 in New York. The committee charged with consideration of his plan reported to Congress2 some very
I Morgan and his father-in-law, Buynton, together with Wharton, were trading from Fort Pitt to Kaskaskia and its vicinity in 1766. They are frequently mentioned by Matthew Clarkson in his journal of a trip made in that year from Philadelphia to Kas- kaskia. An imperfect copy of this journal is given by Schoolcraft. (Indian Tribes, Vol. IV, p. 265.) A perfect MS. copy is in Col. Durrett's collection.
Journals of Congress, Vol. IV, p. 823, 20th June, 1788.
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necessary modifications looking to the protection of the titles of such as already held lands derived from old French grants within his demarkation. Legislation moved slowly, the more so because the old system was on the eve of its dissolution, and there was a general feeling that important matters should be remitted as far as could be to the action of the new Congress that was to convene in the coming March under the Federal Constitution.
The reckless speculator, with characteristic impatience, abandoned his application to Congress and speedily con- cluded an arrangement with Gardoqui.
The Spanish Minister had seen much of Morgan and was greatly impressed with his activity and intelligence, and the general esteem shown him by leading men. He avowedly abandoned in this case his favorite maxim that every man should be distrusted, and (as he afterward wrote to his gov- ernment) admitted that he gave to Morgan his entire con- fidence.1
The plan of a colony within the Spanish territory had been discussed (as may be inferred) between Gardoqui and Morgan about the beginning of the year 1788; for before the summer had passed the general subject of attracting
I " Confieso a V. E. ingenuamente que partiendo sobre el principio de disconfiar de todos, si algun sujeto me merece algun credito, es este de quien trato, por que su carac- ter de honorado y habil lo confirman todos a una voz." (Gardoqui to Floridablanca, No. 296, 24th October, 1788.)
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American settlers had been presented to his government by Gardoqui, and such indications of the royal opinion received as made him confident of the approval which he afterward received.
The proposition of Morgan contemplated a grant to him and his associates of an immense body of land on the west bank of the Mississippi River, extending back and westward through two degrees of longitude, and having a river front from Cape Cinque Hommes to the mouth of the St. Francis. Within this territory the empresario was to plant thousands of laborers, farmers, and artisans, and to found the town of New Madrid.
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