USA > Kentucky > The story of Kentucky > Part 5
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Yet had we lived in those trying times of indis- criminate butchery, we, too, perhaps, might have been more deeply stirred by the murder of parents or children, than by even the extinction of a race. So, while we pity the untaught, hardly-used Indian, let us also pity the sorely-beset pioneer who, however roughly, smoothed the way for us. Few of them reaped any reward for their labors.
The Kentuckians' struggle with the Indians was scarcely more strenuous than that with the Gov- ernment. In 1789 we still find them resolving to be free ; petitioning Congress for admission into the Union, and demanding the free navigation of the Mississippi. Great dissatisfaction prevailed, industriously cultivated by General Wilkinson and a few other political agitators, who craved a sensation and increased their personal notoriety.
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Letters were circulated breathing defiance against the Government and hinting at an alliance with Spain, or England. Articles of the same tone crept into the Kentucky Gazette,* which had been established in '77 for the purpose of "insuring unanimity in the opinions of the people respecting the separation from Virginia."
In view of the negligent and dilatory way in which questions that were of vital importance to them had been treated by the Eastern authorities, it is not to be wondered at that they should be dissatis- fied. And when John Jay of New York, Secretary of State, proposed the session of their right in the Mississippi to Spain, when seven Northern States voted for it - to Spain, who seized every craft that ventured on that stream, confiscated its cargo, and imprisoned every man she could lay hands on -- who could blame the Kentuckians for feeling aggrieved and resentful ?
What did Congress mean by wanting to lock them in and give their enemy the key ?
Long afterward they learned how much better Mr. Jay understood the Spanish Government than they themselves; schooled by his years of official connection with Spain he had forescen the long and bitter struggle which must have followed any
* This pioneer newspaper of the West was published by John Bradford and his sons, Daniel and Fielding, until 1840; when it was bought by Joshua Cunningham of Louisville, and continued until 1944, when its publication was discontinued.
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such demands ; a struggle for which they were but ill-prepared. They learned, too, that Washington, Henry Lee and other statesmen had hoped, by temporary separation from the South and West, to draw Kentucky - estranged from long neglect - into closer relations with the Atlantic States.
The Kentuckians met again in convention at Danville, and passed more resolutions; this time relative to forming an independent government. Mr. John Brown, an educated Virginia gentleman, had been appointed a delegate to Congress ; he was the first and only one from Kentucky before the adoption of the Federal Constitution. He wrote to Judges Muter and McDowell that there was little hope at present of Kentucky's admission into the Union ; the Spanish Minister, he said, had offered Kentucky the free navigation of the Missis- sippi if she would form herself into an independent government. Otherwise they were assured it could never be granted.
This offer Judge Muter believed to have been made at the suggestion of General Wilkinson. The general had recently returned, in great state, from New Orleans, "riding in a chariot drawn by four horses and accompanied by several servants." He had taken much credit to himself for having secured permission to sell produce in the South. By vague threats and exaggerated representation of the blood.
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thirsty character of the Kentuckians, and of his own influence over them, he had secured for him- self the freedom of the river, and had opened a regular and profitable traffic with New Orleans. As he bought tobacco by the hundred weight at. two dollars and sold it in New Orleans for nine dollars and fifty cents it is easy to see how General Wilkinson was enabled to " set up an ostentatious establishment and dispense a lavish hospitality."
Colonel Thomas Marshall and Judge Muter both charged General Wilkinson, who urged the forma- tion of a separate government, with illegal relations with the Spanish authorities, and Judge Muter addressed a letter to the Kentucky Gazette warn- ing the people of the treasonable nature of such a proceeding. Nothing could be done, he assured them, against the wishes of Virginia, of which State they were still a part, without rendering themselves liable to the charge of high treason.
As Judge Muter was chief justice of the district this statement of the case drew the party line. A majority of the legal fraternity declared in favor of " violent separation," and became known as the "court party," while the other side took the name of " country party." The leaders of the "court party " were Wilkinson, Brown, Sebastian and Innes; of the "country party" Marshall, Muter, Crockett and Edwards.
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About this time Connolly, coming to Louisville to inquire about his " escheated " lands, was repre- sented by Wilkinson, whom he visited, as an English spy who, hearing of the disaffection in Kentucky, had come with advantageous offers from the Eng- lish Government. Wilkinson's previous misrepre- sentations however, had tended to weaken popular faith in this statement, and no one seemed entirely assured of the real nature of Connolly's visitation. At any rate it was barren of obvious results, per- sonal or official.
On the fourth day of February, 1791, Congress passed an act admitting Kentucky into the Union as a State ; her long struggle for independence was ended, and the "court" and "country " parties ceased to exist. General Wilkinson was afterward appointed lieutenant-colonel in the army (" because," so Mr. Marshall tells us, " his employment by the Government was necessary to public safety "), and Mr. Brown was continued in the United States Senate for eighteen years. It would therefore seem that their "treasonable views " were not seriously considered by either the people or the Government. Indeed, Mr. Brown was fully exon- erated by his friend Mr. Madison.
Danville seems to have been at this time the political centre of the State. All of the ten con- ventions relating to the formation of the State were
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held at Danville. The record of the Political Club which met there from 1786 to 1790 would compare favorably with that of any club of the present day; exhibiting a remarkable intelligence and knowl- edge of statescraft, considering the conditions under. which it existed.
On May 3, 1792, Isaac Shelby, "the declared governor," passed through Danville on his way to Lexington. At that place on the following day. the machinery of Kentucky's State Government was formally set in motion, with A. S. Bullitt President of the Senate and Robert Breckenridge Speaker of the House.
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The first General Assembly met at Lexington, June 4, 1792. On December 5 Frankfort was se- lected as the most desirable place for the seat of government. It was a picturesque little city nestled down among the green encircling hills, and sur- rounded by a scenery that has attracted the atten- tion of distinguished poets and artists at home and abroad.
All this time the tomahawk and firebrand flour- ished industriously. But have not we had enough of war? We will pass by Harmar's fruitless expe- dition, the destructive campaign of Wilkinson (through which the savages lost their villages and crops, and were reduced to a state of destitution terrible to contemplate), and the yet more fearful
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retaliation of the exasperated Indians who fell upon St. Clair's army sent to exterminate them, with a fury which nearly swept away his entire force and threw the whole country into mourning for the brave six hundred who perished.
Neither were the old Indian fighters, Kenton, Logston, Boone and other prominent men idle. Kenton had become captain of a company and did good service in defense of his State. General Logan, too, Harry Innes and Isaac Shelby had each been most active in the military movements of the State. But Cabell, though he readily took part in any necessary defense, sought no official position, either military or civil. Quiet distaste for the smil- ing office-seeker was a traditional family trait. In politics he had taken part with the " country party."
We have no means of determining Cabell's state of mind after the discovery (which must soon have come) of the mental inferiority of the wife he had picked up in the wilderness. Her mind was hope- lessly choked by trivial thoughts and low aspira- Kons, and he must have spent many tedious hours in the vain effort to displace the worthless trumpery with better things. Dolly had not " turned out" an entirely satisfactory helpmeet; but there was no thought of the divorce courts. He had taken her for better or for worse.
Poor Dolly! a rose-draped cottage with real glass
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windows had not made of life the holiday which she had expected. The old roving gypsy life was more agreeable by far than was this lonely exist- ence in the wilderness facing the ever-present pros- pect of sudden and violent death.
There was nothing of the Westlake race in the two children, for which mercy Cabell thanked heaven daily; unless, possibly, in Freddie's strange cruelty to pets. Now and then, too, he caught a familiar look, a certain sullen. lowering expression which puzzled and distressed him. But the little Augusta, so startlingly like his own father, was
courageous as well as tender-hearted, and would always rescue the tortured pets, not minding her brother's angry blows. If she had met an Indian in the woods, Cabell doubted not she would have stamped her foot imperiously and exclaimed : " In- dian ! what you doin' in our woods ? Go straight home!"
" The children take after me in one pe'tickler," said Dolly complacently ; "they can't abide a book." It was one of Dolly's grievances that Cabell was " always poking over a book." He had brought a few with him, and had borrowed all he could find.
We have found, from the first, a few men of re- finement and culture. Doubtless their wives and daughters were not far behind them, though they have left no record in letters or diary, and are sel-
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cidaman
CABELL'S COTTAGE.
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dom mentioned, except as one, now and then, took a courageous part in an Indian fight. Doubtless they too knew of Hamlet, The Faerie Queene, Bacon's Essays and the Spectator, or at least of Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress and Saint's Rest - books which their fathers and husbands read with such keen zest.
Dolly, however, could see no good in books. You might as well have tried to explain the beau- ties of the Parthenon frieze to the crow who built her nest under the eaves, as to try to make Dolly see any virtue in book-learning. " Pap' got through the worl' without it, an' they ain't no use in bein' any better'n pap." "Pap's " faults had, happily, been buried with him. " Uncle Jeems," to Cabell's unspeakable relief, had never turned up.
But one day, coming home unexpectedly, he caught a glimpse of a man leaving the house hur- riedly, and Dolly's face at the window wore an anxious look. Dolly's ideas of veracity he had dis- covered, did not accord with his own, therefore he decided to investigate for himself. As the fugitive was lame, it was not long before Cabell had him fast. But at his first glimpse of that dogged coun- tenance he released his hold. It was Tuggs.
No word was spoken until Tuggs began to make off, when Cabell raised his gun : " If you move another step I'll shoot you !"
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"Don't shoot," cried Tuggs, pale with fear ; " I'm Dolly's uncle -a poor dyin' cripple ! I ain't done you fair, but I've suffered fer it. And I'll make it all up to you. Yes, I'm Jeems Westlake -a poor hunted wretch. You wouldn't let your wife's uncle be took to jail? An' I didn't do it, nohow. Dolly knows me, and Doily knows I wouldn't kill nobody."
Cabell had dropped his pistol and stood staring at Tuggs with gleaming eyes. If ever a creature deserved to be shot, it was Tuggs. A serpent, a soulless beast ! But by what authority dared he execute judgment on a fellow creature whom God allowed to live in his sins? And he was the long- expected " Uncle Jeems." The Westlake " mark " was only too apparent now. An icy thrill crept along Cabell's veins as he recognized in the face before him somewhat of the features and look of his own boy Freddie.
O yes ! a murderer, he had no doubt. An out- law and a criminal to the very marrow.
Sick and dizzy, he turned away. " Come to the house," he said, steadying himself with a great effort. He could not all at once see his real duty. But the man was ill; his face showed lines of real suffering. A. creature of the lowest type, a very viper, but even the Lord of the heavens is no respecter of persons.
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Never had Dolly seemed so dear to Cabell as when, beaming on them from the doorway, she cried out triumphantly. " I told Uncle Jeems you'd fergive him; but he wouldn't b'lieve me! Don't you see how much Freddie favors him?"
It was an assurance of rectitude which Cabell sorely needed to hold him steady to a course blindly chosen in the dark; which he continually needed in the ensuing dreadful days when Tuggs sat by his fireside and the boy Freddie gave daily evi- dence of moral as well as physical resemblance to that repulsive nature.
Unhappy child ! Was there no antidote to this poison in his veins? Suddenly, as he prayed, a light shone in upon his soul. "For even the chief of sinners " there was a glorious hope.
Thereafter every spare moment was spent in reading the Book of books to his children; in ex- plaining in his most winning tones how the King of Glory came and dwelt humbly in the midst of darkness, that even the vilest sinner might have the great light to walk by. And the look of won- dering interest with which Dolly, and even " Uncle Jeems," listened, showed Cabell how much he had been to blame for hiding away so long the pre- cious light.
But when he heard Dolly clumsily echoing his counsel to his boy, and even Tuggs trying pitifully
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to grope after him, and to help the little Freddie. he could have wept tears of gratitude at his narrow escape from an awful crime.
Three months afterward Cabell received a sum- mons home. His mother was dangerously ill and wanted to see her son once more. Leaving his family at the fort and his farm in charge of an overseer, he hastened to her bedside. She was still alive, and for weeks hovered on the brink of the unknown. Cabell wrote to Dolly and to his friend Harrod soon after his arrival, and in due time received a reply, dictated by Harrod.
" Your family have left the fort," ran the letter : " an officer came to arrest Jim Westlake for killin' a man at Philadelfy in '74. Westlake come to me and says, 'Shoot me, for I'm tired of livin',' and for the sake of Dolly and the children he didn't want to be hung. 'What,' I says, says I; 'and get hung myself ? No, sir,' says I, ' I can't run no sech resk for no man. But I can hide him,' says I, 'and tell the officers he was done gone over to Boones- boro'. Next day they all went back to the farm. Dolly says there's palisades all round the house and the overseer and niggers. Dolly says if we can't keep the blamed Indians off we ought to be killed."
Cabell wrote back imperatively that his family were to return to the fort at once. If " Uncle
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Jeems" wanted to stay at the farm he could do so. In a couple of weeks he followed the letter. His mother, to every one's surprise, was on the road to recovery.
Three weeks were consumed in the journey. . With him were two French gentlemen, rather shabby as to clothes, but very grand as to deportment. They spoke very broken English and were indiffer- ently mounted, but the cultured accent and a cer- tain suave graciousness of manner caused every one to recognize in them aristocratic refugees from the storm then sweeping France from end to end.
In 1775, when Kentucky was planting her foun- dation stones, the hunger-stricken drudges of France asked their lords for bread and were given " a brand- new gallows forty feet high." But the day at last had come when these downtrodden wretches had risen from their slush and rushed into history : had risen in their wrath, and were smashing to pieces a government which gave to one class all luxury, learning and leisure, to the other servi- tude, stupidity and squalor. In the great upheaval which ensued all that was bad came to the sur- face. France threw aside her cloak of piety - for a long while her religion had been a mere cloak for corruption and wickedness - and now revelled in a wild carnival of riot and bloodshed. Chris- tianity was abolished by law, and a "goddess of
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Reason " (the quality of which they possessed the least) substituted in its stead. Above the cemetery gates was written, " Death is an eternal sleep."
Upon this storm arose that slender, silent, fiery figure, Napoleon Bonaparte. It grew while it - lasted to such startling proportions, then sank like a meteor that is spent.
In the reign of terror which ensued eminent men, refined women, innocent children were dragged from their homes and brutally murdered. The king would have allayed the storm at any sacrifice. He meant well, but he had neither nerve nor brain to meet the crisis. Then he too fell. And so he per- ished ! a martyr, some historians tell us, to the cause of American liberty, whose success had inspired the uprising of his own people.
Many noblemen fled to America where Lafayette had made the class popular. Among these, some years later, came the Prince Louis Philippe, after- ward King of France. A friend had started a small school at Bardstown. This school afterward, under the auspices of the celebrated Bishop Flaget. developed into St. Joseph's College, and grew to be one of the important seats of education in the State. Here, in a building yet standing on the college grounds, the prince taught school for several months; in memory of which, when he was King of France, he sent the church a sweet-toned bell
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bearing the royal coat of arms and the two paint- ings, " The Crucifixion," by Van Bre of Antwerp. and "St. Francis," by Van Dyke. The paintings were subsequently demanded in Europe as belong- ing to the Conservatory of pictures by the old. masters, but the Pope settled the question in favor of the church at Bardstown.
The names of Cabell's companions are not known at the present day. They have merely come down to us as two noblemen of France. After their long and perilous journey through the wilderness we may safely picture their satisfaction upon being told that their journey was almost at an end. Soon the house, with roses growing against the sides, would burst upon their view. Ah! how pleasant it was to have a home, even in the wilderness.
But, what is this? Cabell stares with di- lated eyes, and his face suddenly blanches. Where is the house ? Surely he has not mis- taken the way. No, there is the orchard, the garden, the two tall elms standing like
DESOLATION.
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sentinels on guard. Wretched guard! where is that so sacredly entrusted to your keeping? No traces of a house are to be seen. Instead are three or four men strolling about in a desultory fashion, picking up nails and bits of broken pottery . from a pile of ashes.
In a very short time he knows all. Wife, chil- dren, home, all gone. It is no strange thing that has happened to him. The same had happened to many others. A hard blow, it is true; a crash rather. But he must bear it patiently. Others before him had borne it.
Cabell refused to return to the fort that night.
He would stay and watch for the fiends who had done all this. They might still be prowling around. No, he wanted no companion. Would some friend kindly take charge of the two strange gentlemen whom he had hoped to entertain ? They, too, had lost home and friends.
And so he was left alone.
For three days he lingered around the ruins of his home, but the savages did not return. Was this the same world? The sun still rose in golden glory and set in purple splendor; the moon and stars still held magnificent court; flowers bloomed. trees tossed their proud heads, the river sparkled on. Cruel Mother Nature, have you no heart ?
On the morning of the fourth day as Cabell sat
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listlessly on a log, he was startled into life by the sound of hasty footsteps. He kept perfectly mo- tionless. It was not the usual stealthy footstep of the Indian ; still, it might be one fleeing hot pursuit.
In a few minutes, to his amazement, Sam, his favorite slave, stood before him. "Miss Gussie's saved, Mas' Edmund!" he cried. "Little Miss is alive !"
Then he told his story. The attack had been made in the night. The weather was hot and Sam had slept on a pile of new-mown hay on the edge of the woods. When he awoke the house was in flames. All the family were inside, with doors and windows barred. But soon the windows were broken in, and he could see Tuggs and Dolly and Freddie, all fighting with all their might. He saw Dolly and Freddie fall, then Tuggs, still fighting like a hero. Then the Indians came pouring out, carry- ing furniture and dishes, and one with Augusta, who looked bewildered, as if just awakened. The savage put the child down, not far from where Sam lay concealed, and rushed back for more plunder. Sam seized the child and escaped into the woods. He ran until daylight and then, con- cealing Augusta among the leafy branches of a fallen tree, he gathered berries and roots to keep them from starving, hiding himself at every sound. The following night he lost his way, and only
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reached the fort with Augusta the evening before. having spent three nights wandering in the woods. Augusta was now at the fort.
"Sam," said Cabell, " I brought your father and mother and Maria from Virginia. They are with the wagons."
" Yes, seh. Thankee, seh. I knowed you'd do it, seh, kase you said you would, seh. I'se mighty sorry, seh" -Sam broke down and hurried away, lest by loss of self-control he should offend his master.
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Ah, yes, no wonder those old pioneers had a "taint of melancholy " in their natures. They were free; they were lords of the soil; but loneliness and solitude and isolation reigned with them. The vast, high-towering forests were grand indeed, but Death lurked there, patient, vigilant, remorse- less. Verily, no one knew his day or hour.
Fitly named Ken-tuck-ee ! - " Bloody battle ground."
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CHAPTER V.
THE LITTLE CLOUD.
John
Delegate! to
& Brown
Congress
HE new State govern- ment was formed on a more democratic ba- sis than that of the mother State. The governor, senate and judiciary, however, were appointed by electors; the latter holding office " during
good behavior." This was, we are told, a necessary provision against the action of local prejudice in legislative settlement of land titles; Kentucky was " shingled over with title-deeds over-lapping each other, and occasioning continual feuds over boun- daries," a legal warfare as fierce as that of rival Indian tribes over the great hunting ground.
The State Constitution was merely an adaptation of the United States Constitution to the needs of the country, with a few additional clauses, such as a provision for " keeping separate Church and State "
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by rendering ministers of the gospel ineligible to office. There was an act "prohibiting the intro- duction of slaves into the State as merchandise:" also one recommending provisional measures for emancipating slaves "under the limitation that they shall not become a charge on the county in which they reside."
Even then many of these people whose patri- mony consisted largely in slaves, were seriously considering the practicability of gradual manumis- sion. Long ago they had discovered the sinister character of this institution bequeathed them by their fathers.
There was no reference to public education. People of means had private teachers, or sent their sons and daughters to Eastern schools. The poorer class sent to the small " day school," where the three r's, "readin', ritin' an' 'rethmetic," were taught.
In 1794 " Mad Anthony Wayne" and his "legion," among whom were one thousand six hun- dred mounted Kentuckians under General Scott. swept over the Indian territory. They burned villages, destroyed provisions, killed men, women and children, and planted impregnable fortresses in the very heart of the red-man's country.
It was the hardest blow the savages had yet received; there was nothing left them but to ac-
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