USA > Kentucky > The story of Kentucky > Part 7
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But Augusta only laughed and said that respon- sibility and a great deal to do were what she had
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always longed for - that she scorned easy things. And so there was a grand wedding up at the great white house to which every one came by special in- vitation from the bride. People came who had never een a house like that - all smooth outside and in, showing no seams. They were awe-struck at the fine furniture, the mirrors staring at them from all sides, and the table, bristling with cut-glass and silver. They handled the china and plate, and walked on the marvelous roses of the carpet, with fear and trembling. It was a grand occasion, and furnished for many years a theme for conversation among the humble neighbors.
The young people were settled at Frankfort, the two fathers-in-law sharing the expense, and Mr. Keith entered on his career of gentleman of leisure - with a law-office by way of justification. No one ever knew of his having a case; but, as he seldom read the newspapers and never burdened himself with preconceived opinions, he was frequently on the grand jury. Though a man of incorruptible integrity Mr. Keith was very susceptible to elo- quence ; and many a rascal, after a long, expensive trial, escaped the just penalty of his crime.
There were many charming people at Frankfort. Even as at the present day, visitors flocked to the capital from all parts of the country during the ses- sion of the Legislature. The large, attractive well- .
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equipped home of the agreeable Keiths speedily became a popular rendezvous ; and, almost ere the honeymoon was well over, Augusta was called upon to shoulder her coveted responsibilities and enter upon an unexpected career as hostess to an ever- growing crowd of guests. None knew of the patient care, the tireless energy demanded of the charming hostess to keep the domestic machinery from some- times running down ; of the thousand drudgerie- which filled the hours between morning calls, two o'clock dinner and evening receptions, which the customs of the day demanded.
Mrs. Keith was not learned in book lore, but she knew by reputation almost every leading statesman in the United States. When Aaron Burr first made his appearance in Kentucky in 1805, she was well- acquainted with his previous history. She knew just why he had lost the re-nomination as Vice- President with Jefferson ; why Hamilton had de- feated his election as governor of New York ; and how he had fought and killed his enemy. And she hated Aaron Burr. But, so much stronger is per- sonal sympathy than mere intellectual prejudice. that, after one deep glance into the impressive dark eyes Augusta remained from that time forth one of his warmest friends and defenders.
In Lexington, Louisville and Frankfort, as was always the case wherever he went. Burr was dined
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and wined. There as every where he was followed by damaging stories. Enthusiastic friends gathered around him ; envious enemies stabbed him in the back. Brilliant and self-confident, yet fatally lack- ing in integrity, Burr always found popular favor easy to catch but very hard to hold. Yet he never found out why it was that the envy and dislike incident to notoriety staid by him while the love and friendship seemed always to take their flight.
Soon the Western World, a newspaper pub- lished in Frankfort, began to denounce Burr as a traitor who was planning to seize Louisiana, Texas and Mexico - possibly, even, to overthrow the United States Government. Evidence accumu- lated rapidly ; and on November 3, 1806, Colonel Joseph Hamilton Davies, attorney for the United States, appeared in court at Frankfort, charging Burr with designs against the Government.
" It is all the spite of the Federalists," was the Democratic verdict. Henry Clay, upon receiving an explicit disavowal " on his honor " of any design against the peace of the country, undertook Burr's defense. Immense crowds gathered to hear the sharp, impassioned debate which ensued between the two noted rivals; this ended at length in a unanimous acquittal of the accused. A grand ball was given in his honor, followed by one in honor of the defeated Colonel Davies.
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But his triumph was only temporary; the half- truth in his declaration of innocence, like that upon which sin entered into the world, failed him in the crucial hour.
Finding the scheme a failure, General Wilkinson. Burr's confidential friend, assumed, in the eyes of the world, the attitude of saviour of his country. He
CLAY &B
Ashland
the home of Henry Clay. Near Lexington, Ky.
proceeded to denounce the man who had trusted him, exaggerating his scheme into a gigantic con- spiracy to overthrow the Government. Burr's sec- ond trial, at Richmond, Va., in 1807, though it re- sulted in his acquittal, left him an outlaw with an indelible stain upon his name.
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Yet, minute examination into the history of that time reveals the fact that Aaron Burr was not the only unlucky would-be imitator of the " Little Cor- sican." That arch plotter of Europe was then en- gaged .in stirring up hatred and strife among men and nations for the attainment of his own ends, seizing every thing he could lay his hands on, to the admiration of a gaping world. His example bred imitators. Burr's ambition, the conquest of Mexico and the freedom of Texas, had been, and was afterward, cherished by many another less suspected man, without a thought of blame.
Other Kentuckians beside Mrs. Keith felt a deep interest in Aaron Burr, and followed his subsequent career of alternate success and failure - the former always transient, the latter invariably lasting - with keen interest and commiseration. Even in the great capitals of Europe, his social success, his financial embarrassments, and the unfailing courage and fortitude with which he met each new disaster, held the attention of even his bitterest enemies.
People and parties filled the public interest almost exclusively in those days. The newspaper, with its pictures of life in its most intense phases, was, in the general estimation, about as much literature as any reasonable man need desire. And even the newspaper was only a makeshift in default of actual observation. Legislative halls and court-
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rooms were always crowded. From thence flowed an eloquence as luxuriant and acceptable as the milk and honey of Canaan to the hungry Israelites.
Frequently these eloquent debates ended, after the chivalrous fashion of France, in a duel. In 1808 Henry Clay and Humphrey Marshall, not con- tent with skirmishing in the Capitol, went out to shoot at each other in the field. Both were wounded but not severely. This was not Henry Clay's last duel, though he never failed to express his abhor- rence of the custom which, in some portions of the country, no man with any regard for his reputation dared ignore.
During this year, and 1809, just eight months apart, there dawned upon this ancient Indian battle- ground two figures destined to play a leading part in their country's history - Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln. Born in the Kentucky wilder- ness, they were all unremarked, transplanted to other soils, there to become the heads of the two great adverse factions that rent their native State in twain.
In 1811 the first steamboat descended the Ohio. A great comet was blazing in the sky and a consid- erable earthquake shook the earth. Ignorance is superstitious and many of the unsophisticated set- tlers along the river banks held the steamboat responsible for both the natural disturbances.
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In this same year Kentucky was called on for help in the Indian war in the Northwest; in the bloody battle of Tippecanoe Colonel Joseph Ham- ilton Davies, the distinguished attorney, and many other brave Kentuckians lost their lives.
For a long time there had been talk of war with England. The Mother Country had never seemed to realize that Columbia was free. . She continued to tyrannize over her by land and by sea; but especially the latter. She closed not only her own ports but those of France and Spain against Ameri- can ships; she seized unprotected trading vessels, confiscated their cargoes, and forced their crews to work her own vessels.
Throughout the country all Americans who had within them a spark of human feeling were stirred by the wrongs of the American seamen, thousands of whom had been impressed into British service and hundreds of whom, as even Cobbett and Lord Collingwood confessed, had died from hard service and neglect. In four years two thousand American seamen made application through the American minister for release. Only half the number se- cured their freedom ; as many more hopelessly sub- mitted through ignorance of any means of redress.
Many anxious looks were cast toward Congress, where a bitter war of words was raging. Josiah Quincy, in his hatred of the " French tiger," as he
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called Napoleon, resisted every suggestion of war with England for fear of interfering with her subju- gation of France; Henry Clay, who thought only of his suffering countrymen, "invoked the stor !. with a voice of power," crying, as when the ques- tion of claiming Florida had been under discus- sion, "Sir, is the time never to arrive when we may manage our own affairs without fear of insult- ing his Britannic Majesty? Is the rod of British power to be forever suspended over our heads?"
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Kentucky, who cannot at any period of her his- tory be accused of a preoccupation with her own little interests too deep to be aroused to a deter- mined resistance of any tyrannous invasion of the rights of others, was with all her heart for war. Even Melville Keith, seldom deeply stirred, was aroused almost to eloquence. " Talk of war! " he exclaimed with thrilling fervor. " All empty words. Don't I know'em ? What do our congressmen care for the suffering seamen so long as they can sit comfortably in their seats and draw their salaries!"
Nevertheless, Henry Clay succeeded in arousing the nation to resist once more the tyranny of Great Britain. War was declared May 18, 1812. In this war Kentucky troops bore a conspicuous part. A detachment of Kentuckians, under General Win- chester, participated in the woful tragedy of the River Raisin, in which the humanity of the gen-
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eral in marching to the defense of an unprotected Michigan town, led to his capture by the Indians, and the merciless butchery of the most of his men. Four thousand Kentuckians, under command of Governor Shelby, took part in the battle of the " Thames. In this battle Colonel Johnson, with his Kentucky horsemen, made the opening charge. ยท killing Tecumseh, the commander of the Indians. and winning the battle. This victory ended the war in the Northwest. At a later day two thousand Kentuckians, under General Hopkins, marched against the Kickapoos, but failing to find them, marched back again in high disgust.
Other Kentuckians were with General Jackson in the South, fighting the belligerent Creeks, who, notwithstanding Georgia's compact with the United States to extinguish them, objected in a particu- larly troublesome way, to being extinguished.
In December, 1814, when the proud British squadron of fifty sail with eight thousand well- equipped soldiers, fresh from a splendid victory over the " French tiger," swooped down upon New Orleans, two thousand two hundred and fifty Ken- tuckians, under General Thomas, hurried to the defense of the Crescent city. Some of these were drafted, some were volunteers. Among the former was Melville Keith.
It is not always the heroic who go to battle.
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The sluggish blood, too, craves excitement. Storms agitate little pools as well as mighty oceans. Nor does valor always represent patriotism. No one fought more fiercely for his country than Benedict Arnold - before he betrayed her.
Mr. Keith answered his country's summons with. a thrill of valor such as he had never before ex- perienced. Well for Augusta that she had a cour- ageous heart and did not shrink from hard thing -. for as we advance along the journey of life the lug- gage is apt to accumulate; sometimes, indeed, in a sudden avalanche.
There were now five children, requiring continual service, watchful care and thoughtful training. The eldest was a beautiful boy but exceedingly willfui and hard to manage. His parents often wondered over him, he was so unlike the others; but they were proud of him and unwilling to relinquish to his grandfather the entire care of him that Colonel Cabell had frequently requested.
Ferdinand's remarkable beauty was not an un mixed source of joy to his grandfather, who had seen it thirty years before in the wilderness - flani- ing into ungovernable rage over a burnt potato. It was the Westlake strain. He knew that the praise and indulgence which the boy received at home made the worst sort of training for an inordi- nately selfish nature. He would have relieved his
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daughter of this heavy responsibility, but Ferdi- nand refused to "bury himself in the country." Mr. Keith said he should not be forced to go against his will, and Augusta could not find it in her heart to oppose her boy's father, who was now going away, perhaps to be shot by the British.
The battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815. Sir Edward Packenham com- manded the British troops, who were composed chiefly of "the fierce and hardy veterans of the Peninsular War." General Andrew Jackson led the Americans. The Kentucky troops, who arrived just three days before the battle, travel-worn, half- famished, many of them ill from unwholesome food and water - played a leading part, both in the victory on the eastern bank of the Mississippi and in the defeat on the western.
General Thomas, expecting his troops to be fur- nished with arms and clothing on their arrival, had hurried them away with what they happened to have at starting. But the Federal Government had made no such provision, and the duty of supplying the deficiency fell upon the heavily-burdened citi- zens of New Orleans. This they lost no time in doing, so far as lay in their power; but, so scarce were army supplies, that many were compelled to go into battle with the old muskets and fowling- pieces they had brought from home.
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Throughout the fierce conflict on the eastern bank, two lines of Kentuckians and two of Tennes- seeans occupied the front, alternately, as their pieces were discharged. "Stand to your guns! Don't waste your ammunition ! See that every shot tells !" was General Jackson's continual cry. And that was why the brave British soldiers lay so thick before their lines. " They forgot they were not shooting at turkeys," said Marshal Clausel, " and tried never to throw away a shot."
A private letter, from Ensign David Weller to his brother Samuel at Bardstown, Kentucky - written in camp five days afterward, says: "The battle began at daylight and lasted two hours, and the Almighty was pleased to give us the victory. Dear Samuel, I have for once seen the enemy com- pletely scourged. Their loss was two thousand killed, wounded and taken; ours trifling in com- parison - say, ten or twelve." (Official report : British loss, 1929; American 1 3.) " They attacked us on our right and our left, but all to no purpose. Also our works across the river ; and by the French giving way on the right, they got complete posses- sion of our works and spiked the cannon. General Jackson sent three hundred of us Kentuckians, and on the next morning we retook the place without opposition, and that evening marched back again.
The opinion is the enemy is about to re-
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A WATERY WOOING. See page 135.
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treat, but if they should be fool enough to attack us again, we'll serve them the same as before. Our company will no doubt be noticed in the offi- cial letter, as it was in the centre and hottest of the battle. About fifty prisoners were taken by our company. The red-coats lay thick enough to walk clear of the ground before our company."
But, alas for Kentucky's valor on the western bank! There "a weak detachment " - among whom, sad to relate, was our friend Melville Keith -demoralized by sickness and fatigue, threw down their old fowling-pieces and fled; though our brave young ensign from Bardstown kindly omits the fact from his interesting communication.
In the first place, an attack was not expected on the western bank, and General Morgan's force of eight hundred and twelve men, all militia, includ- ing about one hundred Kentuckians, armed with "old muskets having common pebbles instead of flints in the locks," had been hurried forward with- out rest or food the night before and hastily formed into line just as the enemy came in sight. When Tessier's French troops fled into the swamps, the whole English force made a dash at the Ken- tuckians, who, seeing they were about to be hemmed in, fired one volley and left - notwith- standing the fierce discharge of abuse from their commander which followed them.
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Yet while the fashion of war continues, it is the soldier's duty to stand fire. If he has scruples against standing up to be shot at, it is his duty to settle them before enlisting. Poor Keith might as well have died at his post, for three weeks after- ward a young Kentuckian sat down to a task far more depressing than fighting the British with old fowling-pieces - that of relating to the far-away wife the story of Melville Keith's last illness and death. The strain of military discipline, united with the uncongenial climate, unwholesome food and the mortification of failure, soon exhausted the enfeebled current in Keith's veins: and so, like many other Kentuckians, he had fallen after the struggle was over.
He was sincerely mourned by the wife and five children. With less of selfish regret, perhaps. that he had been a loving friend rather than a mere provider for their material wants. But affec- tion and sympathy are more precious possessions than food and clothes. So while Augusta wept. she thanked God for the sunny companionship which had brightened her way for awhile - that memory was a dearer, holier inheritance than vast estates.
Henry Clay was one of the commissioners se- lected to negotiate peace. Alexander of Russia had offered his services as mediator between the
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belligerent powers, but Great Britain preferred the American plenipotentiaries.
Years afterward, Louis Philippe while King of France, was called on to disavow the forcible im- pressment of the American seamen by the English. It was, however, a responsibility which he court- eously declined, for during his exile and when a passenger on an American ship to Havana, he had himself witnessed one of these very impressments.
The close of the war left the country in great financial distress. with an inflated paper currency, a heavy debt impending and no public credit. Kentucky's efforts for relief were more energetic than successful. We are told that she "exhausted the follies it was possible for a developing com- munity to commit," but that she wisely "profited by her painful experience."
The Legislature of 1817-18 chartered forty inde- pendent banks with an aggregate capital of ten million dollars, permitting them to redeem their notes with paper of the bank of Kentucky, then in good credit, instead of silver or gold. This remedy of the relief party was found to be worse than the disease.
Kentucky has always been proud of her brilliant legal talent. In the bitter warfare which now raged between the relief party, which had flooded the country with worthless paper, and the anti- .
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relief party, which condemned the reckless relief. act as unconstitutional, her active, wide-awake law- yers took a prominent part. The leaders of the first party (having a majority of the people on their side) were John Rowan, George M. Bibb, Rezin Davidge, Solomon P. Sharpe, William T. Barry and other eminent lawyers, who advocated the authority of the people to enact remedial laws.
With the anti-relief party were Robert Wick- liffe, George Robertson, afterward chief-justice of Kentucky, Chilton Allen, John J. Crittenden and a majority of the bench and bar; with them, too. were nearly all the mercantile class and the better grade of farmers.
It was the old question of State rights and the power of the majority. Hitherto " the people " had ruled with an iron rod. But the three judges of the court of appeals - who, Mr. McClung declares. " in simplicity and purity of character, in profound legal knowledge, and in Roman-like firmness of purpose, have seldom been surpassed " - came to the rescue; by steadily adhering to their belief that the relief-act belonged to that class of acts prohibited by the Federal Constitution as " impair- ing the obligation of contracts," and by maintain- ing their decision against the tempest of rage which surged around them, they held the Ship of State from quite going to pieces. But their firm-
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ness occasioned an uproar. Was it possible that . these three quiet, unobtrusive individuals could thwart the will of the all-powerful "majority " ? Monstrous !
The three judges were summoned before the legislative bar and required to give an account of themselves. These memorable three were, John Boyle, who had risen from obscurity to a seat in Congress, had declined an appointment by Presi- dent Madison as Governor of Illinois, and had been made chief-justice of the appellate court in 1809 (which place he held for sixteen years); William Owsley who had been school-teacher, county-sur- veyor, deputy-sheriff, member of the State Legis- lature and finally judge of the court of appeals (twenty years afterward elected governor), and Ben- jamin Mills, beginning in his youth as president of a college in Washington, Penn., several times mem- ber of the Legislature, and at last judge of the appellate court - a position held during "good behavior."
For all the combined eloquence of Rowan, Bibb and Barry, the Legislative vote failed to convict them, and the three immovable jurists remained on the bench. Then followed a renewal of the battle more fierce than before, in which Mr. McClung describes the excited debaters as " denouncing each other with fierce and passionate invective" for
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three days, protracting their debates until far int the night, while an occasional clap or hiss wa- heard from the excited audience. A new cour; was organized - a bill to that effect having readily passed both houses - with William Barry as chief- justice, and John Trimble, James Haggin and Rezin Davidge as associate judges.
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The old court continued to sit. It was recog. nized by the majority of the bar as the true court. though many went over to the new court, and de- clared the old one void. The " relief party " now became known as the "new court party," and al- though they had the favor of Governor Desha and a majority of the House, the quiet persistence of the old court judiciary in what they believed to be the right at last won them the victory. In 1826, the act creating the new court was repealed.
The old judges who had devoted three years to the maintenance of the Constitution, were voted their salaries during the time of their enforced pro- scription and all the acts of the new court were annulled. In this long contest Kentucky began to understand herself and her limitations; and from this time has fully acknowledged her allegiance to and dependence upon the National Government.
In February, 1825, there was a great hubbub in Frankfort. Bands were playing; processions, in all the splendor of new and highly-decorated uni-
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form, were marching through the streets; for the great hero and friend of American Liberty, the gallant Lafayette, was come to town. Napoleon had called him a noodle : but Napoleon was nobody now, only a fat and garrulous man who had lost his chance of being a hero. Jefferson had said that Lafayette "had a canine appetite for applause; " but he had helped to turn the tide of popular favor America's way when her cause seemed almost lost, and it did not become those who had profited by his generous action to pick him to pieces.
The gallant Marquis had been received every- where with lively demonstrations of welcome. Con- gress had voted him two hundred thousand dollars and a township of land ; innumerable fu- ture presidents had been named " Marcus D. Lafayette," and everywhere there was a ball in his honor. In those days every- thing wound up with a ball; if people talked too long there was AFAYETTE IN 1824 certain to be a quar- rel, so they danced instead, wisely.
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Young Mary Keith had dreamed of the great warrior as a stately old man with noble brow and piercing eye, and as she entered the crowded ball-room with her mother, she glanced eagerly around, scarcely seeing young Peterson, from Louisville, who sprang eagerly forward to greet them. " Where is he? " she exclaimed.
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