History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 5

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882

USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan > Part 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Although Detroit was founded in 1701, I have been unable to find any record of a Jesuit stationed at this point previous to 1732. Cadil- lac, although a zealous Catholic, was a bitter enemy of the Jesuits. He had quarreled with them on the brandy question when he was in command at Mackinaw, from 1694 to 1697, and in receiving the personal orders from Count Ponchartrain to establish Detroit, he frankly told the Minister that the Jesuits were his personal enemies and would thwart his objects. He quarreled with Father Vaillant, who ac-

EARLY MISSIONARIES IN THE NORTHWEST.

companied him on his first expedition, charg- ing him with treachery; and his successful efforts in drawing away the Indians from Macki- naw still further embittered the controversy with the Jesuits. He glories in his success in a spirit not eminently Christian. In a dis- patch to the French Minister, 1705, after boast- ing of the arrival of thirty Hurons from Mackinaw, he says: "There remain only about twenty-five. Father Carheil, who is a missionary there, remains always firm. I hope this fall to pluck out the last feather in his wing, and I am persuaded that this obstinate old priest will die in his parish without a hav- ing a single parishioner to bury him."

Yet he seems to wonder that the Jesuits were not his friends and says : "I do my best to make the Jesuits my friends, wishing truly to be theirs; but if I dare say it, all impiety apart, it would be better to speak against God than against them, because on the one side a person might receive His pardon, but on the other the offense, even though doubtful, is never forgiven in this world, and would not be forgiven in the other if their credit was as good there as it is in this country."

It is not wonderful, with this feeling on the part of the Commandant, that Detroit was served by the Recollects rather than by the Jesnits. When Charlevoix was there in 1721 there was no missionary among the Indians at that place, but he says measures were to be taken to supply them with one.

It would be a grateful task, did time permit, to dwell upon the labors and characters of those Jesuits who were the compeers of Marquette- such men as Allonez, Dreuillettes, Dablon, and Nouvelle. But with these men passed away the golden age of the Jesuits in the Northwest. They were among the best fruits of that won- derful system that for a century and a half made the Order of Jesus one of the great powers of the world. They were placed in circumstances that developed in an extraordinary degree many of the best results of that training and discipline instituted by Loyale, without at the same time bringing forth those bitter evils that are among its natural fruits. They exhibited great learning, a high self-control, an inflexi- bility of purpose, an enduring constancy, an unwearied patience in toil and hardship, a calm courage that despised danger and triumphed over intensest suffering, a fervent zeal and an

earnestness of devotion that find few parallels in history. They did not develop, nor did the circumstances of the situation tend to develop, that bitter intolerance, that hatred of civil and religious freedom, that passion for intrigue, that systematic treachery, that insatiate Ist of power, and that unscrupulous and cruel abuse of power when obtained, that marked the Jesuits of Europe and aroused against them the deep indignation of Protestant and Catholic chris- tendom, that led to their expulsion from the most enlightened Catholic kingdoms in Europe and their suppression by the Pope himself.

But the influences that were already operat- ing in the courts of Europe and undermining the Jesnitical power there, began to be felt in the wilds of Canada. Colbert, the great Minis- ter of the Grand Monarch, liked them not, and Frontenac cordially hated them. From 1671 to 1681, and from 1689 to his death in 1698, he was at the head of affairs in Canada. The Recol- lects, whom he favored, were re established in the New World. Jealousies and dissensions arose, and in a thousand ways the plans and purposes of the Jesuits were thwarted. Special efforts were made to ruin their influence at court. It is a curious study to read the volu- minous dispatches that passed between Canada and the court of France. Louis XIV. was at the very culmination of power, in the full exercise of that centralized absolu- tism founded by Richelieu and perfected by himself. He was as minutely informed of the transactions of an insignificant post on the watery wastes of Lake Superior as if they were taking place on the banks of the Seine; and the most minute orders issued from his minis- ters, and sometimes from himself, in rela- tion to these distant places. Thus, in 1707 Detroit was a distant and insignificant post with some thirty soldiers. A complaint is made at Versailles that De la Motte Cadillac is trading in brandy and making a great profit thereon. An inquiry is made into the subject, and amid the great affairs of state involving the welfare of France and the destinies of Europe, the Grand Monarch is gravely in- formed that M. De la Motte has bought of four individuals 104 quarts of brandy at four francs per quart and sold it at twenty francs, thus making a profit of four-fifths.

In this same way petty complaints against the Jesuits are made the subject of grave dis-

.30

HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

patches. Indeed, in this system of espionage, of centralization, of absolutism, lies the grand fundamental reason why Canada never pros- pered under French rule. There was no free- dom, no self-government, and consequently no development of the real power of its people or the resources of the country. The English colonies were left to wholesome neglect, to self- government, to freedom. As early as 1671, M. Talon, Intendant of Canada, informs the King that Boston is more republican than mon- archical; and in 1679 another Canadian Inten- dant informs the French Minister in regard to the same city: "Their government is demo- cratic, and it is a republic under the protection of England, faintly recognizing his Britannic Majesty." The fruits of these two systems, side by side, teach a lesson against centralized power in any form of government-civil, ec- clesiastical, monarchical, or republican.

There was one cause of difficulty between the Jesuits and the local authorities that did much to bring upon them the wrath of the governing power, but which redounds greatly to their credit. They, at an early day, boldly, earnestly and persistently opposed and de- nounced the sale of brandy to the Indians. The pious Laval was made Bishop of Quebec, or, as was his title, of Petra, in 1659. As early as 1665 he had, in concert with the Jesuits, for- bidden the sale of brandy to the Indians on pain of excommunication, because it led them into mortal sin. So effectual was this order that no one dare sell or give a glass of liquor to Huron or Algonquin. Complaint seems to have been make to the King; for the Minister of the Marine, in writing to M. de Talon, Governor of Canada, in 1665, disapproves of the order in a course of reasoning quite Jesu- itical. He acknowledges the principle to be good, but contends that it is hurtful to trade, as it will drive the Indians to trade with the Dutch, and they will be taught heresy, a greater evil than drunkenness; and he bitterly complains that notwithstanding the force of this reasoning, the Bishop and the Jesuits still persist, " not reflecting," says he, " that pru- dence and even Christian charity requires us to shut our eyes to one evil to avoid a greater."

For more than a quarter of a century the brandy war raged between the traders and the priests. Most of the secular officers were inter- ested in Indian trade, and as now, nothing

paid so good a profit as brandy ; consequently they took sides in favor of the traffic. Perhaps those who have so recently fought the battle of prohibition on the one side and the other in this State, were not aware that the same battle was fought upon our own soil nearly two hun- dred years ago. Mackinaw and Detroit were both battle-fields, and the arguments on both sides were perhaps as full and forcible as any that have been used by the recent combatants.

The holy Fathers were not content with the mere exercise of spiritual power. They called upon the strong arm of the law, and as early as 1681 they had obtained an ordinance from the King prohibiting the traffic. At a later period, 1694, there seems to have been a special order for- bidding the transportation of brandy to Mack- inaw. The worthy founder of Detroit, while yet in command at Mackinaw, made himself the champion of the unrestrained traffic. Some of his arguments are worthy of note. He says the principal food of the inhabitants is fish and smoked meat, and a drink of brandy after the repast is necessary to cook the bilious meats and the crudities they leave in the stom- ach. He appeals also to the patriotic ardor of the Frenchmen, and asks : " In what country or in what land, until now, have they taken from the French the right to use brandy ? Are we not subjects of the same King as others?" He asks, too, with the same ardor that marks our recent debates : " What reason can be given why savages have not a right to drink brandy purchased with their own money ?" and scouts at the reason urged by the Jesuits, that it would injure them. " The savage himself asks," says he, "why they do not leave him in his beggary, his liberty, his idleness. He was born in it, and he wishes to die in it. He would not exchange his wigwam, and the mat on which he camps like a monkey, for a pal- ace." He also uses the now familiar argument that if the savage can not get brandy of the French he will get it of the English, and there- fore no good will be accomplished by prohibi- tion, while trade will be injured.

On the other hand it would be difficult to find in modern temperance documents, more graphic descriptions of the evils of intem- perance, and stronger arguments against the traffic, than are found in the memorials of the Jesuit Fathers and the dispatches of the time. Thus, in a dispatch to the Minister of

EARLY MISSIONARIES IN THE NORTHWEST.

the Marine in 1690, the Minister is assured that this unfortunate traffie proves the destruc- tion not only of the Indians but of the French themselves, and of trade. "This," says the writer, " is established by the experience of many years, during which we have seen none become wealthy by that traffic, while the Indi- ans are destroyed and the French become old and decrepit at forty. Even the women drink. Among the Indians it is the horror of horrors. There is no crime nor infamy they do not perpetrate in their excesses ; a mother throws her child into the fire; noses are bitten off, and it is another hell among them during these orgies ; their entrails are set on fire, and they beggar themselves by giving their peltries and their very clothes for drink." Thus, man- fully, like true heralds of the cross, did the Jesuit Fathers fight against this great evil ; and De la Motte charges them with adopting higher law opinions on the subject, and says that Father Carheil, in a sermon at Mackinaw, 1697, exclaimed : " There is neither divine nor human power that can permit the sale of this drink."

This controversy, in which the Jesuits never faltered, aroused against them the whole elass of Indian traders, and many of the local offi- cers did much to make their position uncom- fortable, and their ultimate recall under the reign of Louis XV. ended for many years their toils among the savages of Canada.

In seeking to give to the Jesuits who dis- tinguished themselves in the early annals of the Northwest their true place upon the page of history, we cannot place them beside the founders of New England. They were not in any sense the founders of empires. They did not lay foundations broad and deep for free institutions. And even as missionaries among the Indians they seem to have exerted but little permanent influence upon Indian life and character.

" As from the wing no sear the sky returns, The parted wave no furrow from the keel,"

so Indian character and destiny show us no distinct trace of the abundant and self-denying labors of these men. At least those traces are sadly disproportioned to the learning, the piety, the fervent zeal and the precious human life bestowed upon this field of labor. Doubtless some of the causes of this result lie

deep in Indian character and the unfavorable circumstances surrounding them; but there are, as we conceive, other causes, growing out of the fundamentally erroneous system of Jesuit Catholicism, still more effective-causes that must ever prevent that system from ac- complishing any great permanent good for the racc. There is no element of freedom in it. Un- limited, unquestioning obedience is of its very essence. To develop the human soul and intel- lect, it must, like the body, have freedom.

But if they were not founders of empires, if they did but little or nothing toward the eleva- tion of the Indian race and character, these men still have a proud place upon the historical page, which all should readily concede. As discov- erers and explorers they have had few supe- riors. Persevering, self-denying, toil-enduring, courageous, no obstacles discouraged, no pri- vations disgusted, no hardships appalled, no dangers terrified. Contemptuous of threatened evil, they boldly placed themselves in the power of the untutored and unfriendly Indians, living with them in their dirty camps, par- taking of their inconceivablelthy food, sleep- ing with them and their dogs, annoyed with their vermin, poisoned with their stench, sub- mitting meekly to the contumely of the haughty and the insults and brutality of the mean. Calmly, persistently they braved the forced toil of paddling the canoe, or over sharp stones of dragging its weight up foaming rapids, often wading waist deep in the water or plunging through ice and snow. Piercing winds, bitter cold, dire want and terrific danger were among their common trials, yet they per- severed with a ceaseless assiduity and untiring energy that no suffering could subdue. Indus- triously they traveled, anxiously they inquired, carefully they observed, and minutely under every disadvantage by the light of the glim- mering camp-fires they committed the result of their travels, inquiries and observations to writing. They opened to France and the world a knowledge of the great Northwest, of these mighty lakes and noble rivers, of these beauti- ful prairies and extensive forests.

They were not only discoverers, but they were pioneers in the pathway of civilization. Following in their footsteps came the trader, the voyageur, the soldier, and ultimately the mechanic, the farmer, the merchant, and the gentleman. Delightful French hamlets sprung

HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

up by the side of the mission station, and there was reproduced in the forest recesses of the Northwest a new and delightful edition of rural life amid the sunny vales and vineclad hills of France.

But the chiefest claim to admiration lies in their personal character, their apostolic zeal, their sublime and heroic virtues. Actuated by no love of glory, inspired by no hope of self- aggrandizement, but panting with an earnest desire to save souls for whom Christ had died and open the pathway to heaven to benighted heathen, they faced the untold horrors of a

missionary life among wild, wandering, irrev- erent, brutal savages, and here developed, in the midst of trials the most severe, those Chris- tian graces of character to which our attention has been called, and that entitle them to a rank among the Christian heroes of the world. Suc- cess could have added nothing to the rich fra- grance of their virtues.

It becomes us who now occupy the soil, en- riched and made sacred by their tears, their toil, their suffering and their death, not only to revere their memories but to perpetuate them.

CHAPTER IV.

PLOT FOR OBTAINING THE LOWER PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN FROM THE UNITED STATES IN 1795.

IT is not generally known that Michigan was at a very early day the theater of some of the most extensive land speculations ever known in this country. One which was brought to the attention of Congress in 1795 was so re- markable in some of its features that it is singu- lar that it should be so generally unknown.

When General Wayne brought his Indian campaign to a successful termination he ap- pointed a time for the tribes to meet him at Greenville, to conclude a definitive treaty. This council opened in June, 1795, and continued into August. It is well known that the hos- tilities were kept alive by the covert inter- ference of the British, and that Detroit was the source whence this influence was exerted most powerfully. In spite of the treaty of peace at the close of the Revolution, the British, on one pretext or another, kept possession of the country, and it was not until Jay's treaty provided definitely for its cession that any steps were taken toward its possession. The British merchants, who were largely interested in the fur business, were very reluctant to see the American dominion established, and there is no doubt that, by this means, disaffection was long kept up among the Indians.

Immediately upon the conclusion of Wayne's treaty (which put an end to all private deal- ings with the Indians for the purchase of lands), an agreement was made between sev- eral prominent inhabitants of Detroit and several persons from Vermont and Pennsyl- vania, which, if it had proved successful, would have made an entire change in the destiny of this region.

Ebenezer Allen and Charles Whitney of Ver- mont, and Robert Randall of Philadelphia, who were professedly American citizens, en- tered into a contract with John Askin, Jona- than Schifflin, William Robertson, John As- kin, jr., David Robertson, Robert Jones and Richard Patterson, all of Detroit, and all at-

tached to Great Britain, the terms of which were in effect as follows: They proposed to obtain from the United States the title to all the land within the limits of the present penin- sula of Michigan, then estimated at from eigh- teen to twenty millions of acres (excepting such parts as were appropriated along the settle- ments), upon the understanding that they would themselves extinguish the Indian title. They meant to secure the purchase from Congress at halfa million dollars (or a million at the outside), by inducing that body to believe that the Indians had not really been pacified by Wayne, and that nothing but the influence of the Canadian merchants could bring them to terms or render the important interests of the fur-trade safe under the American rule.

But they relied upon a more potent method of persuasion in secret. Their enterprise was to take the form of a joint stock company, di- vided into forty-one shares. Five shares were allotted to the Detroit partners, twelve to the others, and the remaining twenty-four were to be divided among members of Con- gress to secure their votes. The connection of the Canadian proprietors with the scheme does not appear to have been made public, and it is probable they were not intended to appear until the scheme was consummated.

Immediately after the plan was concocted, the three American partners set about oper- ating upon the members of the next Congress. They associated with them Colonel Pepune and others; also Jones of Massachusetts, who aided them in the dishonorable work. Whitney first applied to Daniel Buck, a member from Vermont, and was indiscreet enough not only to inform him pretty plainly of the plan pro- posed, but also to show him the articles of agreement. He also applied to Theodore Sedg- wiek more cautiously, but allowed enough to be drawn from him to expose the true character of the plot. Mr. Sedgwick quietly put himself

[33]

HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

in communication with the Vermont members to promote its progress.

In the meantime Randall approached the Southern members and laid open his views to William Smith of South Carolina, William B. Giles of Virginia and Mr. Murray of Maryland. These gentlemen, after consulting with the President and many other persons of character and standing, determined to throw no obstacle in the way of a presentation of a memorial to Congress, desiring to fix the parties where they would be sure of exposure.

The confederation, blindly imagining that they were on the highway to success, put into the hands of the members whom they approach- ed the fullest information concerning all but the names of their Detroit associates, and as- sured Mr. Giles that they had secured a major- ity of the votes in the Senate and lacked only three of a majority in the House.

On the 28th of December, 1795, Messrs. Smith, Murray and Giles announced to the House of Representatives that Randall had made proposals to them to obtain their support to his memorial, for which support they were to receive a consideration in lands or money. Mr. Buck also stated that Whitney had made similar proposals to him, and he supposed him to be an associate of Randall. Randall and Whitney were at once taken into custody and an investigation had, in the course of which several other members came forward and testi- fied to similar facts. Whitney made a full dis- closure and produced the written agreement. Randall made no confession, but contented himself with questioning the witnesses. He was detained in arrest, but Whitney, who ap- pears to have been less guilty, was discharged very soon after the investigation closed. The memorial never made its appearance.

The partners at Detroit had not been inac- tive. They, or most of them, had already, from time to time, obtained from the Indians large grants of land, in the hope, doubtless, that the purchase might be ratified by the authorities. Schifflin in particular had ac- quired enormous grants in this way. There is, however, much reason to believe these grants were not all obtained from the recognized In- dian rulers.

An examination of the records shows that one of the largest was made under very pecu- liar circumstances. We have seen that the

council in Greenville was in session from June till sometime in August. While this treaty of Greenville was in progress, and the tribes were represented there by their chiefs and head men, a private council was held at Detroit on the first day of July, 1795, by the Chippewas, Otta- was and Pottawatomies, as high contracting parties on the one side, there being present, as witnesses, the Askins, Governor Hay, his oldest son, Henry, a British officer, and some others of the principal British residents.

The purpose of the council was private in its nature, and under the treaties then existing the British authorities could not have well acted as principals on such an occasion. Certain chiefs, purporting to act for their tribes there named, granted to Jonathan Schifflin, Jacobus Vizgar, Richard Patterson and Robert Jones, a large tract of land embracing thirteen or fourteen of the oldest and best counties in the present State, for the expressed consideration of twenty- five pounds sterling.

We can readily imagine that if their plan had succeeded in Congress they would have had little difficulty in buying up the Indian claim to the whole peninsula.

It may not be out of place to state that in spite of their ill success, the four gentlemen named sold their Indian title just mentioned in 1797 for two hundred thousand pounds of York currency, amounting to half a million dollars. Whether the purchaser expected to claim against the treaty of Greenville, we are not in- formed.

This formidable title has never turned up since. Whether disgusted with the experience of republics, or from some other canse, the Detroit partners in the joint stock company all elected, under Jay's treaty, to become British subjects. The annals of our country have never shown a more extensive or audacious plan of bribery, and the public suffered no great detriment by their defection.

Had the plan of these confederates received the aid of Congress, it is difficult to imagine the importance of such an event or its bearing on the future of the peninsula. The circumstances render it highly probable that it was intended to retain a footing for the advancement of the British interests in the Northwest. Be this as it may, the evil effect of having so large a pro- prietary monopoly, covering the whole coun- try, cannot well be estimated. Neither the

PLOT FOR OBTAINING THE LOWER PENINSULA.

United States nor the future State would have owned any lands in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, while we should have been subjected to all the evils which abound when the tillers of the soil are mere tenants and not freehold- ers. Such a domain would have been a power- fnl barrier against the increase of the Union in this direction, and would have kept up a bor- der population of a character by no means to be admired.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 5

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York, Munsell & company Number of Pages: 882

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882