History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan, Part 5

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan > Part 5

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Cutler was a graduate of Yale. He had studied and taken degrees in the three learned professions, medicine, law, and divinity. He had published a scien- tific examination of the plants of New England. As a scientist in America, his name stood second only to Franklin. He was a courtly gentleman of the old style, a man of commanding presence and inviting face. The Southern members said they had never seen such a gentleman in the North. He came, representing a Massachusetts company that desired to purchase a tract of land, now included in Ohio for the purpose of planting a colony. It was a speculation. Government money was worth eighteen cents on the dollar. This company had collected enough to purchase 1,500,000 acres of land. Other speculators in New York made Dr. Cutler their agent, which enabled him to represent a demand for 5,500,000 acres. As this would reduce the national debt, it presented a good opportunity to do something.

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Massachusetts then owned the territory of Maine, which she was crowding on the market. She was opposed to opening the Northwestern region. This fired the zeal of Virginia. The South caught the inspiration, and all exalted Dr. Cutler. The entire South rallied around him. Massachusetts could not vote against him, because many of the constituents of her members were interested personally in the Western speculation. Thus Cutler making friends in the South, and doubtless using all the arts of the lobby, was enabled to command the situation. True to deeper convictions, he dictated one of the most compact and finished documents of wise statesmenship that has ever adorned any human law book.

He borrowed from Jefferson the term " Articles of Compact," which preceding the federal constitution, rose into the most sacred character. He then followed very closely the constitution of Massachusetts, adopted three years before. Its most prominent points were :

1. The exclusion of slavery from the territory forever.

2. Provision for public schools, giving one township for a seminary and every section numbered 16 in each township ; that is, one thirty-sixth of all the land for public schools.

3. A provision prohibiting the adoption of any constitution or the enactment of any law that should nullify pre-existing contracts. Be it forever remembered that this compact declared that " religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of edu- cation shall always be encouraged." Dr. Cutler planted himself on this platform and would not yield. Giving his unqualified declaration that it was that or noth- ing, he took his horse and buggy and started for the constitutional convention at Philadelphia. On July 13, 1787, the bill was put upon its passage, and was unani- mously adopted.

Thus the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, a vast empire, were consecrated to freedom, intelligence and morality. Thus the great heart of the nation was prepared to save the union of States, for it was this act that was the salvation of the Republic and the destruction of slavery. Soon the South saw their great blunder and tried to have the compact repealed. In 1803 Congress re- ferred it to a committee, of which John Randolph was chairman. He reported that this ordinance was a compact, and opposed repeal. Thus it stood, a rock in the way of the on-rushing sea of slavery.

The " Northwestern Territory" included, of course, what is now the tate of Indiana, and October 5, 1787, Major General Arthur St. Clair was elected by Con- gress, Governor of this territory. Upon commencing the duties of his office he was instructed to ascertain the real temper of the Indians, and do all in his power to remove the causes for controversy between them and the United States, and to

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effect the extinguishment of Indian titles to all the land possible. The Governor took up quarters in the new settlement of Marietta, Ohio, where he immediately began the organization of the government of the territory. The first session of the General Court of the new territory was held at that place in 1788, the judges being Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum and John C. Symmes, but under the ordinance, Gov. St. Clair was president of the court. After the first session, and after the necessary laws for government were adopted, Gov. St. Clair, accompanied by the judges, visited Kaskaskia for the purpose of organizing a civil government there. Full instructions had been sent to Maj. Hamtramck, commandant at Vin- cennes, to ascertain the exact feeling and temper of the Indian tribes of the Wabash. The instructions were accompanied by speeches to each of the tribes. A Frenchman, named Antoine Gamelin, was dispatched with these messages April 5, 1790, who visited nearly all the tribes on the Wabash, St. Joseph, and St. Mary's Rivers, but was coldly received, most of the chiefs being dissatisfied with the policy of the Americans toward them, and prejudiced through English misrepresentation. Full accounts of his adventures among the tribes, reached Gov. St. Clair at Kaskas- kia, in June, 1790. Being satisfied that there was no prospect of effecting a general peace with the Indians of Indiana, he resolved to visit Gen. Harmar, at his head- quarters at Fort Washington, and consult with him on the means of carrying on an expedition against the hostile Indians ; but before leaving he intrusted Winthrop Sargent, the secretary of the Territory, with the execution of the resolutions of Congress regarding the lands and settlers on the Wabash. He directed that officer to proceed to Vincennes, lay out a county there, establish the militia and appoint the necessary civil and military officers. Accordingly Mr. Sargent went to Vin- cennes and organized Camp Knox, appointed the officers, and notified the inhabi- tants to present their claims to lands. In establishing these claims the settlers found great difficulty, and concerning this matter the secretary in his report to the president wrote as follows :

Although the lands and lots which were awarded to the inhabitants appeared from very good oral testimony to belong to those persons to whom they were awarded, either by original grants, purchase or inheritance, yet there was scarcely one case in twenty where the title was complete, owing to the desultory manner in which public business had been transacted, and some other unfortunate causes. The original concessions by the French and British commandants were generally made upon a small scrap of paper, which it has been customary to lodge in the notary's office, who has seldom kept any book of record, but committed the most important land concerns to loose sheets, which in process of time have come into possession of persons that have fraudulently destroyed them ; or unacquainted with their consequence, innocently lost or trifled them away. By French usage they are

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considered family inheritances, and often descend to women and children. In one instance, during the government of St. Ange, a royal notary ran off with all the public papers in his possession, as by a certificate produced to me. And I am very sorry further to observe that in the office of Mr. Le Grande, which continued from 1777 to 1787, and where should have been the vouchers for important land transac- tions, the records have been so falsified, and there is such gross fraud and forgery as to invalidate all evidence and information which might be otherwise acquired from his papers.

Mr. Sargent says there were about 150 French families at Vincennes in 1790. The heads of all the families had been at one time vested with certain titles to a portion of the soil ; and while the secretary was busy in straightening out those claims, he received a petition signed by eighty Americans, asking for the confirma- tion of grants of land ceded by the Court, organized by Col. John Todd, under the authority of Virginia. With reference to this cause, Congress, March 3, 1691, em- powered the territorial governor, in cases where land had been actually improved and cultivated under a supposed grant for the same, to confirm to the persons who made such improvements the lands supposed to have been granted, not, however, exceeding the quantity of 1,100 acres to any one person.

CHAPTER V.

MILITARY HISTORY.

PONTIAC'S SIEGE OF DETROIT.

In the Spring of 1763 Pontiac determined to take Detroit by an ingenious attack. He had his men file off their guns so that they would be short enough to conceal under their blanket clothing as they entered the fortification. A Canadian woman who went over to their village on the east side of the river to obtain some venison, saw them thus at work on their guns, and suspected they were preparing for an attack on the whites. She told her neighbors what she had seen, and one of them informed the commandant, Major Gladwyn, who at first slighted the advice, but before another day had passed he had full knowledge of the plot. There is a legend that a beautiful Chippewa girl, well-known to Gladwyn, divulged to him the scheme which the Indians had in view, namely, that the next day Pontiac would come to the fort with sixty of his chiefs, each armed with a gun cut short and hidden under his blanket ; that Pontiac would demand a council, deliver a speech, offer a peace-belt of wampum, holding it in a reversed position as the signal for

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attack; that the chiefs, sitting upon the ground, would then spring up and fire upon the officers, and the Indians out in the streets would next fall upon the garrison, and kill every Englishman but spare all the French.

Gladwyn accordingly put the place in a state of defence as well as he could, and arranged for a quiet reception of the Indians and a sudden attack upon them when he should give a signal. At 10 o'clock, May 7, according to the girl's pre- diction, the Indians came, entered the fort, and proceeded with the programme, but with some hesitation, as they saw their plot was discovered. Pontiac made his speech, professing friendship for the English, etc., and without giving his signal for attack, sat down and heard Major Gladwyn's reply, who suffered him and his men to retire unmolested. He probably feared to take them as prisoners, as war was not actually commenced.

The next day Pontiac determined to try again, but was refused entrance at the gate unless he should come in alone. He turned away in a rage, and in a few minutes some of his men commenced the peculiarly Indian work of attacking an innocent household and murdering them, just beyond the range of British guns. Another squad murdered an Englishman on an island at a little distance. Pontiac did not authorize the proceedings, but retired across the river and ordered pre- parations to be made for taking the fort by direct assault, the headquarters of the camp to be on " Bloody Run," west of the river. Meanwhile the garrison was kept in readiness for any out-break. The very next day Pontiac, having received reinforcements from the Chippewas of Saginaw Bay, commenced the attack, but was repulsed; no deaths upon either side. Gladwyn sent ambassadors to arrange for peace, but Pontiac, although professing to be willing, in a general way, to con- clude peace. would not agree to any particular proposition. A number of Canadians visited the fort and warned the commandant to evacuate, as 1,500 or more Indians would storm the place in an hour; and soon afterward a Canadian came with a summons from Pontiac, demanding Gladwyn to surrender the post at once, and promising that, in case of compliance, he and his men would be allowed to go on board their vessels unmolested, leaving their arms and effects behind. To both these advices Major Gladwyn gave a flat refusal.

Only three weeks' provisions were within the fort, and the garrison was in a deplorable condition. A few Canadians, however, from across the river, sent some provisions occasionally, by night. Had it not been for this timely assistance, the garrison would doubtless have had to abandon the fort. The Indians themselves soon began to suffer from hunger, as they had not prepared for a long siege ; but Pontiac, after some maraudings upon the French settlers had been made, issued " promise to pay " on birch bark, with which he pacified the residents. He sub- sequently redeemed all these notes. About the end of July, Capt. Dalzell arrived

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from Niagara with reinforcements and provisions, and persuaded Gladwyn to under- take an aggressive movement against Pontiac. Dalzell was detailed for the purpose of attacking the camp at Parents' Creek, a mile and a half away, but, being delayed a day, Pontiac learned of his movements, and prepared his men to contest his march. On the next morning, July 31, before day-break, Dalzell went out with 250 men, but was repulsed with a loss of fifty-nine killed and wounded, while the Indians lost less than half that number. Parents' Creek was afterward known as " Bloody Run."

Shortly afterward, the schooner " Gladwyn," on its return from Niagara, with ammunition and provisions, anchored about nine miles below Detroit for the night, when in the darkness about 300 Indians in canoes came quietly upon the vessel and very nearly succeeded in taking it. Slaughter proceeded vigorously until the mate gave orders to his men to blow up the schooner, when the Indians under- standing the design, fled precipitately, plunging into the water and swimming ashore. This desperate command saved the crew, and the schooner succeeded in reaching the post with the much-needed supply of provisions.

By this time, September, most of the tribes around Detroit were disposed to sue for peace. A truce being obtained, Gladwyn laid in provisions for the Winter, while Pontiac retired with his chiefs to the Maumee country, only to prepare for a resumption of war the next Spring. He or his allies the next season carried on a petty warfare until in August when the garrison, now worn out and reduced, were relieved by fresh troops, Major Bradstreet commanding. Pontiac retired to the Maumee again, still to stir up hate against the British. Meanwhile the Indians near Detroit, scarcely comprehending what they were doing, were induced by Bradstreet to declare themselves subjects of Great Britain. An embassy sent to Pontiac induced him also to cease belligerent operations against the British.

In 1769 the great chief and warrior, Pontiac, was killed in Illinois by a Kaskas- kia Indian, for a barrel of whisky offered by an Englishman named Williamson.

EXPEDITIONS OF HARMAR, SCOTT AND WILKINSON.

Gov. St. Clair, on his arrival at Fort Washington from Kaskaskia, had a long conversation with Gen. Harmar, and concluded to send a powerful force to chastise the savages about the head-waters of the Wabash. He had been empowered by the President to call on Virginia for 1,000 troops and on Pennsylvania for 500, and he immediately availed himself of this resource, ordering 300 of the Virginia mili- tia to muster at Fort Steuben, and march with the garrison of that fort to Vin- cennes, and join Maj. Hamtramck, who had orders to call for aid from the militia of Vincennes, march up the Wabash and attack any of the Indian villages which he might think he could overcome.

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The remaining 1,200 of the militia were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Wash- ington, and to join the regular troops at that post under Gen. Harmar. At this time the United States troops in the West were estimated by Gen. Harmar at 400 effective men. These, with the militia, gave him a force of 1,450 men. With this army Gen. Harmar marched from Fort Washington, September 30, and arrived at the Maumee, October 17. They commenced the work of punishing the Indians, but were not very successful. The savages, it is true, received a severe scourging, but the militia behaved so badly as to be of little or no service. A detachment of 340 militia and sixty regulars, under the command of Col. Hardin, were sorely defeated on the Maumee October 22. The next day the army took up the line of march for Fort Washington, which place they reached November 4, having lost in the expedition 183 killed and thirty-one wounded ; the Indians lost about as many. During the progress of this expedition Maj. Hamtramck marched up the Wabash from Vincennes, as far as the Vermillion river, and destroyed several deserted vil- lages, but without finding an enemy to oppose him. Although the savages seem to have been severely punished by these expeditions, yet they refused to sue for peace, and continued their hostilities. Thereupon, the inhabitants of the frontier settle- ments of Virginia took alarm, and the delegates of Ohio, Monongahela, Harrison, Randolph, Greenbrier, Kanawah and Montgomery counties sent a joint memorial to the Governor of Virginia, saying that the defenseless condition of the counties, forming a line of nearly 400 miles along the Ohio river, exposed to the hostile inva- sion of their Indian enemies, destitute of every kind of support, was truly alarm- ing, for, notwithstanding all the regulations of the General Government in that country, they have reason to lament that they have been up to that time ineffectual for their protection ; nor indeed could it be otherwise, for the garrisons kept by the Continental troops on the Ohio River, if of any use at all, must protect only the Kentucky settlement, as they immediately covered that country. They further stated in their memorial, " We beg leave to observe that we have reason to fear that the consequences of the defeat of our army by the Indians in the late expe- dition will be severely felt on our frontiers, as there is no doubt that the Indians will, in their turn, being flushed with victory, invade our settlements and exercise all their horrid murder upon the inhabitants thereof whenever the weather will permit them to travel. Then, is it not better to support us where we are, be the expense what it may, than to oblige such a number of your brave citizens, who have so long supported, and still continue to support, a dangerous frontier (although thousands of their relatives in the flesh have in the prosecution thereof fallen a sacrifice to the savage inventions) to quit the country, after all they have done and suffered, when you know that a frontier must be supported somewhere ?"

This memorial caused the Legislature of Virginia to authorize the Governor of

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that State to make any defensive operations necessary for the temporary defense of the frontiers, until the General Government could adopt and carry out measures to suppress the hostile Indians. The Governor at once called upon the military com- manding officers in the western counties of Virginia to raise by the first of March, 1791, several small companies for this purpose. At the same time Charles Scott was appointed Brigadier-General of the Kentucky Militia, with authority to raise 226 volunteers, to protect the most exposed portions of that district. A full report of the proceedings of the Virginia Legislature being transmitted to Congress, that body constituted a local Board of War for the district of Kentucky, consisting of five men. March, 1791, Gen. Henry Knox, Secretary of War, sent a letter of instructions to Gen. Scott, recommending an expedition of mounted men not exceding 750 men, against the Wea towns on the Wabash. With this force Gen. Scott, accordingly, crossed the Ohio, May 23, 1791, and reached the Wabash in about ten days. Many of the Indians, having discovered his approach, fled, but he succeeded in destroying all the villages around Ouiatenon, together with several Kickapoo towns, killing thirty-two warriors and taking fifty-eight prisoners. He released a few of the most infirm prisoners, giving them a "talk," which they car- ried to the towns further up the Wabash, and which the wretched condition of his horses prevented him from reaching.

March 3, 1791, Congress provided for raising and equipping a regiment for the protection of the frontiers, and Gov. St. Clair was invested with the chief command of about 3,000 troops, to be raised and employed against the hostile Indians in the territory over which his jurisdiction extended. He was instructed by the Secretary of War to march to the Miami village and establish a strong and permanent mili- tary post there, also such posts elsewhere along the Ohio as would be in communi- cation with Fort Washington. The post at Miami Village was intended to keep the savages in that vicinity in check, and was ordered to be strong enough in its garrison to afford a detachment of 500 or 600 men in case of emergency, either to chastise any of the Wabash or other hostile Indians or capture convoys of the enemy's provisions. The Secretary of War also urged Gov. St. Clair to establish that post as the first and most important part of the campaign. In case of a pre- vious treaty, the Indians were to be conciliated upon this point, if possible ; and he presumed good arguments might be offered to induce their acquiescence. Said he : " Having commenced your march upon the main expedition, and the Indians con- tinuing hostile, you will use every possible exertion to make them feel the effects of your superiority ; and, after having arrived at the Miami village and put your works in a defensible state, you will seek the enemy with the whole of your remain- ing force, and endeavor by all possible means to strike them with great severity."

"In order to avoid future wars, it might be proper to make the Wabash and thence

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over to the Maumee, and down the same to its mouth, at Lake Erie, the boundary be- tween the people of the United States and the Indians (excepting so far as the same should relate to the Wyandots and Delawares), on the supposition of their continu- ing faithful to the treaties ; but if they should join in the war against the United States, and your army be victorious, the said tribes ought to be removed without the boundaries mentioned."

Previous to marching a strong force to the Miami town, Gov. St. Clair, June 25, 1791, authorized Gen. Wilkinson to conduct a second expedition, not exceeding 500 mounted men, against the Indian villages on the Wabash. Accordingly, Gen. Wilkinson mustered his forces and was ready July 20, to march with 525 mounted volunteers, well armed, and provided with 30 days' provisions, and with this force he reached the Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua village on the north bank of Eel River, about six miles above its mouth, Aug. 7, where he killed six warriors and took 34 prisoners.

This town, which was scattered along the river for three miles, was totally destroyed. Wilkinson encamped on the ruins of the town that night, and the next day he commenced his march for the Kickapoo town, on the prairie which he was unable to reach owing to the impassable condition of the route which he adopted and the failing condition of his horses. He reported the estimated result of the expedition as follows : "I have destroyed the chief town of the Ouiatenon nation, and have made prisoners of the sons and sisters of the king. I have burned a respectable Kickapoo village, and cut down at least 400 acres of corn, chiefly in the milk."

EXPEDITIONS OF ST. CLAIR AND WAYNE.

The Indians were greatly damaged by the expeditions of Harmar, Scott and Wilkinson, but were far from being subdued. They regarded the policy of the United States as calculated to exterminate them from the land; and, goaded on by the English of Detroit, enemies of the Americans, they were excited to desperation. At this time the British Government still supported garrisons at Niagara, Detroit and Michilimackinac, although it was declared by the second article of the definite treaty of peace of 1783, that the King of Great Britain would, " with all convenient speed, and without causing any destruction or carrying away any negroes or property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his forces, gar- risons and fleets from the United States, and from every post harbor and place within the same." That treaty also provided that the creditors on either side should meet with no lawful impediments to the recovery to the full value, in sterl- ing money, of all bona fide debts previously contracted. The British Government claimed that the United States had broken faith in this particular understanding of the treaty, and in consequence refused to withdraw its forces from the territory.

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The British garrisons in the Lake Region were a source of much annoyance to the Americans, as they afforded succor to the hostile Indians, encouraging them to make raids among the Americans. This state of affairs in the territory north- west of the Ohio, continued from the commencement of the Revolutionary war to 1796, when under a second treaty all British soldiers were withdrawn from the country.

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History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan, Part 5

Author: Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co.
Number of Pages: 818