USA > Michigan > Outlines of the political history of Michigan > Part 12
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Both governments saw from the beginning the importance of Detroit. As the influential centre of all Indian affairs, whoever occupied it controlled their movements. The settlement of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, by Americans, was sure to lead sooner or later to a control over the remainder of the Northwest. If the Americans secured their independence, those countries, if settled at all, would become American States.
The British could only secure their dominion in this region by preserving it as a wilderness. The plan was early adopted of depopulating so much of the western country as was settled by
173
CHAP. VIII.] BRITISH AND INDIAN ALLIANCE.
Americans, and of keeping off inhabitants by rendering it unsafe for them to go there. Deliber- ately and remorselessly the plans were laid to excite the Indians to indiscriminate slaughter, and from 1775 to 1814 the tribes were urged on and stirred up by British commanders or emissaries against the American settlements. Men who were usually reasonable and humane in their own transactions, felt no compunction against inciting the savages to the worst cruelties; and gentlemen and scholars paid rum and money to their brothers in ferocity for the scalps of women and children slain at their bidding. There are names that no American borderer has yet learned to speak, without finding it hard to restrain a malediction.
The Lieutenant Governor of Detroit controlled all the western posts. At that time the next in importance was Mackinaw. Kaskaskia and Vincennes were the only two remaining points of prominence. Rocheblave, a Frenchman, com- manded at Kaskaskia, and Lieutenant Edward Abbott at Vincennes.
The well-known policy of the British Govern- ment, which drew forth the eloquent invectives of Chatham and many other statesmen, was accepted by Hamilton without hesitation or reluctance, and he readily offered to assume the office of setting on the savages. He gained their adhesion and aid by the usual methods, and found about him emissaries enough to help him. Several raids were made upon the settlements in Ohio and
174
CLARK'S CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. VIII.
Kentucky, till at length George Rogers Clark set out from Virginia, and began to change the face of affairs. It was not long before he captured Kaskaskia by surprise and without bloodshed, on the fourth of July, 1778. Rocheblave was 'taken to Virginia as a prisoner of war. His wife contrived to conceal or destroy his papers. The French people of Kaskaskia, after having their fears excited by apocryphal stories of the ferocity of the Long Knives, and expecting the fate of their Acadian kinsmen, were agreeably surprised at meeting very friendly and cordial treatment ; and Clark's judicious management secured their attachment. By their means Vincennes surrendered without a struggle ; and the hostility of the Indians in that quarter was quieted.
The news of this mishap caused some excite- ment in Detroit, and Hamilton began preparations for raising a force to reconquer the country. He finally set out early in October, and Major De Peyster, commanding at Mackinaw, sent out Lan- glade to go to the head of Lake Michigan and rouse up the Indians. Hamilton reached Vincennes about the middle of December. At this time, by reason of General McIntosh's failure to do what was expected of him, Captain Helm and one soldier made up all the garrison. As the army approached it, Helm planted a loaded cannon in the gateway, and refused to surrender without the honors of war, which were granted, and the garrison of one officer and one private marched out accordingly. Hamilton now
175
ATTACK ON BOONE.
CHAP. VIII.]
dismissed his Indians for the winter, intending in the spring to organize a large expedition and sweep the borders.
An expedition against Detroit had been planned the same summer, but it was broken up mainly by the delays of General McIntosh. At the same time predatory excursions went out from Detroit. Isi- dore Chêne (a Detroit Frenchman, and an adopted chief among the Indians,) set out with a few Cana- dians, and a large body of savages, on a marauding expedition, which was conducted in the usual fashion. In August they appeared before Boones- borough, and demanded a surrender. Boone had just returned from an Indian captivity. In February, 1778, he had been taken by the Indians to Detroit, and had been kindly treated there, but the Indians, who had taken a fancy to him, refused to let him be ransomed. Remembering this, Boone was inclined to place some confidence in Chêne's promise of fair treatment, and agreed to meet him with eight com- rades outside of the fort, but under cover of his garrison's guns. After terms were made, the Indians treacherously endeavored to seize Boone and his associates, but the marksmen shot down the leaders, and they got back safely through a cross- fire into the fort, from which the assailants, after a siege of ten days, and such a waste of ammunition that the garrison picked up 125 pounds of their bul- lets, retired with considerable loss.
Clark, having learned Hamilton's plans, did not wait for spring, but started for Vincennes on
176
HAMILTON CAPTURED AT VINCENNES. [CHAP. VIII.
the 7th of February, with 176 men, partly French volunteers. The country was almost impassable, and no thought of danger entered the mind of the Governor. On the 23rd of February, Clark, whose men had marched several miles through water, appeared before the town and began the attack. It was kept up until the next morning, with no loss to the Americans, who kept well under cover, and, being good marksmen, picked off the gunners through the ports. At nine on the morning of the 24th, Clark demanded an un- conditional surrender, in very explicit and not al- together civil terms. Refusing to grant a truce, he agreed to meet Hamilton at the church, about eighty yards from the fort, who came there with Major Hay. Clark through this interview adhered to his demands, and gave as a reason, when asked, that as the principal Indian partisans from Detroit, including Major Hay, were with Hamilton, and as their course had been so atrocious, he would on no account give up the right to deal with them as he saw fit. The capitulation was made that afternoon. Clark during the parley had become more favorably impressed with Hamilton, and consented to better terms. A few days thereafter, a company from Detroit of forty men under command of Mr. Adhemar, with supplies and despatches for Hamilton, was captured on the Wabash. Dejean was with them, having gone, it is said," to obtain means of justifying himself for his judicial excesses before mentioned.
I C. I. Walker's Address.
177
CHAP. VIII.] HAMILTON AND HIS FRIENDS IN IRONS.
Thomas Williams was acting in Dejean's offices of justice and recorder in March, about the time of his capture, probably by appointment of the local commander, but if Dejean was under censure-possibly from superior authority.
A part of the prisoners were discharged on the usual terms, and returned to Detroit. Hamilton, Hay, Dejean, (who figures as Grand Judge of Detroit,) Lamothe, an officer in the Indian Department, and Jonathan Schiefflin, with a few others, were taken to Virginia. Hamilton, Hay, Dejean and Lamothe, were put in irons. The rest were paroled. The severity exercised towards the former, was because they had been especially responsible for Indian atrocities, and had offered rewards for scalps instead of prisoners. Governor Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature refused to exchange them or mitigate their treatment, which Washington admitted was richly deserved, although he urged its relaxation on other grounds. Finally they were released from their irons, and Lamothe and Dejean having given the somewhat stringent parole demanded of them, (which General Wash- ington said was the same required of our officers,) were allowed to go to New York. Dejean never came to Detroit again. Hay and Hamilton, after holding out a long time, finally gave their parole also, and were released. Hamilton said afterwards that this imprisonment continued twenty-two months.'
I Wayne Record, C, p. 392.
12
178
NEW FORT. DE PEYSTER ARRIVES. [CHAP. VIII.
During Hamilton's absence in Vincennes, the fort at Detroit was in command of Major R. B. Lernoult, (sometimes erroneously written Le Noult,) who, anticipating an attack from below, built a new fort on the rising ground then called the second terrace, (between Griswold and Wayne, Congress and Michigan Avenues,) which remained until about 1827. This was called Fort Lernoult, until the Americans changed its name to Fort Shelby.
Major De Peyster, of Mackinaw, sent out in the spring of 1779 a second expedition to join Hamilton in Illinois, but his capture foiled it, and that country remained in American hands there- after. Had it not been for this, the boundary might have been fixed at the Ohio instead of the lakes.
De Peyster was sent to Detroit to succeed Hamilton, but was not made Lieutenant Governor. The only others who held that title were Patrick Sinclair, De Peyster's successor at Mackinaw, and John Hay. From this time on, although the forays continued with unabated fury through the Revolution, the Indians were encouraged to bring in live prisoners.
Major Arent Schuyler De Peyster, who came to Detroit in 1779, was a man of some distinction, and although on some occasions very arbitrary, was undoubtedly a good officer. In one respect his course was open to criticism. The largest number of Indian grants ever made at one time
179
DE PEYSTER.
CHAP. VIII.]
during the legitimate British possession, were made in July, 1780, soon after his arrival ; and the largest one of those (of 5,000 acres) was made to himself. Many years afterwards he relinquished it to a nephew, but it was so plainly illegal that it was not respected. He also made some large concessions of public property without legal right, to Captain Bird and others. From the numerous indications of his character, appear- ing in records and elsewhere, the general inference is favorable. He had some literary pretensions, was a bon vivant, patronized liberally the card- parties, balls and assemblies, and was very happy in his domestic relations, though childless. On occasion he performed the duties of chaplain, and in that capacity married Thomas Williams (father of Gen. John R. Williams) to Miss Cecilia Campau, on the 7th of May, 1781. John Kirby, of Grosse Pointe, was baptized by one of the commanding officers, and this is said not to have been an uncommon occurrence. Whether Major (then Colonel) De Peyster performed this rite also does not appear, but it is quite likely. In many respects one is reminded, in considering him, of a modern- ized and slightly toned down Baron of Bradwar- dine. In his latter days he retired to Dumfries, where, in 1796, he commanded the volunteers among whom Burns was enrolled,-the "awkward squad" whom he did not wish to fire over his grave. Very kindly relations existed between the veteran and the poet, who addressed and dedi-
180
DE PEYSTER.
[CHAP. VIII.
cated one of his latest poems to his old friend and commander.
He was unquestionably arbitrary in his official dealings, but probably no more so than his own predecessors, who did pretty much as they pleased. In the summer of 1783, upon the application of one Cuyler, who came on from the east to collect a claim of Garret Graverat, De Peyster com- pelled the latter to turn over to Cuyler more than ten thousand dollars worth of furs and other property belonging to the firm of Graverat & Visgar and their late partner Colin Andrews, under duress of being sent down immediately by boat to the lower country. Graverat, to prevent the ruin of his Detroit business, submitted ; but entered a formal sworn protest on the public records. As De Peyster, when he retired, went abroad, there was no opportunity to hold him responsible in the American or colonial courts ; but it was an atrocious act of tyranny, done with- out even a hearing, and with profane threats unbecoming an officer. As the existence of the treaty of peace must have been known before this time, and the exercise of extreme and sum- mary violence was as much against English as against American law, such conduct can only be accounted for on personal grounds ; and the ex- planation must probably be found in Graverat's being obnoxious to the commander. If he was an American in feeling, the success of the American arms, and the annexation of Michigan to the
181
BIRD'S EXPEDITION.
CHAP. VIII.]
United States, might very naturally have embit- tered such a fierce loyalist as De Peyster against him.
In 1778 there is a record of quite as summary an order by Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, stop- ping the sale of a negress whose ownership was questioned, and sending her to Rocheblave at Kas- kaskia to have the matter examined, instead of having it tried in Detroit.
In 1780, Captain Bird's famous expedition set out southward, and among other depredations, des- troyed several Kentucky settlements. This was organized at great expense, under orders of Gen- eral Haldimand, who had succeeded Sir Guy Carleton in his command of the Province. The expenses of outfit at Detroit alone were nearly or quite $300,000. Bird found it difficult to restrain the Indians, who made complete work; and it is supposed that motives of humanity induced him to suspend going further. The inhabitants were made Indian prisoners, and stripped of all their posses- sions. In August, 1784, Bird, in selling a mulatto woman, warranted his title by stating that at Martin's Fort she was among the booty captured by the Indians, and given to him afterwards by the captors.
This expedition was accompanied by Detroit militia, commanded by Chabert De Joncaire, Jona- than Schiefflin, Isidore Chêne, and others.
This aroused great excitement in the United States, and various plans were proposed to send
182
MORAVIANS IN MICHIGAN.
[CHAP. VIII.
expeditions under Brodhead and Clark to capture Detroit. Clark was very anxious to undertake it, but the invasion of Virginia by Cornwallis suspend- ed these side issues, and nothing effective was done.
During the various Indian expeditions, and other frontier warfare, there had been some diffi- culty in keeping all the tribes contented under the British control, and all sorts of expedients were resorted to, in order that this might be secured.
Not long before the Revolution, David Zeis- berger, an eminent Moravian missionary, with Heckewelder and some others, founded missions on the Muskingum at Schönbrunn, Lichtenau and Gnadenhutten, and the converts, particularly among the Delawares, were numerous. Colonel Alex- ander McKee, Matthew Elliott, and Simon Girty, made repeated attempts to induce these Indians to join the British and fight against the Amer- icans, but without success. The Detroit Hurons were no more successful in their efforts to per- suade or frighten them, although the Delaware chiefs were wavering. The English agents persuaded Governor Hamilton that the mission- aries were acting as spies in the American interest, and he became very much incensed, and made threats, which the emissaries used to influence the chiefs against them. One of the chiefs, Cap- tain Pipe, was at last cajoled into declaring for the English, and the tribe became divided. When De Peyster was in command, Elliott persuaded
183
CHAP. VIII.]
MORAVIANS AT DETROIT.
him, by representations that Captain Pipe had denounced the missionaries, to send a force under Elliott to capture them and bring them in. After much suffering, they reached Sandusky, whence Captain Pipe was to bring them to Detroit. During this whole journey they com- plained especially of the affronts and injuries received from Simon Girty. Pipe being on a drunken frolic, the missionaries started for Detroit ahead of him on the 25th of October, 1781. The winter was early, and the country through the Black Swamp, and round the head of the lake, was nearly impassable; but after much labor and exposure they reached Detroit.
Their reception by De Peyster was very ungracious, and he put off their hearing for sev- eral days. They were kindly sheltered by Mr. Tybout, a French inhabitant, and received atten- tion and courtesies from others. On the 9th of November, they were confronted with Captain Pipe before the Commandant, when the chief expressed himself very bitterly concerning the manner in which he had been urged on by the English to join them, and completely denied all the stories against the missionaries, who had studiously avoided any conduct which could favor either side, and had endeavored to preserve the Indians from hostilities. De Peyster was finally satisfied, and thereafter was very kindly disposed and aided them liberally. Having returned to Sandusky, they were subjected to renewed threats
184
NEW GNADENHUTTEN.
[CHAP. VIII.
and indignities from Girty. De Peyster sent word to bring them back to Detroit, but to treat them kindly; and in April, 1782, they came back under escort. The Commandant told them he had taken this course for their safety, and offered to give them means of returning to the central mission at Bethlehem, or to allow them to remain.
They decided to remain, if they and their flock could settle near Detroit. By arrangement with the Chippewas, dwelling on the Clinton (then known as the Huron) River, about twenty miles northeast of Detroit, they fixed their colony near the mouth of that stream, a few miles from Lake St. Clair. De Peyster contributed such outfit as they needed of utensils and provisions, with some horses and cattle, his estimable lady also adding
other useful presents. The Church of England "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" sent them a draft for one hundred pounds sterling, which was a very timely gift. On the 21st of July, 1782, Zeisberger and Jung- man, (married missionaries with their families,) and Edwards and Jung, (unmarried missionaries,) with some. white families, including that of Rich- ard Connor, and several Indian converts, reached their new refuge, and solemnly in prayer conse- crated it to the service of the Lord, under the name of Gnadenhutten, in memory of their old home on the Muskingum. It was usually called New Gnadenhutten. In August they had com- pleted a village, consisting of a street of block-
185
COLD WINTER.
CHAP. VIII.]
houses with substantial outbuildings. De Peyster, (now colonel) was an active friend, and Governor General Haldimand · also befriended them. On the 5th of November, 1782, they opened their new church. In 1783, the sugar crop was large, and the people, white and red, were enabled by their hunting and manufacture of wooden wares, to keep themselves supplied with all they needed. On receiving news of the peace, which reached them in May, they endeavored to gather in from Ohio more of their Indians, and succeeded quite well in doing so.
By a mistake in the kind of corn which they had planted, they lost that crop by early frosts. The next winter of 1783-4 was one of the severest on record. The ice on Lake St. Clair, a mile from shore, was three feet two inches thick, and the snow five feet deep. The winter of 1874-5 resembled it more closely than any year within living memory. The deep snow interfered with hunting, and the ice with fishing. The winter was a trying one, but they succeeded in getting a large quantity of venison from a herd that strayed into the neighborhood, and with the surplus of this they purchased corn. In the spring they made sugar, and caught an abund- ance of fish, and, when the snow melted, gathered quantities of cranberries. Detroit furnished a ready market for all they could spare.
A straight road had been run for their accom- dation from Tremblé's mill, on Tremblé's (now
186
GOVERNOR HAY.
[CHAP. VIII.
Connor's) Creek, to the Moravian village, thus very much shortening the otherwise long and round- about lake shore road. This was the first inland road made in Michigan.
In May, 1784, they came to Detroit to bid fare- well to Colonel De Peyster, who was about depart- ing, and who commended them to Governor Hay, (Hamilton's companion,) who had just been sent out to take charge of the post. Hay had recently been in England, where the case of the mission- aries had received attention, and he had been directed to encourage them. As this was a year after the peace, and before any serious controver- sies, it indicates pretty clearly the insincerity of the British Government in regard to their treaty obli- gations to quit the post.
Governor Hay died the same summer, having had no time to make any mark on the settlement. His character was respected. He left a family of three sons, one of whom, Henry Hay, be- came an officer in the British Army, and was stationed at Detroit in the last British com- mand. The writer was many years ago informed, by a family connection of Governor Hay, that his remains were first buried behind and near the Chateau or Governor's House, on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street, and after- wards removed by the informant to the new ceme- tery, established in 1827, and placed in the Catholic portion of that ground. That cemetery has now been vacated, and probably there has been another removal.
187
CHAP. VIII.]' DEPARTURE OF THE MORAVIANS.
Major William Ancrum succeeded to the com- mand. By this time the Moravian town had become a neat and pleasant village, well laid out and sub- stantially built, with considerable clearings. The Chippewas, however, were getting tired of agri- cultural neighbors, and the settlers determined to move to some other place. They went from New Gnadenhutten to the south side of Lake Erie, whence, in 1790, a large number moved over into Upper Canada, and settled on the Thames River, near the battlefield where Harrison defeated Proc- tor, in 1813. Richard Connor and his family re- mained behind, and kept their farm. His sons, Henry, William and James, became prominent citizens. Henry Connor was a noted interpreter, (known as Wabishkindibé, or White Hair,) in whom Indians and whites placed implicit confidence, which he fully deserved. He was a very upright man.
In 1788, Ancrum and John Askin, who had been kind to the missionaries, and who claimed to have purchased out their rights for a sufficient considera- tion, obtained from the Chippewas a grant of 24,000 acres, including the Moravian town and a large tract besides. Askin subsequently testified that there were more than twenty houses and their outbuildings, and that the Moravian road had been built by himself and Ancrum, with some help from the Moravian Indians. Askin and his son, with one John Cornwall, obtained also a Chippewa grant of twenty-four miles long by two leagues
188
REMOVAL OF FORT MACKINAW.
[CHAP. VIII.
wide, including that road, and a league in breadth on each side of it. These grants were made after the treaty of 1783, and were in violation of the British and American laws, and were disallowed. Connor and some neighbors were confirmed in their claims to single farm holdings, as actual settlers.
After Patrick Sinclair went to Mackinaw, and toward the close of the Revolution, he made prepa- rations for removing the fort from the main land to the Island of Michilimackinac, for which he obtained the consent of the tribe of Chippewas in occu- pancy. The new fort was occupied in 1783.
By the preliminary treaty of peace of Novem- ber 30, 1782, it was unconditionally agreed that " His Britannic Majesty shall, with all convenient speed, and without causing any destruction, or car- rying away any negroes, or other property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his armies, gar- risons and fleets from the said United States; and from every part, place and harbor within the same ; leaving in all fortifications the American artillery that may be therein; and shall also order and cause all archives, records, deeds and papers be- longing to any of the said States, or their citizens, which in the course of the war may have fallen into the hands of his officers, to be forthwith restored and delivered to the proper States and persons to whom they belong." And by further articles it was, January 20, 1783, agreed that in all places without exception, (unless when a shorter term was specified,) five months should be the utmost term of
189
FORTS RETAINED BY THE BRITISH.
CHAP. VIII.]
hostilities, or for the validity of hostile acts. Notice was received in Detroit in May, 1783, if not earlier. The final treaty of September, 1783, recognized and adopted the preceding action from its original date.
General Washington was persuaded, and de- clared from the first, that the British Government were not acting in good faith in this matter. In August, 1783, when Baron Steuben was sent to Governor General Haldimand to demand posses- sion of the western forts, he was not only refused, but was not even permitted to visit them; and the Governor declined in any way to facilitate or ex- · pedite the business. His course towards Steuben was reported by the latter as uncivil. He wrote to General Washington a letter, respectful in form, in which he excused himself for the refusal on the ground that he had received no orders from His Majesty. New York was evacuated on the 25th of November, 1783, and the Continental Army was disbanded. Great Britain never notified the Governor of Canada, or any one else, to give up the western posts, and they were retained, in spite of protests and remonstrances, until the breaking out of the French Revolution, and the prospect of further wars, made it expedient to surrender them. But during nearly all this period, and especially from 1786, the emissaries of Great Britain were busy in keeping up a hostile feeling among the Indians in the Northwest against the Americans.
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